Week 6 Post: The Influence of Culture in Writing

Blog Post Week 6

Connor, U. (2003)

Kubota, R. (2003)

Kubota, R. (1999)

February 20, 2012

While reading Kubota’s 1999 article, I was constantly asking myself, “what does all this mean in the classroom?” It is very interesting and useful to understand the Japanese culture, I can see why certain stereotypes have come about. But as a teacher, what does this knowledge do to help me in a TESOL classroom? In Kubota’s article he states that in Japanese classrooms, empathy in writing is more often encouraged that any sort of creativity or critical thinking within writing. As teachers, is that something we break? Is their writing wrong? I believe that we shouldn’t try to change their way of writing, but we should open them up to critical thinking and creativity within their writing. I have also read that they tend to use the passive tense while writing, which is frowned upon in many classrooms. We should bring this to their attention but praise them for their unique writing skills but give them proper techniques and skills to improve on the aspects in which they are struggling. I can only imagine how foreign and strange Western-like writing must be for them.

While reading this article, certain writing activities come to mind. The article states that Asian cultures work for a common goal, and create harmony within a working group. Possibly problem-based learning/writing could benefit these students. While working with a common goal in mind, the students are writing and learning as they have been taught, to work together in a group. In order to create individuality within this activity, students should be responsible for their own writing, and then have all of their individual work put together to make/solve the main “problem” at hand. This way Asian students feel comfortable working towards a group goal but are working on individual tasks in order to improve the group’s goal.

In Kubota’s second article, we read a narrative on Barbra who is a new, naïve, teacher. She is quite sheltered culturally speaking and learns a lot from others about culture. When she thought she was being helpful, she was actually creating more stereotypes and dichotomy in for the cultures. By having the students compare and contrast their culture and America, she is pigeon-holing many aspects of both cultures. It is very hard to compare and contrast two cultures because everyone experiences their culture differently. I guess you could find the most common type of writing practice in both cultures and compare and contrast them, but in the end, what is that helping? It’s not helping students write better, it only makes them feel inferior to the American/Western culture and writing style.

These articles were interesting and got me thinking about how I will handle ELL students in my classroom. You want them to feel comfortable and accepted, but by pointing out differences, you may set that back. By showing them what they specifically do in their writing, and showing them how they can improve on their writing, they benefit the most. The aspect of culture may make a difference on how students write, but they don’t need to fall into that box that they feel confined in.