Week 12

For week 12, our reading came from McKay and Bokhorst-Heng. We were to read both chapters two and three. What stood out the most to me when going through and reading, were the different social contexts in which English is learned as an international language. English learning can be viewed as concentric circles, in which there is the Inner Circle; English is the primary language of the country, the Outer Circle; in which English is a second language in a multilingual country, and the Expanding Circle; in which English is studied as a foreign language. I find the concept of these circles very intriguing as well as a great way to really capture and describe the way English is viewed as when spread about the world and is constantly changing. This constant changing makes the differences between these circles more permeable, which I think is a good thing because when it comes to EIL learning, change is always a good thing.

Another point that was made in this chapter was the idea of examining identity of second language learners and how it aids in second language acquisition. I believe that in order for a student to successfully acquire a second language, we as future teachers must understand once again the importance of the identity of the language learner. Where they come from, who they are and what they're ideologies are will all play an important part in their acquisition of a second language. If we sit there and criticize our students for not understand a particular concept in the English language, how are we allowed to expect them to be encouraged to continue or put forth their best effort. If we put down English language learners and put down their own personal cultures how can we expect them to want to learn the language and more about the culture they've moved into? As stated in the book, "classrooms are becoming increasingly heterogenous in language and culture, it is important to know that dynamics, the potential, and the implication of popular culture in such classrooms, not only for the students' language and subject matter learning, but for their identities as individuals in societies which are new to many of them" (page38).

From Chapter 3, the concept of diglossia caught my attention the most. Diglossic multilingualism  is when a many L2 speakers of English of bilingual or multilingual contexts won't use English as the dominant language in all situations of communication. An example of these would be my mom. My mom's NL or L1 is Spanish and she doesn't always speak English even though she can speak it a proficiency level.  She speaks a lot of Spanish and even when she knows that someone she comes in contact with does indeed speak Spanish as well, she will communicate with them in Spanish over English. Diglossia is when speakers have two or more languages in their repertoire and choice of which language to use is dependent on their linguistic norms, values, and practices. This applies to the use of H-language over L-language and vice versa because this is dependent on the formality of the situation. I think this is a very important concept to remember as a future educator.