Professional Documents
Culture Documents
C&T 598
27 June 2019
Instructional Narrative
According to the various websites I looked at English varied in what it was ranked as
“Most Used Languages in the US,” but regardless of the website it was top three, as one of the
most used languages in the world there are still debates about the proper way to speak and/ or
teach it. Because Braj Kachru efforts in the TESOL community there is a now a consensus that
English not one language, but it is created by the influences of other cultures. The United States
is known as the “melting pot”, meaning it represents various countries and cultures, as a leading
country in speaking English with the identity of been composed of various cultures is it not fair
In Suresh Canagarajaha’s paper, In Search of a New Paradigm for Teaching English as
an International Language h e explains how TESOL needs to become focused on more practical
knowledge rather than just regurgitating knowledge. According to Suresh Canagarajah, “Kachru
envisioned English as a package of diverse varieties, with local norms in different native and
nonnative communities” (Canagarjah 2014). Meaning English is not based off of one culture or
country or race, English has developed and changed for hundreds of years based off of the
cultures it has interacted with. In Canagaraja’s article he explains how he has broken up the
components that are critical for developing procedural knowledge, they consist of language
awareness, rhetorical sensitivity, and negotiation strategies. What I found most important to not
only TESOL education but to the lessons I have created while here is rhetorical sensitivity, after
introducing these ideas Canagaraja says “rhetoric sensitivity is often used for literature or
classical studies however, TESOL professionals are increasingly realizing the importance of
features such as creativity, voice, and genre in communication.” (Canagarjah 2014) I thought this
was a crucial take away because when trying to create these lessons I really wanted to focus on
creativity and communication, Sophia and my lesson plans were not heavily writing based but
heavily speaking, creativity and movement based. Sophia and I created a lesson based off of
slang, the idea behind this was that is essential to know slang or informal english due to how
When debating what to do we decided we wanted to create a lesson that would be the
most practical for the students if they were to travel to America in the near future and wanted to
know what was considered hip. After careful consideration I realized a couple flaws with
teaching students american a slang as a legitimate lesson; first, it will not be relevant forever.
The problem with slang is that is a fad, more often than not adults can not pick up or stay up to
date with the slang because it changes so often. While the second flaw is that it is American
slang, American slang with not be popular in any other English speaking country. Even in the
inner circle countries where English is the first language that does not mean English slang will
carry across to other countries where English is spoken. However, for the students that want to
travel to America learning colloquial language will be extremely useful for them to understand
simple and local conversations. This is relevant because English does not belong to any country,
every country has their own cultures that have influenced their English. Learning American
Slang, although English will only be relevant in one country, or in countries heavily influenced
by American Pop Culture. Canagaraja says, “In the context of globalization, our interactions are
becoming highly unpredictable. We interact with speakers from diverse backgrounds, with
different languages, values, and proficiencies” (Canagaraja 2014). This is the idea that languages
are influenced by cultures; whether it is food, activities, or slang, languages are not possessed by
a country of the inner circle, it is a language influenced by everyone who speaks it and
implements it in their culture. Canagaraja also says “As speakers from two different backgrounds
interact in English, they will use resources from their first, second, or diverse other languages
from their repertoire. As they collaborate with each other in attaining their communicative
objectives, they construct certain norms that make their interaction possible.” (Canagaraja 2014)
This means there could be two non native English speakers conversing, using English as a lingua
franca and implementing their native languages into the conversations. Having the ability to do
this would give the opportunity to introduce new cultures into their English, where they could
Language does not belong to anyone, the stigma that American English the correct
English to speak is a stigma that desperately needs to be broken. Throughout my two lesson
plans where Sophia and I tried to implement American culture in Korean students daily
education I realized how we speak the same language and they know very little about American
pop culture. Although understandable the stigma that America is a superior country and everyone
should strive to speak American English made me believe students attempting to learn American
culture would also strive to learn American pop culture as well. I hope after two weeks of
teaching the limited amount of pop culture knowledge we gave the students helped increase their
interests in american pop culture if they are interested in studying there due to the knowledge
Lesson 1 reflection
I think Sophia and I designed a really unique and fun lessons, I think it was really easy
for the students to grasp the concept of slang which was awesome because the last thing we
wanted was a difficult lesson for the students. I would say our energy was great as well as the
introduction and teaching part of our lesson especially for the first lesson. The execution of the
activities for our lessons struggled during the first lesson, the directions were not clear and
students were not paying attention which made it more difficult to understand the directions. As
the week progressed the lessons began to get better, we changed the activities to charades and
skits and used korean words to make the directions easier to use. At the end of the lesson we did
skits, the skits were executed really well and the girls seem to really enjoy it!! The objectives
were to get students to learn slang and execute speaking it and they did a great job speaking and
the skits were adorable. For the first lesson, when we were doing charades the girls were going
by way too fast because again, our directions were not clear. After that we had to recreate the
directions in the middle of the lesson, we changed it from students going at their own pace
grabbing words to Sophia showing the words all at once to the girls and them having to act it out
then. By doing this it kept the girls at the same pace. I was really hoping the girls would pick up
the words and start showing them to their friends, on multiple occasions we had students come
up to us and ask us if the words were being used right, or they would run up and show us
american songs that used the words we taught them and asked if they were right.We also heard
students in the hallways using the words, it felt the point of the lesson was received and that felt
great! I think new language was difficult for them but again it was well received, I think the
biggest success was how much the students enjoyed the lesson and implemented
Lesson two reflection
I think the lesson went awesome this week, it was visibly more fun for the students,
Sophia and me, and the other KU students who participated. This week we taught the students
“popular american dances,” it seemed like a perfect lesson regardless of the time of day or which
day during the week because they were tired regardless and this was a great way to get them
moving. I think another great part about this lesson is how stressed the girls are as their finals are
coming up and this lesson was a nice break from their daily lives of hard work, it was a fifty
minute breather. I think our lesson could have used writing in order to be a more rounded lesson.
In regards to the objectives I do think they were met by all the students, I would say 95% of the
students in every class we engaged and excited about the lesson and by the end of the hour were
able to do the dances we taught. Because students were dancing it was easier to see who was
fully grasping the dancing concepts. We were able to test their grasp of the dances and concepts
by playing simon says. Since our lesson was so movement and speaking based there was not a lot
of information being exchanged between us and the students, we wanted students to grasp the
dances while understanding where they came from, where they were used, and why they were
popular. Simon Says was a great way to make sure the girls understood how to do the dances and
why we were doing them. This lesson was more unorthodox and because of that it was harder to
spot out the errors the girls were making. If the girls were unable to grasp the dance Sophia or I
would walk up and show them one-on-one and break it down, this seemed to help significantly. I
would like to think this lesson was not incredibly difficult for the students, although the majority
of the dances we taught them were new to them they picked them all up easily. I think Sophia
and I were both surprised when we played Simon Says with every class and every class did great,
it was more difficult to get them out than we both expected. Overall, I think this weeks lesson
was significantly better than last week, I think it was engaging and much needed for the students
this week regardless of if it did not meet the english objectives. Our lesson could have met more
objectives this week but I think they were able to learn more about pop culture, get up and move,