Pratt: Arts of the Contact Zone, Due Monday, March 3

[Alison Mandaville]

Dear Class,
In her article, Pratt writes of "the contact zone" to contrast
with ideas of "community" and "homogeneity" that dominate notions of
literacy,
communication, and learning in academia (schools and universities).

What is the contact zone? What are the implications for teaching if we
use this idea to guide work in the classroom? How, and for whom might
this idea prove challenging? Use specific examples from your own
experience
in education if you wish to help develop your answer.

You will need to read the whole article CAREFULLY. It will be covered
on the midterm.

Click on "reply" below to post your answer. Please do NOT make a new
topic post to the discussion.

Best,

Alison

[Let's Learn]

This essay shows us the contact between adults at Universities and
youths at schools. In my opinion, Pratt gives some advices for
teachers that it is possible to be in contact with different races and
people. Her essay invites teachers to take a new look at the contact
zone of the Classroom. Probably, Pratt invites us to see the new
understandings or new literacy. What I want to mark is that, we can
make our contact zone everywhere even in the place which is unknown
for us. For example: Heart of Darkness-my thesis work is one of the
best colonialist novels that show us the contact zone in a place where
culture and language are unknown for Europeans. Mr. Kurtz -
representative of Europeans enters Africa who is unaware of their
culture and language but in the shortest time he manages to get in
touch with them even he gets married there with a woman from Africa.
But in general, Pratt makes us see that, Universities and schools are
the best places for Contact Zone. The best contact contacts occur
there. There are some implications for teaching such as linguistically
culturally, nationally. In this sense, Pratt wishes to arrest our
attention to the teaching and learning in diverse communities. Her
proving pertains for teachers or any educators who are foreign in the
any country. Firstly, it makes difficulties for him or her to get into
the way. Teacher is the best example. Any one who comes from America,
England etc. to teach students or pupils, faces difficulties but after
a while he or she gets his or her own way. Pratt sets her own terms
and ideas in creating contact zone. She shows relationship and
interaction of various groups.

She writes about social places where culture clashes, meets and
grapples. Contact Zone could occur between any cultures or any
separated groups. Pratt argues that, classrooms can be utilized as
such social spaces. If we use this idea to guide work in the
classroom, teachers would ask students to revisit and explain course
texts, helping to identify and correct any misreading. Students or
pupils begin to fulfill what their teacher ordered them. Later,
teachers focus upon students' abilities to describe and analyze their
own racial experiences. In doing so teacher motivates the students and
make common contact. As I understand from Pratt's ideas she aspires
to say that, contact zone is one of the best way to motivate the
students and involve the to the lesson.

[eldart...@yahoo.com]

Hi dears:
After reading this article by Pratt I thought that language is not the
thing that can be put into box and be studied in there. what is meant
is that to tudy language there are many influences as cultures,
families, atmosphere of society and so on.
For Pratt the contact zone is the notion where cultures meet and these
places are the education places as Universities and schools. The
author is writing about the baseball cards of her son and she thinks
whether schools can give what the baseball cards give.
by means of interchanging of knowledge which comes by culture, family
and by other factors students from different parts(it can be country,
race, believes to different religion) share this knowledge. the
education is different notion and being from different part is not
problem for education so education should be done for everyone same.
Another one is the literacy. the adoptation of different culture
affercts the person who is living in different country. for instance
American, French, and other teachers' teachings in Azerbaijan. there
is adoptation of cultures, believes, power, literacy and other notions
in education. if we say education is giving knowledge and taking it,
then in this case this adoptation becomes normal.
From Azerbaijan we can say that we have been colonized and were
conquered by Soviet Union. The education system was affected by this
and as well as the believes, literature created in this period were
different, in that they all were under the influence of Russians.
However I think that for same believe from the world different
countries have different ideas. Pratt gives figures and its adoptation
by different cultures is different. so in education and in literature
it should be free in imaging the figures, believes, literature, poetry
and others.
In our education system there are many foreign students and teachers.
the education should be done which can make no problems in future.
what is meant is that the education done in Azerbaijan should be with
same program with the whole world. Students should learn same thinks.
in the meeting of cultures and believes, there will be meetings with
literature, religion and other notions. so it is good aportunity for
us to share knowledges.
I believe that the culture created by other person or other country is
not your culture, so there be freedom for this and no influence for
changing the believes,, mainly there should not be changes in
education and literature which is the symbols of language and
cultures. If any of them is going to be destoyed the culture and
language of country can die. this problem was in Azerbaijan which
continues till nowadays.

[arnoldv...@yahoo.com]

hi everybody..
language learning is very difficult but i want firstly to talk
about Sam and his friend..at first everything begin with
baseballcards..He didnot completely pronounce the names..for eg.Carl
Yastremsky.His interest begin increasing.He try to decipher surnames
on baseballl cards,read about cities.states and baseball card opened
the door to baseball
books,novels,encyclopedias,magazines,history,books of
jokes,anecdotes...and after history books...every door opens to
another one.From little to a big.For Sam it was like
this...learning about the cities open the door to learning about
the peoples life and their struggles.I want to make equal
literacy to baseball game.And one player have to learn the game
deeply.That is the way of true learnig language.Contact Zone is
the contact of communication between diffrerent kinds of
cultures and traditions and at the same time past and the future
by the helping of writing and reading language.In Contact zone we
can see relations of power colonializm and slavery.It means we are
keeping contact from one part of the world to other.Language is
important in this contact and writing and represantation too.There
apperas a new term..Tranculturation..Transculturation is a term
and transmitted by a dominant and metropolitan culture.And making
contact between two different cultures.THis is a phenomenon for
contact zone.Bilingualizm,mediation,transculturation these are some
of the literate arts of the contact zone.The contact zone is
related with community culture,communication and language,There are i
want to emphasize Andersons interesting idea about this.He divided
three types of comminity.1.limited.2.sovereign.3.fraternal..writing
and literacy play a central role in this argument for Anderson..I
think there for making people more literate circulation of
books,play a central role.If there is less rule in school and
classroom in one hand it is good.because students will feel
themselves very comfortable and not lose their self confidence but
in other hand it isn't normal.Because inside the rules students
can understand some principles of teaching and behaviour.Classroom
likes a social world but there can be respect between teachers and
students .
Every man is challenged by rules in one way or another,The
classroom is not like a similar community but like a contact
zone,Every text has historical relationship.When we dont
communicate we will forget the positive things,every student can
describe the world which h/she lives in.The best side for
learning is the pedagogical arts of the contact zone .Thats why we
should use contact zone in our education and to do good for our
government...

