Ways with Words

Everything in Its Right Place

Charlin Bailey, Nicholas Magliato, Martha Romero

The community of Roadville is deeply rooted in traditional values, gender roles, and ways of learning.  Its people are white, working class miners who strongly believe in the way and word of God, as well as passing His teachings on to the next generation.  Even before the birth of a baby, parents prepare for the arrival with a baby shower – a longstanding tradition that has remained unchanged for nearly half a century.  Close friends and family members, or a few select “kin folk”, bring gifts depending on the sex of the baby – dolls for girls, toy trucks for boys.  From the earliest stages of infancy, a sharp distinction between the sexes is drawn to distinguish their role in society. 

Community members value routine and “rightness” in their daily lives.  At the early stages of infancy, mothers use “baby-talk” with their children to help them begin to name their world and recognize their surroundings.  By age two, mothers typically abandon this type of speech and begin to correct their children when they mispronounce a word, or use one incorrectly.  This corrective behavior is a type of direct learning in which the mothers help direct their children’s learning and language development.  The motivation behind the mothers’ teachings is to let their children know what is “right”, and further, how to adjust to life outside the home in the larger community. 

As children begin to age and enter the larger community, they continue their language learning through The Bible.  In the community, teaching language is consistent with the church.  Children memorize passages or psalms to recite and transcribe, testing their knowledge.  Those who can recite a passage verbatim are praised for their “rightness”, while those whom cannot are scorned for their failure.  Children learn not only how to talk, but how to learn – for instance, if a child accidently throws a ball through a neighbor’s window, breaking the glass, the child knows he/she should apologize, for it is the right thing to do, even though the child might not feel any sorrow for his/her actions.  Above all, there is a great sense of having everything in its right place and helping children sort and categorize all the parts of their community, society, and world. 

QUOTES

Charlin Bailey, Nicholas Magliato, Martha Romero

Family

“Roadville parents see themselves as responsible for “training” their preschool children, and they plan ways and means to provide what they regard as appropriate experiences before their children go to school.” (pg. 145) 

“For Roadville parents, there is no substitute for their role; children need parents to train them. Extended family and trusted friends may reinforce the teachings of parents, but the critical functions rest with parents.” (pg. 146)

Religion

“The rightness of their behaviors and beliefs is, in their minds, in line with their religious teachings and the precepts of the Bible.” (pg. 139)

“These memorizing tasks are graded in difficulty, so that the youngest children learn the names of Bible characters, words of songs such as “Jesus loves me”, and move on to short verses, books of the Bible, short passages, and whole chapters or psalms by the time they reach junior high age.” (pg. 140)

“For many of the practices and precepts the church holds for language, a parallel ideal is expressed by parents. The church insists on verbatim performance as a prime way of showing off knowledge; parents demand verbatim performance from their children at home as a way of showing their learning.” (pgs. 143-144)

Society

“Children who are too young to engage in cooperative play are often put together in playpens, and there they babble and monologue to themselves in parallel play. Their mothers often intervene and try to get the two children to talk to each other, for example, to talk about the sharing of a toy rather than to squeal and tug.” (pg. 124)

“They have learned to use language to acquire the knowledge their community has judged they should know at their age and they have learned appropriate ways of expressing that knowledge.” (pg. 145) – Trackton and Roadville

*Right

“Children come to know they must be careful about following directions on the links between words and behavior; if they “say it right,” they show they’ve “got it right,” and they themselves are, in turn, “right.” (pg. 144)

Other Concepts

·         traditional baby shower - representing the community values

·         baby talk to relay instructions and advice to new mothers - secondary message

·         word association that connects to their environment; applying a learned word to relatable objects (pg. 122)

·         word and sentence expansion - guided and controlled by adult (pg.124)

·         questions as directives to discipline

·         everything in its place - spaces having purpose (pg. 137)

·         memorization skills to demonstrate knowledge

·         expectations of language reinforce values (pg. 144)

Discussion Questions

1)      What is a parent’s role in the early stages of learning?

2)      What is the place of religion in learning? And how does it help or hinder learning and literacy?

3)      How does each community’s independent use of language affect their children?

