Politics of English Education

A study on English Education

The multi-purpose functions that the English language performs in academic settings has various roles, outcomes, and consequences in those who are both learning or teaching the idiom. English is one of the most known language around the globe, even though English slightly surpassed Mandarin Chinese: in 2019 there were 1.27 billion English speakers, whereas the Chinese were only 1.12 billion (Statista). Regardless of how many people speak or understand English, the methodology with which English is taught isn’t heterogenous like its audience is. The way English is both instructed and absorbed by non-native speakers has different repercussions in media, politics, and ultimately in contemporary lifestyles.

Being able to learn a foreign language should be considered a privilege that allows to explore a culture and a society external from those we were born in. Min-Zhan Lu’s piece “Silence to Words: Writing As Struggle” (1987) gives an insight of what is like to learn English while growing up in another country, with a different language and political philosophy. The ability to teach a language is a professional achievement that must be performed with an open-minded attitude that is open to curiosity, comprehension, and cultural exchange. This kind of approach is found in the rhetoric of American scholar Jamila Lysicott, famous for her Ted Talk video, “3 Ways To Speak English” (2014).

However, it is not always easy to teach the English language with its rich vocabulary and myriad of expressions. There are several context that make this process difficult. Learning English is often a tortuous academic journey that immigrant students or even young native speakers face on a daily basis, due to the presence of outdated legislations, in addition to racist and elitist realities that go hand in hand with the society we live in. Standard English and institutional regulations, on a federal and national level, make the English learning-teaching process more difficult to deliver and perform.

The claims and the evidences

The purpose of this paper (in a blog page format) is to define my position in English education, how I view this matter, and what are the practices that should be pushed forward in order to have a more solid knowledge around English, as a linguistic and cultural subject of study in academic institutions. I will provide pondered reflections and personal thoughts by considering also my background, as an international student in the USA.

The evidences I will use in this report will be all related to the readings I’ve completed in this course, along with other media I’ve come across while studying for this class – podcasts episodes, videos, and other multimedia projects.

Content to discuss

An audience’s perception has as much weight in a publication as the author’s work. The audience gets the message and buys the product the author wrote. The same metaphor could be applied when it comes to learn a language, in this case English, in an academic setting. Schools should be the first place that introduce the workplace and the social environments separated from the familiar space students are born in. As a representation of the society they live in, often times students are victims of harsh regulations, misunderstood assimilations, or uneducated perceptions. Learners and educators have the same importance and purpose in learning English: they give each other the privileged access to communicate and build bridges among communities.

The relationship between teacher and student should be based on understanding each other mutually and respectfully. Teaching English is an experience that should both benefit the learner as they gain a new skill and they get the chance to expand their cultural interpersonal skills, and the teacher, who crafts his or her interpersonal skills, by being at service at the community. In response to the adversities that instructors might face during their jobs, people should be given the chance to be civically engaged as allies and supporters, who share and listen to multiple stories.

Immigrants and minorities are the most relevant voices when it comes to analyze the politics of English. Considered the “language of the world market” (from “Brutt-Griffler, 2002, p. 49” in English Education in Italy: Perceptions of Teachers and Professors of English by Farahnaz Faez, 2011), the importance of English in the Western world plays a remarkable role in several settings around the globalized world. It is essential to take a position in how English should be instructed as well as see what obstacles and conditions consumers, speakers, and learners should identify within their communities.

Jamila Lyscott why is a universal and creative approach needed in English Education?

“To continue to put forth a singular standard English is violence“, says Jamila Lyscott in her Ted Talk intervention. Her point of views come from an African American background, but her message is universal and targets all the communities that are constantly judged on how they express themselves.

It is known that marketing and capitalism around Ebonics is a rooted reality. There are times when slang terminologies or fashionable idiomatic expressions are cultural appropriated by a majority of individuals, without giving the right credits to the group of people whose communicative pattern is being stolen. It is trendy nowadays to incorporate vocabularies that are popular in the creative media (mostly music and movies), especially if they are controversial and smooth to the ears. This happens a lot in the music industry, specifically in the rap genre. However, when rappers or individuals who speak or imitate them talk in formal settings, they are expected to sound “articulate“. This behavior is disruptive and can cause critical damage in a student’s learning journey.