[sevil_de...@yahoo.com]

HELLO MY
DEAR FRIENDS!
First of all I'd like to start with Platt's words about
contact zone;" I use this term to refer to social spaces where
cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts
of highly asymmetrical relations of power..." (M.L. Platt,"Arts of the
Contact Zone" p.575) As I understand from Platt's word contact zone
is- when different cultures comes vis-à-vis.
Then, I think Platt tries to show us that, teaching the
lesson to homogeneous class is easier that teaching to heterogeneous.
The reason is: as we know each country has it is own culture, low,
truth, tradition, life style and sometimes traditions of two counties
has sharp cleft between each others and imagining such kind of people
in same class-As Platt said there could be clash, grapple during the
lesson according to their opinion about the world. Because;
- Each person has his/her own window which open for her/him view
to the world. But sometimes even the members of the same family see
different sight from same window; I mean people's ability of world
imagination is not same and for keeping all students or pupils in same
line teachers must have a good method where they can create an
atmosphere of mutual communication. Where, the students can hear not
only their homogeneousness but also students from different cultures.
This process can help students unconsciously informed about the
cultures, states, geography, life, education, family relationship...
because they can learn all that not form teachers but from their
heterogeneous classmates and that process can help students feeling
themselves comfortable, free form teacher's pressure.
Next, In my opinion education is contact zone where all
cultures, history come together because all people have contact zone
in their life and studying in same class can help people share with
others their opinions, thoughts and also it will help them learning
more about other countries. As Platt said;" The classroom functioned
not like a homogeneous community or a horizontal alliance but like a
contact zone" she means that during the lesson each text, theme has
some relation with student's life and during the lesson each student
despite of his/her race, tradition assembled in same point, in same
contact zone.
Then, Platt does not give her example about Sam without reason
as we see her son learn from baseball cards about- phonics, cities,
states, heights, weights, place of birth, stages of life, about
American geography/history and etc. Her son experience show that we,
people can get information about world or things not only in schools
and universities but also by ourselves but we must have desire for
this, because if person have interest for leaning he can get more
success as Sam.
Finally, Appling contact zone in education can help students
come face-to-face with wrongs and rights of her/his culture; other
people's criticisms or praise can help them looking at their world
from outside, then think about what is true and what is false again!
Thank
you!

[baby_c...@mail.ru]

When I read this article first time it was a little bit difficult to
understand.But it is interesting .What is contact zone?-Contact zone
social spaces where culture meets.Contact zones can be the interaction
between any culturally,linguistically,nationally,or educationally
separated group.Contact zone is important in education system.As we
know each country has its tradition and custom but in education
everthing is same not separate.It doesn"t matter which culture,or to
which race you belong everyone can get education.If we were a teacher
it doesn"t matter to which race or nation they include.We will teach
them the same.

[gulnar]

HI EVERYBODY.....

1.Actually we can identify what the Contact Zone means by
analyzing each word it contains.. The term indicates to the place
in where different kinds of cultures meet and join each other under
one power. It can happen during colonialism, slavery; imperialism
etc .Talking through the education the Contact Zone refers to a
class consists of students from different countries all over the
world. They are not simply homogeneous community. While talking
about The Contact Zone M.L. Pratt shoved Guaman Poma's texts as
a truly product of Contact Zone. Because Poma has created his
text by using the repertoire of invaders. While he writing his
text He neither imitate something nor re-produced again but he
selected simply some parts and used them to show his nations
feelings, interests etc.
The Contact Zone includes Transculturation, Collaboration, Parody,
Bilingualism and etc. All these are the characteristics of The
Contact Zone. Talking thorough our experience I can give my
educational system during Soviet Union as an example to Contact
Zone .Soviet Union hold 15 countries as everybody knows, and every
country had its own language and culture. In one university
auditory you could encounter students from almost those 15
countries .But they were joined under one language and interacted
with each other by that language(Russian)..But now in our
educational system majority of schools' classrooms contain
homogeneous students.
I think in The Contact Zone the classes are much more
interesting, excited and challenged. Because in homogeneous class all
students think and act In a way you think and act. Nothing is
different, because all students have the same background and culture
to share. Here whatever a teacher says and tells you are complied
to obey. But in Contact Zone you see the world thorough the real
representatives of other countries. You share what know and adopt
also what they know, Here all the students participate in
classroom ,are socially different but despite social conflicts all
students are engaged in the same lesson and interact with each
other. Here the world seems to be unified .
It proves challenging also, because as I mentioned above, the
Contact Zone is the place in where the ideas of children/
community ,thoughts, culture is intended to contrast ,vie everybody
has a chance to talk about his culture and norms and discuss
together. Here teacher carries very great responsibility. H/she
should make everyone should treat each other friendly and there
should be mutual understanding, mutual respect. Here nobody should
be left outside the interaction. Sometimes it is inevitable showing
some groups themselves superior to marginal nations and some
dominant,authority community can belittle other small and weak
community.
But on the other hand students can enlarge their knowledge about
the world and challenge each other..........

[vefa_o...@yahoo.com]

hi to everyone

contact zone is the way of contact. From the article we know that
there are a lot of counties in the world. And for them it is necessary
to make relation with themselves. Of course languages will different.
It is true that it will easy those countries that near to each other.
But with other countries it will difficult. At that time they use
different ways witch is told in the article:with picture or others.
To expand my last sentance I want to say that it was from political
way. But from litetary side how a country can present herself if
doesn` t know that country`s language. And he thinks that images are
the best way . Because he himself sees it in his home How his son
learns from baseball cards.
At university if there is students from different countries a
teacher can discuss a topic from different way. Ex: as it is said in
the article a techer can take answers from different student from
different coutries.At the lesson they can dissuss their idea about
each other`s country.
Contact zone is also so thing that can influence by culture.We can
see it in our country. How is it? as all know that we long years
controled by russian empaire. Of course it influenced to our idology,
culrute and others. In our country we have also turkish influence :we
watch turkish chanals even talk and read some literature.
To other influence I can say even Great Britain`s influence over
India. After the conquere they star to wear, to talk like a British
man
About the role of images I can tell that a teacher can explai the
lesson if she is foreing one. Because sometimes pictures are more
influncible than talking


On Feb 29, 9:19 am, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[43888366882]

As far as I understand from the articles contact zone is the notion
in which culture meet and such kind of places

places are the education places as Universities and schools.

Firstly I want to talk about Sam.In the beginning the baseball
cards are cast and he and his friend did not pronounce the names(Carl
Yastremsky). Then they begin to find the different way.
Contact zone is sharing the same feeling and mutual understand.
For me, Platt tries to show us teaching lesson to homogeneous class
is easier that teaching to heterogeneous because every country has
different culture and style and sometimes there are no similarities
among them. In addition language is also being obstacle besides the
problem of adaptation and shock(culture).
Interaction with nations and culteres is also preperate contact zone
their sharings,agreements, battlefielts and so on..

As Platt said;" The classroom functioned not like a homogeneous
community or a horizontal alliance but like a

contact zone" she imply that in the classroom(lesson) every points
has a few relation with student's life and during the regardless of
their nations they come together in the same place(contact zone).

[lemang...@gmail.com]

Generally learning isn`t simple thing in the world. Actually nothing
is easy to gain .So learning language is also very difficult peak to
reach. But if somebody loves his/her job, nothing will be hard. So I
agree with Pratt's notion about contact zone. Because if there is some
spark of other cultures, it will be much easier gain your goal.
Contact zone is the social spaces where cultures meet clash & grapple
with each other. For instance, we can encounter with contact zone at
university, school, and work or in other social spaces. So we don't
have to ignore contact zone, instead we can use it for our best
education. From this point transculturation begins. It means people
share their culture, custom, language & etc.with each other. As we
know every region has its own culture. So by sharing the idea, they
can learn sth different from each other. And this leads them to learn
much. So Pratt didn`t give her son's situation about baseball cards in
vain. The boy couldn`t read the word correctly. And this made him
study hard . Learning one field takes him to other one. She wants to
say that while you're walking on one way, this way `ll lead you to
other one. And it will continue as a chain. So learning in contact
zone, somehow looks like to this one. But sometimes there was
segregation in contact zone. The ones who are in high level begin to
behave with lower class in rude way, or begin to show his/her
dominance. I can prove it by the situation in which I have been in the
secondary school. There was one boy who came from very high level of
our society actually he didn't study as we did. But school didn't
allow him to continue his education and expelled him from school. By
this way our school wanted to show that there wouldn't be segregation
among the students. Everybody is equal in education.
Segregation begins not only because of the class level, but also among
nations. In other field I don't know, but in education won't be any
segregation. Everybody will be in a same level for the teachers.
Teachers by themselves have to use this situation because teaching in
heterogeneous class is much more interesting, enjoyable in homogenous
class. In this case teacher will be acquaintance with the culture's
background, treat with every student in one way.
But there was one negative side of contact zone. For instance, if
transculturation begins, how they (cultures) come to one conclusion. I
mean the rule which is forbidden for one`s culture, is allowed for
others. So in my opinion, there must be one unchangeable rule for
everybody. In this case they can interact with each other & share
their culture easily, as we did it at our university

