Week #5
The school needs to create a natural learning environment, teachers need to use a lot of natural, rich oral and written language to give students challenging thematic units to arouse and keep students’ interest and use students’ bilingual knowledge to build bridges for new knowledge in the course.
When new students just come to Canada, they will be insecure and silent about everything in the classroom. At this time, teachers should give students enough time to adapt and encourage them to start to figure out how English works, but if this phenomenon persists for a long time, then teachers should start contacting students’ parents. At this stage, students will not be required to master a large number of language skills in a short time, but only basic speaking and writing. Teachers will connect new knowledge with students’ old knowledge and help students through body language and simplified vocabulary to understand sentences better. At this stage, the main purpose of the teacher is to guide the students rather than to give answers directly.
Writtening language is not spoken language, there are many differences between spoken and written language, so the proficiency of spoken and written language of students may vary greatly. The difficulty of writing is much higher than that of spoken English, because spoken English only needs to be comprehensible, and writing requires grammar in terms of comprehension, which makes it difficult for students whose English is not their native language.
For many courses, there will be professional names. These words are rarely used in daily interactions but often appear during in the classroom. It is especially challenging for students who are learning the language of instruction, such as my first biological test, I only got scored 40, and most of my deductions are because I can’t remember words, misspellings, or don’t remember the English name of the scientist. After class, I spent a lot of time discussing with my biology teacher and checking the information online. In the end of that semester, my score came to 64.
New immigrant students come into contact with the language several years later than their peers classmates who have been learning the language since birth, so they face greater challenges in terms of vocabulary knowledge than their peers. The first is the lack of vocabulary, when students are new to a word, they need to touch the same word multiple times in many different contexts in order to understand all its multiple meanings and usages. Modern English incorporates words from many languages, resulting in many synonyms and synonyms, which can be a huge obstacle for students.
Academic vocabulary will also be a challenge for students, and the difficulty will gradually increase over time. Age is also a factor in determining the speed of vocabulary mastery. The younger the students, the faster they can master the second language. The different situations of each student lead to different starting points and learning goals. Teachers need to be based on the students personal situation to adjust the teaching plan to help students master the language as soon as possible.
Although English is essential, the first language is also very important. Parents can support their children’s English learning by talking and reading with their children in their native language.
Week #6
Although the current Canadian education policy is to respect diverse racial cultures, this has not always been the case. The educational policy at the beginning was to assimilate people who don’t know English. The mainstream thinking at the time was that immigrants and aboriginals and people who could not speak English were not among the Canadian people, so in order to make these people who could not speak English conform to the thinking of the society at that time, a unified brainwashing education was carried out.
In 2016, 89% of the indigenous people of Saskatchewan claimed that English is their most common language. These data show the disappearance of the language and culture of the indigenous people.
When Europe entered the land of Canada, they has been working hard to assimilate the indigenous people. The government obtained a large number of indigenous lands through treaty, and then used these lands to attract Western immigrants and for better assimilation. In that time, there is racial discrimination in the immigration law, which is only white Western immigrants are allowed and other immigrants are “prohibited”, if they want to move they will been charge very high immigration fees and make it impossible for non-white immigrants to pay.
When the white population reached a certain number, the government initially implemented bilingual schools, but in order to make the “new Canadians” loyal and patriotic citizens, the government quickly stopped bilingual schools and only taught English. At that time, the mainstream of society was still predominantly white, and in order to prevent new non- white immigrants from having any influence on whites, the government would force the children of new immigrants to speak English, because it was believed that Canada should not be a multicultural country, the public school compulsory requires them to learn English.
In order to cultivate loyal and patriotic citizens, the government believes that children with their aboriginal parents can teach children knowledge, but children surrounded by savages (parents) all day long will only cultivate savages who can read and write. The best way is to separate the children from their parents (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2015). This also creates residential schools, these schools force the children of indigenous people to be separated from their parents, forcibly forget the identity as original people and English must be learn and spoken. This history has caused great harm to the culture of the indigenous people, and it still affects the indigenous people to this day.
Week #7
This week is Thanksgiving, so there are no classes, but some self-study is conducted.
This week I mainly read “Indigenous languages and the racial hierarchisation of language policy in Canada”. In it, I learned about Canada’s language policy. The language policy is a policy that guarantees the unity of the country and facilitates management. English has been spread in many places around the world, and its success in spreading can be largely attributed to colonization activities. Western immigrants trained the native people in English, so they suppressed the local dialect.
To better manage the indigenous people and realize the control of land sovereignty, Western immigrants position English or French as high-level languages, and the indigenous languages as “primitive”, modern obstacles, so they do not recognize the languages of the indigenous peoples’ right and the existence of their language and must compulsory proficiency in English and French in the public education system. The racist ideology of racial superiority and hierarchical racial classification has long penetrated the relationship between the indigenous people and the white people, and these ideologies continue to have a long-term negative impact on the indigenous people.
Through the public education system, the goverment created a boarding school system, forcing children to be taken away from their parents for assimilation education. However, long-term shortage of staff and insufficient funds have left boarding schools full of physical, sexual and psychological abuse of students. Students dead in Boarding schools from malnourished, and their families will not know even if they pass away.
In 1969, the government launched the White Paper and in this paper abolished some bills including the Indian Act, but at the same time, it ignored the opinions of indigenous groups and promoted the assimilation policy, which was opposed by a large number of indigenous people. White Paper intends to eliminate the identity of the aboriginal people and plan them as Canadian citizens, but this also means that they no longer own their own culture and land, so they are considered to be a cultural genocide.
In the Constitution Act, 1982, the government recognized first nation groups as indigenous groups and still binding treaties. It also clearly stated that the term “indigenous peoples of Canada” includes Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Although it recognizes the right to use English and French, it does not recognize any language rights for the indigenous people.
It was not until 2003 that the protection and promotion of indigenous languages began, the failures and mistakes of the past were confronted and corrected, and the culture of indigenous peoples began to be learned again, but the protection and restoration of indigenous languages will be a longer-term goal.
Week #8
This week we discussed the aboriginal people and their language education in public schools in modern Canada, Royal commission on bilingualism & Biculturalism.
Official languages are languages related to social institutions. They have greater power and preferential treatment than other languages. Therefore, people who use minority languages and language variants must work harder to enter official places.
The tension between Britain, France and Canada led to the establishment of the Royal commission on bilingualism & Biculturalism from 1963 to 1969. In order to repair the relationship between the two, French and English became the official languages of Canada in 1969. However, they were confronted by other ethnic groups’ opposition.
In order to unify the rule of the indigenous people and their land, Western immigrants began the assimilation policy. They separated their children from their families, forced them to forget their identity as the indigenous people, and learned English and French. These children grew up, and because of language barriers they can no longer fit with their family, and because they can’t remember their language, they can’t get along with their own community. This period of history has caused great damage to the language and culture of the indigenous people. If this continues for a long time, this history will completely disappear. So after the indigenous people were persecuted for a long time, they reconnected with their own culture and history.
In the class, the professor first asked us what treaty Regina is in, where is the nearest aboriginal community, and what their language is. For these questions, I only know the answer to the first question, Regina is located in treaty 4, and I have to search for the remaining questions to find the answer.
The Canadian government has recognized the persecution of the indigenous people and has carried out reconciliation activities for the indigenous people. It can be seen that the current public education system is reconciling the languages of the indigenous people, but I personally feel that may not enough
Although the education we receive has always been the need to protect the culture and language of the indigenous people, there are actually no specific courses for these in the public school system. For example, during my high school studies, there are no special courses. Courses for learning aboriginal people’s language, most of the courses on the culture of the aboriginal people are short-term projects. For example, I will learn traditional songs when I have a music class, and elder will come to the school for some short-term teaching.
Language represents the culture of a nation. Without language, it loses its identity and history as that nation. Therefore, the inheritance of culture is very important.
