A Short Comment After a Long Silence

Oh dear!

I feel like I'm a slice of ham in a sandwich.

Look at him! He is stuck between lettuce and cheese.
The cheese has melted and is holding him right. He can't even breathe from that side.

And, the lettuce.
It seems it's easy for him to push out the lettuce  and get fresh air. But when he tries, it's not that easy.

Why?

It's the margarine!
Margarine holds the lettuce so tight that he can't push it out.

What a strong magic that the sand-witch has!

Maybe I need to take a moment to find out what's left to be done to make the situation better. Favorably with a humming of some nice music.

Feeling of Complexity on a Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

I believe you all know the song "We wish you a Merry Christmas" but every time I hear this song, a question comes into my mind: who are "we" in this song?

I'm in Japan this Christmas, and I saw all the beautiful illuminations in every street.

Yes, Christmas is a very big event in This country, especially for children and young couples. 

Why? Very simple. Presents for kids, and beautiful dating places for couples. It's not really a family event in here.

Yeah, Japan is a mixed-cultural, multi-religious country.

But my question is, why we don't celebrate Buddah's birthday as much as we do for Christmas? Even though we are know as a Buddism country?

Well, enough for a beginning thought.

I had a Christmas party with my coworkers tonight, and on the way back home, I came across a situation which really made me question about what we can do for people.

I was taking trains on the way back home. As you may already know, The train system in Japan is very neat. Especially around Tokyo, there are train statins every 2 miles. Seriously.

And one of the unique phenomena we have at big stations is that there are homeless people sleeping there. They've got roofs there, and it's relatively warmer than sleeping at parks.

So, it's not unusual for me, actually, to see those people at big stations.

What was unusual for me today was that I saw more than 10 homeless people lined up and sleeping with carbons at one station.

Yeah, it's Christmas. They probably know it.

But they couldn't do anything other than sleeping there, hearing the steps and laughs of happy "usual" people.

Christmas.

People are happy, celebrating the special day.

But it was also a day which clearly brought up the absolute difference of the life standards existing in Japan.

What are those people thinking on this special night?

Who else would think about them on Christmas Day?

Maybe I'm a little too crazy.

But, what can I do as a Japanese to make this country a better place?

Just a little bit.

What can be done?

What can I do?

Or, what can't I do?

Maybe that can gie me more options.

At least, I'm writing this blog out of that question.

I really wish you, a Merry Christmas.

A way to live for people.

Live Like A Mirror.

If you are the sun, shining daytime,

I'll become the moon, sending your light to those who need it at night.

If you are the star, giving hope for future,

I'll become the wind to blow away the clouds.

If you are the bird, making the morning joyous and cheerful,

I'll become dew that makes your stage even more gorgeous.

If you are the light, shining others up,

I'll be the mirror that shines you up.

And when you walk,

I'll walk with you.

And, when you stop,

I'll stop with you.

Without a word,

I sense your mind.

Without a word,

I feel your heart.

That's the way I will live,

if you allow me to do for you.

365 Days of Feeling Happy and Grateful ~Day11-15~

Day 11: Say thank you to the bed.

We usually don't even think about the privilege of sleeping with a comfortable bed. However, if you have experienced overnight camping or overnight mega-bus trip, you know your sleep is as tough as the "bed". So, let's thank it when we get up :)

Day 12: Notice what rain gives us.

Do you like rainy days?
To me, many people don't like rainy days. Well, personally, I prefer sunny days, but the truth is that sunny days and rainy days are not good or bad by themselves. We just attach personal meanings to these days, and feel "Oh, gosh! It's raining!"
I'm not going to try to convince you not to dislike rain here. That's not my purpose. But, let's just feel what rain gives to us. After all, we can't live without rain!

Day 13: Reassure yourself that you are on the way you want.

Where are you heading physically, mentally, spiritually, in terms of relationship, friendship, etc.?
Stop your walk for a moment and check where you are again, and make sure you are going to the right direction :)

Day 14: Feel the beauty that you havent' noticed yet.

There is always things we don't see, and yet very beautiful. Ask yourself, "What other beautiful things do I have?" Take your time for yourself to care and praise him/her. What did you find?

Day 15: Dissolve yourself in silence.

Every moment, we're surrounded by sounds. Car horn, subway, rattle of windows, flip of paper, chatting, typing... Even when we're sleeping, we hear some sound. Let's take some time to find silence. Rest our ears and feel our consciousness melting into the silent world. I'm sure that'll give you a positive calmness.

365 Days of Feeling Happy and Grateful ~Day6-10~

Day 6: Close your eyes before and after you eat.

