Building classroom community around conversation and safe conflict
Reading Chapter 4 of Faltis's text, an example of working through student challenges of adjusting to new grammar rules caught my attention. As an ELL student consistently struggles with the conjugation of verbs, and their agreement with the subject they describe, the teacher decides to compare the differences between Standard English and the student's native language. This teacher writes examples of each on the board, side by side, and initiates a discussion of how each language conveys the same idea differently. This activity has a built-in function of respect for the student's culture and history of ideas, while providing them with the opportunity to compare the two languages side by side. This helps them to contextualize how the two languages differ (or, possibly, how the languages are similar) – it appeals to their authentic experiences and ties their learning of new information with the wealth of previously learned ideas. Furthermore, this exercise is not limited to the ELL classroom. All students might benefit from this sort of multicultural exchange of ideas, and without question many students benefit from grammar practice – especially, if it rings true to their experiences with each other.
Within the concluding statements in Fu's My Trouble is My English, she recognizes the flawed nature of schools and teachers that do not know how to teach students struggling with developing new language skills. Instead Fu asserts that too many teachers, especially those in high schools, focus too much of their attention on students' achievements on standardized tests. They feel pressured to drill students on the jargon "required" to pass these tests instead of guiding them through meaningful explorations of ideas. These teachers are curriculum-centered as opposed to student-centered.
Fu also mentions how students benefit greatly from speaking – conversation supports the social growth of ELL students, and provides practice speaking. Conversation provides opportunities for excellence as well as mistakes; with the awareness of mistakes students have meaningful experiences that help reinforce the importance of doing something right.
One of the great challenges as a teacher is building community within the classroom. Fu states, “In order to encourage [students] to speak up and participate in class activities, teachers have to build classrooms into friendly communities through constant group sharing and cooperative group activities" (Fu, 198-9). Conversation and sharing of multicultural experiences can help encourage students to think of the classroom as a place where they can hash out conflicts in safe, engaging, and interesting ways. Perhaps the building of organic communities within classrooms might provide the intrinsic motivation for students to perform well on the standardized tests so far removed from the reality of their experiences and interests.