Wow! What a powerful reading! I enjoyed it immensely. First of all, Shen should be commended for the way he reconciled his Chinese identity with his English identity. He got right to the point and right off the bat.We know exactly what he's up to in the first sentence of the second paragraph. Moreover, not only does he have the formula correct, he very successfully put himself into the writing. Fromthe sound of it, he has come a long way from those first writing sassignments that caused him so much grief.
TheClassroomand the Wider Culture clarified a lot of things for me. I have had Chinese students in my classes, and I can finally say that I have a grasp on what they have to go through to write effectively according to our standard. Sure, we're all familiar with Kaplan's 'noodle' imagery that compares the spiral Chinese thought process with the straight-line Western approach, yet , as far as I am concerned, professors have only mentioned this as one thing to keep in mind. I have never had the 'spiral approach' explained to me in such depth.
I especially liked his discussing both his ideological and his logical identities. Too often, we emphasize the logic behind writing without considering a student's ideological mindset. Although it makes perfect sene now that I've read Shen's explanation, I never really thought about the difference between materialism and idealism when going through my Chinese students' papers.
I hope to share this article with my colleagues and wsh that I could find similar ones for other cultures. Having sensitivity to students of cultures other than one's own is essential for effective teaching.
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