Reconceptualising English teaching in Taiwan: action research with technical college students

English is now the primary language used amongst speakers from around the world for international communication. In response to this fact, there are calls for a paradigm shift in English language teaching (ELT) in respect of the increasing English users who speak English as an international language (EIL). For more than two decades, there have been heated debates and discussions concerning EIL teaching with issues such as standards and norms of EIL, ownership of EIL and identity of EIL users, culture(s) in EIL, etc.. With Taiwan's cultural politics background, English has long been portrayed and perceived as a prestigious foreign language which represents a passport to better economic gains, education, and social status. This perception of English has not only brought about a phenomenon of English fever, but also endorsed an economic pragmatic view in learning English as an international language. Consequently, it has reinforced ELT practices to aim at preparing learners of English for 'being competitive' instead of 'understanding of others’. Based on an educational philosophy that today's English language teaching should prepare learners as world citizens instead of global human capital, the purpose of this action research project is to provide an intercultural communicative way of teaching English. A total of 42 part-time technical college students and a teacher researcher in Taipei were involved in investigating the desirability and feasibility of such ELT pedagogy. Under a theme of 'A Visit from our Sister College', nine lessons were taught with cultural topics like name, hometown, food, and entertainment. The findings suggest that, with some minor technical modifications needed in the future, the proposed pedagogy can help learners not only find their confidence in learning and utilising English language in their daily life but also deep-learn cultures of self and others. Thus, it might result the learners in becoming world citizens in a gradual/progressive manner

Perspectives on language policies in Malaysia

Malaysia is a multi-cultural society with major ethnic divisions between Malays, Chinese and Indians, each group having associated linguistic and religious affiliations which intensify the divisions of Malaysian society. Cultural divisions have perhaps a greater significance in Malaysia than in neighbouring Singapore and Brunei Darussalam because of the relative size of the competing ethnic groups. The communal relations issue is central in Malaysian politics and education. It is almost a matter of definition that a study of a language policy in Malaysian education is simultaneously a study of an important part of the politics of a plural society. This study examines the substance and various contexts of language policies in Malaysia, where the national integration of three large language communities is a political objective of long standing. At a time when a number of Western countries are beginning to favour a multi-cultural approach to the problem of integrating an ethnically plural society through education, Malaysia continues to promote monolingualism as its unchallengeable formula, for the supremacy of Malay is a principle strongly rooted in the history and political structure of Malaysia. The decline of the standard of English in Malaysia is also a lively current issue of great concern, even to the Government. The fundamental reason for its concern is not racial but pragmatic: the National Language is very far from being able to take the place of English as a key to international communication and modem technology. Yet measures to reverse the damage seem half-hearted and the political will to emulate the pragmatism of Singapore or Brunei Darussalam by substantially modifying the educational revolution, is lacking at present. This study identifies the major language problems that have surfaced as a result of the Government trying to deal with conflicting pressures whilst implementing policy objectives

Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages

Those familiar with Pennycook’s previous works such as English and the Discourses of Colonialism (1998) or Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction (2001) will not be surprised to learn that this latest volume, co-edited with Makoni and titled Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages, challenges many orthodoxies related to the role of English in the world and the nature of language. As far back as his 1994 book, The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language, Pennycook has been contesting the view that the global spread of English has been a natural, neutral, and beneficial process and has argued against fixation on language as an a priori ontological system in favor of focus on “language use as a social, cultural, and political act” (Pennycook, 1994, p. 29). It is not difficult to imagine that the editors’ collaboration on this volume was inspired in part by a critique Makoni offered of Pennycook’s Critical Applied Linguistics suggesting that in the absence of concrete strategies for engaging and collaborating with local communities, “Critical Applied Linguistics runs the danger of being hegemonic to the very communities it seeks to serve” (Makoni, 2003, p. 135). Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages is also a natural extension of Makoni’s plenary contribution at the 2004 American Association of Applied Linguistics conference in Portland where he proposed a vision of applied linguistics grounded less in an Anglo-American or Western world view, but having greater relevance to a variety of sociolinguistic contexts (Makoni, 2005). Following a forward by Ofelia García, the book is divided into 10 chapters covering the following three areas: the socio-political contexts from which current understandings of language have grown, the way current conceptions of language have limited development of a more nuanced understanding of how people communicate, and the pedagogical implications a language disinvention and reconstitution process might have

Best Practices for Planning, Developing, and Sustaining Interdisciplinary Language-Based Study Abroad Programs

