English Language Teaching (ELT) Around the World Sandra J. Briggs TESOL Past President 2008 - 2009 sjbtbf@earthlink

1. English Language Teaching (ELT) Around the World Sandra J. Briggs TESOL Past President 2008 - 2009 sjbtbf@earthlink.net

2. Introduction

3. Background • Language educator throughout my career • Degrees in Spanish, Education, English, and Linguistics • Began as secondary Spanish teacher and materials writer

4. In ELT Instructor Department chair Curriculum developer District ESL coordinator Materials writer

5. The importance of TESOL in my career It has broadened my perspective on the field. It has been an essential part of my professional development. I always tell teachers and teacher trainers how important professional associations are.

6. Through my textbook writing, ELT consulting, and work in TESOL, I have had a chance to travel to many countries to train teachers and speak about the field.

7. My first term on the TESOL Board began in 1997 and my second term will end in 2009. It has been a time of examining the field and working with ELT educators around the world.

8. My goals today • Share my perspective on the state of the ELT field with you • Help you think about your own perspective • That what we do here will be useful in ETAI and in your own careers

9. Handouts/Resources • Main sections in the talk • Some important points • Books, Web sites, and other resources I mention

10. Areas to consider • English as a global language • Educations systems • ELT educators • What does this mean for ELT educators?

11. English as a Global Language

12. Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

13. There has never been a language so widely spread or spoken by so many people as English. There are therefore no precedents to help us see what happens to a language when it achieves genuine world status. . .

14. The balance between the competing demands of intelligibility and identity is especially fragile, and can easily be affected by social change, such as a swing in immigrant policy, new political alliances, or a change in a country’s population trends.

15. If we cannot predict the future, we can at least speculate, and there are some fascinating speculations to be made. It may well be the case. . .that the English language has already grown to be independent of any form of social control. There may be a critical number or critical

16. distribution of speakers (analogous to the notion of critical mass in nuclear physics) beyond which it proves impossible for any single group or alliance to stop its growth, or even influence its future. If there were to be a major social change in Britain which affected the use

17. of English there, would this have any real effect on the world trend? It is unlikely. And, as we have seen, even the current chief player, the USA, will have decreasing influence as the years go by, because of the way world population is growing. (p. 139)

18. 13th International Conference Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) February 2008 Conference Theme: Global Change and Local Realities: Addressing Methodological Issues

19. Professor Laxman Gnawall NELTA Vice President

20. Here in Nepal we have been trying to promote English by bringing about changes in content and methodology. However, we have seen that, on the one hand, methodology has been the central issue in ELT discourse, on the other, the methodology borrowed from the BANA settings has not always been compatible in the local context.

21. BANA • Britain • Australia • New Zealand • North America • Does English belong to these Inner Circle countries?

22. What should we call ourselves? • English as a second language (ESL) • English as foreign language (EFL) • English language teaching (ELT) • English as an additional language (EAL)

23. Burns, Anne (Ed.). (2005).Teaching English From a Global Perspective. Alexandria, Virginia: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Chapter 1: “Interrogating New Worlds of English Language Teaching”

24. She contrasts the ELT field as she knew it in the 1970’s when “the world of English language teaching (ELT) was a more comfortable and cozy place of people who followed neat and predictable methods--secure, especially for a native-English-speaking teacher, in the assumption that learning English meant learning to speak like me” with what she sees now in the 21st century.

25. Now it is a truism that English is a lingua franca, a language used locally and internationally, not only among so-called native speakers but by anyone wishing to activate his or her role as a member of an international communicative network. And to be an English teacher today is to play an inevitable part in this globalizing

26. enterprise, to recognize new areas of inquiry, now raised for perhaps the first time in the long history of ELT. (p. 1)

27. TESOL Web site www.tesol.org Click on News/Position Statements Position Statement on English as a Global Language (2008)

28. As a global professional association, TESOL values individual language rights, collaboration in a global community, and respect for diversity and multiculturalism. In accordance with its Position Statement on Language Varieties (1996), TESOL encourages the recognition and appreciation of all varieties of English, including dialects, creoles, and world Englishes. In terms of

29. language teaching, TESOL does not advocate one standard or variety of English over another. Rather, TESOL urges English language teachers to make informed decisions at local, regional, and/or national levels, taking into account the purposes and contexts of use that are most relevant to their learners.

