#ESL – Educational Sociolinguistics

Multilingual South Africa and ESL

Di Niu

“Permeable walls” are installed in the classroom (Pennycook, 2021). Permeability can be seen in the transmission of information between classrooms and the outside world. What is transmissible is not only information but also the consequences of these interconnections between inside and outside classrooms, particularly from the perspective of educational sociolinguistics. As a result, language policies and their implementations should be linked between the scenarios of permeable classrooms and the world outside. This “from the top down”—or, more precisely, local classroom-based vision—helps to establish effective language policy (Pennycook, 2021).

South Africa, with its multilingualism, can serve as an example. Historically speaking, Afrikaans, like English, is an imposed language spoken by millions of South Africans, and its influence can be seen in daily life. In this case, bilingualism may not be sufficient to depict the linguistic environment in South Africa because other local languages exist. That is why multilingualism helps to explain the South African language environment.

In order to gain a better understanding of South Africa’s multilingual context, it is necessary to put Afrikaans and English in a sociocultural context. There could be a special platform of daily life that reflects interactions between English and other languages (Kamwangamalu, 2007). When deciding whether to use English or Afrikaans, this model can be helpful. Local language policy, it could be argued, is also attempting to strike a delicate balance between the two, and a number of policies correspond with South Africa’s cultural background.

Classrooms, according to Pennycook (2021), are “dynamic spaces” that are linked to what happens in the outside world. From this perspective, South Africa’s social transformation resonates with the “Afrikaans-ESL” context. It means that the importance of English has been emphasized since the country’s globalization. Young people, in particular, may have discovered a new balance in South Africa’s multilingual context. Meanwhile, economic development promotes the use of English on a regular basis. As a result, there is a generation gap in the way Afrikaans and English are used. This phenomenon is miraculous because there is such harmony in the coexistence of English and its multilingual setting. The challenge for teachers, however, is to convey to students the message of “Afrikaans-ESL balance.” This task is not easy, and it is accompanied by multiple answers as well as student feedback. How can local governments in South Africa identify the key points in conflicts between English and other languages and then design a language policy to address these issues?

Furthermore, we must also mention South Africa’s ongoing racial and ethnic conflicts. Similarly, Pennycook has interpreted Canagarajah’s context in Sri Lanka to mean that classrooms should have “relative autonomy.” Despite social instability, classrooms continue to provide students with educational opportunities. This context also creates a new platform for local language policymakers to rethink how to improve existing language policies. If the language policy is successful in assisting people in finding a balance between English and other languages, it will also contribute to social and economic stability. Language is mobile, so it can integrate at different levels of society, effectively addressing language issues. Hence, I believe that South Africa is an excellent case study for studying the interactions between English and the multilingual environment. It may not be easy to address all of these issues at first, but it must eventually find a viable solution in the face of these conflicts.

In conclusion, the example of ESL and multilingual South Africa provides a new platform for rethinking the issue of English and the local multilingual context. Conflicts and beneficial interactions will continue. However, it is through this investigation that local language policymakers should be able to find better solutions, with a particular emphasis on this “from top to bottom” model—or, more precisely, this local sociolinguistics-based insight (Pennycook, 2021). The classroom is not an isolated place, but sufficiently permeable to absorb interactions from the world outside.

Question:
Can you think of any other examples similar to “multilingual South Africa and ESL”?

Reference

Barkhuizen, G. P., & Gough, D. (1996). Language curriculum development in South Africa: What place for English?. TESOL quarterly, 30(3), 453-471.

Kamwangamalu, N. M. (2007). One language, multi‐layered identities: English in a society in transition, South Africa. World Englishes, 26(3), 263-275.

Pennycook, A. (2021). The politics of language pedagogy (Chapter 6). In A. Pennycook (author). Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Re-introduction. Routledge.

Becoming a Language Ethnographer

Michelle Lefebvre

I was recently reading an article about code-meshing when I came across this piece of advice: “Become a language ethnographer: Complete a neighborhood walk and document the multiple languages in your school community” (Zapata & Laman, 2016, p. 368).

This article describes several classrooms where teachers encourage their students to use all of their languages. To do this, these teachers bring in dual language books and invite members of the community to give presentations to the class in different languages. The authors argue that this inclusive approach better reflects how students use language and that students are more engaged in literacy tasks when they are able to use language creatively in order to express themselves (Zapata & Laman, 2016).

The authors of this article suggest that if teachers want to adopt this kind of approach, becoming a language ethnographer might be helpful. Personally, I think they’re right. Surely knowing more about the languages spoken in my community will make me a more effective, democratic teacher.

While I’m not currently teaching in a school I do hope that one day I will be able to enact this kind of approach. Plus it’s sunny and I’ve been cooped up all day, so I’m setting off to find out which languages (besides English and French) are represented in my neighbourhood.

The first thing I noticed was that this was kind of hard; there are a lot of languages in my neighbourhood and I didn’t recognize some of them. But, with the help of Google translate, here is what I found:

On a Covid-19 public health information poster, I saw Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Yiddish, and Persian.
I saw many signs written in Malayalam and Tamil on South Indian restaurants and grocery stores. I also saw Tamil on the signs of a jewelry store and a salon.
The sign outside of a synagogue was written in Hebrew.
Inside a supermarket, I found signs and labels written in Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Chinese.
The sign on a grocery store was written in Russian.

