Throwing the net wide What can guide us in the how and what of ELT? Dr Andrew Littlejohn

1. Throwing the net wide What can guide us in the how and what of ELT? Dr Andrew Littlejohn www.AndrewLittlejohn.net

2. June, 2000 Economics AutisticEconomics a contested term asocial – a lack of awareness of social reality, socio-emotional factors and human consequences ‘social physics’ – inspired not by an understanding of humans but modelled on Newtonian physics Post AutisticEconomics Real World Economics www.paecon.net

3. A salutary moment to reflect? “TESOL is an autonomous discipline. L2 learning and teaching needs to be understood in its own terms rather than approached via something else. While much can be learned by applying to TESOL insights gained from such fields as first language acquisition, educational theory, the psychology of learning and so on, increasingly TESOL seeks to establish its own theoretical foundations and research agenda rather than being seen as an opportunity to test out theories developed elsewhere for different purposes.” Richards, 2001 in The Cambridge Guide to TESOL

4. What can guide us in the howand what of language teaching?

5. What? Is there a ‘standard’? WhichvarietyofEnglishshouldwetake? Whose grammar? Whose vocabulary? Whose pronunciation? Whose use? What? Are our models valid?

6. What? Should we take account of changing forms and usage? From a major hotel in London FromHSBC Bank (1) Dear Dr Littlejohn I am writing to introduce myself as your branch Customer Relations Manager. We are presently conducting a survey of customer needs so that we can improve the quality of our services. Would you be available for a brief telephone chat about this? I would like to call you today or tomorrow to see if this is possible, and if so, to arrange a suitable time. Yours sincerely Stephanie HallCustomer Relations ManagerHSBC Dear Andrew Thanks for your email and changing your booking. I can confirm I’ve made the change and you’ll get a credit on your cc. We have a special offer for the weekend, so you’ll get £27 back. Nice! Best Teresa

7. What? Should we take account of changing forms and usage? From HSBC Bank (2) Hi Andrew Thanks for agreeing to discuss your Custimer needs. Just to confirm – I’ll call 4.30pm on Mon. Great. Look forward to talking to you then then Steph Hall Stephanie Hall Customer Relations ManagerHSBC

8. What? Should we take account of changing forms and usage? From the Head of English, Higher College of Technology From my son… Hi Doc. It’s Ali. HOD HCT. How r u keeping? Ur speech will be at ten thirty am on April 27. ur presence iz an honour to us. Hope u’ll make it. Could u send me ur email plz? Thx. Yo. Can u cm n get me frm skul lik now? An can wi giv Julia a ride 2?

9. What? Who owns English? “It is a matter of considerable pride and satisfaction for native speakers of English that their language is an international means of communication. But the point is that it is only international to the extent that it is not their language. It is not a possession which they lease out to others, while still retaining the freehold. Other people actually own it.” (Widdowson 1994, echoed in 2003, 2004) • Only 25% of English speakers speak it as a first language (‘innercircle’) • 75% of English speakers speak it as an additional language (outer and expanding circles) • NNS – NNS communication is far more common than NNS-NS communication • English is most frequently used in multilingual contexts as a lingua franca – ELF – with the distinction between EFL and ESL fast disappearing

10. What? Who owns English? • Native speaker norms are therefore an inappropriate basis for determining error. “We have a new international English speaking community for whom it is no longer relevant to look at how NSs speak English with other NSs and then transmit this NS-use to NNSs. Instead, we need to find out what NNSs do and need to be able to do when they speak English to each other in international contexts.” Jenkins (2009)

11. What? Death of the native speaker? “The perhaps unpalatable truth for NSs is that if they wish to participate in international communication in the 21st century, they too will have to learn EIL. [ELF]” Jenkins (2009) What of those who seek native speaker models? “… acceptance of the native speaker model does not mean these attitudes are right. Members of various groups have indeed wanted to change the color of their skin, the straightness of their hair, or the shape of their eyes to conform to other groups…” (Cook, V. 1999)

