Bringing Literature and Linguistics into EFL Classrooms : Insights from Research and Classroom Practice [1 ed.] 9781443832380, 9781443831857

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Bringing Literature and Linguistics into EFL Classrooms

Bringing Literature and Linguistics into EFL Classrooms: Insights from Research and Classroom Practice

Edited by

Nugrahenny T. Zacharias and Christine Manara

Bringing Literature and Linguistics into EFL Classrooms: Insights from Research and Classroom Practice, Edited by Nugrahenny T. Zacharias and Christine Manara This book first published 2011 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2011 by Nugrahenny T. Zacharias and Christine Manara and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-3185-9, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3185-7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Nugrahenny T. Zacharias and Christine Manara Part I: Bringing Multiculturalism into EFL Classroom Chapter One................................................................................................. 5 “It’s like um…I can’t explain…whatever”: Multiculturalism and My-culturalism in English Classes Roby Marlina Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 17 Narratives: A Dialogue with the Intercultural-self Christine Manara Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 33 Teaching Culture through a Global Perspective: Insights from an ActionResearch Project using Selected Multilingual Narratives Nugrahenny T. Zacharias Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 53 Barathi Mukerjee’s “Management of Grief” and the Teaching of it: Promoting Multicultural Education in an EFL Teacher Education’s Prose Class Purwanti Kusumaningtyas Part II: Bringing Literature into EFL Classroom Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 67 Empowerment in Action: Creative Writing by Asian Teachers for Asian Learners Alan Maley and Jayakaran Mukundan

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Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 77 What Happens When Students Do Creative Writing? Vishnu S Rai Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 91 Using Short Stories in Reading Class to Improve Students’ Critical Thinking Skill Yuli Christiana Yoedo Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 101 Short Stories Use in Language Skills Classes: Students’ Interest and Perception Parlindungan Pardede Part III: Bringing Linguistics into EFL Classroom Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 119 Bringing Thriller into EFL Classes: Helping Learners to Better Cope with Life Lany Kristono Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 133 Corpus-based Study of the School English in the EFL Students’ Writing Hendro Setiawan Husada Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 153 Using a Newspaper Corpus to Create English Language Teaching and Learning Materials Anealka Aziz Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 165 Pessimism and Optimism in Some Critical Approaches to Language Studies Joseph Ernest Mambu Contributors............................................................................................. 183

INTRODUCTION NUGRAHENNY T. ZACHARIAS AND CHRISTINE MANARA

The purpose of this edited book is to inform how theories or approaches in linguistics and literature can be beneficial in English-as-aForeign-Language (EFL) contexts. The goal is not to propose “best method” that would work in every context—rather, to illustrate and share the different ways in which theories drawn from linguistics and literature can enrich English teaching. The book in particular puts emphasis on practical teaching techniques and approaches in using literary works and theories in linguistics in the teaching of English as a foreign language. This book brings together educators’ work and experiences in the teaching literature, linguistics, and language and culture into the English language classroom. These works were presented at an International Seminar with the theme “Bringing linguistics and literature into EFL classrooms” organised by the Faculty of Language and Literature and the Language Training Centre of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia, on November 24 – 25, 2010. The goal of the conference is to gather teachers, teacher educators, and learners of language study to share, negotiate, and co-construct learning and teaching experiences. The conference also functions as a dialogic learning site for all participants from various countries (Australia, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, New Zealand, and USA). The articles presented at this conference offer this richness and diversity of contexts and experiences. This book can be considered as another meeting point for discussion and learning experiences with a wider audience. Therefore, we find it important to put together these discussions and ideas into this anthology of articles authored and shared by educators from various countries. We believe that presenting this collection of articles is a way of communicating ideas and stimulating dialogue with our readers to get engaged with their own teaching context through reflecting, understanding, and responding to their own teaching context.

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This collection of articles includes twelve chapters: 11 selected papers from the conference and one invited paper. For ease of reference, the collection has been arranged in three main sections. The first section consists of articles focusing on the teaching and learning of, the currently developing notion in ELT, multiculturalism in English language study. The second section specifically explores some ways of working with literary works in teaching and learning language. Finally, the third section looks at how applied linguistics can also be used as an approach in language teaching and learning. What sets this book apart from existing books is its explicit coverage of research and practical aspects of teaching. This project has been prompted by the increasing split between the fields of linguistics, literatures and English language teaching. The book will uniquely address this gap. Additionally, the book gives practical classroom applications on how to use theories of linguistics and literary texts in the classrooms. The book can be best described as a professional volume put together by scholars and classroom teachers that works well as a university-level textbook. The book will be suitable for academics and professional audiences. It will provide theoretical and contextual knowledge for undergraduate or graduate students in TESOL, applied linguistics, or related programs. The book will inform practicing teachers who are interested in using theories of linguistics and literature in their classroom and teacher educators who are preparing and assisting pre-service and inservice teachers in the area of TESOL, applied linguistics, or related programs.

PART I: BRINGING MULTICULTURALISM INTO EFL CLASSROOM

CHAPTER ONE “IT’S LIKE UM…I CAN’T EXPLAIN… WHATEVER”: MULTICULTURALISM AND MY-CULTURALISM IN ENGLISH CLASSES ROBY MARLINA

Introduction I would like to commence this paper with a short episode of a lesson of my colleague, Leah (pseudonym), on ‘politeness in international communication’ in her first year undergraduate English as an International Language class, which has 20 students from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds. It is this lesson that has motivated me to write this paper and will be used as the basis for the claims I modestly make in this paper. “Today’s we’re talking about a very interesting topic which is highly relevant to you…and what makes it even more interesting is that all of us can learn about each other’s perception, each other’s cultural values”, Leah started the class. She briefly summarised the theories discussed in the prescribed reading and then moved on to an activity. Students were given a list of scenarios and asked to explain what they would do/say in each of those given scenarios. One of the scenarios was: ‘A representative from an overseas company is visiting your company to inspect the products that you sell. As this is the first encounter with the representative, how would you start the conversation?’ After students finished discussing, Lee asked them to share it with the whole class. One Anglo-Australian student, Jim, said, “I would first introduce myself, hello my name is Jim, nice to meet you and I would expect him to do the same and then after that I’ll talk about our product and give him a company tour”. In response to this, a Japanese student, Taka, laughed, “wow, that’s so Australian, Japanese wouldn’t do that, we would say last name plus ‘san’, Japanese term of address, and then say ‘it’s a pleasure to

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Chapter One meet you and hope to establish good working relationship with you’”. Then a Chinese student, Fei, responded, “I would say ‘welcome’ Mr. or Ms. Chen (surname), and then I’d ask them about their flight, their journey, and say things like ‘you must be tired’”. Kim, a Korean student, added, “I would look at the person and guess the age of the person and then I’ll think about what to say based on their age, but if I don’t know, I’ll ask the age of the person”. When Tae, another Korean student, heard this, he (with a puzzled frown on his face) said “I wouldn’t ask about that person’s age”. Jim agreed “yeah, that would be so impolite, but does it matter though?” Kim responded ‘Tae, that’s very un-Korean, I don’t know why you said that! so unbelievable, and, Jim, Koreans have to know about each other’s age, it’s a very important thing in our society’. Leah was very fascinated by these different responses and probed the students further, “So, Jim, why would you use your first name and expect the person to do the same; Taka, why last name plus san?; Fei, why would you ask them about their flight, journey, and say ‘you must be tired’?; and Kim, what’s with the age?. All of them answered either it’s polite or impolite to do/say […] in their cultures. Leah was unsatisfied and probed further “but why is it polite or impolite to do/say that? Jim said, “well, you know, it’s an Australian thing, I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s our habit”. Kim nodded and said, “well, it’s very Korean, and I don’t know why Tae said that”. Tae did not say anything. Leah was a bit disappointed because nobody had answered her answer satisfactorily. She then asked Fei, ‘what about you?”. Fei said, “it’s like um…so Chinese, you know um…I don’t know um… how to say…I can’t explain…whatever”.

Multiculturalism or cultural diversity is a relatively fashionable term, though it is not something new, in today’s discourse of education. A number of primary and secondary schools in Australia promote the importance of learning and teaching LOTE (Languages Other Than English) and organise multicultural festivals to allow students to learn, experience, and appreciate cultural diversity. Many universities in different parts of the world have also been making considerable efforts to internationalise their curriculum so that students graduate with the ability to function effectively in multicultural social and professional contexts. In English language classes or programs in particular, multiculturalism is often the core teaching focus. Cultural understanding, cultural awareness, cross-cultural comparisons, and multicultural competence have been “on the lips of English teachers” (Tanaka, 2006, p.55) and declared to be an essential main component in ESOL classrooms (Araluce, 2008; Harumi, 2002; Stern, 1983; Tanaka, 2006). Both Araluce (2008) and Harumi (2002) further argue that it is often English language classrooms that provide students with ample opportunities of raising cultural awareness

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and developing multicultural competence. Thus, this paper begins by addressing possible reasons for this ‘obsession’ with multiculturalism as a core focus or element in today’s English language programs. As enriching and inclusive as multiculturalism-oriented English language classes/ programs/curricula may sound, this paper modestly claims that knowing and understanding cultural traits and behaviours from different countries tends to be limiting rather than enriching learners’ knowledge and perceptions. The paper will then conclude with some modest suggestions and their limitations which English teachers may want to consider in their own contexts of teaching.

Why ‘Multiculturalism’ in English Language Teaching (ELT)? The forces of globalisation and the current status of English can be argued as some of the main reasons for the recurring emphasis of the teaching of multiculturalism in today’s English language education. Due to the rapid forces of globalisation, citizens of the world today are living in a ‘small global village’ or, as Hall (1997) termed, ‘postmodern globalisation’ era. An era in which global citizens can witness “the porosity of national boundaries that allow people, goods, and ideas to flow easily between borders” (Canagarajah, 2007, p.231) and the “inescapable interrelationships in virtually all spheres of activity such as trade and commerce, international diplomacy, communications, transport and travel, defence matters, education, entertainment, and so on” (Nihalani, 2008, p.243). The advancement of information and communication technology (internet, online chatting, online networking sites etc) and increased human mobility around the globe have further allowed citizens from different parts of the world to be in contact with each other without stepping outside their national boundary. For example, with the growing number of students, travellers, and migrants in Australia, Australian citizens have an abundance of exposures to diverse cultures and languages. In addition, these exposures are also a remote-switch away as Australia has a broadcaster called SBS, Special Broadcasting Service, which provides the citizens with news, shows, films, entertainment etc. from many different countries and in different languages. Thus, multicultural literacy and multicultural competence are essential in the 21st Century. Then, what role does the English language play in today’s context of globalisation? Not intending to devalue the importance or suggesting the unimportance of learning/teaching other languages in the world, the English language currently enjoys the status of an international language. It is inescapably

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one of the chosen languages in a variety of international economic and cultural arenas such as the language of international organisations, motion picture industry and popular music, international travel, publications, and education (Crystal, 1997, Graddol, 1997; McKay, 2002; McKay & Bokhorst-Heng, 2008). As a result of this, the world has witnessed a dramatic growth in the numbers of speakers of English and nations bestowing a special role or priority upon English, either by making it an official language of the country or by requiring its study as a foreign language (Crystal, 1997; McKay, 2002). Additionally, English is most likely one of the most frequently used tools of communication between people who do not speak each other’s mother tongue1. Therefore, as Nihalani (2008) puts it, “with the dawn of the Internet age and the trend towards globalisation, proficiency in English is a crucial skill for survival” (p. 243). What is even more crucial is the ability to use English to communicate with people from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds and to operate effectively in a variety of settings that are multicultural in nature. Informed by the current situation of the world and the status of English discussed above, many English language educators have been encouraged to integrate multicultural issues into the curriculum or learning materials that aim to develop respect for voices of people from different race, colour, and gender; to increase students’ multicultural knowledge within the framework of universal respect; and to promote equality of opportunity and respectful treatment to people from all ethnic backgrounds (Araluce, 2008; Kumaravadivelu, 2008; Sleeter & Grant, 2003). Instead of only learning about American or British cultures, multiculturalism-oriented ELT materials/curricula/classrooms would include, what Cortazzi and Jin (1996) termed, international cultures, which consist of a great variety of cultures from countries around the world. Not only does this provide students with opportunities to expand their knowledge of other cultures and learn to appreciate other cultures, but they can also learn to accept that learning English does not necessarily mean learning American or British cultures. In addition, multiculturalism-oriented materials also need to have more representations of users of English from different parts of the world by using non-Anglo names and non-Caucasian characters (Gray, 2002; Matsuda, 2002, 2005). In fact, a study by Marlina and Giri (2009) has found that in practice, some material developers and English language teachers (including Leah) in Australia, to some extent, have implemented some of these suggestions in designing, choosing, and teaching the 1 By this, I refer to all users or speakers of English irregardless of their ‘nativeness’ status and their country of origin.

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materials. Therefore, there seems to be a belief that these materials may be considered useful as they promote multiculturalism and at the same time guide students to become competent users of English in today’s globalised world. However, this is still inadequate, especially in the light of my colleague’s classroom which I shared at the beginning of this chapter.

Problematising multiculturalism in ELT Although the concept of multiculturalism promotes the values of and respect for cultural diversity, it seems to overlook that this is likely to limit students’ views of cultural differences, hinder the process of developing students to become unique individuals, and therefore discourage rather than promote multiculturalism. Firstly, learning and teaching cultural differences within the framework of universal respect is undoubtedly essential in today’s English language classrooms. However, cultural difference needs to be learnt and taught with ‘care’. What the concept of multiculturalism and the pedagogical practices that promote it tend to have overlooked is the superficiality of the way ‘culture’ is viewed or talked about. As Kumaravadivelu (2008) argues, the concept/ideology of “multiculturalism treats culture as an immutable given that stays stable across historical and social contexts… and engages in a totalising discourse that unhelpfully essentialises and reifies ethnic and cultural differences” (p.108). It assumes that culture is monolithic and deterministic in its influence and any differences in behaviour, practice, or perception are likely to be considered ‘strange’ and/or ‘problematic’. This superficial and essentialist view of culture can be seen in the ways students in Leah’s class commented on their own and others’ politeness strategies in conversation: ‘that’s so Australian’, ‘it’s an Australian thing’, ‘so Chinese’, and ‘so unKorean of you’. They talked as if there were behaviours, practices, mindsets that were innately reserved for Australians, Japanese, Koreans, or Chinese. In the students’ eyes, people seem to be viewed as occupants or, worse, prisoners of a ‘box’ (refer to the figure below) whose behaviours, mindsets, and practices are biologically endowed.

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Thus, it can be argued that, rather than enriching and diversifying learners’ perceptions of different politeness strategies in English, the discussions in Leah’s class seem to limit students’ perceptions of differences in politeness strategies found within the same box or similarities found between two different boxes. Treating each cultural community as a more or less homogeneous whole does not provide students with the multiplicity of realities that are out there in the real world, and thus “forbids, rather than facilitates, the emergence of a multiculturally constituted society” (Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p.108). If not questioned, students may or can develop ingrained resistance to believe that diversity within their own country is a myth. This perception is exemplified in Kim’s response to Tae who disagreed with her: ‘I don’t know why you said that! So unbelievable!’, which implies her unacceptability of a different perception and value held by her fellow countryman. Furthermore, if a multiculturalism-oriented English curriculum or class aims to promote inclusiveness in language teaching, the paper would like to argue that, with a superficial view of culture, it can lead to promoting exclusiveness and the binary opposition of ‘us’ and ‘them’. The expressions ‘it’s very Korean’ and ‘so unKorean of you’, to a large extent, already imply that there are certain behaviours, practices, or mindsets that have to be displayed in order to stay in the ‘Korean box’ (us) and not in the ‘unKorean box’ (them). Thus, teaching multiculturalism, especially informed by the superficial view of ‘culture’, in English class may need to be critically considered as the discourse or practice of ‘cultural othering or otherising’ tends to hide behind such cliché term as ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘cultural diversity’. Secondly, another very important aspect that the concept of multiculturalism and the pedagogical practices that promote it have overlooked is the recognition of individual uniqueness, individual life values, and individual life choices. The rich diversity of worldviews, cultural capital, and personal knowledge that learners gained from their experiences often do not receive much attention or are ignored (Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p.109). Though it is important to know one’s uniqueness and how one can be different from those from the same country or different country, what has not even been much emphasised is the ability to talk about or communicate that uniqueness and those differences in life values, life choices, and worldviews to one’s interlocutors. In other words, it is not enough to only know that ‘I’m unique and therefore different from everyone else’, but also to have the skills to talk about ‘in what ways and why am I unique and different’? This can be related again to the way students in Leah’s class responded to her

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question about the reasons behind their choices of politeness strategies. The students clearly knew that their choices of politeness strategies were different from their classmates, but they were not able to provide clear and adequate explanations of those differences to Leah and perhaps other classmates who were eager and curious to know and learn. Instead, those students resorted to stereotyping (‘a Korean thing’ or ‘our habit’) or to ‘whatever!’ As Tanaka (2006) very sharply claims, “we use the term ‘differences’ and yet we are unable to explain the differences” (p.26). In fact, if one aims to genuinely promote multiculturalism through English, then one also needs to be able to talk about or employ communicative strategies in English to explain how and why one is different from their interlocutors, be they from the same or different cultural contexts. Only stating ‘I am different because I’m from [this country]’ can be argued as a statement to promote monoculturalism as opposed to genuine multiculturalism and to avoid, as Kachru and Smith (2008) and Kubota (2001) emphasise, the nature of successful intra/intercultural communication as a result of cooperation and shared communicative responsibility of both interactants.

Practical implications In light of the above discussions, the paper would like to make a couple of modest suggestions that multiculturalism-oriented English language educators may need to consider when teaching English and/or designing curricula and learning materials for teaching English in their own contexts. First, it is necessary for educators to critically re-assess and re-reflect on the common usage of the unpacked notion of ‘culture’ to explain the behaviours, mindsets, values, or practices of a person who comes from a different country. Holliday (2009) suggests that culture should not be simply perceived as “behavioural traits which confine people as though they are occupants, but as any complex societal, social, and personal forces that influence (not colonise) people” (p.148) to think, act, and perceive the world in a certain way. Therefore, even if English educators teach in a classroom consisting of students who may appear to come from the same linguistic and national entity, the classroom is still not a “monocultural cocoon but rather is multicultural mosaics” (Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p.114). Students then need to be made aware that being born in a different nation does not necessarily account for differences in values, practices, behaviours, and mindsets. These perceived differences can also be observed within their own countries, communities, ethnic/social groups,

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classrooms, or even among individuals within their own family. Students can be guided to see that they themselves are culturally-complex individuals whose practices, behaviours, values, and worldviews are influenced by a wide range of different agents of socialisation such as family, peers, work, religious group, ethnic groups, leisure groups and so on, which are probably the ‘cultural groups’ to which they have frequent exposures. The global circumstances and the transcultural flows which students can access from the mass media and the internet are also likely to play a powerful role in shaping their own individual practices, beliefs, values, and mindsets. Thus, it is important for English language educators to transcend superficial national culture differences when teaching about cultural diversity and multiculturalism in their own classrooms. In practice, language educators can bring sociolinguistics into the classrooms, curricula, or teaching materials. Students can be introduced to a sociolinguistic concept of ‘language variety’ and encouraged to explore how and why language vary at national, regional, social, and individual level. Specifically, language educators can familiarise their students with concepts such as dialects, sociolects, genderlects, ethnolects, and most importantly idiolects of English and of their own mother tongue. As a classroom exercise or task, students can be asked to apply these concepts to English and their own language and compare their own idiolects with people from the same and different countries, communities, or even families. Some of these concepts, however, also need to be taught with care and from a critical lens as they can lead to cultural stereotypes and otherisation (e.g. “only men use non-standard language to display masculinity whereas women use standard language” or “people from the South speak slower and more nasal than those in the North”). Language educators may need to remind students and perhaps themselves not to use these concepts to compartmentalise people and their language according to the social variables, but to understand the complexity of all social variables in influencing the way a person uses a language. Second, as previously discussed, to professionally develop students to become multiculturally competent users of English and to genuinely promote multiculturalism, not only is it sufficient and important to know that one is unique and different, but also to be able to talk about and communicate their uniqueness and differences in English. To implement this, Kumaravadivelu (2008) advises that language educators can design tasks or projects based on familiar or popular topics and themes that require students to use their own thoughts, speeches, experiences, and knowledge. Relating to the theme of this edited book, popular local literature written in English is something with which students are familiar

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and is likely to have topics/themes that students can relate to their own cultural capital and experiences. In addition, local literature especially the ones written in English, may provide students with useful examples of ways to communicate local cultural practices, values, behaviours, and worldviews in English. Although the stories, themes, or contexts in the literary works may not necessarily be relevant to those of students, they can still be a stepping stone to teach students how to communicate the uniqueness of their own ‘cultures’ to the world in English. An example to illustrate this suggestion is an English lesson shared by a colleague of mine from Thailand. He used an autobiographical novel entitled ‘My Boyhood in Siam’ written by Kumut Chandruang (1970) in his English classes at a university in Thailand. This literary novel is about, as the title already suggests, the author’s boyhood days and experiences in Thailand and his impressions of the United States when he visited the country at the end of the novel. In the novel, Chandruang (1970) wrote about his family, some areas he visited in Thailand, and some festivals and occasions such as funeral, wedding, New Year celebration, big Buddha’s fair, and harvest time that were very specific to, according to the author, his ‘native’ Thai cultural context. There are also numerous examples of speech acts which reflect the uniqueness of the author’s culture, such as the expression “May you live until your old age, and may you have a youthful complexion, happiness, and good health” (Chandruang, 1970, p.110) he used to wish people he met in the New Year. As a classroom assignment, students of my Thai colleague were asked to identify any aspects described in the novel they found similar/different or relevant/irrelevant to their own current cultural contexts. In other words, students are asked to explore to what extent the author’s thoughts, worldviews, values, and practices are similar to/different from their own. Under the teacher’s guidance, students were guided to explore further the underlying reasons for those similarities and differences. Based on the analyses of the differences and similarities, students were given a fourmonth writing project in which they were required to select some of the chapters from the book and then write their own version – “My Boy/Girlhood in Bangkok/Krabi/Hatyai/Phuket” and even “My Boy/Girlhood in Penang and Bangkok OR in Leicester and Bangkok” for Thai students who have lived in other countries. According to my colleague, this project provides his students with an actual opportunity to learn how to communicate their own individual speech, cultural practices, values, and worldviews in English and to equip them with the ability to deal with any intercultural misunderstanding they may encounter in any intra/intercultural communicative situations in future. I would also like to further add that

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not only do the students learn ways to promote multiculturalism, but they also have the opportunity to develop their own ‘stylistic idiosyncrasies’ or idiolectal variety of English, which enriches the ‘flavour’ of the English language and therefore resonates with the paradigm of teaching English as an International Language in today’s globalising world (McKay, 2002). However, there are a number of limitations of the above suggestions that this paper would like to point out. Firstly, it is not always easy to find available local literature written in English. Obviously it is because local literature is mostly written in the local language and sounds more original and better in the local language than in English. However, language educators and scholars still can take the initiative to collaborate and produce local literary works in English. Secondly, being able to talk about one’s own ‘cultural’ uniqueness and differences does not sound like an easy task. My colleagues and I have been trying to do this for a number of years and never have we ever stopped encountering students say, “it’s like um…I can’t explain…whatever”. I do wonder if this difficulty in communicating their own cultural uniqueness and differences can be attributed to inadequate linguistic knowledge, ignorance, lack of motivation, lack of practices, or poor teacher’s guidance. Though it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss these, the ‘seed’ of learning how to communicate one’s own cultural uniqueness and differences in English may need to be planted in the students, perhaps at early stages of learning (of course as long as the educators feel that students already have adequate proficiency in English). Thirdly, wanting students to break their stereotypical mindsets and to be aware of the unpleasant implications of their superficial discourse of ‘cultural difference’ is a challenge. In order for students to break the mindset, it is the educators first who have to be fully conscious of their own discourses of people from different cultures, social groups, communities, countries etc in their teaching and the curricula. As Kumaravadivelu (2008) claims, some educators know about the danger of stereotyping, yet they still persistently (or unconsciously) practise it. Thus, continuous efforts in the teacher-education programs may also need to be made in professionally developing critical multiculturalism-oriented English language teachers.

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References Araluce, H.A. (2008). Multicultural Competence in Teacher Education. In I.R. Gay, A.J.M. Guijarro & J.I.A. Hernandez (eds.). New Trends in English Teacher Education. Spain: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. Canagarajah, S. (2007). Changing communicative needs, revised assessment objectives: Testing English as an International Language, Language Assessment Quarterly, 3 (3), 229-242. Chandruang, K. (1970). My Boyhood in Siam. London: Andre Deutsch Limited. Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996). Cultures of learning: Language classrooms in China. In H.Coleman (ed.), Society and the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English? A guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st century. London: British Council. Gray, J. (2002). The global coursebook in English language teaching. In D.Block & D.Cameron (eds.), Globalisation and Language Teaching. London: Routledge. Hall, S. (1997). The local and the global: Globalization and ethnicity. In A.D. King (ed.), Culture, globalization, and the world system. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Harumi, I. (2002). A new framework of culture teaching for teaching English as a Global Language, RELC Journal, 33 (2), 36-57. Holliday, A. (2009). The role of culture in English language education: key challenges, Language and Intercultural Communication, 9 (3), 144-155. Kachru, Y. & Smith, L.E. (2008). Cultures, Contexts, and World Englishes. London: Routledge. Kubota, R. (2001). Teaching World Englishes to native speakers of English in the USA, World Englishes, 20 (1), 47-64. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2008). Cultural Globalization and Language Education. New Haven: Yale University Press. Marlina, R. & Giri, R. (2009). ELICOS English and Curriculum: Perspectives on their internationalisation. Conference Paper presented at 2009 English Australia Conference, “Engaging with the many dimensions of ELICOS: teaching, learning, supporting, marketing, leading”, Melbourne, Victoria.

