OPEN HOUSE 2012 FIFTH COURSE

AMERICAN LITERATURE -OPEN HOUSE 2012

FROM THE TIME MACHINE TO THE JAZZ ERA.!!!!!!!!!!!

FIFTH COURSE - ITALIAN/GERMAN A2 - CLASS OF 2012

This year the Fifth Course  students from the School of Languages extraordinarily represented and described how African Americans were kidnapped by slave traders and were shipped to North American. This narrative was an account which describes this horrifying journey.

The interresting Narrative of the Life of Olauda Equiano. 1745/1797. This hand-made book  depicted his painful  journey. Equiano´s writing demonstrates the important influence slave narratives have in documenting historic events.

Ernesto Ortíz, presenter in the Open House. 

As the nation´s boundaries pushed west in the 19th century, writers were pioneering new styles of poetry. Emily Dickinson combined striking languages and a highly imaginative view of the world. She helped set the stage for  a new American Poetry.  Her poem "Because I could not stop for Death".

Characters from an excert of The Scarlett Letter, from  Nathaniel Hawthorne.

President Abraham Lincoln fought to reunite the nation torn apart by war.  During his greatest speech "The Gettysburg Address" delivered November 19, 1863 . 

Living in a changing world. Kate Chopin (1850-1904), became one of the most powerful writers of her time. She captured the local color of Louisiana and the role of women in society, the nature of marriage, racial prejudice and women´s desire for social, economic and political equaility. .."Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble....but at the end...doctors came and said that she had died of heart disease -of  joy that kills......

The 1920s was a frenzied decade that began on January 1, 1920 and ended on December 31, 1929. It is sometimes referred to as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age. Flappers wore short skirts, bobbed their hair and  listened to jazz. During this time women were able to vote in the United States. Radio arrived and movies became big business.  Fads abounded, racoon coats, flagpole sitting and a dance called the Charleston. 

This was a great experience for our future ESL teachers because students  make connections between our time and times past and help them learn how not to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors and respect other cultures.  It  broaden the perspective of history and make the learning experience richer, helps solidify information and makes them think more about what  they are reading. 

THE GHOST TOUR AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 1750
FIFTH COURSE - ENGLISH-FRENCH

The entrance to the Ghost tour of American Literature

Poetry from Puritan Anne Bradstreet.

Group of students after rehearsal. Dory, Gina, 

Jennifer portrays Emily Dickinson and her poem "Because I could not stop for death". Extraordinary!!!!

Martha and Ricardo portrayed Reverend Dimsdale and Hester Pryme.

Sin, lust and passion in the Scarlet Letter. 

Music and spooky effects done by Byron. Good job!!

Edgar Alan Poe and his lovely and eternal  Anabelle.

Interesting Narrative of sufferings of Olaudah Equiano.

An unexpected  and spooky zombies ending dance.!!!

My Fifth course students after the dramatizations. Excellent ideas and scenes. My deepest congratulations!! actors and future teachers.

Visitors formed a long line and waited patiently to learn about american writers and poets who highlighted the literature during the 1750s. 

THANKS TO VISITORS AND TEACHERS.

Source: http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-materials/teaching-materials-using-literature-in-the-efl/-esl-classroom/146508.article

1. Teaching materials: using literature in the EFL/ ESL classroom

   By Lindsay Clandfield
   Level: Starter/beginner, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper intermediate, Advanced Type:Reference material
   • Share
     
   • Comments (3)
   • Rate
   An article discussing ways to use literature in the EFL/ESL classroom.

