Class Nov. 15th, 2011

I decided to focus on Chapter 34, “Nontraditional Forms of Assessment…and so forth,” for this blog because I am completely invested in the crafting and teaching of writing for my profession. Or, at least I think so. In this economy, though, one never knows where Death might be lurking. And by Death, I mean one’s next job. Don’t worry, none of this has to make sense because I make the rules- at least, that seems to be one of the concessions highlighted in this chapter. No, I don’t mean that teachers should, for the sake of alternatively assessing their students, throw the rules out the window and just let them fly freely fettered in parametrical chains. That’s moronic on oxycotton (i.e., oxymoronic). But I do feel that too much of the issues arising in this chapter are based on higher concerns that don’t regard the beginning learners.

It is important to see how things work. It is important to understand what one sees, as that is the only way to solve the problem of, “Well, how does this work?” I’ve argued this before, and I will again: when dealing with beginning learners, it is important that the teacher curb them just a little bit to highlight the patterns and consistencies in, well, any area of language. In the writing of English, it is important that young/early learners are taught how to craft a sentence. Or a paragraph. Or an essay. These are building blocks, you know. So when we dive into the argument of whether or not traditional testing/assessment has benefit in an ESL context, I think the whole thing foolish. There is a benefit to every form of assessment that has ever come (speaking from a limited knowledge pool here, I can only splash at that possibility with my floaties- forgive me for leaping) and will ever come because the core value of such procedures is meant to inform and to aide.  Sure, some folks may have gone about it in a poor way, perhaps too inefficient, perhaps too lenient, too hard, off topic, whatever, but that merely laid the groundwork for the next idea that one-upped it. And traditional ways of testing are traditional for a reason- teachers have gone back to them time and time again. Are they right for everyone? No, and I’m not saying that. But for some, individually or grouped, these tests are both relevant and beneficial, and I think it folly to turn our back on them and leave them crying at the restaurant.

Finally, I liked the ideas that the author of that article was bringing to the table, the different approaches to assessment. Writing has been a tricky thing to assess, whether in a student’s L1 or L2, so the multitude of ways to navigate such a tripsy path can only be beneficial. But I have to draw a line when theorists begin telling teachers what they can and cannot say to students in regards to their work, as if teachers don’t have brains or don’t understand the psychological implications of the words that leave their lips and make impressions on young and sensitive psyches. I’m nitpicking at this point, but I can’t help it. That was a dumb thing to even put in a scholarly article, and if there is a population of educators out there that does actually intentionally and consistently make those mistakes, they should be fired, because they’re dumb too. Academic discussion here, right? Can’t help myself, I’m all jumped up on coffee and you’ve given me a free forum. Anyway, theorists should keep their thoughts and profounditites public, while also keeping their interpersonal advice private. People work through those things without the help of omniscient academia, and it’s arrogant to assume that they can’t. That is all.

Class Nov. 8th, 2011

Chapter 11 in the Kuma book resonated with me quite deeply, as I’m planning on doing my research paper on intercultural rhetoric. Making our teaching socially relevant to our students is one of the most important practices we can incorporate into our profession. After all, no one wants to be marginalized and then have it rubbed in that they’ve been marginalized. That’s just plain rude. We have to realize that our students are unique individuals with distinctive pasts and histories that have made them who they are over the course of however many years, and that these students cannot just toss that personality and that reality aside just to be accepted in a classroom. That’s doing them a disservice, as well as every other student in the class.

Not only is it selfish and colonialist to disregard our students’ cultures and heritages, but it also could have an incredibly negative effect on their learning. I don’t mean just in regards to them checking out of the lesson because, assuming they can say this, “Man, that teacher is an ass.” I mean that without considering the cultural context from which our students grew, we cannot know the special hold-ups and translational issues that they will have to deal with. We won’t know how to approach the pragmatics of their L1, and so we may doom their L2 understanding to that of the Perpetual Foreigner. Without showing them how their L1 can affect their L2, they’ll possibly never reach fluency.

It would be elitist to deny our students their culture within the classroom, and it would be a travesty not to highlight for them the ways in which the world works. Students not only need to be aware of how their native language affects their learning of a second language, but they also need to know why they’re learning that L2 in the first place. We need to educate our students with a sensitivity to their culture and their heritage while also highlighting the institutions that made that linguistic culture and heritage secondary to the standard. Students need to know of the struggle of powers in the world, and they need to understand the history of the spread of English.

We need to take our students’ cultures and make the prominent in the L2 learning context, while also showing them why we needed to make it prominent in the first place. We need to foster in our students a pride for their heritage that the necessity for learning a Standard English seems to seek to vanquish. It is on teachers to do this in the classroom, while in conjunction with parents doing so at home. Ultimately, we need to wed the idea of a rich culture with the necessity of learning a global lingua franca. This may not be easy, but it is certainly our call to arms.