12. What? English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) core project Based on corpus studies, Jenkins (2001) et al propose: • - recognition of ELF as a variety of English in its own right • a much scaled down list of core pronunciations to teach, e.g. 1. All consonant sounds 2. Long and short vowels 2. Aspiration after p/, /t/ and /k/ to avoid /b/, /d/ and /g/. 3. No omission of consonants in word-initial clusters e.g. in product.Only certain consonants can be omitted (‘Chrismas’ but not ‘Christas’). Adding vowel sounds is better than deleting consonants, e.g. better to say ‘Macudonaludo’ rather than ‘Madono’ as a Taiwanese speaker might pronounce it.

13. What? English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) core project Based on corpus studies, Jenkins (2001) et al propose (cont.): “Outside the Lingua Franca Core, any pronunciation showing mother tongue influence should no longer be regarded as an error, but as an instance of regional accent.”

14. What? English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) core project Based on corpus studies, Jenkins (2001 & elsewhere) propose • abandoning insistence on accuracy when meaning is clear • greater tolerance for grammar errors • absence of third person present tense -s (She look very sad) • interchangeable relative pronouns (a book who…a person which…) • omission or insertion of definite/indefinite articles • use of an all-purpose question tag such as isn’t it? • redundancy by adding prepositions (We have to study about ...) • pluralisation of ‘uncountable’ nouns (informations, advices) • use of that-clauses (I want that we discuss about my dissertation).

15. What? ELF core project – some reservations A socially aware analysis of the problem, but an asocial solution Social physics? Cf Esperanto, ITA, spelling reform • Reliance on corpus studies • Counter intuitive – no parallel in other forms of learning • Who wants to learn what might be seen as a ‘degraded form’? • What of self esteem? What of stigmatised forms? • What of the learner’s own foreign language identity? • What of learners’ own decisions about standards? If millions of people have learned English without an ‘ELF variety’, where is the problem?

16. What? What to do? • Teach the already described standards, keeping up to date with revised descriptions • Teach stylistic variability • Use common sense on intelligibility • Make learners aware of a variety of NS and NNS accents • Present students with examples of genuine skilled and less skilled L2 use (including examples of relevant code-switching) • Include instances of cross cultural language situations • Negotiate goals and standards of achievement (as appropriate) • Rely on learners’ intelligence

17. What can guide us in the howand what of language teaching? What can guide us in the howand what of language teaching?

18. How? How?

19. How? The ‘Three Big Faiths in Language Teaching’ • Natural acquisition is what we needIt’s a subconscious process. Focus on meaning and form will take care of itself (e.g. Krashen, 1981) • Natural acquisition through interaction is what we needIt’s mainly a subconscious process but consciousness and ‘noticing’ helps (incidental and planned) (e.g. Long, 1997) • Part skills to whole skills is what we needConscious awareness of parts of a skill, combined through practice with other part skills, leads to automaticity (e.g. Johnson, 1995)

20. How? asocial models of learning cognitivist, positivist viewpoints the anonymous learner contexts, purposes, profile mechanical relations – social physics

21. How? • An emerging new perspective: socioculturalism • Language and learning are not individual achievements • Languageuseandlearning occur in real-world situations Developmental psychology: constructivism, Vygotskian perspectives, language and thought Educational Psychology: content, collaboration, shared learning Personal Psychology: value, self-esteem, control, motivation Sociology: social interactionism, face, FTAs Political philosophy: democratic citizenship, critical pedagogies Neuroscience: bilingual brain, memory & L2, multicompetences Cultural studies: language and identity

22. How? Example No. 1 • The failure of learning strategy training

23. How? Completing an end of semester evaluation form. 1 What goals did you set yourself for this past semester? 2 Did you achieve your goals? If not, why not? 3 How did you achieve your goals? 4 What are your goals for the next semester? 5 How are you going to achieve these goals?

