The article by Lin et. al begins by explaining how even in applied
linguists’ “objective” writing, there are ways that we can see Otherization.
There seems to be unequal power relations between the research (Self) who is
able to conduct meta-analysis and theorize about the subjective group or
individual who is being researched (Other). I never actually thought about the
ideologies underlying this type of writing that we are always analyzing. The
authors then introduce Richardson’s “the collective story” genre that combines
narrative writing with sociological analytic writing to evade this problem of
Otherization. These collective stories demonstrate EFL learners working
diligently to acquire English and have been successful, but may find themselves
being Otherized in the process, yet continue to value their skills in the
language. The autobiographies demonstrated learners who have used English as a
cultural tool and have found themselves in a search for identity in the context
of language learning.
The article then suggests that we use these narratives to
redesign TESOL into TEGCOM, which is Teaching English for Glocalized
Communication. Their rationale is that TESOL already implies Otherization by
having an Anglo teacher as the Self and
the learner as the Other, rather than
focusing on the postmodern position of English learning in today’s world.
TEGCOM would consider all learners to be monolingual “native English speakers”
who need to be taught in ways that would promote cross-cultural communication
in sociocultural contexts. Once again, we need to look at this field with a
critical view and see how our perspectives of the world are influencing English
learners and what we should do to prevent problems of power relations.
Chapter 7 by McKay and Bokhorts-Heng discussed how to use
the sociolinguistic context of English to make new EIL pedagogical decisions.
The first part of the chapter really related to what we have learned thus far
about English in a globalized world with learners who have different
motivations and access to learning the language. Two issues that are evident in
current EIL pedagogy is glocal-local tensions and the discourse of Othering,
which can lead to many problems. One thing we can do as teachers is critically
analyze all of the materials that we are using and then have our students do
the same, so that they can see the unequal power relations or stereotypes that
may exist. After completing that ESL text analysis earlier in the semester, I
love this idea and I think it would be a great way for students to view EFL/ESL
with a critical perspective. The end of the chapter provided key points that a
socially sensitive EIL pedagogy would include and some of them are:
-“EIL curricula should be relevant to the domains in which
English is used in the particular learning contexts.”
-“EIL curricula should include examples of the diversity of
English varieties used today.”
-“EIL curricula need to exemplify L2-L2 interactions.” ---I
agree!
-“EIL should be taught in a way that respects the local
culture of learning.”
No comments:
Post a Comment