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Matsuda, A. (2002). “International understanding” through teaching world Englishes, World Englishes, 21 (3), 436-440. Matsuda, A. (2005). Preparing future users of English as an lnternational language. In A. Burns (eds.). Teaching English from a global perspective: Case studies in TESOL series. Alexandria: TESOL. McKay, S. (2002). Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. McKay, S. & Bokhorst-Heng, W.D. (2008). International English in its sociolinguistic contexts: Towards a socially sensitive EIL pedagogy. London: Routledge. Nihalani, P. (2008). Globalisation and Multicultural Communication: Unity in Diversity, RELC Journal, 39 (2), 242-261. Stern, H.H. (1983). Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sleeter, C.E. & Grant, C.A. (2003). Making choices for multicultural education: five approaches to race, class, and gender. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Tanaka, S. (2006). English and Multiculturalism – from the language user’s perspective, RELC Journal, 37 (1), 47-66.

CHAPTER TWO NARRATIVES: A DIALOGUE WITH THE INTERCULTURAL-SELF CHRISTINE MANARA

Orang mengatakan berkat kesadaran ilmiah manusia tahu bumi kita ini bola, maka sudah tidak ada lagi Timur atau Barat. …Orang berkata, tidak ada, selama bumi berputar pada porosnya. Itu kata orang. Tetapi kita para antropolog berkata, memang Barat-Timur tidak ada lagi, tetapi toh tetap ada. Timur sudah dan semakin menjadi Barat. Namun sebaliknya sudah ada tanda-tanda sedikit: Barat menjadi Timur. Terlalu sedikit memang tetapi cukup signifikan. Hanya sayang perkembangannya dan konvergensinya masih terlalu asimetris [People say that because of scientific knowledge, the world is round. The so-called “East” or “West” no longer exists, and people say it will not exist as long as the world rotates on its axis. That’s what most people say. But for us anthropologists, even though East-West no longer exists, it is still there. Today East is increasingly becoming West. Conversely, there are also signs that West is becoming East – just a little, indeed, yet it’s still quite significant. Unfortunately, however, the development and convergence is still too asymmetrical.] —Y.B. Mangunwijaya, Burung-burung Rantau [The Traveller Birds] (1992, p. 283)

Introduction This excerpt was taken from an influential literary work by Y.B. Mangunwijaya, an Indonesian educator, architect, philosopher, writer, and Catholic religious leader. The novel puts together the multi-faceted and complex inter-relational elements in the life of humans as social beings. It tells the story of a family and its members living in the present day of globalization and how globalization affects their relationships and points of view. Most of all, it is a story of how each character in the story makes

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meaning of his experiences subjectively in this fast changing world. The novel highlights issues such as generation-gaps, trans-nationality, identity struggle, cultural values and world view clash and negotiation, and “hybridized” sense of self. In the same sense, this article also tells the story of issues which learners with various socio-cultural backgrounds face in an English-speaking Western context (Holliday, 2005). Stories or narratives have long been used to convey beliefs, values, history, lessons, and worldviews. In my culture, legends and myths are used to tell the history of various places in Indonesia. Stories are used for moral and ethical educational purposes from one generation to the next. Narrative is certainly not something new in our lives. It is a media which conveys messages and encourages dialogues. It has been used to teach etiquette to children, to maintain positive social values and tradition, to teach religious and spiritual beliefs, and to pursue and to realize ‘goodness’ in life. A more personal value of narrative that, I think, almost everyone experiences, is that story binds people together. It has a more intimate value in which people exchange stories for establishing relationships or sharing experiences with others. There is always the expectation for the audience to learn something from what has been shared by others. As Riessman (2008) says, “Storytelling engages an audience in the experience of the narrator. Narratives invite us, as listeners, readers, and viewers, to enter the perspective of the narrator” (p. 9). Most importantly, narrative moves people and encourages change and action (Riessman, 2008). Yet it is quite ironic to see that personal narrative (Riessman, 2008) or contemporary discourse, as opposed to authoritative discourse (Bakhtin, 1981) – in this case, formal academic writings such as academic articles, textbooks, lecture notes, and other teaching materials – are rarely present in the classroom. This is probably due to the perception of the classroom as a formal academic learning setting which requires specific scholarly forms of writing, reading, and classroom interaction with use of academic jargon. These forms of authoritative discourse have often been positioned as the authority of knowledge in the classroom which tends to neglect our voices, the students’ and the teachers’. I fear that continuing to live within this common perspective and routine may draw us further from the voices that reflect who we are, what we know, what we want to know, and what we look forward to – i.e. our narrative of learning. It is not my intention, however, to suggest a dichotomous view of authoritative discourse versus contemporary discourse (such as learners’ personal narrative) in the classroom setting. Rather, it is a modest attempt to negotiate a place for personal narrative in the teaching-learning activities in the classroom. The

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aim of this paper is to share teaching and learning experiences while encouraging and working with the learners’ personal narratives. It is also important to acknowledge that the teaching and learning strategies used in this classroom were the result of team-teaching discussions with other lecturers of the course.

Narrative-based inquiry Research studies that use narrative have also been described in language such as narrative study, narrative analysis, narrative approach, narrative inquiry, self-study, and also case-study which often make strong use of narrative in some forms. One set of influential works in narrative inquiry that are often cited in research using narrative inquiry are those of Clandinin and Connelly (e.g. 1986, 1995, 1998, 2000). Using Dewey’s concept of experience for their theoretical framework, Clandinin and Connelly (2000, p. 20) state that “narrative inquiry is a way of understanding experience.” This idea implies the process of exploration and transformation through the act of narrating. They argue a case for engaging with and understanding experience by studying it narratively. Clandinin and Connelly see narrative as “both the phenomenon and the method of the social sciences” (p. 18). They further explain that everything in the world is a phenomenon retold through stories, and that a narrative is the phenomenon. Narrative is seen as the method of inquiry because “the inquiry is itself a narrative process” (in Clandinin & Xu, 2009, p. 222). The use of narrative possesses positive qualities in human development. One of these qualities is the use of narrative in making meaning. As Lieblich, et.al. (1998) states, a human is a “meaning-generating organism.” It is in his nature to elicit and produce meaning in his interaction in the world. One way to do this is through narrative. Fivush (2006) views narrative as a way of making sense and producing meaning from what individuals experience everyday. When individuals tell their experiences to others, they are involved in the act of reinterpreting, re-evaluating and reconstructing their experiences for themselves (in Mattos, 2009, p. 31). Narrative is also closely related to the formation of identity. In narrating their lives, individuals are constructing and reconstructing something about themselves too: what they know, what they think, who they are, who they were, how they have changed, and how they want to be perceived by others. The formation of identity is established through the interaction between the self and the environment (Syrjala & Estola, 1999). This narrative of identity (Bakhtin, 1973) is what makes an individual unique. In Bakhtin’s (1973) viewpoint, in interacting with others, we use

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language to reveal some parts of ourselves. Language sits in the sociocultural and historical context in which individuals participate. Therefore, in narrating something, individuals use and develop the pre-existing languages and genres in their cultural context. Therefore, to Bakhtin, language, as well as identity, is dialogic in nature. Keeping the dialogic nature of language in mind, meaning is continuously being constructed and re-constructed. Hence, learning is also a continuous process. Individuals learn and re-learn knowledge, concepts, ideology, or meaning in their interaction with others and their environment. Indeed, dialogue is highly important in the teaching- learning context where learners are presented with academic discourses. The classroom should be a place where interaction of knowledge or meaning is encouraged and maintained, and one way to do this is through encouraging the use of learners’ narrative.

The teaching-learning context The context of the teaching-learning activity was a multi-cultural undergraduate classroom. The learners were enrolled in the first year course under the program of English as an International Language. The content of the course introduces the learners to the current phenomenon of Englishes in the world. In this course, the traditional discourses of the so called “Standard English” and other related issues (e.g. Native speakerism, monoculturalism, monolingualism, etc.) were challenged and problematized. The goal of the course was to raise learners’ awareness of the development of English as an International Language and its related issues, namely, critical multiculturalism, the hybridization of English; and speakers’ language, culture and identity negotiation in English communication. Therefore, the teaching-learning activity mostly involved interactive learning activities which encouraged learners to have group discussion. I believed that learning would be more meaningful when it was related to the learners’ life and environment. I was very fortunate that the teamteaching members shared similar beliefs on learning. Therefore, we encouraged learners to reflect upon their personal linguistics and intercultural experiences and exchange their stories in group discussions, journals, and academic essays. The following sections present my observation of learners’ narratives as they engaged with theoretical concepts introduced in the classroom through academic readings.

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Learners’ personal narrative as narrative of identity Gathering learners’ personal narratives in the classroom, I could not help but notice that most of their accounts reflect a complex interaction between the issues introduced in the classroom and their personal intercultural and inter-linguistic experiences. The narratives also encourage learners to be more observant and reflective about their past learning experiences and understanding of self. The issue of identity seems to hold most of their attention, often related in discussion in response to course reading materials. One issue that has held learners’ attention is the relationship between identity and accent. In one of the meetings, the topic of the week was Accent Debate. I presented several opening questions to the learners: “Is there anyone in the world who speaks without an accent? Does having an accent mean being a less competent speaker? Does speaking English mean speaking without an accent?” A wide range of responses was generated from the discussion. I found some students’ narratives reflect the tension of keeping their identity and the situational function of conforming to the speech norm of their immediate surrounding. I would like to draw our attention to one sample of student narrative by Aniee (pseudonym). Aniee was raised in Australia since her parents migrated to Australia when she was very young. She has a Malaysian Chinese background and is currently pursuing a degree in Economics in the university while working as a part-time employee in an Australian company. I think it depends. I change my accent when I’m at work because sometimes there’s a kind of discrimination when I don’t sound like them. So, I changed my accent to fit-in at my work place. But, of course, I speak differently at home. I would use Cantonese with my parents. (Aniee, 12/05/09)

Aniee shared quite a sensitive issue of identity and speech norm from her working experience. Honey (1998) states that accent use plays a function of register (p. 73). Due to her status and relationship (as a newcomer) with the members of the community where she worked, Aniee felt that it was necessary for her to adjust her accent to be able to function in the community and to be accepted as a member of that community. Her decision to switch from one speech norm to another shows the complexity and conflicting side of identity and language association in an individual’s multiple roles within certain social expectations and political power. As a newcomer to the workplace, she was expected to assimilate herself within

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the cultural (and speech) practice of the company. Since most people in the company use only one speech norm, Aniee’s speech norm was positioned as insignificant and unacceptable in that social and powerrelational dimension. Her survival instinct suggested that Aniee suppress her English accent which reflects her Malaysian Chinese identity and adopt the workplace speech norm (Australian English) to be able to function and be accepted in that context. In this case, Aniee chose to perform a certain act of identity (Le Page & Tabouret-Keller, 1985) by suppressing or silencing her speech norm and performing the desired speech norm of this particular speech community. The issue of difference in terms of linguistic practice was also pointed out by another student, Min, as she responded to the topic of speech variation. In her journal, Min tells her story of learning English. Her narrative reflects the process of understanding the past linguistic practice using her present understanding of the issue: When I first came to Australia, I was very frustrated that I could not catch up with their speaking. I knew they are speaking “English.” However, it just sounds different as what I have been learning in Taiwan, since our education system has adopted American English as the teaching model. I still remember that when I had my first language class in my high school’s language centre [in Australia], my teacher corrected my pronunciation, just because I pronounced “I can’t” in American way. My teacher told me that here is Australia and that is why I have to say the word “can’t” in /a:/ sound. I do not agree with her in this point, because English has become Englishes, it got heaps of varieties in the world which are used by a lot of people. Therefore, why can’t I speak my own way? As long as you can communicate with each other, I do not think it is very important. Besides, Australian English is one of the varieties of English. (Min, 15/06/10)

Min’s (a pseudonym) account shows several phases of learning. The first phase shows how Min, during her past English learning experience, was conditioned with one model of English, that is American English. The second phase is when Min arrived in Australia with her variety of acquired English (American English), and she experienced her first encounter with another variety of English (Australian English). Min felt the tension between her believed acquired-norm of English (American English) with another new norm (Australian English) in her new environment in Australia. Min’s understanding of ‘the’ English (in this case, American English) was challenged by another experience in a different speech community that she entered. Near the end of her account, as her response towards topics and discussions that the course introduced, it shows that Min has taken ownership of her own variety of English and reflectively

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questioned the acculturation model of learning that she experienced in the past. As she was telling this story, three past significant incidents were interacting concurrently: her past language learning in Taiwan, her past learning experience in Australia, and her recently “learned” concept of Englishes and mutual intelligibility in intercultural communication. Min revisits the past experiences and processes the multiple voices or discourses using the newly acquired knowledge. Aniee’s and Min’s narratives depict, in sociolinguistic terms, the assimilationist discursive practice that exists in their immediate environment. Cultural assimilation, as explained by Kumaravadivelu (2008), is a condition in which an individual would be expected to “adopt the behaviors, values, beliefs, and lifestyles of the dominant cultural community and become absorbed in it, losing [one’s] own in the process” (p. 4). Hence, both Aniee and Min have to adopt and immerse themselves into the dominant cultural community, in this case: Aniee’s workplace and Min’s school in Australia, in order to survive in these contexts. During this process, Aniee and Min consciously or subconsciously were driven to silence their linguistic and cultural identities.

Narrative as an inquiry-mode of learning Narrative has often been used as an inquiry-mode of learning (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Richardson, 2000; Cumming 2007) about oneself. Lieblich, et.al. (1998) assert that narrative is a media to learn about an individual’s inner world. Narrative, in this sense, can be seen as a dialogue with one ‘self.’ It tells the story of what one knows, thinks, imagines, or wonders. In learners’ journals, I found that narrative serves this purpose for them while interacting with the topics discussed during the lesson. Learners who did not have the chance to interact in the classroom used their journals as an extension of their self-inquiry. The following extract was written as a response to a discussion on language and identity: It is not always easy for a co-ordinate bilingual to be sure of their own identity. Being born and raised in Australia my whole life, my vernacular is Australian English. My parents are from Malaysia and speak Cantonese to me so I am also fluent in Cantonese. All my relatives live overseas or outer state and I went to schools where there were a small number of students who spoke any languages other than English. For that reason I rarely communicate in Cantonese; predominantly only with my parents. Moreover, I cannot write or read Chinese and my daily activities mostly reflect Australian culture (watching Western television, surfing Western

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Chapter Two websites, etc). However, a lot of traditions and customs remain inside our home and I also watch some Hong Kong television so I still cannot be sure of my answer to the question, “Are you the languages that you speak?” (Tony, 15/06/10)

The excerpt above shows the dialogic nature of inquiry. Tony (pseudonym) gathers all his knowledge about his background to try to make sense the inter-relationship of language and identity and its multilayered-ness. Tony’s narrative account problematizes the most common perception of direct link and affiliation of language and identity which suggest that identity is fixed and static. By presenting various linguistic and cultural backgrounds, social groups, contexts, and his relation in each situation, Tony actually displays the dynamic and multifaceted nature of identity and language. There is a sense of evaluating the question “are you the languages that you speak?” in relation to the multiple realities that he lives in. Tony’s description echoes Tabouret-Keller’s (1998) view of identity which is “endlessly created a new, according to very various social constraints (historical, institutional, economic, etc.), social interactions, encounters, and wishes that may happen to be very subjective and unique” (p. 215). At the moment of speaking, Tony may think that he had no answer to the question “are you the languages that you speak?” On the contrary, Tony has presented some information that complicates and transforms such a simple question to another level of comprehension that needs further exploration – an inconclusive present (Shields, 2007). It is at this stage that Tony’s narrative displays quite an intense engagement of dialogue with his multiple sets of self at the present time. Learners also use narrative in reflecting on their classroom presentation activity. Each student was asked to do a group presentation on one topic during each meeting. After the presentation, each member of the group reported on the presentation from an individual point of view in short journal format. In the report journal, each wrote his impression of his presentation individually, preparation activities, evaluation of the presentation and other related matters. In narrating their reflections on their learning, the learners became critical observers of their own thoughts and practices. The report journal also works as a process of personal knowledge making that they drew from authoritative knowledge (the teaching-learning materials) and their presentation activity. I would like to use in particular one student’s reflective writing on classroom practice related to language and identity, as follows: Firstly, to illustrate personal identity, we used the broad examples from the readings – names, systems of address and pronouns. The section on ‘names’ seemed to be most effective and engaging. We chose to ask the

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question, ‘what is the meaning of your name’ with the hope that the audience would share their experiences. This would highlight the wide variation in naming practices unique to different cultural backgrounds. For example, as a Hindu, according to the position of the stars at the time of birth, my name had to start with either ‘A’ or ‘K’. (Kiki, 20/10/09)

Kiki’s narrative depicts her interaction with the texts that she had read and thought of ways to present her understanding of the topic to her peers in the classroom. In doing so, she first established the text interpretation and transformed her interpretation into another text to be presented to her audience. Kiki was involved in the process of transforming a previous text or discourse into a hybrid one. Kiki creates a new way of talking about how language is used in relation to one’s identity by creating the “naming practice” activity to be asked to her peers in the classroom. Hence, Kiki plays an active role as a co-producer of meaning. In her narrative, Kiki also manages to fabricate her understanding of the concept of identity with her own personal narrative of identity. In the next set of ideas, Kiki’s narrative displays a sense of struggle of living with a different social practice in a new socio-cultural context and brings up another complexity of the topic: Furthermore, the question, ‘Do you feel as if you have lost (part of) your identity when people mispronounce your name’ resonated with the audience. It seemed to be a common link between many students, who anglicized their names to ‘fit in’ and often the consequence was a feeling of loss of self and not belonging. Clearly, names do have depth and values attached to them and distinguish us as individuals (Thornborrow, 1999). (Kiki, 20/10/09)

Using the question that she asked her peers in the classroom, Kiki brings what seems to be a significant emotion to the attention of the class. As naming practice holds a personal attachment and value for an individual, Kiki voices her affective feelings towards the practice of appropriating names in entering a new environment. There was the struggle of the need to be identified as an individual of a collective group (personal and cultural identity) and at the same time to be accepted in another collective group. Later in her reflective writing, Kiki particularly tells about her personal impression of the topic of identity and brings out some parts of her (inter)cultural and situational and motivational factors that affect the way she feels about her identity in the near future: …I found thinking about ‘identity’ thought-provoking as it is personal and unique for everyone. For example, I had never thought about the various

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Using the discourse of the texts that she has read and learned from classroom interaction, Kiki narrated her story within this text. Kiki shows a consciousness-raising process from what she learned in the classroom. She becomes more observant and aware of what she had previously taken for granted, such as various factors that affect the formation of her identity and her behaviour in different collective groups. She recognizes the transformation of her multiple set of identities. Similar to Aniee, Kiki brings about her experiences of appropriating her accent with a particular collective group and talks about it within the discourse of accent as a part of identity. Recognizing her practice of appropriating her accent brings another complexity to Kiki’s perception of identity projection. Her dialogue with her inter-cultural and inter-linguistic selves, at the same time, also raises another question that she needs to explore – how she would like to be perceived by others in entering another new socio-cultural context (the USA) in the near future. Kiki’s account highlights the idea of identity as situational, conditional, fluid, and an ongoing work. As McLure says, “identity is a continuing site of struggle… as something that they use, to justify, explain and make sense of themselves in relation to other people, and to the contexts in which they operate” (1993, p. 312).

Narrative as “a site of struggle” (Bakhtin, 1981; McLure, 1993) Bakhtin sees language (hence, narrative), as “a site of struggle” between the centrifugal forces and centripetal forces. The centrifugal forces are dynamic forces which “whirl it apart into diversity, difference, and creativity, and the centripetal forces which strive to normalize, standardize, and prescribe the way language [or discourse] should be”

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(Bell, 2007, p. 99). Narrative allows the learner to recognize and react to the other discourses (namely, social practice and conventions) or narratives of identity that they live in. In one example of narrative, a learner re-visits his past narrative of self and his new creative narrative of self, a hybridized sense of self: Since my grandpa is very traditional, sometimes cultural disagreement and misunderstanding can still occur in our daily life. I remembered when I was 15, I went back to Hong Kong for my summer holidays, and my grandpa saw me giving my friend a hug as a goodbye at the airport. He lectured me at home about what I have done is wrong because male and female should not have this intimate action unless they are married. Of course, at that time I pretend I was sorry and because I am male which he thinks I do not have any disadvantage in the action of hugging. Hence, he didn’t make a big deal about it. However, this incident is relevant to face issue. Living in an Asian family, saving face and giving people face is quite essential, even within the family. In this incident, my grandpa didn’t come to me and lecture me right at that spot, because he thinks lecturing me in public can cause losing face, which he wants to save his and my face therefore he bring this conversation back home. Moreover, my pretend of apology can also be seen as respect for elders... I think even I have been influenced by the western culture, my Chinese side of the identity will not vanish, instead I got to switch my style of register according to the opponent [people I’m interacting with]. (Pan, 15/06/10)

Pan (pseudonym), having lived in Australia for eight years, has adopted some cultural practices of Australia. He may subconsciously have brought some of these practices with him when he returned to Hong Kong. His family member confronted him about this new practice, which reminded him that he needs to switch to the socio-cultural practices of his hometown. It is interesting to see how Pan uses the word “pretend apology” to describe the re-appropriation of his behaviour to the social norms of the place where he was born and raised. Yet, using this word, Pan also discusses the practice of “face saving” that has a significant value in his home culture. Pan learns to negotiate his perspective and affective feelings of adopting a new cultural practice and its effect in the eyes of his home community. He decides to display one projection of the expected “self” in his home culture and keep his “hybrid” self (the creative self) into his cultural and identity system repertoire during his stay back home. In their narratives, there are also discourses of tension and conflict when learners are reflecting on their experience of unsuccessful intercultural communication. However, they tend to blame themselves for the misunderstanding that happens because of their linguistic competence and, what they believed to be their unfamiliarity with the interlocutor’s

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cultural background. This act of blaming themselves seems to come from their attempt to embrace multicultural awareness and understanding to the extent that it blind-sighted the learners toward acts of marginalization against them. Their learning to be tolerant toward diversity seems to have been taken to such an extreme that the learners became too apologetic for a misunderstanding or miscommunication event that they experienced. Wang (pseudonym) tells her experience as follows: When misunderstanding occurred and we cannot avoid it, we should learn from our mistake. Take myself as an example, I am from Hong Kong and Hong Kong is a city which consists of many different cultures. When I was small and studied at the secondary school, our school has invited a British teacher to teach us English. The way she greeted us was so strange in my mind at that time. She loved to address us as “sweetie” and “darlings.” I felt so uneasy being addressed with darling and I didn’t smile back to her at that time. I didn’t say much to her. Just when I was about to leave class, she told me that I am impolite and unwilling to learn. But, I am not that kind of person. I wanted to explain to her that my culture don’t use “darling” to address someone. But, she left immediately and I didn’t have a chance to explain to her. I was so young at that time and I didn’t really understand British culture. I felt regretful that I didn’t try to learn more from this British teacher. Thus, nowadays I don’t really feel shy when I am talking to people who come from other cultures. I should learn from my mistake and won’t let the same mistake happen again. When misunderstandings arise, I will try to explain it to others and solve the problems. …I believe that learning from the mistakes that we made is important in intercultural communication of English. (Wang, 15/06/10)

Although this experience helps Wang to understand the importance of being more communicative in an intercultural communicative event, Wang does not seem to realize the power-relation and political dimensions of this incident towards her position as a student and a Hong Kong resident in a Hong Kong school context. Wang chose to blame herself for her silent objection towards the teacher’s way of addressing her with “darling” which is an unusual term of address in her cultural community. The decision to keep her objection to herself was heavily influenced by her position as a young secondary school student – who was probably at the age where she had not yet developed the sophisticated communicative ability of an adult. Her silence may also be the result of the type of teacher-centered practice that the school adopted at that time. Being labeled as “impolite and unwilling to learn,” indeed, leaves a deep impact of emotion on her positive self-image. As a result, she associated her silent objection (of being addressed with “darling”) to these labels assigned by the British teacher. However, what Wang was not aware of is also the

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political dimension that the British teacher brought through the use of her linguistic and cultural norms in her classroom practice in a Hong Kong context. Another learner writes his understanding of intercultural communication problems. Bing (pseudonym) is writing his comments on a scene in the movie “Bend it like Beckham” and concludes that the intercultural communication problem is caused by cultural difference (in this case, racial difference): In the movie of ‘Bend it like Beckham’ cultural differences make some communication problems. One of communication problem examples is disagreement in terms of racism issue. Joe, coach of the team, yelled at Jess to not to argue with her opponent member that caused her to be dismissed from the game. Actually, that player tugged her shirt and calling her “Paki.” ...is a derogatory remark for anyone of South Asian appearance, even if they’re, say, Indian. …When a person disagrees with another’s opinion, it is better to save their face first. It would have been much better if Joe said, “It was not your fault but you should have played professionally” before scolding Jess. This could have saved Jess’ face… It opened my eyes to how so many people are being mistreated and discriminated against based on their ethnic or cultural background. The issue of racism should not exist in the relationship among human beings. I had also experienced that young Australians shouted at me “go back to your country,” throwing some drinking bottles on the street. However, we often misunderstand each other mostly because of communication problems in English. (Bing, 15/06/10)

It is interesting to see how Bing views race as one factor that causes intercultural communication problems although the following sentences in his narrative do not really help to explain his claim. Not until the second paragraph does Bing tell about his unpleasant experience which helps to explain his earlier statement. It seems that the scene brings a certain effect and memory to Bing when he was being mistreated and discriminated against. Drawing from his accounts, I think Bing is trying to say that unfamiliarity with the interlocutor’s cultural background and prejudice may damage or hinder any intercultural communication activity. At the end of the second paragraph, Bing immediately shifts the reader’s attention to insufficient linguistic competence as the most common factor that causes communication problems in English. His instant shift of topic may indicate his uncomfortable affective feeling of talking about this issue. Reading Wang’s and Bing’s account made me aware of the down side of my teaching about multiculturalism and embracing diversity which was

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perhaps conveyed to them in a utopian way. I began to realize the importance of also discussing the issues (that probably most teachers would avoid and consider taboo) of discrimination or marginalization as part of teaching “critical multiculturalism” (Kubota, 2004). Critical multiculturalism, as Kubota explains (2004), works on the same principle as critical pedagogy which aims “to raise students’ critical consciousness about various forms of domination and oppression and to help students become active agents for social change” (p.37). My past teaching was merely, using Kubota’s word, “celebrating” multiculturalism, so that I avoided talking or even providing learners with opportunities to talk about their unpleasant experiences or the inconvenient reality of entering and living in a new environment and the imagined communities (Anderson, 1983). At this moment of reading learners’ narratives, I was constantly engaged in a dialogue with their narrative of learning and my professional self and teaching practice in the classroom. Their narrative contributes to the meaningful process of co-producing knowledge about the complexities and intricate interrelationship of elements in intercultural communication. Narrative certainly gives way to critical engagement with various discourses of knowledge. It “challenges the historical, univocal representation” (McKnight, 2004) of the dominant or authoritative way of learning and producing knowledge. The traditional representation of teaching may position teacher as the source of knowledge and learners as the recipient of knowledge in a classroom setting, a monologic and didactic form of discourse (McKnight, 2004). Narrative provides creative discourse (Bakhtin, 1981) of exploring meaning and co-producing meaning or knowledge as a social activity in the teaching and learning context. Just as my learners and myself, as narrators of this article, I hope that this narrative work may also be in a dialogue with its readers, encouraging new discussions or narratives beyond this narrative of learning. As Bakthin puts it, “the truth is not born and does not reside in the head of an individual person; it is born of the dialogical intercourse between people in the collective search for truth” (cited in Shields, 2007, p. 79). Truth, in the Bakhtinian sense, is an “experience of otherness” that permits an individual “to test and modify his own understanding of the world” (2007, p. 78).

