tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/english-teaching-10147/articlesEnglish teaching – The Conversation2024-01-24T13:29:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211242024-01-24T13:29:05Z2024-01-24T13:29:05ZLearning to read in another language is tough: how Namibian teachers can help kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569258/original/file-20240115-27-so2q98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wolfgang Kaehler/Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a classroom in Namibia’s northern Oshikoto region, a teacher has written English vocabulary words on the chalkboard. She asks her learners to read them aloud. When they stumble with pronunciation, she corrects them. She also helps the youngsters to sound out words. At another school nearby, an English teacher is showing her class cartoon strips on her cellphone to help them create mental images while reading – an approach that’s proven to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0033688220943250">enhance comprehension</a>.</p>
<p>These teachers were part of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2023.2292597">a study</a> we conducted to understand the unique knowledge and skills that Namibian teachers have developed to teach English reading comprehension to grade 7s (who are on average 12 years old) in a diverse linguistic context. The learners’ home languages were primarily Oshiwambo, Oshindonga, Afrikaans and Otjiherero. </p>
<p>We aimed to shed light on what approaches the teachers used in their classrooms. We also wanted to explore the broader implications for Namibia’s education landscape.</p>
<p>We found that Namibian teachers had the skills to equip learners with the tools to become literate and fluent in English. In some situations the teachers tried to adapt their instruction to better reflect learners’ daily experiences and cultures. But this adaptation happened on the spur of the moment rather than being central to planned lessons.</p>
<p>We argue that using culturally appropriate, relevant examples should be a deliberate daily practice. For example, teachers could select a text or passage or story that incorporates traditions, folklore, or contemporary situations relevant to the students. </p>
<p>This would increase engagement. It would also allow students to connect more deeply with the material, fostering better comprehension by being familiar and relatable. It’s an approach has been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19404476.2021.1959832">repeatedly proven</a> to <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1034914.pdf">boost</a> reading comprehension.</p>
<p>Recent studies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/16073614.2023.2226175">show</a> that Namibian children have <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26250-0_21">low proficiency</a> in English. Literacy is <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/need-know">a fundamental skill</a> for personal development and societal progress.</p>
<h2>Different cultural contexts</h2>
<p>The mismatch between imported educational approaches and the realities faced by English language learners in the global south has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26250-0_19">identified</a> as contributing to the struggles encountered in reading comprehension. </p>
<p>In Namibia, English (although it is the country’s official language) is spoken by <a href="https://biodiversity.org.na/NamLanguages.php">only 3.4% of the population</a> as a first language or mother tongue. There are 13 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/weng.12493">recognised languages in Namibia</a>; <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/weng.12493">Oshiwambo</a> is the most prevalent first language, including in the Oshikoto region. </p>
<p>Since 2009 the Namibian Ministry of Education has administered the National Standardised Achievement Test for grades 5 and 7. This covers English, mathematics, natural science and health education. It gauges learners’ English comprehension competency and overall performance in these subjects. The results are worrying. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1411036">In 2015 the results</a> showed that 87% of grade 7 learners scored below basic proficiency in English. The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality also found that the country <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1411036">did not exhibit significant improvements</a> in reading and mathematical literacy between 2005 and 2010. Its reading proficiency score in 2010 was 496.9 compared to a mean score of 511.8 for all <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1411036">15 participating countries</a>. </p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>The study involved five experienced grade 7 English teachers. All had taught the subject for five years or longer. The teachers were each affiliated with one of four combined schools in the northern Oshikoto region of Namibia, and one primary school in Windhoek, the capital city. </p>
<p>All are state schools and learners are not required to pay fees. </p>
<p>Through stimulated recall interviews and classroom observations, we gained an understanding of the teaching practices used. Stimulated recall interviews are a way of talking with people about their past experiences or actions. It’s like watching a replay of something you did, and then being asked questions about what you were thinking or feeling during that time. It helps to better understand why people make certain choices or decisions. </p>
<p>We also conducted classroom observations, quietly sitting in to watch what teachers and learners were doing. We examined the learners’ comprehension by observing how actively they participated in question and answer sessions, collaborative activities, and retelling and summary tasks.</p>
<p>The findings reveal that teachers continue to use teaching and learning practices acquired during their initial teacher education. These included previewing, reading aloud, fluency training and vocabulary development. </p>
<p>Previewing happens when teachers ask learners to take a quick look over the title, headings and pictures to get an idea of what the reading is about. It helps the learners understand what to expect and makes reading a lot easier because they already have some clues about what is coming up. </p>
<p>Reading aloud helps learners hear the words and understand them better. It is a fun way to enjoy a test or share something interesting with others. Fluency training involves practising reading smoothly and easily. And vocabulary development is learning to read words smoothly without stumbling or pausing too much. </p>
<p>The teachers’ practices were pedagogically sound. But that doesn’t guarantee improved reading comprehension for learners without sensitivity to the lived experiences and the imagined future of the learners. </p>
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<p>The teachers did not often adapt their practices to suit their specific cultural and linguistic contexts. Most of the reading material used didn’t contain examples learners could relate to from their own daily lives. In the few instances where there was link to a learner’s background, it was made on the spur of the moment, in response to the way a lesson was progressing or stalling. </p>
<h2>Teacher training</h2>
<p>We concluded that much more intentional use of relevant material is needed to integrate learners’ prior knowledge of the world into their reading comprehension.</p>
<p>For this to happen initial teacher education programmes need to be enhanced to ensure that teachers are equipped with skills to adapt pedagogical practices to diverse cultural and linguistic contexts. Many teacher education institutions prepare educators as if they will be teaching in well-resourced urban schools, assuming learners are eager to learn, and the school community supports enhanced reading. The reality is quite different: teachers deal with crowded classrooms and don’t get much support from schools to meet learning goals.</p>
<p>To enhance reading comprehension in primary schools within diverse cultural and linguistic contexts, teachers can begin by selecting reading material and resources that reflects the cultural diversity of their students, making the content more relatable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221124/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The teachers did not often adapt their practices to suit their specific cultural and linguistic contexts.Marta Ndakalako Alumbungu, PhD student, Stellenbosch UniversityNhlanhla Mpofu, Chair- Curriculum Studies, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1806792022-05-24T02:53:18Z2022-05-24T02:53:18ZWriting for our (digital) lives: war, social media and the urgent need to update how we teach English<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460507/original/file-20220429-25-f6iayg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C1920%2C1264&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The war in Ukraine is being described as the first social media war, even as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/05/ukraines-victories-in-the-tiktok-war-wont-stop-vlad-the-invaders-missiles">the TikTok war</a>”. Memes, tweets, videos and blog posts communicate both vital information and propaganda, potentially changing the course of history. This highlights the importance of agile and critical social media use.</p>
<p>English in schools, in contrast, still focuses on reading books and writing exam essays. Despite <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-021-00457-5">mentions of media</a> in the Australian Curriculum for English, the study of digital writing via social media is not prioritised in senior assessment or national high-stakes testing. This approach seems increasingly out of touch with modern communication.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxq3j/russia-ukraine-invasion-memes">Meme-ification</a> is a feature of media coverage of the Ukraine war. This new word describes the explosion of ordinary people creating shareable, and potentially influential, digital content.</p>
<p>Anyone with a smartphone and internet access can participate in a war that is being fought both on the ground and on digital platforms. And this content frequently references other popular digital culture. For example, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is portrayed as <a href="https://www.insidehook.com/article/internet/ukraine-war-twitter-main-character-ww3-memes">Captain Ukraine</a> by photoshopping his head onto Marvel’s Captain America’s body and tweeting this image.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/guns-tanks-and-twitter-how-russia-and-ukraine-are-using-social-media-as-the-war-drags-on-180131">Guns, tanks and Twitter: how Russia and Ukraine are using social media as the war drags on</a>
