How does culture influence the teaching and learning process? Cite text and additional readings. (focus- language & dialect)
End your post with a question.
You talk funny (and other opinions from the documentary "American Tongues")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vF9g37FCmk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmum-eT4hzM&feature=related
End your post with a question.
You talk funny (and other opinions from the documentary "American Tongues")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vF9g37FCmk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmum-eT4hzM&feature=related
I think your geographic region definately has to do with your teaching and learning process as shown in these clips. As they showed in the video clips, depending on what part of the country you are in, speech is very different. They even use completely different words that sound foreign to out of towners. I could see how if some kid moved in to a new part of the country and didnt do well in school for awhile. I'm sure the teachers might think the student is slow and not because of the different language and dialect. Teachers would have to understand the diversity now in the classroom and make sure they use universal terms for whatever they are learning about in the subject and speak clearly. The woman from the video said she speaks more professional at the work place and lets her southern accent out more at home.
ReplyDeleteIn the sheets text talks about understanding how we categorize people and concepts, examining perspectives from the viewpoints of others and realizing how knowledge is constructed can hel us conceptualize how cognitive and social biases influence how we think about diversity. We need to understand not everyone will talk the same and teachers need to be able to teach to everyone, not just a group of southern speaking students or same for up north.
Do you think if you went to another part of the country to teach, say down south, you'd be able to get through to the kids the same way as if you were in your hometown?
The end of the final video in the list discusses how children develop language and form their dialect from the people they are around the most. Initially this is your family or the people in your home, but then it becomes (and remains) heavily influenced by your friends or peer group. Language is also taught and reinforced via the media and in school, but the video stated that the people individuals interact with influence language development the most.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Sheets (2005) the skills children learn through socialization reflect the values, child-rearing practices, and social structures of their home, and therefore, of their culture. (55) One of the most important skills, or tools, children acquire is language. And what becomes obvious in the videos as is also described by Sheets, group influence on language also becomes part of identity development.
I was surprised by the comment on page 52 of the Sheets text which states, “…psychology has not concerned itself with the relationship between culture and cognition.” Isn’t this concept part of Vygotsky’s theory on psychological tools? Vygotsky suggests that language – a cognitive structure – is a cultural tool and that history and culture are transmitted through language. (Crain, 2005) I know Vygotksy’s work was not centered in education, but his theory must have certainly informed the theories of major educational psychologists.
Crain, W. (2005). Theories of development: Concepts and applications, fifth edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Sheets, R.H. (2005). Diversity pedagogy: Examing the role of culture in the teaching-learning process. Boston, Allyn and Bacon.
When I was watching the videos, I thought of several personal experiences related to the topic. For example, when I spent my summers in Cape Cod during college, my co-workers used to make fun of how we pronounced our Rs (and we conversely made fun of them, all of whom were from South Boston). Has anything like what was portrayed in the video ever happened to you?
In most instances, the cultural influences of dialect are a direct result of the students' ethnic identity. Students of a particular culture connect with and display the ethnic characteristics of their ethnic group. I think that teachers should not promote assimilation, which is where the "minority group members accept the dominant cultural groups norms, attitudes, and values and reject of distance themselves from their own cultural group" (Sheetz, 8), but rather teachers should promote an open environment for all cultures.
ReplyDeleteDialect is something that is particular for a specific region, not a specific culture, and I think that this is important to understand. If you go to different areas of West Virginia, you will hear many different dialects and word usages. Learning about the dialects that are used in the area where you are teaching is important if you are to connect with your students. Understanding the culture of the area, as well as the culture of the students in your class, allows you to better grasp the nature of your students and how they can be best taught.
In Rethinking our Classrooms: Volume Two, there is an article on page 188 that I felt was relevant to this discussion. The article is titled "Arranged Marriages, Rearranged Ideas" and although it is more about how culture, not dialect, I still think it is relevant to this discussion. In this article, the teacher changes his view of arranged marriage through what he learns from his student. By accepting and learning about the cultural characteristics of his student, the teacher gains a better understanding of the culture and how to accept its traits. He states in the end of the article that "because I hadn't begun with an attack on the cultural norms of her community, I had managed to find a way that, to some degree at least, both supported and empowered Jihana (student)."
I think that this statement sums up what teachers should do to make the culture of their students important in the classroom. Too often students are ridiculed due to their dialect or cultural norms prevalent in their ethnic group.By promoting and teaching students not to attack other cultural norms because they are different than our own, teachers can promote an culturally diverse and accepting classroom.
In Response to John, I do think I would be able to connect with students in the South, even though their dialect may be different. I think our approaches should be the same, connect with the students, use their interests to develop lessons, and promote cultural acceptance and learning. By following these steps, teachers in any area can get through to students and teach thought provoking lessons.
Question: How would you teach other students about the culture and dialect of a student in your class who has a different dialect than the rest of the students?
Dialect has been the one aspect of culture that has affected me probably most. The video about the different words from other areas especially hit home. I'm from Rhode Island, and I know exactly what a cabinet, bubbler, and a grinder are, but when I first moved to North Carolina, no one understood that I was talking about milk shakes, water fountains, and sub sandwiches. :) Additionally, moving to northern Maryland after 9 years in the south was a completely different challenge.
