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I would say I use a mix of materials that include required textbooks, personally created materials through which I try to promote plurilithic views (like discussion questions based on aforementioned TED talks, or student-centered activities involving creative use of vocab), and ideas taken or adapted from various online resources. I find that textbooks tend to focus on English as a monolithic system, for a variety of reasons.
Some ways in which materials implicitly or explicitly promote monolithic views are by not including varieties of English other than Standard British or American in the examples they give, in the grammar or vocab they present, or in the listening exercises where you only hear RP accents or whatever rhotic, TV American accent is widely considered as “most American”. (Side note, I was recently watching a comedy TV show where in a conversation between an Irish speaker of English and an American from Los Angeles, the American mentioned how much they loved the Irish accent and when the Irish speaker returned the compliment the answer was “We don’t speak with an accent.” I found that funny as it is a commentary on how silly that is and of course everyone HAS an accent.)
Perhaps one way to start embracing some plurilithic views would be to add one chapter called World Englishes, to acknowledge their existence and introduce students to them. Maybe there are already are some? Does anyone have any knowledge that materials are promoting pluritihic views of English out there?To view past replies go to: https://changingenglishes.proboards.com/thread/22/classroom-activities
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Since my students came from different places, more than just plurilithic views, I also incorporate cultural differences in language learning activities so that students will be also aware on how cultural factors also affect communication. Moreover, vocabulary also plays an important role in understanding different social communication contexts.
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Personally my approach to language teaching is more student centred in all aspects. I use the text book also in a manner where almost all students gets an opportunity to take part and contribute to the lesson. Self – directed learning is encouraged respecting learning styles and learner needs as well. Towards the latter part of the lesson, activities are planned favouring autonomous learning to give the learners the confidence to handle the language. So, it isn’t student centred any more where the teacher is more a facilitator than a theory provider.
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In the classroom, as a teacher, I love to follow innovative teaching methods which make students interest and energetic on learning process. I prepared for my lesson before hand, so for that I prepared a lesson plan which divides into three categories as Pre-task activity, While-task activity and Post-task activity. As for teaching materials, based on the tutorial or the lesson, I create my own lesson. There are activities including less individual tasks but, majority of the activities are based on pair activities and group activities.
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In terms of texts providing plurilithic views, I only see British and American English mentioned (in most Cambridge University ESOL texts), but they rarely mention any other English speaking countries.
I’m currently working with my class on recognizing words in some of the different accents. At the moment, we’re just working on American vs British accents. Maybe one day I can work in more.
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As much as I try to help my students through the use of resources that promotes monolithic views of the English language (for standard test purposes), I also make use of resources that promotes the prulithic views through the use of literary text, movies and music that portrays different culture and different forms of Englishes based on the author’s background.
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The monolithic thinking on the part of the students is encouraged with texts – reading & listening – in Standard English. Additionally, when learners are exposed only to British or American accents, this also reinforces monolithic thinking. When students deal with a culturally rich variety of texts and are exposed to English other than the standard form, for instance Singapore English, Indian English, they are encourage to develop a plurilithic thinking.
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I have to accept that more often than not, inadvertently, I promote a monolithic wiev of language: for one thing, I use textbook activities and they tend to promote this view; for another, I am constantly concerned tha my students pay attention at what they say, how they say it and how it differs from… the norm? the way ‘native speakers’ speak? Surely, I devote time to meaning focus activities, but at some point a provide opportunities for reflection on language form. I realiza that whereas I favour inductive approaches, it is me who decide the whats and the hows (and the whos!)… 🙁
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It really depends on what type of lesson I am teaching. As I am now teaching some exam classes, they are more text book focused and are promoting a monolithic or Standard English. However, if I am teaching more general classes, particularly with advanced students, I seek to promote authentic material that hasn’t been doctored too much. Even for speaking aspects in exams I will try and teach some idioms in context, which can vary depending on country and region. In this sense then, I try and promote both methods. I also try and recommend sources such as TED, radio stations and TV shows where different variations of English occur.
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Reflect on some of the teaching materials and activities you currently use or are familiar with. In what ways do they implicitly encourage or explicitly promote monolithic and plurilithic thinking on the part of students? Share your reflections here.
Given our time restraints (meeting my private Ss x1 for 1 hour/week) and Ss’ mother goals (!), I am obliged to offer more standard English, than I would otherwise do if we had more time either together or for them to do some out-of-lesson work (Ss in my context already receive far too much homework from school so I am very wary of not adding to this). At lower levels – up to B1 – I’m not sure that encouraging plurithic thinking is so relevant with young teens as their concerns are the next test in school. This is something I would feel more comfortable doing with B2+ S as young adults (16+).
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