I am currently working on my TEFL cert. However, as an anthropologist, (and as me) I am concerned about language loss globally. I live in a US community with many immigrant who are indigenous from Oaxaca Mexico and speak Zapotec, and already I see the new generations losing their languages.
Whether I am teaching domestically or abroad, has anyone else dealt with this concern or while teaching EFL or ESL and have you found any ways to encourage maintanence of indigenous languages concurrently while promoting English as a global language? It took me many years to decide to take on a TEFL cert because of this particular conflict.
Thank you.
TEFL and encouraging indigenous languages?
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
could you give me an example? I've never heard of a language abroad being threatened into extinction because of the spread of English... certainly native american languages, but I don't see how TEFL relates to that..
in situations like immigrant communities or other small language pockets, it is natural for their language to change or disappear due to the omnipresence and necessity of the other language (which isn't always English). however, that isn't quite the situation with teaching English in foreign countries... so I'd say don't feel too bad and just go for it
in situations like immigrant communities or other small language pockets, it is natural for their language to change or disappear due to the omnipresence and necessity of the other language (which isn't always English). however, that isn't quite the situation with teaching English in foreign countries... so I'd say don't feel too bad and just go for it
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woodcutter
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It's a much discussed issue in academia. However, although there is much hand wringing, of course there are few practical solutions. Frankly, if you are an ESL teacher you are a stormtrooper for the "business and progress comes first" army, and that is the end of it. Whether it concerns first language or second language, you are cutting down on the time people will spend cultivating local customs and speech. OK, I suppose ESL teachers generally show a positive attitude towards local languages, and you might even get involved with programmes to support them. It might possibly make a difference if foreign teachers are in an area where that language has very low prestige. Generally though, it's a bit like flying to Greenland to see for yourself and weep about global warming and the glaciers.
Do the would-be protectors of minority languages quit their well-paying jobs due to this? Nope.
Do the would-be protectors of minority languages quit their well-paying jobs due to this? Nope.
A very valid topic that any TEFL teacher worthy of the title is addressing.
A few colleagues and I (some of us foreign, some domestic) are currently working on a project to create what one might term an 'EFL and language awareness' course, intended to teach EFL and solutions to the language problem at the same time, while also instilling an understanding in the students that by learning English, they likewiseare participating in the world's growth and decline of languages, and that as such, they have a moral responsibility to consider moral questions relating toEFL, just as one would questionthe moral implications of nuclear fision and fusion, or cloning, etc, in a science class.
First,we must make a distinction between languages in decline and trheatened languages. As for languages in decline, not all are immediately threatened, and for them a medium to to long term solution might suffice, such as promoting an inter-languagea mong other solutions.
Threatened languages need more drastic, short-term solutions, often involving controversial pro-active government policies that may lead to accusations of 'reverse discrimination', etc., and so such policies generally lead to increased tensions, and so must be applied in conjunction with public awareness campaings,etc.
The project we are working on, however, does not deal with immediately threatened languages due to the political nature of the necessary steps involved in dealing with them, but it does deal with less but none the less threatened languages, and introduces policiesat international and national levelstodeal with this crisis.
Some examples of documents worth presenting to an EFL class (depending on the English level of the students) might be:
At an international level:
The latest UNESCO resolution in favour of Espereanto, which makes explicit reference to Esperanto's potential to contribute to the preservation of threatened (moderately threatened,that is) languages:
unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001240/124020e.pdf
And one example of how Esperanto has been implemented already can be found in the official 1993 decree of the Ministry of Public Instruction in Italy adding Esperanto to the list of languages students can choose from, along with a detailed explaination of its reasoning behind the decision:
http://www.internacialingvo.org/public/study.pdf
A few colleagues and I (some of us foreign, some domestic) are currently working on a project to create what one might term an 'EFL and language awareness' course, intended to teach EFL and solutions to the language problem at the same time, while also instilling an understanding in the students that by learning English, they likewiseare participating in the world's growth and decline of languages, and that as such, they have a moral responsibility to consider moral questions relating toEFL, just as one would questionthe moral implications of nuclear fision and fusion, or cloning, etc, in a science class.