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<h2>English education for our age</h2>
<p>This “writing” contributes to narratives and debates about heroism, military morale, fan fiction and US cultural imperialism. This kind of immediate, vibrant and global communication needs to be the basis of study in English.</p>
<p>The ability to critically consume and strategically create social media is vital to the health of democracies. Yet writing for social media posts and powerful platforms such as Twitter, TikTok and Facebook is not central to how we teach English.</p>
<p>Students need to be able to create memes, write rolling news blogs and produce digital news podcasts, all for networked audiences. They need to determine aims, invent concepts, manipulate images, combine different media, compose compelling text and respect copyright law. This is impactful and purposeful writing to achieve influence in the world.</p>
<p>Research initiatives such as the <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1285112.pdf">Digital Self Portrait project</a> demonstrate how students can create vivid new forms of “writing” that explore tensions between their own digitally rich lives and traditional literacies.</p>
<p>Digital writing is often collaborative, and a recent <a href="https://www.edresearch.edu.au/sites/default/files/2022-02/writing-instruction-literature-review.pdf">Australian Education Research Organisation review</a> recommends more collaborative writing in classrooms. Community organisations such as <a href="http://www.write4change.org/">Write4Change</a> are making this possible by connecting youth to write together using digital media via private, communal and moderated sites on mainstream platforms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-an-age-of-digital-disinformation-dropping-level-1-media-studies-in-nz-high-schools-is-a-big-mistake-151475">In an age of digital disinformation, dropping level 1 media studies in NZ high schools is a big mistake</a>
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<h2>Our approach is outdated</h2>
<p>Yet education’s high-stakes assessment regimes don’t value these forms of writing. Sadly, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has <a href="https://naplanreview.com.au/pdfs/2020_NAPLAN_review_final_report.pdf">narrowed the kinds of writing</a> taught in schools even further. One <a href="https://nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/naplan-narrative-prompt---the-box.pdf">sample NAPLAN writing task</a> says, basically, “Here is a picture of a box. Write a story about it.”</p>
<p>This approach needs to change so students are practising the forms of writing and communication that are meaningful in today’s world. This will support citizens of the future to participate fully in workplaces and, most importantly, in democracies.</p>
<p>The Australian government, through the Australian Research Council, has recognised this and funded a new study into the importance of contemporary writing in education. This is through a <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/grants/discovery-program/discovery-early-career-researcher-award-decra">Discovery Early Career Research Award</a> (DECRA) titled <a href="https://teachingdigitalwriting.wordpress.com/">Teaching digital writing in secondary English</a>. This project will explore how teachers can conceptualise and enact the teaching of real-world writing.</p>
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Read more:
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<h2>It’s not a choice of classics or digital writing</h2>
<p>Of course, studying the classics remains important, as does mastering basic skills. Zelenskyy himself quoted Hamlet in a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/opinion/zelensky-ukraine-russia-biden.html">address to the British parliament</a>. So this is not an either/or situation, but what digital writing expert Professor Troy Hicks calls “<a href="https://hickstro.org/2022/02/13/embracing-the-both-and-of-digital-writing/">both/and</a>”. We can study <em>both</em> Hamlet as a play <em>and</em> how other media quote its main character in powerful ways.</p>
<p>Students can themselves explore making strategic literary references in their own social media posts and interventions. The study of rhetoric (argument and persuasion) and aesthetics (cultural value) needs to include diverse media for contemporary relevance. </p>
<p>Human conflicts, projects, imaginings and achievements are now happening in new forms. The devastating theatre of war playing out in Ukraine and online has offered “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/zelenskiy-ukraine-war-writers-journalists">a masterclass in message</a>”.</p>
<p>If a key aim of Australia’s compulsory literacy education is to “<a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/">create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens</a>” then students need to learn to communicate in the modes of contemporary society. They need to enjoy the engagement and learning that comes from participating in genuinely important dialogues and situations, even if just in protected classroom and school-based versions of these. </p>
<p>Social media use potentially both threatens and supports democracy. Yet media education remains devalued in the English curriculum and classroom, largely in favour of reproducing print literature forms and essays.</p>
<p>It is time for English to join the 21st century and embrace all the diverse and digital means of communication that are part of our lives today. Our freedom and futures depend on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lucinda McKnight receives funding from the Australian government through the Australian Research Council (ARC). She is a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) recipient.</span></em></p>The Ukraine war shows how important agile and critical social media use can be. It’s a reminder that our English curriculum in schools is out of touch with our world of digital communication.Lucinda McKnight, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1437442020-08-10T03:23:37Z2020-08-10T03:23:37ZWhen English becomes the global language of education we risk losing other – often better – ways of learning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351467/original/file-20200806-20-gk6jh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5166%2C3511&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The English language in education today is all-pervasive. “Hear more English, speak more English and become more successful” has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.</p>
<p>Some say it’s already a universal language, ahead of other mother tongues such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish or French. In reality, of course, this has been centuries in the making. Colonial conquest and global trade routes won the hearts and minds of foreign education systems. </p>
<p>These days, the power of English (or the versions of English spoken in different countries) has become accepted wisdom, used to justify the globalisation of education at the cost of existing systems in non-English-speaking countries. </p>
<p>The British Council exemplifies this, with its global presence and approving references to the “<a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-policy-insight/policy-reports/the-english-effect">English effect</a>” on educational and employment prospects.</p>
<h2>English as a passport to success</h2>
<p>In non-English countries the packaging of English and its promise of success takes many forms. Instead of being integrated into (or added to) national teaching curricula, English language learning institutes, language courses and international education standards can dominate whole systems. </p>
<p>Among the most visible examples are <a href="https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/about-us/our-exam-boards/cambridge-international/">Cambridge Assessment International Education</a> and the <a href="https://www.ibo.org/">International Baccalaureate</a> (which is truly international and, to be fair, also offered in French and Spanish). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-black-hole-of-global-university-rankings-rediscovering-the-true-value-of-knowledge-and-ideas-140236">Beyond the black hole of global university rankings: rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas</a>
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<p>Schools in non-English-speaking countries attract globally ambitious parents and their children with a mix of national and international curricula, such as the courses offered by the <a href="https://sisschools.org/">Singapore Intercultural School</a> across South-East Asia. </p>
<h2>Language and the class divide</h2>
<p>The love of all things English begins at a young age in non-English-speaking countries, promoted by pop culture, Hollywood movies, fast-food brands, sports events and TV shows. </p>
<p>Later, with English skills and international education qualifications from high school, the path is laid to prestigious international universities in the English-speaking world and employment opportunities at home and abroad.</p>
<p>But those opportunities aren’t distributed equally across socioeconomic groups. Global education in English is largely reserved for middle-class students.</p>
<p>This is creating a divide between those inside the global English proficiency ecosystem and those relegated to parts of the education system where such opportunities don’t exist. </p>
<p>For the latter there is only the national education curriculum and the lesson that social mobility is a largely unattainable goal. </p>
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<img alt="Indonesian schoolgirls outside a building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351486/original/file-20200806-24-1yvf3l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Schoolgirls in Sulawesi, Indonesia: is the language divide also a class divide?</span>
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<h2>The Indonesian experience</h2>
<p>Indonesia presents a good case study. With a population of 268 million, access to English language curricula has mostly been limited to urban areas and middle-class parents who can afford to pay for private schools. </p>
<p>At the turn of this century, all Indonesian districts were mandated to have at least one public school offering a globally recognised curriculum in English to an international standard. But in 2013 this was <a href="https://mkri.id/public/content/persidangan/putusan/putusan_sidang_5%20PUU%202012-sisdiknas%20-%20telah%20baca%208%20Januari%202013.pdf">deemed unconstitutional</a> because equal educational opportunity should exist across all public schools.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-taught-in-english-are-reshaping-the-global-classroom-25944">Lessons taught in English are reshaping the global classroom</a>
