Teaching material as an allyin fostering diversity in ELT
Material must foster representativity beyond stereotypes.
Newsroom
Nov. 27, 2020
Teaching material is a pertinent element when it comes to fostering diversity in ELT (English Language Teaching). Depending on how it is produced and used, its content can be a vehicle to foster representativity, reducing stereotypes and prejudice, or, on the contrary, it can contribute to the perpetuation of the under-representation or of the skewed representation of certain groups. It is necessary to assess the role of this content in the daily life of the classroom and to identify the opportunities that may arise.
The debate around the question of race is one that emerges when dealing with English teaching as well as the selection and use of teaching materials. “A critical racial literacy is needed so that people understand how they’re educated their whole lives to see white people as the norm”, alerts the lecturer and researcher of the Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa (UEPG), Aparecida de Jesus Ferreira, who is the author of many articles and books published in Brazil and abroad. According to the specialist, even teaching in a country with a population whose majority is black like Brazil, teachers may end up collaborating to perpetuate systemic racism through their daily teaching practices. Although this is not always intentional, it is necessary to ask yourself: “Beginning with me, what can I do for society to be more equal and fairer?”, she points up. And material is directly related to this. “If the English language as a discipline works with the mediation of materials such as texts, images, videos and audio recordings, why not, then, use content that is relevant to the situation of the student in the classroom?”, she asks.
Teaching material needs to accompany the student’s reality
The researcher Domingos Sávio Siqueira, from the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), refers to stereotyped teaching material as “the plastic world of teaching material”. He stresses that these materials would not fit with a critical teaching approach to English. Books are a noteworthy example. “In national books, great progress has been made because of the PNLD (Programa Nacional do Livro Didático – National Teachers’ Book Programme)”, he says. “Teaching material, when made globally, errs through generalizations”, he adds. According to Domingos, one of the factors against the upscaling of materials is that the publishers are not usually open to ally their market needs to the need to flexibilize content.
“Materials need to present the real world, not an idealized one”, says Siqueira. Moreover, relating these needs to the perspective of English as a lingua franca, the lecturer highlights the invisibility of countries in which English is the second language, like Jamaica, and even English-speaking countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. All should appear with greater representativity, which does not happen because two hegemonic standards were chosen.
Ideally, in Domingos’ view, there are materials that can be modified to an EFL awareness (read about this term in the text about English as a lingua franca in this link). Additionally, he stresses that it is the teacher who should be able to choose, from a wide variety of books, the one that is closer to their reality to use with their students. This material could also be adapted by the teacher, as long as they have this critical awareness. “They can eliminate issues, expand others, add material they created”, he exemplifies, pointing out that in Salvador, for example – a city with a largely black population – a book essentially with white people in does not help the students to feel represented.
In search of greater representativity in ELT, teachers create teaching ebooks
An English teacher for 20 years and always very much involved in social projects, Ilá Coimbra says that, in a certain moment of her career, she missed being “a trainer, as well as a teacher”. In 2018, she launched an English-teaching ebook in partnership with James Taylor, also an English teacher from Britain. The book, entitled ‘Raise Up!’, emerged from the need that both identified of producing teaching materials capable of dealing with diversity in language teaching. The second ebook created by them was launched in June this year.
Ilá highlights that there are numerous groups that are not normally portrayed in the books or, when they are, they appear stereotyped. She mentions LGBT groups, people over 60, people with a deficiency, black people, indigenous people, women, refugees, among others. The varieties of social classes are also under-represented. “There has been progress in recent years, but the predominance is of white people between 20 and 30 years of age”, she points out. “Many groups are stereotyped – for example, older people are always in the role of grandparents”. Also, it is not unusual for older people to appear in a position of being able to overcome something despite their age.
When making the materials, Ilá and James do not focus on a change in the structures of the language that are taught, but on the cases used to illustrate the lessons. For example, there is an exchange of messages between refugees, families that include homosexuals and black women’s inventions. The result is very positive. “The students need to know English is for them. When students begin to see themselves in that material, they start to feel that that is their place, that they can do it. Motivation is important”, Ilá Coimbra remembers.
Inspirations
RAISE UP! The ebooks produced by Ilá Coimbra and James Taylor are made by volunteers, invited by them to take part, with the aim of contemplating the most varied speech situations. The books are sold for 5 pounds by the site, and the earnings are not for profit. The income is reverted to an institution called CASA, located in São Paulo, where the LGBT population expelled from their homes by their families, are housed. On site, where courses are taught aimed at the LGBT community, English to Transform is offered – a project born to teach English precisely to this population. The earnings from the sale of book 2 will go to the Las Patronas project, in Mexico, which prepares the delivery of meals on trains with immigrants in Santa Cruz. Access the Raise Up! project’s site – https://raiseupforelt.com/
Available at: https://www.inglesnasescolas.org/en/headline/teaching-material-as-an-ally-in-fostering-diversity-in-elt/. Also published in Portuguese, "O material didático como aliado na promoção da diversidade em ELT", available at: https://www.inglesnasescolas.org/headline/o-material-didatico-como-aliado-na-promocao-da-diversidade-em-elt/. Accessed on May 20, 2021.
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