English 343Cross-cultural issues in TESOL: Examining cross-cultural practices in the context of teaching English as a global

language

Dr. Lisya SeloniDepartment of English

lseloni@ilstu.edu

Learning to teach is not just about learning a body of knowledge and techniques; it is also about learning to work in complex sociopolitical and cultural political space and negotiating ways of doing this with our past histories, fears, and desires; our own knowledges and cultures; our students’ wishes and preferences; and the institutional constrains and collaborations.

Alan Luke from Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning

Agenda

PART I:

Welcome back!

Who are we?—Introduction through “Six Words Memoir” activity

Why are we here?—Course objectives, course materials, assignments, course blog.

Reading the syllabus

Part II

Essentialist and non-essentialist views of culture

Personal definition of culture

Assignments for next week

Six word memoir examples

For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.—Hemingway

Lost voice. Gone to find it.

Suddenly everyone seems younger than me.

Mother, teacher, writer. In this order.

My resolutions melted faster than snow.

Well, I am still here, are you?

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

Why are we here? What do we hope to achieve?

develop a culturally sensitive vision of TESOL which de-centralized and de-colonize knowledge and English language teaching.

examine macro issues such as language ideologies, multilingualism, language policies and planning.

examine micro issues such as classroom interactions, participation patterns and cross-cultural issues in curriculum and material development.

obtain an understanding on issues such as cultural assimilation, cultural globalization, otherization and how these apply to language learning and teaching.

understand the intersection of race, class, gender and ethnicity in the global context.

analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and interpretations, and engage in scholarly dialogues about different theories of language and culture.

Some critical questions we will tackle this semester:

What is culture? What is the relationship between language and culture?

What are some of the different perspectives in defining culture?

Why does culture matter in English language teaching?

What culture do we teach when we teach English as an international language?

Are there privileged/underprivileged cultures that enhance ESL/EFL learning and teaching?

What are ESL/EFL teachers’ role in promoting culturally sensitive pedagogies?

Reading the syllabus

Read:

Course Descriptions

Course Projects

Class Blog: http://crossculturalissuesintesol.blogspot.com/

Class Blog from Spring 2012: http://crossculturalissuestesol.blogspot.com/

Take about 5 minutes to skim through the syllabus: What questions do you have so far?

Definitions of culture

Compose your definition of culture (e.g. write, draw, act)

Culture is_______________________

Culture is like ____________________

Share in your answers with your group. Discuss why culture matters in language teaching.

Culture never just “is” but instead “does”

Heath & Street, 2008

Five dimensions of culture

Products/artifacts

Practices

Persons

Perspectives

Communities

The iceberg of culture

Big C Small c

Big C: “classic or grand themes” (Peterson, 2004, p. 25)-visibleSmall c: “minor or common themes”-invisible

Essentialist vs non-essentialist views on culture

Essentialist view of culture Non-essentialist view of culture

Culture as a noun: It has a specific entity. It’s homogeneous.

Culture as a verb: Societies display complex characteristics which are hard to pin down. Culture as “unbounded, kaleidoscopic and dynamic” (Heath & Street, 2008)

People in one culture essentially different from people in another

Cultures flow as people intermingle. Cultures have blurred boundaries

People belonging exclusively to one national/linguistic/cultural group

People can belong to and move through multiplicity of cultures within and across societies.

For successful communication with someone foreign, we must first understand the details and stereotype of their culture.

Understanding the complexity of who the person is. Moving beyond media representations. Being open minded and ready to problemitize representations.

Group discussion

In your group, read the chart on essentialism and non-essentialism. What strikes you as important, eye-opening? What examples can you give representing both sides of the chart?

Assignments

Open a blog account

Create a first entry

Send it to: lseloni@ilstu.edu by Wednesday morning .

Readings and blog assignment for MLK day.

Books are available @Alamo!

Class readings are available in digital reserve. Bring them with you in each class.

Class Blog: http://crossculturalissuestesol.blogspot.com/

Learning log contents (550 words minimum—2 pages, double space):

1) Summary of the articles

2) Your reflections, critique.

3) Connection to your own teaching and learning experiences

4) Further questions

Recommended: Bring a copy of your blog entry/critical response paper to class each week.