- The community of Roadville is deeply rooted in traditional values, gender roles, and ways of learning. It provides a good example of how young children are able to learn what is and what is not culturally acceptable in their community.

Response to Freiere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire's book the Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a magnificent source that allows an individual to become aware of educational and social struggles. The book brings forth the nature of dominant and subordinate relationships within the classroom, i.e. the 'teacher-student' relationship. It speaks on how important this relationship is in the learning process of both teacher and student.



 In his book, Freire raises the issues of the nature of dominant and subordinate relationships within a classroom the image approach illustrates an idea of the teacher student relation, which he refers to as the banking system. In this system the teacher is the center, and their role is to instill knowledge into their students, these students take this information and believe everything the teacher has to say. Similar to the picture above, which illustrates the teacher as center, in-front, of the class and all the students as blank slates. Each student has no impression, they blend into the background of the pic. each student faces the main focus of the picture the teacher and awaits instructions.  Freire looks as this type of teaching methodology as the striving force of oppression within an educational system.

This book was an interesting read and it allowed me to reevaluate my years of learning growing up.

'Meh languiz iz ig lish' : Response to "English and Creole: The Dialectics of Choice in a College Writing Program."

 “Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?”

                                                                                                       -Ray Gwyn Smith   

Before I came to the United States, "English" was the language I spoke. This was my native language; the language I had studied in school; the language that I spoke at home, it was the Queen's language, the language of my country's conqueror, the only language I knew! However it was only when I came to the United States, that I realized that my native English became foreign. When I entered into high school my English became known as, Creole—broken English--- and I was placed in ESL classes.  I was no longer understood and every time I spoke I was followed by the constant ‘huh?’ which was always followed by a restatement of my original sentence. The process of constantly correcting my English to 'proper understandable-American English' annoyed me. I was forced to assimilate to the ‘correctness’ that was standardized American English as a way to succeed. My English in turn, became something I spoke only at in private with my family or with friends, who were from similar countries, which spoke 'improper' English. Throughout my academic career I constantly felt as if I spoke two languages. The article English and Creole: The Dialectics of Choice in a College Writing Program." by Elsasser, Nan, and Patricia Irvine was an interesting article, because it reminded me of my own process of using ‘learning English within my academic setting. I

The authors documented an experimental writing program for honors and remedial students at the College of the Virgin Islands. This program analyzed the use of 'improper' English, Creole versus proper English in an academic classroom settings. The research looked at the stigma behind Creole as a worthy language to be acknowledge with in academia. The overall conclusion of the article reveal the trial to include Creole and English in the academic setting, but as two different languages. They believed that by doing this it would enable the students of the Virgin Island to better preform within both languages as well as expand the overall function of Creole as not just being a private language.

The idea of fighting against the predominant language and finding a way to preserve a native language is similar to the short story "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, which focuses on the idea of losing an accent or native language to conform to the current environment. The story looks at the preservation of the native Chicano Spanish language. She goes against the Formal Spanish and Standard English to create and maintain her own language. The idea of using both Creole and English within the academic setting is a great and the idea for accepting and valuing the private language, Creole, in the same way as the prestigious language, English. However this program can only work in an academic setting where the predominant society speaks in that dialogue. Personally growing up in my country I never realized the difference of speaking in the classroom versus speaking out of the classroom. I knew the properness of the language would change, however the language itself would still remain the same. My change only happened when I was forced into an academic setting that classified my ‘English’ as other. I agree that although the idea of allowing students to recognize their ‘private’ language, Creole, in a written format would be valuable, it is unrealistic because it would not be the same when read aloud. There is not a standard structure of writing creole and the process of trying to write it down will be based off of main stream English guidelines hence altering the pronunciation of the original spoken message.

This article sheds light on the fact that ‘creole’ will never be looked upon as an academic language. 
 

"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, http://dsapresents.org/staff/michael-thornton/files/2011/08/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf

Selected Passages from Adult Learners in Focus 2008-Response

ENGL C0856

Adult Learners of L&L

Prof. Barbara Gleason

Feb. 11, 2014

Selected Passages from Adult Learners in Focus 2008

Please comment on the quoted passages below. What is your reaction to the idea presented in the quotation? What questions come to mind? Write freely but write clearly so that you produce a response that can be voiced in class later.