In Japan, we say "いただきます (itadakimas)" before we eat to thank nature, life, farmer, fisher, cook... for the food. We say "ごちそうさま (gochisousama)" when finishing eating to express thanks again. I really like these concepts.
Just take a moment, close your eyes, and feel this special event that keeps us connected to the world :)

Day 7: Have a morning walk :)

"No! I don't have time in the morning! I have to sleep!"
OK, but you can find one day just to wake up 15 minutes earlier than usual, right? You can't imagine how beautiful you feel the morning is. Just 15 minutes earlier than usual. Just one day, maybe on weekends :)
"Well, yeah, someday."
If you can do it someday, do it tomorrow morning! Or this coming Saturday! I promise that day will be WONDERFUL.

Day 8: Read books that you've been interested in :)

Many people have desires to learn more about what they are interested in; however, they usually dont' follow through. Well, reading books is an easy and fun start for your learning. It's fun because you're interested in that area! :)
Go to a bookstore or a library, and get a book in your band! Then, you just had the first and prospective steps!

Day 9: This day is for my poem :)



Day 10: Change your viewpoint.

Everyday, we see what we always see. Trees, cars, people, buildings... We feel that we see the same things; however, if we change our viewpoint (from where we look), we'll notice something new even when we're looking at the same thing. How cats see the world? What's under a bench?

365 Days of Feeling Happy and Grateful ~Day 1-5~

Day 1: Smile when you sleep :)

The creator gave us our life today. It's a very precious gift we have ever got. Let's feel the preciousness of our life, and praise our life when you sleep :)

Day 2: Feel the smell of flowers.

There are so many things we don't focus on in daily bases: smell is the one we usually miss. Stop your walk for a moment and take a deep breath. You'll be surprised by the beautiful smell of flowers around you.

Day 3: Listen to birds' tweets.

Morning tweets tell you that your new day is starting. Afternoon tweets tell you to get relaxed and smile. Night time tweets congratulate you on your day.
Bird tweets are cheerful and energetic. Let your body get their message :)
Don't focus only on people's "tweets" online!

Day 4: Absorb the energy from the sun.

Before you say, "It's too hot!" or "So much UV!", I want to get you recognize something. You might be right, but think about what the sun gives to the nature. It's the source of energy of living. All plants and animals cannot grow without the energy form the sun. It's what keeps you alive! So, take a moment and absorb the vitality which is a great gift for you.

Day 5: Notice the colors around you.

What's your favorite color? How many times do you recognize that color in a day? A lot? Not so much? If your answer is the latter, you may be just not conscious of them. Notice the colors around you. Our world is colorful, and so as your life :)

365 Days of Feeling Happy and Grateful ~announcement~

Almost three weeks ago, I decided to focus on one thing each day that makes me smile, feel happy, grateful, powerful, energetic, curious or some other good feelings I can have, and to post it on facebook each day with a photos and a little comments on it.

And, now, I thought myself "this can be a grate opportunity to share it on my blog as well :)". So, from today, I decided to post my daily little happiness from today :)


Since I already have three weeks of pictures, I post them in one page, and then, I will start my daily post from the day 22 :)

So, let me start this with you! ;)

The Dawn of The Soul

THE DAWN OF THE SOUL

Look up and see the color of air

Remember the warmth of hand of love

Wiping the drops of tear from fear

that robbed your heart of sense of self,

And giving a light in darkness of loss

that you never imagined of getting again.

The touch of joy that wakes you up

from dreams of peace, smile on your face

Tweets of birds, the voice of nature

The cry of birth, bright as Sun

Look up and see the color of air

That is where your soul belongs

The Power of Reflection

It is very easy to live our life.

However, it is very difficult to make it a good one.

We can easily live our life without consciousness on it.

Everyday, what we usually do is that we wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to work or school, do what we are supposed to do, have lunch, talk with friends, go back to work/study, talk with bosses and professors, go back home, have dinner, talk with family, watch TV, read books, go to bed, and go back to the very beginning of this cycle. It's pretty easy. However, if we want to focus on the meanings of what we have done, it becomes more difficult, and sometimes, even painful.

What did I eat for breakfast? What kind of feeling did I have while eating?
With what emotions did I go to work/school?

What did the things I did do for my life? What about for the world? How did I contribute? Did I contribute to something? What kind of feeling did I have while I was doing what I was supposed to do?

What did I learn from the conversations I had with my friends? What did they mean to my life?

How did I feel when I get back to my home?

What did TV and books mean to me?
Overall, what did I do today?

It might be surprising to realize how small a day is.

It may be even more surprising how less we are conscious of what we do, what we think, and what we feel in a day.

Even when we feel we learned a lot in one day, we can easily forget it if we don't look back and think about what we learned again.

It is in this sense that reflection is important.

What most people usually do not do is actually important. Most people usually do not reflect on themselves. Therefore, reflection is actually important.

I know this is false deduction, but it makes sense, doesn't it?

(Well, at least, it does for me!)

Reflection is powerful.

We can store what we learned in our brain longer and deeper.

We can find a different meaning by thinking after a period of cooling down the idea.

We can pay attention to what we think and be more conscious of ourselves.

It gives more meaning to each day.