   ---

   Literature has been a subject of study in many countries at a secondary or tertiary level, but until recently has not been given much emphasis in the EFL/ESL classroom. It has only been since the 1980s that this area has attracted more interest among EFL teachers. The purpose of this article is to look at some of the issues and ways in which literature can be exploited in the classroom. There are also links to classroom activities and lessons with literature that you can download and use straight away.
   What is literature?
   First of all, any method or approach towards using literature in the classroom must take as a starting point the question: What is literature? The Macmillan English Dictionary gives the following definition:
   Many authors, critics and linguists have puzzled over what literature is. One broader explanation of literature says that literary texts are products that reflect different aspects of society. They are cultural documents which offer a deeper understanding of a country or countries (Basnet & Mounfold 1993). Other linguists say that there is no inherent quality to a literary text that makes a literary text, rather it is the interpretation that the reader gives to the text (Eagleton 1983). This brings us back to the above definition in the sense that literature is only literature if it is considered as art.
   Before doing any study of a literary text with your learners, one idea would be to ask them what they think literature is. Attached below is a short discussion lesson you can do with your students on the subject “What is literature?”
   Why use literature?There are many good reasons for using literature in the classroom. Here are a few:
   • Literature is authentic material. It is good to expose learners to this source of unmodified language in the classroom because they skills they acquire in dealing with difficult or unknown language can be used outside the class.
   • Literature encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of meaning, and can be effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or opinions.
   • Literature expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated or non standard examples of language (which can occur in literary texts) makes them more aware of the norms of language use (Widdowson, 1975 quoted by Lazar 1993).
   • Literature educates the whole person. By examining values in literary texts, teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom.
   • Literature is motivating. Literature holds high status in many cultures and countries. For this reason, students can feel a real sense of achievement at understanding a piece of highly respected literature. Also, literature is often more interesting than the texts found in coursebooks.
   Different models of teaching literature in classThere have been different models suggested on the teaching of literature to ESL/EFL students (Carter & Long, Lazar). How the teacher will use a literary text depends on the model they choose.
   The cultural model views a literary text as a product. This means that it is treated as a source of information about the target culture. It is the most traditional approach, often used in university courses on literature. The cultural model will examine the social, political and historical background to a text, literary movements and genres. There is no specific language work done on a text. This approach tends to be quite teacher-centred.
   The language model aims to be more learner-centred. As learners proceed through a text, they pay attention to the way language is used. They come to grips with the meaning and increase their general awareness of English. Within this model of studying literature, the teacher can choose to focus on general grammar and vocabulary (in the same way that these are presented in coursebooks for example) or use stylistic analysis. Stylistic analysis involves the close study of the linguistic features of the text to enable students to make meaningful interpretations of the text – it aims to help learners read and study literature more competently.
   The personal growth model is also a process-based approach and tries to be more learner-centred. This model encourages learners to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal experiences. It aims for interaction between the text and the reader in English, helping make the language more memorable. Learners are encouraged to “make the text their own”. This model recognises the immense power that literature can have to move people and attempts to use that in the classroom.
   Attached below are two lessons which draw on a combination of the language approach and the personal growth approach. Both are based on short texts: either extracts or poems.
   
   Using literature over a longer period of time – the set novel or reader
   The above lesson plans are all based on short extracts or poems and can therefore easily be used over one class period. However, there are very good reasons for encouraging learners to read books. Extensive reading is an excellent way of improving English, and it can be very motivating to finish an entire book in another language. In addition, many international exams have certain optional questions on them that pertain to set novels each year. One option that is now available to language teachers is the wide range of simplified and inexpensive versions of literary texts, called readers (see Onestop Shop for a list of readers for different levels). Setting up a class library of novels and readers, if you have the resources, is an excellent idea. Tim Bowen and Jonathan Marks, in their book Inside Teaching, recommend the following ideas for extensive reading of literature:
   • Hold brief classroom discussions on what learners have been reading (progress reports).
   • Ask learners to describe a book they like in such a way to make others want to read it.
   • Select a short novel which has been recently made into a film or TV series with which your learners are familiar.
   In addition, there is a list of general questions about novels or readers attached at the bottom of the page that could be given for students to answer in written form (they are based on questions from the Cambridge First Certificate Exam).