In regards to this note, Ms. Lysicott claims that there’s no right or wrong English but there are multiple structures and dialects of it. Like many romance languages, but not only, English has got several dialects and accents which forge the nature of its speakers.

The system of rewards in speaking good English, often times called Standard English. This is an expression of oppressive power, because it doesn’t allow speakers from different backgrounds to access to certain services and rights due to the fact that their linguistic skills are not part of a single known dialect. This is where code-switching becomes a reality that a lot of minorities face.

Garrard McClendon: the correction of English for African Americans

I’ve always wondered if the way English is taught in other countries has repercussions on the non-native speakers once they’re settled in Anglophone territories. However, a particular attention must be taken to the internal education system in countries where English is the first language. The heterogeneity of the United States is a reality whose language cannot avoid.

Educators should be the first to be educated and knowledgeable on the many dialectics English has developed. An American educator, Garrard McClendon, has advocated his teaching to spread Standard English and correct ebonics, academically known also as African-American vernacular English.

The McClendon’s 2007 project faces two sides of society that are in need to be analyzed. On one hand the project helps African-American students to properly speak an edited and academic English. On the other hand, the professor’s desire to educate students who are part of a minority both highlights and affirms the fact that there should be one and only correct English. The latter aspect makes his mission wonder if he is being inclusive and diminishing the identity of a dialect. Grammar should be inclusive and precise, so it would benefit minorities and give more access to a larger number of people in expressing themselves. However, this is a delicate process that requires a solid education in sociology, demographics, and history of English.

Through this video it is possible to see how language plays a role in society and how comprehensive dialogues are needed in order to understand one language by incorporating an education on detailed and meaningful differences.

Min-Zhan’s political experience and a possible solution in English Education

The political issues highlighted in Min-Zhan Lu’s work are emblematic in understanding how influential and formative can English be when assimilated in other cultural settings. Growing up in China in the first half of the last century, Min-Zhan’s experience in learning English pushed her to reflect on the significances and the meanings that words in English had, whose translation in Chinese was ideologically different.

Most of Min-Zhan’s concerns in her testimony lay on the field of linguisitc usage of English, in the proper setting at the right time She recalls her worries when she felt that “the more suspicious (she) became about the way (she) read and wrote, the more guilty (she) felt for losing the spontaneity with which (she) had learned to “use” these “languages.” (page 443) (from From Silence To Words: writing as struggle, 1987 ). With these words the author want to highlight her fear and concerns in performing two languages and her confusion in living in two countries with remarkable political differences between each other.

Min-Zhan also is in favor of establishing a communicative bridge between the two identities students happen to be involved. “We might encourage students to explore ways of practicing the conventions of the discourse they are learning by negotiating through these conflicting voices. We could also encourage them to see themselves as responsible for forming or transforming as well as preserving the discourse they are learning” (p. 447)

Peer-reviewed article: the Italian case

By wondering how should English be taught to foreigns, I’ve questioned what is the hidden purpose of Standard English and why is it such a problematic issue when it comes to communicate among peers. After almost four full years of living and studying in the USA, I have developed solid and new communication skills that I would’ve never had access if I had been in my country, Italy. Before concluding my affirmations in defying my position on English Education, I needed to dissect my academic journey too.

In Farahnaz Faez’s English Education in Italy: Perceptions of Teachers and Professors of English (2011), there is a detailed report on how English is taught in the European Union, specifically in Italy. I’ve used this study as a peer-review, in order to analyze the situation of English education in Italy.

In 2002, the European Union devised a multilingualism policy whose goals were to: (a) raise understanding of the EU’s linguistic diversity, and (b) to provide all citizens opportunities to learn two languages in addition to their mother tongue (34-35). Having in mind this mission, learning foreign languages in the European Union isn’t fresh news, yet the reception and the practice of them has changed throughout the decades.