If we keep what we reflect in a short paragraph, we can look back and track our thoughts.

Sometimes, me in the past teaches something important to the present me.

In order to become more conscious of our thoughts, our feelings, our words and our deeds, and in order to learn from them, I recommend to have time to reflect every day.

Even 5 minutes will change the quality of our life.

Reflection is that powerful.

小さな勇氣。Pray for Japan.

3.11 の地震から一年が経ちました。 

自分の周りにいる人達が、facebook や mixi にビデオをアップしたり振り返りをアップしているのを見ながら、「震災」に目を向ける勇氣をたった今まで出せずにいました。 

もしかしたら、心の準備はまだできていないかもしれない。 

自分ともう一度向き合って、一年前の震災のことを書くということは、すごく勇氣のいることだと、今、我が身で感じています。 

地震が起こった時は友達と東京に出ていました。 

「自分が大震災の中にいる」という感覚が大きく、自分の想像を遥かに超える環境にもたくさんの人がいるという事実が、映像では観ているけれど、それが脳に伝わって感覚されてはいない、そんな状態だったように思います。 

その後も度重なる停電、発電所の爆発、マスコミの報道、に囲まれ、義援金だ応援だと言いながら、自分の行動の限界に心の奥では納得できないままに時を過ごしました。 

夏には被災地を訪れました。 

５ヶ月後もくっきりと残る津波の爪痕を目の当たりにして、そこに立っている自分と向き合うことができず、ただただ重い心を引きずりながら帰ってきました。 

その後アメリカに移り、日本と離れた地で自分のできることと信じて作ったビデオレター。たくさんの心温まる出会いに、日本は独りじゃないということを身をもって感じさせてもらうことができました。 

それからというもの、人の「心」という存在と向き合おうとし続けてきました。 

幸せ、人生の成功、自身の価値。 

そういったことを勉強するにつれ、たくさんの人が自分の心と向き合い胸を張れる人生を作る、その支えになりたいと強く思うようになりました。 

しかし、それと同時に自分の心のもろさ、弱さも自分で痛いほどみえてくるようになりました。 

頼りなく、力なく、情けない自分。 

その脇で将来の希望に胸を高鳴らせ、将来を考えるたびに興奮を感じる自分。 

そんな、両極端とも言える二つの心が自分の中で存在しているということが、全体の自分の安定感を失わせるような感覚を持ちながら、長い時間を過ごしてきました。 

もしかしたら、一人の人間が幸せになるということは、全体からみると認知できない程小さな変化なのかもしれません。 

人の人生を豊かにしようという活動は、その認知できないほどの小さい変化をせっせせっせと生み出そうとする作業なのかも知れません。 

そう考えると、自分が将来にやりたいと考えていることが恐ろしく小さく、同時に限りなく無意味に近いことに思えてきてしまいます。 

最近、心の会話の回数が減りました。 

近くにそういう話を一緒にできる人が少ない環境なので、仕方のないことかもしれません。 

その分、自分との会話の回数は増えたように思います。 

けれど、どうやら自分と向き合いながら自分を信じ続けるというのは、なかなか難しいようです。 

きっと人は、自分以外の存在との関係があって初めて、自分を信じる力を強くすることができるのでしょう。 

あらためて、人は一人では生きられないという言葉の味を噛みしめています。 

震災から一年。 

まだ、自分達にできることはたくさんあるはずです。 

それを一人で探そうとするのは、途方もないことかもしれません。 

けれど、隣の人と手をつないで、そのまた隣の人と手をつないで、そうやって少しずつ心のつながりを広げていくことで、自分のできることを広げられるのかもしれません。 

そして、日本が、世界が大きなつながりになればなるほど、大きな希望と幸せと、喜びとを感じられるようになるのかもしれません。 

それを信じ続けながら、自分の可能性と向き合っていこうと思います。 

震災で亡くなった方々のご冥福を心よりお祈り申し上げます。 

そして、今もがんばっている日本の方々、世界の方々へ、心から応援申し上げます。

Things go on.

When confronting difficulties and you feel your life is very tough or you are disappointed at yourself, it may help to recognize that there is no permanent rainy day.

I know it's an old cliché, and I know you already know that.

But let's be careful about it. Knowing is pretty different from being able to put it into practice at the right moment.

I think we all have this experience, none the less, that when we are wondering about a problem and somebody's advice just hit our thought right, and after I while when you look back, it was something we already knew but we didn't come up with it at that moment.

Clues for problems always underlie something we already know consciously or unconsciously. Our world is quite simple if we see it in the simple way. But interestingly, we usually don't find the simple way to see the world, and instead of finding the simple, we spend plenty of time considering, wondering at, and sometimes suffering from it.

So, when we face difficulties, what shall we do?

Well, we know that the life never stops.

Then, how shall we put this into practice? In other words, how shall we apply this old cliché to overcome the difficulty?

