Brit kneels before America!

http://www.wopular.com/brit-kneels-america-2

Wikipedia : Honduran Futbolistas abroad

U.S. covering up reality in Honduras

language learning, community service, soccer: Soccer in Honduras - Community Service

language learning, community service, soccer: Soccer in Honduras - Community Service

Costa Rica Soccer Tours

"  There's no better way to build team unity than giving back to the community by participating in one of the following two community service projects. Players often tell us that this is the highlight of the tour.






Visit a Children's Community Center

This center cares for and educates over 200 low-income children between the ages of 1-12 years old. Dozens of our teams have visited the center, played soccer with the children, and brought donations of clothing or toys.



Promote literacy by reading books in English to Costa Rican elementary children

Your team can visit a public elementary school and spend some time reading children's books in English to the kids. English is mandatory and taught to students starting in grade one. The kids love to practice and they especially love stories!  "

Soccer for Life

Help Us Build Soccer Programs For The Poorest Children In Honduras


The pine forest is one of the most beautiful places in the world. The tall trees, the wind whistling, the pine cones dropping, the needles singing.



Yes it is beautiful. But a pine forest is often found on the poorest soil because pine trees can grow almost anywhere they get a chance. As a result those who live in these pine forests are surrounded by beauty. But the poor thin mountain soils do not produce much. A small crop of potatoes, enough corn for tortillas and some beans which they must sell for needed items like salt, clothing, etc.



And since the mountain pine forests are over 6000 feet in altitude, it gets cold. Indeed we are looking at winds of 30 -40 miles per hour coming down with constant brisa(A foggy rain that never stops), During this time of year many many children come down with pneumonia.



In these mountains there is no recreation. The houses of adobe(mud bricks cut directly out of the poor soils which cannot grow even the smallest crop) lose pieces of dirt and then the cold winds blow through the houses. Since many children sleep on the dirt floor(the lucky ones have cardboard cartons) they get very very cold. Indeed the cold mountain air feels like knives of ice when all you are wearing is a worn t-shirt and torn pants.



Yet they love the game of soccer. If they are lucky enough to have a ball they play with it until it is completely destroyed. If there are no balls they play with soda bottles, rocks or anything they can kick.

Soccer in Honduras - Community Service

My name is Stephen Wilson Swanger and I am a teacher and a coach dedicated to making a difference in the world through sport.  I am interested in networking with other individuals and organizations with the same goal.

One organization that I supprt is La Liga Menor de Futbol Intibuca in a town in rural Honduras called La Esperanza. Esperanza means hope in Spanish, and I hope to bring youth clubs and schools to play competitive soccer and take part in community service projects and by which create an equitable exchange program.  In La Esperanza, Honduras I want to work closely with Soccer for Life, a non-profit organization, and La Liga Menor de Futbol, the youth soccer league to provide life-changing experiences to children through soccer. I want to assist individuals, groups, and teams from the United States to perform community service in the form of organic farming, teaching, and helping the league build its soccer complex and to give scholarships to honduran youth to attend bilingual schools so that they can in turn come to the US to study and play soccer.

Soccer for Life website.
http://www.satglobal.com/liga.htm

Officials for Soccer for Life and La Liga Menor want to build the “Intibucá Youth Soccer Center.” According the Soccer For Life the center i5 is designed to serve aa a soccer learning center for children in Intibuca who do not have the resources to play soccer and cannot afford the resources needed for a quality education. The center will also serve as a health center where local doctors can work with families to promote nutrition and sanitation. The main focus will be soccer training, but will also develop a school for elementary and high school youth.

Going to school in Honduras costs money. Poor children cannot afford to go to the free elementary school because they need uniforms and shoes. Officials are already in the process of pooling resources to buy some property outside of town so that they can at least get a field built that they control, pay no municipality fees, and can even rent to local adult leagues who have been know to take field time from La Liga Menor.

Granted, student-athletes from the United States may be more culturally connected to European countries and tour companies that market the high-priced athletic tours. However, these programs offer only a  fair exchange  in goods in services with economic patners of the same ilk. 

I propose an exchange program that not only engages itself in fair exchange, but also promotes equity by placing value on community-service. Community service is an important way to promote empathy and value in ones life. 

The return from this investment will be represented by  the value placed on the concept of community in US youth and greater investment into the local infrustructer in La Esperanza. There will also remain for the long term an investment  in La Liga Menor’s scholarship program. Soccer for Life will add revenue to support their worthy cause with the monies earned from hosting such a large group to local children in need of not only academic supplies, but also investment into sustainable and marketable products.


From the experience of serving and competing in La Esperanza, Honduras US Student-athletes will:

· Recognize and relate economic, cultural, and social truths
· Describe the conditions and circumstances by which young people live and how soccer players train.
· Illustrate how they are making a positive difference for the children of La Liga Intibuca and Honduras.
· Compare and contrast the experience of Honduran student-athletes to the US or European Union experience.
· Design a similar program in another part of the world or in the US with similar circumstances.
· Compare other soccer travel experiences from US and EU, differentiate their strategies, and propose alternatives.
· Evaluate the experience and develop critical opinions about economic equity and soccer in the world.


Currently I am working with ACIS travel to provide insurance for a group to travel to Honduras.

According to Soccer for Life and La Liga Intibuca a trip to La Esperanza can include:
Pick up at the Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula airport and transport of La Esperanza and back to Tegucigalpa airport

Bus transportation throughout stay in Honduras

Participate in friendly matches and tournament play

Local Honduran family home-stay for duration of camp

Socials, nature visits, dances, BBQs with Honduran family, fellow Team Members and other Host families

home stay or lodging

Cultural Tours

Professional Game Tickets

Sample itinerary:
Day 1

Arrival at San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa Airport, pick up in bus of Liga Menor, travel by bus to La Esperanza. Team check-in at the Hostel or living quarters. Light evening training session. Dinner will be served at the hostel.

Day 2
Breakfast, followed by morning training with local players / to pre-Columbian site.

Day 3
Breakfast, followed by training session with young children, tree planting and an afternoon friendly game # 1 vs local club. After the game, you will meet with community members for a banquet.

Day 4
Day of service and optional sightseeing tour to Copan Ruinas, pre-Columbian Mayan Temples and City
Day 5
Breakfast, followed by light morning training in preparation for afternoon friendly game against local selection. Dinner and evening at leisure.

Day 6
Breakfast, followed by Light morning training / with afternoon against a professional youth team from San Pedro Sula. Early Evening at leisure. Dinner served at hostel.

Day 7
Morning training with professional coaches. Afternoon community service.

Day 8
Morning training, trip to local ecological reserve for community service.

Day 9
Drive to Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula in bus. play youth professional side at stadium site.

