10.7.09 - England won

England won. I had nothing to do with it as far as I know, but in the 1700s when major European powers were snatching up lands occupied by cultures who hadn't developed gunpowder, England snatched the most. Hence, we are in the TESOL program and not TJSOL or TRSOL or TASOL*. English is the language that grants economic mobility and status. Is it possible, Canagarajah asks, to acquire an imperialist language without being imperialized? I think so, but you need to be aware that learning a language is the same as learning that language's culture. It will appropriate you if you're not careful, but you can carve a unique space for yourself by appropriating English into your own language/culture. One way to do this is by accepting and promoting your own vernacular in English contexts. People will take issue, but that's something they'll have to deal with - don't make it your concern.

The Braine article was disappointing. What I gathered from it was that L2 graduate students gain academic literacy through academic relationships. And that's where it ends. Where is the second half of this article?

As for Kapper, her method is flawed because state boundaries, for the most part, are arbitrary. The east coast is mostly based on rivers and mountains, but even those geographical boundaries do not account for concentrations of specific populations. Additionally, she groups second-language scholars and learners as one category. Isn't that what Canagarajah just told us not to do? One last thing - the article reads like a phone book.

* For those of you taking bets, I was referring to Japanese, Russian, and Arabic.