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<p>Nevertheless, today there are 219 private schools offering at least some part of the curriculum through Cambridge International, and 38 that identify as Muslim private schools. Western international curricula remain influential in setting the standard for what constitutes quality education. </p>
<p>In Muslim schools that have adopted globally recognised curricula in English, there is a tendency to <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/News/newsarchive/2013/Pages/Article---International-Standards-School-in-Indonesia.aspx">over-focus</a> on academic performance. Consequently, the important Muslim value of تَرْبِيَة (<em>Tarbiya</em>) is downplayed. </p>
<p>Encompassing the flourishing of the whole child and the realisation of their potential, <em>Tarbiya</em> is a central pillar in Muslim education. Viewed like this, schooling that concentrates solely on academic performance fails in terms of both culture and faith.</p>
<h2>Learning is about more than academic performance</h2>
<p>Academic performance measured by knowledge and skill is, of course, still important and a source of personal fulfilment. But without that cultural balance and the nurturing of positive character traits, we argue it lacks deeper meaning. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-top-ranking-education-systems-in-the-world-arent-there-by-accident-heres-how-australia-can-climb-up-128225">The top ranking education systems in the world aren't there by accident. Here's how Australia can climb up</a>
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<p>A regulation issued by the Indonesian minister of education in 2018 underlined this. It listed a set of values and virtues that school education should foster: faith, honesty, tolerance, discipline, hard work, creativity, independence, democracy, curiosity, nationalism, patriotism, appreciation, communication, peace, a love of reading, environmental awareness, social awareness and responsibility. </p>
<p>These have been <a href="http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/10075/1/Konsep_dan_Pedoman_PPK.pdf">simplified</a> to five basic elements of character education: religion, nationalism, <em>Gotong Royong</em> (collective voluntary work), independence and integrity.</p>
<p>These are not necessarily measurable by conventional, Western, English-speaking and empirical means. Is it time, then, to reconsider the internationalising of education (and not just in South-East Asia)? Has it gone too far, at least in its English form? </p>
<p>Isn’t it time to look closely at other forms of education in societies where English is not the mother tongue? These education systems are based on different values and they understand success in different ways. </p>
<p>It’s unfortunate so many schools view an English-speaking model as the gold standard and overlook their own local or regional wisdoms. We need to remember that encouraging young people to join a privileged English-speaking élite educated in foreign universities is only one of many possible educational options.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muhammad Zuhdi terafiliasi dengan UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Dobson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The language gap in international education is also a wealth gap that leaves too many students with limited options.Stephen Dobson, Professor and Dean of Education, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonMuhammad Zuhdi, Adjunct Research Fellow Victoria University of Wellington; Head of the Quality Assurance Institute and Senior Lecturer, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah JakartaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216222019-08-18T20:02:56Z2019-08-18T20:02:56ZOde to the poem: why memorising poetry still matters for human connection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288278/original/file-20190816-136203-1un9cgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Committing poetry to memory is so much more than a rote exercise.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/i-CiAEAVusI">Taylor Ann Wright/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Memorising poetry was <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/820197/lost-art-memorization">once common</a> in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Teach-Creativity-Not/124879">gone out of style</a>. There are good reasons for this. </p>
<p>Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can be seen as mindless, drone-like, something done without really thinking about why we’re doing it and what the thing we memorise might mean.</p>
<p>In other words, it can be counterproductive to learn a poem by heart without understanding its content, knowing anything about its author or historical context, or asking what specific aspects of its language make it powerful and appealing. </p>
<p>Literature instructors tend to focus more on showing students how to conduct careful textual analysis than on having them reproduce poetic lines word-for-word. Analytical skills are crucial, and educators should continue to emphasise them.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hooked-on-the-classics-literature-in-the-english-curriculum-32871">Hooked on the classics: literature in the English curriculum</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>But there is great value in memorisation as well. Internalising a poem need not be a rote process. Done right, in fact, it is an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/opinion/sunday/memorize-poems-poetry-education.html">intellectual exercise</a> that illuminates the structure and logic of the text. </p>
<h2>Nevermore, evermore, nothing more</h2>
<p>A teacher might prompt his or her class to reflect on which patterns of sound (such as rhyme, meter or alliteration) serve as memory aids, asking how these patterns interact with the narrative arc of the poem. </p>
<p>Let’s imagine a student sets out to memorise Edgar Allan Poe’s “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven">The Raven</a>.” </p>
<p>Here are two lines from that poem: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain</p>
<p>Thrilled me–filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Someone searching for memorable patterns in the language would probably pay close attention to Poe’s internal rhyme: “uncertain” gives us “curtain,” and “thrilled me” prompts “filled me”. </p>
<p>But that same student might also struggle to keep the exact phrasing of the stanzas’ final lines straight, given that all eighteen of them conclude with “nevermore”, “evermore” or “nothing more”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288285/original/file-20190816-136222-1giog2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most of us will at some point grapple with unhealthy fixations or paranoid fears.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/nV9ZZx98DSs">kalpesh patel/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This could generate a conversation about the role of repetition in the poem – for instance, perhaps it reflects the obsessive and confused mindset of Poe’s speaker. </p>
<p>Students tasked with memorising poems are often required to speak them aloud as a test of mastery. This, too, has its benefits. Reciting a poem can provide a deep and visceral understanding of its linguistic strategies (think of all those rustling “s” sounds in “silken, sad, uncertain”). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorian-women-poets-of-ww1-capturing-the-reverberations-of-loss-108084">Victorian women poets of WW1: capturing the reverberations of loss</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And when saying the poem aloud, you can hear another consciousness speaking in the cadences of your own voice. Counting out the beats of each line, you may feel the poem’s metrical pulses in your tapping fingers and toes.</p>
<p>In this way, the poem <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9869.html">becomes an embodied experience</a> and not merely a printed object.</p>
<h2>A rich mental resource</h2>
<p>True, reading a poem aloud rather than memorising and reciting it can have similar effects to all those above. But performing that poem without the distracting mediation of the page helps incorporate it more thoroughly into mental life. </p>
<p>In doing so, you can enact the way in which many poems – even as they give voice to a sensibility outside our own – also appeal to us precisely because they seem to articulate our unuttered thoughts and feelings. Reciting a poem without reading it can make it feel like it’s just you talking, not necessarily somebody else.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288284/original/file-20190816-136190-1g6x26b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Memorising poetry provides a rich mental resource of beautiful phrases.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/VFSy8iXlHP4">Daniel Hansen/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Few of us have dealt with an ominous raven perching in our chambers, but most of us will at some point grapple with unhealthy fixations or paranoid fears. </p>
<p>Memorising poetry, then, is also a kind of long-term investment. To take a poem with us so we can truly know it, we must know it by heart. </p>
<p>When we commit poems to memory, we internalise a voice that may comfort or inspire us in the future. We <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/they-sailed-away-for-a-year-and-a-day-why-learning-poetry-by-heart-is-good-for-you">create a rich mental resource</a> that lets us summon compelling, evocative, finely-crafted language at exactly the moment when it is most relevant to our emotional lives. </p>
<p>Such language both illuminates and is illuminated by our experiences. Christina Rossetti’s “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44992/a-birthday">A Birthday</a>” begins with these lines:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My heart is like a singing bird</p>
<p>Whose nest is in a watered shoot;</p>
<p>My heart is like an apple-tree </p>
<p>Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For a school child who learns Rossetti’s poem, such metaphors may not be particularly meaningful. But if she carries those lines in her mind over the years, they are likely to take on fresh significance. </p>