   ---

   DIY literature lesson plan
   
   In our first Methodology article on Using Literature, there were two sample lesson plans based on an excerpt or a short story. Both followed a similar lesson plan format, outlined below. This sort of lesson plan works well for extracts from stories, poems or extracts from plays.
   Stage one: warmerThere are two different possible routes you can take for this stage:
   • Devise a warmer that gets students thinking about the topic of the extract or poem. This could take several forms: a short discussion that students do in pairs, a whole class discussion, a guessing game between you and the class or a brainstorming of vocabulary around that topic.
   • Devise a warmer that looks at the source of the literature that will be studied. Find out what the students already know about the author or the times he/she was writing in. Give the students some background information to read (be careful not to make this too long or it will detract from the rest of the lesson; avoid text overload!). Explain in what way this piece of literature is well-known (maybe it is often quoted in modern films or by politicians). This sort of warmer fits more into the cultural model of teaching literature (see Literature in the Classroom 1)
   Stage two: before readingThis stage could be optional, or it may be a part of the warmer. Preparing to read activities include:
   • Pre-teaching very difficult words (note: pre-teaching vocabulary should be approached with caution. Often teachers “kill” a text by spending too much time on the pre-teaching stage. Limit the amount of words you cover in this stage. If you have to teach more than seven or eight there is a good chance the text will be too difficult.)
   • Predicting. Give students some words from the extract and ask them to predict what happens next. If it is a play, give them a couple of lines of dialogue and ask them to make predictions about the play.
   • Giving students a “taste”. Read the first bit of the extract (with their books closed, or papers turned over) at normal speed, even quickly. Ask students to compare what they have understood in pairs. Then ask them to report back to you. Repeat the first bit again. Then ask them to open the book (or turn over the page) and read it for themselves.
   Stage three: understanding the text, general comprehensionOften with extracts or poems, I like to read the whole thing to my students so that they can get more of a “feel” for the text. With very evocative pieces of literature or poetry this can be quite powerful. Then I let students read it to themselves. It is important to let students approach a piece of literature the first time without giving them any specific task other than to simply read it. One of the aims of teaching literature is to evoke interest and pleasure from the language. If students have to do a task at every stage of a literature lesson, the pleasure can be lost.
   Once students have read it once, you can set comprehension questions or ask them to explain the significance of certain key words of the text. Another way of checking comprehension is to ask students to explain to each other (in pairs) what they have understood. This could be followed up by more subjective questions (e.g.. Why do you think X said this? How do you think the woman feels? What made him do this?)
   Stage four: understanding the language
   At this stage get to grips with the more difficult words in the text. See how many of the unfamiliar words students can get from context. Give them clues.
   You could also look at certain elements of style that the author has used. Remember that there is some use in looking at non-standard forms of language to understand the standard.
   If appropriate to the text, look at the connotation of words which the author has chosen. For example, if the text says “She had long skinny arms,” what does that say about the author’s impression of the woman? Would it be different if the author had written “She had long slender arms”?

   ---

   Stage five: follow up activities
   
   Once you have read and worked with your piece of literature it might naturally lead on to one or more follow up activities. Here are some ideas:
   Using poems
   • have students read each other the poem aloud at the same time, checking for each other’s pronunciation and rhythm. Do a whole class choral reading at the end.
   • Ask students to rewrite the poem, changing the meaning but not the structure.
   • Ask students to write or discuss the possible story behind the poem. Who was it for? What led to the writing of this poem?
   • Have a discussion on issues the poem raised and how they relate to the students’ lives.
   Using extracts from stories or short stories
   • Ask students to write what they think will happen next, or what they think happened just before.
   • Ask students to write a background character description of one of the characters which explains why they are the way they are.
   • Ask students to imagine they are working for a big Hollywood studio who wants to make a movie from the book. They must decide the location and casting of the movie.
   • Ask students to personalise the text by talking about if anything similar has happened to them.
   • Ask students to improvise a role play between two characters in the book.
   Using extracts from playsMost of the ideas from stories (above) could be applied here, but obviously, this medium gives plenty of opportunity for students to do some drama in the classroom. Here are some possibilities:
   • Ask students to act out a part of the scene in groups.
   • Ask students to make a radio play recording of the scene. They must record this onto cassette. Listen to the different recordings in the last five minutes of future classes. Who’s was the best?
   • Ask students to read out the dialogue but to give the characters special accents (very “foreign” or very “American” or “British”). This works on different aspects of pronunciation (individual sounds and sentence rhythm).
   • Ask students to write stage directions, including how to deliver lines (e.g. angrily, breathlessly etc) next to each character’s line of dialogue. Then they read it out loud.
   • Ask students to re-write the scene. They could either modernise it (this has been often done with Shakespeare), or imagine that it is set in a completely different location (in space for example). Then they read out the new version.
   Potential problemsProblem 1: Where do I find material?Of course you may have a novel or book of poetry that you have been dying to use with your students for a long time. But where can you get more material? Easy! The internet brings you instant access to many works of literature. Use a search engine. Usually it is enough to key in the name of the author or the book you are looking for. Older books and plays can sometimes be found entirely on-line.
   The following sites are excellent for book excerpts and stories:
   • www.bookbrowse.com - a really great site which allows you to read an excerpt from a multitude of recently published books. You can search by author, book title or genre!
   • www.readersread.com - brings you the first chapter of many recently published books.
   Literature doesn’t have to mean “books written by dead white English or American men”. Look for literature from other English speaking countries (there is lots and lots) to give your students a richer variety of work written in the English language. Bookbrowse.com (above) for instance has a whole section on Asian and Indian writers. You can also try the following link: www.blackliterature.com
   Try the following two sites for poetry:
   • www.favoritepoem.org - a site collecting America’s favourite poems. You can also read comments about why people like them and hear them being read aloud.
   • www.emule.com/poetry - an archive of classical poetry, easy to browse through by poet. Has a top ten list of favourite poems (chosen by visitors to the site) which makes an interesting starting point.
   Problem 2: How do I choose material?Think about the following factors when you choose a piece of literature to use with learners:
   • Do you understand enough about the text to feel comfortable using it?
   • Is there enough time to work on the text in class?
   • Does it fit with the rest of your syllabus?
   • Is it something that could be relevant to the learners?
   • Will it be motivating for them?
   • How much cultural or literary background do the learners need to be able to deal with the tasks?
   • Is the level of language in the text too difficult (see below)
   Problem 3: Is the text too difficult?Obviously a teacher would not want to use a text that is completely beyond their learners. This would ultimately be frustrating for everyone involved. However, the immediate difficulty with vocabulary in a text might not be an obstacle to its comprehension. Learners can be trained to infer meaning of difficult words from context. The selection of a text must be given careful thought, but also the treatment of the text by the teacher (this means think about the tasks you set for a reading of a piece of literature, not just the text).

