1. SIT Graduate Institute World Learning Exploring L2 Learners' Cultural Identification: "false passports & new identities." Rogerio Silvestre da Silva Master of Arts in Teaching candidate Advisor Professor: Kathleen Graves Brattleboro, May 26, 2009 Brattleboro, May 26, 2009

2. Poetry Poetry is a very good material for students. Poetry can turn tediousness into excitement. In order to have reader-response classrooms, I intend to work with students' speech, feelings and thoughts. With the teaching of poetry, students can be motivated not only to learn grammar, but to respect and understand the language that some students bring to school. Poetry is a very good material for students. Poetry can turn tediousness into excitement. In order to have reader-response classrooms, I intend to work with students' speech, feelings and thoughts. With the teaching of poetry, students can be motivated not only to learn grammar, but to respect and understand the language that some students bring to school.

3. Objectives To explore L2 Learners' Cultural Identification in the classroom; To explore L2 Learners' Cultural Identification in the classroom; To develop a understanding of non-Standard English as part of the cultural diversity of the country; To develop a understanding of non-Standard English as part of the cultural diversity of the country; As a reader- response, the students will be able to reflect on the social context or even in cultural identities. As a reader- response, the students will be able to reflect on the social context or even in cultural identities.

4. Dionne Brand Dionne Brand's prose poems reflect an ambivalence toward place and language, yet also moves toward a notion of the exiled self as place and belonging. I will present fragments of her collection of poems “No Language is Neutral” (1990). This text was part of a historical period - still very much under way - that witnessed the transformation of the Multiculturalism Canadian policy as well as challenges to its cultural dominance.

5. Brand "locates her critique of language not in an attempt to resurrect or construct a neutral language, nor from a liminal position between standard English and nation language, but in the heteroglossia of both languages" (Zackodnik 194 “ Is steady trembling I trembling when they ask me my name and say I too black for it. Is steady hurt I feeling when old talk bleed, the sea don't have branch you know darling.” (No Language is Neutral 9) “ Is steady trembling I trembling when they ask me my name and say I too black for it. Is steady hurt I feeling when old talk bleed, the sea don't have branch you know darling.” (No Language is Neutral 9) By not directly citing the speech spoken from the privileged position ("too black for it," "you know darling" ) but framing them within free indirect discourse, Brand's text at once relates a personal narrative of debasement and subordination, demonstrates the contingencies of power in determining authority in language, and performs a poetic act of resistance By not directly citing the speech spoken from the privileged position ("too black for it," "you know darling" ) but framing them within free indirect discourse, Brand's text at once relates a personal narrative of debasement and subordination, demonstrates the contingencies of power in determining authority in language, and performs a poetic act of resistance

6. Where would we locate the Standard English? A "standard” English tends to posit a hypostatized, homogeneous, rigid language around which heterogeneous tongues circulate - an illusion that might serve some purpose in language textbooks or for national broadcasters but that in practice cannot ultimately be realized. Even if we were to accept this standard as a broad, strategic formulation, where would we locate it? South London? Southwestern Ontario? In the U.S.A? Are not all "standards" necessarily localized, contingent; and contested? As American poet Charles Bernstein has pointed out, "Brathwaite's nation language is as much a new standard to rally national spirit as it is a break from standardization" (7). A "standard” English tends to posit a hypostatized, homogeneous, rigid language around which heterogeneous tongues circulate - an illusion that might serve some purpose in language textbooks or for national broadcasters but that in practice cannot ultimately be realized. Even if we were to accept this standard as a broad, strategic formulation, where would we locate it? South London? Southwestern Ontario? In the U.S.A? Are not all "standards" necessarily localized, contingent; and contested? As American poet Charles Bernstein has pointed out, "Brathwaite's nation language is as much a new standard to rally national spirit as it is a break from standardization" (7).

7. My Own Exile I haven’t lost my place, nor my place abandoned me. The pleasure and the paradox of my own exile is that I belong wherever I am. I haven’t lost my place, nor my place abandoned me. The pleasure and the paradox of my own exile is that I belong wherever I am. Rogerio Silvestre Rogerio Silvestre Obrigado! Obrigado!