It is fascinating how culture effects everything that people do and especially the way they perceive things. Reading in a different language then one’s native language is very difficult, especially if one does not know the background or have the cultural knowledge required to understand the text properly. A good example of this includes social studies in U.S. schools. Social studies is one of the most difficult subjects to teach ELLs (English Language Learners) because of all the background and cultural knowledge that one must already know to even understand basic historical concepts. The English literature is also full of passages that require one to understand the culture before they can even begin to make sense of the passage. Through this multi-genre project the cultural problems and difficulties that nonnative speakers of English have when confronted with English texts will be shown and some strategies that ELLs can use to navigate through culturally embedded texts will be introduced through the means of various genres.
It was long thought that reading in a second language was simply a slower version of reading in the first language, but recently many more factors that include the culture, language and educational backgrounds of the readers have been shown to influence the second language reading process (Singhai, 1998). Specifically, cultural knowledge appears to play one of the largest roles in reading comprehension and the entire second language literacy process (Singhai, 1998; Pritchard, 1990; Bell, 1995; Steffensen, Dev, and Anderson, 1979; Johnson, 1981).
The ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher should strive to learn as much about their students' language and cultural background, as well as trying to find as much information as possible pertaining to their students' views of literacy in their first language (Singhai, 1998). Reading strategies taught to the students in the classroom and used by the teacher in order to help ELLs comprehend reading are essential in any ESL classroom. The ESL teacher should also understand the emotional state of their students as the students struggle to learn to read and write in their second language and how their students' cultural views about literacy may affect the second language learning process (Bell, 1995).
There are many strategies that ELLs can use in order to overcome or assist themselves in the second language reading process and all ESL teachers should be aware of these strategies in order to assist their students in reading texts that may be difficult due to culturally specific language.
Singhai (1998, p.6)) outlines several strategies that second language readers can use to assist themselves in overcoming there own lack of cultural knowledge. The strategies suggested include:
- Overview the text
- Look for context clues, such as titles, subheadings and diagrams
- Attempt to relate important points in the text to one another (important points might include highlighted words, titles or subheadings)
- Try to use prior knowledge to interpret the text (prior knowledge would include things talked about in class or movies)
- Attempt to discover the meaning of words, first by context and then by dictionary
- List the main ideas of the text on a piece of paper
- Rent or barrow a movie that is related to the text
The genre related to Singhai's reading strategies is a letter from an ESL teacher to a parent of a student who is having difficulty with the reading process. In the letter the teacher outlines the different strategies that can be used by the student and encourages the parent to assist the student in developing these reading strategies. The strategies are very practical and most ELLs would be able to use the strategies with some assistance. Involving the parent in the learning process seemed to be an appropriate way of expressing this genre.
In a study done by Pritchard (1990) it was found that readers engaged in culturally unfamiliar texts used a variety of strategies. These strategies included developing awareness, accepting ambiguity and establishing intrasentential ties. Developing awareness is simply the reader being aware of their reading progress and aware of the problems that they may be having while comprehending the text. Accepting ambiguity is an extension of developing awareness where the reader notes that there is no comprehension of a particular portion of the text and continues to read with the notion that comprehension may come later on in relation to a part of the text that has not been read. The last strategy according to Pritchard (1990) is establishing intrasentential ties. There are two processes involved in establishing intrasentential ties. The first is when the reader tries to develop an understanding of a sentence they are reading without using background knowledge or relating it to any other part of the text. The second is when the reader tries to make connections between a sentence and the other portions of the passage being read. The ESL teacher should be aware of the second language reading tendencies studied by Pritchard and assist their students in developing their own mental reading processes. The genre related to this research is a reading strategies graph that clearly shows the reading strategies employed by American students when reading both culturally familiar and unfamiliar texts. Pritchard's study does not emphasize any particular strategy that should be used by second language readers. The goal of Pritchard's study is to inform people about the different strategies employed. A bar graph illustrating the research seems to be an applicable genre, making the findings a little easier to understand.
Spack (1993) outlines a teaching method that can assist ELLs in both their reading and writing simaltaniously. Spack's method includes first drawing from the ELLs' personal experience related to the text by asking questions and having the students write in a journal about the subject to be addressed in the reading. The students are then to annotate the text, write an entry in a reading journal, summarize the reading, discuss the reading, analyze the writing assignment and then finally draft the writing assignment. This information is very helpful to the ESL teacher who seeks to help build a base of background knowledge for material that might be culturally difficult to understand. The genre related to this teaching strategy is a lesson plan using Spack's specific method and building the students' background knowledge pertaining to the text. The genre also includes a cause and effect essay diagram that is needed to help the student brainstrom and scaffold the writing assignment. Teacher's need to be aware of the different things that they can do within the classroom to help build a student's cultural base when reading materials. The lesson plan is one of the most applicable genres available to the teacher in order to assist the student in any subject. Also included is another lesson plan genre that follows the CBI (Content Based Instruction) model. This lesson plan genre simply builds the student's knowledge about the Great Depression from nothing, giving the student a cultural and contextual base to read the textbook. Freeman and Freeman (1988) believe that this type of instruction is very beneficial to ELLs because it instructs both content and language at the same time.
The emotional state of students coming to the United States to study in a high school or university cannot be emphasized enough. This emotional state has a deep effect on all aspects of second language acquisition and certainly on second language literacy (Brown, 2000; Bell, 1995). Bell (1995) discusses her emotional well-being while trying to learn to read and write in Chinese. Bell's preconceived ideas about literacy pertaining to her first language were found to be irrelevant when studying Chinese, therefore causing her feelings to be affected deeply by her lack of progress. All ESL teachers need to be aware of their student's emotional states in regards to every aspect of second language learning. The genres that reflect these findings include a song written to reflect the feelings of a Spanish speaking student to his teacher and his own feelings of inadequicy and a diary entry by an Arabic speaking student and her feelings about the whole literacy process. Including the song and the diary entry makes the multi-genre project more personal. Both styles of genre are very personal in nature and often times include a deep sense of feeling and emotion regardless of the subject matter. The usage of these genres are very appropriate for this context and convey the meaning well.
A lot of different sources were used in both the construction of the different genres and in the overall thought process of putting together a multi-genre project. Some of the sources could have probably been integrated better into different genres and the genres themselves possibly could have conveyed more meaning, but the essential meaning was clearly expressed through the genres. The vast importance of understanding the fact that student's who come from different cultural backgrounds cannot comprehend texts written in English to their fullest was expressed through the genres and the feelings that students have when learning to read and write in a second language was also shown. These genres are very important in helping the ESL teacher understand their students and how to assist them with learning to read culturally different texts in the second language.
In conclusion, the multi-genre project is a great way for students to express themselves in any content area. The project also requires students to think on many different levels and interact with their topic in a number of different ways in order to express their topic's meaning through different genres. The project allows the student to easily present the topic of study to a group or a class without extended work of creating an outline or a handout, because the topic is already presented in a condensed form that can be fun and understandable. The multi-genre project also can be done in small group work, where as a research paper of the same magnitude would be very difficult to collaborate on and construct in a small group. All classes, regardless of the subject matter, should seriously consider implementing some type of multi-genre project in their classes to not only build the students' knowledge of the subject, but to also help the students develop their creative skills.
(References to be added later)
