Celce-Murcia Article

The Marianne Celce-Murcia article "Language Teaching Approaches" discussed the various methods of TESOL learning throughout history.  I thought it was interesting how very little work had been done prior to the 20th century and how much work has been done during the 20th century based on the amount of information and research done in the field.  I thought that her perspective that there have been so many changes in recent decades has been because teachers were not aware of the other methods.  I have to wonder what language learning teachers must have thought with all of this change, and what teachers in the pre-20th century must have felt about the way they taught?  It is an interesting concept to think of because the little amount of study that seemed to have taken place in the area of TESOL.

Tuesday, August 30

I found this week's readings to both be equally interesting in terms of contrasting the two of them together.  Both pieces focused on the use of theory in the language learning classroom, but each had vastly different views.  I thought that the key issue at both of these articles was the views on the appropriateness of theory in language learning.  The first article opposed use of theory, while the second had a more favorable view on theory use in the classroom of language learners.  This lead me to wonder how much should teachers rely on theory and how much should they rely on their students own abilities? This seems to be something worth addressing in order to become a more effective ELL educator.

Blog One: Thoughts on Diaz-Rico and Weed

I found Diaz-Rico and Weed's thoughts on the different cultures that have influence in the United States to be very interesting.  I always think it is important that as teachers we should be aware of cultural traditions that differ from our own so that we ourselves will be better able to understand our wide-range of students.  I also thought this article had some very enlightening information about the wide diversity of students and their living conditions in this country, as well as some views on how to help struggling students.
One of the key issues that the article addressed was the importance that immigration has played in the cultural growth of the United States, showing how traditions and culture expanded as more people from various cultures immigrated to the US. The article also addresses some of the major cultural influences that are evident in the US, which include Native Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans.  The article also touched on how these minority groups are often in the most need of attention as they are a growing population facing poverty and language barriers (56% speak a language other than English) as the population in US begins to change to reflect the non-European immigrants that are growing in numbers in this country.  Finally, the article addressed some of the issues that lead people to immigrate to a country which include economic problems, political problems, religious problems, and family unification.
I had a couple of questions come to mind as I was reading the article.  What can we as future ESL teachers do to incorporate various cultures/traditions into our lessons? and How do we react and adapt to students coming from a poverty background?
I think this article provided useful information that could be applied to thinking about how poverty effects immigrant or minority students in their ability to learn in English which may or may not be their first language.  This may be something to think about exploring further as the semester goes on.