Closing As Forrest, Keener, and Harkins (2010) state, “stories, whether fictional, biographical or autobiographical, are integral to how we learn about ourselves and the world in which we live.” Reading and listening to

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the learners’ personal narratives, I felt that narratives enlivened classroom discourse. It is a site of exploration, most importantly, exploration of self. The use of learners’ personal narratives works as a self-inquiry mode of learning. Through journal writing, the learners were engaged in a reflective learning of experiencing these concepts in their linguistic and (inter)cultural lives – a dialogic act of understanding the self and their world. The written narratives display the learners’ responses of opinion, belief, and tension as a process of making sense of their inter-cultural and inter-linguistic self in an English-speaking Western (Holliday, 2005) context. Most importantly, I found narrative to be a form of ongoing work of co-creating meaning or co-producing knowledge in a teaching and learning activity. Teaching and learning is a social activity (Bakhtin, 1981). Dialogic teaching and learning challenges the idea of authoritative discourse (knowledge as produced and prescribed by the ‘experts’) and suggests an interactive and responsive process of co-constructing knowledge by the participants of a learning community, and narrative is a way of achieving it.

References Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso. Bakthin, M.M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin: The University of Texas Press. Bell, A. (2007). Style in dialogue: Bakhtin and sociolinguistic theory. In Bayley, R. & Lucas, C. (Eds.). Sociolinguistic variation: Theories, methods, and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Clandinin, D.J. & Connelly, F.M. (2000). Narrative Inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass. Cumming, J. (2007). The power of narrative to enhance quality in teaching, learning, and research. In Maclean, R. (Ed.). Learning and teaching for twenty-first century (pp. 17-33). New York: Springer. Forrest, M., Keener, T. & Harkins, M.J. (2010). Understanding narrative relations in teacher education, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 38(2), 87-101. Honey, J. (1998). Sociophonology. In Coulmas, F. (Ed.). The Handbook of Sociolinguistics (pp. 65-74). London: Blakwell Publishing. Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kubota, R. (2004). Critical multiculturalism and second language education. In Nortone, B. & Toohey, K. (Eds.). Critical Pedagogies

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and language learning (pp. 30-52). Cambridge: Cambridge Press University. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2008). Cultural globalization and language education. Yale: Yale University Press. Le Page, R.B. and Tabouret-Keller, A. (1985). Acts of identity: Creolebased approaches to ethnicity and language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading, analysis, and interpretation. London: Sage. Maclure, M. (1993). Arguing for your self: Identity as an organising principle in teachers’ jobs and lives, British Educational Research Journal, 19(4), 311-322. Mangunwijaya, Y.B. (1992). Burung-Burung rantau. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Mattos, A.M.A. (2009). Understanding classroom experiences: Listening to stories in order to tell stories. In Mattos, A.M.A. (Ed.). Narratives on teaching and teacher education (pp.31-46). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. McKnight, D. (2004). Task of the teaching life: Self through Bakhtinian Dialogue and ideological engagement, Interchange, 35(3), 281-302. Richardson, L. (2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.). The handbook of qualitative research (pp. 923948). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Riessman, C.K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. London: Sage Publications. Shields, C.M. (2007). Bakhtin. New York: Peter Lang. Syrjala, L. and Estona, E. (1999). Telling and retelling stories as a way to construct teachers’ identities and to understand teaching, A paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland 22-25 September 1999. Xu, S. and Connelly, F.M. (2009). Narrative inquiry for teacher education and development: Focus on English as a foreign language in China, Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 219-227. Tabouret-Keller, A. (1998). Language and Identity. In Coulmas, F. (Ed.). The Handbook of Sociolinguistics (pp. 214-234). London: Blackwell Publishing.

CHAPTER THREE TEACHING CULTURE THROUGH A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: INSIGHTS FROM AN ACTION-RESEARCH PROJECT USING SELECTED MULTILINGUAL NARRATIVES NUGRAHENNY T. ZACHARIAS

Introduction Since the past decade, the English teaching profession has been engaging in a lively debate on the place of culture in the TESOL field, pointing to the numerous ways in which culture should be integrated as well as whose culture should be taught with an international language such as English. For authors such as Gonzalez (1995) and Pulverness (1996), culture in English language teaching should be “de-nationalized” (Gonzalez, 1995, p.58) and should not be “bound to culturally-specific conditions of use” (Pulverness, 1996, pp.7) and be “easily transferable to any cultural setting” (Pulverness, 1996, p.7). Others (Gupta, 1999; Jenkins, 2000; McKay, 2002; Richards, 2002; Widdowson, 1994) strongly assert that teaching the culture(s) of a world language should not be geared towards the culture of English-speaking countries. For Gupta (2001), the teaching of culture of a global language should be placed according to the ways the learners use English within their own society. Despite the variety of orientations and approaches of teaching the culture of a world language, a consensus is emerging about the curricular aims of teaching the culture of a world language. Canagarajah (2002) notes that teaching culture from a global perspective should no longer imply exposing students’ to the canon of English literature. Rather, it should socialize students with the knowledge of the diversity of English use around the world. The importance of teaching culture through global

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perspectives, according to Kern (2000), is to highlight learners’ agency in meaning making. This means teachers need to focus on introducing learners to new ways of responding and reflecting on texts. Burns (2005, p. 14) compiled six questions to help teachers to assess whether the texts used in the classroom are oriented towards the teaching of English from global perspectives. From those six questions, three seemed to be particularly relevant to the teaching of culture from global perspectives. I adapted those questions into the following: • To what extent, do you encourage learners to explore their own multiple interpretations of texts? • How do you facilitate learners’ reflection on their own uses of different kinds of texts? • Are texts from different writers in different world contexts (including local literature) a part of learners’ classroom experiences? These three questions are the basis upon which I developed the activities written in the present paper. If texts used in teaching culture of World language should cover a whole range of English usage around the world, then what sort of person should teaching culture from a global perspective cultivate? Authors seem to agree that the teaching of culture from a global perspective should aim at cultivating some sort of “intercultural learner” or speaker (Corbett, 2003; Kramsch, 1998) and develop learners’ “intercultural communicative competence” (Byram, 1997; Guilherme, 2002). However, among these authors, the definition of ‘intercultural speaker’ and ‘intercultural communicative competence’ varies. Corbett (2003) defines intercultural communicative competence as “the ability to understand the language and behavior of the target community, and explain it to members of the ‘home’ community—and vice versa” (p.2). In a similar vein, an intercultural English speaker, according to Cook (2001), is one who “can stand between two viewpoints and between two cultures” (p.179). Sercu (2005, p. 2) identifies the following competencies of an intercultural speaker: • the willingness to engage with the foreign culture; • self-awareness and the ability to look upon oneself from the outside; • the ability to see the world through the others’ eyes; • the ability to cope with uncertainty, the ability to act as a cultural mediator; • the ability to evaluate others’ points of view;

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• the ability to consciously use cultural learning skills and to read the cultural context; and • the understanding that individuals cannot be reduced to their collective identities. These authors appear to agree that the culture of a global language needs to train learners to be “diplomats” (p.2) of the target language (L2) and home (L1) community. Various media have been proposed to teach culture. Movies (Champoux, 2007; Ho, 2009; Prathoomthin, 2009), literary texts (Kramsch, 1993), greetings (Schleicher, 1997), role play (Kodotchigova), and drama scripts have been illustrated as providing students with cultural exposure and experiences. As far as media is concerned, there has not been, as far as I know, the use of ‘multicultural narratives’ as I choose to call it, as a media for learning the culture of an international language. In the past decades, narratives and, in particular, stories people tell about their lives, have gained increasing status in the fields of, among others, psychology, anthropology, education and English studies. Scholars in these fields agree that human beings partly construct their identities by producing and assimilating narratives. They maintain that narratives have potential in giving people meaning to their lives and inform them, consciously or unconsciously, how to interact in the world (Alsup, 2003; Bloom, 1998; Britzman, 1991; Campbell, 1988; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Goodson, 1992; Johnson & Golombek, 2001; Mishler, 1999; Wortham, 2001). Additionally, Kiernan (2005) points out that people make sense of their experiences through narratives and create a “coherent sense of self” (p.59). In everyday conversation, Ochs and Capps (2001) point out narratives, in the form of anecdotes and recounts of day to day life, serve to build and maintain relationship with others. In my opinion, when teaching culture, teachers ought to try out all forms of literature to examine their different roles for culture learning. When suggesting the teaching of culture by means of multilingual narratives, I do not intend to deal with the more specialized form of literature pedagogy or “Literature with a big L” as it focuses on such areas as literary critical competence and the development of insight into trends of literary history. In this paper, ‘multilingual narratives’ is used to mean published personal autobiographies written by multilinguals.

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Contexts The research took place in a required course “Course Cultural Understanding” (hereafter, CCU). The CCU course is situated in a fouryear-pre-service teacher education English Department in a small town in Indonesia. The weekly class session is 150 minutes long and runs for fourteen weeks, with approximately 30-35 students in a class. It is commonly taken by third- and fourth-year students. Students range from 19-23 years old with intermediate English competence. The overall aim of the course is to cultivate an intercultural English speaker who “can stand between two viewpoints and between two cultures” (Cook, 2001, p.179). Although it is a course on culture, it is also meant to enhance students’ overall English proficiency by focusing on developing students’ writing, speaking, reading, and listening skills. In my opinion the central constructs to develop an intercultural speaker is to weave the notion of culture with issues of language and identity in the design of the CCU course. Identity is a complex concept because it is about belonging, about “what you have in common with people as well as what differentiate you from others” (Weeks, 1990, p. 88). Identity correlates with culture, as identity is “a recognition of cultural belonging, which is internal to the individual, while culture is external” (Nunan & Choi, 2010, p. 3). In this sense, identity is understood in a post-structural view, which perceives identity as contextualized and continuously negotiated (Norton, 1997, 2000, 2010). And one major element affecting the construction of identity is language. Although the concept of identity has now become pervasive in education, it is invisible and thus needs to be stimulated through the act of reflexivity, which is also pointed out by Burns (2010) as one characteristic of teaching culture from a global perspective. Reflexivity or reflection is a continuous process of thinking, questioning, and challenging our understanding and thought processes. As McClearly points out: When we narrate our experience (be it in an interview or when providing a reflexive account) we offer one version—an interpretation—which seems to work for that moment. Like an external observer, we have to reflect on the evidence and recognize the indexicality and non-conclusive nature of any of our understandings. “All reflection is situational …always subject to revision.” (McCleary cited in Finlay, 2003, p. 110)

To foreground the interrelatedness between culture, identity and language, I introduced change in the present CCU course by using selected published

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multilingual narratives that document multilinguals’ joys, struggles, and appropriation of selves while living in ESL settings. By exposing students to these diverse multilingual narratives, I hope learners can develop a multifaceted awareness of cultures and English use across L2 cultural groups, while at the same time gaining insight into their own cultures and identities. This project was conducted using an action research cycle. In assessing the change I introduced in the classroom, action research provides the framework through which I could reflect upon the change. When incorporating the selected multilingual narratives within an action-research framework, I used the cycle of initial reflection, plan, act, observe, and reflect adapted from Burns (2010) and Richards and Lockhart (1994).

Initial Reflection This project originated from a situation that was both an opportunity and a challenge. After completing a postgraduate study in TESOL, I was assigned to teach a CCU course. Because teaching such a course had long been a dream of mine and in accordance with my research interest, I eagerly accepted. In the department where the study is situated, several attempts have been taken to revise the content of the course. An email conversation that I have had with several CCU teachers showed that the course has undergone several modifications. Due to limited space, details about course modification will not be discussed here. In short, the course has evolved from teaching American cultures (e.g. belief systems, values, educational system, and customs, among others), usually termed ‘the monocultural approach to culture’ (Risager, 1998, 2007), to “universal” topics encompassing all cultures. Recently, the course appeared to adopt a more comparative approach, contrasting and comparing students’ own cultures with the so-called “Western culture.” What appear to be missing from these approaches, in my opinion, is studies focusing on learners’ own perceptions of their own understandings of what it means to be an intercultural speaker. Due to the absence of the concept of intercultural speakers drawn from learners’ points of views, this study is needed. This study particularly aims to explore learners’ understanding, conceptualizations, struggles, joys, conflicts and dilemmas of being intercultural speakers situated in a CCU course in an English Department in Indonesia.

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One important characteristic of teaching culture from a global perspective as mentioned earlier is the importance of designing tasks that facilitate students’ agency in responding to the wealth of diverse texts written in English. In the present project, I understand this as providing activity in which students could continuously reflect on their evolving identities as multilingual English speakers or MEUs, which I believed the previous CCU course designs were lacking. In this paper, I have consciously avoided the term non-native speakers because of its unfair portrayal of what MEUs have. Several terms have been promoted in recent years: ‘multicompetence English users’ (Cook, 1999), ‘bilingual English speakers’ (Jenkins, 1996, 2000, 2003), ‘language expert’ (Rampton, 1997), ‘international English professional’ (Brutt-Griffler and Samimy, 1999), ‘L2 users’ (Cook, 2002) and ‘intercultural English speakers’ (Kramsch, 1998). The plethora of terminology reflects the complexities in conceptualizing suitable terms for MEUs and is also an expression of the diversity of MEUs. For the purpose of this paper, I chose the term ‘multilingual English users’ because of their multilingual condition. The term also suggests the significance of the role of ‘English’ to their identities. I did not embark on this project, however, in the naïve assumption that multilingual narratives can be taken as the only media or “best method” to cultivate intercultural competence but certainly in the belief that multilingual literature has not been sufficiently utilized in the teaching of culture.

Planning There were two things I grappled with in the planning stage: selecting the narratives and designing the activities. When selecting the narratives, I tried to expose students to a variety of issues of multilingual English speakers such as the following: • The maintenance and roles of mother tongue in multilinguals; • The different understanding and conceptualization of student silence in the classroom from Western and Eastern perspectives; and • How multilinguals negotiate their identities when navigating through various linguistic and cultural landscapes. Throughout the course, I decided to expose students to ten multilingual narratives. One major challenge I experienced was the lack of availability of appropriate multilingual narratives. Ready-made course books employing multilingual narratives as texts are rare, if not non-existent. Therefore, my

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attention turned to book chapters (for example, Scott, 2007; Wierzbicka, 2007; Wong, 2007; Ye, 2007) and journal articles (such as Ping, 2010; Soekirno, 2004; Widiyanto, 2005). However, since all the multilinguals portrayed in these narratives were immigrants, one may argue that such texts might not be suitable for EFL students such as my students who might have different needs for learning English. Although I agree that the English needs of immigrants and EFL students might be different, I see these differences more as a resource that the EFL teacher can draw upon rather than drawbacks. The difference provides effective and rich spaces for EFL students to compare and contrast the critical incident experienced by immigrant multilinguals with them, EFL multilinguals. During the planning stage, I spent a lot of time thinking about the activities I would devise with the selected multilingual narratives. The task-based technique was selected because of its two basic assumptions (Feez, 1998, p. 16). First, teaching culture from a global perspective put focuses on reflection. In TBLT, the focus on process rather than product in itself provides a space for reflection. Second, teaching culture from a global perspective recommends that teachers devise activities in which learners can be involved in the meaning-making process. Similarly, TBLT focuses on communication and meaning making rather than form. Although I decided to implement task-based techniques, I realized that the concept of identity might be new in the present context, and thus students needed to be made aware of the concept. Therefore, in the first three weeks, students were exposed to issues of language, identity and culture by reading and discussing articles, which (a) familiarize students with the concepts of English as an international language and how culture is taught with a global perspective (Baker, 2009; McKay, 2010); (b) introduce the concept of identity and how it relates to the concept of culture and language (Norton, 2010); (c) challenge the cultural stereotypes in English education with a special emphasis on Western stereotypes towards Asian students (Kumaravadivelu, 2005; Ping, 2010); and (d) challenge the one and one connection between language, identity and culture. When designing the tasks, I took into account the context in which the CCU course was situated, that is, in a pre-service teacher education program. With this in mind, I asked students to design a thirty-minuteGroup-led Workshop (GLW) for one selected narrative. The purpose is was to give students an opportunity where they could practice to be a teacher and design activities from the narratives. At the end of each GLW, I planned for a reflection moment where, as a group, students thought

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about the way they conducted the workshop and how or what could have done differently. Following the GLWs, I decided on two types of tasks: focused (Ellis, 1993) tasks and experience-sharing (Baigent, 2005) tasks. ‘Focused’ task is developed to focus on specific language features inherent in the process of achieving the task outcome (Ellis, 2003). The focused task was intended to provide the metalanguage, a vocabulary that would allow them to think, talk about, and most significantly theorize about issues of identities in multilingual English speakers. For example, when discussing East meets West or does it really? (Wong, 2007), I highlighted concepts such as ‘cultural versatility,’ ‘cultural scripts’ and ‘cultural insider and outsider.’ ‘Experience-sharing’ tasks, as the name suggests, provide a platform for the participants to share experience or ‘critical incidents’ (Nunan & Choi, 2010) relating to the issues of language, identity, and culture. Here, I designed questions to encourage student reflection and thought process on issues related to their multilingual identities. Examples of the questions are: 1. Wong stated that he became more “Anglified” (p.81) during his journey to understand Anglo culture. Have you ever felt Anglified as an English learner and user? 2. Have you ever been silenced by the educational system (e.g. the teacher, teaching approach and/methodologies, materials, etc)? Explain your answer. 3. On page 111-112, Wierzbicka shared the complexities of describing her life before coming to Australia. Throughout the process, she felt English failed her and thus, she felt linguistically insecure. What do you think she meant by that? Has English ever failed you? Or have you ever been in a situation in which you felt linguistically insecure? Question 1 is develop for Wong’s (2007) narrative, East meets West, or Does it really?, question 2 is for Ping’s (2010), A case study of an in-class silent postgraduate Chinese student in London Metropolitan University: A journey of learning, and question 3 is for Wierzbicka’s (2007), Two language, two cultures, one(?) self: Between Polish and English. I also devised what I called, a response journal (see Appendix A for the template of the journal). The response journal takes the form of a letter to the author. A letter was chosen as the genre because of its personal and informal nature. It was hoped students could talk freely, without worrying about grammar and mechanics, and focused on what they took away from the narratives. Richards and Lockhart (1994) believed that the journals

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have a significant cumulative effect. For students, I was hoping the journal could provide a safe and dialogic space where they could write their present understandings, challenge assumptions as well as ask questions brought up in the narratives. For teachers, the journals could inform them of the kinds of issues that needed to be discussed further in the classroom.

Action At the action stage in week 1, I began the lesson by asking the students to fill in a questionnaire addressing their demographic information such as gender, language repertoires, ethnicity, and length of time of learning English (see Appendix B). In exposing students to theories and ideas on issues of language, identity and culture, I started by doing a power-point presentation on each theme, using a lecture format combined with activities to stimulate participation. From time to time, I related the theories to students’ lives so that they could see the relevance of the topics to their own multilingual nature. When discussing about identity, for example, instead of starting with a lecture of what identity is, I started with an activity where students would write down how they would introduce themselves to the whole class. Then, each student took turns to read their introduction while I tried to categorize their introduction by developing some kind of frequency distribution of the emerging themes. Take for example, Debi (a pseudonym) introduced herself as “a Chinese Bataknese girl who loves to sing” so I wrote on the whiteboard ‘ethnicity’, ‘gender’, and ‘hobby’. Another example was Toto (also a pseudonym), who introduced himself as “a student of English Department who loves crazy things.” For Toto, the themes would be ‘profession’ and ‘hobby.’ At the end of the activity, most of the students in the classroom identified themselves with regard to their ‘gender’ and ‘profession.’ This activity illustrated the different ways people identify themselves and how certain identities were deemed more important than others. When leading the GLW, students presented the narratives through multimodal texts to complement the multilingual narratives. For example, when presenting Game Names (Angel, 2004, May 17), one group introduced the interrelatedness between names and identities with a you tube video of one of the X-factor contestants who changed his name to construct an image and increase his self-confidence. Although scheduled for thirty minutes, many of the GLWs lasted up to forty-five minutes. I experienced an interesting thing when doing the experience-sharing tasks. I found many students kept on waiting for my ‘answers’ to the discussion questions. One student said “Mam, so what do you think about

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this?” This struck me because on many occasions, I did not have the answers. I realized that students for the most part positioned me as ‘the meaning holder’ in class whereas, for the experience-sharing task to work, students needed to be aware that they, the readers, should be the ones who contributed to the construction of meaning shared in the classroom. The awareness of the discrepancy between students’ expectations and mine on meaning holders in texts has led me to expose students’ to different meaning-holders in texts I read from Montgomery et. al (2000, pp. 9-11). Principally there are three meaning holders for texts: the author, the text, and the reader. Teachers’ beliefs of meaning holder will affect the way they design the activities and how they respond to students’ contributions. For example, if teachers view the meaning holder as the author, then they would design activities where students should search the background information of the authors. The assumption is that by exploring and understanding the author of the text, students can get thorough ideas and develop understanding of what he/she went through and thus, interpret the text more appropriately.

Observation and analysis By reviewing student’s response journals, students’ initial needs assessment questionnaires and the teaching diaries I took after each lesson, there was evidence that all students did not see English as a part of their identities. When asked about their identities, many students saw their identities as drawn from their ethnicity in regard to place of birth and/or parental ethnic association. Although all the students were at least trilingual, only two students saw their identities as compromising of two ethnicities. However, among these two ethnicities, they believed only one dominant ethnicity made up their identities. Overall, students wrote in their journals that they enjoyed the multilingual narratives. Many students admitted that only after reading the narratives did they realize that multilinguality was a quality to be marveled. During experience-sharing tasks, many of them admitted that prior to being made aware of multilinguality, students were not aware that they were multilingual. They did not even see being multilingual as a “plus point.” Some even saw it as a hindrance to be considered as a legitimate English user. One student, Bowo (a pseudonym), wrote in his response journal that he struggled to ‘wipe out’ his Javanese- accented English because many of the students often laughed at him. He then wondered why a certain accent was preferable when speaking English but

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speaking Javanese-accented English was perceived, at least based on his experience, as low class and even inappropriate. The narratives of Scott (2007) and Veronica (2007), in particular, have transformed and solidified the majority of the participants’ knowledge base related to the concept and value of mother tongue to one’s identities. For instance, Rocket man expressed his concern of losing his Javanese and the need for a conscious attempt to maintain his Javanese amidst learning English. In his words: …reading your story made me think of what should I do with my culture, language and identity. My study in English unconsciously has already put aside my Javanese language… I hope I can develop my Javanese language and also English language go together with harmony.