[betek...@yahoo.com]

Hi GUYS!!!!
Notwithstanding i've read this artice hundred times i couldn't
understand it fully but in class i'll ask my questions those still
stay unknown for me.
So... Contact zone is a meeting of people from different backgrounds
or
Contact Zone is a point of convergence and exchange between people
from differing backgrounds.
Pratt looks at only one historical example of the contact zone,
focusing mainly on the non-existence of its application in education.
The historical case she uses is a twelve hundred page document which
had been lost to historians for hundreds of years, Guaman Poma's New
Chronicle and Good Government, a letter written by an Incan man of
mostly unknown origin to the King of Spain.Here Poma uses Spanish
language to criticize Spanish in his letter. He says: Spanish brought
nothing "but armor and guns with the lust for gold".
He tries to make equality between the 2 cultures.
Pratt challenge us that we can ourselves strive for our own mutual
understanding.
It doesn't matter whether you're police officer or farmer or 17 years
old student the thing or knowledege you want to comprehend or get is
the same notwithstanding your backgrounds are different but for the
other reasons.
There might be mutual understanding and the human beings can create
this Pratt calls this "joy of CONTACT ZONE".
I'll post a new comment after asking question to you and that comment
will be the longest one you've ever seen.

[qedi...@box.az]

I am going to give short answer for it ,because Mary louise Pratt
herself wrote this article very short, but meaningful.We are looking
for the pedagogical arts of the contact zone. These will include, we
are sure, exercises in storytelling and in identifying with the ideas,
interests, histories, and attitudes of others; experiments in
transculturation and collaborative work and in the arts of critique,
parody, and comparison (including unseemly comparisons between elite
and vernacular cultural forms); the redemption of the oral; ways for
people to engage with suppressed aspects of history (including their
own histories), ways to move into and out of rhetorics of
authenticity; ground rules for communication across lines of
difference and hierarchy that go beyond politeness but maintain mutual
respect; a systematic approach to the all-important concept of
cultural mediation." She gave very good examples about this artile.We
all know the baseball conversation.i really appreciate her idea:At the
same time I found it unforgivable that schooling itself gave him
nothing remotely as meaningful to do, let alone anything that would
actually take him beyond the referential, masculinist ethos of
baseball and its lore.
Dhe talks about her son.her essays examine how contact zone dynamics
play out in various pedagogical spaces.Prat's advanced the notion of
"contact zones" as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and
grapple," Professing in the Contact Zone
Ican say that,mostly teachers must read this essay.Because,teachers
must understand that,they must look for ways to teach their students
very easy and understandable way.
We have seen from the her examples that,the thought teacher must
teach all sources note only those that are commonly used and
accepted.Even sources that have previously not been fully
understood.The teacher must not use from the only one source,but many
sources.

[Angelochek]

Good evening everybody. Dear teacher, I would say that the text was
one of my more difficult readings. I write what I understood.

As Pratt says, she use the term contact zone to refer to social
spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other.... That
means to describe variety of different interactions to which include
cultures literatures and etc. So she goes to the ancient time, to the
past to show this contact zone. We see it from her son's way of
studying with baseball cards, the letters of Guaman Poma as truly
products of the contact zone. In the contact zone is used in a
education could be very useful, so that the classroom consisted of
transcultural peoples would be both interesting and one of the best
ways to learn each culture. But of course as other methods this method
also would be problem for Azeris. As I noticed Azeris respect incomers
more than their own people. Of course it would be discrimination
problem for us. That's all.


Thanks

On Feb 29, 9:19 am, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[amir...@yahoo.com]

The contact zone is the place in which sociocultural complexities
exist. That's the oppositional forces such as slavery & colonialism,
male & female (e.g. the illustration of Adam and Eve), in short
hierarchical state almost in every fields related human beings
particularly, have always been existed (even in literature, e.g.
textual one--Guaman Poma's heterogeneous letter "New Chronicle and Good
Government" versus "The Royal Commentaries" by Inca Garcilaso de la
Vega). When they meet each other, the subordinated one were influenced
by the dominant one, or one of them was ignored, while other
reconsidered again & again. In that contact zone we can numerate some
literate arts of this contact zone: autoethnography, transculturation,
bilingualism, collaboration, parody and the like.
One wonders what may happen (who may lose, who may win), if this idea
is applied in classroom environment. To illustrate, the teacher can
overcome the difficulties that the different cultured students by
giving them opportunities to present themselves freely regardless of
their social, cultural, political, etc. background. Of course, it is
obvious that this process will actually be hard for the teachers to
manage the heterogeneous class, and bring them into homogenous
atmosphere in unified world. However it will provide their students to
express their opinions and thoughts without hesitation, and the mutual
understanding, respect. Moreover, it will remove the one's possible
authority, superiority over others; on the contrary will them chance
even to speak of what is falsity about their culture when the time
comes.
In secondary school I was really suffered from the out of date ideas
of "community". I couldn't act, behave, speak, write, read, whatever
else properly in those years of education, however, this, to some
extent, have been passed in my university years--I could present my
projects, express my opinions, albeit the class wasn't
heterogeneous.

On 29 Feb, 09:19, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[taleh_...@yahoo.com]

Good Days!
The term 'Contact Zone' -which is new for all- is
explained as "social spaces where cultures meet" by the author, brief
I'd call the Contact Zone the art of interaction, discussion, or
communication, mainly depends on different cultures, their different
view points, etc. In this heterogenous class, management is difficult,
each should express his ideas, thoughts clearly, each of their
arguments can be discussed among each other and they can agree or
disagree with each other, and respect each others view even they re
from different cultures, religions, social classes. And that's the
main issue: inteaction and communication of that different backgrounds
in the same atmosphere.
In this zone each comes from variable background, that is,
comprehension categorically will be different, each represents his/her
own culture, upbringing, naturally they aren't able to get the idea
similarly as well, of course difference will appear, so teacher
behaves to every student in the same way which s/he shouldn't. S/he'd
find similar points, which are common for each of them.
In the first example, two children plays with baseball cards
which might be seen simple or unnecessary, but afterwards with these
baseball cards they manage to get knowledge almost about everything,
including geography, history, they extended their world view with
these. Its available also for schools and Universities, teacher should
create such kind of situation for them, s/he ought not to teach the
things that are generally proved, or everybody accept it, s/he ought
to find new sources to learn which might be seen unnecessary.

