ESL Cartoons

I found cartoons about teaching language to adult ESL students and I thought they would be an interesting way to kick off conversation about L2 learning and teachings. I’m particularly interested in looking at the third cartoon from langwichscool.com:

The aim of these cartoons is to bring humor to the common situations in ESL learning and possibly bring attention to some of the problems within the field.

Within this cartoon, one of the dominant themes is the idea that Lippi-Green brings up in her article (1997) about the effectiveness of communication being a completely different issue that the rules of communication. The language translator software allows the character to communicate effectively, but not correctly. This article also shows us that various languages structures and meanings do not translate word for word. Further, it represents that language is so full of rules and exceptions that not even a computer can accommodate the “ifs, ands, or buts” of language learning.

I agree with the issues being represented because I’ve had personal experience with online language translators. They might be a good learning tool for individual words, but sentence structure, grammar, and sometimes meaning can get lost in the translation because translating software can’t necessarily teach rules as well as a teacher could. Lo Bianco may say that these software programs are a result of globalization, and the need to be able to quickly communicate with others of different cultures for economic purposes. Gonzalez might also add that this is an example of how immigrants have better oral than literacy proficiency - - it appears this character in the cartoon is able to pronounce the words, but has no idea the sentence structure and word usage is completely wrong.

Another way of representing the message would be a different cartoon in which a businessman is using a portable English translator while he is talking to a client. This might help show the influence of globalization on the reliance of these technologies.

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Gonzalez, Arturo. "Chapter 9." Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement, Volume I Education and the Social Implications of Official Language. Vol. 1. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000.

Lippi-Green , Rosina. English with an Accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States . London: Routledge, 1997.

Marks, Jon. "Adult Cartoons". Langwich Scool. January 24, 2010 .