One thing which I believe helps is not to worry as if you will worry about it forever.
People worry about things when they attack their lives. But the thing is, the very simple thing is, we don't have to worry when we don't have to worry. In fact, people have this predisposition to do nothing to face the difficulty but worry about it. However, if we think about it seriously, we will find that we are usually worrying about things which are already happened, or things which we cannot change.

In this sense, we are putting ourselves against the simple and the well-known fact: life goes on.

If we made a mistake in our job, let's think about how we can prevent from making the same mistakes in the future or how to compensate the mistake, instead of worrying about the cost of the mistake, how much you will be scold by your boss, or how long you will feel depressed.

Well, the truth is that it is very difficult to think in that way when you are in such a situation. But when you get into that situation, try to shift your mind out from your mind as if you were your best friend being beside you. What would you say to yourself?

Just, don't push yourself to think in a positive way unnaturally. It usually ends up with breaking your mind more or causing another problem. Just try to talk to yourself as if you were the third person.

And, remember, the life goes on.

Pray for Japan.

This is what I did and what I believe I can do for Japanese people after the earthquake and the tsunami on 3.11.

As a Japanese, I appreciate all of the warm heartedness from the people all over the world.

Hope you a Happy New Year :)

Pray for Japan from America (original)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScoU3p7lobE&feature=context&context=G203a8b6AUAAAAAAAAAA

Pray for Japan from America (English subtitle):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3m5Il5wcBg&feature=context&context=G203a8b6AUAAAAAAAAAA

Pray for Japan from America（日本語字幕）

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_yJF65XBzU&feature=g-upl&context=G203a8b6AUAAAAAAAAAA

Presentation at Three Rivers TESOL Conference

Today, I had a presentation in Three Rivers TESOL Conference at Pittsburgh, PA.

This was my first time to have presentation in a conference, so I was very worried about it, but thanks to all of my friends who supported me, and the participants in my presentation, I was able to manage this very challenging event.


Here's my slides.

I explained the problems which assistant language teachers (ALTs) in Japan are facing in their English classroom.

Second, considering these problems, I conducted an experimental research about the influence of conversation within authentic context, with the hope that having conversation with students can be one possible role for ALTs outside of the classroom.

Thirdly, I connected the results of the research to sociocognitive and sociocultural perspectives, to have possible implications for the future development of EFL/ESL classroom.

Where the life is gonna go. -1-

This is something not directly related to English education, but is something which will be more important when we involve in "teaching", so I post it here.

I decided to interview 100 people about what they think is the most important thing in life during my stay in America, and here's the story of my first interview.

~ ~ ~

I had my first interview of life with my friend and my conversation partner. He friendlily shared his story as well as his thought on the questions I asked him.

He studies International studies as his major in university, as well as Anthropology and Religious studies as his minor (he’s a double minor student). He is also interested in Asian studies. When I asked my first question, why he’s interested in these areas, he answered,

“Because I’m interested in the way people lived in the ancient times and how their ways influence our life today.”

I got interested in why he is interested in people and their way of living. I knew I was going to ask him a lot of “why” questions. He took a couple of seconds to think and said,

“It’s related to my half Lebanese background.”

Here came new information about him. I didn’t know that he has this background! He smiled and started to tell me his family’s story.

“My mom and my grandma cooked many ethnic dishes from there. We sometimes had family gathering with neighbors and had simultaneous dancing competition with Arabic music. Also, when I was little, my grandma told me a lot of Lebanese stories. Those stories made me interested in Lebanese culture and life there, and after that, I found it very interesting to learn and know different cultures even from areas which you don’t know where it is.”

He told me that he was tried to send his grandmother to Lebanon twice, because he intuitively recognized that it is very important to visit one’s genetic home. He, himself also wants to visit Lebanon, because that place is wired to his gene. He, then, told me that culture and history are strongly related with each other. He shared some stories which describe how strong culture oppressed, dominated and pushed out minor culture in history. That was very interesting, to tell the truth. I always like listening to stories from people who know better than me.

After the historical story, I asked him how he is going to connect his background and his study to the future. He told me about three things he wanted to do in the future. First one was Arabic translator, but he admitted that he felt it very tough to learn Arabic when he started, and gave up the first one. The second one was to work as a study abroad supporter. This was based on his own experience when he studied abroad in Spain.

The woman in the international office who was in charge of me was very nice. But, she didn’t contact me, and actually all the other students who were studying abroad at that time, even though she said she would do before we had left. I know people face culture shock and all the other difficulties when they go abroad, so I want to support them, and I will definitely contact them while they are there to help them with their problems.

After he told me the story, he stopped talking for a couple of seconds, and then, he started to talk about the third thing he wants to do.

And, actually, I want to be a massage provider. I want to provide people with holistic healing.

It reminded me of one martial art which I do, so I talked about it for a while. After that, I asked him a holistic question which is an important question in my interview: with a whole picture of your life from the past to the future, what are the important things for you? His answer reflected his character and background.

I think one thing which is very important for me is to do something good. For everybody. I want to be a study abroad supporter because I want to help people who suffer in cultural difference. I want to be a massager to heal people who need it. I want to help people, and have good influence on them.

I asked him another which I thought was realistic: what do you if you find that what you can do to help people is very limited, such as helping people in poverty in the world. You can’t help all of them, right? His answer was something I didn’t expected and therefore, very interesting.

From my philosophical view, what I can do is to hope. We have a very short time to exist in the world, but I believe everything is connected to where the world is gonna go. Even though I can’t have direct influence, hoping will connect to those people in some way.

This was enlightening for me, because I had never thought that even hoping will connect in some way. This was truly an eye-opener for me. He added one more important thing in his life.

Also, I believe that ideal will help. If you have something strong in your mind, it will help you when you face difficulties.

I thought his study about Socrates might have had influenced him to reach this answer. I don’t know. But in any cases, it is a very nice comment which I don’t think I can get from many people.

Finally, I asked him the question which is the purpose of my interview. What is the most important thing in life? He smiled and answered,

I think the most important thing in life is having an ideal. Having something to stand by. At the same time, once you get the ideal, it is very important to be open to other ideas. People think differently, and the conceptual thoughts differ. It is possible and probable that your ideal or belief is different from those of other people’s. In that case, you cannot neglect or discard the other ideas. You have to stay open to them.

Have ideal and be open to other ideas. Those are the most important things in life.

Article Summary 2: World Englishes and English as a Lingua franca

I read this article “Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca”  by Jenkins (2006) in order to present the idea of this article in class. This article provides us with varieties of views on World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca, and I enjoyed reading it, so I put it here just to share with more people.

Summary

This article explores recent research in World Englishes (WEs) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), as well as examines the definitions of WEs and WLF, from the standpoint which equalize them with native speakers’ English, and accepts, rather than rejects, these new varieties of of English in the field of TESOL. This article is composed of four parts : definition of WEs and ELF, review of relevant research, implications for TESOL language standard, and assessment of consensus on WEs and ELF.

Firstly, it provides three definitions of WEs, asserting that there is little confusion among them. It defines ELF, on the other hand, with relevance to English as an International Language (EIL), and World Standard (Spoken) English (WS(S)E), with emphasis on its pluricentricity and intelligibility among non-native speakers. Secondly, it provides an overview of recent development in WEs and ELF with the views of corpus study, WEs variety, nativised and mother tongue English,  and anti-imperialism and anti-hegemony, concluding that WEs and ELF can no longer be considered as optional extras. It also pays close attention on some key research, which is about SLA, challenges against linguistic imperialism, and ELF lexicogrammar. Thirdly, it discusses  “ownership of English” (Widdowson, 1994), and concluded that teachers and students have to accommodate other varieties of English into their multilingual classroom, as well as the teachers have to construct appropriate methodology in different contexts of language learning and use. Finally, it assesses the consensus on intelligibility of WEs/ELF, as well as the ling between language and identity, awareness raising and testing of WEs/ELF, suggesting researcher to find ways of bringing WEs and ELF together in their interest.

More tips for the details

1. Definition of World Englishes (WEs) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

   1.1. WEs   1: English as an “umbrella label” covering all varieties

                    2: The so-called new Englishes. Nativised, indigenised, institutionalized
                        Englishes.

                    3: English associated with Kachru’s pluricentric approach.

“pluricentric approach”: means that there are several global centers, native and non-native, each with
                                    its own standard variety of English. (Jenkins, 2009, p.70. Extracted from a blog)

“pluricentric language”: language with several standard versions, both in spoken and in written forms. (wikipedia)

   

   1.2. ELF = English as an International Language (EIL) / World Standard (Spoken) English 
                      (WS(S)E)?

        1.2.1. EIL: 1. “it suggests that there is one clearly distinguishable, codified, and unitary
                               variety called International English, which is certainly not the case”
                               -Seidlhofer (2004)

                          2. English which “refer[s] to the use of English as a means of
                              international communication across national and linguistic boundaries.

        1.2.1. WS(S)E: a hypothetical, monolithic form of English

                                “single monochrome standard form” - Quirk (1985)

        1.2.1. ELF: Pluricentric. English which is pluricentric in that it is based on local 
                           norms.

                           Use/intelligibility. English which are widely used and widely intelligible
                           across groups of English speakers from different first language
                           backgrounds.  
       

As far as ELF interactions are concerned, any participating mother tongue speakers will have to follow the speakers will have to follow the agenda set by ELF speakers, rather than vice versa.

2. Overview of relevant research

  2.1. General Overview

• Corpus studies including outer and expanding circles. cf. ICE, VOICE
• Dictionaries and grammars of different Englishes. cf. The Macquarie Dictionary (1997)
• A variety of WEs, such as Asian, China, Japanese, European, and Latin American English.
• Nativised and mother tongue Englishes
• Anti-imperialistic and anti-hegemonic view of WEs

      WEs and ELF can no longer be considered optional extras. 

