As a student of ELS, foreign languages are required in my subjects. The first foreign language that I took was Spanish under ma’am Kerry Del Rosario. I am pretty sure that her method of teaching can be understood and explained by Krashen’s theory of Language Acquisition, specifically the Acquistion-Learning Hypothesis. Our lessons started with the history of Spanish speaking South American countries. Personally, that method, exposing us to the culture and background of a language is actually a good start for me, as we can internalize the context that embodies the language even if it’s just the tip of the iceberg. After that, we focused on the pronouns, then the verbs, followed by the sentence construction. Her method of teaching is actually effective for me, as this is a good process that I’ve had great comprehension. The acquired system here was done when we were researching, sharing, and listening to the one another about the information on the culture and background of the Spanish speaking countries. The learning system was when Ms. Kerry taught us the pronunciation, sentence construction, and other details about the Spanish language that we don’t have any knowledge of.

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=e3aa8691-69b6-4149-868a-0a917ac793eb%40pdc-v-sessmgr01

Bayu Kristianto is a lecturer in at the the Faculty of Humanities, Department of Literature in the University of Indonesia. Most of his research mainly focus on indigenous people and their language and religion. This reading brief is about his research on the views of the tribal members from American indigenous groups, namely: the Hupa tribe of Northern California, the Pomo tribe of Southern California, and the Navajo tribe in the southwestern United States. His research is about the  perspective of the interviewees, who are members of the said indigenous groups, in using the English language in their tribal ceremonies. The research article is entitled: To Pray or Not to Pray in English: Tribal Members’ Views on Language Ideologies Concerning Religious Ceremonies, and it was published in the International Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Society on December 2019.

The author claims that the sacred nature of religious ceremonies instigates questions regarding the usage of non-traditional language, such as English. The in-depth interviews with the native indigenous speakers proved that despite the intention of using or integrating the English language in the tribal ceremonies, there is a significant role that the native language play in the sanctity of the rituals and the identity of the tribe. The interviewees are women who were taking either their masters or doctorate, and they use the English language in education. Nevertheless, they believed that the native language should still be the language used in the ceremonies. Their perspectives on this view is affected not only by moral and political factor, but also by health, religious and cultural aspects. Like in any language, their are concepts and words that cannot be translated in English, hence the essence of the word used in the ceremony will make a large impact to the core of the traditional ritual and/or ceremony.

Reference:
Kristianto, B. (2019). To Pray or Not to Pray in English: Tribal Members’ Views on Language Ideologies Concerning Religious Ceremonies. International Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Society, 9(4), 21–31. https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8633/CGP/v09i04/21-31

Reference:
Groff, C. (2018). Language Policy and Language Ideology: Ecological Perspectives on Language and Education in the Himalayan Foothills. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 49(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12235

The research article is entitled "The Visibility of Language Ideologies: The Linguistic Landscapes of the University of Yaoundé 1. The authors are John Wankah Foncha and Jane-Francis Abongdia. John Wankah Foncha is currently a Senior Lecturer of Language Education in the Faculty of Education at Cape Peninsula University, South Africa. He had his BA degree from the University of Yaoundé 1 and both his MA Linguistics and PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of the Western Cape. His research interest include identity, intercultural communication competence, reading and writing pedagogies, teaching English as a second language and text-based approaches to language teaching and learning. Dr. Afungmeyu Jane-Francis Abongdia is a Senior Lecturer and Acting Language Coordinator in the Faculty of Business and Management Science at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. Her research interests include language policy and planning, language ideologies and attitudes, politics of language, multilingualism and planning, second language acquisition, language teaching methods, intercultural communication, and academic literacy and development, amongst others.

The subject of the research study is the linguistic visibility in the University of Yaoundé 1. By paying close attention to the signage and billboards, the researchers were able to formulate their claim. The authors argue that there is a 'mismatch between the policy put in place and the actual practice (Afungmeyu Abongdia & Foncha, 2017)'. The reason is mainly because of  power relations, wherein there is great discrimination and disregard for indigenous languages. The evidence of the mismatch lies within the findings of the researchers. They examined the billboards and signage in the campus. While the language policy and ideology in the campus is bilingualism; there seems to be a bias for the French language. In the University of Yaoundé 1, French and English are used as the media of instruction. However the 3 signage that were observed by the researchers showed that French dominates the linguistic visibility, in terms of emphasis in font, font color, font size and number of characters. In one of the signage, only the University of Yaoundé 1 was translated in English, the most important part of the signage that should be translated was not given an English translation. Also, the English translations are almost unnoticeable due to the font color, style and size. This proves that the bilingual language policy is not being practiced properly in the community. The influence of the French colonizers still lives within the society. However, majority of the parents in the Cameroon district were aware and conscious of the benefit of the English language, which is why there is a great consideration for English. Nevertheless, it was still proved that there is a mismatch between the language policy that was implemented and the language practice in the University of Yaoundé 1.

