A Brief Introduction to the ESL Field

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A Brief Introduction to the ESL Field

• EDUC 453
• English as a Second Language Methods 2008

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ESL is a diversity issue

• Diversity is every individual difference that
  affects a task or relationship (Griggs and Louw,
  1995).
• Both within and beyond the formal confines of
  an ESL classroom, learning English is never a
  neutral academic experience.
• WHY?

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English is a world language

• The global spread of English has been phenomenal
• In ten years the number one English speaking
  country in the world will be China.
• Of the students that graduated from university in
  India in 2006, 100 of them spoke English.

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Two Recent Trends

• More English classes for young learners at the
  primary level (abroad - ESL)
• More emphasis on combining language and
  curriculum content teaching in the mainstream
  classroom (at home - ELL)

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ESL/ELL teachers have to consider

• Learners needs and aspirations
• Language skills in both first and second language
• Other skills learners can make use of
• Barriers to learning and ways to overcome them

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The goal of ESL/ELL teaching

• Communicative competence A term coined in the
  1960s to cover everything a language user needed
  to know to communicate effectively.

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The communicative competence model

• Canale (1983) outlined four competencies
• - grammatical (formal) competence
• - sociolinguistic competence
• - discourse competence
• - strategic competence

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Grammatical competence

• Refers to the concept of linguistic competence as
  defined by Noam Chomsky.
• - the native speakers knowledge of the
  syntactic (word order), lexical (vocabulary),
  morphological (the forms of words) and
  phonological (system of sounds) features of
  language, as well as the ability to use these
  features to produce well-formed words and
  sentences. (ACCURACY)

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Sociolinguistic competence

• The social rules of language
• How to use language appropriately for different
  audiences
• How to integrate language with other appropriate
  communication systems gesture, eye contact, etc.

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Discourse competence

• The ability to deal with the extended use of
  language in context
• How to construct well organized written texts or
  oral monologues

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Strategic competence

• The ability to cope in a real communication
  situation and to keep the communication open.

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The Communicative Approach

• Learners need to be taught not only language
  forms but language functions.
• How many different ways can you think of to ask
  someone to leave the room?

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Enculturation

• The second language learner acquires new cultural
  frames of reference and a new world view,
  reflecting those of the target language culture
  and its speakers

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Linguistic Imperialism

• Philipson warns of the dangers of English
  becoming the language associated with
  modernization, social mobility, the academic
  community, science and technology
• 1. the superior merits of English
• 2. the promise of goods/services to those who
  use English
• 3. support for not maintaining local language

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We need to develop intercultural competence
because

• The conventional model of communicative
  competence with strict adherence to native
  speaker norms is invalid in accounting for
  learning and using international language in
  cross-cultural settings (Alptekin, 2002)

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The example of Zhu Liang

• ESL in China (primary and middle school Chinese
  teacher)
• ESL in China (university foreign teacher)
• ESL (LEAP) in Canada (teacher me)
• ESL at St. Marys language school (Canadian
  teacher)
• Work experience this summer assisting a foreign
  teacher in a small language school in China

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Zhu Liangs advice for an English as a second
language learner

• Watch out for vocabulary foreigners use
  different ways to talk about the same thing
• Watch out for slang
• Writing is the hardest
• Practice with foreigners
• Practice with other Chinese people.

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Intercultural/communicative competence

• In the case of English as a means of
  international and intercultural communication, a
  new intercultural competence/communicative
  competence is necessary

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Intercultural Competence

• Intercultural competence is the ability to
  communicate effectively with other individuals
  with diverse backgrouns and to relate to them
  appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts
  (Bennett and Bennett, 2002).
• What does the term culture mean to you?

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Culture

• Objective culture consists of institutional
  aspects, political and economic systems, and
  cultural products. It is useful to have an
  objective understanding of a given culture, but
  it is not sufficient.
• Subjective culture is the worldview beliefs,
  values and behaviors of a societys people.
  This insight translates into more effective
  interaction and communication.
• (Berger and Lackman, 1967)

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Intercultural Mindset

• Cultural self awareness
• Frameworks for creating useful cultural contrasts
• Ability to use cultural generalizations without
  stereotyping
• Curiosity
• Tolerance of ambiguity
• Empathy

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Intercultural Skillset

• The ability to
• - analyze our interactions with students
• - predict misunderstandings
• - fashion adaptive behavior
• - develop a repertoire of behavior s
• appropriate to our own cultures
• without excluding behaviors more
• appropriate in other cultures

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Avoiding Cultural Stereotypes

• The Western Method
• Treat every person as an individual.
• PROBLEM!
• This is a form of cultural chauvinism as the
  emphasis is on western individualism.

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The Development Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

• Six stages of increasing sensitivity to cultural
  differences divided into two worldview
  configurations
• Ethnocentric ones own culture is experienced
  as central to reality
• Ethnorelative ones own culture is experienced
  in the context of other cultures

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Moving Beyond Cultural Stereotypes
Increase in Intercultural Competence

• Dealing with the Diversity of International
  Students Sensitively
• Lise de Villiers Wendy Kraglund-Gauthier
• St. Francis Xavier University
• AACUSS Summer Conference
• 2007

reversal
Encapsulated marginality
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Denial

• Denying cultural differences causes the
  individual to believe that his/her own culture is
  the only real one
• Organizations operating at this level tend to
  emphasize the importance of language training
  alone
• What can you do to improve the students
  formal language abilities?

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Defense/Reversal

• Raising defenses against cultural differences
  causes the individual to believe that his/her own
  culture is the only good one or that the
  marginalized culture is the only good one

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Minimization

• Minimizing the importance of cultural differences
  causes the individual to believe that his/her own
  cultural worldview is universal

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Acceptance

• Accepting the importance of cultural differences
  causes the individual to believe that other
  cultures are equally complex but different
  constructions of reality
• ESL teachers operating at this level talk the
  talk but often do not know how to walk the
  walk

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Adaptation

• Adapting perspectives to take cultural
  differences into account enables the individual
  to shift perspectives in and out of another
  cultural worldview
• Organizations operating at this level begin to
  walk the talk -
• What can we do to encourage intercultural
  sensitivity in our classrooms?

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Integration

• Integrating the whole concept of cultural
  differences into a definition of identity expands
  the individuals experience of self to include
  the movement in and out of different cultural
  worldviews
• Hello, who are you? Im