Day 10
Depart Honduras

Given that Honduras is a developing country the question of safety is a legitimate topic of concern. Fortunately La Esperanza, Intibucá lies off of a well paved and lightly traveled state road built with international engineers and money. However, one does need to travel along the oft times treacherous Pan-American Highway for about hour up to the turnoff for La Esperanza. Arriving on a Sunday afternoon is the best option to avoid any major traffic along the PAH. Intibucá is approximately 2 ½ hours from the airport at San Pedro Sula. San Pedro Sula is also host to the closest medical center for acute traumatic care and disease, so in the case of any major emergency care there would have to be some delay. However, there is a hospital with emergency care as well as specialists available for consultation. Dr. Argueta who is one of the officials of La Liga Intibuca, is well connected with the medical community and can secure “favorable” accommodations for students if necessary. The safety against tropical diseases tends to be minimal in the highlands of Honduras where temperatures remain moderate year round. However, typical inoculations against Hepatitis and being careful of eating are still important.

The world of football in La Esperanza, Intibucá is full of enthusiasm, but the economic circumstances leave far too many who burden for daily subsistence to lose hope. Indifference will not change that. It will take the courage of people who believe that the biggest part of global outreach on behalf of Independent schools isn’t just discovering culture through our equals in Europe, but on a field of dreams in the town called “Hope” in Honduras.

If a trip to La Esperanza is of interest to you, and you would like to discuss further the possibility of leading a trip, or you would like to help organizing such a trip, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Sporting Chance Foundation

Sporting Chance FoundationInspired by the positive attitude and strong will of the Haitian people, Sporting Chance Foundation was founded to better the standard of living in Haiti. By teaming up with prominent athletes, various communities, and businesses around the World, Sporting Chance is raising money to concentrate on what we believe are two of the most important aspects of bettering life in Haiti, education and clean/potable water. Both of which many Americans take for granted, yet few Haitians have easy access to an education and many have to walk over 10 miles to get potable water. Food on Head

To help provide better access to education, Sporting Chance Foundation is providing scholarships to children who would otherwise not be able to afford school. We believe education will propel young disadvantaged children out of the streets and on to bright futures. With 90% of schools in Haiti being private, we are determined to give these underprivileged youths an opportunity to learn, the same way we were given numerous opportunities to grow and learn as children. Without education, many Haitian children are 'left behind' and resort to joining one of the many gangs that plague Haiti. By keeping many of the youths out of the gangs and in the classroom, much of the violence and corruption can be averted. One year of private schooling in Haiti costs only $60.00 U.S. Dollars. This $60.00 goes to funding the schools, paying the instructors, and making sure that both the students and teachers are present, on a day-to-day basis. As the $60.00 tuition is relatively small, each and every one of us can help make a difference, even with the smallest of donations.

The second initiative of Sporting Chance Foundation is building community water wells, which provide clean/potable water to thousands of people daily. Today, water-borne illnesses are the number one cause of death in the world. Too often we take clean, potable, drinking water that is delivered to our homes and businesses for granted. It is estimated that a single community water well will provide clean water to as many as 10,000 people. Once built, the water wells will be maintained and cared for by the individuals who use them.


Sporting Chance Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3), allowing all donations to be tax-deductible. All donations are greatly appreciated and will be vital as we strive to make the day to day life for many Haitian people better.

The importance for Second and third and fourth….

A skinny cat stood for hours waiting for the mouse to walk out from behind the hole, so he could nab him. He was having little success. A fat cat walked by, inquired about the nature of the difficulty, and volunteered to show the skinny cat the ropes. First thing, he had the skinny cat move out of the way where he could not be seen and did likewise himself. Next, he barked, "Woof, woof." The mouse, thinking a dog had scared the cat away, and it was safe, ventured out only to be nabbed and devoured by the fat cat. "You see," explained the fat cat, "it pays to be bilingual.

Gregory Billkopf in the essay Learning Another Language University of California, Davis
Approximately 10% of native-born US citizens are bilingual compared to 50% in the rest of the world. Research in pedagogy overwhelmingly states importance of professional development for teachers.

Moreover, teachers not only have to be experts in their field but simultaneously be able to identify with the learning process. How does the English Language Learner in your class feel? From rich experiences and rigorous academic effort teachers also comprehend the dynamic nature of our field where learning and teaching strategies tend to move incessantly along continua of divergent theories and practices.

If you study a foreign language you can simultaneously put yourself in the shoes of your students.

As professional educators we:

- recognize the value in lifelong learning
- realize the importance of using the scientifically proven strategies to meet the learning needs of individual students.
- know that learning is a natural process
- understand that we must intervene and teach explicit knowledge
- think about our lifelong practice and learn from our implicit experiences.

Best practices schools provide a supportive school-wide climate, school leadership, a customized learning environment, articulation and coordination within and between schools, use of native language and culture in instruction, a balanced curriculum that includes both basic and higher-order skills, explicit skill instruction, opportunities for student-directed instruction, use of instructional strategies that enhance understanding, opportunities for practice, systematic student assessment, staff development, and home and parent involvement. (August & Hakuta, 1997, p.171)


The study of a foreign language is valuable because it:

- offers a sense of a relevant past, both cultural and linguistic
- helps expand one's view of the world
- balances content and skills (rather than content versus skills)
- contributes to the creation of a student's personality
- encourages critical reflection on the relation of language and culture,
- contributes to cultural awareness or literacy
- develops the intellect
- improves one's knowledge of the native language
- builds practical skills
- enables the transfer of training (such as learning of a second foreign language)

How can you learn a foreign language?

- Commit the time!
- Purchase a language-learning CD and booklet
- Take a class or join a speaking group
- Listen and read every day!
- Focus on words and phrases!
- Take responsibility for your own learning!
- Travel abroad

1. Zehler, Annette (1994) WORKING WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: STRATEGIES FOR ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS. NCBE Program Information Guide Series, Number 19

2. Ellis, N. C. (ed.) (1994a). Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages. San Diego/CA: Academic Press

3. August, D. & Hakuta, K. (Eds). (1997). Improving Schooling for Language Minority Students: A Research Agenda. Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press.

4. Alan C. Frantz, "Seventeen Values of Foreign Language Study" (ADFL Bulletin, vol. 28, Nr.1, Fall 1996

Hispanic Culture and ESL in Ambler, PA

Between trips to some local restaurants and passing by the park in Ambler I had begun to feel that I had a pretty good understanding of the diversity of the community. I knew for instance that there is a very prevalent population of Italians from Calabria, I knew that there is a Korean man who came to the US from Guatemala, there is an Albanian at a pizza shop, a man who delivers pizza at another pizza shop, and some Mexicans that I have spoken with on occasion around town primarily from Puebla (Poblano).

When it was asked to me to choose a culture within this community I chose the Mexican population due to the fact that I used to live in Mexico, and I figured that they were pretty much the only significant Hispanic group in Ambler. After completing this project I can now look back on my sampling of the culture in Ambler and tell that my sampling of the culture in Ambler just barely skimmed the surface.

After spending the time to do some research on what I thought was specifically going to be about the Mexican population in Ambler I couldn’t help but learn more about the communities of the folks mentioned above. I quickly discovered through interviews and community service that although the breadth of the immigrant community is primarily Poblano the depth of the community’s infrastructures lies heavily on a web of amity and collaboration amongst immigrant families.

St. Joseph’s is a Catholic church in Ambler located in the adjacent neighborhood to the main drag, Butler Pike. The neighborhood consists of primarily cottage-style row houses near the church and beginning a couple of blocks away twins and single-family Italian revivals. The neighborhood is diverse, lower-income, African-American, white, and Hispanic. For the most part the neighborhood seems pretty quiet. Although, I have called the police to report threatening language towards my wife and me by two young African-American males on bikes after they would not move from the roadway, and I have called when a group of mixed race adolescents were behaving aggressively around my daughter and I while playing at the jungle gym.
In Moll’s Funds of Knowledge we discussed in class the need to be directly involved with the community in order to understand the student as a “whole person.” If the student goes to the Korean’s store and has an Italian-American and an African-American family on either side of his row house then there is bound to be some spheres of activity in common with these groups. Furthermore, to explore the impulse to stereotype and challenge this tendency will also expand my awareness of the cultural diversity in Ambler.


I have to be careful in my learning about the diversity of Ambler not to reinforce any negative assumptions I had. “The quality of the data gathered and the conclusions and inferences drawn are influenced by the perceptions and values of the teacher involved in the inquiry,” states Etta Hollins when discussing the ethics of data collection. Although on the surface my prejudice toward not Hispanics would not affect my data, given the aforementioned diversity of the area and the fact that according Hollins, we are doing the research to improve classroom teaching, I need to move beyond any ills I judge in the neighborhood to find better ways of reaching out.

Community Service: Tutoring ESL

Juan (psueonym)

Juan is from Mexico City, he is a cook. In Mexico, he tested out of what amounts to the equivalent more or less to the first two years of high school in order to work in restaurants in Mexico City.

I have built a lot of trust with Juan most remarkably he was willing to write his story about arrival to the US for me. The sample comes from an email exchange and has not been altered from its source:

hola mi nombre es gabriel te narrare la historiade mi cruzada para los estados unidos nunca imagine que fuera tan peligroso ese dia lo recuerdo muy bien porque un dia antes no pude dormir pensando en que pasaria al siguiente dia amanecio y yo tenia nostalgia, pero tambien emocion por conocer otro pais, otras culturas, nuevas personas,nuevo lenguaje y lo mas importante quitarme la imagen de los americanos que muchos cuentan. bueno pues me despedi de mi familia, y con el llanto en los hojos. dila vuelta y aborde el avion que me trasbordo hasta ciudad juares donde la frontera de EU. y mex. se encuentran juntas caminamos tres dias, dormimos en el desierto y despues llegamos a texas donde vivi dos meses y no encontre trabajo un amigo me ayudo para trasladarme a philadelphia y vivi con el
un año lo, ahora tengo un trabajo, y tambien pues vivo bien lo cual estoy muy agradecido con este pais, pero no descarto un poco la descriminacion en personas que no saben nuestra realidad o nuestra istoria

I have heard many stories in my travels about how people have made their way into the US. However, seeing the story written is powerful motivation to drop deeply-rooted feelings of implied deviance and made me at least understand more of his sacrifice.

Perhaps, in some form my uneasiness comes from what we have called in class a “clash or bump” of cultures. I have had many opportunities to experience first hand a Hispanic experience by living, working and traveling in and amongst Hispanics. The slight change that I have witnessed in my own perspective from Juan’s writing and the aforementioned fact of my life experience allows me to have more empathy or, as we discussed in class, at a more subtle form of cultural awareness. Zhang a scholar in Sino-English Teacher research makes an important point that I believe augment our discussion.


Saint Joseph’s Church, Observing ESL Volunteers

I have also done some preliminary service work at St. Joseph’s Parish in Ambler. For all practical purposes I have not forgone any substantial service to the Church that meets the 5 hours needed. However, I have done my part in reaching out as an advocate to members of the Spanish-speaking community by handing out pamphlets that advertise for the classes. I have met and interviewed the organizer for the language classes and two of its students, to whom I will refer later. I have also done a lot of networking with community members to sample people’s attitudes towards starting a youth soccer team this Fall.

St. Joseph’s Parish is currently undertaking a program to assist in the language development of the Hispanic population in Ambler. All of the people working for the English language program are volunteers. Mauri is directing the small amount of funding the program has and coordinates the volunteers. Mauri has done some teaching, but has no TEFL experience in an official capacity and none of the volunteers are teaching professionals. However, the church is a central part of the Hispanic community due to the large segment of Hispanics that are Catholic, but the church does not offer Spanish mass nor hears confession in Spanish. The works done in the ESL classes, as far as I can tell, are done out of pure empathy and the need to reach out to Catholic members of the community not actively part of the parish.

Interviews

In the process of my initial investigation of the deeper levels of Mexican culture and preparation for interviews I discovered for myself a genuine camaraderie between Spanish-speaking immigrants. As it turns out, there is a large number of Costa Ricans in Ambler, there is at least on family of Peruvians, and some Puerto Ricans. In the following interviews I have tried to generate a fairly broad spectrum and I have tried to create some depth by interviewing working members of the community, a volunteer advocate, and an education professional in charge of a transitional bilingual program at LaSalle.

Mauri

Mauri is the organizer/director of the St. Joseph’s program in Ambler. She believes that the ESL learners that come to meet her core of volunteers are there to access basic level English. She believes that the program is designed to help people assimilate to the US.

Many of her benefactors are parents that want a better life for their children, specifically to go to a University. Students who come are not assessed for academic literacy in Spanish and are “analyzed” prior to classes so that they can be given the appropriate level textbook.

The textbook itself has directions in Spanish, but moves towards less and less as the textbook advances to higher levels. Mauri expressed some concern over the fact that Spanish is used referring to her idea that English classes should not be engaging students in their first language.

The challenges to the program are attrition and family matters. Most students have young children. St. Joseph’s does offer baby sitting in the same room for students. These same challenges lead to inconsistencies in the program and appropriate follow through of coursework like assessment and continuity of material is lost in the shuffle.

She has never heard of any authorities in Ambler harassing the Hispanic population or problems with town or school officials. Mauri has attempted to contact the school district on many occasions to let the administration know about the program, but she hasn’t heard a word back from them. It is her suspicion that the district is afraid of being held liable in case of some unknown event.

Gerardo

Gerardo is a 60 year old from Peru who has been in the country for 10 years. In Peru he was a commercial fisherman. Upon arriving on a tourist visa with his family, they decided to stay. Gerardo said that although they were making a decent salary in Peru, he wanted his children to have the opportunity to learn English and learn at a US university. His son is now 20 and is studying on a scholarship to Bucknell University. His daughter is 26, has a BA and is working.

Gerardo believes that it is the role of the classroom teacher to get the most out of the students. He believes that many immigrant parents want their students challenged and they in turn support whole-heartedly the good intentions of the school system. He believes that the system did his children well and that there was never a problem matriculating in the school system nor any mal intent on behalf of any teacher.

Gerardo’s biggest challenge has been the ongoing ordeal caused by his lack of papers. When asked if he wants the US to be his final resting place he said yes, because he has made a home here, but would be just as content to live out his days in Peru. He hopes that is son will be able to support him.

Being from Peru has not been a disadvantage for finding work or finding local resources from the Hispanic community. He feels that the connection between Hispanic community members involves more the Spanish language than country of citizenship. He has not felt singled out by police or other governmental authorities nor by the school district. However, he states that most of the exploitation comes from within the community in the form of undercutting bids and not paying market price for labor.

