Hello all,
There are a handful of articles that do not have questions. If you decide to read a question that falls within this description, please consider formulating/creating a question for your classmates. Questions will fulfill the the blog entry requirement. Contiguously, if you answer a question created by one of your classmates, this too fulfills the blog entry requirement. Lastly, remember that you only have to complete 10 blog entries by the end of the semester; consequently, there are 5 weeks during the semester where you may skip posting blog entries altogether.
In “I Helped My Mom, and It Helped Me: Translating the skills of Language Brokers into Improved standardized Test Scores” a team of researchers explore immigrant youth’s experience as language “brokers” and bilingual students. The driving question behind their research is how students’ translating tasks influence their academic success. The study used standardized test scores as a marker of academic achievement and compared language broker and non-broker scores on English and math proficiency tests in order to assess any differences in the skill sets of the two groups. According to researchers, the results of these tests illustrate the academic benefits of “paraphrasing” and language brokering because students who engaged in regular translating/language brokering at home scored higher in both of the tested subjects.
ReplyDeleteThe article makes the point that little research and/or time has been given to understanding the experience of student “para-phrasers” and how such an experience shapes the educational process. Has little research been conducted because we don’t value bilingual education generally? How can schools accommodate or promote bilingual education if those in power don’t value it? Are educators aware of studies like this and if so, do they use the results to enact positive change or support bilingual educational programs?
question: are we supposed to write blog entries for the readings from the following week? So, is the blog entry due Sunday night a blog on readings from the following tuesday and thursday? Or is it on readings from the previous tuesday and thursday?
ReplyDeleteI believe Laqshya Taneja and Tina Chen already did great job on summarizing the article, "Life in the Radical Middle: A Personal Apology for a Balanced View of Reading" and sharing their point of view on what it means to be the radical middle. So, I would like to pose some questions rather than to re-summarize the article.
ReplyDelete1. The author said “I’m pretty sure that I am somewhere in the middle because colleagues in neither the whole language nor the new phonics crowd seem to accept my position”. Does being rejected by both the whole language colleagues and the new phonics colleagues self-authenticate him as a radical middle? Why do you think it does/doesn’t?
2. One of the premises the author states was that the reading process of readers in terms of interactive model which is fundamentally reader dominates versus text dominate changes continuously. Do you find this position applicable to you? If you can/can’t find, please give detailed example of when text dominates you or when you dominate text.
3. Another premise the author designates was that reading occurs as both a fundamentally individual process and a social process influenced by a wide range of social and cultural factors. In YOUR case, which process is more likely to shape your reading?
4. The reason why the author thought the job of phonics is not completed until a reader finds joy, inspiration, knowledge, or fault in a text was that the point of any skill instruction is whether it improves their understanding and, ultimately, their knowledge base. Phonics is a method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with symbols in an alphabetic writing system. We also learned that teaching is interaction between students and teachers from the class. With regard of the definition of phonics and interaction of teaching, can you come across relationship between the goal of phonics and a reader finding joy, inspiration, knowledge, or fault?
Three interesting questions were posed by Sasha Rasmussen for the Dorner case study—
ReplyDeleteFirst: has little research been conducted because we don’t value bilingual education generally? I do not think this is true. Educators have, for some time, been trying to conclude what effect a bilingual education can have on a child’s performance in school. It is just so difficult to factor in so many bicultural and familial aspects into a study. The authors (Dorner, Orellana, and Li-Grining) discuss past research and theories on language brokers/ “para-phrasers.” Some have concluded that translating for family leads to negative stress for some groups (within the social context). Meanwhile, other researchers have found bilingual interpreters to “develop greater metalinguistic awareness than do monolinguals.” The conducted study found a significant increase in standardized reading test scores of children considered active language brokers. However, the extent of a child’s bilingual education was a variable that could have led to increased test scores, but was not fully accounted for in this study. Understanding bilingual education has been confounding for researchers, and this remains an important question to consider in education.
Next: how can schools accommodate or promote bilingual education if those in power don’t value it? Anzaldua says in her article that Anglos and those in power want to “get rid of [their] accents” and their cultural way of speaking. It is not always easy to speak Spanish or a bilingual language in school, but I believe it is becoming more common. After all, foreign language is a requirement for a four-year university. Schools should, however, become more accepting of different traditions, heritages, and dialects by promoting, for example, a cultural share-and-tell or by accommodating the importance of learning numbers and basic skills in many languages besides just English.
Lastly: are educators aware of studies like this and if so, do they use the results to enact positive change or support bilingual educational programs? I do know that doctors are responsible for keeping track of new medical research and additions to the practice of medicine. They have to incorporate the newest scientific knowledge in order to best treat their patients. Educators are also responsible for learning about new educational techniques and the results of groundbreaking studies that can positively influence their teaching. Learning about this case study should help teachers better connect with the personal and familial lives of the students (similar to Moll’s argument). I, personally, was amazed to discover that helping to translate for one’s family can help expand one’s ability to learn metalinguistically in the classroom.
Additional Questions:
ReplyDelete• How can schools ensure that immigrant students understand the importance of their own culture and how can these students foster a new sense of culture?
• Do you think the American canon inhibits or limits literacy? How so and in what ways? What can educators do to ensure that their lesson plans are culture sensitive?
• Are educators responsible for teaching beyond the classroom? How can the student-teacher asymmetrical power relation be more equitable? Do you see this occurring over-time?