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Intercultural differences in communication
Intercultural differences in communication
Intercultural differences in communication
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Constructing Gender in an English Dominant Kindergarten: Implications for Second Language Learners By: Hruska (2004) Hruska (2004) conducted a fascinating study on the relationship that gender has with language acquisition for English language learners (ELLs) in a kindergarten classroom. The focus on gender ideologies in such young children and how those ideologies affected their relationships and in turn their language success was intriguing. Hruska (2004) found many examples of how these kindergarten students clearly showed their gender specific ideologies and how that affected their relationship choices. After setting up that scene Hruska (2004) highlighted how these same gender relationships severely limited the ELLs opportunities to practice English in the classroom. Even more interesting was the way Hruska (2004) discovered the classroom teacher attempting to better this situation for all students especially the ELLs, but essentially struggling. This study proved that the boys and girls in this kindergarten class had very predisposed gender ideologies. For example, Hruska (2004) states that, “superiority, power, and ability were components of the boys’ gender ideology and related discourse”(p 466). This statement was made after many observations of the boys in the class putting down the girls on many occasions in terms of their work being better. Another predisposed ideology of the boys and girls in this room were in regards to activities. On countless occasions the boys made it clear that certain activities such as racing cars or tree climbing were only for boys and that Barbies were only for girls. This concept of predisposed gender ideologies reminded me of Lippi-Green (2012)’s chapter discussing the Disney fil... ... middle of paper ... ...ve the ELLs even though the topic was not exactly relatable. However, that is the issue when you have a majority English speaking classroom and often a mixed socioeconomic group, not all topics are going to be relatable to your students. This is especially true if you allow the students to lead in discussion, which is a great thing, but this leads to students, especially ELLs being denied opportunities to contribute ideas and to practice their language. I hope throughout my graduate experience and teaching career, I can gather more techniques to help better involve all of my learners more consistently. Works Cited Hruska, B. L. (2004). Constructing gender in an English dominant kindergarten: Implications for second language learners. Tesol Quarterly, 38(3), 459-485. Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an accent (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge