Asian English Language Classrooms

Where Theory and Practice Meet

Handoyo Widodo, Alistair Wood, Deepti Gupta, Handoyo Puji Widodo, Alistair Wood, Deepti Gupta

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317626527
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

The teaching of English in the Asian context is always challenging and dynamic because both teachers and learners have diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Equally important, where English is not widely used outside the classroom, English language classrooms are an authentic site of learner engagement. For these reasons, for all those concerned with contemporary English language teaching (ELT) in Asia, Asian English Language Classrooms: Where Theory and Practice Meet, provides an account of theoretical orientations and practices in the teaching of English to multilingual speakers whose primary language is not English. While covering the fundamental ELT areas (e.g., the teaching of language skills, educational literature, the use of technology in ELT, the role of pragmatics in ELT, social psychology of the language classroom, and language classroom management) with which every language teacher and teacher trainer must be concerned, this volume showcases how particular orientations shape ELT practices. We believe that practicing English teachers must have a heightened awareness of the theory behind their practice. At the same time, the theoretical stance must be firmly anchored in actual classrooms. Containing newly commissioned chapters written by well-regarded and emerging scholars, this book will appeal not only to beginning teachers or teachers in training but also to established teachers around Asia where English is used as a lingua franca. If you are a student teacher of English or an English teacher who would like to see what other progressive teachers like you are doing across Asia, this is the book you have been looking for.

1 Introduction

Re-contextualizing English language teaching in Asia today

Handoyo Puji Widodo, Alistair Wood, and Deepti Gupta

As echoed in the special issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multilingual Development, The Power of English and the Power of Asia: English as Lingua Franca and in Bilingual and Multilingual Education, Asia is a potential market for English language education inasmuch as English language teaching (ELT) industries have been burgeoning for a number of reasons. To begin with, “the number of [non-native Asian speakers] has already surpassed that of native speakers, if we count the number of people who use English as a second and foreign language” (Cheng, 2012, p. 327). At this point, it seems fair to say that regardless of the socio-political status of English, Asia has the largest number of English speakers in the world. This can be a motivation for Asian learners of English to become users of the language. Southeast Asian (e.g., Singapore) and East Asian countries (e.g., China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), the fastest growing regions, are key players in Asia’s economic, cultural, and educational developments in today’s world. In this respect, English plays various roles in Asia, such as an official or semi-official language, a lingua franca, a medium of instruction, and a school subject. For example, because each of the Asian nations uses different official languages, English enjoys the status of being both a lingua franca (when communicating with Asian fellows across the region) and the sole official working language used by organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This shows that English is increasingly becoming the language of Asia that enables Asians to communicate with one another. From time to time, Asian countries seek to make “determined and focused efforts to establish cadres of competent users of English in education, commerce and culture” (Kirkpatrick & Sussex, 2012, p. 3). This indicates that Asian countries would like their citizens to be part of the global community of practice. In recent times, these countries have been key players in language education because more and more Asians are competent users of the language who can be role models for English language learners (ELLs).

In many Asian contexts, socio-politically, English is still often seen as a ‘foreign’ language in formal school and university curricula. Because of the role of English as a lingua franca in Asia, English should be viewed as an additional language, or teachers should re-contextualize what the learning of English as a foreign and second language means to ELLs, because the learning of English is viewed as an instrumental vehicle or investment in building and maintaining social relationships and transnational collaboration, bridging transnational communication, mediating social and economic mobility, and facilitating international cultural and educational exchanges among others. What makes the teaching and learning of English in Asia unique is that most of the ELT programs are situated in multilingual and multicultural settings, which make such practices a site of struggle among ELLs. In this multilingual context, it is a common phenomenon that code-mixing and code switching commonly take place inside and outside the language classroom. These code-mixing and code-switching practices serve as “a natural and creative strategy and identity marker for multilingual users of English” (Kirkpatrick & Sussex, 2012, p. 2). Additionally, years of our teaching in Asia have witnessed the fact that designing and implementing ELT practices are always challenging, because many such practices are socially sited in geographic domains where English is not widely used in daily social encounters. What seems to be interesting in this context is that the teaching of English co-exists with that of other languages ranging from local languages to national or official languages. ELT in this regard aims to bridge a connection among Asian countries “[g]iven the diversity of official languages and sociolinguistic profiles among [Asian countries]” (Kam, 2002, p. 2). Even though each of the Asian countries “had its own special reasons for teaching English in the early days, the language is now spreading in the region for largely pragmatic reasons” (Kam, 2002, p. 2). The growing needs for teaching English are driven by a widespread use of the language in academic (e.g., overseas studies, international academic exchange programs), professional (e.g., overseas job placement), occupational (e.g., working as a nurse abroad), and survival (e.g., immigrant workers) settings.