[amir...@yahoo.com]

Pratt at first shows the literary arts of contact zone, where the
clash of civilization occurs. Eventually she informs us that they are
now investigating the pedagogical arts of this zone. She gives some
examples from the past--textual, sexual, cultural, literary hierarchy
on the social context, and draws our attention to the similar process
happening in academia. The same power, authority and dominancy of the
teacher over the students--like Adam over Eve, "The Royal Commentaries"
over "New Chronicle and Good Government"--still exist in our education
system. Though we are all human beings, we use different languages,
alphabets in heterogeneous class--like socially have different
backgrounds, point of view, tradition, culture, and so forth. In that
case, it will be enough difficult for the teacher to unify and make
collaboration among their students, BUT it doesn't mean it is
impossible. Pratt suggests the safe house, in that case, where exists
mutual respect and understanding, neither shame of their culture, nor
fear of expressing it in appropriate time. Everyone can for a while be
under protection--no oppression, no dominancy, or power, BUT shared
understanding, dialogue, reliability, knowledges.
As for my experience, I would say that it was really boring for me to
encounter such clash of culture in Istanbul, particularly in education
system. I, the only Azeri student in my 45 peopled class, felt myself
alone, isolated, inferior, powerless, etc. Though I hadn't any problem
with my Turkish language--nobody could have recognized it, if I didn't
tell them that I was Azeri Turks--I was oppressed by the classroom
atmosphere, the teacher's attitude toward me, not regarding me as one
of foreign student with different background distinctively... the result
was my coming back to Qafqaz University, leaving two Universities
within 5 years...

On 29 Feb, 09:19, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[TheRisingSun]

Consider correction please
this comment was written by Elshan Gurbanov, not from Vusale:

[Ulker.O...@yahoo.com]

hello to everybody,
i read this material but i could not find the thing which is very
meaningful. But in my my opinion "Contact zone"is the the place which
many different cultures and traditions meet and join in the same
teritory and mix each other.If we look at Colonilalism period we see
clearly this mixtion,and how in Africa spread English culture.but
contact zone refers to education that from diferent countries studens
meet in the same classroom and how they behave to each other.The idea
of contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of
community that underlie much of thr thinking about language,
comuncation and culture that gets done in the academy
On Feb 28, 9:19 pm, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[abid...@yahoo.com]

good day, as I see that contact zone is the limeted atmosphere where
different people meet, they exchange tehir ideas, so ideas became
fit in one way, as we knoww people are the roots of the society, they
live in the same world, they share the same society so they ought to
rely in each other, advise with others, in old times people lived in
small groups while there weren't general communication, if tehy have
had troubles they fighted, if not they gathered in one group. I
understand the contact zone in such way.

On Feb 28, 9:19 pm, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[afa...@bk.ru]

First of all,I want to say that it did not seem to interesting,because
there is nothing interested me.Other classmates wrote that this lesson
is about students and teachers relation,I agree with that,but, today's
giving material is about culture,which foreigners did not adopt it
yet.For us,it seems easy,but it is hard to adopt to another
culture.Pratt explained "contact zone" with baseball cards,the two
child are from different countries,it can be to play with each one,but
they can not communicate,because of the different languages.So from
this point we can say language plays main role in everybody's
life.Through language it is easy to contact with other foreign
students,to learn their language, and to get along with foreign
teachers.

[gunelh...@yahoo.com]

I think by "contact zone" Pratt refers to education which
makes all cultures meet. If we turn it into a place, we can say that
they are universities and schools where many delegates from different
cultures come together.

As we know each nation has its own special traditions,
customs, and beliefs. The education centers make them know many other
people from all over the world, learn different cultures, traditions
etc. By interacting with different notions we can learn their
cultures, besides, we can introduce them our own culture as well

The baseball cards mentioned at the beginning might be giving
us some idea about teaching-learning process. As we see, those cards
aroused interest to learn more, in those children. It means that using
different methods like pictures, flash cards etc. can be more
motivating for learning. Instead of being a stereotypical teacher and
teach lesson in a serious and strict way, we can make our lessons more
interesting and effective by using different methods of teaching.

[gunelh...@yahoo.com]

[gunelh...@yahoo.com]

[kamuflaj....@hotmail.com]

Good Days,
This article is a little hard to understand in first
reading.The writer tells about contact zone which means the place in
which different cultures meet and have a contact.These places can be
shown as the contact zone places but Universities can be shown as the
best places for the contact zone.because there are too many different
cultures in universities and they all have a contact with each
other.This also causes changes in those cultures.This essay wants
teachers to focus on the contact zone in the class.Universities has
also a different pecularity about contact zone.In the places other
than universities the cultures don't have good relationship when they
are together.Fights,quarells and may be wars can be shown.But in
universities there isn't any problem between cultures.they have the
ability to live and share everything together.Here the importance of
education can be seen clearly.Because of this reason the writer shows
the importance of schools.
In the essay the baseball cards that the writer speaks about show us
something about teaching period.The motivation process is being seen
in this part.Cards make the pupil motivated to learn.We had learned an
idea in Pedagogy lesson.A picture worths a thousand words.This
sentence is enough in my opinion to tell the message that is given by
the example of baseball cards.
In the contact zones each people comes from different places and has
different cultural backgrounds.This situation makes this interaction
and communication important.To tell the truth I couldn't understand
the whole essay and I wrote the parts that I think I understood.

[jale Heyderova]

privets to everyone

from the word 'contact' we understand there is some connection.so after reading the story i understood that people of all over the world,especially students and teachers(or students  and students)meet,discuss and compare the cultures of  themselves.and the idea from here is that connection-these meetings are called 'contact zone'.

and the beginning part of the story about baseball cards is example,where two children with different levels of knowledge look the cards and analyse the photos in those cards.this is the beginning level of learning about the world,about another countries' histories,arts and etc.and there was created a contact zone,i.e. they learn in the same time some new things and their brains work simultaneously.  

----- Original Message ----
From: Alison Mandaville <alisonma...@gmail.com>
To: Rhetoric Of Fiction <rhetoric-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:19:45 PM
Subject: Pratt: Arts of the Contact Zone, Due Monday, March 3


Dear Class,
In her article, Pratt writes of "the contact zone" to contrast
with ideas of "community" and "homogeneity" that dominate notions of
literacy,
communication, and learning in academia (schools and universities).

What is the contact zone? What are the implications for teaching if we
use this idea to guide work in the classroom? How, and for whom might
this idea prove challenging? Use specific examples from your own
experience
in education if you wish to help develop your answer.

You will need to read the whole article CAREFULLY. It will be covered
on the midterm.

Click on "reply" below to post your answer. Please do NOT make a new
topic post to the discussion.

Best,

Alison

---

Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.

[g.cab...@yahoo.com]

Hi everyone!
Contact zone is a term used to describe the interactions of
people with different backgrounds when they contact with each
other.These contacts can take place everywhere.The interaction can
also be not face to face but also via pictures, books , television ,
radio and etc as in the Pratt's 6 year son's case.We see that the boy
interacts with his favourite baseball players by means of baseball
cards.Most of his thoughts on American culture and etc are formed from
these pictures.
Pratt suggests that universities and schools are most likely places
where cultures clash.There different students and teachers with
different backgrounds in classroom and its possible be many
similarities and differences among these people and their cultures.
Certain misunderstandings may occur.These might be reslts of religion,
race discrimination etc.Teacher should be responsible to make students
understand each other and of course , in the first place he himself ,
native or unnative should try to understand them. Pratt's message is
this:When we come into contact with the people with different views we
can learn something for ourselves or make changes big or small in our
ideas.Teachers should provide their students with the opportunities to
know one anothers culture to exchange and share ideas.Paulo F.'s ideas
bears similarity to Pratt's.Paulo suggests that human's life can hold
meaning .only through dialogues, communication and interaction.
When we are asked by teacher to tell our thoughts about the texts
we read, rarely our comments match.Because we regard materials from
different aspects.Thus teachers' role should be to engage us in
critical thinking and make us regard one another's thoughts.Pratt's
article also says that Geomans letter can be interpreted different
when various "cultures" read it.Geoman's letter, I think is really
interesting.Though his nation didn't have a written language he had
written with spanish letters and used both his and spanish
language.Here his and spanish lan. comes into contact.That can lead to
the way of the derivation of similar languages.
As coming to my own experience , I can tall many examples about
contact zone.For instance we have had foreign teachers at uni.which we
first found odd, but afterwards we've gradually come to understand
their culture and they also too.
Our teacher John always wore formal suit but shoes were for sport.It
was funny.Afterwards he began to wear like our teachers.I've never saw
lecturers sit on desks with one leg on other in school.So i laughed
when i saw our university lecturers do it.After some period i didn't
found it strange.One more, the foreign religious books that my
classmate gave me changed my views on religions and etc.
In the end i want to say that though people regard reality in
different ways, they all live in the same world.Let's listen to
each other and learn something.

