Jaylen Fudge

C&T 598

27 June 2019

Instructional Narrative

According to the various websites I looked at English varied in what it was ranked as

“Most Used Languages in the US,” but regardless of the website it was top three, as one of the

most used languages in the world there are still debates about the ​proper​ way to speak and/ or

teach it. Because Braj Kachru efforts in the TESOL community there is a now a consensus that

English not one language, but it is created by the influences of other cultures. The United States

is known as the “​melting pot”​, meaning it represents various countries and cultures, as a leading

country in speaking English with the identity of been composed of various cultures is it not fair

to assume English should have various cultural influences?

In Suresh Canagarajaha’s paper, ​In Search of a New Paradigm for Teaching English as

an International Language h​ e explains how TESOL needs to become focused on more practical

knowledge rather than just regurgitating knowledge. According to Suresh Canagarajah, “Kachru

envisioned English as a package of diverse varieties, with local norms in different native and

nonnative communities” (Canagarjah 2014). Meaning English is not based off of one culture or

country or race, English has developed and changed for hundreds of years based off of the

cultures it has interacted with. ​In Canagaraja’s article he explains how he has broken up the

components that are critical for developing procedural knowledge, they consist of language

awareness, rhetorical sensitivity, and negotiation strategies. What I found most important to not

only TESOL education but to the lessons I have created while here is rhetorical sensitivity, after
introducing these ideas Canagaraja says “rhetoric sensitivity is often used for literature or

classical studies however, TESOL professionals are increasingly realizing the importance of

features such as creativity, voice, and genre in communication.” ​(Canagarjah 2014)​ I thought this

was a crucial take away because when trying to create these lessons I really wanted to focus on

creativity and communication, Sophia and my lesson plans were not heavily writing based but

heavily speaking, creativity and movement based. Sophia and I created a lesson based off of

slang, the idea behind this was that is essential to know slang or informal english due to how

popular it is in American English.

When debating what to do we decided we wanted to create a lesson that would be the

most practical for the students if they were to travel to America in the near future and wanted to

know what was considered ​hip​. After careful consideration I realized a couple flaws with

teaching students american a slang as a legitimate lesson; first, it will not be relevant forever.

The problem with slang is that is a fad, more often than not adults can not pick up or stay up to

date with the slang because it changes so often. While the second flaw is that it is American

slang, American slang with not be popular in any other English speaking country. Even in the

inner circle countries where English is the first language that does not mean English slang will

carry across to other countries where English is spoken. However, for the students that want to

travel to America learning colloquial language will be extremely useful for them to understand

simple and local conversations. This is relevant because English does not belong to any country,

every country has their own cultures that have influenced their English. Learning American

Slang, although English will only be relevant in one country, or in countries heavily influenced

by American Pop Culture. Canagaraja says, “In the context of globalization, our interactions are
becoming highly unpredictable. We interact with speakers from diverse backgrounds, with

different languages, values, and proficiencies” (​Canagaraja ​2014). This is the idea that languages

are influenced by cultures; whether it is food, activities, or slang, languages are not possessed by

a country of the inner circle, it is a language influenced by everyone who speaks it and

implements it in their culture. ​Canagaraja also says “As speakers from two different backgrounds

interact in English, they will use resources from their first, second, or diverse other languages

from their repertoire. As they collaborate with each other in attaining their communicative

objectives, they construct certain norms that make their interaction possible.” (Canagaraja 2014)

This means there could be two non native English speakers conversing, using English as a lingua

franca and implementing their native languages into the conversations. Having the ability to do

this would give the opportunity to introduce new cultures into their English, where they could

potentially learn new English or improve theirs.

Language does not belong to anyone, the stigma that American English the correct

English to speak is a stigma that desperately needs to be broken. Throughout my two lesson

plans where Sophia and I tried to implement American culture in Korean students daily

education I realized how we speak the same language and they know very little about American

pop culture. Although understandable the stigma that America is a superior country and everyone

should strive to speak American English made me believe students attempting to learn American

culture would also strive to learn American pop culture as well. I hope after two weeks of

teaching the limited amount of pop culture knowledge we gave the students helped increase their

interests in american pop culture if they are interested in studying there due to the knowledge

they can get about America simply off of pop culture.

Work Cited
 Canagarajah, A. S. (2014). ESL composition as a literate art of the contact

zone. In D. Coxwell-Teague & R. Lunsford (Eds.), Firstyear composition: From

theory to practice (pp. 27–48). Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.

Lesson 1 reflection

I think Sophia and I designed a really unique and fun lessons, I think it was really easy

for the students to grasp the concept of slang which was awesome because the last thing we
wanted was a difficult lesson for the students. I would say our energy was great as well as the

introduction and teaching part of our lesson especially for the first lesson. The execution of the

activities for our lessons struggled during the first lesson, the directions were not clear and

students were not paying attention which made it more difficult to understand the directions. As

the week progressed the lessons began to get better, we changed the activities to charades and

skits and used korean words to make the directions easier to use. At the end of the lesson we did

skits, the skits were executed really well and the girls seem to really enjoy it!! The objectives

were to get students to learn slang and execute speaking it and they did a great job speaking and

the skits were adorable. For the first lesson, when we were doing charades the girls were going

by way too fast because again, our directions were not clear. After that we had to recreate the

directions in the middle of the lesson, we changed it from students going at their own pace

grabbing words to Sophia showing the words all at once to the girls and them having to act it out

then. By doing this it kept the girls at the same pace. I was really hoping the girls would pick up

the words and start showing them to their friends, on multiple occasions we had students come

up to us and ask us if the words were being used right, or they would run up and show us

american songs that used the words we taught them and asked if they were right.We also heard

students in the hallways using the words, it felt the point of the lesson was received and that felt

great! I think new language was difficult for them but again it was well received, I think the

biggest success was how much the students enjoyed the lesson and implemented
 Lesson two reflection

I think the lesson went awesome this week, it was visibly more fun for the students,

Sophia and me, and the other KU students who participated. This week we taught the students

“popular american dances,” it seemed like a perfect lesson regardless of the time of day or which

day during the week because they were tired regardless and this was a great way to get them
moving. I think another great part about this lesson is how stressed the girls are as their finals are

coming up and this lesson was a nice break from their daily lives of hard work, it was a fifty

minute breather. I think our lesson could have used writing in order to be a more rounded lesson.

In regards to the objectives I do think they were met by all the students, I would say 95% of the

students in every class we engaged and excited about the lesson and by the end of the hour were

able to do the dances we taught. Because students were dancing it was easier to see who was

fully grasping the dancing concepts. We were able to test their grasp of the dances and concepts

by playing simon says. Since our lesson was so movement and speaking based there was not a lot

of information being exchanged between us and the students, we wanted students to grasp the

dances while understanding where they came from, where they were used, and why they were

popular. Simon Says was a great way to make sure the girls understood how to do the dances and

why we were doing them. This lesson was more unorthodox and because of that it was harder to

spot out the errors the girls were making. If the girls were unable to grasp the dance Sophia or I

would walk up and show them one-on-one and break it down, this seemed to help significantly. I

would like to think this lesson was not incredibly difficult for the students, although the majority

of the dances we taught them were new to them they picked them all up easily. I think Sophia

and I were both surprised when we played Simon Says with every class and every class did great,

it was more difficult to get them out than we both expected. Overall, I think this weeks lesson

was significantly better than last week, I think it was engaging and much needed for the students

this week regardless of if it did not meet the english objectives. Our lesson could have met more

objectives this week but I think they were able to learn more about pop culture, get up and move,

and not over use their brains for fifty minutes.