Others, such as Nora and Lady, admitted they were embarrassed because they did not know and did not even intend to learn their mother tongue, Javanese, until after reading Scott’s narrative. Reading multilingual narratives also provides the participants a space to reflect on their identities and factors contributing to its construction. This evidence was seen in the use of change-of-state words such as “raises my awareness,” “reminds me,” “made me think of” and “gives me knowledge.” In a response journal to Widiyanto’s narrative (2005) The making of a multicultural English teacher, Celly questioned the concept of nativeness. She wrote: [After reading his narrative] I’m start thinking about the words ‘native Indonesians.’ Who are native Indonesians? Is it Javanese as the majority of Indonesian’s population? Betawinese? Sunadanese? Although Chinese descendant in Indonesia has existed since hundred or even thousands years ago, some Indonesians still cannot accept them as ‘native Indonesian’ also.

In fact, I read Celly’s narrative in the class as a stepping-stone to be critical to the issue of nativeness in English language teaching. It was interesting to note that even though all the students agreed how fuzzy the concept of nativeness in Indonesian contexts as Celly narrated in her response journal, they more readily accepted the use of the term in English language teaching. One criteria of teaching culture from a global perspective is to exert students’ agency in exploring their own interpretation of texts (Burns, 2005). While the experience-sharing tasks were intended to facilitate students’ diverse responses to the multilingual narratives, my “reflectionon-action” (Schon, 1983, p. 22) while managing the task shows that exerting students’ agency should be accompanied by teachers’ recognition

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and validation of students’ responses. In Indonesian contexts, where teachers are often positioned as the holders of knowledge (see, among others, Soekirno, 2004; Widiyanto, 2005), students need to continuously be made aware and reminded that their own construction of meanings are valid and need to be heard. Recognizing and validating students’ responses can also be conducted, as what I have attempted in the classroom, by changing teachers’ roles as provider of correct answers. Rather, teachers can summarize students’ answers and pinpoint interesting insights.

Reflection and evaluation The project described here represents a first attempt, to my knowledge, to create a CCU course to teach the culture of English from a global perspective with selected multilingual narratives. I gained a number of important insights during this project. First, as predicted, many students pointed out different issues surrounding multilinguals living in English-asa-foreign language (EFL) contexts compared to the characters in the multilingual narratives who lived in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) contexts. Identity issues brought up in ESL contexts was mainly related to the complexities of creating coherence within self in regard to the different languages, as different language seemed to be associated with a different sense of selves (for instance, Wierzbicka, 2007; Wong, 2007). By contrast, the identity issue most often brought up in the whole-class discussion when discussing Wierzbicka’s (2007) and Wong’s (2007) narratives was the effect of speaking English to project favorable identities in Indonesia. During the whole-class discussion session, for example, RK (a pseudonym) shared that she needed to limit her English use outside the classroom. Despite the encouragement of many lecturers to use English “everywhere and everytime,” RK consciously controlled her English use because excessive use of English might be falsely interpreted as showing off. Another issue is the maintenance of mother tongue while acquiring English. Many students related to Scott’s (2007) attempt to relearn his mother tongue narrated through his narrative Stranger at Home. In fact, some students wrote in their journals that Scott’s narrative was like a wake-up call for them to make an effort to maintain their mother tongue. Generally, the multilingual narratives appear to create platforms for the emergence of dialogues about language, culture, and identities. Second, from the action research project, I have learned that the response journal can provide a safe space for the participants to be vulnerable. Many of them wrote questions and things they wondered about that they did not have answers to. Some also shared their personal

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struggles and embarrassing moments that they might not share publicly. Bowo’s attempts to ‘wipe-out’ his Javanese-accented English and his experience of being laughed at because of it, were examples of such vulnerabilities. It was within this vulnerability that students were able to reflect on the way they were positioned in the mainstream English discourse. Most importantly, the space also provided them with a critical eye, and they were able to exert their agency as a response to such positioning. The most surprising outcome of the project was the initiation moves that students made in challenging my role as the teacher. In the CCU class, I had a habit of asking students to repeat their answers to draw the attention of the other students to the answers. When discussing Ping’s (2010) narrative on Chinese classroom participation pattern, Wowo, an active student whom on several occasions I had asked to repeat his answers, shared how he felt when he had been asked to repeat his answer. The first time when he was asked to repeat his answer, Wowo was worried because he had no idea why he would be asked to do so. In fact, from previous educational experiences, he came to believe that my strategy to highlight students’ questions was indeed an act of some sort of humiliation. This was confirmed by many of the students, who, upon hearing Bowo say it, continuously nodded their heads. At that time I asked him how I should say it so that it would not be perceived in the wrong way. And one student said that before asking students’ to repeat, I needed to validate their answer first by saying something like ‘excellent,’ ‘very good,’ or ‘great’ etc, rather than directly asking students to repeat the answer. Upon reflection, as I wrote in my teaching journal dated October 18, 2010, I found Wowo’s remarks significant in several ways. It showed how exposing students to multilingual narratives with issues relevant to students’ lives, in this case, classroom participation, creates a safe space for a dialogue where students can voice their concerns and dilemmas. By doing so, it can create a better atmosphere for learning both for the teacher and the students. The above critical incident also shows how students showed the courage to resist the positioning that the teacher unconsciously put them in. By doing so, Wowo provided me with useful feedback to reassess my teaching strategy. .

Closing Remarks Using published multilingual narratives has helped me achieve with my students what I see as the basic goal of teaching culture from a global

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perspective, that is, developing students’ awareness and evolving understanding towards their multilingual nature. By having this understanding, it was hoped that students can become aware of how they are positioned as well as how they contribute to such positionings when negotiating their identities. In particular, the teacher needs to design experience-sharing tasks where students can be encouraged to be vulnerable and reflective. Secondly, this action research project suggests some useful activities for using multilingual narratives in teaching English with a global perspective. However, the study was carried out for only 14 weeks and with only one group of students. So, longer-term research into this with a larger number of learners would be useful.

References Alsup, J. (2003). English Education Students and Professional Identity Development: Using Narrative and Metaphor to Challenge Preexisting Ideologies [Electronic Version]. Retrieved Sept 9, 2007 from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pedagogy/v003/3.2alsup.html. Angel, K. (2004, May 17). Game names. South China Morning Post. Baigent, M. (2005). Multi-word chunks in oral tasks. In C. Edwards & J. Wills (Eds.), Teachers exploring tasks in English language teaching (pp. 157-170). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Baker, W. (2009). The cultures of English as a lingua franca. TESOL Quarterly, 43(4). Bloom, L. R. (1998). Under the Sign of Hope: Feminist Methodology and Narrative Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York. Britzman, D. (1991). Practice Makes Practice: A Critical Study of Learning to Teach. Albany: State University of New York Press. Burns, A. (2005). Interrogating new worlds of English language teaching. In A. Burns (Ed.), Teaching English from a global perspective (pp. 118). Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publication, Inc. —. (2010). Doing action research in English language teaching: A guide for practitioners. New York: Routledge. Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Campbell, J. (1988). The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor As Myth and As Religion. New York Harper and Row. Canagarajah, S. (2002). Globalization, methods and practice in periphery classrooms. In D. Block & D. Cameron (Eds.), Globalization and language teaching (pp. 134-150). London: Routledge.

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Champoux, J. E. (2007). Film as a teaching resource. Journal of management inquiry, 8, 240-251. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass. Cook, V. (2001). Second language learning and language teaching (3rd ed.). London: Arnold. Corbett, J. (2003). An intercultural approach to English language teaching. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Feez, S. (1998). Task-based syllabus design. Sydney: National Center for English Teaching and Research. Finlay, L. (2003). Through the looking glass: Intersubjectivity and hermeneutic reflection. In L. Finlay & B. Gough (Eds.), Reflectivity: A practical guide for researcher in health and social sciences. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Gonzalez, A. (1995). The cultural content in English as an international auxiliary language (EIAL): Problems and issues. In M. L. Tickoo (Ed.), Language and culture in multilingual societies (pp. 54-63). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Goodson, I. F. (Ed.). (1992). Studying teachers' lives. New York: Holt. Guilherme, M. (2002). Critical citizens for an intercultural world: Foreign language education as cultural politics. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ho, S. T. K. (2009). Address cultural in EFL classrooms: The challenge of shifting from a traditional to an intercultural stance. Electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 6(1), 63-76. Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (Eds.). (2001). Inquiry into experience: teachers' personal and professional growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Cambridge University Press. Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kiernan, P. (2005). Storrytelling with low-level learners: Developing narrative tasks. In C. Edwards & J. Wills (Eds.), Teachers exploring tasks in English language teaching (pp. 58-68). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Kodotchigova, M. A. Role play in teaching culture: Six quick steps for classroom implementation [Electronic Version]. iteslj.org from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kodotchigova-RolePlay.html. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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—. (1998). The privilege of the intercultural speaker. In M. Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography (pp. 16-31). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2005). Problematizing cultural stereotypes in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 709-718. McKay, S. L. (2010). English as an international language. In N. H. Hornberger & S. McKay (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 89-115). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Mishler, E. G. (1999). Storylines: Craftartists' Narratives of Identity. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Montgomery, M., Durant, A., Fabb, N., Furniss, T., & Mills, S. (2000). Ways of reading: Advanced reading skils for students of English literature (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and the ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31, 409-429. —. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. New York: Longman. —. (2010). Language and identity. In N. H. Hornberger & S. L. McKay (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 349-369). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Nunan, D., & Choi, J. (2010). Language, culture and identity: Framing the issues. In D. Nunan & A. Choi (Eds.), Language and culture: Reflective narrative and the emergence of identity (pp. 1-13). New York: Routledge. Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative: creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ping, W. (2010). A case study of an in-class silent postgraduate Chinese student in London Metropolitan University: A journey of learning. TESOL Journal, 2, 207-214. Prathoomthin, S. (2009). Learners' perceptions of culture through movies. e-FLT, 6(1), 291-301. Pulverness, A. (1996). Worlds within words: Literature and British cultural studies. In D. A. Hill (Ed.), Papers on teaching literature from the British council's counferences in Bologna 1994 and Milan 1995. Italy: The British Council. Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Risager, K. (1998). Language teaching and the process of European integration. In M. Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Language learning in

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intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography (pp. 242-254). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —. (2007). Language and culture pedagogy: From national to transnational paradigm. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Schleicher, A. F. (1997). Using greetings to teach cultural understanding. Modern Language Journal, 81(iii), 334-343. Schon, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books. Scott, K. (2007). Strangers at home. In M. Besemeres & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), Translating lives: Living with two languages and cultures. Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Sercu, L. (2005). Teaching foreign languages in an intercultural world. In L. Sercu, E. Bandura, P. Castro, L. Davcheva, C. Laskaridou, U. Lundgren, M. Garcia & P. Ryan (Eds.), Foreign language teachers and intercultural competence: An international investigation (pp. 118). Cleveland: Multilngual Matters. Soekirno, D. C. (2004). Phases of awareness: Why I became an English teacher. English teaching: Practice and critique, 3(1), 59-70. Weeks, J. (1990). The value of difference. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: Community, culture and difference. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Widiyanto, Y. N. (2005). The making of a multicultural English teacher. English teaching: Practice and critique, 1(4), 106-117. Wierzbicka, A. (2007). Two languages, two cultures, one(?) self: Between Polish and English. In M. Besemeres & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), Translating lives: Living with two languages and cultures (pp. 96113). Queensland: Queensland University Press. Wong, J. (2007). East meets west, or does it really? In M. Besemeres & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), Translating lives: Living with two languages and cultures. Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Wortham, S. (2001). Narratives in Action: A Strategy for Research and Analysis. New York: Teachers College Press. Ye, Z. (2007). Returning to my mother tongue: Veronica's journey continues. In M. Besemeres & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), Translating lives: Living with two languages and cultures (pp. 56-69). Queensland: Queensland University Press.

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Appendix A: Response Journal Template Dear ………….. (WRITE THE AUTHOR’S NAME HERE) I read your narrative “…………..” (WRITE THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE HERE) for one of my classes. After reading your story, I feel ………………………………. (WRITE YOUR IMPRESSION OF THE READING HERE). The reason I have such a feeling is because …………………………….. . I have learned three (YOU CAN WRITE MORE THAN THREE THINGS) things from your story. First, I learn several new words/concepts related to culture, language, and identity. Those words are (1) ………………..; (2) ………………..; (3) …………………… (YOU CAN CHOOSE MORE THAN 3 WORDS) . I chose those three words because ……………………………. . Other than language use, your narrative raise my awareness with regard to ……………………………. . (Write what YOU take away from the article.) In addition, reading your story made me think of ……………………………………. . (WRITE ANOTHER THING YOUR LEARN FROM THE NARRATIVE). Reading your story also raises several question with regard to …………… . These questions are: …………….. (E.g. anything you don’t understand? Any issues you would like to debate further? Anything you would like to know more about?) Finally, ……………………. (WRITE YOUR GENERAL IMPRESSION OF THE STORY). Best, ………………….. (YOUR NAME)

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Appendix B: Participant Biographical Information Name: Gender: Age (put a check mark (√) next to the appropriate age): …… 15-20 years ….. 21-25 years …... 26-30 years above 30 years Ethnicity (-ies): How long have you been in the English Department? …… years How many languages do you speak: …… languages What are they?

What is your mother tongue (s)? What is your understanding of the term mother tongue? How long have you been learning English?

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CHAPTER FOUR BARATHI MUKERJEE’S “MANAGEMENT OF GRIEF” AND THE TEACHING OF IT: PROMOTING MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN AN EFL TEACHER EDUCATION’S PROSE CLASS PURWANTI KUSUMANINGTYAS

Introduction The issue of multiculturalism has been a great debate in Indonesia, even though it is really a multicultural society. On the level of civil society, people might have lived with tolerance and respect, but when it comes to formal education, tolerance is still a jargon in Civic Education. In some cases, tolerance is interpreted as certain groups’ demanding for recognition and respect over the suppression or even abolition of others’ existence or importance. EFL learning practices sometimes introduce and bring other cultures to Indonesian students’ lives. EFL teaching practices that centered on Anglocentric English has located students’ mother tongue or second language in the periphery. It tends to encourage students to abandon their local languages and neglect their national languages.1 Moreover, it neglects current development of World Englishes. This kind of EFL teaching and learning practice have not promoted multiculturalism. The 1

Indonesian people mostly speak their local language as their first language and the national language, Bahasa Indonesia, as their second language. English for most Indonesians is learned as a foreign language. However, in some big cities that have high exposure of English, English are sometimes used quite actively among youngsters. Some people fear that this preference of using English may gradually displace Bahasa Indonesia.

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urgency of acquiring English in Indonesia, currently, have been interpreted and promoted in a social divisive way. The mushrooming development of bilingual schools (using English as the medium of instruction) has been managed in such a way that seems to privilege the higher-class society only. This type of schools (with high-rate school fees) is affordable for learners coming from high social economic background. This development creates social distance more pervasive. Therefore, critical perspective is needed in EFL teaching and learning activity. The teaching of multiculturalism is meant to embrace diversity and promote respect and tolerance in a multicultural setting. This article would like to introduce an idea of teaching multiculturalism using literary works in an EFL teacher education classroom, particularly in Literature classes. It is hoped that the discussion of multiculturalism through the study of literary works can help the students learn and experience multiculturalism. In the Prose course offered last year, students were assigned to read and discuss Barathi Mukerjee’s Management of Grief as a part of their introductory study to multicultural literature. The story itself is a vivid reflection of multicultural relation among people of different gender and cultures – White Canadian, Indian Canadian, Sikh, Irish, Indian. Students could easily recognize the multicultural relation of the characters in the story. Most importantly, the class was designed not only for the students to see what the story told but also for them to implement multiculturalist perspective in the process of discussion. This paper discusses the implementation of several meaningful characteristics of multicultural education. It analyzes how pre-discussion journal, personal commentary, group sharing, and skit performance suggest the use of various instructional techniques and the critical inclusivity in the class. The techniques (adapted from Gorsky’s (n.d.) work) used are, individual work, dialog, cooperative learning, and student (creative) teaching through skit performance.

The Story The Management of Grief tells a story of a group of Indian Canadians whose family members become the victims of Air India Flight 182’s crash, which is suspected to be highjacked and bombed by Sikh terrorists. The first type of conflict arises from the victims’ conflicting values and beliefs as they try to manage their grief. The second type of conflict in the story is between the victims and the other people who are in charge to “help” and to deal with grief recovery. This is a very complicated intersection of beliefs, values and norms of people of different sexes, ethnic groups and

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cultures. This piece of writing is a challenge to the politics of representation as even though the story is told from the point of view of Shaila Bhave, the narrator. She refuses to be considered as a model for the majority of the Indian Canadians in managing grief. People’s hybridity is also exposed through the story’s characterizations. Shaila Bhave’s seemingly realistic, able-to-cope attitude in facing grief is juxtaposed with her spiritual experience in the temple in a “tiny Himalaya village,” where she meets her late husband’s spirit and has a very short but encouraging conversation with him. This incomprehensible incident leads her to continuing to live in Canada while her parents insist on her staying in India. Another character, the outstanding, rational and intelligible Doctor Ranagathan, after the death of his wife in the crash, decides to do things that are beyond comprehension by refusing to sleep on his kingsized bed. He believes that the bed is a “a shrine” for his house that he imagine to be “his temple.” Instead, “he sleeps on a folding cot.” The story exposes the heterogeneousness and dynamism of Indian culture, which may illustrate every culture’s dynamic varieties. It shows that Shaila Bhave, a Hindu woman, is different from the Indian Sikh families, and they may have conflicts among themselves as well. Shaila herself was raised by a rationalist mother whose “grandmother shaved her head after the death of her husband” and whose mother “slept in a hut behind the main estate and took her food with the servant.” Shaila’s neighbor, Kusum, who is very traditional, raises two daughters: Pam, the older, “dates Canadian boys and hangs out in the mall, shopping for tight sweaters,” whereas, her little sister, who died in the plane, was faithful to her parents and grandparents.

The Class and the Activities: Multicultural Experiences The class consisted of 32 students of different ethnic and socioeconomic background. They discussed Amy Tan’s Two Kinds before they read and discussed Barathi Mukherjee’s The Management of Grief. The discussion process of Mukherjee’s story started with students writing prediscussion journals as a part of their preparation for the class discussion. Then, they began the class with personal commentary writing, where each student received one specific topic for writing a personal commentary. There were 13 topics offered, and upon finishing their personal commentaries, the students had to group themselves with other students who had received the same question. They had to exchange opinions and share insights in groups. Then, as the peak of the class activities, each group had to perform a five-minute skit based on their discussion.

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Pre-discussion Journal and Personal Commentary: Involving the Students Wormeli (2005) notes that a journal (or a learning log) is an activity that encourages students write their learning experiences and reflections. Besides its long-term benefit to enhance students’ lifelong learning, the learning log’s double-fold advantages are to enable teachers see the students’ thinking and to assist the students in monitoring their own understanding (Wormeli, 2005). Before the students came to class, they had to write a one-page journal telling about their general impression of the story, a brief commentary on the cultural differences, the conflicts, and a reflective comment on the interesting issues of cultural differences or conflicts. Guidelines of what to write in the journal were given earlier to help the students focus on the material, and it helped them to learn better from the material (Wormeli, 2005). A pre-discussion journal is beneficial for both students and teacher. It helped students prepare for the class discussion. It also reduced their tension because the class started with students discussing their own journal. They could relate the text with their own experiences like what these two students did. DS, a Javanese girl, wrote: I have experienced... when I went to Bali, I felt confused with the tradition and culture because I didn’t found these traditions in my culture. It was very difficult to communicate with their language and understand what they said because it had different meaning from my own language. Indonesian language did not help when I followed the ceremony in Bali.

Another student, a Javanese boy, commented on the diversity that he read about in the story is similar to what he experienced in his immediate environment: ...when I was in elementary school, ... I lived in an environment where people were encouraged to live only with those who believe in the same religion. Unfortunately, I was the only child at school whose religion was not the same as the others. Firstly, they felt annoyed of me. But, eventually, they could accept me as their friends and we could enjoy our friendship without being bothered by the differences. It is just like the vegetables in our traditional food “lotek” or “pecel” (Javanese salad with chilli and peanut sauce), they complete each other. (AK)

Accommodating the students’ background means recognizing the students’ experiences. This is where the critical inclusivity started. This activity encourages such important values. Knowledge about students’

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background would be meaningful information for teachers in creating interactive communication with students in understanding the materials. When it seems that the students’ earlier knowledge is not sufficient for the discussion of the materials, the class discussion need to firstly provide the necessary background that can help the students understand the materials. On the other hand, when it seems that the students already has enough information of the topic discussed, the class discussion can move to analytical activity of the story. It makes learning one of what Sonia Nieto calls as agency or co-constructed learning, where both teacher and students share mutual discovery (Nieto, 2010). As the students had enough ideas of what the discussion of the story would be about (that is to see differences as inevitable facts in many societies), the in-class activity continued to individual work in which students are assigned to write personal commentary on specific topics. This individual work, again, gave enough room for the students to share their ideas and opinions, but this time with topics decided by the teacher. There were 13 questions altogether for guiding the students to discuss the issue of multiculturalism in the story, but each student had to answer one question only. They had to write the answer in the form of a personal commentary. These two individual activities engaged the students in the process of learning, as they accommodated the students’ personal experiences and perspectives. Thus, they are recognized as multicultural resources themselves, in terms of both the diverse opinion that they had and their opinion about differences itself. It was a multicultural experience for the students. They could see that not only they were recognized in the process, but were also actively involved without feeling intimidated by the teacher’s questions or instructions to speak up. Similar with Priya J. Krishnan’s experience with her secondary school students (Krishnan 2008:79), it was through this journal writing that the students could be made to express their voices.

Journals and Personal Commentaries Reading: Meaningful Student Teaching and Dialog In-class activities began with the students reading their pre-discussion journals. Some students were invited to read their journals aloud. This was not to judge their journals, but more for warming up the class and listening to different experiences available in the class. With this activity the students were not only included in the learning process, but they became “teachers” for their peers.

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Students teaching as one of the characteristics of multicultural education shares the same idea as Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL), which means that “people from similar social groupings, who are not professional teachers, helping each other to learn and by so doing, learning themselves” (Ehly, 1998:1). In this class students did not listen to a lecture but to their friends’ opinions that they wrote in their pre-discussion journals and personal commentaries. After writing their personal commentaries on the specific topics, the students had to gather with friends who got the same topics for their personal commentaries. This way of grouping was meant to get students to notice various responses to the questions as they would take turns to read their personal commentaries. Exposure is not enough to make the students learn about multicultural issues, so they had to experience being in such situation. Working in groups (categorized according to the questions they got) would make the students feel the heterogeneity of the class. Moreover, the exchanging personal commentaries activity created a way for the students to share opinions and insights with each other. Listening to others, they learned from each other, like what AK and IK wrote: I think this kind of activity is very useful because we can share our ideas with friends. We can also get some new inputs that we did not know. It also helps us in understanding the text better. (AK) ... this activity can make the students improve and explore what the students think ... (IK)

It also gave the students variation in the learning process, as this time they did not merely listen to the teacher’s lecture, but they were themselves the teachers. It was a rare experience for them, and certainly it reduced their boredom in learning, like what the following students wrote: I think this activity is very interesting. It does not make me bored and sleepy. I hope that we will have another class activity like this. (BR) Activity for today’s Prose class, I think it’s fun because first, we have to give opinion about the question given and then share it with friends. ... So, besides learning to understand the story itself, we can share and also hear others’ opinion or information. (MP)

EM even openly compared the usual lecture and the group work activity as follows:

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Today’s activity is interesting because we do something different from what we usually did. We are forced to state our opinion. The previous meetings we just did like the usual classes and not all class participants gave their comments. But, today all the participants stated their comment. ... today’s activity is interesting and all the students are herded to be active and to participate meaningfully.

It proves that student teaching activity provides not only variation in learning activities, but also enhances the students’ participation, both as teachers and as learners. Moreover, this activity gives more than just knowledge about the story or mere understanding of the story’s values. Through sharing, the students gain more than cognitive knowledge. The students learn the affective experience of paying respect to different opinions, which cannot be obtained through lecturing mode, like what MA and CA describe as follows: The class is very interesting because we can share our opinions with others. ... I also learn about how people react to different point of view. We have to respect each other. Yes, I think the class today is great. I think this kind of activity is really useful for us because we can learn to be open-minded by listening to others’ opinions. Sometimes I just think that each of us here is living inside our own boxes. We think about something based on our own opinion which is mostly formed by the way we were raised. By doing this sharing session, not only do we learn about different opinion, but also do we learn about other people’s ways of thinking.

