What new ideas, challenges, or other issues have you encountered with regard to your project (this might include data collection, information that contradicts your assumptions or the assertions of others, materials that have enriched your understanding of the topic or led you to change your project, etc.)? How have these ideas or challenges shaped the bigger picture of your research? Has the scope or focus of your topic changed since you began this project? If so, how?
I haven't changed the scope or focus of my topic since I began this project, but it has given me a lot of fresh ideas of research avenues to pursue after this. As I was going through pedagogical materials by other major publishers and educational institutions, I kept coming across extremely "valenced" coursework—for example, English textbooks geared towards native Spanish speakers often had lessons centered around the language in applications for manual labor jobs, with questions such as "can you lift 30 pounds?" making their way verbatim into the grammar lessons. Attached is a photo of a portion of Lesson 1.L.12 in the Intercambio textbook—an English textbook geared towards Latin American immigrants:
Comparatively, English textbooks geared towards learners of other languages often focus more on political, economic, and academic topics. Take, for example, this bilingual "课文" (lesson text) geared towards Chinese high school students learning English:
Coming across many examples like these show to me that there is an inherent bias involved in English education. Learners are taught certain things based on a predetermined conception of their role in society. Isn't this an acculturated sort of linguistic determinism that enforces the idea that certain people "ought" to perform certain functions in society?
In the future, I hope to conduct a research project that concretely analyzes these discrepancies. I believe that language plays a huge role in economic opportunity: By interrogating why we teach what we teach, I hope that language education is able to reach past these tokenizing assumptions and create more opportunities for all.
Where does your research take place--or where is a favorite place to conduct your research? Post a photo!
I didn't take a photo of my workspace (it's very messy), but often I work in my room or I go to Butler. Occasionally, I'll take my laptop and work in a cafe, like Zelma's Caffe, Qahwah House, or Picky Barista—but often I find myself a little too caffeinated already, haha.