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