Skit Performance: Cooperative Learning In this class, skit performance is a practical technique in which students were involved in face-to-face interactions in heterogeneous groups. This activity encourages students to work together as a group. Each group must discuss one specific topic and think of the most suitable skit that represents their ideas. Before coming up with an idea of a skit to perform, they must first exchange their ideas and share some insights with their group members. During their preparation for the skit performance, students learned to manage their time, negotiate differences, and solve problems of differences in their own way. In their journals, there are some happy and unhappy stories of working as a group while preparing for the skit performance. The following group tells their happy story in which all the members were so cooperative and enjoyed working together as a group. They set their time for preparation

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meetings (despite the tight schedule they had for preparing other homework and projects at that time). Yet, they worked cooperatively to the complete the assignment. ... We had just one meeting to do the group work because it was hard to manage the time that was suitable for all of us to meet. The first thing we did was deciding the characters. After that, we made the dialogs. When it finished, we practice our performance. I am happy to work in my group because all of my group mates have the will and effort to do the work. (DI)

DI admitted that time had been a problem for all members to be able to meet and prepare the project. However, he was happy because he thought that the group had cooperated well. His idea was supported by another group member who wrote: ... my group met only once to discuss this assignment on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 4 pm in the lobby of F building. ... Actually, each member contributed their ideas for the assignment meaningfully. We talked about the dialogue and costume. (IK)

What this student wrote indicates the ability of the group to build positive interdependency as each member is responsible and committed to the accomplishment of the task. However, not all groups were happy. It can be illustrated by the following group’s experience. ... We talked about when we would meet, and my friends asked me to arrange the meeting time and contact all group members. I was really confused because our schedule did not match each others’. It was so difficult to match the schedule to meet. Finally, we could meet on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 1 p.m. in F building. However, De couldn’t join because she had an appointment for consultation with her lecturer. So, it was just me and An. It was a short meeting, though, because An would have a class at 2, so we only discussed the assignment for one hour. ... Actually I had arranged the second meeting on Friday, October 29, 2010, but none could come except me because An had another meeting to do her Bahasa Indonesia group assignment and De had to go to Semarang, so I canceled the meeting and re-schedule the meeting. I tried to make the script drama at home ... Actually it was difficult, but finally I could finish it... It was hard to gather with my group. ... I am a little bit disappointed with my group because we could not spare our time to practice. Actually I wanted to practice, but we did not have time to do it. We planned to meet on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, at 9, but it failed because De had a class and another meeting with her other group, whereas An suddenly had to go

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to Semarang. So, I practiced alone. ... Honestly, I was rather disappointed with this mini drama preparation because we did not have enough time to preprare for it. I felt that we did not do our best for this performance... (MA)

MA was one of those who wrote relatively lengthy diary entries and she showed her disappointment for the group’s failure in preparing the assignment well. Her entries show that actually they communicated well as they always informed each other if they could not meet. Nevertheless, that may be a source of uneasiness as they had to compromise their different schedules. In addition to that, MA’s friend in the group wrote: ... I think the difficulty is the schedule. I only met my friends once because I had another thing to do, so they met without me. What I can learn from this is that everyone has different opinion in interpreting literary works. ... sometimes we disagree with each others. We have to find the best way to manage our differences ... I think this kind of activity is quite interesting, it’s good if we have such activity once or twice, but I prefer doing regular activity (where students work individually with their papers – writer’s note) because I can interpret the works more freely ... I don’t need to think about what others’ think about me. (CD)

CD also felt uneasy about the assignment because she would rather do the assignment individually. To CD, the problem was not only finding a suitable time to meet, but also different perspectives of the members in viewing the assignment. Unlike MA (who was very much concerned with the success of the group in the assignment), CD did not seem to enjoy group work activity that requires her to work with others (sharing ideas and listening to the others)

Skit Performance as “Student Teaching” Activity Skit performance can be an interesting way of promoting multicultural in the classroom. As explained above, through group-work students are encouraged to embrace diversity of opinions and voices and learned to negotiate and tolerate varieties. The process of preparing the skit performance is a real-life practice for the learners to experience this diversity and work cooperatively to overcome their differences and achieve the same goal. This activity provides the students opportunities to learn from each other. In addition to the skit performance activity, the students have to do several follow-up activities. After students’ performance was over, they

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had to write down what they had learned from their friends’ performances. In this way, they are encouraged to appreciate others’ performance. Commenting on the skit about the similarities and differences of how Dr. Ranagathan and Shaila Bhave faced their grief, DI commented, “I learned that we should not judge people before knowing him / her well.” His comment indicates that he learned not to be judgmental and the importance of dialog to understand other people. Another student, WNS, wrote the lesson she learned from the skit about Dr. Ranangathan’s internal conflicts of being rational and “irrational” as follows: Everybody has their own belief / tradition, so we must give respect to others’ traditions.

WNS notes show that she learned how to live in recognition of differences and therefore, understanding different perspectives is essential to maintaining good relationships. Another student, DKK, wrote that: In our life, there are different perspectives and everybody must be able to tolerate each other.

DKK learned this from the skit about Judith’s conflict with the Sikh couple. She came to realize that differences are real and that tolerance is the way to deal with it.

Conclusion In summary, I have discussed how to use Barathi Mukherjee’s The Management of Grief with students to see and learn how multicultural issues are portrayed there. When it is discussed by implementing the techniques that are developed from the characteristics of multicultural education, it will bring pedagogical benefits. The experience of this Prose class shows that pre-discussion journal, personal commentary writing, group discussion, and skit performance are beneficial to learners’ critical thinking, inclusivity in learning, provide real-life practice of multicultural experience, and raise their awareness of living in and with diversity.

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References Ehly, S. and Topping, K. (Eds.). (1998). Peer-Assisted Learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Krishnan, P.J. (2008). Learner Involvement. In Beedle, P. and Burkill, B. (Eds.). Reflections on Teaching Today and Tomorrow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McCafferty, S., Jacobs, G.M., Iddings, A.C.D. (Eds.). (2006). Cooperative Learning and Second Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Nieto, S. (2010). Language, Culture, and Teaching. Critical Perspective. Second Edition. New York: Routledge. Wormeli, R. (2005). Summarization in Any Subject: 50 Techniques to Improve Students Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Gorski, P. (n.d.). 7 Key Characteristics of a Multicultural Education Curriculum. Retrieved on May 9, 2010, from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/resources/ct_characteristics.html.

PART II: BRINGING LITERATURE INTO EFL CLASSROOM

CHAPTER FIVE EMPOWERMENT IN ACTION: CREATIVE WRITING BY ASIAN TEACHERS FOR ASIAN LEARNERS ALAN MALEY AND JAYAKARAN MUKUNDAN

Introduction In this paper, we shall be putting the case for encouraging teachers in Asia to produce literary texts in English for use in their classes. This will be in the context of a small case study of a creative writing project which has been running since 2003. The ‘Asia Teacher-Writers Project’ is, we believe, interesting for a number of reasons. It is a grassroots / bottom-up initiative. Participation is entirely voluntary and the project is independent of institutions. It is also predicated on the principle of ‘small is beautiful’ (Schumacher 1974). There is no ambition to effect sweeping, large-scale changes, such as the many failed government initiatives which litter the educational landscape. It has a local focus with no global ambitions. It works, if it works at all, through persuasion at the personal level, and through the commitment of a small number of individuals. Small phenomena can nonetheless have large effects, as Chaos Theory teaches us. (Gleick 1988) However, it is also significant because it intersects in important ways with some currents of contemporary professional concern. The role of the NNS continues to preoccupy scholars of the spread of English, as does the development of English as an International Language, no longer the sole property of the metropolitan countries ( Rubdy and Saraceni 2006). This project is intimately linked with such concerns. It promotes the notion of NNS teachers being able to find their own place and their own idiom in this rapidly-changing global movement. The project also reasserts the importance of the place of affect (Arnold 1999), of visualisation (Tomlinson 1998, 2001), noticing (Schmidt 1990), personalisation, Multiple Intelligences

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(Gardner 1985), motivation (Dornyei 2001), authenticity, extensive reading (Day and Bamford 1998), the teaching of expository writing in a second language, and creativity in general (Boden 1998, Carter 2004) The project started in 2003 with a small workshop in Bangkok. Teacher/writers from a number of Asian countries gathered to discuss the desirability of writing creative materials in English for students in their countries. A collection of papers was the outcome (Tan 2004), together with some stories which were also eventually published by Pearson Malaysia (Maley and Mukundan 2005). This first event was followed by workshops for roughly the same (but ever expanding pool) group in Melaka (2004), Fuzhou (2005) and Hanoi (2006), Salatiga (2007) and Kathmandu (2008). Each workshop produced poems and stories which were published by Pearson Malaysia (Maley (ed) 2005, 2006), as well as another volume of papers (Mukundan 2006) As already noted above, the group is noteworthy for being independent of any institutional support, and is entirely voluntary. Financial sponsorship was obtained from Assumption University, Bangkok in 2003, from Pearson Malaysia in 2004, from UBCHEA and Hwa Nan Womens’ College Fuzhou in 2005, from The Open University Hanoi in 2006 and from local sponsors in Salatiga and Kathmandu. Each year, a volunteer takes on the responsibility for organising the workshop in a different venue in Asia. Plans are already afoot for two more workshops in 2009, in Ho Chi Minh City and at a venue somewhere in Indonesia.

Why Creative Writing? Before proceeding further, it is reasonable enough to question the focus on creative writing in this project. After all, neither teachers nor students are likely to become professional writers of fiction, or poets. Particularly in institutional, TESEP, contexts, time is short, the course-book and the examination reign supreme, and if any writing is done at all, it is usually for pragmatic purposes It is nonetheless worth examining some of the benefits which can flow from introducing creative writing materials and activities. A recent smallscale survey (unpublished data, see Appendix for the questionnaire) conducted among some 50 leading ELT professionals, especially teachers of writing yielded the following reasons:

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™ It restores the balance between: Aesthetic/Pragmatic Figurative/Literal Affect/ Intellect Second language classrooms tend to present a view of learning which is excessively pragmatic and results-oriented. This leads to a focus on the literal meaning of the language at the expense of the figurative, the metaphorical or the playful. Intellect is prized above affect. Yet work in recent years has repeatedly shown how learning is facilitated by affective engagement. (Arnold 1999) And work in corpora-based studies shows the ubiquity of creativity in ‘common talk’ (and in print) (Carter 2004). Creative writing opens the way for an element of affective engagement, an opportunity to use the language for aesthetic as well as pragmatic purposes, and the chance to develop an appreciation of the figurative as well as the merely literal uses of language. ™ Importance of play/risk-taking It is widely agreed that one of the key elements in L1 acquisition is playfulness. (Cook 2000) Play enables children to experiment and take risks in the language within a protective framework. Few, if any, second language learners are given this opportunity. Without the courage to take risks in the new language however, it is acquired more slowly, less confidently and less completely. Creative writing allows, indeed encourages, writers to take risks. ‘Failure’ is a relative term, and is not accompanied by guilt or punishment. ™ Disciplined use leads to language development/language acquisition Creative writing is often mistakenly understood to mean ‘letting it all hang out’, writing down whatever random thoughts or ideas come to the writer’s mind. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Writing creatively involves both formal and linguistic constraints. Indeed, creativity flourishes under the pressure of these constraints. Perhaps the main difference between Expository Writing (EW) and Creative Writing (CW) is that in EW the stylistic and formal, conventional constraints are externally imposed, and viewed as a burden, whereas in CW the constraints are chosen or invented by the writer, and are willingly embraced. The fact that CW involves writers in the careful weighing of word choice, sentence shape and discourse organization increases the

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chances that they will become more aware of and more skillful in deploying, the resources of the new language. ™ Creates text for re-use as input A secondary benefit from working with CW with students is that the texts they produce, once edited, may provide new input for another class of students. A bank of student-produced texts can often provide more motivating input than many, more polished, canonical texts. The enhanced motivation and self-esteem felt by students whose work is ‘published’ in this way cannot be underestimated. ™ Facilitates EW, individual voice The small-scale questionnaire study mentioned above was carried out to assess the extent to which progress in CW was carried over into more formal EW. A significant number of the respondents to the questionnaire were of the opinion that CW offered a useful preparation to students to express themselves with an individual voice in EW. The fact that they have a more exploratory approach to writing, and greater facility in figurative expression, makes it more likely (according to these informants) that they will carry this over into their EW. There is a certain irony in the expectation we have of students that they should develop ‘an individual voice’ while at the same time requiring them to adhere rigidly to formal and linguistic constraints. A background in CW helps to approach these constraints with a more flexible and relaxed attitude. ™ Washback into reading The value of Extensive reading (ER) as a prime factor in secondlanguage acquisition is now well attested. (Day and Bamford 1998, Krashen 2004). One of the problems in interesting students in ER is that many of the published texts are far removed from the students’ world experience, cultural context and personal interest. This problem should be palliated by using texts written by teachers who have an intimate knowledge of the world they share with their students. Stories which relate to a familiar background and shared values, while still retaining intrinsic interest through the plot and characterisation, are likely to prove more successful with students in many parts of the region.

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™ Personal benefits: Self-esteem Motivation Lower anxiety Self-discovery, awareness, noticing, exploration. Whole person growth/personal investment. Enjoyment. All of the above factors were mentioned by the respondents to the questionnaire. Respondents noted that students who become engaged in CW tasks demonstrate a robust sense of self-esteem and are consequently better motivated (Dornyei 2001). They also become more aware both of the language and of themselves as learners. The virtuous cycle of success breeding more success is evident with such students. As they become more self-confident, so they are prepared to invest more of themselves in these creative writing tasks. Above all, students derive not just ‘fun’ but a deeper sense of enjoyment from their writing.

Rationale and Objectives of the Asian Teacher-Writers’ Group The group operates in the belief that NNS teachers are not only capable of but are also uniquely well-placed to write literary materials for use by their own and other students in the Asia region. By virtue of the fact that they share their students’ background and contexts, they have an intuitive understanding of what will be culturally and topically relevant and attractive for them. What they all too often lack is the confidence in their own ability to write interesting material. The group operates to dispel this misconception. The following rationale underpins the activities of the group: • A belief in the value of creative writing in English both for teachers and for students.(see below) • A belief in the ability of teachers in the region to produce their own English teaching materials. • A belief that these materials will provide useful input for promoting reading (and other activities) in English. • A belief in the value for professional and personal development of forming a closely-knit, Asia-wide, mutually-supportive learning community of teacher/writers.

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The objectives are: • To produce poetry and stories appropriate in level and content for use by Asian students of English at secondary level. • To publish and promote these as widely as possible, thus creating a wider awareness of the value of CW. • To develop materials and activities for the teaching of creative writing. • To run creative writing conferences and workshops for the wider teaching community wherever possible. • In this way, to boost the self-esteem and confidence of teachers of English in Asia. The intended outcomes are: • A set of stories for extensive reading and related language work. • A set of poems intended for language work, and to stimulate creative writing by students. • A set of teacher-generated creative writing activities. • Publications, website and conferences for teachers in the region to raise awareness of the value of creative writing activities. In other words, the project aims at three main audiences: • a small group of writers who produce the materials, and in so doing developprofessionally and personally. • English teachers in the region at large who will use the materials and hopefully go on to develop their own in due course. • students of English in the region who will use the materials, and will themselves produce texts which can be fed back as input to other students.

The workshops What, then, actually happens during the workshops? The procedure which has evolved is as follows: • a few months before the workshop, participants are asked to submit a draft of one or more short stories and poems, and to prepare at least

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one teaching activity involving creative writing. These are submitted to the organising group. • at the workshop, participants peer-edit these texts. They are then passed to the editor before being forwarded to the publisher. • there are also input sessions when new ideas for activities are shared. There are now a number of published sources for such ideas (Koch 1990 ,Matthews 1994, Rinvolucri and Frank 2007, Spiro 2004, 2007). These ideas are then refined and collated for diffusion via the website. Two handbooks of resources, for writing stories, and writing poems, are also in preparation. • one day is set aside for a writing field-trip to an atmospheric place. This may be a scenic beauty-spot, a place of pilgrimage, or an outstandingly interesting site. Participants write all day long, recording through poems their observations, sensations and reflections. These are then also passed to the editor. • it is customary for participants to present a workshop or paper at the conference held for local teachers, either just before or just after the main workshop.

Outcomes to date The group remains small (which is one of its declared intentions). One of the strengths of the group is the close bonding which can happen only in a relatively small community. Contributors have come from some 10 Asian countries to date. The following are the tangible outcomes so far: • Publications to date include 9 volumes of stories and /or poems published by Pearson Malaysia, and two books of papers. • The group runs its own website http://www.creative-writing. net/index.htm • There are plans to publish the ideas for teaching activities and other relevant material on the website and in two free-standing resource books. • Conferences for teachers have been run in Melaka, Fuzhou, Hanoi ,Salatiga and Kathmandu, promoting an awareness of the value of CW activities among the local community of teachers.

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The best of all possible worlds…? We would certainly not claim, as Candide might have done, that we are living in the best of all possible worlds. The project is a modest one, and even its modest aims are not always fulfilled. Problems are of three main kinds: 1. Funding We have so far been fortunate in finding generous sponsors willing to underwrite a large portion of the costs. These include international travel, accommodation, workshop space and equipment, and administration. However, participants themselves have had to make very real sacrifices to attend the workshops. The continuing success of the workshops depends on finding sponsorship, which makes the whole project somewhat precarious. 2. Outreach. Although some interesting materials have been produced, they are not sufficiently well-known, even in the region. The publisher can do only so much to ensure that the materials come into the hands of those for whom they were intended. So far, the group has not been especially successful in popularising and publicising the materials, and this is a weakness. The possibility of setting up local groups of creative writer/teachers is being explored (in Malaysia in particular). This is a welcome initiative but others need to be taken to involve larger numbers of teachers in the CW movement. 3. Quality. This is a sensitive issue. Writers are almost always in love with what they have written and tend to resent it if their materials are radically edited or even excluded from publication. Fortunately, the group members have been mature enough to tacitly consent to their work being subjected to critical scrutiny. Even so, it has to be admitted that not all the work we publish is of the highest standard. The project is in the nature of an experiment, so that we sometimes need to leave some latitude for work which is interesting but not always as polished as we might wish. Longterm this is a problem we shall have to address however.

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Coda The project described here is small-scale, modest in its aims, and relatively insignificant. Its importance resides in the high degree of commitment by young, energetic professionals to its aims. Ultimately, change in our teaching practices will not come from top-down ministerial decrees but from the commitment of individuals with a belief in the value of their actions. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

References Arnold, J. (1999). Affect in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Boden, M. (1998). The Creative Mind. London: Abacus. Carter, R. (2004). Language and Creativity: the art of common talk. London: Routledge. Cook, G. (2000). Language Play: Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Day, R and Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gardner, H. (1985). Frames of Mind. London: Paladin Books Gleick, J. (1988). Chaos. London:Sphere Books Koch, K. (1990). Rose, where did you get that red? New York: Vintage Books. Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading (2nd Ed.). Portsmouth NH: Heinemann Maley, A. (Ed.). (2006). Asian Short Stories for Young Readers. Vol. 4. Petaling Jaya: Pearson/Longman Malaysia —. (Ed.). (200). Asian Poems for Young Readers. Vol.5. Petaling Jaya:Pearson/Longman Malaysia. Maley, A. and Mukundan, J. (Eds.). (2005). Asian Stories for Young Readers, Vols 1 and 2. Petaling Jaya: Pearson/Longman Malaysia. Maley, A. and Mukundan, J. (Eds.). (2005) Asian Poems for Young Readers.Vol. 3. Petaling Jaya: Pearson/Longman. Matthews, P. (1994). Sing Me the Creation. Stroud:Hawthorn Press. —. (2007). Words in Place. Stroud: Hawthorne Press. Mukundan, J. (Ed.). (2006). Creative Writing in EFL/ESL Classrooms II. Petaling Jaya: Pearson/Longman Malaysia

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Rubdy, R. and Saraceni, M. (Eds.). (2006). English in the World: Global Rules, Global Roles. London/New York: Continuum. Schmidt, R. (1990). The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning. Applied Linguistics. Vol. 11, No. 2 129-158. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schumacher, E.F. (1974). Small is Beautiful. London: Abacus/Sphere Books Spiro, J. (2004). Creative Poetry Writing. Oxford: Oxford university Press. —. (2007). Creative Story-building. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tan, B.T. (Ed.) (2004). Creative writing in EFL/ESL Classrooms I. Serdang: UPM Press. Tomlinson, B. (1998). Seeing what they mean: helping L2 learners to visualise. In B.Tomlinson (ed). Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 265-78 —. (2001). The inner voice: a critical factor in language learning. Journal of the Imagination in L2 learning. VI, 123-154.

CHAPTER SIX WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STUDENTS DO CREATIVE WRITING? VISHNU S RAI

Introduction There are fallacies in circulation that literature should not be used in a language classroom particularly in a foreign language classroom because it is beyond the learners' understanding, because they do not have the language competence to understand and enjoy literature, because the literary language is entirely different from the day to day communication and so on. Recent studies show that use of literature particularly creative writing immensely helps the learners to develop their foreign language competence. In fact, 'literature is all round us' (Maley 2006) and to keep learners away from literature is to prevent them from opportunity that might help them to learn language better and faster. Creative writing is much praised in language teaching today. It as an effective tool in English Language Teaching (ELT) which gained momentum in the new millennium. Rejecting the view that creative writing cannot be taught, Bell (2001) shows evidences against the view. Similarly, Dornyei (2001) claims that a very good reason for teaching creative writing is that it increases learner's self-confidence and selfesteem, which leads to increase in motivation. As they become more selfconfident, so they are prepared to invest more of themselves in these creative writing tasks. In her research, Tan Bee (2007) shows that creative writing provides learners more opportunities to play and practice the target language. Creative writing not only enhances the writing skills of the learners but it helps learners to enhance all the language skills. Language learning is facilitated by affective engagement (Arnold 1999) and creative writing tasks foster it with fun and playfulness. Creative writing provides the learners with new ways to play with the

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language and as they play more with the language, they learn more. It is said that as learners are engaged to manipulate the language in interesting and demanding ways attempting to express uniquely personal meanings, they necessarily engage with the language at a deeper level of processing than with expository texts (Rai 2008). The importance of playfulness in L1 can hardly be exaggerated (Cook 2000). The more a child plays with the language the more he learns and the more he learns the language the more he plays with it. The other important thing about creative writing is that it encourages learners to take risks (Maley and Mukundan 2008) and as a result the learners are able to create novel sentences. However, this playfulness, this encouragement for taking risks which helps creativity is not ‘the absence of constraints, but their imaginative –yet disciplined – development.’ (Boden 2001). In order to see if these claims made by the supporters of creative writing are true, the researcher conducted a mini research. The present paper is the report of that experimental research.

Objectives The objectives of this study were as follows: • To find out if the students really play with the language while doing the creative writing tasks. • To find out what strategies the students adopt (process of solving the tasks) to do the creative writing task. • To find out if there are novel concepts expressed in novel structures (products of the tasks). • To find out student's view on the usefulness of creative writing.

Tools for data collection The research was carried out in a Nepalese context. Two tasks were given to the subjects. They had to write two types of poems (a) Acrostics and (b) Simile. They were asked to do the tasks in pairs.

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Task 1: Write Acrostic poems on any two of the given titles: HOLIDAY, TEACHER, BOOK. Rules:

Each line must start with the letter of the title word. The whole poem must be related to the title word.

Example: JOY 1. Jump Out of Your sorrow

2. Just thinking Of You

3. Jovial and Outstanding feeling in Your life

Task 2: Write two simile poems. The first lines for the poems are given. 1. My teacher is like …… 2. My friend is like… Compare your teacher and friend with any one of the following: mountain, rock, river, flower (any flower), lake, sea, tree – anything from nature In addition to the tasks, post-writing interviews were conducted with the participants. The participants were the students of M.Ed. with major English. However, they have never been taught creative writing. This was the first time when they did any kind of creative writing. Two groups of boys and girls participated in this experiment. The researcher explained the tasks and the purpose to the participants of both groups and both groups did the same tasks separately. The members of each group were asked to talk together and discuss while doing the task and their discussions were audio recorded. When they finished their tasks, the products (the poems which they have written) were also collected for analysis. In addition, the researcher talked informally with both the groups to find their opinions and feelings about the tasks.

Boys group: the products It is interesting to see the products of the tasks but the process is even more interesting. Because of the space limitation, the transcription of all the recordings (data) is not included here. Only two, one for acrostic and the other for simile from each group (boys and girls) are provided here. The transcription of the discussions of both the group are very similar and the only difference is that girls have also used their native language,

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Nepali in their discussion for doing the tasks whereas boys did not use Nepali –they used English throughout their discussion. This was most probably because they thought that they, being the students of Master level with major English should not use any other language than English although the researcher had explicitly told them that they could also discuss the task in their native language. The transcription of the recordings given under the heading 'Process' are 1 from boys group discussion and 2 from the girls group discussion.