   ---

   
   
   WE ALSO INCLUDED THIS INFORMATION.
   http://www.ninsee.nl/UNESCO-day-to-remember-slavery
   http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/remembrance-day-transatlantic-slaves

    

   INTERNATIONAL DAY TO REMEMBER SLAVERY

   On 23 August, we celebrate the UNESCO day for the commemoration of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. NiNsee organizes an annual lecture to commemorate our first director Glenn Willemsen on this day.  The lecture is free and open to the public.  Guests are welcome to visit the NiNsee exhibitions for free before the lecture begins.  

   This year, Dr. Rebecca de Bies from Anton de Kom University in Suriname presented an insightful and inspiring lecture entitled 'LANGUAGE LOSS AND AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SURINAME AND THE CARIBBEAN.' 

   
   

   WOMEN´S SUFFRAGE

   http://www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
   On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right and the campaign was not easy. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, all American women and declaring for the first time tha they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. 

Teaching English with minimal resources | Onestopenglish

Teaching English with minimal resources | Onestopenglish

Motivating Students | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University

Motivating Students | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University

Vocabulary Viewer for Elementary ESL Students

Vocabulary Viewer for Elementary ESL Students

Educational Activities: Improving speaking abilities ESL College Students School of Languages, Univ. Guayaquil 2010

Developing speaking skills in ESL Beginner College Level Students- Large Groups (65 students - 1 teacher) - Research September 2010. School of Languages, Guayaquil, Ecuador, South America.

Skills: Improve speaking abilities. Reinforce grammar structure (past tense, Wh and affirmative and negative questions

Students who entered First College level at the School of Languages have a good English proficiency level, they are good in basic grammar, they follow patterns and structures. They have a good vocabulary background and pronunciation. They can understand some basic orders in English and they can understand the teacher´s instructions, but when it comes to follow an English conversation with an English speaking person or an ESL, there is no proficiency and understanding. Considering all these aspects, I am giving an extra emphasis on improving their speaking abilities.

Advantages of my students: Enthusiasm, desire to learn

Disadvantages: fear to talk in public, failure,

I have worked First Course with the Book American File 1a/b from Oxford. One interesting activity to develop the speaking abilities on my students was a story from a graded suspense reader from the book "Murder in a Mansion".

Firstly, I let the students listened to the tape with the books closed, some important vocabulary was explained and pronounced, then they worked in groups of seven to find out who the murder was and they answered the questions from the book. For practice, they read they listened to the story at home and for the next class they read it in groups and their classmates checked on pronunciation errors.