In seventeen years of experience as a study abroad program director, I have seen how university students, faculty members, and administrators have come to share a strategic mission for study or work abroad; namely that programs must provide a meaningful international credential that not only yields a more fruitful undergraduate experience but also creates the potential for a better and higher-paying job upon graduation. I have spoken with many job recruiters over the years who tout the importance of developing an international skill set that requires a profound understanding of other cultures and languages. General news outlets and trade magazines report an intensifying obligation in a competitive global economy to attain proficiency in languages other than English and to gain competence in intercultural issues related to foreign commerce, politics, and society.1 Study abroad programs, especially those with substantive language and cross-cultural training components, can provide excellent tools for addressing these concerns. However, the proliferation of enrollments for reasons other than secondlanguage study has presented existing programs with new challenges. Whereas traditional models, created and maintained by language departments, have emphasized second-language proficiency, new interdisciplinary programs seek meaningful ways to combine language and culture with course work in professional majors such as business, engineering, science, technology, and agriculture (Huebner 2)

IDENTITY MANAGEMENT POLITICS IN GLOCALIZED ENGLISH HEGEMONY: CULTURAL STRUGGLES, FACEWORK STRATEGIES, AND INTERCULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS IN TAIWANESE ENGLISH EDUCATION

The globalization of the English language has rendered both positive and negative impacts to countries around the world. With the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the English language, many non-native-English-speaking (NNES hereafter) people and countries have shown growing interests in teaching and learning English. Some governments of these NNES countries have decided to implement “English” as a mandatory school subject into their compulsory curriculum in order to “connect with the world” and/or to increase their nation’s international image. However, in these NNES countries, English often does not hold official capacity and is taught as a foreign language (EFL). Although English (language) education can bring positive changes to a nation, it is not free of problems. Essentially, English education influences many NNES countries and their citizens in sociocultural, economic, and educational arenas. Some scholars, such as Tsuda (2008), assert that the “problems” and impacts are inseparable from “English language hegemony.” My country of origin, Taiwan, is one of the EFL and NNES countries that implements English education in our nation’s compulsory education. In recent decades, communicative-based English educational approaches have received great support from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education. In an EFL setting, such as that in Taiwan, the said educational approaches have complicated English education even further. In particular, the communicative-based approaches focus on teaching and practicing English oral proficiency, which average Taiwanese citizens do not need in their daily lives. Many Taiwanese people experience identity struggles and self-esteem issues because of their less-than-desirable English oral proficiency. In addition to Taiwanese, native-English-speaking (NES) teachers who are recruited to teach English in Taiwan are an integral part of the Taiwanese English education. As a Taiwanese citizen and an intercultural communication scholar, I recognize the intricate complexity of Taiwanese English education and am compelled to examine it in this dissertation as it has not received much attention in the discipline of Communication Studies. In this dissertation, I employ Identity Management Theory (IMT) (Cupach & Imahori, 1993; Imahori & Cupach, 2005) as the primary theoretical framework to examine Taiwanese English education. Particularly, I utilize IMT to study the identity construction and management (such as identity freezing), facework strategies, and intercultural relationship development among NES teachers, Taiwanese English teachers, and Taiwanese students. To carry out this research, I employ critical complete-member ethnography (CCME) (Toyosaki, 2011) as the central research methodology, because I see myself as a complete-member researcher with my research participants. I share complete-memberships with them in nuanced, complex, and contextual manners. Methodologically, CCME entails ethnography of communication, autoethnography, and critical ethnography; all are informative of my data collection methods, including ethnographic participant observation, ethnographic interview, and autoethnographic journaling inside and outside of English classes at different Taiwanese universities. These three methods helped me gather rich data for this research. To analyze and discuss the data, I employed thematic analysis (Owen, 1984) and critical examinations of consensual and conflictual theorization (Fiske, 1991; Toyosaki, 2011). Both methods render complex findings. In particular, the analysis and discussion reveal and explain (a) how the research participants manage cultural identities through marking scope, salience, and intensity with different English educational participants, (b) how they apply facework strategies to cope with identity freezing experiences, and (c) how they establish and maintain intercultural relationships with other English educational participants as they transition across different relational phases of their relationships. I deliver the findings thematically in an analytical and narrative-like manner, as I layer and weave together the field notes, the interview responses, and my autoethnographic journaling. Ultimately, I argue that English hegemony has glocalized in Taiwanese English education and is manifested through research participants’ identity management politics and their intercultural relationships. Essentially, my research shows that identity management politics is inseparable from the power differentials and inequalities imbued in Taiwanese English education. Voluntarily and/or involuntarily, the research participants and I have normalized English hegemony, embodied its presence in our knowledge production and consumption, and given English/Western ideologies consent to dominate our communicative choices, our (sub)consciousness, and our intercultural relationships. Aside from perpetuating English hegemony, I have also observed resistance against the said hegemonic impacts inside and outside of the English classrooms. In a power-laden intercultural communication context, such as Taiwanese English education, critical analyses and examinations play essential roles in revealing the identity management politics and power differentials embedded in the (mythically) “innocent” English classrooms. I further recognize how this research serves as an example to other EFL and NNES countries. In due course, I conclude that my research makes contributions to the scholarships of intercultural communication and to English education in Taiwan and beyond