The products Each group wrote two acrostics and two similes but because of the space constraint only one acrostics and one simile from each group are given below. Acrostics:

(Boys Group)

HOLIDAY Hunger Of Leisure In the (Girls group) Dim* of business As the ox in the Yolk* (Note: *spelling mistake)

Happy Occasion, Lovely Interest, Dynamic Activity, Yummy.

Similes: 1.

Our teacher is like a rose (Boys Group) Smiling amongst the thorns Teaching the knowledge of struggle and hardship And spreading the perfume of love from the Pandora’s box.

2.

My teacher is like a river Which flows forever Without caring ups and downs Having a lot of hopes and dreams.

(Girls Group)

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The process First: Following is the transcription of the recording of the discussion between boys while they were writing acrostics HOLIDAY. The dots “…” represent the pauses in their speech. A: Holiday. We should link with romance. B: Romance, nature… somehow, OK? Holiday. (coughs) H… H… means what possible words can be that is related to Holiday? H… A: Havock… Havock but it does not make sense. B: H… A: See? Hungry Of Leisure… Holiday. B: Yea, Hungry Of Leisure… A: Hungry Of Leisure. B: hun-hun. A: Holiday. B: Yea, yea, yea, Holiday… Hungry Of Leisure –Hungry is somehow related to describe the person, yea? So, hunger… Holiday. Yes H… H… Holiday… OK. A: Hunger Of Leisure. B: Leisure… Hunger Of Leisure… Hunger Of Leisure in… … Hunger Of Leisure A: Let’s start with such a phrase with such a word that touches heart B: Yea, yea. A: Hunger Of Leisure in… B: OK, let’s… Happy also possible… yea happy? A: You mean that is… B: Happy… O… Happy. O… Out of books, O… Out of the classroom, no? I think the…the boy is very much bored with his reading, no… reading in the classroom… Out of the classroom. L… leisure… L for leisure aan… …… A: Holiday! B: Leisure… aan… … Leisure, Love… other possible… that’s I… I means (coughs) … what?... What have you written? A: let’s… (paper shuffling) Hunger Of Leisure In Dim of business… B: Leisure… In Dim of business… What’s there for business… what’s…? A: Yes business… business B: Business? What’s there connection… Leisure A: Business… … as… OK? yoke, yoke… What’s in Nepali վ֡֗֞ Hunger Of Leisure In Dim of business As the ox in the Yoke. B: Then, then, the description should match Holiday. Let’s try once. Hunger Of Leisure… A: Holiday means, we are always hungry for leisure? B: Ye a…

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Chapter Six A: In Dim of business… when you are in… in… see? B: Yea. A: Bag of… … As the ox in the Yoke. B: Hunger Of Leisure! A: It’s literary sense. B: Literary sense, yea. Hunger Of Leisure… Now, Hunger Of Leisure… Holiday. Somehow the… acrostics, no? It’s acrostics, no? So it describes Hunger Of Leisure –Holiday. I think it describes the person, yea? Holiday, Hunger Of Leisure In Dim of business As the ox in the… Yok. Hunger of Leisure. A: It states Holiday –what’s Holiday. Holiday is… Holiday is Hunger of Leisure. B: Hunger of Leisure. A: Hunger Of Leisure… not a person… he is not hungry for leisure… B: hun-hun. A: But Holiday is Hunger Of Leisure. B: Yea-yea A: In the Dim of business As the ox in the yolk. B: Ok, OK. That’s right. A: It makes sense? B: Yea-yea. Now let’s try another one, simile.

Second: Following is the transcription of the recording of the discussion while they were writing simile poem on 'My teacher is like… The dots represent the pauses in their speech. B: OK, now let’s think of simile. C: Simile. My teacher is like… B: Like flower? My teacher is… C: No.o.o. (laugh) like… A: There is one quotation in English “Guru is a bulb he gives light and lights his flowers.’ C: Gurus is… A: That is in Nepali. չ֡ᱧ ֎ᱫ֠ վ᭭ֆ֨ ᱟ᭠ս: ը֍֢ ֌֟֊ ֎᭨ս ֒ էᱨ֔֞ժ ֌֟֊ ֎᭨֊ ֚֟շ֞իե ս ֿ B: But we have another saying in Hindi, չ֡ᱧ չ֡փ ֛֫ֆ ֛֨, ռ֧֔֞ ֘Ქ֒ ֛֫ֆ֞ ֛֨ (laughter) ᭍֑֞-᭍֑֞ ֎֊ վ֞ֆ֞ ֛֨ ֿ A: On the basis of that quotation we can generate here one. C: OK, what do we… B: My teacher is like a flower… C: aan… flower, stone mountain B: I don’t like stone mountain C: My teacher is like a river who always, no, flows

What Happens When Students Do Creative Writing? A: Yea, may be, may be aan may be like flower too… C: Flower too? A: Yea, or river B: I think river is… A: If he is river, then he can… in... … mis B: What? A: river ֏ ֌֟֊ ֑ֆ֞ի֟ֆշ֫ ս֞֔֔֞ժ ֌֟֊ ֎չ֞ձ֒ ֔֞᭠ս֭ ֟֊ ֚եչ֨, ֛֨? B: ֌Ყ֡, ֑ֆ֞֎֞ց ֌֟֊ էտ֨… Ice ռ֞ե֛֟ not good one… aan… fruit is not good, rose? A: Rose? Rose ֟֐᭨ս ? B: OK, what about my teacher is like a tree who gives shade C: Where is tree? B: It is there. C: O, yea. B: My teacher is like a tree A: Yea, may be (laughter) B: My teacher is like a tree and I am like a bee (laughter) C: My teacher is like a tree, ֐ֆ֔֎… A: Teacher like a tree! B: We’d have a lot of words from tree, we can take a lot of… yea A: We can get shadow B: We can get shade also and we can get wood also. C: But yea, river, river also… teacher is like a river that he can do lot of aan… A: Think about second line, third line if we have… we have to finish C: My teacher is like a river… river B: If first… first A: if our techer is like a flower, then there is no benefits (laughter) B: What benefit (laughter) se… scent A: Only smell… can spray smell and we can also spray that smell in our world (laughter) C: If teacher is flower… it’s so difficult to … scent… A: That can be for our friend, lover, or beloved (laughter) B: My teacher is like aan… my teacher like a river A: Rose, jasmine B: My teacher is like a river A: River, stone… ice no, sand no C: My teacher is like a river –river which never… tired A: Ok, Ok B: My teacher is like a river, next line, next line should be similar… C: No, it’s necessary. B: OK, then, my teacher is like a river who is never tired… C: My teacher is like a river

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Chapter Six A: Who never stops B: Never stops, never tired… we don’t have to, OK? We have to make our C: Think words… make strong B: OK, then A: Quality of a river is what? Always flows, flows or blows, flows down to swallow to what? իշ֞֔֫ յ֒֞֔֫ (laughter) իշ֞֔֫-յ֒֞֔֫ ֛֫թ֊? վ֚ᳯ֒ ֐֑֞֞ ᮫֛֞֫ իշ֞֔֫-յ֒֞֔֫, ւ֢ ֔֫֎֞ց ֑᭭֞֊֫ ֟ֆ֒ ֎᭏ս֭ ֟֊- շ֛֧֟֔ ֑᭭֞֊֫֎֞ց ւ֢ ֔֫ ֟ֆ֒ ֗չ֧շ֫ ֛֧֊֡ᭅ֏֞ ս? ֐֑֞֞ ֏᳖֧ ռ֠վ ֛֫ժ֊? ᮧշ֣ ֟ֆ֧֔ ֐֑֞֞֔֞ժ ֐֞ᮢ ւ֢ ֔֫֎֞ց ֑᭭֞֊֫ ֟ֆ֒ ֎Შ ֚֟շ֑֞֞ ս ᳰշ ᭜֑֧֚֨֔ river ֌֟֊ իշ֞֔֫֎֞ց յ֒֞֔֫ ֟ֆ֒ ֎᭏ս, ֛֨֊? ᮫֛֞֫ teacher ֌֟֊ ֛֞֐֠֏᭠ֈ֞ senior ᱟ᭠ս ֟֊ ֆ! ᭜֑֫ teacher շ֫ ֐֑֞֞ ֛֞֐֠ ֟֗᳒֞ևᱮ֐֞ river վ᭭ֆ֨ ֎᭏ս, շ֧ ! B: Ok, OK. (laughter) C: We can write like this: My teacher is like a tree who gives shadow to us, OK? B: OK, who gives shadow to us A: ֐֔֞ժ ֆ tree ֏᭠ֈ֞ river ֐֊ ֌սᭅ ֿ C: Who gives us life to live in the world… or who gives, gives… makes the environment green, and you know that we can write, we can add other things also. B: What… My teacher is like a tree, who gives shadow to us… which or who? We can… C: OK then… Or we can describe we are leaves of the tree B: Yea, yea C: Yes? B: Yea, yea. A: Teacher is bran… tree and we are branches of that –we students are branches of that B: Yea, but we have to choose –we don’t have to choose all words- one word C: I think river is better for teacher and tree is better for friend A: Y..e..a… My teacher is a river who never tired… … (laughter) My teacher is a river who never tired… where love is always shared from senior to junior… B: No, that’s not, that’s not C: My teacher is a river which flows, which flows in any season, yes which flows in any season with lots of… A: With lots of… B: With lots of hopes and beliefs (all three talk together unintelligibly) With lots of hopes and beliefs –that’s better A: Who can adjust lots of B: OK, My teacher C: Dreams? B: Yes, dreams also

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A: What should be the last sentence? (paper shuffling) B: My teacher is like a river, Who flows for ever, With lots of hopes and dreams C: My teacher is like a river, Who flows or which A: Who may be C: But… river, which flows B: May be which… C: OK, which flows for ever… ups and downs because B: yea C: We don’t see ups and downs B: My teacher is like a river, which flows for ever, without seeing ups and downs, with lots of hopes and dreams A: Without watching B: No A: Without caring? B: O yea… what? C: Without caring ups and downs B: My teacher is like a river which flows for ever without caring ups and downs A: Ups and downs… ֑ֆ֞իֆ֞ ֊֛֧ᳯ֒շ֊ B: Yea C: It’s OK –without caring? B: Without caring ups and downs C: Having a lots of hopes and dreams B: Having… having a lot of hopes and dreams A: Hopes and dreams, yea.

Analysis Both the products and the process were taken into account for the analysis. A summary of the comparison between the two tasks (data) is given in the following table.

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Acrostics -More complex structures -More novel and surprising ideas

Simile -Less complex language -No surprising ideas

Process

-Lots of repetition, back and forth, -More playing with the language -Thinking aloud in case of Ramesh

-Repetitions but less playing with the language -Less discussion between the pair

Time

-More time taken: 20 minutes

-Less time taken 15 minutes

Others

- acr -Acrostics create more opportunities for L2 making and L2 creativity, requiring learners to construct meaning through L2 directly -Participants found it more challenging as well as interesting

-Participants found it less challenging - ex -Excessive L1 use may hinder Opp opportunities for the destabilization of learners’L2.

Products

If we compare the products of the tasks, it is clear that the acrostic poems have far more complexlanguage (particularly of the acrostics written by the boys) than that of the simile ones. Not only that but the comparison also shows that the acrostics have more novel and/ or surprising ideas than those of similes. Particularly, the acrostic HOLIDAY (if we overlook the linguistic mistakes “din” spelt as “dim” and “yoke” spelt as “yolk”) has some very novel and surprising ideas expressed in a complex (metaphoric) language which describes holiday as ‘hunger for leisure’ by which the students mean that today man has too much work to do and he always looks for a break from his work –always hungry for leave. Another novel expression in the same poem is ‘ox in the yolk’. By this they mean people are like bullocks tied to the yoke to plough the fields (this is true to Nepalese context because in Nepal bulks of farming is still done with the help of bullocks who plough the fields). The acrostics written by girls do not have complex structures as they stick to one word one line but the idea is certainly novel. The poem ends with the word

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'Yummy' as if a holiday is something to taste. It is interesting to see that the boys group considers 'holiday' as a time for rest since life is full of work (din of business) and their work is as tiresome as that of a bullock. On the other hand, the girl group considers 'holiday' a 'happy occasion' to enjoy, something 'lovely' and 'interesting', an occasion when they become active (dynamic activity) and something very tasty. In comparison to acrostics, simile poems are straightforward in the sense that one can fairly guess what is coming next, e.g. rose presupposes thorns, teaching presupposes knowledge and perfume love. However, even in simile we find expression such as 'Pandora's box' which refers to the Greek mythology in which Pandora was created by the god Zeus and sent to the earth with a box containing many evils. When she opened the box, the evils came out and infected the earth. But Pandora's box has been used in the poem entirely in a different sense. Probably the idea is that as the evils from the box infected the earth so do the ideas from the teacher's Pandora box sterile students' brain. While the boys group compares their teacher with a rose which blooms among thorns (hardships and suffering), the girls’ group compares their teacher with a river which has to flow though many 'ups and downs' (hardships and suffering). The comparisons are different but the idea behind them is very similar: the same idea has been expressed differently. If we look at the processes (or the thinking) involved in doing the tasks, acrostics took more time to be completed than the similes. The girls’ group took more time than the boys’ group to finish both tasks the acrostics and simile poems. The recordings of the girls’ discussion for writing acrostics (which are not given here) were longer than those of the similes. This also suggests that the participants played more with the language in doing acrostics than in similes and that they ventured to take more risks in inventing and using the language in acrostics which is why they have novel ideas and surprising constructions. A comparison between the two types of poem writing also shows that while doing the acrostics participants did more chaotic thinking whereas in doing similes they were more straightforward. There were a lot of repetitions, going back and forth and checking the ideas, etc. in acrostics. So their thinking and the discussion were not as systematic and organized as in similes, however eventually they ended with as organized writing in acrostics as in similes. There are different approaches to creativity viz. the product approach which refers to the characteristics of creative products, the process approach which refers to the thinking involved in creative tasks and the linguistic approach which refers to the language play in the task. They all

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suggest that acrostic is better than similes and it leads to another striking fact that constraints rather than freedom helps learners to be more creative. While writing acrostics the students had to follow certain rules (each line must start with the letter of the title, etc.) whereas in writing similes they had to follow less rules (e.g. teacher or friend should be compared with any natural object). A comparison between the products of the two groups shows that the acrostics written by boys are more complex both in structure and ideas. In the process, the girls discussed more than the boys probably because they were three in number and they took more time than the boys to finish the tasks. They had more lively discussion than the boys and they played with the language more than their boy classmates. Their discussion also supports the view (Tan Bee 2009) that in writing acrostics conceptual systems (ideas) are activated through L2 directly, then translated into L1 and that acrostics create more opportunities for L2 making and L2 creativity, requiring learners to construct meaning through L2 directly. But while doing similes, concepts are first retrieved in L1 then translated into L2 and that excessive L1 use may hinder opportunities for the destabilization of learners’L2. Most of the discussions in both groups were carried out in English. The girls discussed partly in Nepali when they did the simile task. Boys said that they because the task was in English, they should do the discussion also in English, although it would have been easier to discuss in Nepali. One girl said that because the task was given by their teacher (the researcher) and as they were students of English, they thought it just proper that they should discuss in English and the others agreed what she said. They thought that probably their teacher would not be happy if they did not carry their discussion in English? This was the main reason for them to use English throughout in their discussion but they also said that it was easier to think and discuss in English for the acrostic task.

Nature of tasks If we look at the nature of the tasks, we can present it as follows: Acrostic Rule-based task Formal constraint Semantic constraint

Simile Imagination foregrounded Foregrounds the imaginary situation (imagine A as B) Fore-grounds discourse (give two reasons)

Acrostic writing has less freedom than simile writing and yet acrostic provides learners with more opportunities to play with the language. Its

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products are better in terms of novel use of language as well as novel ideas. So, constraints rather than freedom initiate more chaotic and formoriented thinking and play and scaffold creativity. It supports what Boden (2004) says, ‘creative thinking is made possible by constraints’. Creativity does not come from absolute freedom: it’s guided by internal discipline which the learners or the writer imposes upon them. The experiment shows that acrostics which put more restraints on the learners create more opportunities for L2 making and L2 creativity than similes which have more freedom.

Concluding comments: Informal talk with the students An informal talk with both the groups revealed the following facts. 1. They have never done these kinds of tasks. 2. The tasks were challenging but interesting and they liked them. 3. Writing acrostics was more challenging. 4. They (boys) discussed in the English language only because this was an English lesson. 5. They (girls) also used their first language in their discussion because it gave them more ideas. 6. This kind of activities will certainly be liked by students. 7. They are very happy and proud that they can write poems in English: they had never thought that they could write poems in English. The talk with the students clearly showed that they were very proud that they could write poems in the English language. This sense of achievement which the learners feel after creative writing activities is one of the reasons why creative writing is being more popular. Their replies also went in favour of what Krashen (1986) says 'comprehensible input': if the tasks are challenging but not too difficult or too easy, then the learners are more motivated to do the tasks. Their feeling that creative writing activities are interesting goes in favour of the idea of bringing literature in a foreign language classroom.

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References Arnold, J. (1999). Affect in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bell, J. and Paul, M. (Eds). (2001). The Creative Writing Course book. London: Macmillian. Boden, M. (2001). Dimensions of creativity. Boston: MIT Press. Cook, G. (2000). Language Play: Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Krashen, S.D. (1986). The Input Hypothesis: issues and implications. London: Longman. Maley, A. and Mukundan, J. (2008). Empowerment in action: Creative writing by Asian teachers for Asian learners. Maley, A. (2006). English Through Literature. Beijing: Central Radio and TV University Press. Rai, V.S. (2008). Creative Writing: The Latecomer is the Winner, Journal of NELTA, 13, 1.2. Raimes, A. (1991). ‘Out of the woods: Emerging traditions in the teaching of writing,’ TESOL Quarterly, 25, 407-30. Tan, B.T. (2007). What happens when students do creative writing? A research report presented in the Creative Writing International Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia.

CHAPTER SEVEN USING SHORT STORIES IN READING CLASS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING SKILL YULI CHRISTIANA YOEDO

Introduction The English Department at Petra Christian University (PCU) realizes the importance of literature in improving students' critical thinking in Reading classes. One of the skills courses that aim to improve critical thinking is the Extended Reading Text, which is offered in semester two. This course uses short story as a tool to achieve this goal. Another reason for using short story in this course is to introduce students to some classic literary works. It is hoped that through this course learners will build their interest in literature. The use of short story is preferable due to its short length. Sometimes, the length of the text discourages learners’ motivation to read in a Foreign Language. Since short story is a creative writing type of text, it may also bring a creative sense of reading in the classroom. It is, therefore, a powerful tool to introduce critical thinking in a creative way. In this globalization era, critical thinking is an important skill for learners to be able to participate in a global competition arena. Critical thinking enables learners to be selective and evaluative on ideas or influences that are being imposed to them. One topic that the course tries to promote is gender issues. Therefore, the short stories entitled Father's Sin and The Mother are chosen for this purpose. These stories present the issue of gender equality told from the male authors’ perspective. The idea of gender equality is not always talked about from the women’s perspective but also from men’s perspective. Both short stories are written by writers who come from cultures that still holds a patriarchal system. Thus, the writers attempting to express equality

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between men and women are expected to further motivate students to become agents of change. In addition, students can learn from the discussion of Father's Sin that the balance between career and family is very much needed, especially in this era of globalization. Without it, success will be difficult to maintain. The prominent writer in this short story named Mr. Yee Min-soo depicts this issue in the story. From the discussion of Father's Sin and The Mother, students also learn that the imbalance of the treatment towards men and women can hinder the progress of a nation (see Sudjono, 2008, p. 35).

The Synopsis of Father’s Sin Father's Sin tells about the life of a famous Korean writer named Mr. Yee Min-soo. The author with an international reputation is so exalted because he has dedicated his life to the world of writing at the expense of personal enjoyment and happiness of his family. On the contrary, he is not appreciated at all by his own wife. His desire to get back together with his family is rejected by his wife because of the following reasons. First, he is an irresponsible man. After they get married and has children with her, he does not even bother to provide food for them. He does not even know about his children’s births. Moreover, as a father he does not try to establish good communication with his children or show affection to them. He delegates all his responsibilities as a father to his wife. He also does not fulfill his responsibility as a husband. In other words, he makes his wife’s life unbearable. He promises to take care of his sick father but he passes his responsibilities to his wife. He also has promised to support his stepmother and his stepbrothers after the death of his father but he does not keep his promise. Second, he is a good pretender. One time he did not want to receive her friends at home. He seemed very friendly at first but later, he told his wife that he actually did not like them. He forced his wife to serve his guests with unfriendly manner. To make his plan (to expell the guessts from the house) work well, he slapped his wife in front of them so they left. Third, he is disrespectful to his wife. He treats his wife as an object. He does not try to listen to her or know her needs. Instead, she must always serve him and fulfill his desire, like a slave. Moreover, he never gives her a chance to get involved in the decision-making process in their household.

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Fourth, he continually cheats on his wife. Until the end of his life, he is still having a relationship with another woman. With his smart way of talking to impress people, it is easy for him to attract beautiful women. Fifth, he is a selfish husband. During his married life, he spends most of his energy chasing his dream and neglects his family. He comes and goes as he pleases. When he is wealthy, he spends his money for himself. But, when he is poor and sick, he returns home and expects his family to take care of him. In his heyday, it is difficult for his children to see him. Sixth, he is a cunning man. In order to find his family, he has a wellknown newspaper reporter, whose newspaper’s circulation is over a million each day, to help him. That means about millions of people read his newspaper daily. The newspaper reporter will report the latest news about him and how he has finally returned to his family after his long Bohemian life. So, the attention of the entire world will fall on him and his family. If his family refuses him, the entire world will curse them. Thus, his family is forced to accept him. In fact, he returns to his family because he has been abandoned by his lovers. In short, without money and without women he makes a way to return home. Seventh, he is a coward. Actually he is the one who is afraid of telling his father that he disagrees with him. In other words, he does not dare to argue with his father. On the contrary, he makes his wife argue with his father. As a result, his father hates her very much. Eighth, he is more concerned with other people than his own family. For example, when he does not have money to entertain his friends, he tells his wife to buy wine. His wife has to try to make his friends happy by buying them the wine although her children are starving. His wife’s explosive anger is actually a pile of her suppressed anger. Previously, the wife does not dare to protest all the arbitrariness of her husband towards her. Finally she can show her anger because she realizes her submissive behavior does not bring any good to the family. Moreover, she realizes that her husband actually has abandoned his family from his life. In the end, the wife is willing to accept the writer in her house because of these two considerations. First, she wants to maintain the reputation of his son. As a businessman her son must maintain his reputation as a dutiful son. If he does not accept his father, the public will hate him and of course, this will negatively impact his business. Second, she would like to get an explanation from her husband about everything that has happened in their family life.

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The synopsis of The Mother A short story entitled The Mother tells about the sufferings, both mental and physical, of an Egyptian woman. This woman named Nagiyya is sick and her illness is getting better because her husband, Khalifa, does not immediately take her to the hospital. Her husband's indifference and brutality makes Nagiyya suffer inwardly. Both kinds of sufferings cause anger. Failure to vent her anger to the husband, Nagiyya vents her anger to her daughter and her old father-in-law. When she is in good health, Nagiyya always cares about them, working hard in the field and at home. She is angry with her husband and father-in-law since they do not want to do the household chores. In other words, she feels neglected. The same feelings experienced by Hafiza, Nagiyya’s daughter. She is angry with her husband and parents for giving her excessive burden. She gets angry with her husband since he does not pay attention to her and their baby. He does not want to take care of their baby although Hafiza is busy doing the household chores or taking care of her sick mother. Unlike Nagiyya, Hafiza does not dare to show her anger to anyone. Instead, she only dares to imagine another man’s sweet attitude. Eventually Nagiyya is escorted to hospital by Hafiza. The idea for taking Nagiyya to the hospital is in fact indirectly comes from her son-inlaw, Hafiza’s husband, who is tired of Nagiyya’s condition. Together with her baby, Hafiza manages to take Nagiyya to Kasrai-Aini hospital in Cairo by train. However, the suffering of both women is not yet over. As they arrived there, the hospital does not accept Nagiyya. Fortunately, after pretending to faint in the street, the hospital immediately takes Nagiyya in.

Feminism in Father’s Sin and The Mother In both short stories we see the influence of the patriarchal system on the attitudes of male characters towards female characters. We also see that the suffering of the female characters is caused by the privileges owned by the male characters. In this case, men have the power of law, economy, emotion, and libido (Kramarae, 1993, p. 397-8). Having the power of law means having the right to make important decisions. Men are entitled to take decisions without involving their wives. Then, the wives should submit to their husbands’ decissions. In this case, we can see how Nagiyya is not allowed to be treated in the hospital before getting approval from her husband. Many times the wife of Mr. Yee Minsoo, who has never been involved in the decision-making process, suffers because of her husband's decision.

