Week 16

The article written by Lin et. al explores different international stories and journeys of individuals learning English and the struggles that came with it due to the unpopularity or low usage of the English language based on where they are from. Many of these narratives explained how English was utilized as a subject course in school and nothing more. No one actually bothered to try to really speak and learn the language. This article introduces the readers by explaining the term “Othering” and later explains how these individuals perhaps felt Otherized while attempting to acquire English. Because of this, the article also explains how these EFL learners felt a sense of identity loss/change during this process. The stories of these individual learners were very eye-opening and interesting to read, because it gave a first-hand view of real experiences and feelings people had learning English internationally. As future educators of students who will be learning second language, it is important for us to prevent them from feeling “Otherized” so that they don’t feel inhibited from acquiring English and can successfully work to their fullest potential. The article suggests that in order to prevent otherization from happening, we must change TESOL to TEGCOM: Teaching English for Globalized Communication, which would refer to the students as being monolingual native English speakers. This approach may be difficult, but I can definitely see it being beneficial in a classroom.

Chapter 7 by McKay and Bokhorst-Heng discusses multilingualism in a classroom and how assumptions of an English curriculum result in foreign languages being marginalized. However, although native English speakers may be in a surrounding that promotes monolingualism, they are more likely to want to  learn another language and practice mulitingualism. The authors explain Westernization and the importance of teaching culture in a classroom which will benefit students and make them more culturally aware. They also explain Othering, which is “those from Western Inner Circle cultures are portrayed as having modern and desirable behavior while those from other cultures, who exhibit other ways of doing things, are seen as backward or lacking" (183). In order to help our students be successful, it is our role to provide appropriate textbooks that do not marginize local Western cultures. We can also follow the EIL pedagogy guidelines provided in this chapter that I also found to be very interesting and helpful.