Learning Log Week 4

In Norton’s article “Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning” I became more aware of how language learners are viewed by SLA theorists. I found both of these views to be very black and white, with little acceptance of the other possible variables in language acquisition. That is why I really enjoyed Norton’s viewpoint in this article. She discussed how motivation of the learner is not fixed, but it may vary and must be looked at in the context of social relationships. I believe you need to be in a discourse in which you feel comfortable enough to practice the L2. If I were in the same situation as Eva in the article, who was shut down by an authoritative colleague, I would also feel fearful to engage in more English practice. Eva also was silenced when Canadians commented on her accent and this is actually one of my greatest fears in my process of learning Spanish. I believe I have a deep understanding and proficiency in the language, but due to my inability to use a native accent, I always fear the embarrassment of my flaws being pointed out. Reflecting on this, I believe creating a safe classroom environment is essential to the learning process. I hope to make my students feel confident enough to practice, even though mistakes will be made, because it will just facilitate deeper learning. As Norton concluded, we should help language learners claim the right to speak outside of the classroom and be confident, which could be done through classroom-based social research. I first found this idea of the students as ethnographers to be too difficult to achieve, but then I opened my perspective on it. It would actually be great to have students reflect on their daily conflicts and then see how we can use and learn English skills to empower ourselves and solve these problems with the language.

            While reading the other article by Norton, “Language and Identity,” I was able to make many educational connections. I am currently in a Reading Literacy course in which we are learning many concepts similar to Norton’s conclusions about pedagogy. She discussed how an effective teacher could incorporate multimodal texts into his or her lessons, such as videos, drawing, photography, or drama. I believe this would be a great way to help students build on their English comprehension and production. Through additional modes of instruction, students can work on producing their own meaning of English and use it for communicative and practical skills. I think this strategy towards teaching would also help appeal to different learning styles and diverse social identities. The ESL students also would be confronted with different types of literacy that they may face outside of the classroom setting, which could make them feel more comfortable. I was thinking of the many different ways that language learners would be faced with English, such as websites, books, magazines, the radio, and TV, and all of these require different comprehension skills. It would be helpful if we incorporated these into class, similar to how Victoria mentioned demonstrating culture through YouTube videos, so that it can help students adjust to the more practical side of the language. Since the readings focused on how all students have different identities, this could be a great way to have them express their unique qualities.