24. How? Completing an end of semester evaluation form. M: What goals did you write? I can’t remember what I put. You got any I can use? D: You can have some of mine and some of Yiannis’. Y: Here’s one. ‘I want to improve my spelling’. Use that. It’s all crap anyway. D: For number 2, just write you didn’t achieve them, then you can write the same ones again for next semester. M: What about this? ‘Why didn’t you achieve them?’ Y: You didn’t work hard enough. M: Yeah. I’ll put that. D: Hurry up, Max. The others are waiting. We’ll be late for the cinema. (Littlejohn, 2008a)

25. How? Completing an end of semester evaluation form. ‘It’sall crap’ ‘What’s the point? We have to do what they tell us anyway.’ ‘My goal was to get into the basketball team. I can’t write that.’ ‘It’s not natural to write about it.’ ‘It’s nerd stuff.’

26. How? Example No. 2 • Learner resistance to teacher initiatives

27. Value Very high High Medium high Medium Medium low Low Very low Teachers Learners 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Task type (Nunan, 1989)

28. How? Example No. 3 • Understanding learner motivation

29. A: What are you doing in English? S: What? A: What are you doing in your English lessons? S: Boh! Exercises. A: Well, what did you do last lesson? S: [Turns to ask friend]. Oh yes. We read a passage about jeans. A: Why did you read about jeans? S: What? The teacher asked us to read it. A: Yes, but why did the teacher ask you to read it? S: To learn English! A: What did you do with it? S: We made a summary A:Why did you do that? S: I don't know. She wanted totest our comprehension. A:What are you going to do next lesson? S:Boh. (Littlejohn, 2008b)

30. How? Example No. 4 • Learner perceptions of their teacher Draw a picture of your maths teacher…

31. WEDNESDAY JANUARY 03 2001 School pupils think maths teachers are fat nerds BY SIMON DE BRUXELLES MATHEMATICIANS are fat, scruffy and have no friends — in any language. Youngsters from seven countries, asked to come up with a portrait of the typical mathematician, showed a badly dressed, middle-aged nerd with no social life. Schoolchildren as far apart as Romania, England and America took part in the study conducted by a researcher from the Centre for Teaching Mathematics at Plymouth University. The 300 children, aged 12 and 13, also drew pen and ink portraits of the “archetypal mathematician”. One English pupil added a caption that read: “Mathematicians have no friends, except other mathematicians, not married or seeing anyone, usually fat, very unstylish, wrinkles in their forehead from thinking so hard, no social life whatsoever, 30 years old, a very short temper.”

32. ….. John Berry, whose department ran the project, said: “The image of mathematicians was nerdish and one worrying aspect is that children may be put off studying maths if they think others will see them as being nerds.”

33. How? Example No. 5 • Learner views of the classroom “What is most important to you for ‘a good class’?”

34. Responses: 234 Mexican university language centre students • Number of students marking the aspect as 'most important': • The teacher is well-trained professionally • Students feel self-confident • The teacher is in a good mood • The teacher seems motivated • A relaxed atmosphere in the classroom • The class is dynamic • The teacher gives clear explanations • The teacher corrects oral work in class • The class is enjoyable • The teacher is patient • One feels that one has learned something • Students learn new vocabulary • All the students get a chance to participate • The teacher tells culturally related personal anecdotes (Corona, 2006) 148 23 17 13 11 8 4 3 3 2 2 0 0 0

35. What can guide us in the howand what of language teaching? A conclusion (of sorts)… Allwright, (2003): “(a) the quality of life in the language classroom is much more important than instructional efficiency, (b) ensuring our understanding of the quality of classroom life is far more essential than developing ever “improved” teaching methods, (c) understanding such a quality of life is a social, not an asocial matter “

36. Throwing the net wide What can guide us in the how and what of ELT? Thank you for listening. www.AndrewLittlejohn.net

37. How?