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Problem: Diverse classrooms include diverse minds. From every culture, some students are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and others are physical learners. This creates a problem, how does a teacher cater to all of these unique needs in one setting?

Solution: The teacher in this classroom remembers to write the words on the board as she says them. This helps the students with both their listening and reading skills. It also helps learners who prefer to read and those who prefer to listen at the same time. She remains animated, moves around a lot and encourages student participation. This reduces monotony and helps physical learners. She has a smile on her face, and her students' attention is kept!

Cherry Picking? Designer Methodology? Or does it... just work?

As I think about the diverse and long history of EAL teaching methodology, it is impossible for me not to notice the amount of cross over that exists among seemingly very different teaching styles. It makes me wonder how much of that results from practitioners building upon each other and how much of this cross over is a matter of "great minds think alike." In C.S. Chong (2012)'s webinar A Trip Down the Memory Lane of Methodology Chong (2012) always takes a moment to remind her viewers of the value of seemingly outdated methodologies with her "I 🧡..." slides. This choice stands out to me because it verifies my curiosity that even those of us with seemingly very different views on best practices can come to an agreement that some things "just work" when it comes to language learning.

I will admit, I am not an experienced EAL teacher. The bulk of my experience came as an Academic Writing Tutor at the University of Manitoba. While my job was to work with all kinds of students, EAL and native speakers alike, a large percentage of the students who sought my services happened to be EAL and "what worked best" is something I had to build from observation and instinct without the formal education. Just like the methodologists before me, it is fascinating that my own observations and instincts brought me to some of the same conclusions that many formally educated EAL teachers have come to. Chong (2012)'s "I 🧡..." slides discuss the value of repetition, translation, and a relaxed environment in language learning, and interestingly all of these factors are things that I have found significant in my untrained experience. Let's take a look at these three factors and perhaps come near a conclusion as to why they seem to be fairly universal.

I love you painted in various languages from around the world. Photo captured by Hannah Wright in Borneo, Sabah, Malaysia

Translation: Chong (2012) makes the accurate observation that even if a teacher attempts to avoid translation, students will be doing it in their heads anyway. This is natural and obvious, and shows that EAL teachers' desire to pull students away from their L1 may be more detrimental than beneficial. Pressure to rip students away from their L1 the moment they enter the classroom can make the learning experience stressful, and as Chong (2012) said, they will still be using it in their heads even if they aren't using it out loud. Luca Lampariello (2016) writes a blog post on how language teachers living in a world that has grown past the Grammar Translation Method can utilize their students' instinct to translate to their advantage. Lampariello (2016) suggests that students and teachers can utilize a bidirectional translation method to help a learner notice gaps in their comprehension and to help them recognize the meaning of the words instead of simply the structure. This suggestion is complex, and may seem somewhat impossible to practice when the teacher is monolingual. However, I do appreciate the acknowledgement that student translation is inevitable and that instead of treating L1 usage as a detriment, we can instead find creative ways to use L1 to help instead of hinder.

Repetition: When Chong (2012) 🧡's The Direct Method she says it's because there is real validity to the practice of repetition in language learning even if we have grown past the practice of drilling students as the soldiers the method was invented with were. Indeed, we even have neuro-scientific evidence to suggest that repetition is critical in accurate L2 learning. Ghazi-Saidi & Ansaldo (2017)'s paper Second Language Word Learning through Repetition and Imitation: Functional Networks as a Function of Learning Phase and Language Distance demonstrates L2 acquisition and notable changes in fMRI scans after 4 weeks of L2 repetition learning (Ghazi-Saidi & Ansaldo, 2017). While repetition does not experience the same criticism that L1 translation usage does, it can be tempting for modern teachers to view repeating drilling as an outdated and boring method. A modern teacher may also be concerned that word repetition will teach a student the word and annunciation but not the meaning. Nevertheless, repetition is a necessary tedium and with the right dose of creativity a teacher can ensure that neither meaning nor student attention is lost.

Relaxation: Finally, Chong (2012)'s 🧡 for Suggestopedia is a result of its emphasis on the value of a safe and relaxed classroom. The famous Stephen Krashen supports this idea as he tells his audience that anxiety can be a very detrimental barrier to a learner's language usage (n.d). Of course, one must be careful not to make the classroom too relaxed, students are still there to work after all. A teacher must also be aware not to be too laid back when working with students who are of a culture that values teachers as authority figures. Ironically, being too laid back with students of this cultural background may cause them more anxiety instead of less. In cases like these, positive reinforcement and empathetic, constructive criticism are key. Perhaps, the original Suggestopedia ideas of a classroom with couches and Baroque music is unnecessary, but teachers today must not forget how much anxiety can affect a student's L2 learning. Positive reinforcement is a needed asset in any form of teaching, but in language teaching, it is not just a needed asset, it is critical.