Jaime

Jaime is a 20 year-old Mexican from Puebla. He has come to Ambler to live with his five brothers. They are involved with various labor jobs, Jaime works at the laundry mat. Upon first sight Jaime seems a little different than many immigrants. He is soft spoken, speaks without a heavy dialect of Spanish. The reason he says he is perceived a little different is because he studies computer technology and has a long history of playing computer games. In fact the reason he has come to the US is to study computer science with the possibility of going home to teach.

Unfortunately for Jaime upon arriving when he just turned 17 he got the wrong information from a Colombian friend of a friend about matriculation into school and missed his opportunity to receive formal classes. Not until this interview did he find out that he would have been eligible to attend the high school.

He believes that there is a lot of support within the community and believes that this is the strength of the community. In fact, he believes that if you were to come to this country without knowing anyone you would be able to find plenty of support within the culture. These days a friend of a friend of a friend is staying with them who just arrived from Mexico. On the flip side he believes that because of not having appropriate paperwork or understanding how things work in education he is frustrated with his progress thus far in the US.




Nick Coggins (son in law of Mauri McKey)
ESL teacher/ coordinator for BUSCA at LaSalle University

http://www.lasalle.edu/schools/sas/busca/

BUSCA is a program at LaSalle University dedicated to assist Latino ESL students have the opportunity to advance from ESL or bilingual into the undergraduate level. It is a five semester transitional associates degree program intended for Latino students with a high school diploma or a GED. The group is 100% ESL with intense Grammar and writing during the first year. As the students progress adjunct content area professors teach various content area courses to prepare the students for a channeled 3rd year of university undergraduate work.


The ESL courses are usually compartmentalized Grammar, composition, and university studies. The university studies component is designed specifically to teach students about the presentation of material and professional standards of investigation and academia. The second semester is the beginning of a general core curriculum which English still part.

The role of Spanish is critical in the curriculum. Even in the ESL classes there is a fair amount of communication in Spanish to clarify instructions as well to help clarify narration and brainstorming ideas. There are no ESL teachers who are also content area teachers. However, about half of the content teachers are bilingual in content area classes of Computer Science, Math, and Biology are taught in Spanish.

Teachers value the cultures of classroom especially in the beginning levels of the program students share many aspects of their lives’ similarities and differences through dialogue and narratives.

Students at the beginning of the program tend to have more formative assessments alongside oral testing, portfolios, and papers instead of major exams. Teachers at this level try to help students identify repeated errors.

.
The teachers in the BUSCA program are dynamic that understand good teaching principles, and have a great deal of empathy. Teachers essentially create IEP’s for each student so that he or she will find success. One-third of the applicants are weeded out through assessment, but the L2 range is level 2-4 for the majority of students.

The program recently began a summer course designed to build grammar skills in Spanish. The class is not for credit; however, it has become popular amongst students due to the measure of their writing success after taking the course.

Many students are very motivated. Of the 19 graduates from last year’s program all are currently enrolled in a LaSalle undergraduate major. Many also have to take care of some family member at home or are a parent. One of the challenges of the program is the large amount of women that get pregnant during the 5 semesters. At one point there seems always to be no less than 10 pregnant women enrolled. However, all tend to complete the coursework.

Future coursework is being added. It will be call a “Capstone course,” dedicated to getting BUSCA students more ready culturally for the academia. Capstone courses work particularly on presentations, professional skills, and academic culture. It will help students become advocates for themselves, fully participating in the college process.

He would also like to see this program extended into other universities. Temple Ambler would be a great place to run something similar, as well as Montgomery County Community College. He feels that LaSalle is not meeting the needs to Mexican immigrants and would like to make more contact.

Su

Su is a business owner of a small convenience store who is native Korean. He is 50 years old and moved to Guatemala when he was 28 to teach Tae Kwon Do. After having a street fight with some men who were harassing him with racial slurs at a local restaurant in Guatemala he moved to the US with his Guatemalan wife. Upon entering the US he made contact with Koreans seek appropriate funds, and was able to get on his feet. He has had the store now for 10 years. He has two children and is very happy with the way that they have been treated by the school district.

As a Korean he has a different perspective on his status within the Hispanic community. However, says that he is proud to be an integral part. In fact, his store is frequented by Hispanics, African-Americans, and Whites from the local area. He says that he does not feel prejudice and does not feel stereotyped or exploited in any way.

Su believes that anyone who comes to this country to work hard should be treated equally, but realizes that it should be just as important to learn English and get an education.

Reflections

Overall my perceptions of the community of immigrants in Ambler have deepened. Although I was, in my opinion, more informed about some of the goings-on than most, I have a sense more of the some of the intricate framework that makes up the support structure for Hispanics in Ambler. The perspectives of the people I interviewed were varied, but seemed to follow a similar vein. All felt comfortable in the community of Ambler, and in general in the US. However, there is the underlying concern of not having immigration documents. At no point did anyone ever use the phrase illegal, which so often is used by the media, only undocumented. Regardless of this status, most felt safe with the local authorities. However, there does not seem to be much understanding of the greater support that is available to them. For example, children are not signed up for local soccer leagues, and the church membership is not high although many in the community consider themselves Catholic.

One insight that was opened to me through Jaime was the fact that people sometimes enter the US without any understanding of the legal opportunities they have an in his case close. Jaime seems sharp, and I can’t help but imagine the education that he missed by being misinformed.

Speaking with the volunteers at St. Joseph’s opened me up to the good intentions of a sorely needed ESL program in the area. Nonetheless, I do not question their motives, but have some concerns about the hidden agenda of assimilation. In reality its probably just semantics on this level but given the Crawford articles discussed in class its not a bad idea to be critical of good intentions. Yet, from what I have witnessed in no transparent way in the classroom does the St. Joseph’s program not respect diversity.

I don’t diverge much from the literature or the discussions that we have had in class. In fact, I seem to find myself as a trumpet for much of the rhetoric. I have more understanding of the implications of exterior forces such as the dominant hidden curriculum and some very oppressive histories involved with the status involuntary minorities. However, I cannot come to any specific conclusions on why the Mexican immigrant or for that matter Hispanic immigrants that have come to this country voluntarily have not met the standards for this status that Ogbu, for example, has stressed.


In sum I believe that this project has positively affected the manner in which I might go about teaching in the future. From what I have learned there is definitely a need to go deeper into understanding the value of the culture from which a student comes. I found that by simply walking through the park and introducing myself as a teacher that is interested in the community, I have always been met with respect and courtesy. Even if I were not to interview by the guidelines of Hollins’s RIQ, by at least understanding more of the cultural history and identifying some key support systems of the community I will better be able to teach. Specifically, I have a better understanding of the cultural capital and can better utilize Moll’s Funds of knowledge.