<p>If later in life she falls in love or has an intense spiritual experience, they may help her articulate her feelings to herself. Perhaps on a snowy day she will think of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=27A6NdVc4xQC&q=%22snow%22#v=snippet&q=%22snow%22&f=false">Charles Wright’s</a> words: “Things in a fall in a world of fall […]”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-garish-feminism-and-the-new-poetic-confessionalism-106446">Friday essay: garish feminism and the new poetic confessionalism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Perhaps the arrival of a child will remind the former student of <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49008/morning-song-56d22ab4a0cee">Sylvia Plath’s</a> “Love set you going like a fat gold watch”. </p>
<p>Understanding our own sentiments through someone else’s words can provide a thrilling sense of connection, of shared humanity across time and space. </p>
<p>There are certain intellectual advantages to having a wealth of information at our fingertips at all times. But the vast resources that smart phones provide can’t make the beauties and insights of poetic language <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-we-should-memorize">part of our everyday perspective</a> on the world and fine-tune our emotional vocabulary in the process. </p>
<p>For that, we must still memorise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Alfano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Memorising poetry is a kind of long-term investment. To take a poem with us so we can truly know it, we must know it by heart.Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/746712017-03-21T01:04:02Z2017-03-21T01:04:02ZMaking poetry their own: The evolution of poetry education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161605/original/image-20170320-9108-10wi00x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C184%2C1597%2C867&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A student performs at the 2013 Louder Than a Bomb slam poetry competition in Boston, Massachusetts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nu_husky_91/8847238554/">John Tammaro / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The American poet <a href="http://www.williamstafford.org/">William Stafford</a> was often asked by friends, readers, students and colleagues: When did you become a poet? <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11165224">The response he regularly offered</a> was: “The question isn’t when I became a poet; the question is when other people stopped.” </p>
<p>Stafford was articulating what many poets believe: that the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=qwLeqO8dKOkC&pg=PA141&dq=Goatfoot,+Milktongue+and+Twinbird&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsteK4nOPSAhUB04MKHYGIDJQQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=Goatfoot%2C%20Milktongue%20and%20Twinbird&f=false">roots of poetry</a> (rhythm, form, sound) go far back – both personally and culturally – “to the crib” and “to the fire in front of the cave.”</p>
<p>No surprise, then, that children delight in the pleasures of lullabies, nursery rhymes, chants and jingles. They bounce, clap, dance – responding in ways that involve their whole bodies. Yet as they get older, their <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/41482984">delight in poetry often fades</a>. Their pleasure in language and form lessens. In Stafford’s words, they stop being poets. </p>
<p>How have schools been part of this evolution, and what can they do to bring back delight?</p>
<h2>History of poetry in schools</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161450/original/image-20170320-6109-2xdiwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excerpt from the 1777 ‘New England Primer.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://thefederalistpapers.org/ebooks/the-new-england-primer">The Federalist Papers Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historically, poetry has played an important role in the curriculum of U.S. schools. Early American textbooks such as <a href="http://thefederalistpapers.integratedmarket.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-New-England-Primer.pdf#page=11">“The New England Primer”</a> and <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14640/14640-pdf.pdf#page=86">the McGuffey Readers</a> taught children to read with a combination of poetry and prose. In this way, poetry was used to teach morals, patriotism and nationalism, along with <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-book-of-childrens-verse-in-america-9780195035391">subject areas</a> like geography and mathematics.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.upne.com/1584654570.html">19th- and early 20th-century classrooms</a>, “schoolroom poetry” was memorized and performed as a way to promote citizenship, to create a shared sense of community, to develop an American identity and to assist with language acquisition – particularly among immigrants. Because they were meant to be learned “by heart,” the poems taught usually rhymed, had regular <a href="https://literarydevices.net/meter/">meter</a> and used language that was easy to understand, remember and repeat.</p>
<p>This ease of form and content was not, however, matched by historical accuracy. Writers sometimes <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lxDJBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT609&lpg=PT609&dq=A+burgeoning+field+or+a+sorry+state:+U.S.+poetry+for+children&source=bl&ots=JdZUyHkE7-&sig=rcgRcefS3c7u7u9vYgJrwpBAYfs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKxOPxn-PSAhVDspQKHQ_aA7gQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=A%20burgeoning%20field%20or%20a%20sorry%20state%3A%20U.S.%20poetry%20for%20children&f=false">rewrote history</a> into poems that celebrated American values. Take, for example, “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1861/01/paul-revere-s-ride/308349/">Paul Revere’s Ride</a>” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1860. The narrative is compelling for memorization and performance, and portrays an admirable version of American heroism; however, it contains <a href="http://www.upne.com/1584654570.html">little documented historical “truth.”</a></p>
<p>Learned “by heart” and shared with an audience, these poetic retellings of America’s past had significant cultural impact: Both the performer and those listening <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lxDJBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT609&lpg=PT609&dq=A+burgeoning+field+or+a+sorry+state:+U.S.+poetry+for+children&source=bl&ots=JdZUyHkE7-&sig=rcgRcefS3c7u7u9vYgJrwpBAYfs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKxOPxn-PSAhVDspQKHQ_aA7gQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=A%20burgeoning%20field%20or%20a%20sorry%20state%3A%20U.S.%20poetry%20for%20children&f=false">internalized a story</a> that promoted a specific version of nationalism.</p>
<p>In the mid-20th century, it became less important for schools to make citizens or teach English language through memorized lines. Instead, poetry in schools separated into two strands: “serious poetry” and “verse.” Serious poetry was studied; it was officially sanctioned, used to teach literary elements like iambic pentameter, rhymed couplets, metaphor and alliteration. Verse, on the other hand, was unsanctioned – <a href="http://www.seussville.com/books/book_detail.php?isbn=9780394800387">playful</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNsknn_tH74">irreverent</a> and <a href="http://jackprelutsky.com/i-made-a-noise-this-morning-from-what-a-day-it-was-at-school/">sometimes offensive</a>. It was embraced by children for the sake of pleasure and delight.</p>
<p>By the late 20th century, classrooms and curricula began to value the sciences over literary expression and information and technology over art. The study of any poetry – serious or not – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.1673">became marginalized</a>, seldom occurring except in AP courses preparing students for college literature study.</p>
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<h2>Poetry in the classroom today</h2>
<p>Though the late 20th century saw a decline in the study of poetry in schools, recent decades have seen an upsurge in poetry that is more relevant and more accessible to young people.</p>
<p>For instance, if in the past, schoolchildren learned poems written almost exclusively by white men glorifying a sanitized version of American history, recently students have begun to read poems by poets who represent racial, ethnic, cultural or religious diversity as part of their heritage. This represents a major development in the world of poetry for children.</p>
<p>Poets in recent years have introduced English-speaking children to a range of cross-cultural poetic forms: <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780880013512/essential-haiku-volume-20">Japanese haiku</a>, <a href="http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/Tap-Dancing-on-the-Roof/9780544555518">Korean sijo</a> and the <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060097653/19-varieties-of-gazelle">Middle Eastern ghazal</a>. Poets have published collections of poetry (often multilingual) from around the world, conveying the experiences of culturally diverse national and international groups.</p>
<p>As well, children have access to poetry by groups that have historically been marginalized and silenced in American schools: <a href="http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A118">Native Americans</a>, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/francisco-x-alarcon">Hispanic/Latino Americans</a>, <a href="https://courtneymeredith.com/">Pacific Islanders</a>, <a href="http://www.janetwong.com/">Asian-Americans</a> and <a href="http://www.nikki-giovanni.com/">African-Americans</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.danezsmithpoet.com/">LGBTQ poets</a>, poets <a href="http://www.laurieclementslambeth.com/">with disabilities</a> and poets from a range of religious backgrounds.</p>
<p>Many young people are also writing poems themselves – both inside and outside the classroom. There are a number of recent collections of poetry that contain the voices of young writers: “<a href="http://www.candlewick.com/essentials.asp?browse=Subject&mode=book&isbn=0763610356">Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls</a>,” “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780064472647/paint-me-like-i-am">Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems from WritersCorp</a>,” “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Yl2shemJBYkC&pg">When The Rain Sings: Poems By Young Native Americans</a>,” “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Salting_the_Ocean.html?id=oEtK97GJEaUC">Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young People</a>” and “<a href="https://www.leeandlow.com/books/the-palm-of-my-heart">The Palm of my Heart: Poems by African American Children</a>.” These collections are often used in classrooms to teach poetry as a vehicle for self expression.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161447/original/image-20170320-6133-17dhhre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">15-year-old Chloe Humphrys performs her poem ‘Youth’ at a slam poetry competition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/JcbaHW">Blue Mountains Library / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Young people finding their poetic voices</h2>