In recent years, though, Western scholars have dominated much of the work on methodology in ELT. More and more work on ELT practices in the Asia region is beginning to be well represented or reported. There is a growing realization throughout the continent that English is an Asian language, yet pedagogical approaches and practice are still too often not rooted in the Asian context. To fill this need, this volume, Asian English Language Classrooms: Where Theory and Practice Meet, aims to explore different theoretical stances and practices of ELT in the region and to bring about a synthesis of what works best in contemporary English language pedagogy in Asia. By inviting scholars in the area of ELT who have teaching experience and know current ELT practices in the region, this book provides a fresh impetus for designing and implementing ELT, which is socioculturally grounded in Asian traditions where people hold different cultural values and social norms. Thus this volume provides a platform for both well-regarded and emerging scholars who voice their experience in ELT in Asian countries, such as Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Turkey.

A need for re-contextualizing ELT in Asia today

Traditionally, classrooms are a place where teaching and learning takes place. They are also a site of engagement or social practice where “people, typically one teacher and a number of learners, come together for a pedagogical purpose” (Allwright, 1992, p. 267). Additionally, classrooms serve not only as a site of engagement where a teacher and students interact with one another but also as social events, which involve social roles (e.g., teachers as facilitators, students as teacher co-collaborators), social relationships (e.g., a teacher and students, students and their peers), and social interaction (e.g., a teacher and students, students and their peers, students and instructional text). These social roles, social relationships, and social interaction shape the diversity and complexity of classrooms. Thus

the classroom is a rich resource for learning about learners’ lived experiences, including their identities [who they are; what they are doing]. A number of classroom activities can be used that combine language learning with expanding [teacher] knowledge of the learners and their individual needs.

(Murray & Christison, 2011, p. 63)

For this volume, the scope of English language classrooms extends beyond four-wall classrooms, but language classrooms are operationalized as a site of engagement/social practice, which takes place either in face-to-face or virtual environments. At present, language classrooms can occur in both face-to-face and virtual settings, commonly known as blended classrooms in which both teachers and students can interact with each other in face-to-face mode and virtually. This new paradigm changes the way both teachers and students see language classrooms as dynamic and fluid sites of engagement, which allow for a myriad of social practices promoting genuinely humanistic and process-oriented views of teaching and learning in general and of ELT in particular.

Methodology in ELT has been a topic of extensive discussion and research in recent years in the Asian region, as evidenced not only in the growing volume of journal articles and books dedicated to the topic but also in the prominence of the topic at international conferences, which are annually held, such as the Asian EFL Conference, Asia TEFL Conference (annually held in different Asian nations), CamTESOL Conference (Cambodia), JALT Conference (Japan), MELTA Conference (Malaysia), RELC International Conference (Singapore), TEFLIN Conference (Indonesia), TESOL Arabia Conference (United Arab Emirates), and Thai TESOL Conference (Thailand). We have witnessed the fact that the topic of methodology in ELT is always well-received. It is fair enough to say that a vast majority of the research and discussions concern methodology in ELT at all educational levels ranging from primary to higher education and from government-owned educational sectors to privately managed educational sectors as well as from formal education to informal education. Methodology in ELT in Asian contexts remains in demand because more and more language teachers and practitioners seek different ways to teach their learners based on their sociocultural contexts and needs. It is noticeable that a growing number of projects that touch on ELT practices are being conducted in Asian contexts.