1. Zhang, Yn-li,(Dec. 2007) Ctitique on the Four Levels of Cross-Cultural Awareness. Sino-US English Teaching (Vol. 4 No. 12)

2. Hollins, E (2008) Culture in School Learning (2nd edition) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

3. Ogbu, J.U. (2004) Understanding Cultural Diversity and Learning. In J.A. Banks and C.A. McGee Banks, Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (ppp582-593). Sand Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Learning Arabic

Fun with the Madrasas
Learning Arabic and more about me


“Oh Gaad, Staap it you kids!” I can still hear my mom screaming, in her Minnesota accent, at my brother and me fighting in the back seat of our 1972 International Harvester Travelall, the original oversized family wagon, just before getting the “invisible hand” from my father. From the time I was born, all I remember were the endless road trips we would take as a family. Some were vacations sure, but not less than 10 of the 2000-plus mile trips I would take from birth to the age of eight were due to moving.

Dad was a Marine officer and was stationed in different parts of the United States which makes me a military brat. My knowledge base of the English language and American culture growing up revolved around my forced adaptation to subtle language differences in the US. I was aware cognitively from a very young age that there was a larger picture of the world, and a larger system of sounds of the English out there that I knew of compared to that of my young peers wherever I might have been at the time. Living in Minnesota, Virginia, and North Carolina then moving to Washington then to Rhode Island with month-long fishing adventures in northern Manitoba within 8 years certainly gave me a deep cultural and linguistic understanding of the vastness and adaptability of language.

The number of geographical dialects alone in the English language is baffling. Even in the United States according to the American Heritage Dictionary the Standard American Dialect is highly elastic and variable, since what counts as Standard English will depend on both the locality and the particular varieties that Standard English is being contrasted with. A form that is considered standard in one region may be nonstandard in another. I distinctly remember pulling in to our new house in “Branchwood” the housing development in Jacksonville, North Carolina listening to Queen on the radio for the umpteenth time on that road trip and trying to talk “southern” with my brother like the real-estate lady that wore Vaseline on her cheeks to make them extra shiny.

Jacksonville is a typical Military town, complete with a strip and everything, where families from all over the nation come which makes the accent among many more “standard” than one may think. Nonetheless, public school was a place where you wanted to fit in, and it bes-sutchya to try and do so or it could get a little rough. On the other hand I was making friends with other military brats who I would know through my parents.

The friend I would usually make, like me were a little different than the typical military brat. We were “officer brats.” We were kids who were used to meeting up with high-ranking powerful people from the Marine Corps and other services and had to behave in a certain way not to bring embarrassment to our fathers. We were responsible to be able to converse formally and casually within the framework of a very rigid hierarchal culture. In order to do so I would imitate how they spoke, how they joked, and what kind of conversations they had. My brother and I would often try to come up with political insight at very young ages, most often about winning wars.

At 19 when I moved to Montana after living 3 years in North Carolina and 4 years in Washington DC, I had to change my accent drastically in order to fit better culturally. My first week living there I was invited to play in a Men’s soccer league and I recall vividly someone yelling to cover “the guy from Alabama or something.” Wow! After about 4 months of living in Montana and after getting some abuse from a couple of very large football players from Miles City in the UM dorms I didn’t get mistaken again too much.

This kind of morphing I would make with my language and my persona between different places from birth helped me tremendously not just to fit in better in pockets of culture throughout North America, but eventually to become a second and third language learner of Spanish and Russian. At any rate, at 23, when I decided to try my feet at playing professional soccer in Chile in 1993 I was able to immediately tune into the nuances of the language due to the fact that I was listening to these mannerisms, called utterances. By focusing on the meta-language, the uhs, ahs, ems, and oohs, as well as the extra words used like chico, pues, and po.

To this day I am able to recognize subtle differences in accents and linguistic mannerisms and upon reflection of my first language for this diary I have also recalled the tremendous effort I would make to try and repeat almost instantly what someone is saying. I thought that if I did this I would somehow be able to improve my supernatural skills of telepathy. On long trips across the country my brother and I would do it to each other until one of us would eventually just lose it completely. After hours on the road we would stop at a restaurant and of course we would try the same thing on our mom. “Staap it!” she would say.

The telepathy never really came about, but in a sense I believe that in focusing on each accent or language intensely listening for any change in rhythm, intensity or accent I was more open to diverse speaking styles. We read that children are born with the physical ability to produce the sounds of any language and eventually they learn to become experts. We learned that the ideal conditions for language learning are to be exposed to vast quantities of language in diverse contexts, have opportunities to interact with more proficient language users, amongst other things.

I feel lucky to have had this experience in my first language. Sounding different to me, while sounding alike others, has always been intentional and covert. At some point when I imitate I even notice that I think a little differently my persona is different. At some unconscious or subconscious level I believe that there is a mechanism inside of me that just wants to fit in with others. Though because I am, or always have been the new one on the block, and have had the confidence to cut to the chase, which stems directly from fearless interaction with strangers, I am interesting to talk to, but I am often misread. It goes to show that culture goes beyond language we imitate.


Getting to know Arabic/ Learning Strategies

I have to admit that because I am somewhat of a competent language learner, I have often tried to get a couple of words here and there in Arabic. However, Saalamalekum and alekum salaam has been the extent of my usage. Nevertheless, I have always revered the language due to its influence on Spanish. The city of Granada, for example was a cradle of multicultural intellect and trade. Spanish has many Arabic words that are part of it or even have the same meaning like Ojala (law sha’a Allah) if Allah so desires. Furthermore, the alphabet has always intrigued me, especially after I having learned Cyrillic I figured that Arabic could be a positive next step. And, how can Arabic not be interesting to anyone from the United States since 911 and Arabic’s linguistic association to many extremist who have declared war?

Since day one of beginning to look at the language I have conjured up deep feelings of anxiety and stress. Perhaps it is due to the mystery that surrounds the culture, especially Islam, or the fact that I have some prejudice and distrust because of my stereotypes such as my immediate connection of terrorism to Arabic speakers. Or, it may be the nervousness I have when thinking about ways to decode the language into a set of rules that I can understand and learn. Regardless, I have never been a person to shy away from my prejudices so it seems quite normal for Arabic to come into my life just as I am getting older and more set in my opinions. Nevertheless, it just seems so incredibly foreign to me! And, quite honestly it looks like a ton of work.

I have learned languages in two different ways. Spanish I learned through a combination of complete auditory and oral immersion, self study of grammar, reading, and contextual vocabulary lists and memorization. Russian I learned first in an intensive setting at the Defense Language institute in Monterrey California, then in Russia in an immersed environment. However, I have never been a very proficient classroom study of language from scratch in a non-immersed environment. In fact, I was never comfortable with the forged setting somewhat of DLI and did not put forth my best effort. In the end this affected my overall grade and overall content knowledge. Yet, when I went to Russia with a group from my base I seemed to be the best at understanding and speaking with native folks. I attribute this to the aforementioned self analysis of my first language experience. Simply put, bouncing ideas off of people who value you for what you are thinking and not whether you are saying it correctly is a much better language-learning environment.

We have read about ideal language learning environments in Coelho’s text (p 147) and the immersed, strong context, high expectations of comprehensibility, simplification and success rate occurs much more naturally when immersed. Kaplan talks about the morphing of first her voice then her appearance as she transformed into a Frenchwoman. I too have seen myself go through a similar metamorphosis in Spanish. In fact, when I look at a picture of me among my friends on a soccer team just after returning from playing professionally in Chile and Bolivia, I appear darker, thinner, and just more exotic. A successful environment for learning language will invite this metamorphosis naturally you just need to open your mind and body to the experience.