<p>In addition to writing poetry in their classes, today’s young writers are appearing on numerous poetry websites and are circulating poems – their own and those of others – through social media.</p>
<p>The most exciting development in the world of poetry for young people is in the arena of performance. There is a widespread renewed interest in <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Spoken_Word_Revolution.html?id=aodjAAAAMAAJ">spoken poetry</a> for and by <a href="http://www.sourcebooks.com/spotlight/hip-hop-speaks-to-children.html">young people</a>. Its growth is signaled by the emergence of hip-hop, rap, poetry slams and spoken-word poetry events. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/phl.1990.0007">roots of poetry</a> are in speaking and listening. Poetry events for young people once again allow students to perform for an audience those poems they have committed to memory and learned “by heart.” If, in the past, poems were memorized as a way to indoctrinate students into a way of being “American,” today’s young poets are using their words and voices to express their own cultural and political convictions and commitments. </p>
<p>As a poet, educator and scholar, I am heartened by the current reinvigoration of the field. In myriad forms by diverse writers in a variety of venues, poems for children are happening. </p>
<p>Young people are growing their own voices, falling in love with words, writing and performing their own poems. </p>
<p>In and out of schools, they are reclaiming the poet selves that Stafford believes they were born with – through a powerful and continuing relationship with the rhythms, forms and sounds that are poems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Apol does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Poetry has been a part of teaching and learning for hundreds of years. But how has poetry education changed? And how are young voices using poetry to express themselves today?Laura Apol, Poet, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/554122016-03-04T12:31:53Z2016-03-04T12:31:53ZWhy teachers in France should stop giving pupils outdated English names<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113213/original/image-20160229-4105-kw9bki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s back to school for children in France after the half-term winter holidays, which means a return to a particular teaching tradition: giving English names to students who are learning the language for the first time. </p>
<p>This English name is intended to give students a second identity, providing them with both motivation and a place within a specific cultural universe. In a sense, it’s bit like moving Big Ben into a French classroom.</p>
<p>So the children are given names such as Jane, Alison and Betty, or Andrew, George and Peter. Depending on the school, students may or may not get to choose. Some prefer to use their French names in class, with varying responses from teachers. Some teachers accept the student’s decision, others impose the use of the new name. English names can be kept across several years of study and even different schools, or change from year to year.</p>
<h2>What’s in a name?</h2>
<p>But at a young age, when children’s identity is still under construction, is it really possible to adopt a new name from an unfamiliar culture? In French kindergartens, for example, children’s first names are written by the peg on which their coats hang. They learn to recognise and write out the name, and associate it with their photo – and themselves.</p>
<p>So how should schools manage students who take on a second, scholarly identity? What do such teaching practices tell us about the understanding of the English-speaking world by teachers and students? And do the names given really represent the reality of the culture they are trying to understand?</p>
<p>To answer these questions, I did an informal survey of several language books aimed at seven to nine-year-old pupils, with a focus on English. With the exception of one, all books offered typically “English” names, with none of any other origin, even in the most recent editions.</p>
<p>But England – the reference for publishers of language books for first-year students – is a multicultural nation. There is a large migrant and international populations in Britain, from communities of all cultural backgrounds, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26823489">including France</a>.</p>
<p>So in such lists, where are the names of Indian or Arabic origin? In Britain, Jack and Harry were the most common <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/babynamesenglandandwales/2015-08-17">boys’ names</a> for a long time, but depending on how you count, the most popular name is now either <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muhammed-really-is-most-popular-baby-name-in-the-uk-as-is-mohammed-muhammad-9895605.html">Muhammed</a> or <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/dec/01/muhammad-not-most-popular-boys-name-in-britain">Oliver</a>, which is of French origin. </p>
<h2>Identity politics</h2>
<p>As a consequence, French methods of teaching English to children can obscure the genuine cultural diversity of the United Kingdom and so only offer a partial picture of its culture. This is how stereotypes are born. </p>
<p>Through this reduced list of English names, teachers in France are instilling in children an erroneous vision of the United Kingdom from the very beginning. This is a misrepresentation of UK society (or of America or any other English-speaking country).</p>
<p>One of the consequences of shaping students’ choices in this way is to imply that some identities are correct, and others less so. It also influences the value students attach to their own identity. Presumably this practice is well-intentioned, but it’s essentially didactic to the detriment of reality.</p>
<h2>Frozen in time</h2>
<p>Most often, pupils use their English names in language classes to introduce themselves, according to <a href="http://www.primlangues.education.fr/ressources/sequences-pedagogiques">PrimLangues</a>, a French website providing support to teachers of modern languages. But introducing yourself as “Jane” when your name is actually Aisha or Neweda is anything but easy.</p>
<p>Sometimes, particular names are used to help learn the different sounds of English, as proposed by this list from the <a href="http://www4.ac-nancy-metz.fr/ia55/spip.php?article2183">Academie Nancy-Metz</a>. This makes sense – English is well known for being difficult to pronounce for many French speakers. </p>
<p>But this list is also only made up of old-fashioned “English” names, such as Laura, Mark, Peter or Samantha. We see neither Indian nor Arabic first names, only a caricature of the English-speaking world. The multicultural reality of the culture being studied is thus neglected. </p>
<p>With all good intentions, these methods of teaching English in France promote a false image of a culture that has been frozen in time. It’s worth thinking twice before giving English names to French students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominique Macaire ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Will Hélène really learn English better if you call her Helen?Dominique Macaire, Professeure des universités à l'école supérieure du professorat et de l'éducation, Université de LorraineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/313872014-09-30T05:26:15Z2014-09-30T05:26:15ZEnglish lessons alone won’t boost employment in South Asia<p>With a joint population of 1.6 billion, the South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are home to nearly one quarter of the world’s population. It is the most densely populated geographical region in the world, and one of the poorest. </p>
<p>Despite their political, economic and linguistic differences, the countries in the region have similar labour market issues. Education systems are failing to provide young people with the skills needed to fill the jobs of the future. Some argue that English language teaching should be a priority in response – but my research suggests that this is not always a clear cut route to better job prospects.</p>
<h2>Demographic dividend or disaster?</h2>
<p>All the countries in the region are facing a potential increase in economic growth and a drop in poverty as a result of a higher proportion of working age people in their populations. </p>
<p>Though all countries of the region face this potential demographic dividend, many are warning that a demographic disaster may be looming instead. Recent research by <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/britishcouncil.uk2/files/south-asia-skills-report-summary.pdf">The Economist Intelligence Unit</a> suggests that education systems in these countries are not preparing people with the skills that the new market demands. </p>
<p>The region is also home to the largest proportion of unemployed and inactive youth in the developing world. <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:20827027%7EpagePK:146736%7EpiPK:146830%7EtheSitePK:223547,00.html">A World Bank report</a> shows that there are high levels of underemployment, even among educated youth. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html">The rate of unemployment in India</a> is 8.5% and youth unemployment is at 10.2%. In Sri Lanka, youth unemployment is 19.4%. These young people are often served by struggling education systems which <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-indias-universities-cant-keep-up-with-the-masses-24344">are failing to provide</a> access and deliver quality in both the state and private sectors.</p>
<h2>What’s the greatest skills gap?</h2>
<p>Increasingly, “skills development” is being framed as crucial to the development of the knowledge economy in this region. Governments across South Asia have launched a range of policy initiatives and interventions to address the skills gap, and this will also be a focus of <a href="http://wwwunescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/epr/ERF/Conference_docs/ED-Beyong-2015/Final_Key_messages_post_2015-Final18_Dec.pdf">development agendas post-2015 </a>, when the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals passes. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aspiringminds.in">Employability tests</a> conducted in the region identify lack of computer literacy and general communication skills as a impediment to employment, but particularly prevalent in the policy discourse is the need for English language skills. English language teaching projects in the region are typically touted as <a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Z413%20EDB%20Section12.pdf">“strengthening human resource development” and “improving prospects for well-paid employment”</a>. </p>