On Feb 28, 9:19 pm, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[yasem...@hotmail.com]

Hello friends

First of all I want to say that like everyone it was very
difficult for me to understand this article and to answer
to this question.Contact zone is a notion which connects
different cultures and different nations.
It gives an opportunity to the peoples from the different
nations to speak and to know one anothers cultures.And I
think the universities are the best places for to know
different nations.I can give example from my own life.Before
coming here I did not have any information about Azeri people
and their cultures.But the passed four years taught me many
thing about this people.Now I have a lot of information about
their history, holidays ,their meals and also about their
customs.I think it is the best contact zone for the people to
learn different thing during your university years from your
friends.







On Feb 29, 9:19 am, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>

[pear...@yahoo.com]

Hiiii my friends!!!!!!!!!

Firstly I want to say that I did not like the language of
this article.It is interesting but also very difficult to
understand the writer.For example I did not understand what
kind of relation Adam and Eve has with contact zone.But I
will try to answer the question with the parts that I have
understood.Contact zone is the space that people communicate
and know about each other.It is very interesting to
communicate with the person who belongs to other country and
has his or her own culture, history and way of
communication. I think the schools and universities are the
best place for the people from different countries for to
speak and learn about one another.For example this university
gave me chance to know about Turkish people and thier
culture.Also my Turkish friends speak Azeri very well now. Also
there is a girl in our university from Africa. Once she showed
me her family's photos. With this photos I saw how they
sit while eating,what kind of games they play.These photos
made a contact between me and African culture.In this article
the writer shows the baseball cards as an example and says
that baseball cards made my son to learn about the baseball
books,history and etc.
It is true that with one game or picture you can learn many
thing.So this game makes a contact between the books,history
and the people who plays this game.

[xeyale...@yahoo.com]

Hi everyone.: -)
I read this text and I think that "contact zone" Such as a pedagogical
method. By my mind there include group work, Shared understanding ,
shared ideas as some cultural , historical knowledge. Beginning of the
text Pratt talk about her son Sam And his best friend Wille. Their
preparation for baseball cards. It's very usable idea for giving such
as project to students. It make them work on it and learn more and
improve their knowledge. And Sam with his friend for discovered
baseball cards learn American geography and history, learned about
exchange fairness, trust , learned about adult worlds as well. By this
way he knows something about Japan , Taiwan , Cuba , Central America
and how men and boys do things there. By my mind The baseball cards
was contact zone for Sam because under name baseball card hi search
and learn many important thinks. This idea is the best way to teach.
To make conversation among different languages students. For.ex to
give them project about people's life in different countries . When
they began search about it they will learn more. Then during group
work they will talk about their life, culture, history that way they
were learn more from each other. This method will make them search
and improve their knowledge.
It's my understanding. If it's incorrect excuse me.
Thanks


On 29 фев, 09:19, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>

[ronaldo]

Hi
It was so difficult to understand this article. I think that Contact
zone is the meeting of the cultures, languages and etc. Main example I
can show Universities for the contact zone. In university we see many
students from the other states. And they have their own culture. Also
if you are going Turkey or England for the study, for them you also
will have a culture. In our univesity there are many cultures we can
see. There are turkish, American, african cultures in our
universities. I think that universities is the best way to show
contact zone. In the essey Baseball card meaning, how to teach the
students. I think that this is the method. When student or pupil look
this this cards in the features he will be remember something about
his lessons. For the contact zone also need to travel to speak the
foreiners. We also can see a contact zone inside the any state. For
ex: in Azerbaijan cultures is the same. But, in the villages or some
regions there are some culture which we dont know. Language; English
between UK and USA is also a contact zone. there are difference
between them. Uk is speaking clear but some of the region in the USA
they speaking a little bit mudely. Thats all I understood.

BYE

[xeyale...@yahoo.com]

[n2f5]

hi people,good days
u know i cant anyhow get the idea of the text. it was just "a little
bit" difficult, nothing else;)
so i'll do my best to be brief:
(pay attention that my ideas might be false at all) i think that
contact zone is a language or smth else i dont know that u actually
dont have but u adopt it, and take some of its parts and create your
own( here, it was language,if i'm not mistaken). also contact zone was
comparing of contrast ideas, point in order to come to the final idea.
for ex. Adam and Eve in that pictr was described with Sun in the high
level and Moon in low.. This is quite suitable method of explaining
smth from different sides.for ex. u can use the Sun and Moon also to
explain White and Dark...as to me i think i do use it in my daily
life, in order to show or describe smth.
that's all byeeee


On Feb 29, 9:19 am, Alison Mandaville <alisonmandavi...@gmail.com>

[luci]

Contact Zone - it is a very extraordinary relation between people when
I heard!
The main communication of people is language.But in contact zone
people's languages,cultures,view points are different.And places could
be schools and universities.I can give an example from our University:
There are students from Azerbaijan, Turkey,Malawi,etc.The connection
between them is language which we learn in our university - English
language.
In contact zone teacher plays main role.If there are different notions
students,of course, their behaviour also is different.Teachers
behaviour must same to all class.

[tural_...@mail.ru]

HELLO _ CLASS!
IN MY OPINION CONTACT ZONE IS SOMETHING THAT WE SEE FROM ITS NAME
DESCRIBES CONTACT, RELATIONS AMONG PEOPLE OR SOMETHING. IF WE WILL
LOOK AT IT FROM LINGUISTICAL POINT OF VIEW THEN WE CAN EASILY SAY THAT
CONTACT ZONE IS METHOD OF COMMUNICATION. BUT WICH METHOD IS THIS?-THIS
METHOD APPEARS DURING THE SPEEC ACT OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE. I MEAN PEOPLE
WITH DIFFERENT HISTORY, AND THOUGHTS, OR IDEAS AND SO ON...FOR EXAMPLE
IMAGINE TALK BETWEEN A MAN OF MODERN WORLD AND A MAN OF f ex... V-th
CENTURY. THEIR TALK OF COURSE WILL BE DIFFIRENT BECOUSE OF TIME
PERIODS... NOW CONTACT ZONE'S ROLE IS TO IDENTIFY AND STYDY THE
LANGUAGE, OR TALK BETWEEN OUR IMAGINED MEN.
AS TO IMPYING IT TO OUR CLASSES, IT IS ALREDY WIDELY USED WAY OF
COMUNICATION. BECAUSE TODAY THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE STUDING,
WORKING OR LIVING, TRAVELLING DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, CIVILISATIONS. AND
THIS WAY OF COMUNICATION IS DESIRED AND ACCEPTED ONE.. IT IS ALSO USED
WITHIN CLASSES, CULTURES AND SO ON...

[Gunay_...@mail.ru]

Hi, my friends!

It is a very difficult article for me, but I will try to say my
thoughts about this. Here "contact zone" is used as the term which
refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with
each other. In schools or universities there are students who have
different background, culture. But teacher must create a condition in
which they may communicate with each other, learn each other's
cultures. Here learning is important. There must not be
discrimination. Her son learns most things with the help of baseball
cards. It is good. It means that not only in schools pupils may learn
everything.

