Professional Educator Standards Board Competencies & Common Core State Standards

I find it interesting that, although the focus is English, the structure and cultural meanings of other languages is important and kept in the PESB competencies. I’ve studied a couple languages myself (French, Greek, Japanese, and Latin) and each further develops my understanding of the English language. In a school setting, students come from all different backgrounds. English can be another language to the students. Although some languages have similar grammatical structure, most languages have a different structure from English which can lead to some students having different grammar. English has changed over the centuries. Some words contain the old roots and grammatical structures from earlier times, like irregular verbs. The irregularities make English difficult for students as it is inconsistent making it more difficult to learn, even for some native speakers. Again, diversity in language is emphasized later when it comes to literary texts. Competency 4.A.1 refers to having knowledge and including global literature rather than just American and English literature. When I was in middle and high school, I was never required to read books outside “the classics”. My knowledge of literature was limited to American literature, English literature, and the few pieces of French literature that talked my teachers into counting as classics for our independent reading. In my personal time, I consumed Japanese, Chinese, and Korean media primarily, but I enjoyed looking into foreign literature. Looking into different wasn’t a priority in my classes unless we were studying a foreign language which then required us to study the culture of the peoples that spoke that language. Even so far as studying communication, social and cultural factors were rarely considered. There has been little focus, in my education experience, on communication skills especially in a cultural context. Being at EWU, I’ve had the chance to interact with a more diverse group of people. Every culture I encounter has different ideas and beliefs in what is important. There very speech emphasizes certain words that I wouldn’t in my speech. All of them have different perspectives than I do. I think this expanding diversity in understanding English and Language Arts leads to a greater understand of language and culture. Learning another language, expands on a person’s understanding of their own language (such as when I learned French, it taught me more about the structure of English). Hearing how others emphasize different parts of their speech to get different ideas across has improved the way I communicate with others.