<p>Within this context, it is essential that we properly understand the role that English plays and will play in skills development in South Asia. This is why the British Council asked me to carry out some <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org.np/sites/britishcouncil.np/files/role_of_english_in_skills_development_in_south_asia_inside.pdf">research </a> about the relationship between English language learning and skills development in the region. I reviewed the evidence that exists about the relationship between education, English language skills, skills development and economic development in the region.</p>
<h2>The impact of English</h2>
<p>I found that skills in English have a positive impact on economic development, and English language skills are highly rewarded in the labour market. But the story isn’t that simple.</p>
<p>People who speak English do, in general, tend to earn more. But returns to English language skills accrue along with other socioeconomic variables such as gender, ethnicity and class. For example, the average earnings of <a href="http://www.in.one.un.org/task-teams/scheduled-castes-and-scheduled-tribes">Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes </a> – the historically disadvantaged groups in the region – are lower than that of someone with a similar educational background and a similar level of English. This suggests that English language learning on its own will not allow a person to overstep other socioeconomic obstacles. Compensation could be necessary in order to equalise opportunities for the disadvantaged.</p>
<p>It is also important to note that the studies I reviewed do not suggest – as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268110000508">some have asserted </a> – that the fact that the region is highly multilingual has a negative impact on its economic development. </p>
<p>In fact, the use of local languages may be of particular value in the informal labour market, which accounts for up to 90% of jobs in South Asian countries. The use of local languages (and not English) <a href="http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/international_economics/shared/international_economics/prof_websites/arcand/publications/LIED-7%283%29-1.pdf">may also account</a> for a stronger relationship between education and economic development in some contexts, suggest some. </p>
<h2>Not the whole picture</h2>
<p>While the research carried out so far points to positive returns to those with good English skills, it may need to be interpreted with caution. This is because much research is based on individuals working in the formal labour market, where only a maximum of 10% of the people in the region work. </p>
<p>There may also be some question about the reliability of the English tests and statistical calculations used in these studies. And it is difficult to separate returns to English language skills from returns to quality education. People who have strong English language skills tend to also have had a high quality of education. </p>
<p>Simply delivering more English language education without detailed consideration of these issues, and without embedding education within wider programmes for development, is not likely to lead to economic development for individuals or nations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Erling receives funding from the British Council for her research. </span></em></p>With a joint population of 1.6 billion, the South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are home to nearly one quarter of the world’s population. It is the most…Elizabeth J. Erling, Lecturer of English Language Teaching , The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/306262014-08-19T05:18:08Z2014-08-19T05:18:08ZDon’t cut translations to fund English lessons for migrants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56730/original/qhvb9xqz-1408376399.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We've come here to speak English.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_b/5556290652/sizes/l">PsyProblem</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/onspeakingterms">new report</a> from the think-tank <a href="http://www.demos.co.uk/">Demos</a> is calling for a new national strategy for the way we teach English to migrants in the UK. Its researchers point to 850,000 people in the most recent census who said they could not speak English properly. </p>
<p>I broadly agree with the tenor of the report and its calls for wider changes in policy and funding of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). It is these that need fixing, rather than the way professionals are actually teaching English to migrants. But I disagree with the suggestion that money could be saved from translating local council documents and spent on English teaching. This is simplistic and ignores the reality on the ground for many migrants. </p>
<h2>Short-term funding</h2>
<p>Many of the report’s insights echo what informed opinion in the field, such as the <a href="http://www.natecla.org.uk/">National Association for Teaching English and Community Languages to Adults</a>, the <a href="http://actionforesol.org/">Action for ESOL</a> campaign, and <a href="http://www.niace.org.uk/">NIACE</a> have been saying for a number of years.</p>
<p>It highlights the damaging impact of funding cuts on ESOL provision, citing data released through a freedom of information request that found government ESOL funding had reduced 40% in the last five years. </p>
<p>Demos points to the prevailing short-termism of funding sources. In my experience this requires adult ESOL professionals to spend less time on core teaching and learning and more on writing funding bids. These either squeeze existing students into new “fundable categories” or abandon them for those who will attract funding. </p>
<p>I also applaud the recognition by Demos that so-called “soft outcomes”, such as increased confidence and self-esteem, should be recognised when it comes to a national strategy. This could help to broaden the aims of adult English-teaching beyond a narrow focus on access to work, important though that is.</p>
<h2>Don’t cut back from translation</h2>
<p>But I disagree that money can be saved to spend on adult ESOL by cutting back on translation services. This assumes that there is a population of people happy to rely on translation services and never learn English. I have invariably found migrants want to learn, although they face many practical barriers.</p>
<p>Translation services can only ever be a partial solution to communication problems, but they are an essential one. They need to be provided in complement to strong English language teaching provision. This must both reach out to the most isolated and disadvantaged, as well as stretching and enabling achievement at the other end of the spectrum. This achievement can be economic, but also academic and civic. </p>
<p>Many of the points Demos make are interconnected. The increasing use of volunteers to teach English to migrants is a direct consequence of the shrinking of provision due to funding cuts. I started my professional life in adult ESOL in the mid 1970s organising a volunteer teaching scheme so I know something of this at first hand. There is a sense of déjà vu in the present situation. </p>
<h2>Quality language learning for all</h2>
<p>There are frequent complaints in the report that the ESOL system is not fit for purpose. Demos points to a <a href="https://esol.britishcouncil.org/sites/esol/files/ESOL%20in%20the%20post-compulsory%20learning%20and%20skills%20sector%20an%20evaluation.pdf">2008 Ofsted report</a> that found questionable quality in around half of providers. </p>
<p>Yet in the mid 2000s I directed the adult <a href="http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=1107">ESOL Effective Practice Project</a> which found many examples of excellent, inspiring provision. Let’s hope this report can trigger commitment from the major parties to reform the policy and funding regime and bring adult English teaching to migrants out of a hand-to-mouth existence.</p>
<p>It’s also important to recognize that the 850,000 potential ESOL learners are not the only people in our country who have problems with language learning. Many mainstream, English-speaking citizens would struggle to put together two words in a language not their own, even if their life depended on it.</p>
<p>The report points at times to the need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/drop-the-negative-spin-on-kids-who-start-school-bilingual-they-are-a-rich-resource-for-the-future-28674">make multilingualism a resource</a> not a problem. To me, this calls for a recognition that our national language problem is bigger than integrating those who don’t speak English. To recognise this would call for not a National ESOL Strategy, but a National Language Strategy in which access to English would be an essential – but not the only – component. If one of the major parties were to pick up this challenge it would be truly visionary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30626/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Baynham receives funding from AHRC and ESRC. He has also received funding in the past from the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy.</span></em></p>A new report from the think-tank Demos is calling for a new national strategy for the way we teach English to migrants in the UK. Its researchers point to 850,000 people in the most recent census who said…Mike Baynham, Professor of Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/301302014-08-07T16:09:30Z2014-08-07T16:09:30ZShakespeare plays key role in teaching children to take creative leaps<p>Somewhere, in the depths of your memory, you can probably still recall a quote or two from Shakespeare. Everybody in the UK studies the Bard at school – whether they go on to love him or hate him. As leading lights in Shakespeare scholarship <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/edacs/departments/shakespeare/events/internationalshakespeare.aspx">gather</a> to discuss the finer nuances of his work it’s clear that, 450 years after his birth, Shakespeare’s plays and poetry play a unique role in English education. Now new ways of teaching Shakespeare are encouraging children to take creative leaps with his language and meaning – and helping them learn in the process. </p>
