Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in the United States 1

Konkel

Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in the United States

Colin J. Konkel Michigan State University

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Konkel

Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in the United States

From its outset, the United States has been, or more accurately, wanted to be a distinctly cosmopolitan nation. Within this nations borders lives the cultural representatives of every other nation and nearly every ethnic group in existence. Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, which for 2centuries has served as the front door on which so many scores of immigrants have come knocking, are the words: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" However, beneath the gleaming veneer encapsulated by these words lie dark shadows of hypocrisy: this is a nation in which socioeconomic, racial, and other cultural factors can serve and have served as a means of perpetuating inequity in our political, economic, and educational spheres. Yet, the United States would not be what it is without our citizens inherent optimism and hope for a better future; indeed, this nation was founded and built upon the premise of a chance for change. It is my firm belief that if we are to move from our current, antiquated, and somewhat exclusionary model of education to one that is rooted in asset-based pedagogical practices, which acknowledge and build upon the funds of knowledge that students bring into the classroom, we will be able to fully realize the democratic dream cherished by this nations founders and citizens alike. Throughout the history of the United States we can observe a veritable ebb and flow in regards to the acceptance of immigrant cultures by mainstream society. Naturally, what follows this ebb and flow is the production of identity for both U.S.-born citizens as well as immigrants, many of whom feel tremendous pressure to assimilate to U.S. cultural norms at risk of being

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forever excluded and marginalized, a phenomenon particularly apparent in language. Thus, the desire to learn English to function successfully in this country can be seen across immigrant groups of every origin, as many perceive that their home language denigrates them to a lower, undesirable, status. For this reason it is essential for ESL instructors to reexamine, and recognize the nuances of, the English language learners motivation in the United States. Patsy M. Lightbrown and Nina Spada, authors of How Languages are Learned, (2013) cite Robert Gardner and Wallace Lamberts (1972) conception of learner motivation as being principally instrumental motivation (language learning for immediate or practical goals) or integrative motivation (language learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment through contact with speakers of the other language) ( 2013, p.87). One can clearly see that this model of motivation needs to be remedied for U.S. immigrant populations because for them learning English is just as much a practical undertaking as it is an engine of personal and cultural growth. Therefore, it is imperative that ESL teachers recognize that how a person emotionally, not just cognitively, perceives his or her place within the social environment has a tremendous impact on the ability to flexibly, and perhaps creatively, respond to the possibilities in that environment (Swain et al., 2010, p.83). Furthermore, one must be aware that in many cases the language learner has a complex social identity that must be understood with reference to larger, and frequently inequitable, social structures which are reproduced in day-to-day social interaction, when considering student motivation in the American ESL classroom (Pierce, 1995, p.13). In Freeman and Freemans (2011) article How Can Schools Develop an Intercultural Orientation?, the authors cite Ruzs (1984) exploration of the historical development of three different orientations toward language in schools, the most contemporary of which being

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language-as-a-resource (p. 176). Under a language-as-a-resource, interculturally oriented, pedagogical design, educators include students primary languages and cultures, involve minority parents in school activities, encourage the use of current methods of collaborative critical inquiry as a way to encourage the success of all students, and develop a cross-cultural school community (p. 178). I believe deeply that all educators, across all disciplines, should implement such policies that promote intercultural awareness and highlight the validity of all types of student experience; this is among the first and most critical steps in the cultivation of a truly accepting and open-minded democratic society. A key component in democracy and democratic education is dialogue, which also happens to be of paramount importance for English language learners. Susan M. Gass and Alison Mackey, authors of Input, Interaction, and Output in Second Language Acquisition, (2007) characterize the interaction approach to language learning as an attempt to account for learning through the learners exposure to language, production of language, and feedback on that production (p. 176). Within this framework, teacher-created tasks and activities are generally categorized as being one-way, in which knowledge flows from one person to another, or twoway, in which all interlocutors hold and produce the knowledge that is essential to complete the task (p. 187). While both types of tasks have their place in language classrooms, two-way activities that position all students as holders and producers of knowledge are more relevant in dialogic, asset-based classrooms, and are therefore what I will favor in my future classrooms whenever possible. One way to create an intercultural, two-way activity might be to assign students to small groups and have them share (and listen to) stories from their lives and cultures, and those of their peers, and then have them present their findings to the rest of the class.

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In such an activity, students, through their interactions with one another, gain access to each others lives and provide (and are provided with) implicit and explicit corrective feedback from their peers and their teacher (Sheen and Ellis, 2011, p. 2). This type of feedback may come in many forms, but some of those forms, notably clarification requests, comprehension checks, and confirmation checks (which may be instigated either by a teacher or students peers) require students to think about their utterances further, thereby building upon their metalinguistic skills, which are highly useful in achieving second language proficiency (Hu, Gu, and Zhang, 2005, p.283). For example, if after hearing a students utterance a teacher says something like What do you mean? (an example of a clarification request), the student is required to think about what they said as well as how to say the same thing in a different, or more clear way (Gass and Mackey, 2007, p. 181). This requires that the student has to think more deeply about the linguistic concepts at their disposal to increase the clarity of their utterance. In providing this type of corrective feedback, the teacher is not explicitly saying you are wrong, this is how to say it correctly, which may be seen to some as an assimilationist approach, but is asking the student to use and develop the skills they already have, thus affirming the students effort while still providing the necessary correction. I hope to continue to learn how to affirm my future students cultural backgrounds in all aspects of language teaching, including understanding student backgrounds, providing authentic, culturally sustaining activities, tasks, and feedback, as well as all of the other areas I have left untouched in this paper. I believe that implementing this type of philosophy in the classrooms of this country will be beneficial to all of its citizens in present times and in the future.

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