Thanks to my readings and some ideas randomly coming to me, I have decided to change my paper topic to one that specifically deals with identity of the ESL learner as it relates to reading. What role does identity play in learning to read in a second language? How can the teachers in the K-12 context implement texts that are culturally relevant to their students in order to promote comprehension and fluency? Can the act of reading these authentic texts help their language acquisition, as well?
Block, David. “The Rise of Identity in SLA Research, Post Firth and Wagner (1997).” The
Modern Language Journal. 91. Focus Issue (2007): 863-876.
Block starts and bases his article on the 1997 article of Firth and Wagner, written ten years before the publication of his own article, and their description of they saw as the narrow view of identity that underlay most second language research at that time: “The fact that NS [native speaker] or NNS [nonnative speaker] is only one identity from a multitude of social identities […] is, it seems fair to conclude, a nonissue in SLA. For the SLA researcher, only one identity really matters, and in equal measures throughout the duration of the encounter being studied” (863). Since that article by Firth and Wagner, there has been an increase in the publications based on the assumption that L2 learning and identity are, in fact, interrelated (a common theme that runs through many of my chosen sources here, which is why I chose this article specifically focused on just identity research in order to get more of a background on this subject). A few other issues from this article are especially pertinent to my paper topic. First, Block writes that “when individuals migrate from one geographic or sociocultural context to another, their sense of who they are transformed and recreated” (869). One’s identity is never fixed, but fragmented and contested in nature; there may be struggle and destabilization when this change in environment occurs (864). For English Language Learners in K-12 classrooms here, that identity struggle likely takes place every day, as they wonder where they fit in in this new environment. Also, this article mentions other sources of power relations that could affect individuals and their l2 identities in the classroom; from economic and cultural status to social and symbolic capital (such as prestige and fame), these all help cause an internal identity struggle for individuals.
Devitt, Sean. “Interacting with Authentic Texts: Multilayered Processes.” The Modern
Language Journal. 81. 4 (1997): 457-469.
In this article, Devitt discusses reading processes as potential catalysts for second language acquisition; most literature on L2 acquisition, the author notes, does not consider the involvement of reading. He links the two fields of L2 input/interaction research and L2 reading “in a way that enables the insights from each to fertilize the other” (459). The article concentrates on interaction studies within second language acquisition studies, noting many interpersonal interactions with SLA “can be made with equal force for reading,” that is, by looking at the interaction between the reader and the text—and interesting way to look at interaction if I might add (457). Within this interaction between the reader and the text, emphasis is placed on making sure that those said texts are authentic L2 texts. As Krashen noted in his Monitor Theory, reading authentic texts provides the comprehensible input needed for acquisition. These authentic texts can be items such as newspapers—or perhaps text that relate back to the student’s culture and identity. I feel that this article is relevant to my research because it discusses the concept of identity in relation to the literacy practice of reading, asking the interesting question of whether reading can fuel language acquisition itself.
Leeman, Jennifer, and Lisa Rabin. “Reading Language: Critical Perspectives for the
Literature Classroom.” Hispania. 90. 2 (2007): 304-315
This theoretical article looks at what the authors say is a lack of critical perspectives on language. Focused in postsecondary language classrooms, the authors write that there is a movement in the foreign language department to create literacy-based program reform and, in turn, to understand the cultural and historical contexts of the texts themselves. Instead of keeping a split between the “language” courses and the “content” courses, critical language educators stress the role of language in the production of knowledge, culture, and identity; here this language and all that comes with it would be permeating from the literature being read in those “content” classrooms. Thus, a pedagogy involving this critical language awareness (CLA) would be an approach to educational research and practice that emphasized education in disseminating social and political ideologies, working with students to examine various hierarches arising from those structures. Within this CLA approach, pedagogy can be grounded in students’ lived realities, promoting critical engagement in shaping social worlds and helping students consider the effect of language ideologies on subordinated groups. These students can also reflect on their own experiences learning to read and write in their L1 or L2 languages. They can understand that “standard” language varieties are inevitably assigned greater moral and intelligence worth than other linguistic varieties simply because it is that standard, dominant dialect.
While this article focuses on postsecondary foreign language classrooms, I find much that can transfer into teaching reading to ESL students at the secondary level. These ESL students can gain a lot by having a curriculum that is geared toward not only helping them gain literacy but allowing them to consider their own identities within the words. I wonder about reading instruction taught with no context; perhaps, when students are given the chance to connect with literature at a personal level, they would be more successful in reading English.
Mosenthal, Jim, Marjorie Lipson, Susan Torncello, Barbara Russ, and Jane Mekkelson.
“Contexts and Practices of Six Schools Successful in Obtaining Reading Achievement.”
The Elementary School Journal. 104. 5 (June 2010): 343-361.
The researchers, in this study, examined the contexts and practices of nine Vermont schools, six whose students met or exceeded the standards set for performance on statewide readings tests and three whose students did not. These schools were not upper-class, well-to-do schools, but rather urban schools with diverse populations. In these contexts, the researchers wanted to know 1. What practices and school factors promoted increased student performance in reading? and 2. Do factors that influence success and promote excellent performance vary among successful schools? The researchers wrote that “an analysis of fifty years of research suggests that the different kinds of classroom instruction and climate had nearly as much impact on learning as the student aptitude categories” (Mosenthal 345). The reseachers found factors common to all of the successful schools, including a commitment to literacy that had been in place for eight to ten years, a focus on the school community, knowledgeable teachers able to articulate their work, and ample opportunity for students to read and discuss books. I find the use of culturally-responsive instruction to be especially intriguing, those course materials that can help connect to a student’s identity, along with one of the conclusions that there is no evidence that low-socioeconomic schools cannot achieve success in reading with the right motivation from the adult support group around the students.
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