Certainly very true experiences, Cheryl.
Jim Cummins wrote about the differences between CALP (cognitive academic
language proficiency--school literacy skills) and BICS (basic interpersonal
communication skills) in the bilingual education literature. Many new
immigrant children, according to Cummins, pick up BICS relatively quickly
in 2-3 years, but it takes much longer (7-8 years) to master CALP. Cummins
writes that many ESL or mainstream teachers might not be aware of the
difficulties encountered by immigrant children because their oral fluency
might have given their teachers the impression that they no longer need
help with their CALP.
Of course, we might have also heard of the famous converse example of
Joseph Conrad.
Given limited time and resources in the schooling system, selection of the
important areas to help our students to gain proficiency in will be an
important strategy; e.g., students in some societies need to fulfill
traditional exam requirements to enter the university and so teachers drill
them in mechanical language exercises to gain high scores in those exams
(e.g., in Mainland China). In other societies, we may find other kinds of
symbolic capital required in the society's gate-keeping, social selection
mechanisms. That's why pedagogies must be culturally sensitive and yet
without falling into the trap of cultural relativism (i.e., they can and
need to be changed). Stereotyping different cultures' learning styles is
one trap, and constructing universal pedagogies is another trap. I would
argue for developing LOCAL, CRITICAL pedagogies. I co-authored a recent
article speaking to that (Lin, Angel & Luk, Jasmine: "Beyond progressive
liberalism and cultural relativism--Towards sociohistorically situated,
critical postmodernist perspectives in classroom studies", Canadian Modern
Language Review, December 2002).
Best,
Angel
At 11:12 AM 4/21/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>This has been an interesting discussion and I want to thank everyone for
>their comments. My own experience with trying to learn another language
>has netted me a few spoken words in several languages; and I can read
>French and Spanish far better (and this is not what I would call good by
>any stretch of the imagination) than I can speak either. In fact, I don't
>admit to speaking another language because my skills are so limited.
>
>I have worked with several people for whom English was a second or third
>language to edit their written work for publication. I have been
>fascinated by the differences that I observed in comparing their casual
>speech and writing and their academic/professional language skills. I have
>often wondered how one could write professionally so much better than
>speak, or how their spoken English was more grammatically correct than the
>written. From this discussion I have a better understanding that learning
>styles, the type of learning environment, and the various degrees of
>motivation of the learner all impact on the acquisition and use of another
>language.
>
>Just yesterday I was having a similar discussion with my friend who is
>foreign language dept head at her high school. She wants to maximize the
>students' experience and learning by capitalizing on the strengths of her
>teachers - one is excellent in grammar, another in getting the students to
>speak out loud, one in designing experiences (drama, cooking, poetry,
>etc.), and so on.
>
>I shared with her this discussion and she intends to do some more
>research. She was very encouraged to know that there is a body of work out
>there that is different from what she has been exposed to previously.
>
>Thanks again for the discussion of such an interesting topic. Cheryl
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