First,we must make a distinction between languages in decline and trheatened languages. As for languages in decline, not all are immediately threatened, and for them a medium to to long term solution might suffice, such as promoting an inter-languagea mong other solutions.
Threatened languages need more drastic, short-term solutions, often involving controversial pro-active government policies that may lead to accusations of 'reverse discrimination', etc., and so such policies generally lead to increased tensions, and so must be applied in conjunction with public awareness campaings,etc.
The project we are working on, however, does not deal with immediately threatened languages due to the political nature of the necessary steps involved in dealing with them, but it does deal with less but none the less threatened languages, and introduces policiesat international and national levelstodeal with this crisis.
Some examples of documents worth presenting to an EFL class (depending on the English level of the students) might be:
At an international level:
The latest UNESCO resolution in favour of Espereanto, which makes explicit reference to Esperanto's potential to contribute to the preservation of threatened (moderately threatened,that is) languages:
unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001240/124020e.pdf
And one example of how Esperanto has been implemented already can be found in the official 1993 decree of the Ministry of Public Instruction in Italy adding Esperanto to the list of languages students can choose from, along with a detailed explaination of its reasoning behind the decision:
http://www.internacialingvo.org/public/study.pdf
Not entirely true. The quality of Chinese instruction has been in decline inChina in the pastfew decades, and manyh are blaming an over-emphasis on English at an early age.sonya wrote:could you give me an example? I've never heard of a language abroad being threatened into extinction because of the spread of English... certainly native american languages, but I don't see how TEFL relates to that..
in situations like immigrant communities or other small language pockets, it is natural for their language to change or disappear due to the omnipresence and necessity of the other language (which isn't always English). however, that isn't quite the situation with teaching English in foreign countries... so I'd say don't feel too bad and just go for it
Some do!woodcutter wrote:It's a much discussed issue in academia. However, although there is much hand wringing, of course there are few practical solutions. Frankly, if you are an ESL teacher you are a stormtrooper for the "business and progress comes first" army, and that is the end of it. Whether it concerns first language or second language, you are cutting down on the time people will spend cultivating local customs and speech. OK, I suppose ESL teachers generally show a positive attitude towards local languages, and you might even get involved with programmes to support them. It might possibly make a difference if foreign teachers are in an area where that language has very low prestige. Generally though, it's a bit like flying to Greenland to see for yourself and weep about global warming and the glaciers.
Do the would-be protectors of minority languages quit their well-paying jobs due to this? Nope.
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woodcutter
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The main academic champion of this kind of thing is a woman named Skuttnab-Kangas, I think. Even though she and others term English and Chinese (for example) "killer languages" no one has seriously tried to advocate not teaching English all over the place as far as I know. Is that what you wish to do Machjo?
Actually, not entirely true. There are many who would avocate 'not teaching English all over the place" if by that is meant not making it universally compulsory.woodcutter wrote:The main academic champion of this kind of thing is a woman named Skuttnab-Kangas, I think. Even though she and others term English and Chinese (for example) "killer languages" no one has seriously tried to advocate not teaching English all over the place as far as I know. Is that what you wish to do Machjo?
The non-compulsion to learn English in compulsory education is not unique to Italy (6 languages to choose from) by the way. I know this to be the case in France (over 170), Poland (4), and Hungary (over 170) at least that I'm sure of, and probably in many other nations as well.
What is unique to the Italian one is that it provides a more real alternative. In a contest between English and French, let's say, English wins out on all front. As for spread of the language, English wins over French. As for ease of learning, they're both difficult. And as for motivation to learn, most compulsory school students would choose such languages for hopes of employment, jobs, etc. So in the end, if the only main difference between English and other national languages is the spread of the language, English wins out over all of them in most case, except perhaps in certian regional economies.
To take France as an example, though there are over 170 languages to choose from, more than 90% choose English anyway. So just adding countless languages to the list helps little in the end. And the rest almost unanimously choose German. So much for all those language options in French high schools, eh!