Learning Arabic in a home setting with limited number of lesson that I can afford to guide me through the process is a whole new adventure. The experience is neither like the intense 7-hour class day of DLI nor like the immersed experience of Chile. Is it even possible? Maybe not. I am nervous about the project and I am quite frankly intimidated. However, the only way I know to stem that nervousness is to come up with a plan that pulls experiences from my other language experiences.

I have thus far begun to us a “Teach Yourself Arabic” book from the Teach Yourself series. I also have begun to study a workbook that is used at the college level. When my neighbor, who is Algerian, first gave me the workbook I caught myself twisting and turning the book every which way to try and get my eyes to look at the words from right to left. Of course this physical act was to no avail, but it does reveal that the first real task to learning Arabic is to learn the writing style. I have achieved the first step by starting to recognize some letter combinations and it has come clear to me the logic by which the letters come together. I still catch myself tilting my head or pointing moving my hand in a right to left motion in order to remind myself which way to read.

The book comes with a CD that begins with greetings then moves on to personal information. I have not learned much but I am able to recognize and recall meaning or responses when I hear some expressions. The books states, “The first step in learning a language is listening and understanding. Concentrate initially on that, and then work on your writing skills.” Whether or not this is I don’t know, but before I even read this excerpt I began to put together a set of flash cards with the transliteration and translation on the back. I use the printed alphabet in the text that also provides the phonetic sound so that I can begin to pronounce the word.

Nonetheless, the spelling rules of Arabic are very tricky due to the fact that there is not, what I call a one-to-one correspondence of letters in the alphabet to letters in a word. Letters change shape when they are in a word because of its placement and many of the letters look exactly like, to me anyway. So this leaves me with the only option of creating a sort of “sight word” vocabulary as I build my spelling skills. For example, I will try to recognize صباح الخير as “Sabah el kheer or Good Morning” instead of breaking down each letter to sound out the word. However, I feel that I must learn the alphabet so that I can apply my previous knowledge and that will come with a tutor. I have also found some good sites on the web and on youtube that give a good introduction in sounding out the alphabet.

In sum, I find myself both anxious and excited about this learning process. I have begun to challenge my way of thinking in both the political-linguist arena and in the language acquisition arena. I have begun to think about ways to immerse myself in Arabic already just to give myself some more motivation to learn. I have also thought more deeply about my fears and prejudice toward the Arabic culture and the Arabic spelling system. Yet, this is just a humble beginning, I hope to go deeper.

Memorizing Arabic?

Before beginning this lesson I was convinced that I was going to try and memorize the patterns of Arabic words due to the fact that I was having some difficulty identifying the combinations of letters in the words. However, while doing preparation for my first tutoring session I did some google and youtube searching and discovered some alphabet or alifbaataa or tajweed videos. Alif, Baa, and Taa are the first three letters of the standard Arabic alphabet. I found some good lessons about the alphabet presented by Arabic teachers on youtube as well. I feel now that knowing the Arabic alphabet is very important to figuring out the essential sounds of language.

Sounds that come in the form of music is much easier to remember. Think about how the alphabet song is used to teach children. (Coehlo, 247) I learned two “alphabet” songs. The first, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI3oBB_n1AU&feature=related seemed like it could be sung to any Arabic speaking child and was full of animated Arabic letters with children singing. However, upon deeper analysis of the children involved in the second video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9kq0UMDdY&feature=related this song was obviously meant for children from Indonesia who are Muslim and who are learning Arabic for religious purposes. I did not know that Arabic is the only official language of Muslim. So all services are held in Arabic, which explains the reason Muslim children from Indonesia are leaning the Tajweed.

I practiced the songs for about an hour but still did not remember them exactly although the melody was stuck in my head. Nonetheless, what I noticed most about practicing the songs is that the muscles in my throat were extremely tired afterwards. Trying to hear the sounds while simultaneously imitate throughout the song I felt as though many of the sounds came from the area between the epiglottis and glottis, almost like I was swallowing most of the sounds. (Freeman, 56) One good example of the varying points from which similar sounds comes is are the letters ح‎ /ħ/ خ‎ /kh/ and ه‎ /h/. According to islamicart.com, ح is a “heavy breathy h, خ‎ is the ch sound in the word loch, and ه‎ is the h as in house. The /kh/ is often heard and imitated by English speakers, it is also the same sound found in Spanish in the jota. However, the difference between the others are simply that one is vocalic and the other not. Imagine saying “house” without moving your vocal chords. (Coehlo, 56)


Farida, who is my Algerian neighbor, and has volunteered her time to help me with this project. She is also a French teacher at Montgomery Community College, and will be teaching Arabic in the Spring of 2009. . At the beginning of the lesson I tried to show off my work from the previous night by sounding out the song that I had learned the melody to. My teacher was impressed with my ability not to feel embarrassed by attempting something like this. We briefly discussed the fact that one must not be afraid to risk looking odd in front of others while learning a language. Naturally, we are going to feel funny trying to make the sounds of another language.

Though English sounds different in the context of the new language, I have not found myself even coming to a point where I am trying to make direct comparisons to English while immersed in the lesson. I find that when I try to shift completely away from my native I can hear the sounds more clearly. I also watch the way the mouth moves and try incessantly to master the sound repeatedly. There is a Russian saying that supports this learning strategy, “повторение - мать изучения,” or “repetition is the mother of learning.”

Farida and I went through the alphabet slowly in our meeting focusing primarily on the sounds. Since she is a teacher her insight on the phonetics of Arabic was very valuable. She would pause, place her hand on the part of pallet from which the sound comes and work with me on each letter until I was close. During the lesson I began to hear how beautiful the sounds of Arabic were, also quite logical. Really, if people are speaking Arabic, then it must be useful and contain beauty.

Arabic or Arabic? Oh.. Arabic?

Aside from the fact that the population Arabic-speaking people is so vast and diverse, the communication and cultural barriers in the United States has led to a negative and narrow perception of this group. As stated in a previous entry, my own narrow view of the population is one of the biggest reasons I want to be introduced to the language. Yet, a larger reason for my desire to learn some Arabic is to pass on some simple phrases onto my students so that they might have an entry unto a world that is more misunderstood than mysterious. As I learn basic phrases like the greetings الّسَلامُ عَلِيْكُم and وَعَلَيْكُم الّسَلام for example it opens a window to meaning for students due to the fact that the phrases mean more than “hello,” but rather “may peace be with you.” As discussed in Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition, instead of approaching the language like any subject, finding meaning brings about a subconscious identification to the power of cultural significance to communication. (Freeman, 35)

In this session I worked with my tutor Nabil, from Jordan, with whom I worked at Germantown Academy. He and his wife Salwa are both teachers of Science and Mathematics. I wanted to build my reading skills and learn to identify some common expressions that I have been hearing in my CD’s and seeing in my workbook. Although with the reading I can hardly separate the writing aspect. Due to the fact that I have been working to make the right sound with the right letter by seeing my hand write the grapheme tends to support the intention of sounding out a word letter by letter and then recognizing patterns of words. Phonics is important for word recognition and spelling assists in the science of the language generating a more linguistic approach to learning. (Freeman, 127)

Although I am applying a science to the grammar, spelling, phonemes, etc, I believe that there is something more thoughtful and attentive at work in quotidian interaction. There is a trust almost immediately born from the fact that I am interacting in another voice, or as singing a different song. In a sense, Arabic becomes a part of me when I interact with my tutors, and although it does not fill up no where near the area in my brain that English does, I can feel the potential. That’s powerful! You know if 200 million people speak it at the subconscious level Arabic has meaning, I just simply need to supply the right words.

