The quote that really encompassed one of the views that this class has taught me was this: “We now recognize that (a) because English is nativized in many communities (featuring diverse norms), we cannot treat these speakers as less legitimate “nonnative” English speakers; (b) because identities are hybrid and multiple, and most of the world is multilingual, we must conceive of learners as having identities that often accommodate English seamlessly with other languages… Suffice it to say that we are now compelled to orient ourselves to our learners in more specific ways, taking into account their diverse learning contexts and needs.” This quote is important because it speaks of how we really can’t even presume that there’s one methodology that will cater to all of our students. Like our previous readings have told us, we might encounter students who’ve been taught English in their home country or students who’ve been barely exposed to English. It wouldn’t help the student who learned English in his home country if the teacher was to start at the basic—teaching him grammar without considering the different contexts that he might find himself in. We’ll have to incorporate the English he’s learned in his home country into the methodology we use. The same could be said to the student who has to start from scratch. And yes, that’s easier said than done and I can’t even presume to guess that I’ll have an answer to that, years from now—but Troike has said that, “there can be no one ‘best’ method is undoubtedly the wisest approach.” And I think that’s what my ESL teacher did when she was teaching me in middle school here in the US. The government in the Philippines require schools as early as kindergarten to teach English, so coming to middle school, I already possessed knowledge in English—you know, I had all the components, all the bits and pieces that would have made me into this walking, talking-English machine. What I lacked was the finishing touch, the interaction/discourse—something that you can’t really experience outside of the classroom in the Philippines—that would have assembled all the pieces together. My ESL teacher provided that, she mostly gave me a place where I could display what I already know without fear of embarrassment. But with her other two students, she was more concerned with instructing them with grammar, vocabulary etc.
The realization about EFL instruction in other countries is that they are routed in grammar translation and audio-lingual methods. The result is a bunch of students who come to America or the UK and they have troubles producing the verbal language, but can read and respond very well. It all depends on the culture because we know what the methods mean, and how to implement them. I think it's important to view language learning as being stuck between two cultures. Even in America, we have variations of English that are "unacceptable" by most as not being the standard dialect. Depending on when and where you want to teach, you may have to look beyond methods and cultural means to accomodate some of these students who speak Konglish, Spanglish, Chicano, African-American Vernacular, Southern Vernacular and the list can go on and on depending on the regional variation of English. What's important is your ability to identify and supplement these cultures in your language classroom.
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