30. 13th International Conference Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) February 2008 Key Speech: Sandra J. Briggs, Think Globally, Act Locally

31. Educational Systems

32. TESOL’s mission is to ensure excellence in English language teaching to speakers of other languages.

33. TESOL Values • Professionalism in language education • Individual language rights • Accessible, high quality education • Collaboration in a global community

34. Interaction of research and reflective practice for educational improvement • Respect for diversity and multiculturalism

35. Have you noticed that teaching English involves much more than just teaching English? Some of the issues we face in the ELT field are not directly related to the English that is taught in the classroom.

36. Who has access to a high quality education? • Private versus public schools • Urban versus rural • Social class, race, religion • Legal status in the country in which the students are studying

37. At what age do students begin to learn English and what part of their curriculum is in English? Young learners need to develop oral language and literacy in their native language as a basis for learning other languages, including English.

38. The TESOL Position Statement on Language and Literacy Development for Young English Language Learners (2001) Directed at young learners in an ESL/ESOL situation in which the official position is that they must learn English

39. For young children, the quality of education they receive in their first years of schooling is often a critical indicator of their long-term academic success. Early literacy and language development are interlaced with social and cognitive development and are vital elements in the education of young children. For young ESOL learners, the complexities involved with literacy and language development are

40. compounded by the fact that they must be achieved in a language other than their native language, and often before they are literate in that language. Successful early childhood programs build upon the knowledge that young learners bring from home, and for young ESOL learners, this knowledge is learned and expressed in the native language.

41. What is the interaction of various languages in the educational system for students of all ages? • These are my observations from conversations with ELT educators over the last two years in Argentina, China, India, Mexico, Nepal, Spain, Ukraine, and the United States. Of course, I have also talked to a lot of people from countries that I haven’t visited during this time.

42. Matagallinas, Mexico in the classroom of Hilario Santibáñez • Professor Peter Sayer at the MEXTESOL Convention in November 2007 • Peter and I began corresponding about his work.

43. Sayer, Peter. “Authenticity in Marginalized EFL Contexts” in Dantas-Whitney, M. and Rilling, S. (Eds.). (Under contract). Authenticity in the language classroom and beyond: Children and adolescent learners. Alexandria, VA.: TESOL.

44. Peter observes and analyzes what goes on in Hilario’s classroom. • In this classroom “authenticity” and “authentic materials” do not mean “made for native speakers.” • In Matagallinas “authenticity” means “English as the students encounter it in their own lives.”

45. Languages in Hilario’s classroom • The English the students learn in Hilario’s classroom • Spanish • Mixe, a local indigenous language • English brought back from teacher and relative experience in the United States

46. The students in Matagallinas may be learning a global language, but they are learning it to use in their local context.

47. TESOL-SPAIN Convention March 2007 in Donostia/San Sebastián Theme: “Content and Language Learning-- Two Birds, One Stone

48. This theme sounded like what I do in the United States; I train mainstream teachers to work with ESL students, making their content comprehensible to them. • The convention was held in a private school in the Basque-speaking region of Spain. At that school students were taught in Basque, Spanish, English, and French.

49. This theme was very exciting and important for the participants. • Which courses should be taught in which languages? • How can content teachers be trained in ELT? • What happens to ELT educators in this new arrangement?

50. “21st Century/Lenovo Cup” • National English Speaking Competition in China • Exceptional proficiency in English • Chinese educational structure to the competition • Local context was very important