Week 10

Chapter 7 begins with fostering language awareness from two popular countries, the USA and Britain.  Although both countries brought important points within the idea of LA, I was especially drawn to the Whole language movement because it advocates the acceptance of the different dialects of L1 as well as L2 students bring with them. In every country, there are negative stigmas attach with dialects that are not considered proper such as AVE or Chicano English in the USA. I cannot cease to repeat the fact that students need to be taught that certain context demand for certain dialects and one needs to know which dialect or variety to use to benefits them. Students also need to understand that although all language variety are entitled to equal power, there are some dialects that over power others and understand that  language is linked to power, Kumar calls this critical language awareness. It is very important for students to understand how language is use within their country and be aware of social inequalities and dominance that can result from language. Such type of teaching must come from a teacher who possesses an awareness of language. The example of doublespeak to foster language awareness was a great example to use to teach students the power of language. Even native speakers are easily drawn to such traps. In order to provide such language awareness teachers need to be knowledgeable both within and outside their field. Kumar mentioned that teacher’s “limited knowledge of language may result in a failure to anticipate learners’ learning problems etc.” (162). This is very important because when a teacher knows the content which he or she is teaching, they can imagine what can go wrong and where it can go wrong and have the appropriate explanation to facilitate such confusion.

                The second part of the reading proposed the idea of activating students’ intuitive heuristics which is closely linked to the concept of fostering language awareness. If a student is able to learn by discovering things by themselves then they are able to increase their awareness of the language.  Creating an environment that allows students to activate their intuitive heuristics and discover for themselves is a hard task a teacher must do. Knowing that as a teacher,  it is my duty to create such environment makes me paranoid because I feel that I might fail or might let an opportunity to create such environment slip away like the teacher in episode 8.1 (Kumar 179).  The chapter goes on to talk about two different types teaching methods, inductive teaching and intuitive heuristics. I was glad to see that the chapter offered both sides of inductive teaching method which I agree with them. This type of teaching styles work well with adults so they can use it to analyze the rules, also as an adult Spanish learner I would like this method.  But on the other hand, learners need to learn how to hypothesize about language and make certain conclusion without the teacher explicitly telling them. I believe when one does this he or she is capable of learning, remembering, and applying what he or she has learned. As I was reading the chapter, I was searching for the author to provide some negative aspects or disadvantage to intuitive heuristics method to point out to teachers that both methods offer good and bad effects and it was up to the teacher to determine which to choose to better fit their classroom.