Dialogic Approach

       After reading this chapter in the Wong text, I cannot help but to be reaffirmed a bit. Sometimes in my own personal endeavor to learn a second language, I am increasingly discouraged by the fact that I am not as fluent as I would like to be, even though I started taking Spanish classes when I was 12 years old. 10 years later, I feel I should be much more capable than I am at this point. While reading about Bakhtin's dialogic approach and Mao and Freire's learning by doing, I see so many differences between these theories and the way I was taught Spanish. Rote repetition is not the focus of these approaches, nor are grammar drills. Learning a language is not unlike learning in general. It has to be connected and practiced with a purpose. Looking back, I never really saw the connections as I was in my Spanish classes.
       One of the points in this chapter that stuck out to me the most is "Bakhtin's theory suggests that we have an active role to play in our use of language; our "doing" language is transformative not only of ourselves but also of the language itself". There is so much more to language acquisition  than I ever realized. It makes me wonder, had I been taught using a dialogic approach, would I be much more fluent now? What if what I was acquired had actually been through "doing" instead of memorization? Would I be able to speak and use my knowledge more proficiently because of it?
       I imagine the answers to these questions are yes. The other part that I connected with in this chapter was when it described the Chinese theologians  learning English through the focus of theology. They were learning for the purpose of their interest. There is so much more motivation behind that, I wish that I had been taught like that. I want this to stand true not only for the ELL's I will have in my classroom, but for all of my students. I want to use a dialogic approach in all subjects. These theories present an indisputable point; learning by "doing" is definitely the way to pave the road to acquisition. Learning by doing can teach you how to learn, which is a far more valuable tool than memorization.