“…One often reads in teachers’ guide-lines that language teaching consists of teaching the four skills ‘plus culture’. This dichotomy of language and culture is an entrenched feature of language teaching around the world. It is part of the linguistic heritage of the profession. Whether it is called (Fr.) civilisation, (G.) Landeskunde, or (Eng.) culture, culture is often seen as mere information conveyed by the language, not as a feature of language itself; cultural awareness becomes an educational objective in itself, separate from language. If, however, language is seen as social practice, culture becomes the very core of language teaching. Cultural awareness must then be viewed both as enabling language proficiency andas being the outcome of reflection on language proficiency”.
Wardhaugh (2002, p.2) defines language to be: a knowledge of rules and principles and of the ways of saying and doing things with sounds, words, and sentences rather than just knowledge of specific sounds, words, and sentences. Language does not exist apart from culture because language is a medium through which culture is expressed in a particular context. Kramsh (1998) argues that the fact that language expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality clearly shows that language and culture are bound together. She also indicates that language as a tool of communication, is “ bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways” ( Kramsh, 1998.p,13).
So if we learn English without its
Rebecca Sewell TCTN 5600.01 Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning Book Report and Reflection Culturally and Linguistically and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning by Sharroky Hollie is an excellent take on how to reach our students who are English Language Learners, from diverse cultures, and from different linguistic backgrounds. This book provides a plethora of ideas to incorporate into our classrooms to reach all our students as educators. This book is broken down into three main parts or ideas, understanding the mindset, building skillsets, and a personal recap by Mr. Hollie on what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher.
In order to address ongoing disproportionate outcomes amidst an increasingly diverse student population, DMPS is engaged in a district wide effort to speak with a common language and understanding around Cultural Proficiency. Cultural Proficiency is an inside-out approach to examining the practices and policies that affect the varying cultures in our system. This handbook is designed to support you and your colleagues in better understanding and effectively applying the framework of cultural proficiency. It is a tool for creating a plan along with action steps for intervention and maintenance of a more accepting culture. This handbook is meant to provide guidance and resources to support working through the impacts of a crisis within the
Chapter three’s main focus was to break down and take a more in depth look at the many categories of race, class, gender, and disability in the classroom and how each of them affect what we do and how our classroom operates. Although it is only the third chapter and I have many more chapters to read about multicultural education, this is certainly my favorite chapter in this book so far. I found the various examples and main points throughout the chapter to be both interesting and eye-opening. This chapter hooked me from the first paragraph as it began the discussion of the ongoing social issues that continuously bring about debate on what should be taught in the classroom, how students should learn, how instruction is organized, and how teachers
Lera Boroditsky, a professor at Stanford, introduces readers to the question of whether a person’s language can shape their thought processes and views of the world around them through her research conducted at Stanford and MIT. Boroditsky explores further into the questioning about a language’s influence in her article “Lost in Translation”. Boroditsky proves to an audience of broad audience of scholars and people interested in cultural psychology that a person’s language not only influences the way a person thinks but can change a person’s perception of the world and media around them. Lera Boroditsky, through her use of rhetorical questions, comparisons, and addressing the counterargument achieves her purpose of proving that language does
According to Angelina Castagno ethnic studies professor at Northern Arizona University states, “Most teacher preparation programs focus on content/subject-matter knowledge, as well as procedural knowledge about how to manage one’s classroom and curricula”. Beginning teachers start off with just trying to command and manage their classroom than after that they begin teaching the content of their instruction. If you were to have a teacher preparation program just focusing on integrating the Dine culture and language your students would thrive better in the content knowledge. Should teacher preparation programs teach the pre-service teachers how to be culturally responsive teachers in Native schools?
Language can be defined as, “the learned system of arbitrary vocal symbols, by means of which human beings, as members of a society, interact and communicate in terms of their culture" (Leap 209). Language is not just the words a person chooses to speak. Language is much deeper. Language ties many different generations together and that is how people can share history. Unfortunately, “the profile of Indian language fluency among the adult members of a tribal community rarely predicts how familiar with the language the younger members of the tribe will be” (Vizenor 218).