As this story generated suspense on the students, my next step was to act out the story. The groups were chosen randomly and they had a week to decide on their characters, lines and costumes. I was thrilled to listen to extraordinary actors and actresses, great costumes and structures and phrases were easy to repeat, learn and understand.
Observations:This activity took me a week to finish, but it helped students to feel comfortable with their English level and improved peer interaction. I also noticed that some quiet students did outstanding presentations and they felt very comfortable with their voice, accent and group work.a

Beneath all the fun, the students were practicing fluency, grammar structures and felt comfortable and proud with their knowledge. I only grade my students on their own effort, fluency, but not on pronunciation

This is a great activity to make students get involve in the language, improve their fluency, peer interaction, creativity, independence and social skills. I was extremely excited about my students´presentations.

T

Actividad: Desarrollo de las destrezas auditivas y orales en alumnos de Primer Curso de la Universidad de Guayaquil, Escuela de Lenguas y Linguisticas, Guayaquil, Ecuador, America del Sur.

Los alumnos que ingresan a la Escuela de Lenguas y Linguisticas de la Universidad de Guayaquil, lo hacen con el proposito de preparase para ser los futuros docentes en Lenguas Extranjeras. Desde el primer año de estudios, los alumnos toman 15 horas semanales de Inglés. En su mayoria los alumnos que ingresar al PrimerCurso poseen un buen conocimiento de la gramatica inglesa, tienen un vocabulario medio. Pueden comprender y responder a ciertas comando en Ingles que la profesora les indique perfectamente. Las areas que necesitan ser desarrolladas y reorzadas en los estudiantes son sus habilidades orales y auditivas en el idioma. Facilmente pueden comprender las instrucciones del docente y mantener una pequeña conversacion a nivel basico con respuestas cortas y directas y es aqui donde los docentes de lenguas extranjeras necesitamos reforzar las areas auditivas y orales.

Yo he trtbajado el Primer Curso con el libro American File a/b editado para desarrollar y mejorar las cuatro habilidades en estudiantes de ingles como segunda lengua.

La lectura de "Muder in a Mansion" fue dramatizada por los alumnos en grupos de 6 alumnos, siguiendo los procesos de

Las dramatizaciones

questions.

First Course English 100 - College Level Universidad de Guayaquil - School of Languages

The American Culture 2009.

POSTERS - 1st Course Activity.
Skills: Improve the speaking abilities and enrich the  vocabulary.

AMERICAN HOLIDAYS. !!Feel part of the American Culture.

To make students feel close to the American culture, I found on internet a very interesting and especial information about holidays. For the last two years my students have worked these activities with the students to improve their speaking abilities.

The information is in www.eslholidays.com. As soon as they have their assigned topic, they get in their group, they distribute activities within members, create the poster, sometimes they paste the holiday information in the middle of the poster and take turns to give their oral speech. I believe this is a great activity for big classes because there are so many traditional and cultural holidays that I have enough information for all my 60 to 70 students.

I usually schedule the oral presentation on a Friday as it takes me 90 minutes to listen to the assigned group, classmates questions and my feedback on this holiday and how different or similar it is with holidays in our country.

This is an excellent activity to reinforce group work, improve peer interaction, creativity and oral skills. I do not grade my students on grammar or pronunciation. I give a grade for group interaction, responsiblity and meaning of some important vocabulary. I do not stress on grammar issues or pronunciation because this is not a drill, this is understanding, sharing ideas and being able to answer some direct questions from peers and teacher.

Students are very creative with their posters. The information is placed on the Main Floor a week ahead the announced holiday for students to know about it.

Article form Tesjl. Credit.

Becoming a Cultural Insider: How Holidays Can Help ESL Students' Acculturation and Language Learning

Natasha Lvovich
nlvovich [at] kbcc.cuny.edu
Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (USA)

Introduction

I wrote this essay while teaching the lower ESL class of the Kingsborough Community College ESL Intensive Program, where students become part of the block curriculum, unified by the theme, Discovering the Self between Cultures. In this reading and writing class, students read and discussed authentic literature in relation to the topic (The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Two years in the Melting Pot by Liu Zongren). They also wrote essays about their own immigrant inter-cultural and language learning experiences in connection with their readings and compiling autobiographical books out of their essays as their term project.One of the essay topics in this class, related to Liu Zongren's book, invited the students to think about their attitudes to American holidays as part of their acculturation process. Preparing the topic for my students and working on the pre-writing discussions, I realized that along with them, I had something important to say. Teaching writing as a process and guiding my students through multiple drafts, I followed my own feeling and thinking on paper, which led me to writing this essay. Writing this essay along with my students allowed me to articulate and discover an aspect of my own acculturation into the U.S. as well as to become a real example for my students. It is with a great deal of joy that we shared our immigrant and writing experiences.