 2.2. Key research and controversies

       2.2.1. Interlanguage (IL) v. WEs/ELF

                 IL theory claims that a second language speaker’s competence lie between L1
                 and L2. However, it ignores the local Englishes’ sociohistorical development
                 and sociocultural context, as well as their hybrid English speaker identities.

       2.2.2. Agains linguistic imperialism

                 Canagarajah (1999) challenged and resisted linguistic imperialism, claiming the 

                 importance of local use of English. “Native-speakerist” element. which was lead
                 from linguistic imperialism should be reduced from teaching materials.

       2.2.3. Lexicogrammar of ELF

                 Seidlhofer (2004) worked on the potential salient features of ELF lexicogrammar
                 and found nine features which are unproblematic to communicative success. On
                 the other hand, ELF writing features are highly controversial.

3. Implications for TESOL language standard

Standard English is extremely difficult to define. How teachers and students accommodate other varieties of English into their multilingual classroom is very important.

There is still heavy bias toward standard American or British English in terms of what Widdowson (1994) calls ownership of English. This challenge will be translated into appropriate methodology (Holliday, 1994) for learners in different contexts of language learning and use.

4. Assessment of consensus on WEs and ELF

Teachers and their learners need to learn not English, but about Englishes, their similarities and differences, issues involved in intelligibility, the strong ling between language and identity, and so on.

Pluricentric approach would enable each learner’s and speaker’s English to reflect his or her own sociolinguistic reality, and to raise awareness of the diversity of English. It is also important for  speakers of WEs and ELF to adjust their speech in order to be intelligible to interlocutors form a wide range of L1 backgrounds.

Testing of WEs/ELF will involve both devising the means to distinguish between learner error and local variety, and finding ways of identifying accommodation.

Researchers need to find ways of bringing WEs and ELF together in recognition of their shared interests, whatever their circle or research focus. 

The Best Language Teacher: Reflection on Postmethod Pedagogy and Humanizing Pedagogy

Imagine that you are in an language classroom in a high school, learning a new language.

Who do you expect to be the best teacher for you? A native speaker of that language? Or, local teacher who speak the same language as yours?

In the field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), this question has been a very controversial issue.

Historically speaking, it used to be native speakers that were considered to be the best teachers. It was conspicuous especially around the World War, because the language teaching model came from the background where perfectly correct grammar and native-like pronunciation were required for espionage. The method at that time was called audiolingual method. Then, after the War ended and the world economics became international, people started to use many varieties of Englishes which are distant from the perfect English. Therefore, people started to concentrate more on communication, and to accept many varieties as well. This was called communicative language teaching CLT.

CLT was a great hit for ESOL teachers, since the learners were supposed to achieve high proficiency of communication after a set of education through it. However, it turned out to be that CLT was less effective than their expectation, simply because they considered it as a "one-size-fits-all" methodology which can be used everywhere in any context. So, at the end of 20th century, it was said that methodologies died, because they do not work.

However, it was not these methodologies that was wrong; it was the way of application for language classrooms. After the reflection on this expanded mistake, researchers proposed many approaches for better language teaching. One example is Kumaravadivelu's (2001) "postmethod pedagogy" which focuses more on the sociocultural aspects involving in language learning.

The postmethod utilizes three parameters to visualize the concept of teaching: particularity, practicality, and possibility. He also developed ten pragmatic strategies, called macrostrategies, based on the three parameters (2003). These parameters and macrostrategies stand upon the perspective that sociocultural aspects influences the learners' language proficiency so that the whole acquisition process becomes sociocognitive.

Another example is Bartolome's (1994) implication for humanizing pedagogy. In her research, she aims for politically clear teaching, which requires teachers to recognize and value subordinated students' existing knowledge, culture, and experience, and to create learning context where power is equalized between the teachers and the students. The same as Kumaravadivelu's postmethod pedagogy, understanding sociocultural factors are the prerequisite to realize this pedagogy in language classroom.

Now, let's go back to the first question. Who should be the best language teacher? In audiolingual method, it was obviously native speakers of the target language, since they have the intuitive knowledge of the language, which, ipso facto, creates the language. In CLT, it can be non-native speakers, but still, native speakers were preferred to some extent, since again, they have the perfect linguistic skills of the language which lead learners to better communication. In the last two pedagogy, however, non-native speakers may be preferred since they have been exposed to socially and culturally diverse experiences which have influenced their language learning, and these experiences of their own can be developed into personal methodologies that suit each teacher's particular learners in particular context. Of course, native speakers of the target language can be a good teacher when s/he has different language experiences and/or understands social and cultural factors that influence the language leaning.