<p>The new English curriculum continues to insist that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study#key-stage-3">all students should study Shakespeare</a>, covering at least two of his plays between the ages of 11 and 14 years old. But since public education began, there have been <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1754-8845.2010.01082.x/abstract">debates</a> on if and how Shakespeare should be taught. </p>
<p>The Victorians introduced the idea of reading Shakespearean literature to “improve” young minds. In the late 20th century this translated into a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/19/books.schools">reductive, desk-based approach</a> with examinations requiring students to analyse individual scenes in detail, often with little or no understanding of the play as a dramatic whole. </p>
<p>But the publication of Cambridge academic Rex Gibson’s <a href="http://education.cambridge.org/uk/subject/english/shakespeare/cambridge-school-shakespeare-teacher-support/cambridge-school-shakespeare-teaching-shakespeare">Teaching Shakespeare</a> in 1998 has led to a focus on bringing the plays alive as theatrical performances. Gibson argued that if we treat Shakespeare’s plays as scripts to be performed, then students are able to actively interpret a text in ways that are relevant to them. </p>
<p>It is the very complexity of Shakespeare’s language which makes his work so suited to creative approaches led by students. The difficult language, complex plots and distant settings of the plays demand new ways of thinking from children. And when they study the plays by performing them, it allows them to take creative risks, giving children a sense of confidence and ownership over the text.</p>
<p>Today, Gibson’s philosophy and practical exercises, alongside other ideas such as those around the use of the voice and language by voice coach <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0020415559.html">Cicely Berry</a>, have created a more unified approach to the way children learn Shakespeare. </p>
<p>Although companies such as <a href="http://www.rsc.org.uk/education/online-resources/">the Royal Shakespeare Company</a>, <a href="http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/education/teachers/teaching-resources">Shakespeare’s Globe</a>, and the <a href="http://www.ssf.uk.com/how-it-works">Shakespeare’s School Festival</a> have their own particular take on educating children about Shakespeare, they share a commitment to ensemble, rehearsal-room exercises. Ultimately, children and teachers alike are now increasingly being invited to play with Shakespeare.</p>
<h2>Playing with language</h2>
<p>Drama education scholar Joe Winston has <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.5406/jaesteduc.47.2.0001?uid=3738032&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104563949243">studied</a> this playful approach to Shakespeare in the RSC’s work with some of its youngest students. He has used games and exercises to explore the story of The Tempest with four and five-year-olds. </p>
<p>My own ongoing research with the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival has looked at how teachers are encouraged to explore the vocal possibilities of the language with their students, to enjoy playing with the curious words. One teacher, introducing her class of nine and ten-year-olds to the language of Richard III, encouraged them to: “enjoy the strange words, taste them like sweets”. The children delight in this, and begin their rehearsals feeling this language is “theirs”.</p>
<p>The benefits of beginning with a playful approach like this which avoids the need for torturous explanations of Shakespeare’s language is increasingly backed up with linguistic research. Linguist <a href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780194421539.do">Guy Cook</a> suggests young children will learn language just as readily through playing with “form” as with “content”. </p>
<p>Another key to this approach to teaching Shakespeare is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569780902868713#.U-Isy9GmfIU">the ensemble</a>: a theatrical model of collaborative creativity. The principle is that working together creates <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/downloads/would_you_risk_it_for_shakespeare.pdf">a safe space which is never a comfort zone</a>. This removes pressure (there is no right or wrong answer) without lowering the stakes (members of the group are still accountable to each other, the demands of the text and, if performing, the audience). “Star turns” by one child are discouraged and the teacher becomes an informed facilitator, rather than the unchallengeable authority.</p>
<p>In practice, the ensemble approach may see parts shared between the whole cast: picture a primary school class filling the Globe stage during a performance of The Tempest. In the scene where Ariel begs his freedom and Prospero denies him, one student stands centrally as Prospero, while 25 children weave around him as the fairy-like Ariel, calling their responses in chorus. </p>
<p>In a lesson or rehearsal, students can also explore a scene together in small groups through freeze frames and modern improvisations. Teachers can intervene to prompt discussion, inviting the group to return to their scripts for reference, to think of other versions of the play they have seen, or to make links with their own interests. Take, for example, a group of GCSE children I observed rehearsing Titus Andronicus who were delighted by its dark content, and themes of loyalty and betrayal. Only two actors will be on stage in the final performance, but the whole class contributed to shaping the scene.</p>
<h2>Taking creative risks</h2>
<p>This is an approach based on games, exercises, experiments and improvisations built by the teacher, but in which students must take a creative leap. Working on Shakespeare in this way takes time, risks and mutual trust. </p>
<p>The artistic and educational outcomes are not precisely predictable in terms of educational levels and grade boundaries. Yet <a href="https://www.shakespeareschools.org/impact/impact-report">national evaluation carried out by Shakespeare’s Schools Festival</a> and <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/education/impact-and-research/">research commissioned by the RSC</a> has indicated that when students are able to play with Shakespeare and construct meanings true to both the texts and their own lived experience, they grow in confidence and academic engagement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Kitchen receives funding from The Economic and Social Research Council</span></em></p>Somewhere, in the depths of your memory, you can probably still recall a quote or two from Shakespeare. Everybody in the UK studies the Bard at school – whether they go on to love him or hate him. As leading…Jennifer Kitchen, PhD student, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/272512014-06-04T14:22:34Z2014-06-04T14:22:34ZTo write English like a professor, don’t rely on Google translate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49890/original/qgtrcmx9-1401443680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You haven't used 'stakeholder' enough. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-157531832/stock-photo-mature-male-professor-explaining-test-to-student-in-classroom.html?src=r7uP_KZR3DDo4DdLXN7CHA-1-14">Professor and student via Tyler Olson/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thankfully, nobody speaks academic English as a first language. The English of the university is a very particular form that has specific features and conventions. Sometimes, this is just referred to as “academic style”. </p>
<p>It used to be a matter of instinct – what felt right. But now a <a href="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cral/researchgroups/clw/index.aspx">large amount of research</a> is using a “big data” approach to analyse millions of words of academic writing. This has resulted in projects such as the <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist/">Academic Word List</a>, the 570 most commonly used words in academic text across disciplines, (excluding the 2,000 most common words in English). </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2012.11.002">Other research</a> has looked at what words and phrases are often used to thread the various parts of a structure together. These are known as “lexical bundles”, and reflect the view that a language doesn’t have a separate grammar and vocabulary – rather the two are combined into a “lexico-grammar”.</p>
<p>Every university which teaches in English will have an English language teaching department to support students whose first language is not English. These departments vary in size and prominence, but what they all share is that they purport to teach “English for academic purposes”. </p>
<h2>What’s acceptable?</h2>
<p>There is a tension within the field about what type of English should be acceptable. It is recognised that English is no longer solely the language of the British, North Americans and Australasians. English is spoken as a first or second language in countries such as Kenya and Malaysia, and is being learnt as a lingua franca by <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-taught-in-english-are-reshaping-the-global-classroom-25944">vast numbers of people across the world</a>, from Argentina to China. </p>
<p>This has led to a re-conceptualisation of English as a language without a centre, and with a much greater flexibility in terms of grammatical accuracy than a single standard. This makes enormous sense when a Pole is talking to a Vietnamese person in a social setting: the niceties of grammar do not matter, the message does. </p>
<p>However, academic writing is generally done under high-stakes conditions, on which students’ degree are judged. This leads to a tension between encouraging students to write with clarity, with accuracy or with fluency. </p>
<p>If we tell our students “the message, not the grammar, matters” and the person marking their dissertations insists that the correct form is “the data suggest” not “the data suggests”, we are doing them a disservice. </p>
<p>This idea of a grammatical normality becomes even more complex when we bring in students who are using English as a second language, but often in highly localised forms. </p>
<p>For example, a Malaysian student whose English is perfectly functional, but includes very few auxiliary verbs such as “does” and “am”, may come to a course on English for academic purposes, to be told that the form of English he speaks, and has spoken since childhood is “wrong”. </p>
<p>Some see this as the equivalent of an American studying in Britain being told she must stop using words such as “candy” and “mailman” – surely an intolerable intrusion into her linguistic identity. Or, should we teach students that they must, at least in the academic context, speak and write within the grammatical norms of the UK? This seems like an unacceptably colonial attitude.</p>
