The Perspective of Bias

I find the question about perspectives, biases to be of interest. My political leanings are center left. I once was changing the stations on the radio and Rush Limbaugh was on one of the stations. I decided to listen to hear what the “other side” was saying. I found listening to him to be fascinating, as he was taking the same facts, that those on the left take, and reaching a diametrically opposed conclusion. On occasion, I have listened to Fox news and found this equally intriguing. These observations directly tie into perspectives on history. If someone with a Fox leaning were writing the history, as opposed to someone with a MSNBC leaning writing history, the history would be quite different. Each person, from each viewpoint, is usually convinced they are “right,” which is obviously impossible. Neither viewpoint is necessarily right or wrong. I choose to believe that I am right and they are wrong, but that comes through the prism of my bias, how my world has been shaped. Not quite sure “objective truth” exists, in certain aspects of life. This viewpoint does not even include the issue of the textbook film clip we saw last semester, in which they have their own biases for all kinds of reasons, none of which include the truth.

Regarding the ESL learner, one takes a challenging situation, i.e., perspectives and biases, and that just makes it so much harder for the ESL student to learn. When teaching, one should do one’s best to not let one’s bias get in the way of what one is teaching. While consciously this is certainly possible, the unconscious has a way of intervening. The ESL learner will have a special challenge because the nuances of bias and perspective will be so much harder for the ESL student to understand. The teacher will have to make an extra effort, above and beyond the usual support for the ESL learner, when dealing with issues related to perspectives and biases.