Post 8 (readings)

 Culture is a word that people throw around very lightly in my opinion. I find that many times in my education classes students say it as an answer for almost anything the teacher asks. Of course I agree it is an important topic to address but I think there are so many aspects of culture to address. Until reading this article I never thought of culture diversity to affect language misconceptions. But, since language is a part of culture, it obviously has a connection. When I think of my time spent in an ESL classroom, I recall a few times when there were language differences stemming from cultural backgrounds. We were discussing parts of a room and a student did not understand why there was a table in the kitchen. In their culture they prepare food in the kitchen and bring the meal out to the dining room. This is just one example, there have been quite a few times where I have caught myself using idioms unconsciously. It has definitely made me reflect more on my use of cultural influences in my language.
 Another thing I often forget is that students' level of proficiency differ for each language domain. I used to assume if you could speak English you could write just as well. I have come to change this way of thinking. I noticed in my ESL 2 class a student who spoke very well and I asked why he was not in a higher level class and she showed me his homework. I would never have guessed his skills were that poor. I'm glad now that this has been brought to my attention and I will no longer overgeneralize. Even in retrospect, my Spanish writing ability is way above my speaking ability. I used to assume the speaking would come naturally without actually practicing speech. Needless to say, that's not how it works. This will help me in my future classroom so I equally focus on speaking, writing, reading, and listening.