Yet there are many dialects of Arabic to be considered. Nabil, who is Jordanian, asked “Which Arabic are you learning?” From some research, I have discovered that there are about twelve main dialects with varying degrees of differences below those categories. Yet, there is a cultural norm written in the Arabic the newspaper which all speakers of every dialect understands. Although, the Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich statement that, “A language is a dialect with an army and navy,” thus far I have not run into any real differences in power or where there is any friction amongst Arabic speakers through my interactions with native speakers. The cohesiveness of the Arabic people is brought about more by the similarities than the differences. Nonetheless, it is important to know that there is a different kind of printed and broadcasted Arabic than that you would find in the daily lives of its speakers.

I'll let someone else learn it for me!

Technology has come a long way in bringing the world closer. However, in getting a little closer to the Arabic I am suppose to try and learn, my contact with real world Arabic is this from aljazeera.net:
واشنطن تستبعد اتفاقا أمنيا مع بغداد بحلول نهاية يوليوقالت الولايات المتحدة الأميركية إنه لن يكون بالإمكان إتمام الاتفاقية الأمنية التي تناقشها مع الحكومة العراقية قبل نهاية الشهر الجاري. ومن جانبه أكد باراك أوباما في تصريحات أنه أجرى "مناقشات بناءة للغاية" مع رئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي في زيارته للعراق

How on earth am I to get anything from this? Well, unfortunately nothing but real hard work and study skills is the answer. I would have to focus letter by letter, sound by sound, and only then look up the words in a dictionary, memorize the word then move on to the next one. To my credit I did figure out that the first word in the paragraph واشنطن, (remember read from right to left) is Washington. My point is that no matter what kind of technology you use nothing beats good ole fashion persistence.

Another way Krashen claims that you develop a second language is through “acquisition.” He states that acquisition occurs when someone goes to another country and picks up the language in the process of day-to-day living and interacting with native speakers.” (Freeman, 36) If technology can truly mimic the day-to-day immersed environment, then the acquisition of language may take place. Most programs that you buy cannot guarantee this model and leave it up to the learning to be persistent and studious.

Rosetta stone tries to emulate the criteria for acquisition. They claim that their method works because it's: intuitive, interactive, and visually engaging and that you will never need to translate, memorize, or see lists of words. The upside for Rosetta Stone is that it has good user interface. The software is very easy to navigate. You can leave the activity if it is too easy or too hard for you. I tried the free trial and can remember the words for man, adam, boy, oghur, and girl, kiz. Not bad for a 2 minute lesson without forcing myself to memorize. Rosetta Stone is very interactive because you have to click on the images or type in texts. You are being constantly assessed. This will keep you engaged during your learning of a new language. Simply listening to a canned like the one that I am using becomes old very quickly.

My cd goes something like this: The transliterated Arabic is spoken by a native speaker and is immediately followed by a translation by an English woman. wasalumalekum – hello waalekumsalaam – hello, sabahalkur – how are you? Wahumdalah – fine, thank you. Basically this method goes against everything subconscious and meaningful due to the dullness and lack of variation. However, I have used the system in the morning while having coffee and I am able to focus on the different sounds and sayings. Yet to learn more I find that I must be engaged in some sort of academic process. I imagine that although Rosetta Stone makes huge guarantees to rid yourself of pesky lists and God forbid grammar, at some point getting down and dirty and forcing yourself to memorize will have to take place in order to reach and conversational level.

Of course language classes have tried to emulate the acquisition environment before. Alice Kaplan relates her experience with a “sink or swim” method she calls the Capretz method. Where the class never uses L1 and there are no exercises in translation. “Like Fonda exercises you can get your French in shape.” The method is suppose to reproduce the conditions, ie. Krashen’s acquisition, with the caveat of being able to reproduce the scenes over and over again. Assumably, a large amount of translation and grammar work individually augments the program considerably. In my language studies I have recorded news programs or TV shows onto a cassette and listened to them over and over again. I agree with Kaplan that the method brings you in contact with “the personality of life” and can work if the student is motivated. (Kaplan, 132)

As mentioned earlier, I have also used the internet to guide my learning. I find that listening to dialogues forces me to tune my ear in to at least pick up on the familiar words that I have already learned. Some free Arabic-learning website are also available to use. Some are great just for the fact that they supply you with verb charts:

Adrus - I study
Tadrus - You (m.) study
Tadrusii[n] - You (f.) study
Tadrus - She studies
Yadrus - He studies
Nadrus - We study
Tadrusuu[n] - You (pl.) study
Yadrusuu[n] - They study

Other sights have many sayings with a youtube video provided to enhance the audio with a word or speakers. I have found that seeing people speak in a controlled environment has helped me considerably in making contact with the language. In sum, I find that technology helps you make a connection with the language you are studying and anything is better than simply memorizing from a book when the real world experience of immersion is 8000 miles away.


Language Teaching Methods, Desire, Necessity, Risk Vulnerability

Di buona volantà sta pieno l'inferno

In a previous entry I discussed the similarities between the anxieties that I am feeling to an ESL learner. Now I am feeling more sympathetic to Spanish students of mine who simply see no real good reason to be taking my class. I could write my own progress report it would look like this:

Although Stephen has shown short periods of enthusiasm to meeting the demands of Arabic 1, the bottom line is that he simply cannot stretch himself beyond enthusiastic endeavors in the daily goings-on of the classtime to develop any motivation to really go deeper in the language individually. Stephen has a real natural ability to use classroom phrases daily, form and ask questions in Arabic, and demonstrates excellent pronunciation for the basic level. Nonetheless, he truly needs to spend much more time working on his letter and word identification, vocabulary, basic verb structure, spelling, and reading. Language is best learned when one saturates himself with the language. For all practical reasons this cannot happen outside of the classroom. Nevertheless, some more quality time spent listening and writing down dialogues will help him at least reproduce some of the enthusiasm he has shown in class.

Professional teachers are familiar with how motivation works in the classroom. Teachers strive to create an intrinsically rewarding environment as opposed to an extrinsic one. In this respect ELLs in the U.S. are treated no differently than their peers. Nonetheless, in most cases an ELL will naturally be more motivated to learn due the necessities of an English-speaking culture in which he or she is part of. However, whether “learning the language” means basic interpersonal language skills (BICS) or Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) also brings into the picture a students motivation in the classroom. A child who values talking to some native English speakers in order to hang out will learn English but not the level that will allow him or her to advance in school and become highly literate.