Attitudes toward the new English policy in Taiwan

English has become the most important and commonly used international language. Learning English is not only a task for those who live in English-speaking countries, but also for those who may never travel or live in an English-speaking country. Currently, many human activities (i.e. music, politics, economics) rely on English to bridge the language differences between people. One key area for English use is in early education in non-English speaking countries such as Taiwan. Beginning in 1997, the education system in Taiwan has gone through major changes. One of the major changes is the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Alignment. The plan is to make the elementary education and junior high education more relevant to each other. The entire education reform is confusing and complicated to many Taiwanese. Therefore, it leads to many public debates when the Ministry of Education (MOE) first presented the education reform. Among all the changes in the education reform, the change to elementary English education has received the most attention from the public since its implementation in 2001. The two research questions in this study are: 1. Do key stakeholders (educational administrators, Mandarin and English teachers and parents of 5th and 6th graders) believe the change in English language policy will be positive for improving the English abilities of Taiwanese students? 2. Do the stakeholders see the advantages of the new English policy as influencing linguistic and cultural change in Taiwanese society? This research investigated the attitudes of educational administrators, Mandarin teachers, English teachers and parents of the 5th and 6th graders towards the new elementary English education policies. The results show that most stakeholders are positive about the effectiveness of early English education, although they think the policy is poorly planned. However, most stakeholders are not certain whether they believe the policy will influence long-term linguistic and cultural change in Taiwanese society

Adapting Shakespearean Drama for and in the Middle East: Process and Product

This dissertation chronicles the development of a series of plays, collectively referred to as The Arab Shakespeare Trilogy, from the perspective of their playwright Sulayman Al-Bassam. Together, The Al-Hamlet Summit (2002-2005), Richard III, An Arab Tragedy (2007-2009), and The Speaker’s Progress (2011-2012) register the eruptive social, political, and cultural contexts of the Arab world during the first decade of the twenty-first century while negotiating the adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays to a form thought-provoking and entertaining to audiences both within and outside the Middle East. The document outlines the inception of the project, which includes both personal and historical context, and provides more specific commentary on the production of each play individually. In addition to its focus on the specific impact of 9/11, and its global consequences, on the development of these dramatic works, it attends to topics including the technical and ideological challenges of linguistic and cultural translation, the adaptation of Shakespeare in Arabic theatre, the politics of art and drama in the Arab world, and the involvement of art in the shaping of the ethics of cross-cultural representation. Of particular interest are the linguistic conditions bearing upon the adaptation of English language texts into multi-lingual and cross- cultural works, the effects of the globalisation of politics and media, and the international touring life of the plays between the Arab region and wider world. The play texts of the Trilogy make up the second part of the document. The methodology of this dissertation deploys historical contextualisation, autobiographical memoir, literary analysis and creative improvisation. The play-texts are dramatic adaptations of specific Shakespeare texts to the Arab world

International student subjectivities: biographical investments for liquid times

The international student as an object of study has typically been understood through the frame of cultural identity, mapped back to notions of fixed, static notions of cultural difference. In contrast, this study seeks to understand how the practice of international study has emerged as an increasingly popular ‘biographical solution’ (Beck 1992, Bauman 2002) in order to pursue imagined career trajectories in a globalised and competitive world. Informed by recent studies of middle class strategy in Asia (Pinches, 1999) and the transnational Chinese diaspora (Ong 1999, Ang 2001) that challenge essentialist accounts of timeless Asian values and East-West binaries, the paper analyses interview data collected from ‘Asian’ international students attending preparatory programs at an Australian university. Specifically, the paper discusses the disciplinary formation of the ‘international student’ – the take-up of self-Orientalizing discourses (Ong, 1999), and engagement in practices of auto-ethnography (Pratt, 1998). In addition, the paper explores students’ critiques of, and resistances to Orientalist discourses, and pragmatic willingness to submit to local demands to further their longer term goals. Preparatory programs emerge not so much as life-changing locations but rather necessary transit lounges, for the acquisition of cultural distinctions along their life routes