Teach English in DuizhuZhen - Linfen Shi

When I started out on this path to becoming a TEFL teacher, my plans were originally to teach in the U.S., and my answer to this posed question had come easy: I wanted my students to learn English so that they could communicate and integrate into the community. As a past EFL student, I had valued the communicative value of learning English the most and never bothered into looking for other reasons to learn. Little did I know my first teaching position would not be in the U.S. but in South Korea. Why should I want to teach my students English then? This question became my most pressing one—one that I wanted to answer before my first day of teaching. These days, I think I have come closer to the answer I am seeking for. Another way to word the question is: why should my students learn English? The meaning remains essentially the same but with a greater emphasis on thinking from the students’ point of view, a mindset I wish to carry always as a teacher. For students in South Korea, where English is not the official language, learning English might seem unnecessary. Unlike the EFL students in the U.S., they do not need to know English in order to integrate into the community. How can I justify, then, the use of learning English to them? The quickest, easiest answer is, perhaps, that English is the global language, and that to become the global citizens that are high in demand in the workforce now everyone should learn English. I see the merit to this answer; after all, English is the main business language and, more importantly, the main science language. Just like how scientists all over the world exchange ideas in English, publish and argue and defend in English, and make breakthroughs together in English, students, on a smaller scale, can engage in discourse using English. Students can become cultural translators who not only use English to learn about other cultures, but also use English to explain and share their own. In the most ideal classroom, I would, of course, wish for all my students to grow into cultural translators. Nevertheless, teaching English in a non-English-speaking country is always a more sensitive issue than teaching in an English-speaking country. Never do I want to propagate the idea that English is the superior language, to hold the students who excel at English in higher esteem while shaming the ones who struggle, and there lies the risk of answering too quickly and too easily that English is the global language and, thus, students should learn the language. Instead of saying that English is the global language, the answer I agree with the most is the research finding that being able to speak more than one language grants the brain more flexibility—a characteristic desirable for everyone, even beyond the classroom setting. My goal for my students is not bilingualism (fluency in two languages) but plurilingualism (comfort, not fluency, in using two languages or more simultaneously). Most students will likely stay in the Korean workforce with no use for fluent English. After all, even when international communication is necessary professional translators can be hired. But, a more flexible mind is something all students can benefit from, regardless of which language they will primarily use in the future. As such, unlike what this TEFL course has taught, I do not think an EFL class has to be taught in English only. While I agree that the class should mainly be taught in English, I believe that the occasional inclusion of the students’ native language can be inducive to learning, especially if it makes the students feel more comfortable about speaking up or asking questions. By this I do not mean to suggest that the students will be allowed to speak only in their native language. In this hypothetical situation I imagine that the students will say as much as they can in English, and when a word pops up that they wish to express but do not yet know the English counterpart to they are allowed to ask by stating the word in their native language. By allowing the use of the students’ native language in this way, I believe the students will not feel as limited in speech by their lack of knowledge. Instead, they can express any idea they desire with the teacher acting as translator. I think one of the fastest ways to pick up a foreign language is the use of subtitles in the native language along with the audio of the foreign language. By receiving input from both languages at once, the mind can better make connections between the two, especially when it comes to vocabulary words. In a way, this is an exercise of plurilingual competency. Consequently, allowing the use of native language in the classroom (e.g. saying a sentence in English followed by repeating in the native language and once more in English to ensure that the last input is in the target language) is the closest a classroom setting can get to mimicking the use of subtitles and exercising plurilingual competency. In addition, the inclusion of the students’ native language in the EFL classroom will hopefully curb the idea that English is being taught because it is the superior language. Ultimately, instead of teaching the benefits of learning English to my students, I want them to learn to appreciate the benefits of learning any foreign language. [912] References • Mackey, A. “What happens in the brain when you learn a language?” The Guardian, Sep 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-learning • Galante, A. “It’s time to change the way we teach English.” The Conversation, Jan 2019, http://theconversation.com/its-time-to-change-the-way-we-teach-english-109273 • Cenoz, J.; Gorter, D. “Towards a Plurilingual Approach in English Language Teaching: Softening the Boundaries Between Languages.” TESOL Quarterly, 2013, 47 (3), 591-599.