Multi-Ethnic Materials in Second Language Programs Classrooms

Abstract

It is important to remember that the language learner is a person who brings into the classroom a cultural background that he has possessed since birth and which is tightly interlaced with his native language habits. This cultural background can serve as a strong motivating factor in bridging the differences between the old and the new and at the same time will be psychologically more beneficial than attempting to erase or negate the cultural identity of the learner. As teachers in the second language learning classroom, we must concern ourselves with these questions: What is culture? What cultures do our students bring with them? How can we use the student's cultural background to assist him in learning a new complex of language skills that inevitably involves (and often threatens) his own personhood as defined by his culture? Suggestions for classroom activities fall in the following areas: 1) Initial classroom exposure through visual realia related to native cultures of the students; 2) Specific language learning activities relevant to cultural backgrounds; 3) Diversified reading material that represents the literature from the students' heritage as well as literature related to the target language and culture. One of the premises upon which western civilization has been built is the right of every citizen to read. People who are aware of themselves through their literature bring the qualities of self-knowledge (identity in the contemporary idiom), of confidence, of pride and expectation of success to bear on the necessary tangibles of job-getting and job advancement. Peope who read knowledgeably can acquire political know-how, higher education and the consequent greater opportunities for themselves and their children. Puerto Ricans, Hawaiians, Chicanos, Indian Americans, Cubans, West Indians, mainland South Americans, whether recent arrivals to the United States or original inhabitants of the two continents, are a part of western civilization. Reading materials designed to meet their interests and needs, to motivate their learning, must be supplied them if the stages between elementary language arts and skills, and reading and literature are to be effectively negotiated. Such material will particularly affect upperelementary classrooms, and second language programs in junior and senior high schools. Adult TESOL programs as well have something at stake in developing well-read citizens; bilingual programs getting under way also need to consider at the outset the challenge of the transference and the maintenance of basic skills and an aware literacy in two languages.