Blog 6

Source 1: Does Code Switching Work for Young Children? A Case Study of English Language Learners

Anselmko, Geena, and Mohogany Williams. "Does Code Switching Work for Young Children? A Case Study of English Language Learners." Proceedings of the National Conference of Undergraduate Research 2012 (2012): n. pag. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

The pre and post scores taken before and after the use of code switching between English and Spanish in the Elementary classroom showed overall improvement in fluency, Pronunciation, grammar, and expression. Overall, this study showed that the code switching technique, when used in the classroom, supports young English learners who are coming from a Hispanic background. It is very important that teachers are prepared to teach English learners.

-         - Songs on CD

-         - Charts written in English and Spanish

-         - Books with CDs in English and Spanish (helps with words and sounds)

-          -Variety of instructional activities

Source 2: Code switching versus borrowing in Bilingual Children

Centeno, Olena. "Code-Switching vs. Borrowing in Bilingual Children." Bilingual Kids Rock. Bilingual Kids, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

When a child starts switching between languages mid-sentence it has been mischaracterized as “confusion”. According to pop culture and academic literature, mixing languages is bad and this is also believed by some teachers. Teachers and “old-fashioned critics” are wrong. It is a positive sign of development in bilingual learners.

Two types of mixing languages:

-         - Code switching

-         - Borrowing

Code switching: Child or adult switches between two languages in the same sentence. (both with fluency). They are thinking bilingually and actively using both languages to better express themselves. This is done more out of comfort than out of confusion or excitement. A child is less likely to code switch around someone who they do not feel comfortable around or that would not recognize both languages. For example, going to a monolingual school, a child is much more likely to code-switch at home than at school where they would be much less understood.

Borrowing or Mixing Languages: Using one language primarily and mixing in occasional words from another. The child speaks one primary language and the vocab from the other is altered to fit into their primary language. (Usually when the child doesn’t know the word they want to use in the language that they are using but they know it in another language. While some think this shows the child’s lack of intelligence, it really shows that they are bright enough to think of the best way they can to express a specific word; it is simply in another language.

What to do about code switching: It’s good that a child is using both languages because that is the point of having a bilingual child that can speak more than one language. It does not mean they don’t know the difference between the two languages; however, it may be a problem when a child speaks two languages to someone who would not understand them both. [conjunctive adverb]

In my pattern of the week I used a conjunctive adverb to bring to points together. There is a semi-colon before the however to put a stop to the first statement and a comma after the however to allow the rest of the statement to flow. I chose to experiment with this pattern because I thought that it would be a good way to bring similar statements together while creating a slight emphasis on the second part. I think that I use conjunctive adverbs occasionally but it isn’t usually intentional. If I start to push them into my writing more then it could create more emphasis and variety in my writing. 

Blog 5b

The topic that I am focusing on is how the education of an English Language Learner compares to that of a student who learned English as a first language.

 Morrow, Alyse, Brian A. Goldstein, Amanda Gilhool, and Johanne Paradis. "Phonological Skills in English Language Learners." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 45.1 (n.d.): 26-39. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

 Rojas, Raul, and Aquiles Iglesias. "The Language Growth of Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners." Child Development 84.2 (n.d.): 630-46. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

 Anzaldua, Gloria E. "How To Tame a Wild Tongue." Chicana Cultural Theory. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 75-86. Print. 

Blog 5

It can be difficult to understand what it is like for someone who is trying to adjust to one culture when they have lived their life in another one. Gloria Anzaldua captures this experience completely in her excerpt titled How to Tame a Wild tongue. Anzaldua starts off her writing by explaining how all throughout her time of taking classes she was trying to change herself- accent and all. She explains that things can be so different from one place to another. The first time she heard the word “nosotras” spoken by a Puerto Rican, it sounded unfamiliar. This is the female version of the commonly used Spanish word “nosotros”. For Anzaldua, this felt like she had been taken from the freedom of being a woman. Somewhere down the line, people slowly stopped using the female version of this word and began to group everyone into one category—male. She writes about how complex all of the different languages are and even different versions of each language. As she grew up, she spoke different languages with simply the different people she would see in her everyday life. With her sister, she often spoke what they called tex-mex; switching back and forth between Spanish and English. [a colon to further explain what tex-mex is]. Throughout the years, Spanish has consistently changed from dropping the beginning or end of a word to combining two words to create something that sounds completely different. The author emphasizes how horrible the feeling was to be talked down to for the language she spoke. Home was somewhere that she never wanted to be ashamed of. Thinking about her favorite movies, music, and food gave her comfort. To Anzaldua, being Mexican is a state of soul and nothing can take that away.

