Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Akresh, I. R., Massey, D. S., Frank, R., (2014). Beyond English Proficiency: Rethinking immigrant
The researchers use data from the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) and interview a
representative sample of 8573 immigrants who were granted legal permanent residency
between May and November of 2003.The purpose of the interviews is to investigate how pre-
ability at the time permanent residence was achieved, as well to study interviewees use of
English in social and cultural settings. The authors argue that English language ability is a
necessary though not sufficient condition for social and cultural adjustment, which may
depend on other factors such as pre-migration characteristics, use of English in social settings
etc. The authors draw five conclusions from this research: (1) language adjustment begins in
the origin country; (2) language adjustment continues over the course of the temporary stay in
the US prior to legal immigration; (3) in addition to the language abilities, other factors are
relevant as well to predict the use of English in social situations; (4) the use if English is
positively predicted by many factors such as the current U.S. job, the consumption of English
media in the origin country; (5) little evidence of an ongoing process of cultural adjustment
was found among new legal immigrants to the U.S., at least in terms of the consumption of
host country cultural products . These factors could help to explain the variants of
immigrants language abilities that I observed during and outside the classroom at the
Holmes, P., (2015). The cultural staff around how to talk to people: immigrants intercultural
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communication during a pre-employment work-placement . Language and Intercultural
communication experiences as they enter the workforce in New Zealand through volunteer
communities, funders, and other voluntary organizations about the value of work-placement
programs and the intercultural communication challenges immigrants face when entering the
workplace. Comparing the experiences reported in the paper with my own working
experiences in the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, I could clearly recognize the
Lee, J., & Bean, F.D. (2012). The Diversity Paradox: Immigration and the color-Line in 21st Century
America. Chapter 1: Introduction-Immigration and the color line in America, New York:
In this introductory chapter the research begins the discussion with the election in 2008 of
Barack Obama as President of the US. The authors ask whether the historic color line in the
U.S. society continues to exist and on which side of it the Latino and Asian immigrants fall.
This article reviews the history of intermarriage and multiracial experiences of both Blacks
and new immigrant groups from Asia and Latin America. This history background helps me
within the same immigrant group at the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians.
Wilson, C.E., (2012). Collaboration of Nonprofit Organization with Local Government for Immigrant
The author uses personal interviews, document analyses, and other data to argue that local
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government and nonprofit organizations are core collaboration agents that provide language
access services to immigrants in the City of Philadelphia. The author reviews literature on
nonprofit organizations including Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, as well as
interviews with the leaders of these organizations. The author identifies three implications of
the research for local government and nonprofit organizations:(1) continued need for
stakeholder consultation; (2) ongoing self-assessment and training; and, (3) responding to the
new suburban challenges of immigration. This research helps me understand the challenges
Dudley, L. (2007). Integrating Volunteering into the Adult Immigrant Second Language Experience.
The author of this article recognizes the problem that ESL classes for immigrants are often
not enough to increase their communicative abilities and chances for using English, and
suggests that immigrants could make use of opportunities outside the classroom, such as
social integration. The report of the experiences of volunteer immigrants set a comparison
own experiences with those described in the article helps me develop a broad view in
reflecting on my own experiences. Finally, the recommendations put forward by the author in
the conclusions to integrate volunteering into the ESL curriculum provides one possible
solution to the problem I observed at the Welcoming Center: The immigrants rarely have
This article is written by an international faculty member who is originally from Taiwan and
is now teaching courses of intercultural communication in the U.S. In this article, the author
intercultural communication course at a university where faculty of color are few. Using her
own teaching as a case study, the author critically reflects on how her identity as a non-native
speaker, a foreigner, and an international faculty member affects her teaching. The authors
reflections help me to clearly recognize the challenges I met when I taught ESL class at the
Stewart, M. A. (2010). Writing With Power, Sharing Their Immigrant Stories: Adult ESOL Students
In this article, the author examines methods of improving students writing. In order to help
the foreign-born students who wish to seek permanent residence with their English writing,
the author used methods of integrating students life experiences in their Written
Communication course. Given the generally positive results obtained by using the pedagogy,
the author comes to the conclusion that integrating immigrant students life experiences into
writing tasks helps to improve immigrant students writing skills. The design of the curricula
for the writing course and the various writing assignments the author gave to the students
offer a new approach to course planning in the context of teaching immigrants second
language writing.
after the doctor decided to discharge this patient. After the doctor examined the reasons, it
turned out that the patients fear of being refused by the hospital in the future for further
medical treatment for his identity as an immigrant had motivated the patients refusal to leave
the hospital. This report reveals a problem that is quite common among immigrants:
immigrants access to medical services is not guaranteed because of their immigrant identities
or lack of documents. This report of a real medical case helps me to learn more about the life
of immigrants outside the ESL classroom and have a full view of the challenges that
immigrants meet in their daily life and the difficulty they might need support to deal with.
