The Power of English

Chapter 1 in International English and Its Sociolinguistic Contexts is about English in an era of globalization. It examines how English has developed and how it has affected other languages. The chapter talks about globalization, why English has spread, and the problem with monolingualism.

Globalization can be seen as a link to growing relationships with other countries or as the cause of a loss of cultural and linguistic diversity. I was interested in the concept of globalization as deterritorialization, or the change of social space so that space is no longer mapped in termed of territorial places, distances, or borders. I always thought of globalization in theoretical terms, but this idea allowed me to apply it to something tangible. The homogeneity position views the spread of English as leading to a homogenization of world culture. English is believed to bring this about, and it might happen in the future. I am opposed to this idea because it ignores the uniqueness of cultures. These differences between cultures need to be celebrated, not ignored.
The spread of English is largely due to colonialism. It was always an important part of colonizing an idea so that the colonizers would be able to speak to the natives and also so that the natives would become more like the colonizers. English is also associated with power and was therefore seen as desirable to those who did not speak it so that they would be able to acquire a job. Lastly, it separated us from them. Language was a very clear way to see who was in and who was out. Phillipson published five tenets that inform the English teaching profession. They focus on the right way to teach and learn English. I believe there should be a sixth: Language attainment will come more smoothly if the learner has a desire to acquire the language. Just from talking to peers and other students that study another language, I have learned that those who like learning a second language are typically better at it because they have the internal motivation to learn it. This is one of the most important components in acquiring another language.

The chapter stated the following for incentives for learning English: economic, educational, and mass media (such as advertising, music, movies, and electronic communication). Each of these plays an important part in their own way. It also depends on which is most important to the English language learner. After reading this chapter, I learned that about 2,500 languages will become extinct in the next century. This is due to population loss or language shift. I have studied this topic in other courses and it was disheartening to learn that there are language speakers that would rather learn the mainstream language and completely drop their native tongue, causing it to no longer exist. This is where TESOL educators come in. It is our job to show students that they can know and grow an appreciation for BOTH languages. When a language dies, so do the customs, knowledge, and traditions associated with it. We cannot let English alone run the world. People need to know that although English is a powerful language, it is not worth risking one’s culture.

Diversity in Students and Teaching

Ibrahim’s article talked about becoming black, referring to it as a process. A part of this process is learning on the behalf of both the student and the teacher. Teachers need to learn how to associate different media types into their teaching. If the class is made up of African American students who enjoy rap music, then the teacher should create a rap about the 50 states or whatever else the students are learning. I like that Ibrahim made the point that rap music is more than bad lyrics. For some, it is a symbol of hope and a way to express feelings and problems. Different races do the same, but just in a different form. This learning is not just about gaining knowledge about classroom subjects but also about people’s identities. Over spring break, I volunteered at an after-school program in the Bronx. I worked with 6^th -8^th grade students. They each had at least one “major”. These majors were similar to college majors in that they would study a particular area to learn more about it. The school was 95% African American students. The school did not try to push majors such as business or politics, but offered majors such as African drumming, stepping, music, and dancing. The school took the students interests into consideration and helped them form identities based on what they had a passion for.

In Kubota and Lin’s writing, it is stated that race and racism shape aspects of teaching and learning. I completely agree with this and it reminds me of a previous discussion question that was posed in class. Should diversity be taught in elementary school? If it is, children will become more knowledgeable on the topic, but it will make them realize that people are different and they might begin to stereotype and see differences as a bad thing. I would argue that it should be taught. Students need to learn that diversity and differences are a good thing and that society thrives on them. The world would be a very different and boring place if everyone was the same. We would not be able to learn from each other. In addition to learning about diversity, it should be stressed to the students that they should celebrate it and find a way to teach others that it is something to celebrate, as well. As I am learning in my sociology class, human behavior occurs in a social context. With regards to white privilege, it thrives because society allows it to do so. This white privilege not only separates colored people against white but also colored people against colored people. They turn on their own race in favor of white scholarship.

Hard Times: Arab TESOL Students’ Experiences of Racialization and Others in the United Kingdom was a study conducted to see how Arab students feel in America in regards to racism and Othering. I was surprised to learn that not all of the participants felt discrimination based on race. That would be the quality that sticks out most in my mind when it comes to poor treatment towards Arabs. Another important finding was that TESOL communities need to make sure that they are not causing the Othering towards Arabs. Some students felt a shift from being seen as international students to feeling marginalized because of their culture and nationality. The community practices might not have been necessarily racist, but if students are perceiving them in such a way then something needs to change. TESOL educators cannot risk having international students feel like outsides. We need to go out of our way to accommodate their needs and make sure that they feel comfortable in America. If not us, then who?

Personality & Impressions

The topic presented in Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language textbooks was one that that is relatively new to me. The study explored how the images in textbooks, which represent English culture, shaped students' and teachers' impressions of the target foreign-language culture. The students and teachers thought that the United States is portrayed as the land of White elite, Blacks are represented as poor or powerless while Whites seem wealthy and powerful, and race is divided by continent. Whites were portrayed as powerful because they were usually wearing suits, or nice clothing, while blacks were not dressed that way. The physical positioning also played a factor in how races were perceived. It shows men as playing a larger role in society. The continent dividing is incorrect because no one country is made up of one race. There is diversity on every continent, whether it is more easily seen or not. The pictures create a certain discourse for the English-speaking countries that is not positive in my thoughts. It represents a White elitist nation. The images do not properly represent English-speakers; they represent Hollywood’s view on the topic. The first time I thought about illustrations in books was when I took a Children’s Literature class. Our teacher taught us that some books have come out with new editions that represent race more equally. For example there was a book in which white children were seen playing in a playground in the first edition. In the second, they added children of color where there were no children before. People may not think about how they are portraying English-speakers, but they need to be conscious that it is in a positive light.

            Personality and its social construction was one of the topics of Intercultural Communication. One of the fundamental assumptions of the common-sense view of personality is that it is stable across situations and over time. I disagree with this because as we grow as people, our personalities change, just as the rest of us do, like our bodies and knowledge. We also change our personality depending of the situation that we are in. We might be shy around new people, but outgoing around our friends. Because of this, personality is socially constructed. However, we should not judge people’s personalities based on first impressions. We do not know their whole story just by looking at them. There can be more going on in their lives than they display. As Burr states, personality exists not within people, but between them. This is well-represented in the example that people would not be considered friendly, caring, etc, if they were living on an island by themselves because they would have no one to interact with. Therefore, relationships construct personality. The other part of the book examined how society constructs the foreign “Other”. A major source of prejudicing, as told in the stories, is the information from the national media. We are fed information from the television, radio, and press. When we are in educator positions, we are in roles that allow us to be a source of knowledge to our students, who may be new to the country. If this is true, instead of teaching the language in order to live and work in the US, educators need to empower their students to express their identity. We need to be more aware of the images in our society that influence how we see other people. Whether we know it or not, everything we do is a portrayal of our culture and personality. Therefore it is important that we are conscious of what we are doing and see things from an outsider’s perspective. As an educator, we have the opportunity to open student’s minds to other possibilities and encourage them to express themselves as opposed to an identity created by society.