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I think the most attainable goals (or at least a starting point) are approaching ways of raising student and fellow teacher awareness through class activities, workshops and formal and/or informal discussions. This is something each and everyone of us can start doing. In today’s new-normal teaching-learning online environments that have challenged us all, perhaps we feel a new source of stress, but once we can safely return to our classrooms, perhaps that would be a good opportunity to start rethinking our approaches to language and how we might introduce plurilithic thinking to our learners and our peers. It might be the opportune time to address policy makers as well. Who knows, maybe we will all be more open to new approaches in a new world…In what ways positive or negative do you think this pandemic will affect the world of ELL, TESOL, etc?
To view past replies go to: https://changingenglishes.proboards.com/thread/29/unit-5-reflection
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Normally in Arab countries, what to be taught decisions is made by either administration of a university or the ministry itself. Sometimes a teacher can choose a book for supplementary use. I personally prefer to tailor the course according to the learners needs, but of course that will generate a huge gap if a standardized test is done at the end. A good solution to this predicament would be is to share broad guidelines of what the ministry of education wants students to achieve after a certain amount of time; i.e., to share a wider scheme of work.
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Learners of English are advised to communicate with native speakers to acquire the right accent and pronunciation. They must try hard to make the best use of all resources and material to master the English language.
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We can raise the student and teacher awareness through class activities , workshops , sharing resources and information and spreading knowledge wisely . I help my students learn the target language using different techniques and strategies like Educational games , role playing, modeling , discussions, free activities that challenge their abilities. I take my students to the school playground where they learn English in the open air . We should issues related to real life situations and I give you an opportunity to express about themselves freely .
My colleagues are invited to meet once a month in the school library where we share ideas and experiences . We do our best to keep up to date with the latest teaching techniques and strategies to grow professionally. -
Learners of English are advised to communicate with native speakers to acquire the right accent and pronunciation. They must try hard to make the best use of all resources and material to master the English language.
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As a teacher I might prefer to tailor my own course as mentioned by Sahar Amar in his comments and would prefer to do it in colloabiration with my colleagues provided that it is validated by the authority.
The issue of entertaining plurilithic views on language should be welcomed by everyone involved in the teaching/ learning process from the national level to the household level. However, we should give it a try and hope for the best !
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TESOL and other national and international English language bodies should call for conferences and more workshops that relate to plurilithic concept of teaching and learning the language.
In Nigeria and particularly among my colleagues, we will do as much as possible to create the awareness more and more. The social media is also a veritable tool for such tasks.
When the awareness starts to sink into the minds of teachers, learners, parent and the public; it won’t be difficult to convince policy makers and have policies that favour this concept of teaching English and owning it. -
Learners must be highly encouraged and motivated to speak English regardless if they are good or not so that their confidence and exposure would be higher. Teachers must be also aware that we need to embrace the plurilithic concepts of English and must be ready to answer the language learners’ questions, preparing different activities for students. Teachers must not stop to increase their knowledge to sustain learning since the English language is dynamic.
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In Sri Lanka, the decisions that the teacher should teach and the content of the exams are decided by the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka. For that purpose, the Ministry occupies professionals in English including English teachers, lecturers and professors in this process. There are two exams, Ordinary level exam and Advanced level exams. The priority of the education system is given to these two exams in Sri Lanka. Therefore, many workshops, seminars, including special priorities, opportunities are given for the students who are going to sit for these two exams.
Here, I would like to agree with the comment that was made by Sahar Amer before. As he mentioned “I personally prefer to tailor the course according to the
learners needs, but of course that will generate a huge gap if a standardized test is done at the end.”In Sri Lankan context, the proficiency of the English language of the students varied. This variation differs according to the community, context, district, rural or urban and etc. Furthermore, it differs class to class, even individual to individual. Therefore, it is not fair to make one particular standardized curriculum for everyone. (Obviously, standardized curriculum is needed but some changes has to be done accordingly, considering the learner needs) The priority should be given for the learners and their needs, motives and purposes.
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I feel like the best way for me to start is by simply challenging my own ideas and asking myself if I am applying monolithic or plurilithic ideas to my teaching. Once I feel that I’ve established a way to use and assess with these ideals in mind, I feel like I could teach most of my colleagues how to do the same.
I would love to think I could challenge the system, but I’m not sure I’m up for it. I would rather inspire others to do that when they’re ready.
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Students, teachers, policy makers, schools, institutions, managers, professionals, professors, and everyone who is involving in education and the learning and teaching processes are connected in a way that if we raise one group of people communities awareness about World Englishes and plurilithic perspective, the flow of discussions will enrich many individuals little by little.
Having this kind of courses and promoting them in International settings like conferences and webinars will help everyone to hear the voice soon and they find interest to do more like running workshops or lecturing in universities and inviting the schoolmasters, parents, students, and authorities to be familiarized with this concept more. Therefore they might do something precious in the future in collaboration with each other.
Furthermore, we as teachers can offer our students many practical and fruitful ideas and materials that can boost and enhance their consciousness and awareness of accepting and learning from the World Englishes inside and outside of the classroom setting whether it is in-person or online classes.
We need friends and supporters in this process if we want to bring good changes in our education systems and our beliefs, so we can invite our colleagues to be with us as we concern about the same things in this field and we are eager to improve the quality of our voices and teaching methods. -
More focus should be given to accents and dialects in textbooks.