Pp.709-19
This article discusses three common cultural stereotypes about Asian students in TESOL
classes a) being obedient to authority; b) lack critical thinking skills, and c) do not participate
in classroom interaction. The author argues against the three cultural stereotypes by
reviewing previous researches and literature. In the article, the author also compares the
classroom characteristics of the English native-speakers with those of the Asian students
according to his own teaching experiences. The author argues that the three characteristics
which are regarded as the traits of the Asian students could also be found among native-
speaker students. This article helps me to reflect on my teaching experiences of ESL class in
the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians. The arguments presented could serve as
reminders for me to check whether I have certain cultural stereotypes when evaluating the
Nguyen, H. & Kellogg,G. (2010). I had a stereotype that Americans were fat: becoming a speaker of
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culture in a second language. The Modern Language Journal. 94. pp.56
This article examines how adult ESL learners are socialized by learning the cultural content
materials with the participation of the teacher. The researchers first investigate the students
understanding of stereotype at the beginning of the semester and how their understandings
change as the learning proceeds. Materials such as students blog posts are analyzed. The
authors argue that their analysis demonstrates that second language learning is not only about
the linguistic forms but also ways of behaving and thinking in new communities of practice.
Comparing the analysis of this article with my experiences of being a second language
learner and also an ESL teacher at the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians, I obtain
Communicating beyond language: everyday encounter with diversity (pp.116-23) New York,
NY: Routledge
Rymes argues that we need to look into the communicative repertoire in daily encounters.
The author also puts forward the concepts of candidate repertoire elements, metacommentary,
metapragmatic discourse and metapragmatic function. By using these concepts, I can clearly
experiences. Also, these concepts help me to be aware of the new repertoire I obtained from
the interactions with people. The approach of observing and analyzing communicative
Kramsch, C. (2014). Teaching foreign languages in an era of globalization. The Modern Language
This article first examines the meanings of globalization and examines its influences on FL
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education. The author also discusses issues including how teacher education could prepare FL
educators for the globalization, including helping them decide what contents should be
included in FL classes. This article helps me to reflect on my observations during my
internship and my own teaching in the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians. It also
provides me with a framework to check with when it comes to curricula design in future
teaching.
Rymes, B. (2014). Everyday encounters with diversity in Communicating beyond language: everyday
In this chapter, Rymes briefly makes an overview of how the notion of encounters develops
in different fields. Then the author discusses approaches to course designing which might
help students combine their various communicative repertoires in interactions with others.
Center and also provide possible choices of approaches to designing course assignments for
Rajabali, D. & Mina, R. (2013). The impact of ESL teachers prior language learning experiences on
In this article, researchers investigate 40 experienced Iranian EFL teachers on their beliefs
about teaching grammar and examines to what degree these teachers prior language learning
experiences influence their current beliefs. Researchers collect data by using questionnaires
and interviews, from which they analyze the variations of teachers beliefs about teaching the
grammar. The research shows that teachers previous language learning experiences have
significant influences on their beliefs. The authors suggest that teachers might reflect on their
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prior beliefs and incorporate them into the empirical knowledge of teaching and pedagogy.
This study reminds me of reflecting on my previous language learning experiences and their
influences on my teaching. The authors suggestions raise my attentions to adjust my own
In M. Hood (ed), Proceedings of the 2008 Temple University Japan Colloquium on Language
In this article, Ishihara looks into the phenomenon of pragmatic resistance which means the
L2 learners deliberately ignore L2 community norms even though they have the knowledge
of the community practice.The researcher analyzes reasons for this phenomenon. The article
first examines two cases which display L2 learners pragmatic resistance and then analyzes
the traits and reasons of these resistance.The author suggests that pragmatic resistance could
assessments. This study helps me to view the pragmatic misuse in multi-perspectives and
Akresh, I.R., & Frank, R. (2011). At the intersection of self and other: English language ability and
In this article, researchers use the data from New Immigrant Survey 2003 and investigate the
relations between the labor market outcomes and the self-estimations of the immigrants
language proficiency. They argue that although self-assessed language proficiency dominates
in the studies on immigrants well-being, this measure neglects an important additional factor
concerning immigrant self-perception and its agreement with the perceptions of others. This
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study makes me rethink my responses to the immigrants statements about their own English
proficiency in the Welcoming Center. It also raises my cautions about explicitly giving my
own assessments to my students, since that might influence the estimates of their own
English proficiency, which might negatively influence their labor market outcomes.
Ishihara, N. & Cohen, A. (2010). Theories of language acquisition and the teaching of
pragmatics.Teaching and learning pragmatics: Where language and culture meet. UK:
Pearson Longman.
In this article, Ishihara and Cohen provide an overview of the theories of second language
acquisition and framework related to identity, speech accommodation, and second language
socialization. The overview of the theories help me better understand how language learning
works and how social, cultural, psychological and emotional factors influence L2 pragmatic
learning and use. These theories provides me with references that I might refer to in future