History of English Language

Davis

History of the English Language

10 November 2015

The Relevance of Understanding Evolution of English

There is no other road to humanization…but authentic transformation of the dehumanizing structure. – Paulo Freire (1970, p. 19).

Modern day English instructors of every level are faced with an increasingly complex classroom. From student difference in cognitive abilities to sexual orientation to cultural and racial origins, allowing and supporting students in understanding how language defines these world views and values and therefore creates the students own self-value and personal self-identity is key to being a successful instructor. Traumatic political events like the War on Terror and general antagonism against immigrants as well as a dichotomous political environment have “too often constructed a homogenous and narrow national identity that violently ‘others’ multiethnic voices and experiences” (Berila, 31). In taking this course, I wanted to evolve as a critically conscious educator who can pedagogically support a diverse student body as each works to constructing identity through language, a focus of my English courses. My concerns are fundamentally grounded on Freire’s notion of conscientization which is “an act of knowing, through which a person is able to look critically at the world he/she lives in, and to reflect and act upon it” (13). Instead of being concerned about the “best effective teaching practices but, in contrast, (become) focused on helping students to think critically and reflect about themselves, their world(s), and the way of transforming their world(s) without ignoring the relationship between education, economics, politics, culture, and power”, I will consider myself successful (Reza-Lopez et al., 117). In this way, it must be argued that understanding how languages are at their heart a cultural identity, a worldview, and a heritage is imperative to the conscientious English instructor. In my intentional pursuit of...