u10a2

Activity Topic 1
These websites were fascinating to explore the different mannerism of speech that exist in the English language.  Quite a few of these exemplify the regional ways of pronunciation.  Some also could indicate the heritage of the speaker.  The "Speech Accent Archive" also provided the IPA spellings of the paragraph and it was interesting to see the accents effect the spellings.  For a young learner this could be confusing especially if their family is bouncing around from region to region within the US.  As  I look at the migration map on in the O'Grady reading (p.493), I think of the old computer game "The Oregon Trail".  As you traveled across the great plains you encountered people from different cities that had distinct accents.  What I now realize that the game also portrayed the migration of East-coast dialects to the west and allowed them to morph throughout time.  These regional variations would be important to let a non-native here and to understand that they are not wrong, just different.

Activity Topic 2 -1 &2
Like I stated in the course discussion, I think that many people are not as liberal with multi-lingualism as I am.  The most frustrating thing for me is that in Europe, it's perfectly normal to speak 3, 4 or more languages and to use whichever one you like to address the people you're talking to. The understanding (outside of tourist places - which seem to all speak English anymore....) is that you would use the lingua franca to do business in.  I don't understand the sentiment that something other than English is "wrong" when almost everyone living in the US ancestral family came to this country speaking something other than English - or spoke a different variation of it.  This bigotry towards English being the only correct language is appalling.  I think I would try to work with adults who have this sentiment and be compassionate towards their feelings, but also try to educate them to my purpose as an ESL teacher and to the reasons why it's okay to be bilingual.

On the PBS website it said that in the 2003 study student spent less than an hour on homework.  Not that I'm advocating bludgeoning them with homework, but I would think that if they are spending more time texting or chatting using electronic devices with abbreviations and emoticon that we are going to really see a downward progression in achievement for formal writing.  Perhaps we are already.