3/25 Weekly Post-Race and Stereotypes

In Kuma’s article on cultural stereotypes, stereotypes of Asians are talked about.  The author talks about how people from so many different countries and cultures are all thrown into this category of “Asian”.  This made me think a lot about how a lot of people will refer to people of Latin decent as “Spanish”.  They say things to me like,”oh, you’re Spanish!”.  I always reply,”no, I’m Mexican”, and they say that it’s the same thing.  This drives me nuts.  It is not the same thing.  People from Spain are from an entirely different continent.  Although there may be Spanish influence in Mexico, Mexican and Spanish are not the same thing.  Maybe I am being a little picky or I shouldn’t let it bother me so much, but I don’t like how people just throw around people’s heritage and treat it so carelessly.  I was also surprised to see the three stereotypes about Asians.  I was surprised because I wouldn’t have guessed that those would be the stereotypes people would come up with about Asians.  It is absolutely not okay for teachers to make or even take into consideration these stereotypes.  One thing that is very important to me as a teacher of a diverse population of students is that teachers do not make generalizations or stereotypes and really get to know their students on a personal level.

I was also intrigued by Kubata’s discussion on the social construction of race and how we should question whether the term race should be used as a category for scholarly investigation and discussion.  This really intrigued me and got me thinking about the term race.  There are so many different combinations of race and people are made up of so many different things.  So, should we be using the term race?  Are we reinforcing these socially constructed definitions of race?  What is that teaching people?  Could this lead to racism?  I’m not really sure what to think about this but it has really got me thinking.  Part of me thinks that it is a historical term and that it might be time to steer away from the word race.

Week 7 Textbook Analysis

Looking at textbooks through a critical lens is very important for teachers of a diverse population of   students.  Teachers must ask themselves what the message of the book is.  Who is pictured as inferior/superior?  What will students take away from the book?  Picking a textbook is so much more than just finding something that teaches the language or culture well.  Personally, I know that I don’t want to send the message to my students that American culture is superior or better than their culture.  It is very important to me that my students feel comfortable in their own skin and own who they are and where they come from.  Every student should have that sense of pride.  However, in a country that is so self-absorbed, it can be hard for students to maintain that pride and sense of identity.  It is east for ESL students to get caught up in American culture and want to “fit in” or be accepted by their peers.  So, I know it is part of my job to pay attention to what my textbooks might be telling my students.

I also enjoyed Hinkle’s chapter on interactional competence in another language.  I found this interesting because I can relate it to my learning of Spanish.  One of the practices talked about was “guided discovery”.  I liked this practice because I know it was helpful for me in my acquisition of Spanish.  I think it is important to give students opportunities to discuss something they’re interested in because they will feel motivated and more confident.  In my Spanish class this semester we had a “expert day” assignment.  Each student chose something they felt they were an expert at or about and presented to the class.  We had time to research and learn the vocabulary if we didn’t already know.  I thought it was a very helpful exercise.