One Teacher Struggles to Integrate EIL Approaches in a Microteaching Class : an Action Research Project

Recently the concept of English as an international language (Ell} has been pervasively encouraged in the TESOl education. Applied Linguistics have been strongly encouraged the inclusion of teaching Ell perspectives and highlighted the positive contributions of Ell to bilingual English students’ agency and identity construction. Whereas studies analyzing the extent to which teaching approaches accommodating Ell perspectives have been growing in number, little is actually known about teachers’ experiences in implementing Ell approaches in their classrooms. This study reports an action research project conducted in a Microteaching course in a pre-service teacher education program in Indonesia. In particular, it aims to explore how twelve bilingual English student teachers (BESTs) understand the Ell concepts. It also attempts to document how they navigate their teaching to accommodate such concepts. Data were collected from teaching journals, focus groups and individual interviews. The study found that students have fragmented and surface understanding of Ell. BESTs perceive Ell merely as exposing the cultural content of the materials and relate them to students’ culture. Many of them are of the opinions that Ell is not appropriate to teach grammar and pronunciation. All of them acknowledge the positive contributions of Ell to their self-esteem as beginning bilingual English teachers. Pedagogical implication of the study toward pre-service teacher education programs will be discussed at the end of the paper. key words: English as an international language, native speakers, bilingual English speakers, World Englishes, and culture. WHY Ell APPROACHES IN A MICROTEACHING CLASS? The present study came about from my strong concern when teaching English in a preservice teacher education program, which continues to be informed by the inner-circle orientation to ElT. Using Kachru’s (1992, p. 356} most influential and widely used model of English users profile, the inner circle countries refer to countries where English is most often used as a first language (a mother tongue) such as the US, the UK and Australia. The people from these countries are traditionally known as the native speakers or Monolinguai English Speakers (MES) and their English are seen as the norm and standard in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). In the present study, I will use the term ‘native speaker paradigm’ and ‘inner circle orientation ‘interchangeably to refer to teaching approaches that position native speakers and their English as the only norm. Teacher Education in Era of World Eng/ishes, November 21-22, 2011, UKSW 113 In the context where the present study takes place, favoritism of native-speaker paradigm is evidence in the pervasive use of MESs from the US and Australia to teach speaking courses, crossculture understanding (CCU) courses, as well as writing courses, among others. I do not totally disagree with employing MES teachers (hereafter, MESTs) as they can illustrate that even people from the traditionally inner-circle countries do, indeed, speak different Englishes. However, exclusively employing MESTs from inner-circle countries will do unjust to portray the changing sociolinguistiC realities of English users, which recently have become extensively diverse. The exclusive use of MESTs in teacher education program specifically will project wrong information, that is, ideal English teachers are those from the inner-circle countries. Therefore, as pointed out by Matsuda (2003a; 2005), the curriculum in teacher education programs need to be adapted to accommodate awareness of the evolving and changing landscape of English and English users. Indeed, the pervasive use of native-speaker paradigm is not uncommon in Asia. Studies on English Language Teaching (ELT) practices in Japan, for example, illustrate that English continues to be taught as an inner-circle language, based almost exclusively on American or British English (Iwata et al., 2002; Matsuda, 2003a). A survey of 100 English teachers in Indonesia that I conducted in 2003 found that these teachers continued to have a marked preference for native speakers English teachers to teach skill courses, but not linguistic or content courses. Although many teachers were not necessarily perceived their nonnativeness as a weakness, the majority of them showed a preference towards inner-circle models and norms. I am not suggesting that teaching English with an inner-circle orientation is wrong. In fact, it might be arguably appropriate for students who might need and want to function in inner circle countries. However, it is important to remember that even these students might encounter and involve in practices where awareness of other English varieties is necessary and even crucial to enhance communication effectiveness. Matsuda (2005) warns that only exposing learners to inner circle English may lead to “confusion and resistance” (p.721). Students can question the legitimacy of the Englishes not represented in the classroom and even worst, develop negative attitudes towards them. Therefore, Canagarajah maintains that the purpose of teaching English now is to enable learners to shuttle between different communities of English users and use and this, I believe can only be achieved through the teaching of English with English as an International Language (ElL) orientations. Following McKay (2010) I will use the term ‘English as an International Language’ as an umbrella term to refer to the use of English between bilingual English speakers, whether sharing the same culture or not, as well as between bilingual and monolingual English speakers. for ElL approaches to have a strong hold in the ELT landscape, I am of the opinion that the teachers themselves need to be made aware of the current landscape of English (also in Matsuda, 2003b; Renangya, 2011; Zacharias, 2002). This includes providing a space for teachers to examine, and if necess,ry, reformulate their beliefs surrounding the ownership of English. Without such efforts, teachers cannot develop a favorable attitude toward ElL. Ironically, the reality at the classroom level shows that many teachers are less enthusiastic in embracing the ElL models of teaching English (Jenkins, 2007). Realizing the determining role of teacher education programs to the success of ElL implementation, a study focuses on the extent to which student-teachers actually negotiate and respond to the teaching of English with ElL orientation, is needed. 114 Teacher Education in Era of World Englishes, November 21-22, 2011, UKSW THE¢ ~,,, INTERNATIONAL ‘i::.._ SEMINAR 2011 ….. SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVEilSil’V It is therefore befitting to conduct a study focusing on bilingual English student-teachers’ (for convenicence, BESTs) experiences of teaching English with Ell orientations. The term ‘bilingual’ is used in the broadest sense to refer to people who speak two language and more. This paper intends to be a response to the call made by Matsuda (2003a) to incorporate Ell orientations to the teaching of English in teacher education programs. In particular, the present study aims to document BESTs’ understandings and the challenges they face when teaching English with Ell orientation as well as in designing lesson plans and teaching matenals.