In the beginning of the story, Anzaldua uses the parenthetical dash multiple times. For example, “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess—that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” ( 1). In this case, she is using it to emphasize the point of what happened is she was caught speaking Spanish. Although this does not need to be a dash, it is made into a stronger point with it. The author then uses both semi colons and a comma in a sentence. This allows her to list some points while still keeping the dependent clause separated at the end. The sentence was, “For a people who are neither Spanish not live in a country in which Spanish is the first language; for a people who live in a country in which English is the reigning tongue but who are not Anglo; for a people who cannot entirely identify with either standard Spanish not standard English, what recourse is left to them but to create their own language?” (Anzaldua, 3).

This story is extremely strong. She, like many others, has been mistreated for someone that is a part of her. As we looked at in class, this is happening to so many people everywhere. I think some students will not stick up for their language and culture out of fear. In this example, especially at the end, the author explains very strongly how she feels about her culture. Everyone deserves to have this kind of passion for their culture or background but sometimes they aren’t given the chance. In my classroom, I plan to put an emphasis on sharing each individual’s culture and making sure everyone is proud of it. Since I will be teaching Elementary Education, this will give them a good basis of pride to start off with while they are still young. In my research project, I want to look deeper into how  this has been affecting people throughout history. I’m curious if it has gotten better or worse and what people are doing to help. 

Change is inevitable. Throughout all of history, languages have been pushed together and pulled apart from each other to form all of the different languages that we have today. English specifically was one of the languages to branch off from Latin. As different people learn English, different twists are put on the language. In the article The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued, Canagarajah defines Metropolitan Englishes as, “spoken by the communities that traditionally claimed ownership over the language in England, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand”. He also says that, “…World Englishes are rule governed, with well established norms and communicative functions suitable for their new environment”. Communities take the English language and turn it into their World English by speaking it in the most appropriate way for their community setting. Canagarajah continues to speak about how although English is unique to different communities everywhere, we are still required to teach and learn it as Standard English. The argument is surfaced that English in literature and education should be changed because of the social and communitive diversity in the language. English is becoming a language spoken mostly by multilingual individuals. Canagarajah -acknowledging this- believes that multilingual speakers will soon be able to challenge these standards of education. [Asides set off by dashes]. He further believes that all Englishes should enjoy the same status and that anyone who grew up speaking any of these Englishes could be considered a native speaker. The teaching of solely Standard English inside of schools creates a barrier between a student’s life inside and outside of the classroom. The schools don’t include the information that students should be learning on all of the different diversities. When their educations at school don’t relate to their home lives, they become much more disinterested with school as a whole. Canagarajah, although he thinks it’s important to find a solution to the basic classroom education, realizes that it isn’t as simple as it seems to let go of only teaching the Standard English style. [Complex sentence, independent clause and dependent clause joined by a subordinating conjunction]. He believes that by not focusing only on a target language and by learning to balance the different language communities, we can create one large relatable community. Instead of finding errors in students' English, we should focus on finding reasoning behind what they say and connect that to what they need to learn. 

Reading this article, I learned how complex the English language really is. I learned that the way it is taught in schools really does inhibit students and how they connect their education to their life at home. It’s important to understand how each individual student learns English and what they previously know before trying to teach them anything new. Connecting what they already know to new information will help them to better understand it. Although this is very important for students in middle school/high school classrooms, it is important for younger students as well. I plan to teach elementary school students. Teaching students English at such a young age means they have less background on the language. I will be playing a large part in creating their background. I think that this is extremely important because this gives me (their educator) the opportunity to allow them to incorporate their English into the standard English that is required to be on the board. [an aside set off by parenthesis]. 

 Canagarajah, A. Suresh. "The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued." (2015): 587-94. JSTOR. Web.