Blog 4

The major points of this section in the article are that English should not be viewed or treated as a language that only belongs to one community or nation, but one that is multilingual and is open discretion by other countries and ethnicities of people who consider it to be their first language or one of their languages. As said in the article, “They know that there are millions of people around the world who use varieties like their own and are open to negotiating differences with sensitivity and skill. Therefore, they are now using their own varieties with greater confidence” (589). This quote highlights the main point of the article, because the article is essentially saying that there is no need to classify English as one language that has no room for personalization or expression. The article is defending the fact that English is spoken all over the world, and is interpreted in different ways by different people. Once we all become comfortable with accepting the differences in how we each speak our own version of English, we become comfortable within ourselves to express our on “varieties” of our own English. Another main point of the article is that we cannot restrict one form of English to only the place that it is practiced. If one country has a version of English that they go by, we cannot reject that English when they try to use it in a different place that practices their own commonly held English. Lastly in relation with TESOL style of teaching, the author brings up an interesting point that students should not be taught to learn only by a set of grammatical rules in their new language but by trying to incorporate old and new languages with strategies. This encourages students to want to learn, as they don't feel that they are failing by trying. This also makes them feel as if they are not leaving their first language behind in the process of learning a new one.

What I have gained from this article is a new perspective on my own practice of English. I have never noticed myself becoming biased towards my own practice of English, but it has also never registered to me that there is more than just one practice of English. As a white girl who has a decent amount of privilege and grew up with English as her first language, I always just assumed that my English tongue was grammatically correct and the version of English that everyone else should speak by as well. It did not occur to me very much before this article that although I don’t realize it so often, the English I speak is not the only english that there is. So reading this article gave me a more level head and made me want to re evaluate my teaching abilities in relation to this. In regards to why this information would be important to consider when teaching a middle school or high school language arts class, it is clear to me that this information is far beyond merely consideration. This material is fundamental to the success within a classroom. For a teacher to be able to appreciate and understand that every student that walks into her classroom comes from a different ethnic and socioeconomic background, is for that teacher to understand that her mind must be broad and accepting for all forms of comprehension and learning as it pertains to language arts.