<p>The solution most practitioners and writers come up with is to allow the students the choice. To do this, they need to allow them to see and analyse the norms of academic writing. By doing this, the control of what is acceptable moves from the teacher to the students, allowing them a much larger amount of autonomy in their writing. </p>
<p>This also encourages students to think of themselves as member of the academic community, with their own academic self, and academic voice. This is reflected in the shift in title from “teacher” or “tutor” to “language adviser”, seen in many English for academic purposes departments.</p>
<h2>The coming of Google translate</h2>
<p>Another issue facing the sector is the issue of free online automatic translations, such as Google translate. It could be argued that these could put the English for academic purposes departments out of business: why would a student go to the expense and effort of learning English when he or she can just translate in and out of his first language online? </p>
<p>But this argument relies on the assumption that academic English relies on a surface level of literacy, based purely on grammatical accuracy. What Google translate is unable to do is teach the deeper academic literacies needed by students for full engagement with the academic community. It is my prediction that machine translation will inevitably change the way students are taught English – but it will not replace it.</p>
<p>Alongside these debates, it’s important to remember that this type of English teaching is all about language being used to express complex ideas, and it is impossible to teach without a certain complexity and depth of content. It is also about aligning to the intellectual norms of academia, which generally involves a large amount of analysis and picking apart of concepts within a rigorous intellectual framework. </p>
<p>We show respect to the intellectuals by trying to deconstruct their work. However, many students will come to an English for academic writing course from a radically different intellectual background, one where school, or even university has been more focused on understanding and reworking the ideas of the established experts, and respecting their work by not trying to deconstruct it. </p>
<p>Therefore, the job of the English for academic purposes teacher gains an extra layer. They need to encourage a different type of thinking in the students, in order to enable them to take part in a different type of writing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Groves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Thankfully, nobody speaks academic English as a first language. The English of the university is a very particular form that has specific features and conventions. Sometimes, this is just referred to as…Mike Groves, Head of the Centre for English Language Education, Malaysia Campus, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/259442014-04-30T05:14:16Z2014-04-30T05:14:16ZLessons taught in English are reshaping the global classroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/47293/original/fqqq2qxv-1398779711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If not, you may be left out.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-118062784/stock-photo-do-you-speak-english-test.html?src=hSB89k4lWB_RrVt9Q3l-Dw-1-2">woaiss/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities and schools across the globe are offering an increasing number of courses taught in English. Parents and politicians alike are pushing for this change as English is considered a worldwide language of opportunity in education and business. </p>
<p>The decision to use English as medium of instruction has very important implications for the education of young people in non-anglophone countries and yet little research evidence is available. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/research/applied-linguistics/emi/">EMI Oxford</a>, a new research centre at Oxford University’s department of education, is currently carrying out global research into this issue to explore where and why English is being introduced as a teaching language and what happens in the classroom when it is.</p>
<p>Our first report has been written with support from the British Council, setting out the size and shape of English language teaching in 55 countries. Initial findings, being presented at the <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/going-global">Going Global conference</a> on international education, show that 83% of countries surveyed believed that they did not have enough qualified teachers to teach through English.</p>
<p>What “qualified” means is not yet clear as teaching qualifications do not seem to exist. It may be that not all teachers can teach in English. For example, older, more experienced teachers may find it difficult. If teachers cannot speak good English, the home language may still be used most of the time.</p>
<h2>Going anglophonic</h2>
<p>There is no still clear definition yet of what teaching in English actually means and how it includes other forms of bilingual education. It is also not yet clear exactly what the consequences of introducing English as a teaching language are on teaching, learning, assessment and teachers’ professional development.</p>
<p>There are many reasons why countries introduce English as a teaching language. They want their students to become bilingual, improve their knowledge of a target culture, and see English as opening up opportunities for students to work and study abroad. Countries may want to spread their own culture throughout the world or have political reasons for adopting English as a medium for instruction, such as nation-building and aligning a country with English-speaking neighbours. </p>
<p>Some institutions are not so sure why they are adopting English to teach in. One European institution told us: “Other universities hurry to copy us, but they don’t really know what is the objective of this hurry.”</p>
<p>The use of English is indisputably growing, especially in the private sector where it can give a school or university the edge over its competitors and is seen to offer students an international education with all the benefits that can bring.</p>
<h2>The consequences</h2>
<p>If this is the case, does learning in English create more inequality? What happens to those children who miss out on an education in English, who are not part of this social elite? Are we creating a two-tier education system of English-speaking “haves” and “have-nots”?</p>
<p>Education is a <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a26">fundamental human right</a>. So we could ask if education in your home language is also a human right. Some countries, such as Hungary, are hesitating to adopt English as a medium of instruction, asking themselves whether all students are capable of learning through English and if all teachers are capable of teaching in English.</p>
<p>Will the students’ understanding of the subject matter suffer if their level of English or their teacher’s level is low? Even though <a href="http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/crdemi-oxford/emi-launch/">early studies</a> in bilingual education showed that students performed well, some countries are reversing their policy on teaching in English as they fear that students will not perform as well in English as in their home language. Of course there are many reasons why this might happen. </p>
<p>Some countries, such as Israel, hesitate to go towards English as a medium of instruction as they wish to protect their home language, culture and education system. </p>
<p>Questions abound as to the use and future of the home language if English is the language of education. If students are taught solely in English it would be hoped that they acquire an academic language and a language of their subject, for example medicine, in English. This will help them to communicate in international conferences and read papers on their subject in English. But will it help them talk to patients in their country? And will the home language itself lose out from not being used in education? Is it a question of “use it or lose it?”</p>
<p>At EMI Oxford we are working on a global online survey of teachers to take place between May and October 2014 to help answer some of these questions and more.</p>
<h2>The future of English</h2>
<p>On the other hand, what will happen to English itself? If teachers in non-anglophone countries use English in a classroom of international students, the English used may well be very different from country to country and even classroom to classroom. Another interesting question is that if everyone is using classroom English as well as their home language, most of the world will be at least bilingual so will native speakers of English be at a disadvantage, will they be the only monolinguals? </p>
<p>Exams and assessment also pose a great challenge. If a subject is taught, or supposed to be taught, in English, which language should it be examined in? What is being examined, the subject content or the English? Who should write and mark these exams?</p>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Pauline-Rea-Dickins-presentation.pdf">examples of countries</a> such as Tanzania where many students fail exams as they are taught in a home language and then expected to take the exams in English. </p>
<p>Teachers in our research so far believe that English can improve communication, help the exchange of ideas and create relations between countries. They see English in the classroom as a way of facilitating world peace. Home students benefit from a language which opens doors and enables them to move globally in academia and business. Teachers are also internationally mobile and this creates opportunities for them to teach abroad.</p>
<p>In the classroom itself though, there is little guidance as to whether “English as a medium for instruction” means teaching in English only or a bilingual education. There seems to be a lack of clear guidelines on how to teach through English and a lack of support and teaching resources. Institutions find it difficult to find enough teachers and to resource exams.</p>
<p>What’s clear is that more research is needed in order to find out the long-lasting impact of English as a medium of instruction around the world. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Dearden receives funding from the British Council. </span></em></p>Universities and schools across the globe are offering an increasing number of courses taught in English. Parents and politicians alike are pushing for this change as English is considered a worldwide…Julie Dearden, Senior Research and Development Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.