Week 8

This weeks reading really caught my attention in regards to what images are used in Bilingual textbooks. When looking back on the reading, the article by Taylor specifically got me interested. I never really thought about how certain stereotypes, cultures, or people were portrayed in the texts in which ELL and EFL students are reading. Cosette Taylor-Mendes provided us with the article, "Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language" in which the researcher was particularly interested in how the EFL from Sao Paolo, Brazil look at race and culture.

I was really caught off guard when I read about how there were certain books that portrayed white Americans as rich and well off, while African Americans or other minority types were portrayed as poor or uneducated. Because I, personally, have never learned English as a foreign language in a foreign country, I have no idea nor any experience with the textbooks used in this particular area of study. I have never really thought about what kinds of misconceptions foreigners may already have of Americans and America, mostly due to what they are portrayed as in the textbooks they are using on a daily basis to study from. This really interests me in maybe including a question regarding EFL textbooks and asking my dad when doing the interview for our cultural analysis. I am interested to see what kind of portrayals were made in his textbooks when studying English, or in any textbook for that matter. I am interested to know what his outlook of American was before coming to the States, and how it can relate to other English Language learners we may come across in our lives or our classrooms. From what I can remember my father telling me regarding other races, it's always been a negative outlook and it really upsets me knowing this. This is something I want to change.