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Journal on reading “Becoming a Cultural Insider: How Holidays Can Help ESL Students' Acculturation and Language Learning” written by Natasha Lvovich
Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (USA)
The main point of the essay is to reveal that holidays can help ESL students’ acculturation and language learning through author's learning and ESL teaching experiences in the USA.
In the essay, the author mentions 2 books that she used in the ESL writing program. One of them is "Two years in the Melting Pot", Liu Zongren, who is a Chinese and tried his best to fit into the country but still became an outsider of the melting pot at the end. The author provides a failed example of acculturation to contrast with herself experience in USA which gradually enrich the content of being an outsider to an insider of the new country year by year. For a new arrival in the US, they all look for a sense of accepting and being accepted. Thus, the author thinks in order to do that, they need to build not only an intellectual, but an emotional connection to their new land. And, reading, learning and socializing marks the beginning of this process. She thinks that a holiday can create the intellectual context for learning, and it is through this learning that the emotional integration might occur. So she tried to become part of this country by joining its holidays.
Holidays are part of history, culture, and life. Holidays are very important for us: they "glue" us to people around us by being a common experience, a socially meaningful historical event or a cultural/religious celebration. To live in the United State, it is very important to be on the same ground with the people who live around. After reading the article, I think of myself 2-year experience living in the US. During the holidays, we all go for celebrating as the local people do. It does help my acculturation and language learning. During Christmas, people shop for the gifts and spend their holiday with their family, decorate their house with lights and beautiful Christmas trees, playing the Christmas songs around…everything about Christmas help me learn more about the meaning of Christmas, the origin of Christmas, things to decorate the Christmas tree, foods to eat in Christmas, lots of exploration. We might all start learning a language with the intellectual part, getting into holidays is a good way of melting into a new culture and learning the language. But it is not easy to become an insider especially for Eastern. And the authentic problem, English learners in Taiwan, they don’t really have the authentic environment to explore as much as the ESLs in US do. As an English teacher, one must provide dynamic learning resource for Taiwan learners to expose.
Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (USA)
The main point of the essay is to reveal that holidays can help ESL students’ acculturation and language learning through author's learning and ESL teaching experiences in the USA.
In the essay, the author mentions 2 books that she used in the ESL writing program. One of them is "Two years in the Melting Pot", Liu Zongren, who is a Chinese and tried his best to fit into the country but still became an outsider of the melting pot at the end. The author provides a failed example of acculturation to contrast with herself experience in USA which gradually enrich the content of being an outsider to an insider of the new country year by year. For a new arrival in the US, they all look for a sense of accepting and being accepted. Thus, the author thinks in order to do that, they need to build not only an intellectual, but an emotional connection to their new land. And, reading, learning and socializing marks the beginning of this process. She thinks that a holiday can create the intellectual context for learning, and it is through this learning that the emotional integration might occur. So she tried to become part of this country by joining its holidays.
Holidays are part of history, culture, and life. Holidays are very important for us: they "glue" us to people around us by being a common experience, a socially meaningful historical event or a cultural/religious celebration. To live in the United State, it is very important to be on the same ground with the people who live around. After reading the article, I think of myself 2-year experience living in the US. During the holidays, we all go for celebrating as the local people do. It does help my acculturation and language learning. During Christmas, people shop for the gifts and spend their holiday with their family, decorate their house with lights and beautiful Christmas trees, playing the Christmas songs around…everything about Christmas help me learn more about the meaning of Christmas, the origin of Christmas, things to decorate the Christmas tree, foods to eat in Christmas, lots of exploration. We might all start learning a language with the intellectual part, getting into holidays is a good way of melting into a new culture and learning the language. But it is not easy to become an insider especially for Eastern. And the authentic problem, English learners in Taiwan, they don’t really have the authentic environment to explore as much as the ESLs in US do. As an English teacher, one must provide dynamic learning resource for Taiwan learners to expose.
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