We have discussed in class there are a great many ethnic communities within the US that do not value an English education or that the school system is failing them. We discussed the situation at Frankford High School in North Philadelphia where many of the Dominican and Puerto Rican students master BICS but have no motivation to get tested out of ESL because that is where their friends are, they feel more comfortable, or they feel like they can slide. For whatever reason, entire communities in the US can function with limited or no contact with English. Perhaps some ELLs may feel like this is the place for them.

Sometimes motivation can become diminished in an environment where students feel like they may make too many mistakes or they feel vulnerable. For example, an ELL may feel as though his sense of identity is a threatened. Therefore it is a good teaching practice to value the students’ culture by utilizing his or her L1and recognizing important dates. (Coelho, 162,163) Students will make mistakes, but how the student perceives them can lead to either corrective performance or diminished returns. Creating small groups where students can experiment with English without the anxiety of standing in front of the class gives the student time to be corrected by peers, or gives a teacher an opportunity to listen and correct in a one on one setting.


Close analysis of Arabic learning

When you are learning another language it you begin to expose layers that give you an idea about not only the complexities of anther culture but also the complexities of your own. When I teach my Spanish class I like to tell a story of how one culture’s meaning for a word has an entirely different meaning in another. In the 1980’s I was inundated every evening on the news by the battles raging between freedom fighters and gorillas. I would ask my mom and dad, “Why do we call them gorillas?” “Because they fight in the forest and attack you from the trees. Like gorillas?” Not until I learned Spanish while living in Chile that I finally understood what was going on. Those gorillas were actually guerrillas! Guerrilla is a diminutive form of Guerra, war, guerrilla is little war, or a war fought without conventional battle order. Somehow in our translation guerrilla becomes the fighter of the “little war.”

I bring up this issue due to the fact that this week in my session with Nabil I began to break through some of my preconceptions that I spoke of in an earlier entry. I spoke of these negative notions due to the fact that I feel as though like it or not I am flooded with Arab prejudice as I was with the gorillas fighting against the US supported “freedom fighters.”

While I was attempting to simply gain some verb and vocabulary knowledge from Nabil I was exposed to a very similar story to the one above. Nabil and I were going the verb to be and the following occurred:

This is mudariisa? Teacher? (pointing at the notebook)
This is Moo-Dar short vowel sa. You see, so I put the mark, mudariisa.
…
O.K. and to teach?
udarice
Oh so mudar is the root? Or, school or something?
School is Maadraasa. You see with the news of Bin Laden they speak of maadrasas?
Oh, that’s where I heard it.
Those special schools that they are talking about are the general common word for schools, yes? The news wants to blame all for being in a school. Yes you are in a school because a “school” in Arabic is maadrasa. But because they were teaching Islamic….in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Maadrasa Taliban?
Maadrasa Taliban. O.k. so when the foreigners hear this word Maadrasa they think about them wanting to kill Americans they think maadrasa! With an intonation of terrorism!
…
Do you ever get offended by that?
Oh no.
But its sad. Sad.
But anyway I am Christian not muslim.
Do you ever think that its unfair that some bad people can make everyone look bad?
Of course its bad. Because as you said there are so many good people… there are bad people of all religions

Do you know what a “guerrilla” a gorilla is?...

The relationship among students’ cultural and experiential background and the process by which they learn are intimately intertwined and all modern ESL theory supports in one way or another actively and positively engaging the diversity of culture presented in the class room. (Freeman, 83) However, I believe that due to the fact that a teacher by nature represents cannon of the dominant culture you have to essentially embrace your demons and be mindful of how culture affects you. (Harris) The private thoughts that you have that you never act upon like prejudice for example may be what the premise is by which others judge you. I do not feel that I in anyway try to act on any prejudice. However, the majority of my familiarity with Arabic culture comes through the primarily a lens skewed by my own.

Since 9-11 I have actively sought out the Aljazeera website for news where at least I can get a bit more understanding of “their” perspective. Interesting enough, I find that Aljazeera is consistently more neutral on international news than the main body of US coverage. Nevertheless, to allow myself to be more skilled in the know-how of cultural capital I must admit that most people in the world see me as a carbon copy American who buys into the mainstream media and yes, stereotypes all Arabs.

There are many facets to mindfulness, including living in the present moment; engaging fully in what you are doing rather than ‘getting lost’ in your thoughts; and allowing your feelings to be as they are, letting them come and go rather than trying to control them. When we observe our private experiences with openness and receptiveness, even the most painful thoughts, feelings, sensations and memories can seem less threatening or unbearable. In this way mindfulness can help us to transform.
Russell Harris

Harris, Russell (August, 2004) Embracing Your Demons: An Overview of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Psychotherapy in Australia, vol. 12 n. 4

Freeman, D. (1998). Doing teacher research: From inquiry to understanding, New York: Heinle & Heinle


Understanding the Structure of a new language


I let Nabil and Farida know that I wanted to learn some present-tense verb conjugations in order to gain more insight into how the system of root words works and to see how my explicit knowledge of grammar can help me decode the language.

In an earlier entry I discussed the system of roots in Arabic and how words are based on three-letter combinations and various vowels, prefixes and suffixes are used with the root letters to create the desired inflection of meaning. Examples are:

a-b father, ancestor, forefather
(ab, abû)

f-q-h to understand, comprehend or to teach, instruct
(fiqh)

s-l-m to be safe, secure, protected, to surrender, to submit
(al-salâm, islâm, salîm, muslim

I worked simply on identifying correct conjugations and forming simple sentences and questions? I often use the interrogation technique to assist my language learning. It both provides me with the basic format in which to make a statement and also presents me with new vocabulary. In general students that use L2 to ask questions will progress more quickly due to increased motivation and scaffolding. We have practiced this in class with the map activity where the person asking the question also must be a good listener in order to attain the desired information.

According to an Arabic wiki, http://www.mesiti.it/arabic/wiki/wiki.asp?db=wikiasp&o=TheRootSystem
“By adding infixes to the first class of the verb and varying its internal vowelisation Arabic obtains a variety of derived forms. Currently only ten are the most used derivatives but fifteen were common until up to comparatively recently, and can still be found in old books.” This system helps me clearly identify with the logic of the language. And, although I have not been able to memorize the roots and practice them enough so that they sink in, knowing the structure helps me identify that the basic system is simple at its root and difficulty arises with pragmatics and its influence on meaning of the cluster.

This brings to my attention how Arabic, although spoken in extremely distinct dialects can still maintain its status as the language. Like My neighbor for example, who is an eighteen year-old Algerian that has been in the US for eight years says only that she speaks “Algerian” (Darija) not “that stuff my mom speaks.” (Standardized Arabic) How different is Algerian to Syrian, for example where Nabil is from? Is it, say, similar to the differences between Spanish and Italian? Or, Peninsular Portuguese compared to Brazilian Portuguese? Regardless it is easy to see how the seemingly straightforward consonant-cluster system can become increasingly diglossic.[1]

According to About.com, “an adult (Arabic speaker) wishing to learn how to read would find himself learning a completely new language on top of the skills it takes to read. Children going to school for the first time also experience this shock and essentially become bilingual by the end of their scholastic careers, while teachers often report spending inordinate amounts of time translating texts written in Classical or Modern Standard Arabic into the local dialect.”




[1] The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, Florian Coulmas (ed.), Basil Blackwell, Ltd., 1997