Other People’s Children

Cultural Conflict in the Classroom An article by Lisa Delpit

Group 1, CAELA01

Introduction

• Defining two types of language acquisition identified by Stephen Krashen and the affective filter

• Characteristics of non-optimal learning • The affects of Constant Overcorrecting• Teachers must appreciate linguistic diversity• Examples of relevant lessons to promote appreciation and

acceptance of linguistic diversity• What are the current demands of school language re:

orality and literacy?• What are some strategies teachers can employ to help

support the development of forms, function, and fluency?

Two types of language acquisition identified by Stephen Krashen

• Conscious learning: Rule-based instruction leading to the monitoring of verbal output

• Unconscious acquisition: “picking up” a language through internalizing the linguistic input-derived immersion in a new context

• Krashen found that between these two. He found unconscious acquisition to be much more effective in optimal learning conditions

• When people in the study did not acquire a new language easily, he ascribed it the “the affective filter”

Characteristics of an Non-Optimal Learning Environment

• Stephen Krashen found that “the affective filter” (a type of mental block) rose when learning conditions were non-optimal:– Student was not motivated– Student did not identify with the speakers of the

second language– The student was over-anxious about his or her

performance of speaking the language– The student was exposed to constant overcorrection

The Affects of Constant Overcorrecting

• Such correction increases cognitive monitoring of speech, therefore, making talking difficult. Often, this caused the student to become silent.

• Constant Overcorrection was also found to possibly affect the student’s attitude toward their teacher. They could become resentful and resist reading, writing, and speaking.

Teachers Must Appreciate Linguistic Diversity

• Issues of group identity affect performance. A student needs to fit in with the community at school. They must also be spoken to, asked questions to in ways that they understand. If they learn academic or school language and their peers in their home community tease them, they were found to stop using academic or school language, even though they knew it.

• Teachers must learn about their students, embrace their dialects and home community, incorporate reality-based, culturally relevant aspects to the lessons and activities in school.

Examples of relevant lesson activities

• Having the students create children’s stories using their own dialects and then presenting them to the class

• Reading comics of superheroes as they often use hyper-correct English

• Create dictionaries of the vocabulary in their dialect

Current Demands of of School Language

• Overcorrection blocks reading and speaking because:– Children become better readers by having

opportunities to read. This means they are less likely to become fluent

– Complete focus on code and pronunciation blocks the understanding that reading is a meaning-making process

– It is likely to make the student resist reading and resent the teacher

Conclusions

• Strategies teachers can use to support the development of forms, functions, and fluency:– Invite students to share their home language– Incorporate culturally relevant language, relevant narrative

styles, questioning styles, humor, and themes into lessons – Create activities that are based in reality (go to the store,

read comics…)– Draw upon oral styles of diverse populations in community

life (use music or point to relevant cultural icons with which they are familiar: Martin Luther King, Jr., Whoopi Goldberg…)