Taylor-Mendez

During my Children's Literature course, and in C & I 208 we talked a lot about what kind of impact literature has in our classroom.  Older text could be teaching the wrong images to children indirectly.  Even books like The Rainbow Fish and The Giving Tree have been critisized for indirect messages they could be sending to children.  The children's books that I grew up with and never thought of as bad influences are now considered immoral.  This is similar to the textbooks that are being critiqued in this article.  Even though the intent to display the diversity, the textbooks are indirectly encouraging an incorrect image of social class.  It is important for every teacher to analyze the texts that they are exposing their classroom to. 
From this study it is important that she interviewed her subjects since, as stated before, previous research was solely based on an analysis of the books and the whole point of the study is to analyze the intake of the EFL students.  Intake, in my opinion is much more important than input.  When I read The Rainbow Fish in school I did not interpret it as the critics have interpreted it.  This is not the case with these adults.
I question whether the adults would have noticed the deeper meaning behind the pictures if not asked to analyze them.  Not all input becomes intake, especially for different types of learners.  I think that the interview may be more genuine if the learners were asked to read a chapter and then without looking at the book recall some of the images they saw. 
The point that ethnicity is mixed within a culture and should be represented I believe is very important.  My boyfriend is a Korean-American who loves sports.  Recently there has been a player in the basketball world named Jeremy Lin.  Unlike Yao Ming, Lin was born in America and represents an Asian-American basketball superstar (who probably makes 10 times many white males will make in the business world).  My boyfriend loves to watch Lin, and I think takes pride in Lin because he is a representative of his similar Asian-American background something that in the MBA is very rare.  The images that appear for different cultures must have that kind of diversity so that stereotyping is limited with EFL learners.  The stereotype is not true then or now.

The first book reading was very similar to the readings of otherness.  As TESOL educators it is important to not let the media effect our understanding of culture.  The article suggests as well that representations of culture can be very unrepresentative of what that culture really is.  Kabul is viewed as a bitter man for cultural reasons rather than his situational reasons.  This makes me think of a book we read in my Bilingual Education class called Of Borders and Dreams.  This book describes a family from Mexico who's son has difficulty in school.  The ESL teacher (author) invites the family to her home, where the family is offended that she may show all of her wealth to their poor family, which was not the intention of the teacher.  This could be something to be aware of when speaking with your students.  Similar to Kabul, who was used to such a comfortable life style in the country he is from and now has to start all over again, and earn his way to a high socioeconomic status.