While reading over my past blogs it occurred to me that what I would really like to focus on is the influence of a student's receptiveness (or negativity) toward Hispanic culture on his/her development of a native accent. During a past class linguistics class with Prof. Whitley he mentioned how the purpose for which one learns the language (eg. to become part of the culture or as a simple means of necessity) can greatly impact the development of an accent. I would like to research this concept more fully not only from the student's perspective, but also from the teacher's. Some possible areas of research spring from questions such as, is a student learning Spanish simply to pass the class or from a desire to interact with Hispanics? How does such a perspective influence the developed accent? Also, why is it that some Spanish teachers with an obvious love for the language and culture fail to attain a near native accent?
I would like to concentrate on high school because by this point, many biases, both positive and negative, toward the Hispanic culture have already developed. I am interested to see how a teacher responds to a student’s set view of the culture and how this affects the development of an accent. Certainly in my interviews with the teachers I plan to ask them about their students’ prior experience with Spanish in the lower grade levels. This will give me a more complete understanding of the students while still allowing me to concentrate on the high school experience.
When I am a teacher I hope to create an afterschool tutoring program that matches up a student from my Spanish class with a Hispanic student in the school who needs help with English and/or another subject due to language difficulties. This would have the tri-fold effect of helping the Hispanic students learn English, helping the American students learn Spanish (by hearing and responding to a native speaker) and helping the American students gain an appreciation for the Hispanic culture. I hope that a by-product of the tutoring is that many of the American students will become friends with the Hispanics. Friendship is one of the best ways to learn about a culture: it helps break down stereotypes by creating an authentic, engaging, and positive learning experience.
With this new turn in my research topic I feel as though I have opened up can of new possibilities, but I am hopeful that I will be able to continue narrowing it as time goes on.
1 comment:
OK, Ana. I think you are saying that your new wrinkle is to consider the motivation to learn the language on students' development of an appropriate accent. I am not sure how you would evaluate the accent. I wonder if you would want to ask questions to determine the students' motivation to study Spanish and their attitude toward the culture. Or maybe a more positive approach might be to interview and observe teachers to determine how (or if?) they teach the culture and the effectiveness of particular methods and materials in generating student interest.
I like your peer tutoring ideas. Too bad we don't have time for you to test them for this study!!
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