SPEAK A NEW LANGUAGE PROJECT

The Speak a New Language Project is a distinctive assignment that brings together a linguistically diverse classroom of prospective language teachers to collaboratively learn about the practical side of pronunciation instruction and, in the process, the value of multilingualism inside the classroom. This class assignment was implemented as part of a comparative phonology course for English language teachers in training. The course is required for graduate students enrolled in the university’s Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (TESL/TEFL) programs. It is intended to build student knowledge of phonological concepts and address pedagogical approaches to speaking/listening instruction. The class was equally divided between native and nonnative speakers of English.

Project Description

This particular assignment required students to work with a classmate partner to prepare a 30-second speech in front of the class. Most important, the spoken text had to be in a language unfamiliar to the student and had to contain pronunciations that were initially difficult. The role of the partner was to provide coaching to the student over the course of three face-to-face meetings as they prepared for the 30-second presentation. The coaching was reciprocal. In these meetings, each student experienced two sides to pronunciation instruction—as a student and as a teacher. The requirement that the target text have difficult pronunciation guaranteed that the coaching would be pedagogically purposeful. Students were additionally required to keep a reflective journal to document their experiences working with their partner both as a student and as a teacher. Class presentations were not evaluated for native-like attainment but for timing and overall preparedness for the presentation.

Objectives Achieved

This assignment fulfilled several interrelated course objectives. Through participating in the assignment, students developed firsthand experience in pronunciation instruction both as a teacher and as a student. Students were encouraged to try a range of instructional strategies, especially techniques that had been presented in class. In completing the journal portion of the assignment, students demonstrated the ability to assess the effectiveness of instructional practices and to be reflective practitioners who can be responsive to their own students’ needs. For example, students in their journals frequently discussed how they modified instructional approaches in response to their partner’s performance. The assignment also functioned to promote a greater awareness in the students of cultural/linguistic diversity globally. For example, I found that pairs of students discussed a range of topics of shared personal interest and learned interesting things about one another and their home communities. The assignment functioned to familiarize students in the ESL track to some of the languages they may encounter in their future K–12 ESL classrooms in the New Jersey area (e.g., Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, Korean). Nonnative speakers had the opportunity to develop deeper, nuanced knowledge of speech patterns in American English through their work with native speaker students. Several pairs of nonnative speaker students capitalized on the multilingual diversity present in the classroom to mutually explore non-English languages (e.g., Arabic/Spanish; Chinese/Arabic, Korean/Chinese).

Benefits of the Presentation

The presentation portion of the assignment was specifically motivated by critical models of language teacher education that promote language educators who are sensitive to power dynamics local to the classroom setting and at the broader societal level (Hawkins & Norton, 2009; Risager, 2007). Allow me to explain. I am personally troubled by English-only classroom policies that frame the use of non-English languages in a classroom as something to hide, something subject to punitive response. While not taking away the beneficial role that strategic immersion environments play in language learning, I believe that when English-only is taken up on classroom principle, it unnecessarily underscores the power dynamics shared between teacher and student. That is, English-only policies compel teachers to systematically position students as deficient native speakers when the affirming alternative is to recognize them as emerging multilinguals (Cook, 2002). The concern is that language students may take with them feelings of inadequacy to language encounters outside of the classroom, which can feed into a cycle of subordination. Following Risager (2007), I believe that language teachers have a responsibility to challenge such power dynamics. One way to do so is to expressly construct classroom environments where multilingual ability is a celebrated asset.

Legitimate Voice to Other Languages

These presentations were critical tools for reimagining the classroom as a multilingual space where no language is ruled out on principle alone. Presentations gave legitimate voice to Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, and Korean. They also turned the tables of expertise temporarily. After each presentation of a non-English language, native speakers of that language took the role of expert to help the class understand what the presenter had said. Each presentation was welcomed with vigorous applause from the classroom audience. Celebrating multilingualism in the legitimate space of the classroom hopefully had an impact on how these prospective teachers will frame multilingualism in their future language classrooms.

Support for Language Learner Vulnerability

The presentations were further beneficial in that they placed each prospective teacher in the vulnerable place of a student speaking an unfamiliar language in front of an audience made up in part by native speakers of that language. This can be very intimidating for language learners. In our case, we constructed a supportive and accepting atmosphere where students were able to safely demonstrate their emerging knowledge of an unfamiliar language. In that way, the presentations constituted important instructional experiences for the prospective teachers so that they can develop the kind of caring and empathy for language learners needed to cultivate self-confidence in their future language students as emerging multilinguals.

CONCLUSION

In sum, the assignment promoted through firsthand experiences three course goals: (1) the application of content knowledge, (2) the development of firsthand pedagogical knowledge, and (3) the cultivation of empathy for language learners as emergent multilinguals. In their end-of-course evaluations, students spoke enthusiastically about the assignment. Some mentioned it specifically as a key highlight of the course.

References

Cook, V. (2002). Background to the L2 user. In V. Cook (Ed.), Portraits of the L2 user (pp. 1–28). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.

Hawkins, M., & Norton, B. (2009). Critical language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 30–39). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Risager, K. (2007). Language and culture pedagogy: From a national to a transnational paradigm. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.

Bryan Meadows is an assistant professor of second language acquisition in the Sammartino School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He serves prospective ESL and EFL teachers in classroom settings that are culturally and linguistically diverse.