(Book Review)
Started: October 12, 2017
Finished: October 25, 2017
Why I Read This Book
This is another book I read as the result of our book club for professional development.
In our bookclub, we've been trying our best to stick to the recommended reading list for Delta Module 1.
Cambridge publishes a list of recommended books for the Delta [LINK HERE], and this book is on it. One of the members, Tom, wanted to do this book next.
Unfortunately, this little book proved remarkably hard to get ahold of. It was one of the few books off of the Delta reading list that wasn't in our school library.
Since we live in Saigon, we often resort to pirating books off the Internet (sorry copyright gods). I'm not very technologically proficient, but some of the other guys regularly pirate books, and they were confident they could track down a copy. But a couple weeks later, and we still couldn't find a copy.
Through a friend, I got recommended a bookstore in Saigon that specializes in special ordering obscure English books. But they couldn't find a copy for us either.
Eventually, we just decided to chose another book for bookclub.
But then Tom was able to locate one copy of this book through the library of his school. So I agreed to read it with him as kind of a "shadow bookclub".
Tom read the whole book, and then passed it off to me.
The Review
The hardest part of this book was just tracking down a copy.
Once you get a copy, it's actually a very easy read.
If you look at my starting and finishing dates above, you can see that I took 2 weeks with this book. But honestly, most of that was procrastination. I read most of the book in just 2 days.
It's a short little book--only 150 pages (of that, only 129 pages of main text). And it's written in a very readable style.
The book deals with some very controversial subject material. (As Jennifer Jenkins said in her TEFLology interview, language is a very emotive subject).
However, from a readability standpoint, the fact that it's so controversial is both a positive and a negative.
The beginning of the book, in which Sandra Lee McKay outlined the historical spread of English, where we are in at the present, and what was likely to happen in the future, was all very fascinating.
As the book moved into the issues of controversy, however, it became less informative and more speculative.
The middle of the book attempted to outline all the areas of controversy in teaching English as an international language:
International Standards,
The Culture of the Language Teaching Materials,
and the Culture of the Teaching Methods.
From an academic point of view, I suppose Sandra Lee McKay was doing what every good academic should--introducing the controversy to the reader, outlining the various possible positions, and doing her best to act as a neutral guide.
From a readability standpoint however, both Tom and I expressed frustration with how little concrete information there was in the middle of the book.
As Tom put it, the whole middle section of the book seemed to read like: "Hey, what about this thing? Well, some people think this, and some people think that. In the end, there are no easy answers."
My interest picked up a bit when we got to the last chapter on teaching methods. Possibly because as a teacher, this is what I have the strongest opinions on, and what is the most relevant to my daily work.
To summarize:
Although the book gets a bit bogged down in speculation in the middle, it's short and easy to read, and some parts of it are really interesting. I'd give it a recommendation.
Section by Section
Despite coming under one unifying title, the book's chapters are arguable so diverse as to be completely unrelated to each other. What has changing grammatical standards to do with the teaching methods? How is teaching pronunciation related to the whether the coursebook talks about Britain or the host country.
So, in order to sort out my comments, I'll try to go chapter by chapter
Chapter 1: English as an International Language
* Much of this chapter focused on the work of Braj Kachu. I thought that the terminology sounded familiar (Inner Circle Countries, Out Circle Countries, and Expanding Circle Countries) and I was sure I had heard it on the TEFLology podcast before.
Sure enough, I checked their archives, and TEFLology had an episode on Braj Kachu. (I actually reviewed that episode on this blog, but I got so distracted by the other topics in that episode that I completely neglected Braj Kachu.)
* Actually, speaking of TEFLology, a lot of this book in general touches on topics that are frequently discussed on the TEFLology Podcast. I believe "English as an International Language" is one of their areas of interest.
* And in fact, Robert Philipson, the author of "Linguistic Imperialism", who is also discussed in chapter 1, is featured on episode 12 of TEFLology.
* Speaking of linguistic imperialism...
When I was in college, I hung out in a lot of Leftist circles. Shortly before I left to teach English in Japan, one of my friends suggested to me that the global teaching of English was part of American Imperialism.
It was something I rejected at the time, but it has been gnawing in the back of my mind ever since. I don't want to be part of imperialism.
