Week 11

This chapter focuses on how and why the use of English has spread throughout the United States and the other countries around the world and how it has affected the use of English and other languages. Two terms that affect the use of language are forced language and voluntary language. Forced language happens when populations have to learn the language of the conqueror, whereas voluntary language is when people acquire another language for the benefits they believe that they will acquire from learning this new language. Both of these types of shifts have contributed to the widespread growth of English (Nettle and Romaine 2000). I believe that the voluntary language goes hand in hand with globalization because people have a desire to learn English because of the benefits they will receive from it. There are some people that see globalization as a positive effect on people however there are also people that believe that globalization can have a negative effect on people. Because of globalization, there is a need to have one dominant language that everyone can communicate with. This language is English. Some people view the spread of English as leading to a homogenization of world culture. For those that are proponents of the homogenization and globalization, they believe that having one dominant language will make it easier to communicate with people of various parts of the world. People that are against it believe that homogenization is a negative aspect of globalization, “reflecting imperialism and colonization and leading to the loss of other languages,” (Nettle and Romaine 2000). The reason for which colonialism and colonization are embedded in globalization is because according to Pennycook, they are key factors that played a role in the spread of English. “Colonialism fueled a discourse of the insider and outsider, or the Self and the Other, in which the native Other was often portrayed as “backward, dirty, primitive, depraved, childlike, feminine and so forth” while colonializers, their language, culture, and political structures were seen as “advanced, superior, modern, civilized, masculine, and so forth.” This lead to the use of more native speaking teachers to teach English in the classroom. The negative to this was that people could lose their first language in hopes to trying to acquire their second language.

I believe that globalization has both a negative and positive affect on peoples lives. Just as in the examples that were given in the chapter, there are many people from other countries that are focusing on learning English because they believe what they read in narratives, or see in the media. They believe that learning and knowing English will allow them to progress in their education and economically speaking as well. But to what cost? Some people focus so much on English that they forget their first language altogether that can eventually result in the loss of their culture. As a future teacher, I think that it is important to focus on both languages and not just eliminate the first language altogether. With the loss of language, comes the inability for the students to speak with their elder family members, which can cause them to miss out on learning about their culture, family traditions and identity. Instead, it is important to focus on both languages and not saying that one culture is more important than the other.   

Week 8

This article was about a study done in Brazil to see how the various images in EFL textbooks can shape the way students and even teachers portrayed their thoughts about foreign language culture. These texts had a heavy content of predominantly white people portraying the dominant society, whereas minorities would be represented in a way that makes them look inferior or just not that well off as white people. Furthermore, the textbooks mostly represent the men being more dominant than women.

After looking at a picture, Marcio, one of the participants, said “This picture where there is a man and a woman, a couple ... probably they have a lot of money or a good position because it's a kind of picture that only who has money want to have, okay: the man standing behind the woman and using a suit and tie. And I don’t like this kind of picture, really. Probably one day if I will be very, very rich I will not take one of these pictures. But I think they represent power; money and status,” (Taylor 74).

In the study, participants voiced their opinion on how these pictures helped them construct a view of how America was like. “More specifically, the images equated American culture with economic and social success by including pictures of popular or successful social, business, or political figures that the students had labeled as American, although in, a few cases, the person(s) in the image weren’t always American,” (Taylor 73). Furthermore, Fatima, one of the participants, stated that the textbooks made it seem as if the United States was a places where everything is beautiful. She continued by saying that she had never read a text that mentioned violence in America. “When the books want to show violence, they show Afghanistan, show the war for example ... to me, it's ridiculous, this,” (Taylor 73).

I think that this article brought up awareness of the fact that the images and even some of the content within textbooks can be stereotypical and can construct certain views in the minds of the readers. Children start reading and watching movies at a young age and they learn what they see. If everything they see in the media and within their books has a constant pattern of, for example, white people are rich and minorities are mostly poor or not that well off then, then students will grow up having that same mentality. It is up to parents and teachers to discuss race and gender with children from the get go so that they do not grow up believing in these stereotypes. As a future teacher I will make sure to explain and discuss race in my classroom. I would try to find multicultural books that step outside of the ordinary, along with movies that do not always portray white people as the dominant culture, rather find ones that do have minorities in the lead dominant role. Another reason I think that this is important to do is because students that are not white could possibly feel left out or automatically placed into a stereotypical group because of the color of their skin or what they look like. I would stress to my students that everyone is equal regardless of color and that everyone has the same right to be a dominant role figure and live a “rich” lifestyle. I would do this by giving them examples of key leaders that are minorities and that have made a difference locally within the community and globally.