Integrating all of the ideas above, the BEST language teacher for today (in globalized period when English achieved the position of international language), is who has a rich variety of language experiences, social and cultural understanding of language learning, and great amount of linguistic knowledge, if not as perfect as native speakers, as well as sociolinguistic knowledge and other knowledge of language usa and acquisition. Language teachers must be confident and competent in their linguistic/sociocultural experiences.

References

B. Kumaravadivelu (2001). Toward a Postmethod Pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 35(4). pp537-560.

B. Kumaravadivelu (2003). Critical Language Pedagogy. A postmethod perspective on English language teaching. World Englishes, 22(4). pp539-550.

L., I. Bartolome (1994). Beyond the Methods Fetish: Toward a Humanizing Pedagogy. Harvard Education Review. 64, 2. ProQuest Education Journals. p173

World Englishes and ESL/EFL Pedagogy

After the expansion of English through all over the world, varieties of "world Englishes" emerged. Those "Englishes" are differ in terms of pronunciation, because the speakers of these "Englishes" have different mother tongues which affect their "Englishes". This trend projects a new problematic issue in English learning field:

Should the target be "standard English" (English uttered from native speakers)? Or are "World Englishes" acceptable for the goal for pronunciation? Should they be a goal or a norm?



In the last blog post, I summarized a study related to this topic, which shows that EFL learners are positive to accept their accents (or their type of "English") as long as they can communicate with others through their English.

However hard we try to discard prejudice on "world Englishes" and to accept those varieties, however, there still remain some perceptional differences on "standard English" and varieties of "Englishes". There is an interesting video about this issue. Let's see how your impression on the guy changes between the beginning and the end of this video.

Honestly speaking, my impression on this guy changed after he showed his English without any accent. I did not (or tried not to) have any bad impression on his English with accent, but I got more positive impression after he revealed the secret.

I have to admit that there are still something in my mind that makes me feel that "standard English" is better than other "Englishes", even though I try to be neutral on them. And, there are many people who have the "uh-oh" feeling toward these varieties.

Why so?
Is it because America, the largest English speaking country, has the strongest economical, political and military impact on the world? Can it not be replaced to other varieties? What are the roles of "standard English" in pedagogic context?



My consideration on this issue in pedagogical field is that EFL/ESL teachers should set native English as a model, but should also accept the varieties depending on their pronunciation ability.
Additionally, teachers need to lead learners to a certain level so that they can make themselves understood in their own "Englishes". In other word, teachers need to help learners make their "Englishes" part of their identities. Only after they earn confidence on their "Englishes" through communication, can they create their own identities with the English, and these will help them accept their own and others' "Englishes" without feeling much inferiority. These identities will enable them to speak out confidently in this globalized world, even under "uh-oh" situation.

Summary of an Article: Native Speaker Norms and China English

He, D. & Zhang, Q (2010). Native Speaker Norms and China English: From the Perspective of Learners and Teachers in China. TESOL Quarterly. 44(4)

Based on a qualitative and quantitative research, this article shows how Chinese students and teachers perceive "China English" in pedagogical context. At the beginning, it provides three models of English as an international language: na native speaker model, a nativised model, and a lingua franca model. These models being applied, they started conducting the research on the pedagogical model of English in China, with focusing on grammar and pronunciation.

The research was conducted with 820 students whose major is not English, and 210 English teachers from four universities in China. Distribution of the subjects on the factors such as gender, grade, age, and their major are considered so that the study can attain object results. Questionnaire survey, matched-guise technique (MGT), and focused interview were adopted for the research.

From the results of the three methods, it was revealed that both university students and teachers consider English as a means of communication, so they accept the China English in terms of pronunciation. Also, their perception on "China English" pronunciation was far from negative, though it was significantly lower than those on "Native-like English". At the same time, however, it turned out that they have different view on grammar, since less subjects accepted the "China English" grammatical features. This was because they assume that if they have more knowledge of grammar, they can communicate more fluently.

Reflecting all the result, the authors concluded that "teaching of college English in China should still adopt Standard Englishes as the teaching model" because of its social-cultural richness. At the same time, they showed one comment on the questionnaire: "we can also accept students' Chinese way of English speaking", since "it is really hard for them to speak English totally free from the cross-linguistic influences of the Chinese language." Lastly, they acknowledged that further research for specification of the pronunciational and grammatical features for "China English" is needed for deeper understanding of this issue.

Why do you study English? - A thought from an EFL context.

There is an obvious universal change in the field of language education since the globalization has begun:  a great emphasize on English is observed in more and more countries all over the world. And now, it has earned a universal agreement that English is the most expanded international language, and therefore, people need to learn it in order to survive economically or politically among this globalized society.

At the same time, however, there has been a critical question from people themselves, who learn English: "Why do we have to learn English?".

These two critical and controversial facts; global agreement upon English as an international language, and a displeasure from people at required (or rather, forced!) English learning, have always been in my mind while I was learning and considering English education. But recently, something has changed in my mind.

Before I start talking about the change, I have to mention English education in Japan.