[Ruhiyyei...@yahoo.com]

hello to everybody,
i read this material but i could not find the thing which is very
meaningful. But in my my opinion "Contact zone"is the the place which
many different cultures and traditions meet and join in the same
teritory and mix each other.If we look at Colonilalism period we see
clearly this mixtion,and how in Africa spread English culture.but
contact zone refers to education that from diferent countries studens
meet in the same classroom and how they behave to each other.The idea
of contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of
community that underlie much of thr thinking about language,
comuncation and culture that gets done in the academy

TEACHER I WROTE THIS RUHIYYE ISMAYILOVA BUT IN ABOVE SHOWW DIFFERENT
THAT THIS WROTE ULKER OSMANOVA IT IS WRONG

[clever_...@mail.ru]

Hi everybody. I think this article is the most difficult we have ever
studied. Even it was very difficult to understand the questions. So
sorry for poor writing.
In this text the contact zone is the conception which joins cultures
of different countries. And these cultures or representatives of these
cultures don't know each other's languages. They meet one another at
schools or at universities. Because these are places for education. At
schools and at universities learners from different cultures or
countries get education. And they are influenced by other cultures, by
speaking or learning their languages, by communicating with their
representatives. Education is same for everyone, whether their
languages, believes or cultures are different. But if the teacher or
other students in the classroom are foreigners or someone who lives in
other country, studies there, he (or she) will be influenced by their
culture.
For example, a country which is conquered or colonized by another
country will take the other country's believes and culture. Another
example is the students of foreign language department, who are always
affected by their foreigner teachers or classmates. But I think it
will not influence their education or knowledge.

[metanet]

Contact zone - the place where different cultures meet, clash. It is
not just their clash, here there is a disbalance between them by means
of power as it is said colonialism, slavery (as I understand). Contact
zone is the zone where should have been very interesting, excited,
difficult, and of course in some challenging since there are
representatives of different cultures which in its turn means
representatives of different languages, traditions, mentality, even
going further, life-styles. Now thinking of the meaning of contact
zone in the idea of teaching or more specifically schooling the
situation becomes more difficult but with its advantages. But before
it I would like to state something about Sam's experience. It is
really very interesting how he learns from those baseball cards.
Little picture cards but full of information beyond it which is not
given overtly. One needs to be creative, thinking in order to be able
to get to the knowledge in behind. It is a good example to see how
children and adults see and learn the world around them. It means all
the pictures, toys, all the stuff for children are not just for
enjoyment, they hold as much information for children as the books,
articles, magazines and etc. for adults. But here Sam's mother
mentions one point, as she says she is delighted of schooling that
gave Sam so much information but at the same time she is upset of
schooling giving nothing beyond it. It is like you are taught
everything of one room full of stuff, all its ins and outs but you
know nothing outside of that room. However for success we need broader
knowledge, i.e. more you have wider world-view more you are successful
in your work. Thus schooling is not to teach you just math, history
and others but to teach the world in all its meanings. So, entailing
from that point contact zones should have been perfect places to learn
different worlds through their own representatives. Universities are
good examples for that, even our own university where there are so
many Turkish students (thought we are similar in language and culture
there are enough differences as well), some other foreign students.
During discourse we interact using our own life experience, language,
cultural influence. In one discourse you learn so many new. But it is
not as easy as one might think of the teacher having this kind of
class. One must be very skilful and knowledgeable to take control of
this class since it is a contact zone there certainly will be some
contradictions of opinions. As it is stated in article normal in some
way ordinary lectures, topics becomes so different, difficult and
interesting as well. Here also the way of teaching is very important
in the sense that whether this method should vary taking into
consideration different backgrounds of different students or there
should be one same method for all? I think there pedagogues need to
find points common for all. It does not matter how many different
students are there, if they are gathered in one classroom, hear and
see the same, they are the members of the same classroom certainly
there are things in common and that make them contacted in one or
another point. In short in contact zones there should be used methods
with the rules that everyone will obey equally and simultaneously have
some relation with each of theirs' experience. I think in this kind of
environment we win rather than lose. ( but it does not mean that we do
not benefit in homogeneous lessons. )

[grmi]

I want to say that it was very hard to understand the meaning of
the subject. I think here contact zone means the meeting place of
cultures. The people from other cultures meet and speak together the
differences of the culture. We can meet that everywhere: even in the
classroom, University also in society. People from other cultures
lived in one society. It can be called as contact zone. If we look
wider form of contact zone we can give classroom as a contact zone. I
think being from different cultures can not be the difference or
barrier for the learning process. It can be more suitable to learn
more in this enviourment.

[fourth...@yahoo.com]

Hi dear friends!
Educational system, academia is a place that is constructed on the
bases of interaction, sharing, communication and etc. Students
studying there feel the necessity of comprehension about the ongoins,
getting equally involved in the same degree and mode, equal attention
from the instructor. All these equal demands by students can be
fulfilled only when some general principles would be taken into
consideration. Until now we have learned some principles about skill
differences (kinesthetic or verbal) or level differences (advanced or
intermediate). Now we come to learn about contact zone that Pratt
defines as social space where cultures meet and clash with each other,
so a space where cultural and social differences exist. So teacher
besides of previous differences must take consider cultural
differences that every student could be involved equally in the
lesson. Pratt gives examples of contact zone from history and her own
life, about her son. Poma's New Chronicle and Sam's interest on
baseball cards and his informations about the around of the world is
the product of contact zone and its phenomenons transculturation and
autoethnography. If in the history slavery, colonialism, invasions,
etc. were the contact zones, today the basic contact zones are reveal
in academia (universities, schools). Pratt offers that this base
should be taken into consideration by the teachers. Because students
in the class belonging to diverse cultures respond to the same notion
differently.
If the lesson is built on the communication, then the students'
backgrounds, outlooks are revealed in this process. Everybody
discusses the topic; if they ignore their culture and background in
analyzing them they get challenged. A man, human analyzes the world
according his/her experiences what s/he viewed or heard in his past.
So denying student's cultural background also means the denial of his/
her judgments.
During Soviet reign people of the 14 countries and some other nations
suffered from the superiority of Russian culture and language over
them. This propagation revealed itself in the educational system. Some
of the nations had got completely different culture, traditions,
language, religion etc. But Soviet Union and its officials claimed
that all the nations and people are equal and they must construct the
only, unique nation under the name of Soviet. And so the education
system was organized with the only program, the same books were
studied in 14 countries. They aimed to bring people away of their
distinct culture and values and mix them to get only nation. In brief
they tried to treat 15 nations as homogeneous nation. It was a
community, and they considered that such kind of treatment is for
equality. But there never appeared a unique nation, and equality. The
experiences of many years proved that there can not exist equality and
justice while treating students of more than 15 nations under the
superiority of Russian culture and language.

[grmi]

[Spring]

Hi to everyone. I`m so sorry being late for my assignment, actually, I
did understand what is the point in this text, but I was waiting for
getting inspired to write down my thoughts about the contact zone.

As I understood, the contact zone refers to social spaces where
cultures get together, clash, and struggle with each other. Mostly,
it refers to cultures of nations which used to be slaves, colonists
that were dependent from others and have been living in many parts of
the world today. And now, people of those nations are living together
with generations of their oppressors, and they communicate with each
other, studies in the same schools and universities. Therefore,
language, writing, and representations of those nations have been
represented mostly by authority languages in contact zones. To use
contact zone in classes might be exiting, for it gather different
people with different language, background and culture. But it has
some risks with having authority language among others, as a result,
others that have not authorities have to speak only in the language
that has authority. They, surely, will be expressing themselves,
discussing about their cultures with its positive and negative sides,
but it is difficult to represent fully the culture that has specific
details. From past to now society in everywhere is growing with the
help of immigrants and the foreign students and USA can be shown as
the most multinational region in world.