Two paradigmsSmall Cultures: any cohesive group with no subordination

Large Cultures: Essential differences between ethnic, international and national entities

Non-essentialist, non-culturist Essentialist

No ONION SKIN RELATIONSHIP, No necessary subordination

Small and subcultures are subordinate to large cultures

Interpretive, ongoing: a process of (re)making

Normative, static: social world is divided in fixed categories

“The world is made up of a vast complex of shifting, overlapping , swirling, combining and splitting cultures” (Holliday,2005)

“Mutually exclusive types of behaviors connected with nationality”—African culture, Chinese culture…Culture is a geographical place.

Discussion

Atkinson (1999) writes:“ all human beings exist in multiple social worlds, have multiple social allegiances, and play multiple social roles—all of which are continuously changing” (p.643)What are some of the social allegiances you bring to your profession? What small cultures do you identify? Focus on one of them and discuss what discernable set of behaviors is characteristic of this small culture.

Positivist/Essentialist sequence

National stereotypes are acknowledged as problematic but remain as starting point.

Us-them overgeneralizations are made such as “While the west focuses more on the learning process as a means in itself, the Chinese tradition is more oriented in learning outcomes”

A sense of uncrossable boundaries: “members of different cultures have certain beliefs, values and practices which suit them”.

Cultural essentialism is not only practices by West: People from the east and the South also essentialize their own cultural identities., through the display of traditional dress, dances, rituals…tpo maintain and acquire power. “Exaggeration of Self to suit people’s perception of other can help one to gain acceptance (Holliday et. al, 2004)

How can we avoid the trap of over-generalization? By Deconstructing images

and representations and engaging in a dialogue on the critical intersections:

Culture and

Language Education

Identity

Agency

DifferenceRepresentation

Power

Recent examinations of culture

Post-modern/post structural: Culture is no neatly packaged entities. They are NOT exclusive bodies of customs, values and thoughts. They are NOT perfectly shared by all who subscribe to them.

Contact zone: The social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they lived out in many parts of the world today”. (Pratt, 1991, p. 34)—bordercrossing/borderlands by Andaldua.

Cultures as travelling (Clifford): Unrooted, permeable, ever-developing and changing.

Subjectivity, Agency, power

Subjectivity

Various social forces and their possible implications on our identities. Personhood is fragmented and conflicting (conflicting ways of looking and being in the world)

People are NOT simply members of homogenous, unified cultural groups. They come from a particular class/ethnic/national/political/religious/sexual/educational/racial backgrounds.

Agency

The will of individuals, especially those in positions of disempowerment to decide their own life courses. The ability of individuals to resist the influence of dominant ideologies and discourses.

Power

Power is diffused throughout the social world. The groups who have power in the society also define and represent culture in ways that tend to benefit them and promote as natural their own social practices.

Six principles of culture (Atkinson,

1999)1. All humans are individual

2. Individuality is also cultural

3. Social group membership and identity are multiple, contradictory, and dynamic.

4. Social Group membership is consequential.

5. Methods of studying cultural knowledge and behavior are unlikely to fit a positivist paradigm.

6. Language (learning and teaching) and culture are mutually implicated, but culture is multiple and complex.

What do these statements mean? What are the implications for TESOL?

Holliday et. al. book: B.0.1: Culture and community in everyday life

Hannerz writes “We have an old habit of speaking about ‘cultures, the plural form, as if it were self-evident that such entities exist side by side as neat packages, each of us identified with only one of them—this is indeed a time-worn implication of at least one anthropological concept”.

Bauman also writes that people see themselves “ as members of several communities at once, each with its own culture, and that making one’s life meant ranging across them.

In looking back at notes you made in identifying your small cultures, do you see any overlaps, cross-cutting allegiances or hierarchical orders? How does your own life mean “ranging across” these communities? What are the significant parts of your own “personal cultural repertoire” as in-service and pre-service language educators?

Discussion: Definitions of culture

Which, if any, of the descriptions do you feel successfully captures the complete of a partial meaning of culture? (p. 69)

1) A culture is “a text the vocabulary and grammar of which its members learn” (Fay, 1996)

2) “Culture is a verb” (Street, 1991)

3) Culture is an “evolving connected activity, not a thing”. (Fay, 1996).

4) Believing…that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs (Geertz, 1973)

Assignment

Readings

Blog entries