Krashen's theory of second language acquisition  emphasizes much of what I have observed and discussed in this blog. Krashen (n.d) highlights that in our collective hyperfocus on how we want to see everyone's differences, we lose sight of how we are all the same. Of course, we cannot ignore the uniqueness of each student nor can we forget about how personality and cultural idiosyncrasies can have a major impact on a student's learning. However, as we remember the differences we cannot forget the similarities, Krashen (n.d)'s talk and his observation with the young girl in his neighborhood show that perhaps there is a reason that so many diverse methodologies throughout EAL profession's history have come to so many similar conclusions.

Cherry-picking and designer methodologies appear to be the predominant approach of EAL teachers today. Observing the approaches throughout history, and the evidence that some facets of these methodologies "just work" makes it unsurprising that this is the predominant approach today.

Does A Rose by any Other Name Truly smell as Sweet?: A study of how language effects behavior.

When I was a Writing Tutor, we were taught about the different ways academic essays are written in different languages. In English, we are always taught to write essays in an introduction-thesis-argument-conclusion format. Yet, many other cultures save the thesis statement for last and in others the beauty of your language matters more than the core subject. Reading Chapter 8 of Brown & Lee (2015)’s book regarding the socio-political and cultural facets of language really resonated with me as a result of this experience.

Brown & Lee (2015) draw their readers’ attention to Agar’s notion of languaculture (p. 157). Agar’s notion suggests that language cannot be separated from the culture it is based in and that “language users draw on all kinds of things besides grammar and vocabulary—their biography, the nature of the situation they’re in, history, politics—material from pretty much every discipline that’s ever dealt with people.” (Agar, 2006, p. 2). When I learned about diverse styles of essay writing, I learned that these styles are born from normalized conversation structures in everyday communication. In English, we tend to “get to the point” immediately in conversation, just like how our thesis statements come at the beginning of the paper. For others, the “point” of the conversational story does not come until after a long build up, and in these cultures, it would make sense that their thesis statements wouldn’t appear until the end of the paper. Thinking about Agar's statement, this lead me to wonder if a culture's informal conversation style is the foundation for how they define their formal linguistic standards in academics. Furthermore, how much does this simple difference of "get to the point right away" vs. "build up to the point effect our behavioral norms beyond linguistics? 

While I may not have found the exact answer to my question, my research did lead me to discover the fascinating ways that our languages may  effect our behavior beyond our words. Lera Boroditsky (2017) refers to languages as little "cognitive universes" that have the ability to completely change the reality of the speaker. To highlight her description, she draws attention to the Kuuk Thaayorre Indigenous people from Australia. In their language, the Kuuk Thaayorre people are constantly aware of directional coordinates based on the land around them instead of on the self (e.g. they would say "my west arm" instead of "my left arm"). Boroditsky (2017) then draws her listeners' attention to the fact that this simple difference in language has caused the Kuuk Thaayorre people to have such a acute sense of direction that has changed scientists views on what was once thought to be humanly possible. If language is powerful enough to help its speakers think in ways that were once thought to be impossible, there is no way that we can deny its effect on casual conversation or everyday learning.

Can how we describe direction truly change how we experience it? Boroditsky says yes!

While the effects of language are certainly profound, we must exercise caution to not adhere too closely to the debunked theory of linguistic determinism. NAFSA (2017) describes linguistic determinism as the theory that "one's language determines the ways one's mind constructs categories" (NAFSA, 2017). This concept may sound very similar to Boroditsky (2017)'s observation of the Kuuk Thaayorre people. However, Costa et. al. (2017)'s paper On Language Processing Shaping Decision Making  suggests that further research is needed before one claims that language changes our worldview as Boroditsky's "cognitive universe" description suggests. Instead, it is better to recognize language, culture, and behavior as having a related relationship as opposed to a determinant one. Although Boroditsky suggests that the Kuuk Thaayorre people's sense of direction comes from their language, she does not address their lifestyle. She presents no evidence to clarify if their sense of direction is a direct result of their language or if their linguistic style was established as a result of having more nomadic lifestyle compared to many other cultures.

How does all this information effect our teaching practices? Certainly, as EAL teachers we must be sensitive to the diversity of the cultures of our students. We must also recognize that their background can contribute to their unique strengths and challenges. However, we must be careful not to ignore how similar we all are either. Using commonly effective language teaching practices should remain universal while you speak to every student as a unique individual. Yes, their cultures have an impact on their behavior, and yes, their L1s are strongly linked to their cultures; but neither of these factors mean that their mindsets are immovably "set." When applying the preceding information into the classroom, one should not necessarily alter their teaching practices, but instead keep the concept of "langaculture" in the back of one's mind and use it as a source of empathy for one's students instead of using it as a backbone to one's methods.