Studying own culture and representing it to others is very important
for making his or her culture known and accepted by foreigners,
nevertheless it`s not impossible if you haven`t got your well-known
language among others, so you have to use other languages. If you
aren`t proficient in language that you are going to use for your
interpretations you can be misunderstood by that language speakers and
it shows lacking in contact zone. One of the challenges of the contact
zone is the situation where two or more enemy counties citizens are in
the same contact zone. What could you expect from this situation other
than scandals, quarrels and execution? I can give example from recent
event when one of our officers who had been studying in Hungarian
republic was insulted by other armenian officer who had been studying
with him in the same academy and as a result he was shot by our
officer Ramin Safarow. Although Armenian soldiers not only insulted
but even killed hundreds of our citizens, have never been punished by
any organizations that pretend to be antiterrorist, but R. Safarow was
condemned to imprisonment for life. How we can speak of creating
friendly partnerships in that situation? Nevertheless friendly
partnerships can be created and it is easier when you are bilingual or
can speak in more than two languages. You can easily contact, make the
acquaintance of somebody who speak in languages you know and you can
share your ideas, can discuss from your point of you and learn their
point of views, too. You can interchange your knowledge and take
something from the culture of each other. It also has challenges when
to take something from other cultures might be dangerous from the
aspect of negative sides. For example in our culture standing up,
hiding smoking cigar when the elders enter to the place you are in
represents respect to elders. But we can`t see this custom in Western
cultures. Unfortunately, our adults adapted to Western customs, these
days and we can see them smoking in a visible places in our
University. Intervention, parody, criticism, imaginary dialogue,
dialect expression--these are also some of the literate arts of the
contact zone.

Every classroom is a little model of society. Nowadays we are the
participants of that society and we assembled together from different
parts of Azerbaijan, Turkish republic, and other countries. We have
different family backgrounds, different vernacular expressions, and
different characters, but we are also in a contact zone. We are the
receptors of different cultures and backgrounds when communicate with
others. Teachers should use this in class for avoiding from boring
classroom activities, let the students speak freely, express
themselves, their cultures, national holidays, discus the giving
subjects from their own point of views. Teachers should respect their
opinions and their decisions, rather than deleting their self-
confidence and ignoring them. The teacher also is a member of a
contact zone, but he/she should not be an authority in classroom and
make the final decisions for discussions...the students also have to
respect others` point of view and decisions and be respectful about
vernacular expressions. You can ask why I wrote about vernacular
expressions, for we have some students that make fun of others`
vernacular expressions. May be it is not so resulting, but some one
can be offended by it.

As I wrote in my first assignment, we have lived under the rule of
Soviet Union and encountered the challenges of the contact zone for
many years. May be you know saying that if you want to ruin one nation
you can`t do it by occupying its lands, but you can ruin that nation
only when you make them to forget their language. Soviet Union had
tried to do that, to make us to forget our language, but not only were
us, also other nations that had been dependent from SovUn also obliged
to use Russian language and obliged to adapt to culture that Sov. Un.
created for us, as a result their dream to build a homogeneous society
was done very successfully. We were obliged to speak Russian ,
although we are Azerbaijanians and live in a territory of Azerbaijan,
but Russian people who lived here had never tried to speak in our
language, on the contrary who couldn`t speak Russian from Azery people
was called as " chooshkah" that means `poor peasant` . These did give
us the contact of zone.

[angel]

Hi,everyone.
I' m really sorry for late assignment. So let's come to our topic.
"Arts of contact zone"by Mary Louise Pratt tells about contact zone
that is a space in which people that geographically and historicaly
seperated come into contact with each other and establish relation. In
other word it is a clash of cultures.
Here also he uses another term of authoethnography which means that
people present themselves in ways that their dominants have
represented them,also it is not self representation but a
collaboration of mixed ideas and values from both dominant and another
people's culture.For identifying these terms he gave two good
examples.One of them is about Guaman Poma and another one about his
son. Poma an Andean wrote a long letter to king of Spain. It was
written in two languages, Spanish and Quechua, the native language of
the Andeans.But Quechuan language is not thought as a written
language. So, Poma interacted with them in a "contact zone", i mean
using contact language Spanish. By communicating with them , forced
him to learn Spanish culture and use it to his adventage.With it he
presented to a world a piece of work that incorporated Andean customs
and values with Europian manners and ideas. So from here we can see
that "contact zone" sometimes gives people great adventages.
Usually "contact zones"could be in schools,universities, in some
international trainings or in some works.For ex: in discussions, let's
take some international schools, universities, students from different
cultures express their ideas, knowledge based on their background.By
expressing something about culture or anything else belonged to their
country can easily influence to each worldview. Also they learn each
other's culture and a lot of things about each other's country.
So,these kind of discussions make lessons interesting.By the way, here
is the "contact zone" should be English language becouse today
english is accepted as contact language.
I want here mentioned that laguage is not only "contact zone",also
some common rules, which are dominion in nowdays, could be a contact
zone.

[angel]

[xeze...@yahoo.com]

Hello,dear friends
Pratt writes''I use thisterm to refer to social spaces where cultures
meet,clash,and grapple with each other,often in contexts of highly
asymmetrical relations of power,such as colonialism,slavery or their
aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today.'' I
think by ''contact zone'' she meant the communication,collaboration or
understanding between people of differant
abilities,backgrounds,vorldviews.And this zone plays the role of a
bridge between different people.TO KEEP THIS BRIDGE always redy for
use she identified some methods:
Autoethnography-describing yourself in ways that engage with
representations others have made of them.
parody
collaboration etc.
In the old letter the author describes his own people ,their
aspirations by employing Spanish styles so that the Spanish king can
understand him.So the bridge is built.This is an example of
autoethnograohy.
Then, she goes on to talk about the application of contact zone
building to educational field.SHE PROPOSES that the sides of contact
zone should be equal in human rights or what happens in the zone
should be appreciated by both of the sides of the zone.IN SUCH an
atmosphere nobody can feel superior,nor can impose impose anything.
fOR ME,it would be successful to employ ideas nutritious fot contact
zone in lessons.At such lessons students are much likely to lower
affective filter ,which keeps them away from communication.And if
teachers are good at managing to make students understand what he or
she teaches the lesson will be a place to enjoy.
Those teachers who consider themselves to be authorities at lessons
cannot succeed in this type of teaching.Most of my high school
teachers lead lessons in a way they planned and they sometimes had
difficulty explaining to us their topics so they resorted to making us
memorize.This means that they couldnot keep equality in the contact
zone between us and themselves.