To respond to this need, this volume provides insight into re-contextualizing today’s ELT in Asian contexts. The idea of re-contextualization of today’s ELT attempts to raise teacher awareness of how contexts exert influence on a choice of theoretical orientation and pedagogical practice (Widodo & Park, 2014). This choice making relies upon such factors as teachers, students, materials, needs, and institutionalized culture among others. The re-contextualization of ELT tries to respond to the reality that each language classroom is contextually unique because both a teacher and students engage in social practice informed by different goals, pedagogical values, and expectations (Tudor, 1996). This is a challenge for language teachers to play roles as agents of change. With this role in mind, language teachers need to understand the characteristics of the context in which they work. These characteristics can embrace the nature of learners, the features of classroom materials as learning resources, the features of institutions, and the broader world. Certainly, teachers need to know the nature of language and language learning as philosophical foundations of ELT as a whole.

Aims of the book

This volume contains a collection of newly commissioned chapters tailored for those who wish to explore different pedagogical principles and theoretical stances in actual Asian English language classrooms. It provides an up-to-date account of ELT praxis in Asia. It is designed particularly for students taking language master’s level and teacher education courses. The practical focus on Asian language classrooms makes the volume particularly useful and relevant to those who engage in the profession of ELT in different Asian settings. For those with more ELT experience, this volume can also provide a way of surveying and updating the existing knowledge on ELT. Overall, the book aims to give a general introduction to fundamental areas of ELT for the beginning or more experienced teacher and thus covers those areas about which all English teachers need to know. Additionally, the volume raises an awareness of how English teachers contextually frame their pedagogical practices to cater to their students’ local needs situated in a specific socio-institutional context. Specifically, the volume aims to

• 1 explore and unpack what English language pedagogies mean to English teachers and learners in the Asian context where English is mostly considered a subject language or a foreign language;
• 2 showcase how theory informs practice and how practice refines theory (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). In this regard, language teachers play the roles of agents of change and explorers of different pedagogical practices enmeshed in a particular theoretical stance in response to changing needs for meaningful English language pedagogies;
• 3 promote, among different stakeholders, discussion about, and exploration of theoretically informed English language pedagogies, which are deeply rooted in the notion that such a pedagogical enterprise is an art of exploration – that is to say, there is no best way to teach the English language in all pedagogical contexts because of diversity and complexity of language classrooms; and
• 4 produce exemplary and grounded work that promotes the idea that language teachers should experiment with their practical theory.

These goals serve as the foundation of exploring what best works in Asian English language classrooms.

Readership of the book

This volume can be a welcome addition to the previously published books on methodology in ELT. As the title of this volume indicates, the readership of the volume is varied. The book can be a core or required undergraduate text for such courses as Language Teaching Methodology and Language Curriculum and Materials Design and Development. We argue that the relationship between language teaching methodology and language curriculum and materials development is that both are informed by particular approaches (theories), methods, and principles. Language curriculum and materials are curricular artifacts, which shape language teaching methodology in action. Because this volume is a collection of papers written by Asian language scholars and scholars who have working experience in Asia and have in-depth knowledge of the ELT contexts in Asia, it can be selected as a required text for pre-service teachers in all ELT departments in Asia. The volume can also be a complementary resource book for such courses as Teaching Practicum and Microteaching at language teacher college and university levels. At the graduate level, it may also be a compulsory reference for second-year students and those who attend in-service courses, teacher certification training, and other in-service workshops, as it is designed to provide pre-service and in-service English teachers with a solid understanding of current language pedagogies in Asia.

The present text is definitely an invaluable guide text for teacher educators who would like to enrich their course syllabi and teaching contents, and provide students with a better understanding of what ELT means personally, professionally, and contextually. This means that teacher educators can help their student teachers acquire knowledge and develop competence in making methodological choices (e.g., approaches, methods, and designs) in teaching. For language researchers, the volume can be a reference for researchers who wish to investigate different macro- and micro-skill areas and features of ELT approaches, methods, and practices. They may test out or examine how they can modify or adapt the ELT practices discussed in the text to their own research context. Lastly, this edited work can serve as a guide for English teachers and practitioners who would like to broaden their horizons of current ELT practices and explore different approaches, methods, procedures, and techniques that may work for their own classrooms.