“The first half of the 20th century revealed a sense of “hostility” towards English and Americanization, the second half of the century showed signs of “accommodation” and “acceptance” (page 33). As a country filled with rich and intrinsic traditions, Italy and Italians are extremely proud of their culture and any sign of innovation and integration is taken slowly. This fact explains why “books, movies and other resources generally get translated into Italian thus contributing to a lower level of need and desire for knowing and learning English” (page 39). The laziness is learning something new comes from the mere fact that our communication service are sufficient inside the national borders and that provincialism is still a reality. Despite this general remark, Italians are interested in learning English because “they are surrounded by English through the internet” and in order to have better and more employment aspirations, they make sure to learn and practice the basics of the language. Technical English, especially in the fields of arts, fashion, business, and electronics is advanced, but the levels of comprehension are not refined when it comes to literature, academia, or the entertainment industry.

Public education in Italy is free and mandatory until high school and it has a centralized management. There are differences among regions, but in general English is required to be studied since kindergarten until the end of high school (which lasts 5 years).

Faez continues the report by writing that “English is the most widely taught foreign language with the exception of Belgium and Luxembourg. Overall, 90% of EU members learn English; 40% German and 30% French” (page 35). I can affirm these data because in middle school I had to learn German as my second foreign language and many of my friends had French or Spanish. Usually in the North and Center of Italy German and French are given a preference, whereas in the South and in the islands (Sicily and Sardinia) Spanish is usually the popular choice among schools.

One might argue that the Italian educational system provides programs that enhance polyglotism, but the quality of teaching overall lacks of consistency and variety. Standard English is the only medium Italians students get to explore, whether is British English or American English. One instructor interviewed by Faez says that the system shouldn’t focus only in “teaching more like grammar-translation methods in which you only teach grammar and how to translate” because “it doesn’t really help people to communicate” (page 40).

My experience of learning English is a reflection of a particular situation that often occurs in Italy. Biracial or immigrants families tend to spend more time and money in making their kids learn English in separate institutes, workshops, or international schools. The majority of these families are from Anglophone countries that were ex colonies of the United Kingdom (Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria, etc.). In my personal case, my family decided to put in me in additional English school (first a British institute, then an American one) because they wanted to prepare me for a possible college experience, which years later happened. English was not my second language nor did I speak it regularly at home. Despite this, my exposure to the language was empowered by the media (music, movies, books) and family friends from the UK, USA, and some from the Caribbean (mostly Jamaica). At school I would mostly learn British literature and standardized grammar. Real conversations where I would test my communication skills were held outside the classroom.

Conclusions

I think that my experience as an international student of color in a predominantly white university has shaped my language and perception of communication. My heritage has played a great role in this aspect and had a huge influence throughout my college career. Many were the times when I felt different or even excluded from social and academic settings, due to my accent, grammar’s uses, and topics that I wanted to discuss.

I will always be learner in this country and English will always be my third language. For this reason, I am invested in exploring both its customs and trends. To engage in such activity, I must recognize and analyze how the politics around the English language work, what are the regulations that unable a certain type of teaching, and how to communicate with other immigrants. My experience is as unique as many others, and I am glad to have been taught English in different scenarios. I feel relieved I was able to absorb other American English dialects and idiomatic expressions, which allowed me to deeply understand practices like code-switching, making me more aware of my surroundings and the behavior of certain people.

As all the languages in the world, modern English is the reflection of its speakers. The teaching mechanisms and the assimilation of English will always be influenced by politics and the customs of the people who speak it.

WORKS CITED

• Statista.com
• Silence to Words: Writing As Struggle by Min-Zhan Lu (1987)
• Ted Talk 3 Ways To Speak English with Jamila Lysicott (2014)
• Garrard McClendon on Fox news in 2004, Youtube video
• English Education in Italy: Perceptions of Teachers and Professors of English by Farahnaz Faez (2011)