Reference:
Afungmeyu Abongdia, J.-F., & Foncha, J. W. (2017). The Visibility of Language Ideologies: The Linguistic Landscapes of the University of Yaoundé. Gender & Behaviour, 15(2), 8790–8800. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=196ab6bb-e277-4cab-bdd9-c6e9e5c5b763%40pdc-v-sessmgr01

In the group discussion, it was established that Vygotsky’s Theory is the theory of language learning discussed in the text. As per Manirene:

Although this was approved by Joanna, her first choice was Krashen’s Theory of Language Acquisition because for her there were “points or ideas that deals with language and the interaction of the learner.” Meryll also agreed that Vygotsky’s theory is the one being discussed in the text.

 

All of the members agreed that the theory does not completely avoid grammar. As per Manirene:

Agreeing to this, Joanna added a few insights from her personal experiences, she stated:

Meryll also has the same opinion, she expressed this with her explanation being:

Once again, the answers of the members are the same: YES, there is a difference between language acquisition and language learning.

As per Imee:

Manirene elaborated Imee’s answer by stating:

Joanna also agreed but provided a different insight on the difference of language acquisition and language learning, for her:

Additionally, she stated that: “we can still go through language acquisition despite having acquired an L1 already.”

 

According to Imee, “children learn language through exposure.” Joanna agreed with this but added points with correlates to the Social Interaction Theory of Vygotsky. She stated and added on Imee’s ideas:

Manirene provided more substantial insights that are also related to the answers, she stated:

Meryll added that children also learn language “through exposure and through interaction - not only with their parents and other adults, but also with other children.”

 

For this question, the participants related to their language acquisition and language learning experience, be it from their personal point of view, or their children. Meryll briefly stated that:

For Manirene’s answer, she agreed with the statement of Joanna. Adding her own observations with her son, she stated:

As per Joanna’s answer, she provided a quite extensive and specific scenario as well as Manirene’s. Her explanation states that:

 

The participants provided various suggestions, and they all encouraged change in the teaching of second language learning.

As per Manirene:

Joanna’s suggestion is simpler. According to her:

 

 

 

Pros: It promotes  efficiency in communication and in the government by pushing for English to be the one shared language.

Cons:
1. Elimination of bilingual services such as bilingual ballots and bilingual education.
2. Limitation of the role of languages.
3. Disregarding ethnic roots.
4. Discriminating people who avail bilingual services as ethnic ghettos, thus preventing immigrants from accessing and participating in mainstream society and institutions.


No Child Left Behind Act
*The new legislation allocates funds for native language maintenance efforts for indigenous language speakers
* to ensure that all children will meet grade level expectations

Pros: Much more attention is paid to ELLs and their academic and language progress.

Cons:
1. Unfair testing regime that has been particularly hard on ELLs.
2. The use of inappropriate and invalid assessments for high-stakes purposes.
3. Achievement tests that were designed and familiarized on native speakers become a language test rather than reliable and valid measure of academic learning.
4. Pressure to "ready" the students for the English test more quickly came at the cost of bilingual instruction.
6. Access to bilingual education has been greatly restricted for bilingual children.
7. Blaming the bilingualism of students for low scores on the standardized tests.
8. Narrowing of the curriculum, focusing on the reading skills of students.
9. In addition to operating on a narrow definition of what literacy is, the homogeneity of approaches and expectations for reading development leave little room for addressing differences in second language and literacy development and issues of culture for bilingual learners.


English-only Ballot Initiatives
Pros: National unity.

Cons:
1. Learning in and through other languages is not validated as legitimate acquired knowledge and skills.
2. The mandate of English-only program leaves no freedom for choosing and expressing one's ethnic identity.
3. Undermining parents' ability to obtain waivers as well as the willingness of districts to establish the complex process of initiating and tracking students whose parents want bilingual education.
4. Constraints on the use of students' native languages
5. The recommendation that districts place students from different language backgrounds together in the same classroom further discourages and seeks to limit the use of languages other than English by students and teachers.
6. Limiting program participation.


Maintaining Pluralist Approaches
*recognition of the importance of diversity and language and cultural maintenance.

Revitalizing indigenous languages
Pros:
1. Indigenous language speakers have formal, legal support for native language maintenance.
2. A wide range of efforts to support indigenous language speakers' innovative efforts at language revitalization and language maintenance in the United States are on-going.
3. Successful bilingual program is run completely by native speakers of the community.
4. The program's effectiveness has been important to help community members revalue their own language.

Cons: Limited federal funding for indigenous language instruction


Two-way immersion
Pros:
1. Promoting bilingualism and bi-literacy for language minority and language majority language speakers.
2. Resisting the monolingual hegemony of English.
3. Well-implemented two-way immersion programs have made them a serious alternative to English-only programs for teaching bilingual learners

Cons:


Heritage languages
Pros: The growth in the number and range of heritage language programs or community-based language schools (including in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) illustrates the value and the importance that parents and ethnic communities continue to place on native language and cultural maintenance, despite pressures to assimilate

Cons: Heritage language maintenance efforts for school-age children are community-based and hence fall outside the realm of federal or state educational policies.

Which languages in the Philippines have been standardized?

Do you agree to each of these being used as medium of instruction depending on the area where it is spoken?

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages doing so?

-------------------------------