Response 2/11/08 Nebe

  Ashley Nebe

2/11/08

Response 2

The need fro code meshing is the dominant argument in Canagarajah's article "The Place of World Englishes in Composition:Pluralization Continued" she presents the uses of Metropolitan English (ME) and World English (WE) as well as mulitlingual usage, as she discusses how they can all coexist in an increasingly multilingual world. The article presents both the dichotomy in teaching and using both ME and WE, as well as the reliance that global educational and business fields have placed on being able to exist in and among different languages, dialects and cultures. It  also expands on the challenge of the need for time to evolve students' ideas versus what has to happen now " As a teacher of writing for ESL and multilingual students, I am left with the questions: what can I do to promote the pedagogical vision in my classroom now? I am concerned with the implication of this policy change for the texts produced by my students in my current writing courses"  (Canagarajah, 587). Her observations of the challenges in teaching students to find and truly express themselves in English shows that it is not just a multicultural or lingual challenge, it is generational and situational. The points are further strengthened by her personal tone and own experiences in learning Sri Lankan English rather than American or British English. The global examples from writers and scholars such as bell hooks and Min-Zhan Lu also pack powerful arguments.

I very much identifed with this article, as I am familiar with many of the cited writers' works as well as, how the validating of a student's native language or dialect in the classroom can be used as an invaluable tool for instructing thme in writing in many diverse ways. I thought the tone of her article underscored the push and pull of which languages to teach and also which of them should be validated. Having instructed ESL students and having learned another language myself, I understand the struggles in using a foreign language daily, as well as the difficulties of adapting to the culture. What many poeple do not understand is that many of the students here are not fluent in thier native language, meaning they can speak it but they cannot read or write it. So how can they learn another language when they have no basis or foundation of literacy? Part of the answer is to use code meshing along with this; all students who are not fluent in their own language should receive instruction in their native tongue to the best of the school's ability.

When I first began reading Juzwik et al. "Writing Into the 21st Century: An Overview of Research on Writing, 1999-2004" I thought the area of research in which they wanted to tackle was way too broad to receive any relevant results. After reading about their modes and specifically the wya they organized and delineated their reaserch, I became less skeptical of their aims to analyze the research that had been done over the past six years. The four questions they pose complement each other well, to analyze the teaching of composition you cannot look at one aspect without the other three. This is what makes the research of compostion so complex, especially considering the diversification of students taken from any classroom, grade, or school, no matter the level of edcuation. The discussion portion of the study points out that "Little of this research on language diversity and writing, however is occurring at P-12 levels- crucial years for language acquisition, literacy development, and identity formation" (Juzwik et al. 467). I was surprised througout the article at the lack of research that has been conducted in the P-12 area, when indeed teaching writing is most important during this time. I think that the study did exactly as stated in the conclusion, that it pointed out where studies of reaserch are desperatly needed but as a post secondary teacher I already know that there is a huge gap between P-12 research on writing and postsecondary research on writing. The study falls short in offering any suggestions as to how to achieve more research in the need fields except to say they hope to give ideas to postsecondary researchers.

"Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Way" Yancey's article on the non-scholastic literacy of blogs, film, instant messaging, etc is so pertinent to the muliple literacies that students as practicing every day. It is a revolution of how we think about and teach writing. The parallels that Yancey draws between the reading public of the 19th century and the writing public  we currently have, make her arguments into realizations, the connections and similarities are uncanny. And as so many teachers and scholars scoffed at the emergence of different genres of reading, they are now  doing the same in part with the multiple modes of writing. This is seen in what the school defines as writing as opposed to what students see as writing in school "Writing IS words on paper, composed on a page wiht a pen or pencil by students who write words on paper" (Yancey,298) but even the idea of a "page" has drastically changed. Now a page is a webpage and the pencil is a keyboard. Why can't educators accept and bring into priority how students write and succeed outside fo school? As Yancey mentions much of this is occurring in postsecondary schools, through online journals, databases, and even the simple task of word processing rather than writing. However, overall this is not seen in P-12 nearly enough, even though the majority of students participate in the new writing circles of the electronic. just as Yancey calls for new curriculum in college it needs to be so in P-12, it must be so if public education has a hope for the future. 

The common thread in all of the articles is the idea of writing needing to be more public whether it is sharing within the classroom, on the web, or making it more public that something MUST change about the way we teach writing, they are all intertwined. Having multiple meanings and implications on both the individual  and those who read their work. "Into the Blogosphere" Lowe and Williams, brings this theme to the forefront by citing the many ways in which students and teachers can use public writing as a new form of  thought exploration. Having multiple meanings and implications on both the individual and those who read their work. Lowe and Williams explain and use examples of semi-private blogging, wherein the instructors and students within the class can discuss and comment on topics related and unrelated to the course, creating a community that probably wouldn't exist in a real classroom. However, I couldn't help but think as I read that this types of instruction encourages a lack of interpersonal skills that need to be cultivated in college to prepare students for their careers and future lives. On the other hand, the point is made that this venue is better for the more shy, introverted student who would not normally participate, so this could possibly be an avenue for that type of student to come out of their social shell. Despite critical comments posted about this article, the instructors back up their reasoning for using a class blog well "Weblogs can facilitate a collaborative, social process of meaning making , leading us to believe that weblogs as an instance of 'publicly' enable a comfort zone, a social environment where anxiety about the teacher and of school writing is reduced, while also drawing on other benefits of writing publicly" (Lowe and Williams, 6). I definitely agree with this and as someone who is new to blogging, I am really starting to see the benefits. Instead of waiting until the next class, if I have a comment or thought, I can post it for others to read. It also enables me to revisit my work as well as others to receive new ideas on previous reading.