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Having the power of economy means that men are supposed to be the breadwinners. That is why men have no obligation to do the household chores since it does not generate any income (see Bhasin and Khan, 1995, p. 27-8). It is assumed that if they do the household chores, men will have no energy to perform well the next day at work (Dini, 1989, p. 89). Hafiza’s husband is an excellent example. He does not take the initiative to help his wife do the household chores. He might think that taking care of his baby and taking his mother-in-law to the hospital in Cairo are not profitable in terms of money. In other words, he cannot make money by doing those activities. If a wife decides to work, she still has to do or be responsible for the household chores, while the husband does not have to. In this case, the woman has two jobs (a paid job as a career woman and an unpaid job as a house wife). The wives in both short stories experience this kind of unfair treatments. It is considered acceptable for men to show their emotion (but, not for women). One example, when Mr. Yee Min-soo slaps his wife in front of his friends, he is not to blame. On the contrary, they blame his wife because she serves drinks with a sullen face. We can also see how the son of Mr. Yee Min-soo rebukes his wife although she does nothing wrong. In addition to the above three privileges, men also have the right to satisfy their libido. They can find another woman if their wives cannot satisfy them and the society accepts this as a reasonable behavior. We see how Mr. Yee Min-soo moves from one woman to another woman to satisfy his sexual lust wherever and whenever he wants. At this point, he is not thinking of his wife's sexual satisfaction. Men have all these privileges since they are considered more valuable than women (Williams, 2000, p. 6; Hellwig, 1997, p. 14). They have the right to be served but not necessarily have to serve their spouse. Even the society gives negative assessment if a wife does not serve her husband well (Dini, 1989, p. 268). That is why, the wife of Mr. Yee Min-soo always serves her husband, especially in front of her husband’s friends although he does not deserve it. Through their works, both writers wish to motivate all women to fight against male domination by speaking out or taking action to liberate themselves. In Father’s Sin, the wife of Mr. Yee Min-soo does not dare to protest against her husband. That is why she is not appreciated by her husband. In The Mother for example, since Nagiyya dares to speak out about her condition, she is finally taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, her daughter continues to suffer because she does not dare to speak out. These stories suggest women to fight for themselves because, as being stated by Leclerc, oppression cannot be fought by doing nothing. Instead, it should

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be resisted by speaking out or doing action (Leclerc, 2000, p. vi; Hellwig, 1997 , p. 15-6). Both writers seems to suggest that women need to be given the opportunity to become decision makers. In Father’s Sin, we see that the wife of Mr. Yee Min-soo is able to make good decisions when the opportunity is open. Why are women not given the opportunity to make a decision? There is a general belief that women are unable to think logically as it is spoken by the Khalifa. Why does such perception still exist among people? It is because women are not given the opportunity to express their opinions. They are only required to be totally submissive to their husbands. If this condition (in which women are not given the opportunity to take important decisions) continually goes unchallenged, women’s voice will always be absent from making the world a better home. In fact, women have potential important roles in improving the lives of their families, communities and countries. In Father’s Sin for example, it is shown that the wife of Mr. Yee Min-soo is proved to be capable of making good decisions. In its last section, the writer of The Mother presents a man named Hussein who is described to be respectful towards women. Hussein is described to be a much better character than Hafiza’s husband. In this story, the writer depicts opposite treatments towards women by these two characters. In thinking critically, it is important to continuously challenge ourselves, be critical to our own beliefs, accept opposing views and see things from other people’s perspective (Barnet and Bedau, 1996, p. 4). That is why the activities improving critical thinking should cover individual and group activities. The following activities are designed for individual work. One example, related to the short story entitled Father’s Sin, students are asked to get information supporting the reading material directly from their acquaintances from Korea. This task can encourage student's interest and ability to build international networks. This kind of communication skill is absolutely necessary in the era of globalization (Sudjono, 2008, p. 3-5, 35). For the material dealing with feminism, students are given a question, such as: What do you think of emancipation in your country nowadays? Or students may ask their acquaintances to investigate, explore and interpret the short story together. Then, students have to share the information they get during the short-story discussion session in class. It is hoped that new questions arise from their discussion. The discussion also helps the students to explore their interpretation of Father’s Sin. In this way, we motivate students to work independently.

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Asking students to answer questions related to the reading material is still a useful technique to measure the students’ comprehension on literary work. For example, questions related to the literary devices, such as repetition and simile will help students understand the writer's intention (see Rosenthal and Rowland, 1986, p. 176; Lye. 1997, p. 6). The questions that are given should encourage students to shape the knowledge they gain, examine motives and causes, or find the underlying assumptions (Colombo, Cullen and Lisle, 1995, p. 2). Questions that are imaginative, analytical and evaluative are appropriate to sharpen student’ s critical thinking skills (Barnet and Bedau, 1996, p. 4).

Some questions about Father's Sin 1. What does the title Father’s Sin imply? 2. What do you think of Mr. Yee Min-soo as a writer? 3. What do you think of Mr. Yee Min-soo as a husband? 4. What do you think of Mr. Yee Min-soo as a father? 5. Why does the life of Mr. Yee Min-soo end tragically? 6. Is Mr. Yee Min-soo’s decision to live in the slum right? Explain your answer. 7. Why can Mr. Yee Min-soo’s son easily forgive his father? 8. Why is it difficult for Mr. Yee Min-soo’s wife to forgive her husband? 9. Do you agree with her attitude? Explain your answer. 10. Why does Mr. Yee Min-soo leave his family? 11. Do you agree with his leaving the family? Explain your answer. 12. Why is it difficult for Mr. Yee Min-soo’s son to see him? 13. What is Mr. Yee Min-soo’s motive to return to his family? 14. What would you do if you were Mr. Yee Min-soo’s wife? 15. What would you do if you were Mr. Yee Min-soo’s son? 16. If you were Mr. Yee Min-soo, what would you do to balance your life? 17. If you were Mr. Yee Min-soo’s wife, what would you do to create a harmony in your family? 18. Do you think what happens in the story may exist in real life? 19. What did you learn from this short story? 20. How are repetition and simile used in the short story? 21. Is there any conflict, either inner or outer, in the short story? Explain your answer.

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Some questions about The Mother 1. After reading the title, what issues do you believe is going to be discussed in the article? 2. What does Hafiza usually do after work? 3. How does Khalifa treat his wife? 4. What do you think of Nagiyya’s attitude towards Hafiza? 5. Why didn’t Hafiza go home that night? 6. Why wasn’t Nagiyya taken to the hospital since the beginning? 7. What would you do if you were: • Khalifa • Nagiyya • Hafiza • Omran • Hafiza's husband 8. Why does Nagiyya get angry with Omran? 9. Why does Hafiza get angry with her husband? 10. What should the husbands of Nagiyya and Hafiza do to resolve their wives’ anger? 11. Is there any conflict, either inner or outer, in the short story? Explain your answer. 12. Did you find any simile? If yes, why does the writer use it? 13. Is there any repetition? If yes, what is its function? In addition to the above questions, students are also assigned to compare and contrast both short stories. Students compare and contrast relevant points about one subject with corresponding aspects of another (Hirschberg and Hirschberg, 1997, p. 10). These tasks may boost their sensitivity to recognize the link of events that occur around them. Thus, they can anticipate the negative impacts and identify profitable opportunities. The ability to summarize an argument accurately is another skill needed in critical thinking (Barnet and Bedau, 1996, p. 8). It helps students to clarify and simplify their own words, the main ideas, and supporting details (Rosenthal and Rowland, 1986, p. 150). From the students’ summary, the teacher is able to check the student’s comprehension. Writing a summary of both short stories may not be considered an easy task because of the following reasons. Firstly, both writers do not reveal their opinions explicitly. Secondly, students themselves have to examine for motives or causes, evaluate what is most important and detect the underlying assumptions (see Colombo, Cullen

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and Lisle, 1995, p. 2). Thirdly, the two short stories are related to patriarchy, a concept that they are not familiar with. Students may also have the opportunity to make changes to certain parts of the short story. This activity is helpful because students can express their feelings about the topic, stimulate their imagination and act as problem solvers to the issues raised in the story. To improve the quality of the changes, students are asked to provide reasons for the changes. Another critical thinking skill is the ability to effectively present one’s ideas (Barnet and Bedau, 1996, p. 8). Students are asked to present their ideas about the short story. The presentation material is a combination of the results of their talks along with their acquaintances, either from Korea or Egypt, and the analysis or evaluation of their own. This data processing task certainly requires them to think critically. The presentation session is followed by a question and answer session. In order to encourage students to participate, students who can provide excellent questions or help the presenter answer questions properly will get scores. In addition to individual tasks, students are encouraged to work in groups. They can get involved in group discussion, role playing and poster making. Through these activities students can improvise, argue, question one another opinions and see things from other perspectives than their own. They can act in accordance with what is depicted in the short story or make some changes. Poster making task will enable students to illustrate their opinion, expressing their protests or propose some improvements or suggestions. This task is good to check students’ comprehension. If students do not understand the reading material, it will be difficult for students to create a poster that illustrate the content of the story. To make this activity more interesting, teachers or students can vote for best posters to be displayed publicly.

Conclusion What has been presented above is an attempt to improve the teaching and learning process of the Reading class in Petra Christian University. The ideas are expected to increase students’ interest in reading English texts. Activities which are designed have been adjusted to the interests and abilities of students who come from various parts of Indonesia. There are several activities that have been carried out and received good responses from students. Activities tailored to the student’s perspective and current trends are expected to improve student’s critical thinking skills. The idea presented above may seem to be simple. However, this simple arrangement of activities is actually crucial in providing students some

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achievable goals in the classroom. It boosts students’ confidence in reading and, therefore, contributes to the effectiveness of teaching and learning reading.

References Barnet, S. and Bedau, H. (1996). Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press. Bhasin, K. and Khan, N.S. (1995). Feminisme dan Relevansinya (translated by S. Herlinah). Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Colombo, G., Cullen, R., and Lisle, B. (1995). Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Bedford Books. Hirschberg, S. and Hirschberg, T. (1997). The Millennium Reader. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Kramarae, C. (1993). ”The Condition of Patriarchy”. In Kramarae, C. and Spender, D. (Eds.). The Knowledge Explosion (pp. 397-405). London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Leclerc, A. (2000). Kalau Perempuan Angkat Bicara (translated by Rahayu S. Hidayat). Yogyakarta: Kanisius. Lye, J. (1997). Critical Reading: A Guide. Canada: Brock University. Retrieved from http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.php Dini, Nh. (1989). Jalan Bandungan. Jakarta: Djambatan. Hellwig, T. (1997). In the Shadow of Change: Women in Indonesian Literature. Berkeley: Centers for South and Southeast Asia Studies University of California Rosenthal, L. and Rowland, S.B. (1986). Academic Reading and Study Skills for International Students. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc. Shukrallah, I. (1997). “The Mother”. In Tankel, S. (Ed). Short Story International. New York: International Cultural Exchange, Inc., p. 4652. Sudjono, H. (2008). Globalisasi: Perkembangan Serta Kemungkinan Bencananya Bagi Indonesia. Jakarta: Lembaga Humaniora. Williams, W.L. (1995). Mozaik Kehidupan Orang Jawa: Wanita dan Pria dalam Masyarakat Indonesia Modern (translated by Ramelan). Jakarta: Pustaka Binaman Pressindo. Yoo, J. (1996). “Father’s Sin”. In Tankel, S. (Ed). Short Story International. New York: International Cultural Exchange, Inc. p. 113-134.

CHAPTER EIGHT SHORT STORIES USE IN LANGUAGE SKILLS CLASSES: STUDENTS’ INTEREST AND PERCEPTION PARLINDUNGAN PARDEDE

Introduction The incorporation of literature in the curriculum is possibly one of the most prominent issues in the field of Second Language (SL) or Foreign Language (FL) teaching since the 1980s. When the Grammar Translation Method (GTM) dominated the Second and Foreign language teaching until the end of the 19th century, literary works were notable sources of materials (Prodromou, 2000). But they were absent from the curriculum of SL/FL teaching until 1970s when GTM was successively replaced by Structuralism Approach, Direct Method, Audiolingual Method, Community Language Learning, Suggestopedia, the Silent Way, Total Physical Response, and the Natural Approach because these methods tend to focus on acquiring linguistic knowledge. They emphasize more on structures and vocabulary. Literature became even more divorced from language teaching with the advent of the communicative approach (Liddicoat & Crozet 2000) which focuses on the teaching of “usable, practical” contents for enabling students to communicate orally. In this period ESL/EFL classrooms were dominated by dialogues. However, the situation changed quite radically since the 1980s when literature has found its way back into the teaching of EFL though not in the way it was used with the GTM. Since then, literature undergoes an extensive reconsideration within the language teaching profession. More and more studies on the use literature in EFL/ESL classes have been conducted. Many results of some studies strongly recommend the integration of literary texts into the SL/FL curriculum (Lazar, 1993; Cook, 1994; Shanahan, 1997). Many writings on this subject advocate a content-

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focused curriculum that includes literature (Kramsch, 1993; Liddicoat & Crozet 2000). As a result, the use of literary works for teaching both language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and language areas (vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) has become more and more popular. This paper discusses the findings of a study undertaken to investigate English teachers training students’ perceptions on the inclusion of literary works in their language skills classes at the Faculty of Education and Teachers Training of Christian University of Indonesia (FKIP-UKI). The focus of this study is on the interest, perceptions, and the perceived needs of English teachers training students of FKIP-UKI towards the incorporation of short stories in language skills classes.

Literature in FKIP-UKI’s English Department Curriculum Although the renewed interest in the inclusion of literary works in worldwide SL/FL curricula has flourished since 1980s, its initiation in the curriculum of the English Department of FKIP-UKI is relatively new. It could be traced back to the curriculum revision carried out in 1995 when, for the first time, three classes of literature (2 credits each) were put in to the curriculum. However, these classes were designed to introduce literature for literature’s sake. Literature I—placed in Semester V—is an introduction to English poetry analysis. Literature II—placed in Semester VI—is to an introduction to fiction analysis. Literature III—placed in Semester VII—introduces how to appreciate dramas. Such condition made the students unable to see the mutual relationship of literature and language skills. In practice, the inclusion of literary works in language skills classes of the English Department of FKIP-UKI took place since the curriculum was revised in 2000. The new curriculum contains four levels of listening class, five levels of reading class, four levels of speaking, and four levels of writing, and in each level of those language skills classes some literary works were incorporated. For instance, reading classes not only prepared expository passages to read. Some poems, short stories or short plays were also included. During the implementation of the curriculum 2000, it was found that the nature of poetry, novel, and drama made them impractical and problematical to use in the classes which had limited time and relatively big number of students. The deviated and figurative language of poetry necessitated very long time to grasp. The novels’ length made it difficult

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for such classes to finish. Dramas were found difficult to act out in crowded classes within limited course hours. As a consequence, supported by their shortness and simple and daily languages, short-stories are recommended to be the main literary genre to use in the curriculum revision of 2005. Theoretically, the use of literature in language teaching is very advantageous. Collie and Slater (1991) list four benefits: authentic material, cultural enrichment, language advancement, and personal growth. First of all, literary texts can be more beneficial than informational materials in stimulating the acquisition process as they provide authentic contexts for processing new language. Since literary texts contain language intended for native speakers, literature stands as a model for language learners to become familiar with different forms and conventions. Second, using literature in language teaching has the advantage of providing cultural information about the target language. Literary texts increase foreign language learners' insight into the country and the people whose language is being learnt (Collie and Slater, 1991), which fosters learners' ability to interpret discourse in different social and cultural target language contexts (Savvidou, 2004). Third, containing real examples of grammatical structures and vocabulary items, the literary texts raise learners' awareness of the range of the target language and advance their competence in all language skills (Povey, 1967). Finally, since literature enables students to understand and appreciate other cultures, societies and ideologies different from their own, it encourages personal growth and intellectual development (Carter and Long, 1991, 2-4). In line with that, Erkaya (2005) notes four benefits of using of short stories to teach ESL/EFL, i.e. motivational, literary, cultural and higher-order thinking benefits. Therefore, the inclusion of short stories in the language skills classes of the English Department of FKIP-UKI is expected to provide greater opportunities for the students to enjoy the learning activities, to enhance their language skills, to develop their cultural sensitivity, and to sharpen their thinking skills. In addition, the practice is also expected to increase the students’ skills in using short story to teach English. So, when they have graduated, they will also be able to provide the same benefits to their students. Despite the curriculum designers and lecturers’ enthusiasm and interest in the inclusion of short stories in the language classes of the English Department of FKIP-UKI, students’ perceptions of short story in this context, and its impact on them, have never been investigated or adequately considered in a systematic way. To a certain extent, this may be accepted as a proof of Edmondson’ (1997) anxiety that the inclusion or

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exclusion of short stories in the curriculum of English programs was mainly based on assumptions and theories. It was conducted without providing any empirical evidence that the use of short stories develops students’ language competence. Such practice did not exclusively take place in the English Department of FKIP-UKI. Even in worldwide SL/FL context, only a few current studies have explored the role of literature in the SL/FL curriculum from the students’ perspectives. For example, Maxim (1997) carried out an experimental study in the United States on grammar learning and the development of cultural awareness, comparing the outcomes of reading literary texts with those of conventional grammar lessons and textbook reading. Edmondson (1996, cited in Edmondson 1997) analyzed responses by students in Hamburg to a questionnaire on positive and negative influences on their language learning, which included such items as rock music and literature. Carroli (2002) investigated the perceptions of literature among students of Italian language at the Australian National University. The practice of including or excluding short stories in the curriculum of the English Department of FKIP-UKI is fundamentally risky. By doing this students are assigned to deal with materials whose suitability with their’ needs, interest, and perception is still uncertain. Since the role of curriculum designer and lecturer is not just to facilitate, but to maximize, students learning, it is therefore vital to delve into students’ interest and perception of short story, and their perception of the importance of using short story in the curriculum they are dealing with. The researcher hopes that this novel study on the interest, perceptions, and the perceived needs of the students of FKIP-UKI’s English teachers training towards the incorporation of short story in language skills classes would provide insights that will help policy makers (curriculum designers and lecturers) in providing more appropriate materials in relation to the incorporation of short story the language skills classes of English teachers training department. For the purpose of this research, the term ‘interest’ will be used to describe fondness in short stories—as components of language skills classes or materials for self enjoyment. The term ‘perception’ refers to the view on the importance and benefits of using short story in language skills classes. The term ‘perceived needs’ will be used to describe what the students think of the importance and benefits of including short story in the curriculum of English teacher training program and the necessity for candidates of English teacher to master the skills of using short stories for teaching language skills.

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Methodology The researchers employed an explanatory mixed method design, which, according to Creswell et al. (2003) enables us to gather qualitative input to explain and extend quantitative results, in order to gain a comprehensive insight of the research. A ‘25 item questionnaire’ was administered to obtain quantitative input. The questionnaire was constructed to gauge the perceptions, attitudes and the perceived needs of FKIP-UKI’s English teachers training students towards the incorporation of short story in language skills classes. The questionnaire was constructed in accordance to the following dimensions: interest, perception, and perceived needs (please refer to Appendix A for the items of each dimension). SPSS version 17.0 was used to run frequency analysis, to cross tabulation of the data, to determine the correlation of interest and perception, and to conduct the regression analysis in this study. Focused semi structured open-ended interviews were conducted to gather qualitative input. The themes that emerged during the interview sessions were coded in accordance to the quantitative dimensions from the questionnaire. 20-25 minute interview sessions were conducted with 5 volunteers, who were respondents to the questionnaire administered. The rationale for using focused semi structured open-ended interviews was to understand the respondents’ point of view rather than make generalizations. As in all such interviews, the researchers set the focus of the interview (see Appendix B for the interview questions). The data were collected at the end of the even semester of Academic Year 2009/2010 (February 2010). The respondents were all the sixthsemester students of the English Teaching Study Program of FKIP-UKI. They were purposively selected by considering that they had passed all language study skills classes and almost finished Literature II class (which deals with short stories as a literary genre). Since they had experienced the use of short story in all language skills classes and had got sound knowledge on short stories as a literary genre, they were expected to find no difficulty to properly respond to the questionnaire. There were actually 53 students of semester six in the study program when the data were taken. However, 8 of them were involved in the pilot study carried out to determine the reliability of the instrument. Thus, the other 45 students were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement to each statement on a 5-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree, score 1, to strongly agree, score 5.

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Results and Discussion The following sections will discuss the interest, perceptions, and the perceived needs of the respondents towards the incorporation of short stories in language skills classes of the English Department of FKIP-UKI.

Interest in Short Stories The distribution of the respondents’ interest (as shown in chart 1 below) revealed that the students’ interest in dealing with short stories was relatively very high. The findings denoted that 47.78% of respondents agreed that short stories are interesting and 30.67% strongly agreed.

In terms of eagerness to enjoy short stories (as indicated by fondness of reading the same short stories for several times, enjoying reading short stories though not assigned to do so, and the tendency not to stop reading before reaching the end of the story), the distribution of the respondents’ interest exposed the students’ eagerness to enjoy short stories was a bit lower than their overall interest. The findings denoted that only 4.44% of the respondents disagreed; whereas 38.89% agreed, and 35% strongly agreed (see table 1).

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Table 1: Respondents’ Eagerness to Get Short Stories for SelfEnjoyment No

Criteria

Interest Frequency

Percentage

1

Strongly Disagree

0

0.00

2

Disagree

8

4.44

3

Neutral

39

21.66

4

Agree

70

38.89

5

Strongly Agree

63

35

180

100

Total

Qualitative data obtained via focused semi structured open-ended interviews provide further clarification on respondents’ eagerness to enjoy short stories as indicated in the excerpts below. I think short stories are the most rewarding text! Only in a short period of time, I can get entertainment and inspiration by reading them. I love reading short stories. (Interviewee A) Short stories are possibly the cheapest but most interesting entertainment. It is not difficult to find good short stories in internet. Many of them are free. Every week I download and read not less than ten short stories. I even collect short stories I find very interesting. By doing so, I can reread them any time I’d like to. (Interviewee C)

In terms of interest to enjoy short stories as components of language skills classes (as indicated by fondness of using short stories to develop listening, reading, speaking, and writing), the obtained data (table 2) revealed higher degree of the students’ interest in this terms than that in getting short stories for self enjoyment. The findings denoted that only 0.37% of the responses went into “Disagree” criterion; and 18.4%, “Neutral”. The other 81.5% went into the criteria of “Agree” and “Strongly Agree”.

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Table 2: Respondents’ Eagerness to Enjoy Short Stories as Components of Language Skills Classes No

Criteria

Interest Frequency

Percentage

1

Strongly Disagree

0

0.00

2

Disagree

8

0.37

3

Neutral

39

18.14

4

Agree

70

53.7

5

Strongly Agree

63

27.8

180

100

Total

All the findings related to respondents’ interest above indicated that the majority of FKIP-UKI’s English teachers training students basically found short stories interesting to use both as materials for self-enjoyment and of as components language skill classes. However, the interest of getting short stories driven by self initiative to enjoy the literary works was a bit lower than the interest of using them as components language skill classes.

Perceptions on the Inclusion of Short Story in Language Skills Classrooms The distribution of the respondents’ perceptions (as shown in chart 2 below) revealed that, in general, the students’ perception on the inclusion of short story in language skills classrooms was very good. The findings denoted that 53% of the respondents agreed with the practice and 34% strongly agreed. Respondents who disagreed with such practice were only 1%. The data obtained through interviews strengthen respondents’ support for the idea of using short stories in language skills classrooms, as indicated in the following excerpts. Incorporating short stories in language skills classes? That’s great! We did it in listening, speaking, reading, and writing classes, right? I found it interesting and rewarding at the same time. I think we even have to make it compulsory components of language skills classes. (Interviewee B) We can see short stories as the most complete learning materials. A single short story could be used to enrich vocabulary, to develop reading skill, to study new expressions for conversation, and many others. (Interviewee D)

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Based on my experience, I can say short stories are interesting materials to develop language skills. However, they should be selected carefully to suit the students’ need and level of language mastery. (Interviewee E)

Perception on the Necessity of Studying Short Stories in the English Teaching Study Program The distribution of the respondents’ perceived needs (as shown in chart 3 below) revealed that a majority of the students view short stories are necessary to study in English Teaching Study Program. The findings denoted that 41% of the respondents strongly agreed that short stories are necessary for candidates of English teachers to study, and other 38% agreed. Respondents who disagreed with this perceived needs were only 3%.

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The qualitative data related to this dimension seem to echo similar views, as indicated in the excerpts below. Including short stories in language skills classes is a must. They are interesting and rewarding. But we also need to deal with materials of expository type. The papers we write are mainly in expository form. So, to study expository passages is also a must. Providing balanced amount of short stories and expository passages is surely the best option. (Interviewee A) Well, before extensively facing short stories in language skills classes, I thought studying literature, including short stories, is just wasting time. Now I realize good short stories like Bocarro’s “A Long Walk Home”, Gale’s “Bill”, Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain” not only serve as interesting material to enhance my language skills but also provides good lesson about life. (Interviewee B) Yes! I absolutely agree that every English teacher to be needs to read, analyze, or write papers on short stories. Short stories don’t only facilitate language skills development in an interesting way. They also broaden one’s horizon. (Interviewee C) Like other literary works, short stories are essentially related to life. Some works even reveal invaluable ideas for specific profession. For instance, I’ll never forget the educational insight I studied from Sacristan’s “Grandfather’s Coin” and Bocarro’s “A Long Walk Home”. So, I support the idea for assigning students of the English Department to study short stories (Interviewee E)

The Correlation of Interest and Perception In addition to the descriptive analysis above, it might be interesting to see whether the respondents’ interest and perceptions are related one to another. The result of statistical analysis using Pearson correlation on this matter was correlation coefficient (r) = 0.619. Since the value of empirical significance 0.000 (see table 3) is less than the significance level (Į= 0.05), it could be concluded that respondents’ interest and perceptions were positively and significantly correlated.

