Fan Shen's essay, "The Classroom and the Wider Culture" reminds us that culture and language are inseparable. Language contains in its fabric approaches to life and patterns of thought. It will simultaneously reflect culture, and be influenced and shaped by culture. Sensitivity to these relationships seems central to creating atmospheres for safety, discussion, nurture and success in our classrooms.
I feel sympathetic for students like Chen and the Spanish speakers in Veronica's class (her comment is below). While developing a command of Academic English, they may also experience a pronounced schism of selves, a schism that can sometimes go unnoticed by instructors, peers, parents. Language is more than structures and agreements; it can provide an entirely new way to see and understand the world. How incredibly exhausting, then, to wrestle and reconcile old and new values in a course loaded heavy with native-biased prompts and expectations of a (sometimes invisible) Western standard of "adequacy". I commend those students who hang on through the process and the teachers who recognize the challenges language can present and choose to adapt instruction, to listen and to discuss. Unfortunately many language learners are wrongly classified as less capable, lazy or even "stupid" by classmates and sometimes instructors. I am reminded that English is a way, Western values are a way, and not the only way.
I believe Shen shows exceptional aptitude in recognizing the issues involved in language, culture and identity, and in fighting to retain a Chinese self. That probably represents a best case scenario. But what happens to those less quick or less equipped (by age or other reason)? Does our teaching consume their identities and ideas, and replace each with a set presumed superior?
Thinking about ESL: Could it be that some of the assumptions at the basis of the Process learning method are inadequate in addressing the needs of language learners in the classroom? Perhaps, for some, deciding what to say is not as problematic as the challenge of saying it in English...
Thoughts on incorporating an fun/exploratory exercise on yijing in the Western-classroom? Written images to describe the feelings and experiences students have in relationship to a read text or passage.
Happy Birthday Rachat!
I liked your point that process writing might not meet the needs of our students. I think it merits discussion. I've used it in my own classes, and I can tell you that there are those that flourish under it, but at the same time othersreally struggle with it.
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