My feelings vary somewhat from day to day. (There are definitely elements of imperialism within the English teaching industry--particularly in certain standardized tests and certain teaching materials). But on the whole, I've decided that someone can enrich their life tremendously by learning a foreign language, so that I'm making a positive difference in the lives of my students.
* That being said, I have had incidences which have made it clear to me my reasons for teaching English are often different than the reasons my students are learning English. Especially in Vietnam.
I want to teach English because I want to broaden my students' horizons, and open up new culture, literature, and possible relationships for them.
Many of my students (or in the cases of children, their parents) are only interested in learning English because it will get them better jobs.
I've gotten a little bit depressed in Vietnam with how much of the English education industry is geared towards preparing the students for standardized tests. But, I've learned that if you stray from this curriculum, you're likely to get complaints from the parents.
This whole thing is a complex issue. On the one hand, the fact that the students are taking control of their learning (and not me) is speaking to their empowerment. On the other hand, the fact that they must learn English to participate in the global economy is arguably a facet of imperialism.
And it also depresses me how much the spread of English is linked to the spread of capitalism.
I like to imagine my students are learning English so that they can read Chomsky and Orwell, but in reality my students are learning English so that they can be bankers and businessmen.
* Chapter 1 discusses the current spread of English, and discusses its possible future.
Because things are changing fast, the book is somewhat dated now. It was originally published in 2002. Since then, the business of global English teaching has expanded dramatically.
For one example: the country where I currently live and teach, Vietnam, has a huge industry built around the teaching of English, which barely existed back in 2002.
* David Crystal (someone else I've reviewed on this blog) is also mentioned several times in Chapter One.
Chapter 2: Bilingual Users of English
* This chapter talks a lot about not only users of English, but also teachers of English.
It's a subject I have mixed feelings about. (Although as an American who has made his living teaching English abroad, my job security is directly tied in to the privileged status of native speaker teachers. So take my opinion with a grain of salt.)
On the one hand, in my experience living in Japan, Cambodia, and Vietnam, students who learn pronunciation from non-native speakers will often have problems of intelligibility. (For example, when I meet a Vietnamese person who has learned English from a Vietnamese teacher, I will often have trouble understanding their pronunciation).
On the other hand:
Over the years, in Japan, Cambodia, and Vietnam, I've gotten so many students asking me: "How can I improve more in English?" or more specifically "How can I improve my English grammar/writing/listening/speaking/pronunciation/etc. ?"
I used to attempt to answer these questions. (Everyone thinks they're an expert in second language acquisition.) But over the years I've realized that I am the most unqualified person in the world to attempt to answer these questions. I've never had the experience of having to learn English as a second language.
My CELTA course gave me techniques in classroom management, but absolutely no insight into independent study (which is a whole different area of expertise).
Instead, I now advise my students NOT to ask me for advice on studying. Rather, I tell them that they should find a Vietnamese friend who has learned English very well, and ask them for advice.
For that reason, I particularly agreed with what Sandra Lee McKay wrote on page 45.
"Another advantage of bilingual English teachers is that, since they have gone through the process of acquiring English as a second language themselves, they often have a highly developed awareness of the structure of that language; in addition, they can anticipate the problems their students may have in acquiring it. As Seidlhofer (1999) notes, this ability enables bilingual teachers to 'get into the skin of the foreigner learner' " (p.45)
Chapter 3: Standards for English as an International Language
* Much of this chapter overlaps with the TEFLology interview with Jennifer Jenkins.
* It's an interesting and complex issue, and I'll have to save my exhaustive thoughts on it for another day.
* When teaching English for Academic Purposes in Cambodia, one of the big struggles was not only grammar mistakes, but teaching the students how to structure their essays in the Western style. Whether or not students need to be taught this is one of the issues Sandra Lee McKay talks about in Chapter 3.
* When talking about discourse styles, Sandra Lee McKay questions whether students really need to be taught to discourse exactly like a native speaker.
Although I think I neglected to mention it in my review, this was a question I had frequently while reading Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers by Michael McCarthy. I kept thinking, "Yes, this is interesting, but do students really need to know this?"
Chapter 4: Culture in Teaching English as International Language
* In this chapter, Sandra Lee McKay talks about the problem of textbooks and teaching materials that are too focused on Britain and America, and so are alienating to the students.
