Time vs. Dominant Group

Week: 4

Chapter: 4

Levi - Idea Illustrator

      Time is the guiding principle for second language acquisition (SLA).  Valdés et al. (2011) documented the progress of several English language learners (ELLs) over the course of two years.  During these two years the students' abilities to comprehend spoken English and speak English was analyzed.  In most cases the students progressed from single word responses to choice or yes/no questions to providing multiword spontaneous comments; many were also able to provide brief explanations within a given context.  I believe that providing these students with time to interact with the English language has allowed them to, in many instances, make great progress in SLA.  I believe that more time to interact with English would have allowed them to make even greater progress.  With that being said, I found a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lbw3KRyymo&feature=related ) that reverses the tides.  That is, in this setting it is the English speaking students that are learning Spanish.  While watching this video I was reminded of our class discussion on the Social Dominance Theory.  As a reminder, the "Social Dominance Theory attempts to explain why society seems to be underpinned by a hierarchy of groups, ranging from dominant to subordinate.  According to this theory, many myths, policies, and practices in society unfairly advantage dominant groups over subordinate groups" (Diversity Concepts/Theories handout).   In the video the students, native English speakers learning Spanish, are presented as achieving great feats.  The video even goes so far as to use a professional NASCAR driver to advocate the superiority of these students.  The power of the dominant group enables these English speaking students to achieve superior knowledge by learning a second language.  Returning to Valdés et al., the Spanish speaking students are not raised to a superior level by attempting to learn English.  It is my opinion that the students who are participating in one-on-one English (Valdés et al.) are not even being provided by their school with the resources necessary to learn (although Valdés et al. are taking a step in the right direction).   The issue of the dominant group and their power is evident when comparing these two sources.  What can we do as a society to help close this gap? And, even more immediately, what can we do as educators to close the gap in our own school and classroom?