And of course world Englishes.
I am a person who advocates it.
I wish I had the opportunity to write a truly useful coursebook once in my life.
I would include Yorkshire (my real love), Scouse, Geordie, Cockney, Brummie, Scottish (the second most favourite accent for me), and ALL the accents throughout the British Isles.
It would be absobloodylutely phenomenal. -
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● who makes the decisions about what you should teach and about what goes into the English exams your students take?
In my own context, the decision should be taught and what goes into the English exams lies with the government under the federal ministry ofeducation. They come up with a unified curriculum which is being adopted by both private and public schools under the supervision of the ministry. Schools that fail to go by the curriculum are sometimes penalised. Therefore, if must make any changes, it has to thorough the government and the ministry of education.
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Learners of English need to be actively engaged with native speakers and other mediums. Social media has expanded global English and has influenced the varieties of English. Dialects and learners variety of English helps them to develop confidence in learning L2 and with more practice, repetition, communication with native speakers will help to achieve intelligibility in the TL.
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I think a starting point is my immediate environment: my classrooms, my students, my materials. I can start exploring and experimenting with alternative ways of making language available to students and of letting students make available the language they encounter outside the classroom, trying to get to know my students in terms of their personallinguistic history, their need, their wants, their expectaction and showing them other possibilities. What I am trying to say is that I think the path I would use is one in which first I make try to appropriate the different ideas discussed here in my own way of teaching, learning and using English, and then, or perhaps in parallel, I would try to expand my area of influence with colleagues and so on.
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To encourage learners to learn more about Englishes, the following suggestions may be useful:
– Providing them with a good reference on Englishes.
– Providing them with samples or audios of different Englishes spoken worldwide.
– Providing them with extracts from different discourses written in Englishes.
– Telling more about the spread of English and how it has become a global language. -
I love to create my own class! To teach a subject that I think my students need to leran. I´ve worked in differents languages schools and I saw how bored the students were just learning standard english. Some of them give up, because it is always the same things to study. I guess that I conversation with your partener and students can help you to create a nice class.
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I don’t really know if and how the pandemic will affect language teaching and learning. However, what I do know is that I can have an impact on my students, that is why I’ve been presenting them with plurithic ideas for a few years now. Thanks to this course, I’ve taken a further step in that direction and I’m changing all my teaching materials and activities to include plurithic ideas (of course, I’m talking about minor changes: I don’t wantanybody to get scared). As for colleagues and other stakeholders, I’m still not completely sure but I think an informal approach would suit me best.
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The best ways to raise learner’s awareness about plurilithic approaches to English are:
– Expose them to different Englishes in the class.
– Create a journal for them to find and encounter authentic reading/listening texts and do activities about them.
– Explain common variations when teaching grammar.
– Promote fluency over accuracy.
– Focus on common L1 mistakes and do not over correct.The best ways to raise teachers/colleague’s awareness about plurilithic approaches to English are.
– Spread the word about the need for reform in exams.
– Recommend this course.
– Show them the websites with different accents.
– Try and create some classes that focus on this new approach that are recorded or observed.
– Do a meeting or a presentation. -
I want to introduce other varieties of English to the classroom. This can highlight the plurilithic nature of English, but can also help improve students’ communicative competence. My students are more likely to use English with people who speak English as an additional language. This should help students to develop communication strategies. We also need to remember that almost nobody speaks English like it is presented in textbooks.
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Like Neill, I want to expose my students to a range of varieties of English to help them to communicate successfully with a range of English speakers in a range of different situations. This will also help them to understand the plurilthic nature of English and to own and be proud of their own developing version of English. I will endeavour to use a diverse range of texts in the classroom which present different versions of English that the students are likely to encounter outside the classroom, including texts the students bring to class. I am excited about using bridging activities to compare and analyse the different versions of English with my students.
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In this unit, we asked you to think, amongst other things, about:
● ways in which you might raise your own students’ awareness of plurilithic approaches to how we understand our subject, ‘English’; INTRODUCING Ss TO DIFFERENT REGIONAL AND NATIONAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH WOULD HELP RAISE AWARENESS BUT I FEEL THAT THIS COULD BE MORE BENEFICIAL AT B2+ LEVELS (AND THESE Ss ARE THIN ON THE GROUND IN MY CONTEXT)
● ways in which you might raise your colleagues’ awareness of plurilithic approaches to how we understand our subject, ‘English’; EFFECTIVE T TRAINING AND CPD, IF IT TAKES PLACE; INCULCATING A PROFESSIONAL TEACHING CULTURE, WHERE POSSIBLE
● who makes the decisions about what you should teach and about what goes into the English exams your students take; SOME ‘PERSON’ IN THE EDUCATION MINISTRY, PUBLISHERS (WITH COMMERCIAL INTERESTS)
● how these people make their decisions, for example: by commissioning reports from academics, professional organisations or other experts, or by consulting with other stakeholders. I’M NOT AWARE OF A VERY DEMOCRATIC PROCEDURE OF CONSULTING WITH OTHER STAKEHOLDERS IN MY CONTEXT. -
Working as an English as a foreign language teacher I realise that I am a part of a global community of English language teachers that is why I try to participate in the conferences such as TESOL and others to be up to date, to share experience and to gain knowledge. It is crucial to keep in touch with the community of learners and teachers in order to work efficiently.
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