She's not wrong about this. This can be a huge problem.
In Southeast Asia, textbooks published in Britain seem to dominate the market (for whatever reason). In the past, I've occasionally had to teach out of textbooks that were so heavily oriented towards British culture that even I as an American didn't fully understand it. I can only imagine how confusing they were to my Cambodian and Vietnamese students.
* That being said, I'm not overly enthusiastic about Sandra Lee McKay's proposed solution. She wants to include more materials about the local host country, or about other countries around the world.
My problem with this is that too many ESL textbooks already read like 4th grade geography textbooks. (Here is Sarah. She lives in this country. She likes to eat this food. Her people wear these clothes....). It just puts the students to sleep.
My preferred method of teaching is through narratives--get the students interested in some story (book or movie) and then pull the language out of that. I think that would be more interesting than all these dry social studies lessons that seem to populate ESL textbooks nowadays.
That being said, I suppose I should use books and movies from all over the world, not just from America.
For example, taking a bread from American movies to use Princess Mononoke in my classroom earlier this year was a good decision. (Despite the fact that, as I noted in the blog post, the English dub contained a lot of stilted and unnatural language).
Also, one of the things I remember from taking 8 Japanese students back to America is how fascinated they were by seeing manga in English in the bookstore. They were really interested to try to read their favorite manga in English.
Come to think of it, I'm the same way. I often try to study Vietnamese or Japanese not by seeking out authentic literature from the country, but by finding translations of my favorite American books.
* Sandra Lee McKay talks about designing textbooks that reflect the interests of the students in the country. But there are some obvious practical problems with designing a different textbook for every market. As Sandra Lee McKay herself is well aware, English is an International Language now, and the market is global. Textbook publishers want to design textbooks that can be sold in any country. (To be fair to Sandra Lee McKay, she does note this in passing).
* Sandra Lee McKay writes on page 81, "One of the primary functions of English, as is the case with any international language, is to enable speakers to share their ideas and culture."
I once heard a speaker at CAMTESOL express a similar sentiment--that the purpose of teaching our students English is not so that they can absorb Western culture, but so that they can communicate their own culture to a global audience.
Under the influence of that CAMTESOL talk, I designed the writing projects: Introduce Cambodia to the World, and A Day in the Life of a Typical Cambodian Student.
Chapter 5: Teaching Methods and English as International Language
* Much of this chapter overlaps with the TEFLology interview with Jennifer Jenkins.
* It's an interesting and complex issue, and I'll have to save my exhaustive thoughts on it for another day.
* When teaching English for Academic Purposes in Cambodia, one of the big struggles was not only grammar mistakes, but teaching the students how to structure their essays in the Western style. Whether or not students need to be taught this is one of the issues Sandra Lee McKay talks about in Chapter 3.
* When talking about discourse styles, Sandra Lee McKay questions whether students really need to be taught to discourse exactly like a native speaker.
Although I think I neglected to mention it in my review, this was a question I had frequently while reading Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers by Michael McCarthy. I kept thinking, "Yes, this is interesting, but do students really need to know this?"
Chapter 4: Culture in Teaching English as International Language
* In this chapter, Sandra Lee McKay talks about the problem of textbooks and teaching materials that are too focused on Britain and America, and so are alienating to the students.
She's not wrong about this. This can be a huge problem.
In Southeast Asia, textbooks published in Britain seem to dominate the market (for whatever reason). In the past, I've occasionally had to teach out of textbooks that were so heavily oriented towards British culture that even I as an American didn't fully understand it. I can only imagine how confusing they were to my Cambodian and Vietnamese students.
* That being said, I'm not overly enthusiastic about Sandra Lee McKay's proposed solution. She wants to include more materials about the local host country, or about other countries around the world.
My problem with this is that too many ESL textbooks already read like 4th grade geography textbooks. (Here is Sarah. She lives in this country. She likes to eat this food. Her people wear these clothes....). It just puts the students to sleep.
My preferred method of teaching is through narratives--get the students interested in some story (book or movie) and then pull the language out of that. I think that would be more interesting than all these dry social studies lessons that seem to populate ESL textbooks nowadays.
That being said, I suppose I should use books and movies from all over the world, not just from America.
For example, taking a bread from American movies to use Princess Mononoke in my classroom earlier this year was a good decision. (Despite the fact that, as I noted in the blog post, the English dub contained a lot of stilted and unnatural language).
Also, one of the things I remember from taking 8 Japanese students back to America is how fascinated they were by seeing manga in English in the bookstore. They were really interested to try to read their favorite manga in English.
Come to think of it, I'm the same way. I often try to study Vietnamese or Japanese not by seeking out authentic literature from the country, but by finding translations of my favorite American books.
* Sandra Lee McKay talks about designing textbooks that reflect the interests of the students in the country. But there are some obvious practical problems with designing a different textbook for every market. As Sandra Lee McKay herself is well aware, English is an International Language now, and the market is global. Textbook publishers want to design textbooks that can be sold in any country. (To be fair to Sandra Lee McKay, she does note this in passing).
* Sandra Lee McKay writes on page 81, "One of the primary functions of English, as is the case with any international language, is to enable speakers to share their ideas and culture."
I once heard a speaker at CAMTESOL express a similar sentiment--that the purpose of teaching our students English is not so that they can absorb Western culture, but so that they can communicate their own culture to a global audience.
Under the influence of that CAMTESOL talk, I designed the writing projects: Introduce Cambodia to the World, and A Day in the Life of a Typical Cambodian Student.
Chapter 5: Teaching Methods and English as International Language
* Much of chapter 5 in McKay's book relates to Russ Mayne's recent blogpost: New Oriental debate
* As Sandra Lee McKay notes, many Western educators are so attached to the Communicative Language Teaching method that they are not even open to a discussion about whether it is appropriate to all cultures.
I'm reminded of an interview episode of TEFLology with Adrian Holliday.
Adrian Holliday has an example of his own teaching days during the hey-day of audiolingualism, when a student asked him for a grammar explanation, and he told the student that this wasn't the way to learn English (because grammar explanations where frowned on in audiolingualism). Only much later in life did he realize that this wasn't an absolute fact of nature, but simply a reflection of the trends current in Western teaching methodologies at the time, and that it was wrong to just dismiss the learner's beliefs and assume we know better.
In general, I'm a fan of communicative language teaching, but I think it does have its weaknesses. I think that a broad passive understanding of the language should be built up before the learner is forced to produce, and I think in some CLT classrooms the learner is not given this silent period. It is in this respect that I think we may find in another 20 years that CLT was too dogmatic.
Other Notes and Addendum:
So, I've got a lot of opinions on this subject.I also have a lot of personal experience and anecdotes. (I've spent 8 years teaching English in Japan, 4 years in Cambodia, 2.5 years in Vietnam--plus I was part of an international graduate program in Melbourne).
To exhaustively write about all my thoughts, opinions, experience and anecdotes would be a huge undertaking. So I'm going to deliberately hold myself back here, and only make a few comments. I've got a lot more to say, but I'm going to try to be selective.
Who's Really in Control?
Much of Sandra Lee McKay's book seems to be based on the assumption that the teachers dictate the curriculum. If you change the attitude of the teachers, you can change the content of the classroom.
I've spent a good deal of my career working in private English schools (i.e. schools were students come in their free time and pay extra money for English lessons).
My experience in these private schools is that the concerns of the students, not the teachers, dictate a lot of the curriculum.
For example, in my current school, we spend a lot of time on pronunciation work not because the teachers enjoy doing it, but because the students demand it.
The desire for native speaker teachers also seems to be mostly student driven.
Globish
Globish: How English Became the World’s Language by Robert McCrum made it on to my 10 worst books list in large part because the author promised to take on the subject of English as an international language, and then completely ignored any analysis of how the language might change as it became more international.
I'm happy to report, however, that Sandra Lee McKay's book does not duck this challenge.
In other words, if you're interested in this topic, give Globish a pass, and pick up Sandra Lee McKay instead.
Video Review
Video Review Here and Embedded below
Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky: Is there Life After Capitalism?
I'm happy to report, however, that Sandra Lee McKay's book does not duck this challenge.
In other words, if you're interested in this topic, give Globish a pass, and pick up Sandra Lee McKay instead.
Video Review
Video Review Here and Embedded below
Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky: Is there Life After Capitalism?
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