[ruhiyye ismayilova]

hello teacher,i am ELNARA KERIMOVA FROM 5B,yesterday i stay in ruhiyye's home, i wanted to write in google group but i forget my password and today i decided to write the answers to your email adress if it would be available.
  yes i read the material and sometimes i understaood what it was sometimes not,contact zone is the students from different places study in the same classroom and their opportunity. The idea of contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that underlie much of the thinking about language,comunication and culture that gets done in the academy.I dont know if you remember that in summer i was in London and i spoke to you about my adventure. Also i faced to face this situation that many students rom different countries study in same course,sometimes i realized their unusual culture, behaviours, but in our country it is not acceptable.When i read this material i remember my lifes in London.         good bye

[ruhiyye ismayilova]

hello teacher,i am ELNARA KERIMOVA FROM 5B,yesterday i stay in ruhiyye's home, i wanted to write in google group but i forget my password and today i decided to write the answers to your email adress if it would be available.
  yes i read the material and sometimes i understaood what it was sometimes not,contact zone is the students from different places study in the same classroom and their opportunity. The idea of contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that underlie much of the thinking about language,comunication and culture that gets done in the academy.I dont know if you remember that in summer i was in London and i spoke to you about my adventure. Also i faced to face this situation that many students rom different countries study in same course,sometimes i realized their unusual culture, behaviours, but in our country it is not acceptable.When i read this material i remember my lifes in London.         good bye

---

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

[ruhiyye ismayilova]

hello teacher,i am ELNARA KERIMOVA FROM 5B,yesterday i stay in ruhiyye's home, i wanted to write in google group but i forget my password and today i decided to write the answers to your email adress if it would be available.
  yes i read the material and sometimes i understaood what it was sometimes not,contact zone is the students from different places study in the same classroom and their opportunity. The idea of contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that underlie much of the thinking about language,comunication and culture that gets done in the academy.I dont know if you remember that in summer i was in London and i spoke to you about my adventure. Also i faced to face this situation that many students rom different countries study in same course,sometimes i realized their unusual culture, behaviours, but in our country it is not acceptable.When i read this material i remember my lifes in London.         good bye

[ruhiyye ismayilova]

hello teacher,i am ELNARA KERIMOVA FROM 5B,yesterday i stay in ruhiyye's home, i wanted to write in google group but i forget my password and today i decided to write the answers to your email adress if it would be available.

  yes i read the material and sometimes i understaood what it was sometimes not,contact zone is the students from different places study in the same classroom and their opportunity. The idea of contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that underlie much of the thinking about language,comunication and culture that gets done in the academy.I dont know if you remember that in summer i was in London and i spoke to you about my adventure. Also i faced to face this situation that many students rom different countries study in same course,sometimes i realized their unusual culture, behaviours, but in our country it is not acceptable.When i read this material i remember my lifes in London.         good bye.

[h.mus...@yahoo.com]

Hi.

When Pratt wrote about the contact zone his implication to contact and
also to contrast cultures, traditions, particularly it concerns with
the schools and universities. Her intend is to make contact between
high level and low level not only in our society, but also in the
schools and universities. As we can see this contact in the pictures
that was described. For example there is contact between Adam and Eva.
Adam stands and Eva sits looking at him. She uses this expression to

refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with

each other, often in contexts of highly connections of power such as
colonialism, slavery as they are lived out in many parts of the world
today. She showed a contact zone as can be positive, for example, for
a class. it can be a dangerous place, where people are easily
misunderstood and hurt. She called the term like safe houses in which
to construct shared understandings, knowledges that they can bring
into the contact zone. Safe houses are places where a person can be
with people they share, can express themselves easily without feeling
any difficulties, hurts. People can go there and not feel feared, and
may share their experience within the contact zone with have had
similar experiences. The Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt
shows us a whole new concept for the class. The idea of the contact
zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that is
like bolt much of the thinking about language, communication, and
culture.
Due to Pratt, the two distinctive phenomenon of the contact zone are
autoethnographic text and transculturation. One of the characteristics
of autoethnographic text is that it usually involves some extensive
cooperation process by people of different social and intellectual
classes. During this process every hidden voice can be heard, without
mention every individual member can learn how to form and negotiate an
opinion in the outbreak of all the conflicting opinions of group
members of different cultural background. In addition,
transculturation is determined like that processes whereby members of
subordinated groups select and invent from materials transferenced by
a dominated culture.
When she introduced this concept she wanted to show us the process
that appeared between teacher and student during the class.

[asif_m...@hotmail.com]

Hi to everyone

"Contact zone" is the place where different cultures meet.From the
first view it comes to me that this zone is necessary.In previous
centuries there existed contact zone between countries but in some
ways not culturally.At those times contact zone between countries
existed by battles,wars and etc.But today world has changed and
contact zone mostly appears between cultures of the countries.People
visit different countries and with them they carry their cultures or
learn that place's culturewith integration to one to each
other.Contact zone also refers to education.Educational systems are
brought from one country to another.

Contact zone s will grow larger from this day on, but in some ways
cultures crash.THIS HAPPENS DUE TO THE HISTORY.

ThiS the insistence of time that contact zone in education should
develop.Each country needs education and education could much more
develop if there exists contact zone.

I agree with Pratt's ideas that cultures should stand seperate.No any
superior culture govern the other. Only at that time cultures should
meet in one place

[ayka]

Good afternoon my dear friends and my lovely teacher. Sorry for my
later writing. I have read my friends' answer. All their opinions are
like mines. If I can, I try not to write like their.
According to my understanding contact zone is a place where different
country's culture, people, language, history are come together. And in
the atmosphere of contact zone appeared transculturation. In Pratt's
essay we see the sentence that Transculturation is phenomenon of the
contact zone. Teacher I want to give example and want to write
possibilities of contact zone to our schools. I remember when I was in
my first year in the university my classmate Anar prepared to study in
Cambridge University. My classmates and I interested in that how that
university was, how they teach students. How Anar will learn English
language and etc. seeing our interest our form teacher Nermine
explained us about foreign universities that how teachers teach their
lessons. She gave example the Cambridge University. She said that in
that university came students from many other countries and no one
knew each- others language. Here teachers role teach perfect English
language for all students. Teachers also don't know any students
language. From day to day their language must be wonderful. So now I
understood that this method is depend on contact zone, where many
countries' cultures meet. It is a space where people's geographically
and historically come into contact with each- other and creates a
terms and mutual respect, connection with one-another for the first
time.
Then Pratt give example about heterogeneity and homogeneous. He
said: "Autoethnography, transculturation, critique, collaboration,
bilingualism, mediation, parody, denunciation, imaginary dialogue,
vernacular expression--these are some of the literate arts of the
contact zone. Miscomprehension, incomprehension, dead letters, unread
masterpieces, absolute heterogeneity of meaning--these are some of the
perils of writing in the contact zone." So that's why hetrgenios is a
perfect way to aract students from their being of diferent cultures.
Here students are involved from many things that thr lessons nust be
depend on. For eg, despite of their social differences they engaged to
the games thet their teacher have gave them, participates the
discussions even it will be about their own countr's historical
backround, that maybe one of their country's behavior was not be so
good, or colonised one country. Colonial country oppresed sinlessness
people and from their ancestors doinf the began to ashamed of these.
So may be each student's country's past must be have unpleasant
events, but in that atmosphere all students meets face to face the
ignorance, incomprehension, and hostality of others. But in such
condition no one say to anyone about their country's bad doings and
hear appeare "mutual understanding and new wisdom-the joys of the
contact zone". Here also no one was safe. So here teachers created
"Safe hause" because of students feel themselves comfortable, as if
they are homhogeneous.
in my opinon education is represent contact zone where difernt people
culture, language, history come together, so it is good to learn other
countries language, culture, history. Being of contact zone students
learn both friendship with other countries students and became more
literate than the others.
Now I want to give example our university " Qafqaz". Here study other
countries students. In our group has turkish, georgian, daghestani
students. Our class is the best representation of contact zone. I
myself can br say that i learn many thing, about rheir culure, history
and etc, from my foreign classmates. So i can be say that our lesson
continue very inerestingly. Finally i want to say that contact zone
help sudents to see their both mistaken and right way in the life. So
the contact zone create literate and a person of broad views for the
future that it is very necessary for every country.