I think that being more aware of the languages in my neighbourhood could be the first step in building a bridge between the community culture and the school culture.

So, are you ready to become a language ethnographer? Do you think it provides teachers with useful information? What impact could incorporating elements of students’ cultural backgrounds in the classroom have?

Reference

Zapata, A., & Laman, T. T. (2016). “I write to show how beautiful my languages are”: Translingual writing instruction in English-dominant classrooms. Language Arts, 93(5), 366-378.

Tomeito or Tomahto－Is the Accent Vital for English Learners?

Kathy

The first experience of ordering an omelet in an American cafeteria a few years ago still remains fresh in my memory. I said to the staff “Hi! I’d like to get an omelet with two eggs, some spinach, onions, and tomatoes, please.” The staff added all the ingredients in turn, except for tomatoes. I thought he might not hear me clearly, so I repeated again, “and some tomatoes, please.” He reacted for a while, and then “corrected” me, saying that “oh, you mean tomato (təˈmeɪtəʊ). It’s not tomato (təˈmɑːtəʊ).” I was a little embarrassed at that moment, and truly experienced the influence of accent in actual communication.

Image for post — Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@traveltilithurts/america-101-a-global-accent-392c1ca5909e

Looking back on the English education I have received in China, it is actually a mixture of British English and American English, which is reflected in English textbooks, English accents spoken by teachers, and English assessments. Which accent students are more inclined to imitate and learn mainly depends on our personal preferences and external influences (such as movies and TV dramas) we are exposed to. But there is no doubt that in China, compared to other accents of English, “British accent” and “American accent” are the most standard, most worthy of learning, and the most respected accents in the public mind. Mainstream social platforms, news media, teaching materials, and educational institutions all imprint this concept into the hearts of English learners and their parents. This status quo also echoes the idea that the prestige of a language is generally associated with a particular social or regional group. It is only as that group rises in power or status that its language acquires a glow of respectability, or correctness (Van Herk, 2018, p.52).

Accents can be sorted into two different categories, those are native accents and non-native accents (Magalhães,2019). Is it crucial to master a standard/native-like accent for non-native English learners? In my opinion, the answer to this question is not absolute, and I would like to analyze it from multiple and dialectical perspectives.

First, the accent is less important than intelligibility and comprehensibility. The rubrics for language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and CEFR has shifted from having “as a native speaker” to words like “fluently and precisely.” Therefore, in ensuring that their accents do not affect normal communication and comprehension, students should spend more time on improving the content, coherence, and fluency of their oral expression. Besides, being caught in a whirlpool of worrying too much about whether their English accents meet the standard may drive students to feel self-abased, producing resistance to participating in English communication.

More importantly, excessive emphasis on the British accent or the American accent as the standard accents that learners should learn will deepen people’s discrimination, stereotype, and prejudice against different accents, which is a problematic issue happening more frequently to people with other L1 accents. Besides, another controversial point about “native-like accent” is that even within the United States or Britain, the accent of each region is pretty diverse.

On the other hand, increasing second language learners acceptance of their accent as a representation of their identity and a window to show their cultures is a good thing. From a certain point of view, such a statement can be reasonable, but it can also be seen as a way of self-comfort and self-evasion. Because it is difficult or even impossible for many English learners to master the so-called native-like or standard accents without going through a “hellish process”. Based on the concept of neuroplasticity, the critical period hypothesis proposed that phonology is most affected by sensitive periods (Ortega, 2009), explaining why children will pick up the native-like pronunciation of a second language more easily than adult learners (Magalhães,2019). Even though both native and foreign accents can change even during adulthood, a native accent is easier to change whereas most researchers agree that acquiring a native-like accent of a second language as an adult is nearly impossible (Magalhães,2019). As foreign accents may arise “not because one has lost the ability to learn to pronounce, but because one has learned to pronounce the L1 so well (Ortega,2009, p.22).”

Correspondingly, it is understandable that most English learners have an accent and have to accept it. But in my opinion, having an authentic accent is the icing on the cake for English learning. At least it is something that English teachers should try to improve through continuous practices of input and output, considering the huge student population we are facing or will face in the future.

1. How to define and differentiate between “accent” and “pronunciation”; “accent problem” and “pronunciation errors”? (As it is mentioned by Van Herk (2018, p.15) that accent is a word that linguists reserve to describe pronunciation.)

2. As an ESL or EFL teacher, how would you respond when a student asks how to pronounce a more authentic/native-like accent? How would you teach students’ pronunciation or give students what kind of advice? For example, if you notice that students confuse the sound /th/ and /s/ in their pronunciation, will you point it out and help them “correct such problems”?

3. How do you perceive accent-based discrimination and its effects on the society? (eg. work arena and classroom) What are the social responsibilities English teachers have to erase this prejudice?

More related information and opinions can be found in the following websites: https://unbabel.com/blog/language-foreign-accents-discrimination/

https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-accent-and-vs-pronunciation/

References

Magalhães, R. (2019, June 25). Accent discrimination: let’s call the whole thing off. Understanding with Unbabel. https://unbabel.com/blog/language-foreign-accents-discrimination/

Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition (Ser. Understanding language series). Hodder Education.

Van Herk, G. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? (Second, Ser. Linguistics in the world). John Wiley & Sons.