The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Master's Projects and Capstones Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects Spring 5-18-2017 Global Voices: A Student-Centered Guide to Teaching English as an International Language Megan M. McAra University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at:https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone Part of theCurriculum and Instruction Commons Recommended Citation McAra, Megan M., "Global Voices: A Student-Centered Guide to Teaching English as an International Language" (2017).Master's Projects and Capstones. 541. https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/541 This Project/Capstone is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Projects and Capstones by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please [email protected]. University of San Francisco Global Voices: A Student-Centered Guide to Teaching English as an International Language A Field Project Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education International and Multicultural Education Department In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language By Megan McAra May 2017 Global Voices: A Student-Centered Guide to Teaching English as an International Language In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE By Megan McAra May 2017 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approval by all the members, this field project has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: _______________________________________________ __________________________ Instructor/Chairperson Date i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I—Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................. 2 Purpose of the Project ....................................................................................................... 3 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 4 Significance of the Project ................................................................................................ 7 Limitations ........................................................................................................................ 8 Definition of Terms........................................................................................................... 9 Chapter II—Review of the Literature...........................................................................................11 Introduction......................................................................................................................12 Politics of the English Language..................................................................................... 14 Importance of Critical Pedagogy and Critical Literacy in ELT.......................................17 The “Third Way”: Critical Pedagogy as an Empowering ELT framework ....................17 Critical Literacy as a Practical Application in ELT.............................................19 Examples and Ideas for a New, Critical ELT Curriculum...............................................22 Participatory Approach....................................................................................................23 World Englishes...............................................................................................................24 Focus on the ‘How’ Instead of the ‘Why’........................................................................26 Summary..........................................................................................................................28 Chapter III—The Project and Its Development...........................................................................30 Description of the Project................................................................................................31 Development of the Project.............................................................................................33 ii The Project.......................................................................................................................36 Chapter IV—Conclusions and Recommendations.....................................................................158 Conclusions....................................................................................................................159 Recommendations..........................................................................................................160 References..................................................................................................................................162 iii 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Project Theoretical Framework Significance of the Project 2 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem The current dominant paradigm of ELT (English language teaching) as reflected in textbooks and other materials does not meet the needs of the estimated 1.5 billion students learning English in today’s interconnected, dynamic world. Too often, teaching English as a second or foreign language is viewed and practiced as a straight-forward, neutral act of imparting grammatical, phonological and semantic knowledge to students. The ideal teacher is seen as “the knower”—a native speaker from what Kachru (1985) has termed an “inner circle” country (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, or New Zealand), who teaches a standard, static English from a textbook covering ‘safe’ apolitical topics such as school, food, weather, or romanticized cultural tidbits from the inner circle country (Davari 2014, p.66). In such a model, students are viewed as passive recipients of neutral knowledge and are expected to accept this material unquestioningly as objective fact. As a result, the personal, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds of students are deemed either unimportant or treated as hurdles to overcome. There are several serious problems with this view. To begin with, both language itself and the teaching and learning of language are far from neutral. Language is how we express our form of knowing, and as Pennycook (1990) states, “there is no form of knowing outside the linguistic, social, historical, and cultural frames within which we exist” (p. 18). By treating language as a neutral object, we are putting on blinders to the social injustice and oppression that do indeed exist in this world, and are even often directly related to language in terms of language differences, status and policy. These issues pertain to all languages, but are exponentially heightened when considering English language learning and teaching. Historically English has been the dominant language, the language of colonialism and of the oppressor. We as English 3 language teachers must be aware of this if we want to empower students and broaden horizons instead of imposing a restrictive, oppressive dominant language and world view. Kuo (2014) agrees that language learning is never neutral, but is instead highly personal, social, and political, and should be treated as such. Ignoring these key aspects of language learning only serves to build barriers and a sense of disconnect, just as ignoring students’ personal background can raise their affective filter (Krashen 1985), thereby impeding learning. Additionally, this model of language teaching and learning implies passivity on the part of the learner, which is of course a problem for anyone who wants or needs to actually use the language. Equally problematic to the dominant ESL/EFL paradigm described above is the fact that many students learning English today are more likely to need to use English to communicate with another non-native speaker, than with a native speaker. Teaching English as a static, singularly correct form fails to empower students with the critical language skills and strategies that they will need to communicate internationally. Purpose of the Project The purpose of this field project is to address and analyze these problems through a critical lens and a review of literature and current English language textbooks. This analysis will be used to create an adaptable, dynamic curriculum and teacher’s guide that exemplifies a shift away from the dominant “English first” and teaching as training paradigm. The completion of this project, including the development of materials, will serve as a connection between theory and practice. Specifically, the theories and ideas of critical pedagogy, critical literacy, strategic competence, affective filter, multiple intelligences, and world Englishes will be applied to create 4 an active, meaningful, relevant, engaging resource that values and employs students’ backgrounds and voices. The curriculum is intended to be appropriate and useful in both ESL and EFL classroom settings, and adaptable across many different levels of ability, with the main target audience falling within the high-intermediate to advanced level. Though there has been an increasing interest within the scholarly world in applying critical theories to ELT, it is still generally a neglected area of study, especially in terms of its practical application in the classroom. This project is intended to address this existing gap. In order to take full advantage of the critical tools that can be used to actually begin to make a shift in the ELT paradigm, teachers need to be able to bring these tools to the classroom level in a useable, practical way. This project aims to create an adaptable, dynamic curriculum that values and employs students’ backgrounds and voices as it applies critical theories and views English as an international, variational language that has the potential to expand the reach of student voices instead of dominating or limiting them. The role of the student will shift from passive and accepting, to active, reflective, analytical and questioning. Theoretical Framework The foundation and structure of this field project are rooted in the theory of Critical Pedagogy and the principles and approaches which it encompasses. Critical Pedagogy espouses the idea that education is never neutral, and that instead of being viewed as passive recipients of knowledge, students should become active participants in the educational process, reflecting on and questioning the status quo in order to take social action. The Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire is considered to be the founder of critical pedagogy, which is also referred to as Freirean Theory or Empowerment theory. In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he 5 expresses his belief that education is a political act, and states that teachers and students must be made aware of the politics that surrounds education. He criticizes what he termed the “banking concept of education”, in which the student is seen as an empty “account” to be filled by the teacher with deposits of knowledge. He believed that education must empower students and lead to social action (Freire 1970). While Freire’s ideas of critical pedagogy refer to education and literacy in general, more recent scholars, such as Canagarajah (2014) and Davari, Aghagolzadeh, Golfam and Kambuziya (2014), have also applied critical pedagogy specifically to English Language teaching. As Davari et al. explain, “critical pedagogy attempts to make the learners experience a sense of empowerment through engaging in the emancipatory praxis, i.e. the cycle of reflection and action. In such a situation, the learners can discover new ways of challenging the status quo and engaging in transformative actions to improve their lives (i.e. social development) while they improve their mastery of the target language (i.e. language development) (2014, p.67). Alastair Pennycook is one of the most often-cited scholars who applies critical theories, including critical linguistics, critical sociolinguistics, and critical pedagogy to English language teaching (ELT). He argues that a key problem with the mainstream view of ELT as neutral and apolitical is that it leads trivialization of content, as well as trivialization of language learning and language learners. He states, “as long as language learning continues to trivialize itself, refusing to explore the cultural and political aspects of language learning, it will have more to do with assimilation than with any notion of empowerment” (1990, p. 13) In his discussion of critical pedagogy, Pennycook relies heavily on Henry Giroux, one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, and his nine principle features of critical pedagogy. Giroux states that critical pedagogy should: