Earlier this week I attended a course taught by a Wisconsin
woman named Renee who was invited by the American embassy to teach us about
teaching English as a foreign language. She started out by stating some facts
that really struck me as important. She said that the majority of people in the
world who speak English speak it as a second language. Even more the majority
of teachers teaching English globally do not speak English as their first
language. She followed this up by saying that the English language is rapidly
evolving due to all of these non-native English speakers communicating in
English through informal channels like the Internet.
In Malaysia they say they learn British English and I’m
discouraged from using American English in the classroom so that I don’t
confuse the students too much. However Renee talked about how my students will
end up using “Global English” as they communicate with others in the future.
Renee talked about a “Global English” as an English that is less focused on
specifics of grammar and more focused on comprehension. Can the two parties
speaking understand what the other party is trying to communicate?
These comments though made in passing during an all day
course stood out to me because it is something I have been thinking about a lot
since I saw the midterm results of my student’s English scores. They didn’t do
very well. Now I am purposely placed in a school that is struggling with their
English, a school where the students rarely use English in a practical setting,
but I know my students. I am able to communicate with a good amount of them,
but their exams are very specific grammar based questions.
It’s frustrating for me as a teacher to see my students
progressing to speak and understand English, but to see no improvement in their
exam scores. Now before I talk about my conclusion I want to preference it with
“I do not study English or languages and I do now that grammar is important.”
With that being said for my last 4 months teaching I’ve decided that I’m going
to let go of the little bits of grammar I’ve been trying to get my students to
pay attention too. Instead I’m going to focus on getting my students ready to communicate
in “Global English” with the European tourists that frequent their islands and
their online penpals/ their random Facebook friends.
Last week, I posed the question to my upper level students
“Would it be better if the world only spoke one language?” And I guess I’ll
leave it there, because I don’t really have an answer to my own question.
Oh, wait. One more thing. Here is an interesting videos that one of my fellow ETAs shared.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_walker_on_the_world_s_english_mania.html
Chelsea, I have had your blog open in my browser for days so that I’d remember to comment on this post! I have lived your frustrations “with teaching for the test” and the strictures of following a textbook. Language is about communicating. Isn´t that what we should be teaching our students to do in their new language? Ideally, our students will become involved in English on more than an academic level.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard, though, when the educational system is based on bits of paper (diplomas and certificates) that don´t measure the students’ ability to get and give the message! I could go on about this for hours. For years I taught with innovative materials which really did teach students to communicate. However, I was working for myself and the students came to us because they wanted to learn to speak and function in English. The last half of my career has been as an employee; my employers have usually set the texts and objectives of the classes I give. Nonetheless, there is almost always opportunity to slip in those rewarding activities that let you and the students get down to the real business of communicating—though sometimes you have to be pretty creative to fit them in!
About “Would it be better if the world only spoke one language?”, the last issue of National Geographic raises just that question in their article on vanishing languages: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/vanishing-languages/rymer-text
Don´t get disheartened! Your students are learning!