Two Years Outside/Inside the Melting Pot

In his book, Two years in the Melting Pot, Liu Zongren, a Chinese journalist on a visit to the US, discusses, among other things, his struggle to acculturate to life in the U.S. Despite his strong motivation to learn the language and the culture, he finds himself in a situation of emotional torment and deep depression. He longs for home and for his family and often takes a defensive position about his own culture and country, sometimes demonstrating some sort of Chinese "cultural supremacy."During his stay in the U.S., Liu was able to gain the knowledge of the American culture and to acquire fluency in English. Through his intellectual and social explorations, his sharp observations of the American society, and his ambition to return to China as a more educated man, Liu's goals to penetrate into American life have been achieved. Yet, part of him felt unfulfilled and emotionally drained. Yes, he won the intellectual battle, but lost the emotional battle. His book shows, from the first chapter to the last, that he has remained an outsider in his host country.
But did Liu Zongren really need to emotionally adjust to American culture and society? Did he need to develop an American identity? As a guest and an outsider, he did his best to take the new culture and language in, but this type of acculturation was more instrumental than integrative, more intellectual than affective.
One of the most visible manifestations of culture is its celebration of holidays. In his book, Liu describes his several attempts to relate to American traditions and holidays. He is appalled by the triumph of wealth and by the American abundance of goods, which he considers a waste. He is appalled by the exaggerated generosity shared by all Americans at Christmas. At Christmas parties, he feels more alienated than ever, and more than ever he longs for the sweet and familiar rituals of the Chinese Spring Festival. His learning about real holidays and people has stopped at an emotional threshold.
But what would have happened if Liu Zongren had come to the United States for good, as thousands of other Chinese? How would his stance have changed if he had attempted to turn himself--emotionally, not intellectually-- into a cultural insider? How would he have experienced American holidays and how would American holidays have helped him in this process?
When immigrants arrive in the US, they long for home and eventually look for a sense of belonging to their new country. This process of accepting and being accepted is often a struggle, resembling an emotional roller coaster. However, it needs to be completed for the sake of their emotional health. In order to do that, they need to build not only an intellectual, but an emotional connection to their new land. And, like Liu, they start with the intellectual one. Reading, learning and socializing marks the beginning of this process.

