talking points # 2 ARIA

Shannon Holmes
Aria by Richard Rodriguez

The authors argument states that the most important part of a ESL student is to learn the language that is spoken by the culture of power. He feels that it is more important to gain public individuality than it is to mantain private individuality.

1)" But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then." I felt sorry for the author in this part of the article because it was like his family was being torn a bit by a language. They depended on one another for comfort when they were home and could speak their native language, but once the children became better and more proficient at the English language they began to lose those feelings of family unity. They were becoming part of the majority while their parents were remaining part of the minority. I think this sentence in the article was important because it shows us as readers that in order for the author to gain his new position in our English speaking world, he had to sacrifice something very special.

2) " Fortunately, my teachers were unsentimental about their responsibility". Here he is talking about the teachers knowing it was their job to teach this child the language spoken by the " culture of power". This definetely reminds me of Delpit, these teachers may have respected and valued Richards culture but they knew it was their job to teach him the language that would propell him through the world he was now a part of.

3) " In an instant, they agreed to give up the language that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness". This sentence means that Richards parents were willing to do anything for their children. This is another part of the article that shows what people of another language have to give up in order to be part of the culture of power.


I found this article easy to read. I however did not enjoy reading Teaching Multilingual Children. That article was hard to get into. The articles definetely made you think about the different approaches in teaching multicultural children by giving two opposing views.
Like all educations there is no one way to teach everyone. What may work for one student may not work for another. It seems to me that it was more important for Richard to be comfortable in the English speaking world he was living in than to remain in his in his private Spanish speaking world.
I think also that teachers of multicultural children have an incredible responsibility to give the children they teach the main key to the world we live in , how successful can you become without the skills of the English language?