Teach English in Mingxing Zhen - Jinzhong Shi

When teaching abroad, a teacher can expect to teach in two types of classes, multilingual and monolingual. Monolingual classes are comprised of students living in their home country and the students all speak one common tongue. In a multilingual class, the students are usually living in an English speaking country. These students will usually speak a variety of first languages, and in most cases, English will be the only common language (Anonymous, 2013). Both of these classes have a variety of advantages and disadvantages. This essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different classes, how it will influence the learner’s English learning process and which is more effective. The information will be based on research as well as my own teaching experiences since I have taught in both multilingual and monolingual classes. In monolingual classes, learners will speak only one common language. The advantages of being taught in this type of class include learners having the same interests and cultural backgrounds. It will, therefore, be easy to find topics that would cater to all the learners’ needs. Learners will also have similar language difficulties, such as grammar problems or pronunciation issues (Anonymous, 2013). This would be fairly easy for a teacher to address and targeted teaching can take place. It is however not always the same for every learner, even though the class consists of monolingual learners, they still come from different learning backgrounds. Each learner’s prior knowledge may differ and then it won’t be beneficial to assume that all the learners are facing the same challenges regarding English learning. The teacher will really have to motivate and also provide reasons for the learners of why it is important to learn English. If the teacher does not do this, learners will simply keep on speaking in their native language (Oxford University Press, 2014). According to research, it will help with the class dynamic, because learners will be able to communicate more freely with each other (Anonymous, 2013). I do however not agree with this statement. Yes, the learners are free to communicate but not in the target language, which would be English. I taught in China and not once will learners have a conversation in English. This is, therefore, a big disadvantage as the learners are there to learn a specific language and never practice speaking it. There are times when it can be beneficial, for example when instructions are given and something is unclear, another can translate and explain more clearly in their native language. But what I have also found is that instead of learners listening to the English instructions, they “switch off” and rely on the translation before they will attempt to do something. “Monolingual classes … cannot offer the same advantages as multilingual classes” (Teaching Special Groups, 17). In multilingual classes, learners do not share the same mother-tongue language. They are therefore forced to communicate in English. This will not only provide more opportunities for learners to practice speaking and also listening to the language but act as a motivator because it is the only common ground between learners and teachers (ITTT, 2019). Once again, when I was teaching in China, I found that my learners did not have any alternative exposure to English, other than when I taught them. As I saw them around 3 hours per week, this was not enough. When learning a language, especially speaking, one should have as much exposure and practice as possible. This is a necessity. A multilingual class will hereby cater to these needs. As these learners are from different cultural backgrounds and from a variety of countries, there is a great deal of diversity in the class (Anonymous, 2013). Instead of learners now simply making references to their own country and culture, they can learn and get ideas and share experiences with others. Challenges for learners who are new to learning English might include accents (Oxford University Press, 2014). With a multilingual class, learners will quickly be exposed to these accents and overcome the challenge swiftly. Some disadvantages when it comes to multilingual classes may be that some student’s home language may have similar words or structures to English; they will then have an advantage over learners who do not share the same alphabet or tenses as the English language. Lots of pressure will be on the teacher to provide individual attention to those learners and neglect the other learners who are advancing (Oxford University Press, 2014). Another possibility is that students who speak a different language and have different backgrounds will work at different speeds. This can create a division in the class and many learners can end up being bored because they are advancing at a quicker pace. It will be on the teacher than to be prepared to provide more activities to those learners who excel faster to avoid creating boredom (ITTT, 2019). The class dynamic may suffer at first because the learners are not comfortable communicating in the common language but with practice and motivation it will hopefully change and learners will learn to speak quickly and fluently (Anonymous, 2013). The teacher will have to work hard to create a fun learning environment where learners feel comfortable and not judged when not pronouncing something right, etc (Oxford University Press, 2014). Both of these class types have advantages and disadvantages. I feel that monolingual classes have more to offer a student learning English than a monolingual class. Even though the class dynamic may suffer in a multilingual class, the fact that the learners are forced to speak the language will provide them with able opportunity for practice. I found that in a monolingual class the learners will simply divert back to their native language and lose out on the practice time that the class should provide.