During my time in ENGL 200 I have learnt a lot about multiculturalism in the classroom. This class has been a real eye opener to me. When I think about it before I was enrolled in this class, I do not think I had ever thought about how I would go at teaching a student whose english was not their first language. I think this is because I have never been put in the position that I had to teach anyone who did not speak the same language as me. I have a lot of experience teaching children in different activities, sports, and programs and looking back on my experience all the children spoke english. Which is very strange to think about and it makes me ask the question why was there no one that I had encountered with teaching who did not speak english? My thoughts about this question goes back to Eve Haque & Donna Patrick language ideologies. Canada’s language “ideologies have positioned English or French as superior” (Eve Haque & Donna Patrick, p.28). So I feel like people whose children do not speak english they do not put them into extra curricular activities as a result of english being the superior language. Which I wish there was not this whole stigma on superior languages. In my eyes all languages are just as significant as the next.
During last week’s class we were asked to discuss a question on whether or not we thought Indigenous language was a threat for overruling Canada’s official languages. Classmates in my group disagree on the questions and did not see anytime soon an Indigenous language becoming one of the official languages of Canada. I agree with my classmates that I do not see it as a threat, but the reason I do not see it as a threat is because i do not think it would be a bad thing at all if an indigenous language became the official language. When I think of the word threat, I think it as a bad, negative thing. Which Indigenous languages are not. When thinking about which language should be the official language of Canada it would also make the most sense to have the official language to be one of the Indigenous languages for that is the language the people who were originally here. When one thinks about it most places in the world whatever the language was of the people who originaled there is the language the people speak there today. So based on that knowledge our official language should be an indigenous one. I think if Canada were to add an Indigenous language to be one of the superior official languages than this would be a huge step in reconciliation, and I believe this would give people whose first language was not english more confidence.