“Over 26 million adults in the U.S. currently have no high school diploma, more than 3 million have not attended college and are earning less than a living wage, and over 8 million have not attended college and speak little or no English.” (7)

Your response:

The first question that comes to mind after reading this is why? In situations like this how can this issue be resolved? It seems that blaming the government and state to implement better programs will in some way be beneficial, but only partially. Right from the beginning it is a blame game: first blame the students, who in turn blame their teacher for not making materials interesting or lack of experience; who in turn blames their principles for lack of training, then the blame is –passed on to the state officials who have not implemented good programs for adequately training teachers, so that they can raise attendance-hence academics- this blame will then go to the federal government for not placing enough time, effort, and money into the communities that are suffering where ultimately the crisis of high drop-out rates occur.

The entire problem goes back in to funding and the educational priorities of a community. The reoccurring cycle of not completing high school depends on your community. If a community is not funded adequately the hope of an education seems worthless and students have no other reason than to leave.  I believe to handle the situation each community in a state should be funded equally giving students coming out of the schools equal opportunities.

“The good news is that adults are making up an ever larger share of the total enrollment in postsecondary institutions. By 2004, adults made up approximately 43 percent of total enrollment at community colleges (includes full-time and part-time).” (7)

Your response:

I feel that this is a good thing yes that many adults are not giving up on educational opportunities, but in some case it is a little too late. Some companies are looking for fresh faces to work with and age does play a lot when it comes to achieving what needs to be learn.

“Nontraditional students—for example,  those who have  delayed enrollment in postsecondary education, work full-time while enrolled, or have dependents other than a spouse—were more likely than traditional students both to participate in distance education and to be in programs available entirely through distance education” (8)

This can be good and bad- good because they are now able to finally complete their education in a setting that is more convenient for them, however they are also missing out on one of the key aspects of learning, where you have an opportunity to meet and discuss with new people and gather new ideas.

"States vary significantly in their success in moving students through this traditional educational pipeline. . . . But reliance on and attention to the traditional educational pipeline alone will not be enough.” (22)

Your response:

 I agree. As times changes and as different people from different countries migrate to the US they need to take into consideration people are learning differently and are coming into the classrooms at different stages, different cultural perspectives, languages and new learning diagnosis that were not noticed in pass years. all of these new factors need to be considered before "grading" across the board

“The issue of declining numbers of high school graduates, projected in a recent study by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (208), is yet another reason why a focus on the education of younger populations will not be sufficient.” (23)

AND

“.  .  . 13.3 percent of the adult population (26,455,554 individuals) . . . never completed high school. Many of these adults may face basic literacy challenges as well. One way to help this population is to address skills shortfalls through Adult Basic Education (ABE), gain a high school credential by completing a GED, then enter postsecondary study.” (24)

Your response:

  

Brief Guide for Adult Teaching Adult Learners

        

 This book allowed me to have my first 'Ah Ha!' moment as a Teacher. I am currently teaching advance ESL students and on many occasions the task of teaching seems difficult, much less to motivate my students to come to class. The book  was very helpful when it came to simplifying the methodologies of adult learning. As a new teacher I am constantly reviewing different approaches for how to handle a classroom of different learners and how to effectively teach 'across the board', so that each student will gain something useful from the lesson. This book does a great job of teaching about different approaches. It begins with case studies that present several theories and models of adult learning. Then asks the reader a question to automatically bring them into the scenarios. I felt this was a very interesting way of laying out the book because it allows the reader to analyze the situation personally before being thought what is good or bad in the case study.   

       The book goes on to evaluate the way Adult Learners view education and why. The book states that "quiet often adult learners what to make a leap over formal knowledge and head straight to applicable knowledge" and this is why instructors need to engage learners in the decision about their own learning. Each idea of teaching methodology seems direct and i will be implementing them into my teaching styles for my adult learner students. 

1. These theories seems more incline for teaching extroverted adult learners and not introverted learners. How can a teacher use the methodologies to teach both types of learners in one classroom?