The foci of the volume

This volume contains 17 chapters (including this introductory chapter), which address different ELT issues. These issues embrace the teaching of language skills, the educational literature (creative writing), the use of technology in ELT, the role of pragmatics in ELT, the social psychology of the language classroom, and the management of the language classroom. The volume presents three genres of scholarly work: review, pedagogical, and original essays.

In Chapter 2, Tomoko Kurita provides an account of effective listening comprehension instruction in Japan’s pre-tertiary and tertiary English education. This instruction is based on the two theoretical frameworks of listening comprehension: Anderson’s (1995, 2009) model and top-down and bottom-up processes, highlighting the importance of teaching listening, focusing on the process. Despite the importance of process-based listening instruction, Kurita observed that listening is the last priority in classrooms in Japan (Blyth, 2010; Yanagawa, 2012), and the typical listening lesson seems ineffective, which is why Japanese people tend to have serious difficulties understanding what they hear in English even after learning English at school (Nihei, 2002). In addition, Japanese learners have often been exemplified as learners having difficulties in English listening, especially in word recognition, because of their first language (L1) phonological obstacles. The author suggests that listening pedagogy should focus on solving the students’ problems in listening processes rather than correcting answers to listening comprehension questions.

Lixian Jin and Martin Cortazzi in Chapter 3 discuss intercultural communication based on the argument that this is crucial in contemporary contexts in which learners of English will need to interact with culturally diverse people both locally and internationally. They outline some aims and themes for intercultural skills in ELT linked with important aims of education: the need for learners to understand and reflect on cultural contexts in their own and other communities, and to develop critical and creative thinking. Jin and Cortazzi elaborate their practical application of this threefold model through their contribution to the development of textbooks in China. They contend that, as elsewhere in the Asian region, English classes in China are often large and an emphasis on oral skills is quite recent. There are constraints in teachers’ training in this area, and most learners have little experience interacting with English speakers from outside China. The contribution of this chapter focuses on examples from two series of textbooks, which include specifically designed elements to develop intercultural understanding with creative and critical oral communication, particularly through authors’ innovative ‘Participation Activities,’ which feature three stages of oral interaction to analyze and solve problems in intercultural situations.

In response to a need for increasingly multimodal reading materials in both print and digital formats, Chapter 4, written by Eveline Chan and Zuocheng Zhang, provides an overview of research and theory concerning contemporary multimodal texts and reading, explores some of the affordances of multimodal texts for developing ELT students’ repertoires of reading, and outlines some of the challenges for innovating practice in Asian ELT contexts. Chan and Zhang argue that the conceptions of reading need to be broadened beyond processing meaning from the printed word to include meanings created in image, sound, and space, which interface with the written-linguistic mode. Images combined with words have the potential to convey powerful cultural messages, as exemplified in media texts and advertising campaigns. Digital texts combine sound effects and music with animated images ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: re-contextualizing English language teaching in Asia today
• 2 Teaching listening in pre-tertiary and tertiary English education in Japan
• 3 Developing speaking for intercultural communication: textbooks with critical and creative approaches
• 4 Teaching reading through multimodal texts
• 5 Supplementing extensive reading for Japanese EFL learners
• 6 Teaching writing to multilingual learners using the genre-based approach
• 7 Teaching communicative vocabulary
• 8 What EFL teachers should know about online grammar tasks
• 9 Teaching pronunciation to adult learners of English
• 10 Fluency in language classrooms: extensive listening and reading
• 11 Literature in an age of distraction
• 12 Expressing study abroad experiences in second language haiku writing: theoretical and practical implications for teaching haiku composition in Asian EFL classrooms
• 13 Exploring ICT tools in English language learning: language, technology, and the globalized classroom
• 14 The use of photo story in the Indonesian English language classroom: working with multimodal tasks
• 15 Social psychology of the language classroom
• 16 The role of pragmatics in teaching English as an additional language
• 17 Language classroom management
• Index