Communication is a key factor in culture. No matter where you are from, it is understand that you must be able to communicate in order to succeed in a community. I would like to point out that in Ms. Jones' classroom, the students were required to be independent. They all had their own materials to work from, books that they didn't share with others during silent reading time, create their own ideas, and their desks pushed apart from each other. Simply put, everything was structuralized. Was this form of classroom management completely beneficial to the L2 learners? In the Toohey's article it states, "Lave and Wenger (1991) write that “learning is an integral and inseparable aspect of social practice” (p. 31)." (80.) I feel the emphasis on individuality is in fact, the complete opposite of what this statement is making. Ms. Jones' intentions are well, but when children collaborate and share, they are not burning language bridges, but rather building them. Acquistion comes with practice and from others. Yes, other factors such as culture play a role, but it all wraps back to the idea of how community and communication are vital in SLA.
I would just like to also make a rather obvious statement and say that in foreign language classrooms, teachers do not emphasis individuality. They encourage group work, talking about your weekend, sharing books and notes, and sitting together to practice and internalize the language.
Can you imagine how boring learning a foreign language would be individually? We must encourage our students to learn fom each other, whether regarding class information or just life in general. "Burning language bridges instead of building them" - I like that visual.
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine as a seven year old being forced to sit in a desk, surrounded by students who didn't speak the same language, told to keep quiet and work individually. I do agree with you, Ms. Jones had good intentions, but with such young children, learning language needs to be engaging and fun. The students should be encouraged to share and speak, not discouraged, or it could lead to problems in the future. I completely agree with you!
ReplyDelete"I can't even imagine as a seven year old being forced to sit in a desk, "
ReplyDeletehahah I agree with that! I said in my blog that I would have the students put their desks in a circle to allow space for more activity in the middle of the room, and to allow for more interaction and group work.
I feel that working in groups in a classroom such as this one is necessary. Not only is it good for the ESL students to get that interaction with others, but it is almost necessary to learn from each other as Kerrie said!