In Korea, most students want Native speaker as a teacher of English conversation class. What is NS teacher? It means they must have different skin color (preference to people with white skin, blond hair) and American English accent. But there are not enough NS teachers so that many students meet bilingual (I use this term as a non- native) teachers in conversation class. Sometimes students try to test those bilingual teachers in class giving a kind of this requesting “why don’t you explain it in English?” even though they don’t have good English proficiency. Actually bilingual teacher is much more helpful to students whose English proficiency is poor.
When I worked as an assistant staff for a language Institute in a university in Seoul, Korea, one day two students came to the office and asked why Bill didn’t come to class. It was early morning around 7: 40 a.m. and Bill was one of English conversation teachers in the morning. I asked to them if there were other students to wait for him in a classroom. They said no. I thought something strange because the class consisted of 10 students but, except those students, no one in a classroom? Including teacher? How could it happen? I had known Bill was a very good and diligent teacher so I thought he couldn’t skip a lecture without any notice. So I called him what happened to him and the class. He said he already got an excuse for skipping a lecture that day from all students in the class yesterday. At that time I remembered his notice for skipping a lecture that day and also remember those two students clearly. Because, around the beginning of the semester, in spite of their level tests and low scores, the two students wanted to change into NS teacher class(NS teachers usually teach advanced classes) from bilingual teacher class. As the result of it, those two students didn’t understand what he said in class yesterday. When they were going out of the office and saying, “oh, it may mean his excuse for skipping a lecture this morning!” “Oh, whatever. I can’t always understand what he said in class. It’s too advanced. And other students speak in English so good! I don’t like it”
Actually students complain when their speaking class teacher is not NS, but as time passes by, most of them, especially low level students, become more familiar to a bilingual teacher than a NS teacher Because they don’t have big burdens when they speak to teacher and in class. But there are also double attitudes to it. They like bilingual teacher and feel more comfortable in a class but they still want NS teacher. Because having NS teacher in a class is a kind of their pride to show that they have good English proficiency, means they can communicate with NS in English. By that reason, if they meet bilingual teacher in U. S. , especially in English conversation class, most of them will be angry just like we can see the description in page 43 in chapter 2. Therefore we (English teacher) make our students think keenly what NS is and what they need to improve ‘good English proficiency’. WASP? Or people who can speak in English fluently? Or people having good pronunciation? If so, what is ‘fluently’, what is ‘good’? While solving these questions with our students, we as Bilingual teachers may be ‘good model’ for our students to study about cultural differences, de-contextualizing their stereotypes on NS, and further having world view.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Japanese Culture Constructed by Discourses by Ryuko Kubota (Oct. 5)
Kubota proposes critical multiculturalism. Representations of culture in critical multiculturalism are understood as the consequence of social struggles over meanings that manifest certain political and ideological values and metaphors attached to them. This rejects a form of liberal thinking in which cultural differences are affirmed merely as an end in themselves without an understanding of how difference is produced, legitimated, and eliminated within unequal relations of power. She also persists that ESL professionals need to not only go beyond simply affirming and respecting the culture of the Other and romanticizing its authentic voices, but also critically explore how cultural differences as a form of knowledge are produced and perpetuated and how they can work toward transforming the status quo.
In critical literacy, the teacher and students need to read, write and discuss with critical consciousness how the existing knowledge of cultural differences is formed and what kind of meanings are attached to dominant and subordinate forms of culture and language. At the same time, they need to engage critically in the acquisition of the dominant codes of the target language. Because the language is taught in order to give the students a voice so that they can fight for the transformation of an unjust and cruel society. In other words, perspectives from critical multiculturalism and critical literacy facilitate a view of culture as a site of political and ideological struggle over meaning. They also provide a pedagogical foundation for both affirming cultural heritage and teaching the dominant language by critically examining the representations of both the dominant and the subordinate cultures.
As I read Kubota’s article and Reiko’s response, they remind me of my teaching in Korea. I had usually taught several contemporary American novels. Whenever I met my students for the first time, I always insisted them to read, think, and analyze them critically. In fact, although we read and studied novels, it is written in English not Korean because this course belonged to English department. It means, one of the basic reasons for studying English novels is to learn and improve English, in terms of not just English literal proficiency but also English in standard and high class. But what is the standard (and high class) English? English of British and North American, white, middle class? But Kubota insists the importance of world English, especially in Asian area. It means there is no standard. But can I give an A to my students with Korean English and American English (if it is called) at the same time?
In the class, students also can learn and accept American culture through learning and studying novels. Sometimes I show some scripts of films made in Hollywood to students, and force to think how it is different from the textbooks and why it is made like that and what is hidden behind the film. But I was always disappointed at my students’ apolitical interests in power relationships between them. They wonder why they criticize them but not enjoy them as an entertainment. It always makes me exhausted but encouraged to recognize what I have to teach.
In critical literacy, the teacher and students need to read, write and discuss with critical consciousness how the existing knowledge of cultural differences is formed and what kind of meanings are attached to dominant and subordinate forms of culture and language. At the same time, they need to engage critically in the acquisition of the dominant codes of the target language. Because the language is taught in order to give the students a voice so that they can fight for the transformation of an unjust and cruel society. In other words, perspectives from critical multiculturalism and critical literacy facilitate a view of culture as a site of political and ideological struggle over meaning. They also provide a pedagogical foundation for both affirming cultural heritage and teaching the dominant language by critically examining the representations of both the dominant and the subordinate cultures.
As I read Kubota’s article and Reiko’s response, they remind me of my teaching in Korea. I had usually taught several contemporary American novels. Whenever I met my students for the first time, I always insisted them to read, think, and analyze them critically. In fact, although we read and studied novels, it is written in English not Korean because this course belonged to English department. It means, one of the basic reasons for studying English novels is to learn and improve English, in terms of not just English literal proficiency but also English in standard and high class. But what is the standard (and high class) English? English of British and North American, white, middle class? But Kubota insists the importance of world English, especially in Asian area. It means there is no standard. But can I give an A to my students with Korean English and American English (if it is called) at the same time?
In the class, students also can learn and accept American culture through learning and studying novels. Sometimes I show some scripts of films made in Hollywood to students, and force to think how it is different from the textbooks and why it is made like that and what is hidden behind the film. But I was always disappointed at my students’ apolitical interests in power relationships between them. They wonder why they criticize them but not enjoy them as an entertainment. It always makes me exhausted but encouraged to recognize what I have to teach.
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