Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning Assignments

In my Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning class,
Dr. Lee gave two assignments to us two weeks ago.
The first one was to make a brief summary of the main points of an article, edited in Newsweek, September 11, 2009 issue which was a cover story entitled, ‘Is your baby racist?’, and add my own reflection: what I learned, what I thought about, what I can do to help my students understand concerning ‘bias’ issues clearly and issue that I can raise to talk about.
The second was the discussion on ‘racism,’ ‘bias,’ ‘stereotyping,’ ‘racial profiling’ after I watch
Harold & Kumar go to White Castle.






, and how I would like handle such issues when similar things occur in my ‘classroom’ setting; how I can prevent bias and stereotyping.

Here's the specification of this assignment,

1. Define ‘racism,’ ‘bias,’ ‘stereotyping’ and ‘racial profiling’ in one paragraph.
2. Discuss examples of racial stereotyping and racial profiling that you found from this movie within more than two paragraphs.
3. Did you find any ‘bilingual issue’ in this film? If yes, please discuss it in more than one paragraph.
4. Discuss how you are going to handle problem situation related with racism or bilingualism in your future class as a professional TESOL member in more than one paragraph.

I would like to post this assignment on m blog so that other classmates can look and share their thoughts with me.

TSL 504 Culture Assignment ① 10/04/09 Eunice Kim

Summary

In 2006, Birgitte Virrtrup at The Children’s Research Lab at the University of Texas conducted a project about if typical children’s video with multicultural storylines has any beneficial effect on children’s racial attitudes. It revealed that the tree groups of children had very budged very much in their racial attitudes. Talking about the race was a clear key to the research. For decades, we’ve assumed that children will see race only when society points it out them; however, children see racial differences as much as they see the difference between pink and blue.
The spontaneous tendency to assume one’s group shares characteristic-such as niceness, or smarts is called essentialism. Phyllis Katz, a professor at the University of Colorado, points out that when the period of our children’s lives, when we imagine it’s most important to not talk about race, is the very developmental period when children’s minds are forming their first conclusions about race. Several studies point to the possibility of developmental windows-stages when children’s attitude might be most amenable to change. The Divers Environment Theory is about if parents raise a child with a fair amount of exposure to people of other races and cultures, the environment becomes the message. Researchers have found that the more diverse the environment, the more kids self-segregate by race and ethnicity. Shushing children when they make an improper remark is an instinctive reflex, but often the wrong move, and to be effective, conversations about race need to be explicit, in unmistakable terms children can understand. Minority children who are repeatedly told of discrimination are less likely to see a connection between hard work and success. Black children who hear messages of ethnic pride are more engaged in school and more likely to attribute their successes to effort and ability.

I had no experience being around minority people, and I was young idealistic believed that everyone was equal and had no real prejudices. However, as I become a grown up, honestly, I’ve only thought that we human beings tend to discriminate towards anything that is different than ourselves, so we want to be around others like us by nature. We know skin color makes no difference in the person; however, it’s different in reality. I think it naturally becomes a corrupted world when those who achieve are made to feel inferior, and those who have not and cannot achieve are made to feel superior. So far, I thought everyone is prejudice, and what matters is whether we can put our prejudice.
While I was reading the article, it’s interesting to know that there is the possibility of developmental windows-stages when children’s attitudes might be most amenable to change. I changed my concept of racism and bias that children should be taught that all citizens are equal and must be treated so despite personal feelings. As a future educator, what I can do in class with my students is that I do my best to instill their pride in those minority children and make them feel proud of the positive accomplishments of their own people, giving lots of examples throughout the world history. Also, I develop my own material to teach intercultural class combining both minority and majority children and have majority groups simply learn what minorities are like by interacting with them regardless of what integration programs they impose, for example, having them a positive comment on every single members of each group.

TSL 504 Culture Assignment ② 10/04/09 Eunice Kim

1. Define ‘racism’ ‘bias’ ‘stereotyping’ and ‘racial profiling’ in one paragraph.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics.
Bias is a term used to describe a tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result, especially when the tendency interferes with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective. A stereotype is a type of logical oversimplification in which all the members of a class or set are considered to be definable by an easily distinguishable set of characteristics. Racial profiling is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner.

2. Discuss examples of racial stereotyping and racial profiling that you found from this movie within more than two paragraphs.

I found several racial stereotyping or racial profiling in the movie. Harold got stuck with somebody else's work because he's "good with numbers," and “a nerdy little Asian guy.” Harold and Kumar see themselves as big shots who know how to party better than the more traditional, passive Princeton Asians, but it turns out those people have the craziest parties. Also, Harold and Kumar are viewed stereotypical children of Asian immigrants, bright young men who work hard. The group of "extreme guys" tell Harold, "this is America, dude, learn how to drive" and keep flicking him off. Harold winds up in jail, where he and Kumar meet a polite African-American gentleman who has been arrested for being black.
It’s nice to get an idea about how other cultures see whites. As an Asian, I feel bad about the social convention that we made. On the other hand, I’m glad that it breaks racial barriers. While I was watching the movie, I hardly think about their race.

3. Did you find any ‘bilingual issue’ in this film? If yes, please discuss it more than one paragraph.

In the movie, there was a scene that Harold and Kumar had to ask a CVS worker about how to get to the White Castle. He was Indian and seemed that he didn’t understand what Harold said to him. Kumar had a conversation with the worker in Hindustani to help them. Like Kumar did, I saw societal benefits of bilingualism. Bilinguals engage in wider communication across generation, regions and cultural groups fostering a sympathetic understanding of difference of each other. We don’t know how Kumar learned his native language, but it seems clear that being a bilingual is better than not.

4. Discuss how you are going to handle problem situation related with racism or bilingualism in your future class as a professional TESOL member in more than one paragraph.

As a TESOL member, I think we should teach both multicultural history of the U.S. to students and our common values. At the same time, students have to learn about a "common heritage," and they need to strengthen their own cultural identities and ethnic pride. Also, we must help our students acknowledge and respect the important differences that result from our various cultural heritages and experiences, and encourage students to re-examine what it means to be an American or to live in America. Personally, one of good way to prepare students for diverse societies is to have some kind of “an Exchanging student program” that students experience about what the real other culture will be like. I think students begin to help and value each other and learn to get along that way through the program.