Class reflection Feb 2 - Culture's fun

Today's class focused on an issue which, i think, is interesting to most English language teachers, especially to Non-native English teachers who teach in the EFL setting.

Thea and Rachel started off with a very interesting question that somehow surprised them in the reading. I was also puzzled at first when reading what the book stated about how native students would feel when someone (especially non-native students) borrows their notes. Even though i myself have never actually borrowed notes from my classmates since i came to study here, i wouldn't think they will be reluctant to lend me their notes if i ever ask them, and perhaps that was also why Rachel and Thea found it somewhat "shocking". In my opinion, even though the writer is American himself and as a highly educated person what he wrote about the American culture is mostly reliable, his viewpoints do not represent those of all Americans, and this was clearly shown in class today. I believe any ESL learners who come across the article and read this cultural note would never dare to ask their American classmates for the notes, while the issue might not be as serious as the author said. This brings it home to me that it always helps to be cautious when making judgements about any particular cultural issues. And generalizations, even though they're necessary in creating a significant initial idea of a culture, should be kept in moderation. This is what language teachers should always keep in mind when learning about the L2 culture.

The presentation went on really well as the two presenters got us to talk about more culture-related issues such as cultural differences in speaking and writing between L1 and L2. The idea which was highlighted was that non-native speakers may use inappropriate language behaviors that they themselves don't even notice. According to my experience, inappropriateness in language use here not only refers to speakers being unintentionally impolite when using the target language, but also to the fact that some may be too polite and use very formal language in casual contexts. This was made clear in the following class discussion about the way foreign students addressing professors in the US. The issue of appropriateness, therefore, should be viewed from two ends and deserves considerable attention on the part of language teachers.

The following discussion about cultural differences was very interesting. Since everyone in the class has had some encounters with cultural differences in some way, it was very nice to listen to everyone sharing different stories. However, i think it would help if we could go into more details about how the language teacher goes about teaching culture in the language classroom, as inspired and suggested in the book.

The next part of working in groups and picking an approach to design a rough unit plan was intriguing as well. Chris, Stephanie and I chose Experiential as our approach and we had a lot of fun creating a week-long lesson plan for students to learn about fundamental astronomy through a field trip to the planetarium. Though we misunderstood the instruction a little bit and made a week-long instead of a month-long unit plan, the activity did give me an idea of how to create an actual unit plan later.

Overall, today's class was fun (and short :D) and apart from the professional knowledge, i walked out of class learning more about the culture of the language i am learning. "Groundhog day", "super bowl", "lemon stands" - all these culture-specific terms, i believe, will stay with me for a good long time in my teaching and learning life.