While at a public speaking, Tan realized that she was using all these large words that her audience understood but her mother did not. “I was saying things like, “The intersection of memory upon imagination” and “There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus–and-thus…the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother” (Tan 58). Tan’s mother was in the room while Tan was giving the speech and that was when she realized that language could be a powerful tool that can connect each other in different ways. The English language can also bring people together who speak English but not in such a common way. “We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: “Not waste money that way” (Tan 58).
Language is the basic verbal expression of culture. Language is so abstract, yet people manage to say a lot with mere words. The structure of language helps determine how one is likely to view the world and it determines how people think. An illiterate does not have the ability to construct abstract thoughts until it has had some academic experience. The way in which they go about learning wholly depends on their culture.
2.2.5. Cultural diversity in Classroom: There are various cultural differences that teachers are likely to come across culturally diverse classrooms including Gender, Age, Cognition, Norms, beliefs, Primary language, Exceptionality, Cultural heritage, Socio-economic status, Opinions, ideas, Attitudes, Expectations, Behavioral styles, Geography, Learning styles, Communication Styles, Decision making styles, Ways of Communicating Non-verbally, Ways of Learning, Ways of Dealing with Conflict, Ways of Using Symbols and Approaches to completing tasks etc. According to Pratt-Johnson (2005), there are six basic cultural differences that teachers are likely to encounter in the culturally diverse classroom. Familiarity with these differences will begin
Cultural competency is found within different settings however, the setting which will be discussed in this paper will apply to a school setting. A school setting is where social workers “enhance the social and emotional growth and academic outcomes of all students” (SSWAA, n.d.). Furthermore, social workers not only work with students but also, work with parents, school administration, food department, special needs department, and school health services (nursing department). In conclusion, in this paper the culturally competent social work practice of working with the Latino community will be further discussed and analyzed.
Academic Summary of “Acting on Beliefs in Teacher Education for Cultural Diversity” By Gay (2010) The article “Acting on Beliefs in Teacher Education for Cultural Diversity” by Gay (2010), who is a Professor at University of Washington in Faculty of Education, focuses on educating teachers for cultural diversity in classroom environments, which is frequently discussed but not a well-developed topic. According to Gay (2010), the society we live in has a huge impact on our lives, although we try to ignore or minimize its effect on educational area. There is a huge Eurocentric emphasis in the educational setting that affect students from culturally, ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds, and because of this she thinks that some major changes
Critical Reflection In this assignment, I am going to define cultural awareness and cultural intelligence, and will also discuss how they relate to each other. Cultural awareness is the foundation of communication; it involves the ability to standing back from over selves and becoming aware of cultural values, beliefs and perceptions (Brislin.2006). Being aware of own cultural includes the goals and boundaries of a cultural; it also includes religion, language and relationships. On the other hand cultural intelligence has various meanings (Brislin.2006).
There wouldn’t be cultures without languages, and there wouldn’t be languages without cultures. To prove this point, I will connect two readings and a tv episode that explain the components of the English language. “Shakespeare in the Bush” by Laura Bohannan is an example of how culture is essential to be able to grasp the meaning behind the language being used. Laura Bohannan was given a copy of Hamlet by her friend before she left to West Africa. This copy was given to her in order to study Shakespeare and to “lift [her] mind…
Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communication used by the people of a particular country or profession. Even animals communicate. Birds use sound and movement to transfer information. Likewise human beings use sound and movement like speech and gesture to communicate. Language is the fundamental factor leading and affecting communication.
Language is an important part of our life. Language and communication cannot separate. People use the language as a means of communication to express their ideas and feelings. They communicate either with each other using language in every social interaction; communicate with others directly or indirectly in the spoken and written form. Therefore, language is an important thing of communication in social life.