Week 8: Maria Carreira

 

 

Unfortunately, this assignment was already closed on Canvas when I tried to access it! However, I found many of Professor Carreira's points to be very relevant to language maintenance as we approached it in class, and I therefore tried to include her perspectives often in my final paper! Please see the FinalPaper/Presentation tab to see her views included in my final work.

 

Week 8 Reading: Polinsky and Kagan 2007

 

1) The definition of "heritage speaker" outlined in this article is helping me articulate how I should be focusing aims of my final project; I realize now how I should be making the distinction between the (speaking/cultural/writing) experiences of international students, who are truly native speakers of their heritage language, and the heritage speakers of the language/culture: I wonder if I can still include both perspective in my final project?

2) It was interesting reading about the baseline heritage language found in the home- I notice that for Russian, indeed, what I hear and use for communication is probably the Southern variety, because when I watch Russian television or news (rare for me), it becomes much harder to follow, not only in terms of vocabulary, but in terms of speaking style and convention too.

3)  Speech rate seems like a very effective performance metric, and it was illuminating to see how different gender systems within heritage/dominant languages affect speech rate results (I certainly struggle greatly with the 3-gender system in Russian, and would be well below the baseline).

 

Week 6 Reading: McWhorter 2009

 

1) Interesting that an estimate predicted 6000 languages dying down to 600 in the next hundred years; it seems that, with the 7000+ languages today, 6 years after publication of the article, that the trend is toward even further diversification and expansion of languages (and probably language recognition).

2) McWhorter made an interesting reflection regarding the fervor with which American Jews pursue Hebrew; however, I am personally not so sure... as I feel Hebrew school tends to teach Biblical Hebrew for religious ritual, and not Modern/conversational Hebrew- however, it is the conversational Hebrew that keeps the language alive. 

3) Theoretically his explanation that languages can change in different locales while culture stays the same is plausible; BUT it also seems unlikely, as different geographical places and language preferences seem like they would certainly bring new cultural practices and ways of life, because this is the empirical evidence that we've seen over thousands of years!!!!*

(*note: after reading on, I understood his defense to the thought about culture - however, I don't know if I am convinced!)

 

Week 6 Reading: Garcia 2005

 

1) I definitely don't think the term "heritage language" in itself is a generally disenfranchising word... but, I do agree that Spanish needs to be recognized in a broader, more official context than the family/community/"heritage"-based one.

2) Why is "dual language" an illegitimate way to describe programs, as opposed to "bilingual"? I understand that the processes are different, and bilingualism implies more code-mixing/meshing, but dual languages seems fair at least in conversation. 

3) "with one language reduced to that of a heritage"; what I continued to be struck by in Gracia's paper was the connotations provided for the word "heritage" - I now understand that it is the many monolingual focused language policies that are actively building this connotation, and that by changing policy we have the opportunity to make heritage a completely positive term.

 

Week 4 Reading: Mesthrie & Surek-Clark 2013

 

1) Prof. Surek-Clark included a very interesting observation mentioning that Fanakalo is received very negatively in S. Africa (as it is seen as "a language of exploitation and cheap labor") whereas it is perceived in other places as a language representing "the sophistication of young men who worked abroad in the cities; this reminded me how important it will be to contextualize the use of my research language, Mandarin, with its perception and reception in different areas of urban China, rural China, the United States, Washington State, and the universities in each of these locales.

2) Another point Prof. Surek-Clark highlighted varying pronunciation of certain consonants for Fanakalo speakers, based on speakers' command of other languages (such as Zulu) as well; so another element I will need to research/include in my interviews is whether my Mandarin speakers grew up with other Chinese (or non-Chinese) minority languages and how this affected their transition into Mandarin pronunciation and use.   

 

3) One thing I thought about while reading is how pidgins often exist in very specific racial/socio-economic/labor/professional groups, seemingly without much intersection; it makes me wonder if pidgins are more exclusionary than community-building, and what information I may need to recognize the more positive consequences of pidgins in a social context.