In Japan, English, as a foreign language, is a required class from fifth grade to ninth grade, followed by three years at high school, and even some more classes at a college/university. For years, however, this long period of study is conceived to be ineffective, since even after a long period of studying English, learners do not pick up many expressions to speak, have only limited reading proficiency, do not understand what a native speaker says in a daily life, and cannot write academic paper. 

Therefore, they ask, "Why are we learning English? It's so ineffective and even unnecessary for our lives!" Controversially, however, they still agree with the idea that English is an international language, and they claim English be a necessity in this globalized world.

Rather, they perceive English as a panacea for their successful life; they admire or sometimes turn envious eyes to people who speak fluent English, even when those people are native speakers of English! Is this really what it should be? - I don't think so.

This jealousy-like feeling toward English and hopeless sigh on Japanese's poor English proficiency are not admirable. Therefore, I persuaded myself, as a future English teacher, as "OK. I'm gonna teach English in Japan. People might think it unnecessary to learn English for use as long as they live their life in Japan, but I do believe English is an international language which do have great impact on Japan's economics and politics, therefore, in order to widen the opportunity for my students to notice this critical need of English, and to enlarge their chance to be more successful in the future, I must teach English." This was my thought upon English education in Japan. 

This thought was rigid and persuasive for me,  so I sticked to it for a while; however, my classmate in TESOL class did change this thought.

He mentioned that all English learners are respected in his country, because English is an economically, politically and scientifically, powerful language all over the world.

My point here is that he did not say "all English speakers", but "all English learners". I see underlying philosophy of learning in his country, that is to say, all learners can be successful as long as they keep trying for it.

This is beautiful. This is something we cannot find in Japan. People do not see things in this way. Instead, they think that English is very hard and therefore many of them give up, or become pessimistic about successful future with English.

It might be because they are all aiming at perfect English, not available one for them. It might be because English and Japanese are linguistically distant. However, to some extent, we have forgot very important facts; we should respect all learners, not just fluent speakers of English; and we should have a strong belief in our mind, that when we do our best to learn English, the effort should be rewarded someday.

English speaks a lot for me.
What does it do for you?

Consideration on Life after a terrorist's death.

People shouting for their victory with full of excitement and joy on their faces.

This charmingly-seeming picture caught my eyes when I scrolled the New York Times website, the day before yesterday. It seemed a happy news until I read the headline of the News: Announce of Bin Laden's death - I actually don't remember the exact headline, but it was like this.


The picture drove me to consider human life. Why these people cried out for excitement of a person's death?
Osama Bin Laden was the head of Al Qaeda, which attacked the world trade center, causing the horrible disaster, 9.11. I understand why people wanted to cry out for the death of the terrible terrorism group's leader, and, I always lose my words when I think about those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I cannot feel the sorrow and lament of the relatives of the victims exactly the same way as they do. I feel vary sad when thinking about them, and get compassion for them, but I cannot feel the depth of their sadness. Therefore, tried to imagine what they feel, and don't want to spoil their feelings by write critically on this matter. Nevertheless, I felt something different when I saw the picture, and I think that is important.

Are these people seem excited for a person's death?
It was very hard to explain what I felt, and is still difficult, but I am sure I didn't feel the same way as the people in the picture did. Did Bin Laden's life deserve nothing but to die? Are we really happy for his death? I doubt it. At least, I don't think it's an appropriate reaction to get excited and cry out for happiness for his death.

I doubt if people in that picture cared that CIA was once financially assisted Bin Laden when the Soviet war in Afghanistan. American government have claimed that they needed to fight against bad when they fight for conflicts or wars. They are not wrong, but what I cannot neglect is that they fight against bad only when it's good for American politics. Noam Chomsky wrote more specifically with critical view about America's irrational fights in history, on his book "9-11"(2001). Do the people care or consider these facts and still get excited about Bin's death? Or do they feel happy because the leader of the murderer group got killed? Oh, wait ! 21 century is not the time like people all feel happy with an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Code of Hammurabi was for 3500 years ago. It's out of date!


What I want to express here is not any criticism of America, or the people in the picture; what I want to say is that I doubt that excitement or happiness is the right feeling to have even when facing a death of a horrible terrorist. I don't want to believe that people are that cold. There must be things we must do other than get excited with the news. There are people who still cry for their relatives who got killed by terrorists. And, there are many innocent people who cannot sleep because of the fear of bombs and bullets for conflicts. There are people who need help to find food for tomorrow and shelter for tonight. There are tons of people who need help to live their lives.
 Only one person cannot change the whole world, but each of us can think of those who suffering. We might not save them, but we can pray for them with clean mind. We might not be able to achieve world's peace and happiness with relatively small number of our friends,  but we can care for other people and achieve a small happiness and peace for today. We can appreciate our lives, make one more smile than yesterday, believing that it will spread from people to people, and one day in the future, that smile reach the suffering people for who we pray today.