In Poland, sinse Esperanto was added in 2000, it bumped French for distant third place after English and German, French coming in a close fourth. One reason was that many Polish teachers knew Esperanto already, and so the implementation of courses after recognition could spread fast. But another reason I believe, also expressed in the Italian decree in 1993 as a means to provide a real and viable alternative, is that the motivator is different. Most students compelled to learn a second language will choose what pays, and that's English. Should their motivation be otherwise (example, moral or simply lack of interest in difficult languages), on the other hand, then they English is clearly out of the race. But if no such option is available, then the student will probably go for the money option and so go for English anyway.
Permitting Esperanto as an alternative therefore gives students with 'divergent' motivators a new real alternative to English. While no language could compete with English on an economic level, so no language could compete with Esperanto on the moral level.
Granted other 'languages without equal exist too'. For some Muslims, no language could compete with Arabic, for example.
So if we were looking for more language diversity in the school, it's not enough to just add countless languages to the list. It would make more sense to look for those languages that have no competitors in any field. In such a case, Esperanto and religious languages could be a good start in terms of attracting students with non-commercial motivators.
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woodcutter
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Stephen Jones
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The Dutch and the Scandinavians have a reputation for excellent English; in fact it's not uncommon for Brits to say that they "speak better English than we do". Yet I'm not aware that Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish are disappearing.
The (French) secondary school where I work has six English teachers, two Spanish teachers, one German teacher, one (part time) Italian teacher and one (part time) Russian teacher. The kids have to take two foreign languages and most take English first, though some choose Spanish or German. I think the main influence here is the parents; they recognise that English is the language of international business and think that if their kids are to get on in life, they'll need English. And I think Sarkozy is less hostile to the idea than Chirac was.
The (French) secondary school where I work has six English teachers, two Spanish teachers, one German teacher, one (part time) Italian teacher and one (part time) Russian teacher. The kids have to take two foreign languages and most take English first, though some choose Spanish or German. I think the main influence here is the parents; they recognise that English is the language of international business and think that if their kids are to get on in life, they'll need English. And I think Sarkozy is less hostile to the idea than Chirac was.
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woodcutter
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The problem in France, for example, would be if people were under a lot of pressure to learn English in the Basque region, or Britanny. In that case there would be an effect on the amount of time devoted to the minority languages there. Of course, you can be trilingual, but is it really going to happen?
In fact there is probably only one largish country in the world with no issue of that kind whatsoever, and since I teach in it I'm not evil after all.(although a UNESCO education committee declared the Korean educational situation a form of child abuse..............)
There's another thing too though - is English (or big language X) a weapon aimed at reforming "backward" local ideas? That's a big issue in Korea.
In fact there is probably only one largish country in the world with no issue of that kind whatsoever, and since I teach in it I'm not evil after all.(although a UNESCO education committee declared the Korean educational situation a form of child abuse..............)
There's another thing too though - is English (or big language X) a weapon aimed at reforming "backward" local ideas? That's a big issue in Korea.
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JuanTwoThree
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I would agree. There are plenty of academies in the Spanish Basque country that teach Basque and English.
It's probably the paranoid speakers of "middle sized" languages that are more likely to threaten the minority ones.
The ones that have got over the fact that their glory days are over or will probably never come don't feel either threatened by English nor feel like threatening the minnows in their turn.
It's probably the paranoid speakers of "middle sized" languages that are more likely to threaten the minority ones.
The ones that have got over the fact that their glory days are over or will probably never come don't feel either threatened by English nor feel like threatening the minnows in their turn.
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woodcutter
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Attitude isn't necessarily the issue. Don't you think that Welsh and Irish have done well recently mainly because they have no serious rivals as second languages?
In fact Basques probably don't feel much pressure to learn English, because the national language opens plenty of doors, but it isn't like that the world over.
In fact Basques probably don't feel much pressure to learn English, because the national language opens plenty of doors, but it isn't like that the world over.