I wanted to mention something about the idea of the Super Bowl article being a possible good exercise for intensive reading for our L2 learners. Ruby, Lori, and I discussed numerous ways that this article can be used as a an effective activity, but the whole time we were discussing things, I couldn’t help but notice that whereas Lori and I were excited about the ‘theme’ of the article, Ruby was fairly indifferent. We chatted about it as a group a little bit, and it’s been on my mind off and on since class. Most native speakers (at least in America) have grown up with the excitement and social culture of the Super Bowl. Even those who don’t like football often still watch ‘the big game.’ I’m not real sure what my questions are stemming from my jumbled thoughts….maybe a number of things.
What is the best way to go about using something to teach from (like the Super Bowl article) that you are uninterested in or maybe unfamiliar with? Do you use it to teach at all? If you choose to use it anyway, (aside from personal research about the topic), how might you find a way to make it useful and relevant?
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Since I was in Jill's group, I'll briefly comment on this. I also realized that what we as native speakers might view as some exciting and a big deal, English learners may be indifferent. I think it is good to explain why there is so much hype about the Super Bowl, as it is a part of American culture. However, I definitely would not spend too much time on it. It might be helpful to discuss other "Big Games", especially one like the World Cup where it is more likely that our students have some exposure to it and are possibly excited about it. With the Olympics coming up, you might also be able to tie it to that, since countries from around the world enjoy the build up to that event, and I am sure that commercial spots are more expensive than usual during that time as well.
ReplyDeleteI read your blog with great interest. In the TESOL program there is always an emphasis on culture, normally the culture of the learners. However, since our learners are in the United States the Super Bowl article could be an excellent springboard for a discussion about what is a big event for each of the learners. While they might be lukewarm about football, sharing their own experiences would be interesting to all, especially if the student population is from varied cultural backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteIn our group, we felt as though the Super Bowl article would be fabulous for an English for Special Purposes setting because of the marketing lingo combined with the importance of the Super Bowl to the American television audience, but since we were U.S. citizens by birth we lacked the richness of diversity your group possessed.
I can especially understand Jill's comments, having grown up in the football-crazy state of Texas and specifically in Dallas, ground-zero for the Texas-Oklahoma game every October. I could have cared less about American football (loved soccer), and it took me forever to understand the crazy, drunk crowds thronging downtown Dallas the night before the game .. removing clothing and doing all sorts of things people usually are taken to jail for ... but not on OU Weekend. I was a native, and I didn't understand the goings-on. I can only imagine what planet someone not from the US might have thought they landed up on.
ReplyDeleteAs important as it is to encourage students to use the material of their culture as a resource, like Bobbi points out: they are here in the midst of a great deal of strangeness to them. Though I will confess that I could give a hoot about The Game - Tx-OU or the Super Bowl, I can understand how and why students would want to learn about it, and how such articles as that one from the WSJ provide a well-written account, albeit of the business side. And for Business/Economics/Hospitality students, learning to read such articles is important ... for language learning and proficiency, as well as how an American marketing and hospitality campaign is put together.
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ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned, TESOL is all about marketing. We have to understand our "potential customers", their interests, their motivations, their needs and their expectations. Although it is also very important for English learners to know something about American culture, I think language itself is the core of language education. If you want to stay in USA waiting for international students to come here to learn ESL from you, of course you can do your best to "educate" them about American culture. However, if you think from an EFL teacher's point of view, the appropriateness of topic choosing will be very important. As Clint pointed out, he felt very frustrated whenever talking about football or any sport games in his EFL class in Taiwan because most of the people in Taiwan just do not care about games at all.
ReplyDeleteGo back to my topic sentence "TESOL is all about marketing." We have to always keep in mind that our students count on us to learn English efficiently. How to make classroom discussions and activities more attractive and interesting will always be the center of our whole industry. It is not about what we want to ask them to accept; it is about whether we understand or not what our students expect, need and want to learn from us and whether we understand and respect their own national or racial identities, languages and culture or not. "Cultural Dimensions of SLA" is a good course to take for ESL/EFL teachers to reflect to themselves whether they are really well-prepared to teach students from the global society or not. English is the lingual franca of the world. English does not belong to USA only. American culture, of course, is always a field to explore since USA is one of the biggest and strongest countries in the world, but our ESL/EFL learners learn English to become the citizens of the WORLD, to communicate with people in the WORLD. It is not about American culture only. It is about the language proficiency itself. Our students from the whole world can use this lingua franca to communicate with people from any country that people do not share the same language.
BTW, I am sorry that I am not interested in whatever bowl at all, but that does not interfere my English proficiency at all, right? Basically, as time passes by, as I am getting older and older, I become more and more indifferent about more and more things in the world. Most of the time, I am indifferent about myself, too. Therefore, don't take my situation into your consideration too seriously. Hahaha....
Interesting bit from CNN that fits in with our discussion on the WSJ SuperBowl article has any use ... it might be interesting to pair it up with a Group A and Group B debate, one reading the WSJ and the other the CNN piece (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/05/super.bowl.viewers.profit/index.html?hpt=C1), which basically says that, outside the US, the whole Super Bowl thing is very ho-hum. Of course, this reading and either verbal or written pro/con arguments would be feasible only for an advanced, and likely specialized topic class.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I don't think the SBowl is the end all-be all of reading material ... it was simply an example furnished to us for consideration and critique as a tool for intensive reading in the ES/FLcontext. I am also looking at some pieces, many on-line, about healthy eating, fashion, travel. Would love to have input from others on this.
ReplyDeleteRemembering my experience in Japan, most of my students were interested in hearing about topics like American holidays or sports like the superbowl and they were happy to hear about it when it was seasonal. Of course, I always think about this one guy I remember who was very upset to start the lesson with an American and he went for several minutes on how he didn't like anything about me or my culture. But that was the exception.
ReplyDeleteI think what is being touched on here is more about affective issues perhaps. If the student is uninterested in the superbowl enough that it will stifle their learning. I suppose the superbowl has a lot of articles from business to personal that could be used. Food is also very important to the superbowl and football and a lesson with tailgating incorporated somehow focuses more on the food than the game itself and food is universal (and still incorporates the game). And only someone like that guy I mentioned above would not like that I think.
There is only one BOWL in the world I am highly interested in: RICE BOWL (NOODLE BOWL, maybe. In Chinese, your rice bowl means your "JOB." If you lose your "rice bowl", you got nothing to eat at all. That is the reason why it is so important.
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