 

Week 3 Reading: Spolsky 2011

 

A. When, at one point, Prof. Spolsky referenced the loss of citizens' heritage language abilities as "capabilities... wasted", it seems that he is concerned just as much with preservation of heritage languages for multilingual speakers as he is with ensuring that mono-lingual speakers pursue a second language; however, he does not make any reference to the importance of reviving heritage/minority/endangered language in a monolingual context (is it less important if the speaker cannot speak the endangered language and a "major" language too?)

B. I was very surprised to read that Spanish announcements are required to be made in "Correct Spanish"; Designating one Spanish as correct automatically creates an assumption that something is wrong with any other Spanish (language/dialect), and that it is wrong - I am surprised there is not more pushback occurring as a result.

C. It's concerning that, in the STEM v. Humanities sphere, language, like arts and humanities, becomes polarized in state curriculum; is there any possible way to increase emphasis on, not only language, but the humanities in general, as a critical field of study and inquiry at the primary/secondary school level? 

 

Week 3 Reading: Gandara & Rumberger 2009

 

1) I found it unbelievable that administrators/legislators believed English should be learned first (effectively in a vacuum) before other subjects are tackled; without learning other subjects too,  an absolute lack of application and intersection, and a loss of practical and critical thinking skills would occur!

2) I think some of the educational organization strategies, namely providing another year of instruction and/or allowing EL students to continuing receiving instruction from the same teacher, would be a very efficient way to keep the education process fluid and active while framing it with an English Learning focus; it reduces the "transaction costs" of being pulled out of class, switching gears between disjointed topics, and losing time for instruction, and could be prioritized more highly.

3) The use of "Academic English" continues to perplex me, as somebody who works at the Writing Center - International students often come in with content-rich, organizationally-sound work that receives huge penalties for "poor grammar" and failure to use "correct" academic English: If I feel frustrated with this misguided and/or narrow way of assessing student work, I cannot imagine how many international students must feel.

 

Week 1 Reading: Patterson 2013

 

1) What I find really engaging about the ideas of Critical Race Theory is that it works not only to find ways of making sure underrepresented populations find representation at the institutional level, it also asserts that these communities' values and traditions actively shape the institutions they join. One example I thought of is affirmative action in college admissions to promote enrollment of diverse student bodies at many universities - this is a wonderful first step in diversifying the demographics of schools, but it needs to follow through by actively diversifying the cultural experiences we share in school, too.

2) I understood "otherblindness" in CRT almost as an idea that could be used as a defense in cases of discrimination/micro-agression/innapropriate practices. The truth is (as the article explains), physical/demographic diversity is not the sole prerequisite for a truly inclusive/diverse community culture, and we actually need to be more strongly aware of discrimination that takes place as a confounding variable under the more idealistic image of the "diverse", but possibly socially stagnant, student body.

3) I was interested in the concepts of self-awareness and "cultural work" that the article stressed, because as a writing tutor at the OWRC, I have the opportunity to engage in critical conversation with diverse students in many fields/levels of study; early on, as writers introduced themselves, I became more and more aware of the assumptions I was making about their experiences and their work, and subsequently worked to make encouragement (from friendly body language to how I formed questions and meaningful conversation with the writer) my mental goal - this required shedding any possible preconceptions as quickly and fully as possible.

 

Week 1 Reading: Sapon-Shevin 2003

 

1) There is no room for contingency in assessing a community's inclusiveness towards individuals; being accepting of all individuals "EXCEPT FOR...." automatically disqualifies a community as one that is inclusive and open.

2) It seems like it is sometimes difficult to assess whether someone is acting in an exclusionary manner, or is choosing/shaping and forming their community in a more innocuous way; though we, as adults, are able to more actively point out overt prejudice, perhaps a very young child who is just starting to learn to play with others, and thus maintains fewer assumptions about people based on race/religion/gender/, is not actually exhibiting exclusionary behavior if she chooses to play with Rebecca instead of Randy (How do we know?)

3) The article encourages us to find a discourse for confronting discrimination (and thus, exclusionary behavior) by standing up for one another in thoughtful ways, much of the time through non-combative, respectful, but direct conversation. When a good friend referred to me as "such a Jew" one evening in high school, I laughed at first, but I quickly felt very uncomfortable - I wish that I could have briefly questioned his remark in that moment and helped him understand the negative (historical/current) implications of the joke and why it was actually not okay.