Hi everyone,Last Thursday we did a lesson on language discrimination. The issue of people being told to "speak English" in public places emerged because I proposed "languages" as a theme. Students discussed where they spoke their mother tongue (or other expert languages). One student said a friend of hers had been told to "speak English" while speaking Polish to her daughter in the supermarket. The following lesson I showed them a depiction of this story and we discussed it:
<image.png>
My students stories of this were disturbing. I knew it went on, but one student said she suffers this nearly every day on the bus when she speaks to her relatives on the phone in Indonesian. The class was clear that it was about racism.
This is a mixed level group and my feeling (sorry, no hard evidence) is that we wouldn't have been able to have what felt like an important discussion without using students' other expert languages. The group discussion structured by my questions relating to the image above, lasted around 25 minutes. One of the students spoke Spanish and one of my colleagues was able to support her with bits of translation during the discussion. Other students who spoke Arabic and Polish, helped each other and I did pauses to allow the students to check each other understood.
Did this help their acquisition of English? I guess it would be almost impossible to say. But having this discussion felt important. After the discussion the students shared their stories in small groups and got support from their colleagues. The groups developed mini-plays to bring the issue to life. Next week we will use forum theatre (where the audience subsititute for one of the actors to rehearse interventions. ie. what can you do and say if someone shouts "speak English at you"?). Some of these interventions will be in a range of languages, One student told us she had confronted a racist man on the bus and she shouted at him in a mix of English, French and Arabic. Apparently it worked. And she got a round of applause from the class-mates when she told the story. Hopefully some of my students will be better equipped next time a bigot tells them not to speak their first (or 2nd, 3rd etc) language. This would seem a good outcome from an ESOL class.
This "speak English" stuff seems to be on the rise. It comes from our politicians (see Chuka Umunna's recent report) and it comes from bullies on the bus. I am happy that my some of my students named their ESOL class as one of the spaces where they feel comfortable using their other languages.
If you want to know more about "forum theatre" or "problem-posing", drop me a line and I'll send links.
All the best,Dermot*********************************** ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds. To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html To contact the list owner, send an email to [log in to unmask]
On 4 February 2017 at 09:12, James Simpson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
******************************Dear all
Many thanks to those of you who have already contributed to our e-seminar. This is a reminder that all the materials and instructions are on the can be found here: https://tlangeseminar2017.
wordpress.com The password is TLANG
The materials comprise video, audio transcript and fieldnote data from the TLang project as it took place in Leeds. Full details below.
The seminar runs until next Friday, 10 February, so plenty of time to make your points in relation to the questions, or to respond to others.
I will also resend the discussant piece that kicked off the seminar last Monday.
All best wishes
James
From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board [mailto:ESOL-RESEARCH@
JISCMAIL.AC.UK ] On Behalf Of James Simpson
Sent: 30 January 2017 11:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 2017 e-seminar: ‘Translanguaging, superdiversity and ESOL’
Dear Colleagues
Welcome to the ESOL-Research Forum e-seminar.
2017 e-seminar: ‘Translanguaging, superdiversity and ESOL’
ESOL-Research email forum
in collaboration with
The AHRC-funded ‘Translation and Translanguaging: Investigating Linguistic and Cultural and Transformation in Superdiverse Wards in Four UK Cities (TLang)’
The e-seminar runs until Friday 10 February 2017. It takes as a point of departure materials and two questions for discussion that can be found here: https://tlangeseminar2017.
wordpress.com The password is TLANG
The materials comprise video, audio transcript and fieldnote data from the TLang project as it took place in Leeds.
Following this message, I will be posting the initial response of our discussants,
Dermot Bryers, English for Action, London
Melanie Cooke, King’s College London
Becky Winstanley, Tower Hamlets College, London
ESOL-Research members are then invited to join the seminar discussion here on the ESOL-Research forum. We warmly welcome the many newcomers to the forum, who have joined us for the seminar. To post a response, simply reply to an earlier message, or send an email to [log in to unmask]
The timetable for the seminar is as follows:
23 January: materials for seminar distributed to ESOL-Research members.
30 January (today): Discussant response distributed to ESOL-Research members.
31 January: seminar opens to ESOL-Research members for contributions to discussion by email. Feel free to respond to one or both of the questions. Your responses can be as long or as short as you wish.
10 February: seminar closes.
Any queries please contact James Simpson, TLang co-investigator, University of Leeds [log in to unmask]
ac.uk or
Sarah Martin, TLang project administrator, University of Birmingham [log in to unmask]
We very much look forward to the discussion.
James Simpson and the TLang team
Dr James Simpson
Senior Lecturer (Language Education)
School of Education
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
[log in to unmask]
ac.uk www.education.leeds.ac.uk/
people/staff/academic/simpson @jebsim
AHRC TLang project: www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/
tlang/index.aspx
******************************
***** ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds. To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html To contact the list owner, send an email to [log in to unmask]ac.uk ***** ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds. To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html To contact the list owner, send an email to [log in to unmask]ac.uk