Dr. Wright's Questions from 1/30/2007

Note: This picture of the Alhambra relates to the story about Spain below.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Reading Prompt #2
Readings: Egbert Ch. 2, Cummins Ch. 2, Richardson Ch. 3
What are "multiliteracies" as described by Cummins et al.? How does this relate to Egbert's assertions about the need for authentic materials to support ELL students' reading and writing? Discuss how blogs and blogging can be a tool for achieving these ideals with ELL students. Finally, describe your own experience creating your blog this week. Was it harder than you thought? What ideas do you have about the kind of stuff you want to blog about (besides what is required for this course)?

Cummins describes "multiliteracies" as the diversity of cultures, including languages, that children bring with them into the classroom. Not once does he mention "tabula rasa"--no Roman children. A bad joke! When the educator recognizes the child as an individual, it validates the person, which is in itself motivating. The culture of the individual can be used as a starting point for education in literacy; e.g., reading about that culture in English, translations, vocabulary, differences in pronunciation and sounds, etc., which provide enlightenment both ways and a positive means of looking at differences as being an aid rather than an encumbrance to education. In Mike's excellent discussion of Egbert's ideas, authenticity is determined by the learner. Thus for the ELL student, materials which are used by native EL speakers are relevant, but only authentic when the ELL can relate to them; in other words, when they contain something of interest (personally relevant). This implies interactivity in that the ELL student can take the opportunity to have feed back from native language speakers who would be familiar with these materials. This provides the opportunity for further English language interactions.

A personal experience is provided from my posting in the early 80's to Spain for Merck, the pharmaceutical company. Although I had studied Spanish in the University, and had read all the great classics, I had never really had the opportunity to speak Spanish. So suddenly I had a responsible marketing position, and the need to produce written and spoken language, and to understand the accent in Castillian! What I learned really fast were un jaleo , torreando con los coches, and selected swear words. Those first few rough months I got people to talk to me by showing my interest in native language Spanish materials--El Pais, the newspaper, quoting poetry that I had memorized, and even trying to get people to teach me songs. It worked! Although the Spanish found my babbling a bit disconcerting at times, some were impressed with my knowledge of Tirso de Molina, La Vida es Sueno, El Cantar de Mio Cid, las Harchas, etc. And I could see the light at the end of the tunnel when I started to gain a sense of humor in Castillian, and also to understand the Andalusian accent--"como eta ute?"

Blogs, and let me hasten to add Internet Telephony, are a great means of getting people talking and trying out what they know in a language. I am telling my friends about the blog, and getting them to respond in English or their native tongue. It is an interesting, friendly means for "trying out" language in a non-threatening atmosphere, and can be even addictive when postings to your blog become more frequent. The only complaint I have had so far is from my French friends who are looking for a French translation.

So far so good this week in developing the blog after the great introduction on Tuesday. There are not too many classes in which the students voluntarily stay late, and the Technology class is one! Thanks for giving us such great tools, Dr. Wright, and also to Lazardo with the wonderful Photostory 3 means of sharing pictures and music. I tried it once, and it didn't work, but will be back to try again. Google went down this morning when I was trying to post a picture, but I was able to add links to the sidebar and also in my text.

BTW, for you language and linguistics fans, here's a great link with postings of words and their etymology sent to your mailbox every morning:
www.yourdictionary.com

Let me know if you like it. Just one last note--I have sent feedback to everyone who posted before me--did you receive it?