Answer To: Assessment Task 1: Personal reflection on language, culture and diversity Task Description: Task...
Soumi answered on Mar 25 2020
Running Head: PERSONAL REFLECTION 1
PERSONAL REFLECTION 2
PERSONAL REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN RELATION TO TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Personal Experience of the Teacher in response to the Aspects, Issues and Culture of Language
The gradual improvement in the diplomatic ties on a global level has generated the scope for people to travel far distances for learning, profession and for recreation. This has become comparatively easy avail than for those of previous generations. As a part of the global diplomatic initiative and with the sole purpose of reducing the barriers that come in the way of communication and understanding, English has been given the title of the International Language. However, some aspects, such as priority of mother tongue, educational limitations, and lack of guidence regulate the reach and effectiveness of the purpose of English as an international language. According to McKay (2018), English is the only language that is used on all continents by a massive number of people, who come from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it is important to ponder upon the impact of English in helping learners to live a better life in the global context.
Through my experience of working as a volunteer teacher of English language in Melbourne, I agree with the fact that English is a good language that can be used as an international medium of communication and learning. As supported by Siegel and Lipka (2017), English has an easy grammatical formation, wide range of words to convey understanding and simple application, thereby making it a good language for international communication. I teach in an environment, where people from various communities come to learn English as they strive for a better understanding of the international trends, cosmopolitan lifestyle, higher education, cultural diversity and to seek a better economic position. In my case, the majority of learners in my class were immigrants from the Middle East, and they were seemingly learning to English to settle in Australia. According to Castro‐Olivo et al. (2018), the culture and language can either enhance or hinder the learning; nevertheless, the factors cannot remain passive in the context of learning a language like English. It is very unlikely that a learner would not have any influence of his or her culture on him at the time of learning. The similarities in the lerner’s mother tongue and English would not keep the learner in a state of neutrality, rather it would depend on the degree of similarity or difference in a equally proportional way. During my recent teaching sessions, I used the Systematic Teaching method, which involved the use of a proper step after the other, creating the proper learning process in the minds of the learners.
Firstly, I pointed out the similarities between the mother tongues of the learners and English. According to Luke (2018), teachers should use words that remain the same in both the languages, suchas ‘lemon’, ‘safari’ and ‘alcohol’. These words have the same meaning and application in both English and Arabic. As the learners come to know about the similarities of languages, their level of confidence and understanding forms the base of essential learning. I found that the initial step was apt for the learners as they showed much interest in English for its similarities with their mother tongue.
The technical aspect of English as a language is adopted readily by learners (Kral & Renganathan, 2018). This made me aware of the fact that the level of learning English by those from any other language background, depends on the assessment of the grammar and mostly on the degree of similar implication as well as application in real life. In another step of the systematic approach, I allowed the learners use their language in the class, so that they could express their concern in a usual way. I permitted them to use their mother...