RJA 9: MLA-Style Annotated Bibliography

Dicker, Susan. Languages in America: A Pluralist View. 2nd. Multilingual Matters LTD, 2003. 298-302. Print./Susan Dicker expresses her view of what an America where several languages besides just English are spoken would look like.  She describes all the benefits that would come with becoming a multilingual nation economically, socially, and culturally./

Kim, James. "Japanese Education vs. Amerecan Edukashun." Eserver. n. page. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. <http://eserver.org/courses/fall95/76-100g/papers/kim/default.html>./This journal talked about differences in the Japanese educational system and ours.  It talked about the good and the bad, e.g. they don’t have native speaking teachers but have government-sponsored programs in place to increase the number of English speakers and English proficiency across the country./

Lam, Agnes. Language Education in China: Policy and Experience from 1949. Aberdeen: Hong Kong University Press, 2005. 186. Print./This book describes the language education system in China while comparing it to ours.  It talks about the difference in motivation among students to learn languages, and the methods used to teach.  It focuses primarily on English, as that is the most widely studied language in China./

RJA 7

Kim, James. "Japanese Education vs. Amerecan Edukashun." Eserver. n. page. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. <http://eserver.org/courses/fall95/76-100g/papers/kim/default.html>.

• The author has no degree, but is a freshman at CMU.
• There is no bibliography, but he cites several people in his body and utilizes charts and pictures to ground his argument.
• The author intends to incite a change in how we do education here in America by speaking directly to American students and teachers.  He tries to be unbiased in his delivery, but obviously sides with the camp that says that our educational system is very broken.  He does, however, mention some of the pitfalls that Japan experiences.
• It is a very easy read, and the information is very reliable.  It gives me something to use to substantiate my comparative arguments about America's educational system.

Dicker, Susan. Languages in America: A Pluralist View. 2nd. Multilingual Matters LTD, 2003. 298-302. Print.

• I do not know if Susan Dicker has a degree, but one would assume that she has some credibility in this matter, at least enough to write a book about it.
• She has a references page in the book and cites many people in her body.  It seems that she has some experience in ESL herself.
• She speaks to Americans, hoping to enlighten them on the idea of linguistic plurality, something that is being fought against in this country by an "English Only" movement.
• She does not use a bunch of jargon and terminology that the average Joe would not comprehend, but it is is pretty dense information.  It definitely is not a quick read.
• The book is copyrighted 2003, so the information is not particularly recent but not out of date.

Webpages

http://diigo.com/0p4wn

http://diigo.com/0p4wq

RJA 8b: Field Research Plan

I want to survey Americans who have tried to learn another language via classes in school, on their own accord, or any other method.  The information that I want to obtain is how they tried to learn the language, how successful that they thought the method was or how they would rate themselves in terms of being able to communicate in and use that language, why the method was or was not successful, whether they think that it is important for Americans to become proficient in other languages, etc.  The survey will be conducted online (link to come later after I have thoroughly put one together) and I would like to survey my classmates and my clients (I work for Rosetta Stone).  This should provide some demographic information as well.

RJA 8a: Freewriting

Why Does America Struggle with Language Education?

One could say that our main problem lies in American language classes; students are taught languages as if they are math problems: problems of a logical nature that must be fought and worked through until they are solved.  A language, though, is not something to be solved, but rather something to simply internalize and not question.  Granted, once we get past a certain age, what most folks like to call the “critical age,” our brains take on a firewall that automatically questions any and all incoming traffic.  There is some literature on this as well; Eli Hinkel has written a book, Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning, in which she says this: “Concerning the effortfulness of later language learning, Lenneberg [(the original proponent of the critical period hypothesis)] suggests that post-pubertal [second language] learning requires ‘conscious and labored effort’…[m]any professionals involved in one way or another with language have simply assumed that later [second language learning requires more effort” (p. 410).

Another issue could be attributed to the attitude that Americans have about the learning other languages.  In her book Languages in America: a Pluralist View, Susan J. Dicker uses language like “an absurdity,” “linguistically malnourished,” and “an attachment to monolingualism” to describe America’s problem.  In her words, “many Americans seem unaware of the advantages attached to multilingualism: it gives individuals a sense of identity; it creates a more equitable society; it promotes harmonious relations among linguistic groups; it adds richness to the shared culture; it allows for better foreign relations” (p. 299).  She then goes on in her next chapter to envision an America that acknowledges the world and its languages.  America could be a great nation of cultured, multilingual gents and ladies if it wanted to, instead of the uneducated ones that many Europeans like to pin it as.