Diaz-Rico, L. & Weed, K. (2010) The cross-cultural. language, and academic development handbook.
This particular article brought about a lot of interesting facts. One in particular that I found interesting was listed on page 17, "According to the 2000 census, one American in five, 47 million, speaks a language other than English at home." As a future teacher of TESOL, this makes me happy knowing that there is a need for us out there, and that since this is from 11 years ago, those numbers have to be higher most likely.
After reading the section about minorities in education, it made me wonder upon how we are educating the minorities in our country. Diaz & Weed comment (Pg. 16, 2010) that even after a half-century after Brown v. B.O.E, many minority students (Blacks, Latinos, and Indians) are struggling to compete and succeed along with their fellow classmates.
How can we, as future educators, look to reform these ethnic barriers in education? Multicultural classrooms? Bilingual Education? Other thoughts?
In the future, if I was to stay in the United States, I would like to teach in an urban area, like Chicago, L.A., New York, or even Austin. Therefore, the chance of me having minority students will be at probably a higher rate. Therefore, knowing about my students and their backgrounds is important. Not all cultures and/or ethnic groups learn the same. We must be culturally-aware of our students so that we can better understand them, and the lifestyles they live.
From my own experiences in working in Chicago Public Schools, I know that there is a lot of feeling of community (pride of) between the different neighborhoods. When I worked in Little Village, a prominently Mexican community, the culture of the school was very different than the schools I have seen in the suburbs. This article made me understand and connect back to how different cultures in the classroom does effect the learning process. It is something we are not taught enough in our education classes.
Jenkins, J. World Englishes.
The most interesting model I viewed in this article was Kachru's three-circle model of World Englishes (source: Kachru 1992:356). The model uses ovals, and are presented vertically rather than concentrically, with the lowest circles representing earlier versions of English. I really like the way this model is presented because it is based on the geographical and historical sense, instead of just on the way speakers are identified currently and how they use English.
A big issue brought up in this article was about defining "New English." Bamgboe (1998: 3-4) outlines five internal factors for deciding on an innovation of English: Demographics, geographical, authoritative, codification, and the acceptability factor. These factors help to give validity to a form of English.
Do you agree with any of Platt et al's four criteria for a "New English" to be fulfilled. Based on it being developed through an educative system? Developed in an area where a native variety of English was not the language spoken by most of the population? Used for a range of functions among those who speak or write it in the region where it is used? Become 'localized' or 'nativised' by adopting some language features of its own, such as sounds, intonation patterns, sentence structures, words and
expressions? Can you think of any others that may be considered?
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