Chapters 1 & 2: Gibbons

When I first started reading chapter 1 in the Gibbons textbook, I found myself thinking a lot about AAL (African Amerforican Language). I took an English course last year about AAL, and its usage in the classroom and in other scenarios and was intrigued about all the controversy over its overall use. The quote on page 1, "I can say what I want, but not for school work and strangers" really reminded me of the debate over the usage of AAL in every day language whether it be in the classroom, work, or home. This was a hot topic because AAL users feel extremely powerful that this is a very sufficient and fine way to communicate no matter what situation. Many people feel that calling it a dialect or not proper use of the English language is oppressive. My professor for my ENG class would always raise the question about whether or not it was the teacher's place and job to "correct" these AAL users even if what they were trying to say was understood by the teacher except in AAL and not "proper English." I realize that the book is more so focusing on ESL and second language learners, but where do instances like AAL fall into place? I felt that after reading, I found many parallels and challenges for AAL as well as ESL and second language learners. I would be really excited to hear my peers' opinions and thoughts on this whole thing.
In chapter 2, I really enjoyed reading about the different activities to do with language and verbal communication between students. I not only felt that these activities would help children with expressing themselves in a deeper way by using descriptive language, but it would also help ESL students to be able to listen to their peers and learn verbal communication first hand by simply participating in the tasks at hand. The fact that some of these activities require students go beyond simple answers and be some what colorful with their language reminds me of last week when I was in my first and second grade classroom for field. The CT was having students go back into their writing folder and expand on one of their stories to make it more vivid and colorful and overall more descriptive.