Holidays: A Step to Acculturation

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. It is our common territory, the ground we all stand on. When we see people around us celebrating the same event, by shopping for their holiday dinner or for gifts, we feel secure and connected.But what happens if we leave our history and cultural traditions behind before we acquire a set of new ones and we find ourselves in a cultural and social vacuum. When we immigrate to a new country, our body is physically transported, but how about our soul? It seems to be wandering in-between the worlds, looking for something to hook to. This hook, in my experience, can be a holiday--a cultural event that would make the click happen. A holiday can create the intellectual context for learning, and it is through this learning that the emotional integration might occur.
Striving for cultural and emotional meaning, for the sense of feeling connected in order to survive emotionally, to fill in the void brought about by landing in a different country, I tried to become part of this country by joining its holidays.
The first year in the United States, when Thanksgiving was approaching, I decided to buy a turkey and to celebrate like everybody else. It seemed to me that I would "feel" the connection to people and to this land "stomachally," by stuffing myself with turkey (a delicacy back in Russia). However, the turkey and the cranberry sauce shared with a couple of our Russian friends did not bring about a miracle. I left the table physically stuffed, yet strangely empty.
I was teaching "survival English" to new immigrants in a business school ESL program. My instinct as a teacher was to use the material close to the cultural reality both my students and I were trying to embrace. So I found some very simple reading about the history of Thanksgiving (perhaps in my daughter's textbook) and brought it to class with the intention of teaching it to my students. We learned about American culture that first year of my teaching in the U.S. as a distant, purely academic, "textbookish" content. We did some vocabulary exercises and exchanged a few turkey recipes. The words were barren of cultural and emotional meaning.
There is no better learning than teaching--and starting from that first year, I would enrich my teaching materials about Thanksgiving and expand the assignments to the students. Every year my students and I learned about the Pilgrims and the Indians, about Plymouth and New England, examining the map, role-playing, and discussing European and American history. Gradually, the feast of corn, turkey, and cranberry acquired its historical, geographic, and socio-economic meaning. The etymology of the word "turkey" would become a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural adventure, a glance into my classroom languages and history, and an arena for anthropological and linguistic research. Sometimes my students would throw a multicultural Thanksgiving party, where, along with the traditional American turkey and vegetables, a variety of Eastern-European, Caribbean, and Asian dishes would be displayed and enjoyed.
Every year, along with my students or on my own, I discovered more and more about American history and of the history of native Americans. With my traveling around the country, my reading of American literature, meeting with real people, trying out real food, I was learning more and more about American history. Every year the Thanksgiving story helped me to better articulate the beautiful myth reflecting the historical reality.
With time and learning, I felt I belonged to that myth as well as other immigrants, following the Pilgrims. The more I learned about American Indians, the more I felt detached from the image I had formed of them back in Russia, reading Cooper. Gradually the image of brave but wild warriors got substituted by the image of the real masters of this land, who disappeared with their rich mysterious culture, only to give people like me their hospitality: turkey, corn and cranberries. As an outsider, I felt the story was an attempt to cover what really happened after the turkey had been eaten, but as an insider, I was grateful for the happy ending of the story, because this legend helped perpetuate the American hospitality and openness to newcomers, which I myself had benefited from. I also felt that the story and the celebration, despite its Hollywood-like plot, makes Americans feel proud about their historical beginning, which was paradoxically someone else's ending. I strangely felt American: simultaneously feeling both like the Pilgrims and the Indians.
I thought about the people whom I wanted to thank for the food in my mouth that I had not earned. I thought about the Jewish organizations and charity. I thought about the devoted immigrant activists who helped us during this transition. I thought about my parents' friends who had offered us hospitality during the first weeks in the country. I thought about the people who had trusted my potential and had given me work. I thought about the people who had helped with information and advice. Thank you Nick, Flora, Ezia, Paolo, Mario, Olga, Michael, Jeptha, Marc, Frank, Bob, Tara, and Paula. Thank you God.
Thanksgiving has become MY holiday in essence and meaning, just like what it means to most American families: the connection to the past, to the present, to the roots, and to each other. This is the connection we strive for. It makes us feel at home, in a familiar environment rather than an alien one, and which creates the feeling of security and of peace--an absolutely necessary emotional foundation of well-being. It is this sense of sitting at a dinner table with our loved ones, lighting the candles, cooking an apple pie, drinking tea and smelling the familiar kitchen smells that we had been brought to life with, raised with, which come along with the primary sense of being alive: our mothers' milk and our parents' bed.
I feel all this now, discovering how my intellectual knowledge about this country has integrated my being via emotional channels. Perhaps we always start with the intellectual: reading, reflecting, and communicating our reflections to other people. The cultural information, along with the motivation to survive emotionally, to get out of the immigrant crisis and of acculturation-related depression, of loneliness and of isolation, works through the mind to the heart and together with real food and food for the soul, becomes the source of release and relief. We feel in place and we share experiences. We have arrived. We are home.

---

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 12, December 2000
http://iteslj.org/

Become a Language Teacher - (English, French, Italian, German)
Activities First Course Students English Level 100 -/2009

The College of Education, School of Languages, Universidad of Guayaquil, is a public university and the best choice where you can study to become a language teacher , French, German, Italian and English)

During First Course, you take the Beginners English 100 Level to develop competencies and improve the listening and speaking abilities. It is important to consider that classes range from 50 to 65 students at the beginning and teachers need to use a variety of strategies to work with large groups and make English interesting and fun for students. But, students are extraordinary respectful, and always anxious to learn and excel.

Students are  exposed to the different languages, either by drills, practice and by oral activities, weekly dramatizations, presentations or  outdoor activities, etc.)

Dramatizations. Way to go!!!!

STUDENTS ARE IN CONTACT WITH 

LANGUAGES ARE EVERYWHERE!!!!

When you walk into the School of Languages, you may find information in the different languages. There is a big poster "News" with short and interesting information in English. Sometimes are cut-outs from real American newspapers, magazines or current internet articles.

As part of the English class in Fifth Course work on this poster-magazine as part of the English class and its purpose is to share the language with all students of the School. It is very interesting seing students getting closed to the bulletin board, reading the material with friends, trying to find out the meaning and making comments onf topics.

This weekly information "NEWS" attracks the students´attention, firstly because of the variety of information (comics, fashion, politics, education, sports) and secondly, because they identify themselves with the printed language, they read it aloud, make comments with friends or teachers around.