ReplyDeleteAs an English teacher, I am expected to teach the "standard" English, which is a concept I have a hard time with. We consider "standard" English to be that of our mid west news anchors. This however, seems to be to be forced assimilation. I think, that as a teacher, it is important to be aware that different dialects and regional words are going to be a fact of life and instead of forcing all students to talk like anchors, we should teach them how to mix their colorful dialects with accepted grammar rules.
What do you think may be one of the most difficult thing for students to overcome when moving to other parts of the country with different dialects? How can teachers help to ease some of their frustrations?
To answer Brett,
ReplyDeleteHas anything like what was portrayed in the video ever happened to you?
For whatever reason, the word "drawer" is the only word I still speak with any hint of a Rhode Island accent. My friends adore asking me where utensils are in my house. (They're in the "drooah" to the left of my stove, by the way). While this is good natured fun, 7th graders at a new school where no one has a southern accent isn't as fun. Being 12-years-old and moving to a new state and dropping "y'alls" left and right can lead to a huge amount of frustration for a student. I actually spent a great deal of time concentrating on removing anything from the southern accent I developed between the ages of 4 and 12 and teaching myself that mid west, dialect free English all of those videos discussed.
Learning now what I have learned about diversity in the classroom, I wish a teacher had taken the opportunity to use my southern identity to teach something a little bit more. I was frequently asked if I was racist because I lived so long in the south, and instead of struggling to answer such a difficult question by myself, a teacher could have taken advantage of the culturally "teachable" moment and possibly discussed the effects of the Civil Rights movement in the south.
Watching the cultural influences of dialect video was very enlightening. I knew that people in different parts of America spoke differently; I guess I just didn’t know to what extent. What really hit me was when the lady came into the shop asking for hush puppies, was it, or something and the man behind the counter did not know what she was talking about. They could not seem to understand the language each one was speaking even though it was English. It is also amazing to me that we have different words in English for the exact same thing. Words are just used by which part of the country you are living.
ReplyDeleteThis defiantly affects the teaching and learning process. As the teacher you cannot just assume that your class understanding what you are referring to all of the time.
How can we make sure that our classes understand what we are referring to without speaking above or below them?
To answer Brett's question. Has anything like what was portrayed in the video ever happened to you? YES!! Infact all the time, my husband still makes fun of me. Being from Philadelphia I still sound out words really long and full accent my A's. If you ever hear me say banana and my husband is around you will understand why he is laughing:) I guess we all have our words that we pronounce differently.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that I have a tuned ear and can generally understand what people are saying either through language or body gestures. I chalk it up to growing up in New York where potentially every block (street) spoke a completely different language and celebrated a different culture. From an educational perspective, I think being raised around diverse tongues gives a decided advantage to both teacher and student in that we are forced to develop effective means of communicating and connecting with one another. Dialect is without a doubt a byproduct of where we’re raised and how we’re taught to speak. Interestingly enough, that is not where the story ends. As Sheets points out, “Language is not a neutral concept. It is value-laden with diversity issues…” (P. 107). If language is the means by which we demonstrate our thoughts and understanding, how teachers use it and interpret it is critical in evaluating and building student achievement.
ReplyDeleteSheets, R.H. (2005). Diversity Pedagogy: Examining the role of culture in the teaching-learning process. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Question:
ReplyDeleteAt what age do you begin to offer alternatives to the dialects that youngsters usher into your classroom? For example, families can use all types of homemade words for body parts and bathroom activities with very young children. How do you interject the terms that you think will be more acceptable in a class environment without insulting the parents or discrediting what the child has been taught at home?
For Brett's ... Has anything like that ever happened to anyone?
ReplyDelete“Where are you from” can be a loaded question, I’ve learned. Truthfully, people are usually clueless as to where I am from. Since moving to the “South” (West Virginia specifically), I have had more inquiries into where I am from than any other place that I’ve lived. Additionally, I have never had more requests from people asking me to teach them to “speak” as if they don’t already know how! In my hometown there is a decidedly nasal Long Island accent that was unacceptable in my parents’ home. I was raised to speak “properly” and any variation from what was perceived to be Standard English was not tolerated. I wonder if I would have had the same warm reception here in the South had I picked up the absolutely without-a-doubt speaking patterns of L-o-o-n-g-e-y-e-l-y-n-n.
To bretts question:
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have definately experienced some of that living two years down in a very country town of pembroke in the very southern part of north carolina. My friends has some pretty thick accents and refered to things differently than we do up here. Kinda made me laugh when i heard them talk and they all told me I talked funny as well.
In Response to mprasc01:
ReplyDeleteThe way we make sure our classes understand what we are referring to is stressing vocabulary. Even though we may say things differently and some words may mean something different in different settings, if we focus on teaching vocabulary then we will have less trouble when communicating.
From personal experience: It upsets me when my students would come to class and say that in the expression 3x + 6, the students call the number 3 “the number in front of x” instead of “the coefficient of x.” This says to me that the students’ previous teachers did not focus on the vocabulary. Instead they “dummy down” the math.
We are asked to focus on vocabulary and I think that is because the major terms that we use are universal. Therefore, if we are in a new setting which we have trouble understanding the language, we can still learn because we have that common vocabulary.