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Table 3: Correlations Interest Interest Perception

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

1 45 .619** ˙000 45

Perception .619** ˙000 45 1 45

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

To see the contribution of interest to perception, regression analysis using SPSS version 17.0 was conducted. The output could be seen in table 4. Table 4: ANOVAb Model 1 a. b.

Sum of Squares

Regression Residual Total

df

435.843 701.401 1137.244

1 43 44

Mean Square 435.843 16.312

F 26.720

Sig. .000a

Predictors: (Constant), perception Dependent Variable: interest

Based on the table of coefficients below (table 5), the obtained regression equation was: y=1,330+0,940x. Table 5: Coefficientsa

Model 1 (Constant) perception

Unstandardized Coefficients B Std. Error 1.330 77.642 .940 .182

a. Dependent Variable: interest

Unstandardized Coefficients Beta .619

t .174 5.169

Sig. .863 .000

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The coefficients of 0.940 indicated that perception significantly affected interest. This finding suggested that anytime the score of perception increased 1 point, the score of interest would increase 0.940 point. Conversely, if the score of perception decreased 1 point, the score of interest would decrease 0.940 point.

Conclusion As revealed through the findings of this research, a majority of the students of the English Department of FKIP-UKI basically found short stories interesting to use both as materials for self-enjoyment and of as components language skill classes. Most of them also agreed or strongly agreed that the incorporation of short stories in language skills classes will help learners achieve better mastery of language skills. They even believed that English teacher candidates should master the skills of employing short stories to teach language skills. The statistical analysis revealed that the students’ interest and perceptions were positively and significantly correlated, and both variables significantly affected each other. Realizing these, it is important for curriculum designers, lecturers, and policy makers to take students’ interest, perception, and perceived needs into consideration in every curriculum and learning-material revision. Since this study concentrates on the interest, perceptions, and perceived needs of English teacher training students with limited respondents from a single institution, future study can probably be carried out by covering a larger number of students from various institutions and regions. Studies can also be carried out to investigate students and lecturers perception on the inclusion of short stories in English classes of non-English departments, such as medical faculty, technical faculty, law faculty, and so on. To conduct research for gauging the view of lecturers/teachers on the inclusion of short stories in English classes of secondary schools is also recommended.

References Carter, R., and Long, M.N. (1991). Teaching Literature. Harlow: Longman. Carroli, P. (2002). “Perceptions of Literature: a Comparison of Students and Educators views” Published in Proceedings of Innovations in Italian Teaching Workshop, Griffith University. Collie, J., and Slater, S. (1991). Literature in the Language Classroom. (5th ed.). Glasgow: Cambridge University Press.

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Cook, G. (1994). Discourse and Literature: the Interplay of Form and Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Creswell, J., Plano, C., Guttman, M. & Hanson, W. (2003). Advanced Mixed Methods Research Designs. In Tashakkori, A. & Teddlie, C. (Eds.), Handbook on Mixed Methods in the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Edmondson, W. (1997). The Role of Literature in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: Some Valid Assumptions and Invalid Arguments, Applied Linguistics Across Disciplines. AILA Review, special issue, 12, 42-55. Erkaya, O.R. (2005). Benefits of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context, Asian EFL Journal, 8. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Liddicoat, A.J. and Crozet, C. (eds). (2000). Teaching Languages, Teaching Cultures. Melbourne: Language Australia. Maxim, H.H. (1997). “Uncovering the cultural significance of authentic discourse: a study of cultural theory’s application in the foreign language classroom.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association of America. Povey, J.F. (1967). Literature in TESOL Programs: The Language and the Culture, TESOL Quarterly, 1, 40-46. Prodromou, L. (2000). Reason not the Need: Shakespeare in ELT, IATEFL Issues, 156. Retrieved August 22, 2008, from: http://www.iatefl.org/archives/ Texts/156Prodmorou.html Savvidou, C. (2004). An Integrated Approach to the Teaching of Literature in the EFL Classroom, The Internet TESL Journal, 10(12). Retrieved November 6, 2009, from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Savvidou_Literature.html Shanahan, D. (1997). Articulating the Relationship Between Language, Literature and Culture: Toward a New Agenda for Foreign Language Teaching and Research, The Modern Language Journal, 81, 2, 164174.

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Appendix A – Questionnaire Dimensions No INTEREST

STATEMENT

1 I like reading short stories 2 In general, I find short stories interesting even if I read them for several times. 3 I often read short stories although I’m not assigned to do so. 4 Practicing pronunciation by reading short stories aloud is interesting 5 When I’ve started reading a short story, I won’t stop until I finish it. 6 I like to read short stories to enrich my vocabulary. 7 Short stories are interesting materials to develop reading skill. 8 I like to listen to short stories for enhancing my listening skill. 9 I enjoy reading short stories to study new expressions for conversation. 10 I like reading short stories to generate ideas for writing. PERCEPTION 11 It is time consuming to read short stories. 12 Short stories provide readers interesting ideas to discuss. 13 There are innumerable authentic expressions for daily speaking in short stories. 14 I think short stories provide me good rhetoric models for writing. 15 Recorded short stories should be included in the classes of listening. 16 In addition to expository passages, short stories should be included in the classes of reading. 17 Short stories should be included in higher level classes for they are difficult to comprehend. 18 Language skills classes should include expository passages only; short stories are not relevant for such classes. 19 There should be a balanced diet between expository texts and short stories in language skills classes. 20 I think the language features used in short stories are not relevant with the ones used in daily communication.

SD D N A SA

Short Stories Use in Language Skills Classes PERCEIVED NEEDS 21 It is necessary to include short stories in the language skills classes of English teachers training. 22 Prospective English teachers should master the ways of using short stories to teach language skills. 23 In addition to language skills enhancement, short stories also help teachers training students broaden their mind. 24 Short stories can help teachers training students understand life, including the world of teaching 25 Short stories are not relevant to read by teachers training students

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Appendix B – Semi-Structured Interview Guide NAME OF INTERVIEWEE

:

DATE OF INTERVIEW

:

VENUE OF INTERVIEW

:

START TIME

:

END TIME

:

Opening Statement 1. Greet interviewee 2. State objectives of research 3. Explain the manner in which interview will be conducted. 4. Ensure interviewee of confidentiality. Interview Questions 1. Do you like reading short stories? How often? 2. How often do you listen to recorded short stories? Do you think it effective to develop listening skill that way? 3. In your opinion, is it a good idea to include short stories in all language skills classes? Why? 4. In what level should short stories be included in language skills classes? Semester I? II? III? IV? 5. In your opinion, is it necessary to include short stories in the language skills classes of English teachers training? 6. Which one do you prefer to deal with in language skills classes, expository passages or short stories? Why? 7. Is it necessary for the students of English teachers training to master the skills of using short stories to teach language skills? 8. Is there anything else you’d like to share? Closing Statement Thank interviewee for taking part in the interview

PART III: BRINGING LINGUISTICS INTO EFL CLASSROOM

CHAPTER NINE BRINGING THRILLER INTO EFL CLASSES: HELPING LEARNERS TO BETTER COPE WITH LIFE LANY KRISTONO

Introduction Tertiary level education is considered to play a significant role in determining learners’ success; i.e. students’ ability to cope with in the unpredictable, but definitely competitive, future. To ensure survival, universities should produce skilled graduates, who are not only academically, but also socio-culturally competent. Applied to English as a Foreign Language teaching, such demand requires teacher to relate materials and classroom discussion to life. According to Nguyen (2005:3), only materials loaded with language as well as opinions, issues, and ideas will facilitate learning outcomes or extra-linguistic values. Since life is constituted of ideologies, bringing real life to classroom also means introducing students to ideologically loaded materials. A subgenre of popular literature1, thriller2 makes an appropriate material because it is

1

A form of popular culture, popular literature is constituted of some genres; i.e. romance, science-fiction, mystery, western, and melodrama. Thriller is a subgenre of mystery. 2 Thriller refers to stories about murder or crime, and often involves violence.

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rooted in ideology3 (Palmer quoted in Pawling 1984:97); so that discussing the work implies talking about the ideologies embedded in it4. Ideology embodies power relations, thus; inequality. To reveal the dominance and subordination, the materials will be discussed from the perspective of critical discourse analysis. A narrative text, thriller is constituted of two components, namely story and discourse (Chatman 1986:19). Chatman (ibid) explains story as the what or content of the narrative; while discourse the how the story is expressed. Discourse is Foucault’s term for ideology (Eagleton 1991:8). An analysis of discourse will reveal the conditions behind a text (“Discourse Analysis” n.d.:1).

Ideology Van Dijk (2001:12) defines ideology as “a special form of social cognition5 shared by social groups” upon which the societal discourse is based. Being shared, social cognition is social, although it is embodied in individual’s mind (van Dijk 1993:57). Eagleton (1991:1) proposes that ideology is “systematically distorted communication”, which, Storey (1993:3) adds, is articulated by a particular group for the group’s interests. Ideology reflects how the group perceives things are and should be. Therefore, quoting John B. Thompson, Eagleton (1991:5) points out that studying ideology means examining how domination is preserved.; namely by promoting values and beliefs supporting the dominant group, presenting them as natural and universal ideas, and by marginalizing the ones which challenge the group.

3

A subgenre in popular literature, thriller is a product of popular culture. Nachbar and Lause (1992:32) mention that popular culture “reflect and shape the cultural mindset”, which take the forms of beliefs and values as well as the ones which exist in “cultural minds and in the minds of the individual members of mass society (ibid, 23). 4 The discourses analyzed in this study were taken from Sidney Sheldon’s works; namely Bloodline, published in 1977, The Best Laid Plans, published in 1997 and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, published in 2004. The different years of publishing is meant to show how ideology is expressed and hegemony maintained in various periods, considering ideology is not static and hegemony must always be recreated and renegotiated. Sydney Sheldon was one of the most-read author. His name was recorded in 2004 Guiness World of Records as one of the most-translated author (http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/bio-graphies/Sidney-sheldon.html). 5 Social cognition is “socially shared representations of societal arrangements, groups and relations as well as mental operations such as interpretation, thinking and arguing, inferencing and learning …”. (van Dijk, 1993:257).

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Barker (2000:59-60) mentions that ideology functions as social cement which organizes and binds different social elements. As such, ideology is embedded in the daily activities and provides rules of practical as well as moral conducts. Althusser (in Fiske 1996:117) points out that social institutions, such as family, language, media, and educational system, predispose people to think and act in “socially acceptable ways”. Barker (2000:60) adds that more frequently ideology takes the form of common sense, which he considers the most important site of ideological struggle since it is something taken for granted. Nevertheless, ideology is a dynamic social practice which keeps on reproducing itself (Fiske 1996:118). Both Fiske (ibid) and Althusser (1989:56) agree that ideology also works at the micro or individual level, as “the representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence”. An overweight teenage girl may go on a very strict diet to get slim because being trim means beautiful and a girl must be pretty. Individual is subject, a product of culture (Althusser 1989:58; Fiske 1996:118). How subject sees themselves, their identity, and their relationship with other people as well as society is socially constructed. This representation appears in individual’s appearance, attitude and behavior, way of thinking, even goals. Althusser (in Ashley 1989:137) proposes “’lived ideology’”; i.e. one found everywhere, embedded in any social interactions and existence. In other words, everything, including fiction, is ideological (Ashley ibid). Ashley further explains that “ideologically charged texts address individual readers in particular ways inviting their complicity in particular ways of viewing the world.” If readers accept the ‘invitation’, they adopt the text’s perception of reality; thus, are subject of the text. Although readers may decline ‘the invitation’, Ashley (ibid) confirms that much more readers gave positive response.

Critical Discourse Analysis and Power Critical discourse analysis (CDA) examines how texts “construct representations of the world, social identities, and social relationships” (Luke n.d.:9). Van Dijk, (2001:352) describes CDA as one which “primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the political and social contexts”. Therefore, CDA aims at understanding and resisting social inequality (van Dijk 2001:352, which in capitalist societies is resulted from class, gender, and race-based social divisions (Fiske 1996:116). In effect, CDA is closely related to words, such as power,

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hegemony, ideology, class, gender, race, discrimination, social order (van Dijk 2001:354). The discourse of inequality reproduction and enactment is not always straightforward (van Dijk 1993:255). He further explains that dominance may even appear as a joint-production, so that it is not clear who the villains and the victims are. Power in the sense of control may take the form of force as well as persuasion. It may even hide in natural, acceptable daily text or talk, making the discourse hegemonic and ideological. Van Dijk (2001:354) differentiates the relation among discourse, cognition, and society into macro and micro levels or the deep and surface layers. The macro level analysis consists of power, dominance, and inequality among social groups; whereas the micro level social order is constituted by language use, discourse, verbal interaction, and communication. To bridge the gap between the macro-micro levels, van Dijk advocates critical discourse analysts to relate aspects of the micro level to their larger-scale elements in the macro level; namely members and groups, actions and process, context and social structure, and personal and social cognition. Since language users are members of social groups, their actions are parts of group actions and social processes. Similarly, the discursive interaction is a part of social structure since language users are affected by both personal and social cognition. Another central concept in CDA is power, particularly social power defined as control (van Dijk ibid). According to Hall and Neitz (1993:138), power maybe owned by individual or groups, and it refers to the ability to control others. As such, power exists everywhere (Nietzsche and Foucault in Eagleton 1991:8). I would elaborate that the individuallyowned power is derived from his/her group ability to control. In other words, there is no purely individual power since every individual belong to a particular social group. Van Dijk (2001:355) adds that power follows its owner’s “privileged access to scarce social resources, such as force, money, status, fame, knowledge, information, ‘culture’, or various forms of public discourse and communication.” This powerful group will control the acts and minds of the other groups. Depending on the resources used to exercise power, van Dijk (ibid) differ two types of power; i.e. coercive and non-coercive, which are respectively based on force and consent. Althusser (1989:55) coins these force-based resource repressive state apparatus (RSA) and the non-violent resource of power the ideological state apparatus (ISA). RSA is utilized by the military, court, prison, and other state-owned institutions; while ISA works in the personal domains, such as family, media, religion, education, norms, law, and common sense (See also van Dijk 2001:355). Power

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exercised through ISA may win the controlled group’s spontaneous consent, fitting what Gramsci calls hegemony (van Dijk, 2001:355; Strinati, 2004:147; Barker, 2000:351). Van Dijk (1993:257) informs that modern power is more ideological; thus hegemonic, than repressive, emphasizing on its cognitive dimension. In other words, modern power controls mind through beliefs, knowledge, ideologies, norms, values, attitudes, which are geared towards the public mind or social cognition. Monitoring discourse and other forms of social action and interaction, social cognition mediates micro and macro levels of society, discourse and action, individual and the group. Mind control is essential in reproducing dominance and hegemony (van Dijk 2001:357). Dominance keeps on facing counter-hegemony, so that it never has an absolute impact to the controlled group. In result, hegemony “is never a once-for-all achievement, but ‘has continually to be renewed, recreated, defended, and modified’’’ (Williams in Eagleton 1991:115). To constantly re-win hegemony, mind control works in two ways; contextual and discursive. A particular meaning and form of discourse optimally affect people’s mind when it is given in a specific context. (van Dijk 2001:357). He describes how power and dominance control mind. First, quoting Nesler et.al, van Dijk confirms that reliable sources and media greatly influence recipients’ tendency to accept beliefs, knowledge or opinions. Second, setting, such as educational setting, compels participants to accept discourse. Third, as Downing, quoted in van Dijk, suggests, participants are not given any alternatives. Fourth, Wodak (in Van Dijk ibid) argues that participants do not challenge the discourse exposed to them because they just do not have the required beliefs and knowledge. Besides controlling mind, power works on public discourse, in the sense that it determines context and the structures of text and talk (Van Dijk 2001:356). Context, which affects the production and comprehension of discourse, consists of situation, setting of time and place, ongoing actions, participants and their mental representations; such as goals, opinions, knowledge, ideologies, and attitudes. Controlling context means determining more than one element of context (Van Dijk, ibid). Control over text or talk structure may take the form of how ideas should be expressed (Wodak in van Dijk 2001:356). In short, CDA examines power abuse in text and talk, including in deciding topic and topic change. In examining the relations among text, talk, society, power, culture, and social cognition to reveal how social inequalities are maintained, critical discourse analysis inevitably works on macro and micro levels to relate individuals and groups, actions and processes, context and social

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structures, and personal to social cognition. Preserving inequalities equals to attempts to instill ideologies, which also works at macro and micro levels, and reproduce hegemony for the interest of the dominant or controlling group. Since capitalist society, which is the setting of the works, is divided by gender, class, and race, the analysis will be limited to these three fields.

Findings and Discussion Gender Inequalities Although the three elements of social divisions can be found in at least one novel, gender inequality runs across all works. As van Dijk (1993:255) has advised, the gender power relation is not always directly and clearly stated nor is it in the form of command. Besides, control is done through mind and public discourse (van Dijk 2001:356), as seen in the following quotation: They sat at a small corner table with a red-and white tablecloth, and had shepherd’s pie and ale, and they talked. Rhys asked her about her school. “It’s really not too bad,” Elizabeth confessed. I’m learning how little I know.” Rhys smiled. “Very few people get that far. You finish in June, don’t you?” Elizabeth wondered how he had known. “Yes.” “Do you know what to do after that?” It was the question she had been asking herself. “No, not really.” “Interested in getting married?” For one quick instant her heart missed a beat. Then she realized that it was a general question. “I haven’t found anyone yet.” (Sheldon/BL 1977:180)

The conversation mirrors the gender-based power relation. Representing men, Rhys controls their talk so that Elizabeth, as a representation of women, only responds; thus, is under Rhys’ control. Rhys’ asking Elizabeth if she would like to get married after she has finished school is ideological. Logically, he should have asked whether the girl prefers going to work to studying or what kind of job or further education interests her, especially since he acknowledges her intelligence when he said, “Very few people get that far.” It is ideological since it assumes marriage is the next phase in a schoolgirl’s life. It also implies a presupposition that instead of

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getting a well-paid job, girls make use of education to get a husband, or girls spend years in school while waiting for their wedding. Elizabeth’s immediate response is also ideological. She missed a heartbeat because she thought Rhys was proposing her. She puts herself and Rhys in a gender-powered relationship that a man proposes and a woman is to be proposed. If Rhys were a woman, Elizabeth would not have felt instantly nervous. Her answer reflects her controlled mind (van Dijk 2001:356), partly because of the setting, in which they were having lunch together. In the following quotations, the patriarchal ideology governs the characters’ attitudes so that they act based on common sense. On a Saturday night, Elizabeth’s father gave a gala at the villa. “Put on our most beautiful dress,” Rhys told Elizabeth. “I want to show you off to everyone.” Thrilled, Elizabeth had taken it for granted that she would be Rhys’s date. When Rhys arrived, he had with him a beautiful blond Italian princess. Elizabeth felt so outraged and betrayed….” (Sheldon/BL 1977:181) Henry Chambers enjoyed Leslie’s company tremendously. He showed her off to his friends and wore her on his arm like a trophy. (Sheldon/TBLP 1997:79)

Both texts construct the characters’ social identities and relationships” (Luke n.d.:9). Elizabeth and Leslie’s identities are determined from the male characters’ eyes, who perceive them as an object or a pet. Being nice-looking objects or good-company-pets, they deserve to be shown off. Thus, the male and female characters are socially related as owner and property. Interestingly, Elizabeth felt “thrilled” to be shown off, indicating that she also senses herself as a nice object owned by Rhys. Their attitudes also reflect the representation of their real existence to themselves in imaginary form (Althusser 1994:154), i.e. appreciating a girl as a woman, men should show them off. Elizabeth, in particular, felt “thrilled” because she uses her common sense to assume a man showing off a girl is interested in the girl. As Luke (n.d.”9) mentions, discourse construct representation of the world. In patriarchal world, notions are constructed from this angle. The quotation below depicts how men see the opposite sex. The boys wined and dined her and tried to get her into bed… And she always politely refused them.

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Chapter Nine They did not know what to make of her. They knew she was beautiful, so it followed that she must be stupid. It never occurred to them that she was more intelligent that them. Who ever heard of a girl being both beautiful and intelligent? (Sheldon/BL 1977:178)

Bloodline defines that an attractive girl in male’s eyes is a beautiful one, and a pretty girl is to be taken to bed. The boys’ mindset is another patriarchal concept which perceives women as an object to fulfill men’s interests. However, the girl does not sense herself and her relation to the boys as an object-owner or pet-master. Her refusal confuses the boys, implying that she has acted differently from the common practice. Because of that, she is considered stupid, which strengthens the notion that beautiful girls are not smart. The narrator’s informing that the boys never thought the girl was smarter seems to mock the boys, who represent men. However, the narrator’s comment, “Who ever heard of a girl being both beautiful and intelligent?”, implies a belief that that’s the way things are and that the boys have behaved just the way they should be. Thus, the above discourse justifies male’s perception of women as an object. The patriarchal notion about women seems to be challenged in Are You Afraid of the Dark?, published 27 years after Bloodline, by describing that even a very attractive woman is not necessarily beautiful. On evening, shortly after his college graduation, Tanner was at a cocktail party when a pleasant, feminine voice behind him said, “I’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Kingsley.” Tanner turned around in anticipation and then tried to conceal his disappointment. The speaker was an unremarkable-looking young woman. All that kept her from being plain was a pair of intense brown eyes … (Sheldon/AYAD 2004:117) … throughout dinner, Tanner kept looking at her and wondering why he was so attracted to her. It was not her looks; it was her mind and personality that were dazzling. Her whole essence blazed with intelligence and self-confidence. (Sheldon/AYAD 2004:133).

The first quotation enacts the dominant idea that a pleasant feminine voice goes along with a pleasant-looking woman. When it does not, it causes disappointment as Tanner felt. However, this dominating notion is challenged in the second quotation as Tanner found himself very much attracted to the plain-looking lady, and he found the answer in the woman’s personality and mind, making the text counter-hegemony towards the controlling ideology (Williams in Eagleton 1991:115).

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Further description the girl leads to a different cognition as stated in the following quotation. “…You – you and Tanner were – going to get married. I was the best man, …” “But you – you went away. You didn’t love Tanner.” Tanner spoke up. “Let me straighten you out. She went away because she did love me. … She telephoned me the day after her wedding. She married a very rich, influential man so that she could use her husband’s influence to get important clients for KIG. That’s why we were able to grow so fast.” (Sheldon/AYAD 2004:369)

Tanner’s defending his confident, intelligent, but not beautiful girlfriend is a means of countering the counter-hegemony in the previous quotation as well as re-winning the hegemony (Williams in Eagleton 1991:115). Implied in his praise of the woman is a picture of an ambitious, cunning personality who manipulates marriage and her husband’s high position for wealth. Thus, the text confirms that a plain-looking, confident, and intelligent woman is a dangerous person and reassures the dominant ideology that a woman had better be beautiful, but not be clever or confident. The discourses on gender inequalities show that discourses take various forms, be they order or request, information, question, or explanation. Despite the different contexts they are in, the discourses reconfirm the (men’s) control over women and women’s acceptance of the control, as if it is natural. By reassuring the dominant notion about gender, the novels have been used as ideological state apparatus.

Class and Racial Inequalities Unlike gender inequality, power relation based on class and race is only found in Bloodline, which was published before the other works analyzed for this study. This indicates that patriarchal concepts are more tolerable than class and racial prejudices Or, class distinction and racism are considered somewhat cruel; while patriarchy more natural, and; therefore, acceptable. The following discourses show how unfair and cruel racial inequality is: Samuel wanted to be a doctor. Only three physician were allowed to take care of the thousands of people crowded into the unsanitary, epidemic-ridden confines of the ghetto; and of the three, the most prosperous was Dr. Zeno Wal. His house

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The above quotations depict two kinds of power relation. First, the government control over those living in the ghetto because of their social class and race. Second, the residents’ social gap created a power abuse. The authority exercises their power by treating the poor like animals; i.e. locking them up at night and denying their right to live in a healthy environment. The words ‘unsanitary’, epidemic-ridden’, and ‘ghetto’ are related to poverty. The phrase ‘were allowed’ in the sentence “Only three physicians were allowed to take care of....” vividly reflects the exercise of power. On the other hand, representing his group, Samuel was defenseless. He was panicky thinking that the ghetto gates might be locked. Referring to van Dijk’s (2001:357) opinion about how hegemony and power are maintained, the poor seem to accept the treatment because the source is a reliable one, namely the authority. Besides, as Wodak quoted in van Dijk explains, the poor just do not have the knowledge required to challenge the seemingly natural condition they are in. Between members of two different social classes, control is expressed in social prejudice. Dr. Wal’s accusing Samuel as a boy without brain and a thief mirrors his being more powerful. Though indignantly, Samuel did not protest—reflecting his group’s attitude of being familiar with such accusation. As his group, Samuel is a victim of class and racial-based hegemony.

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Implications for the teaching of English as a foreign language As Carter and McRae (1996:xxv) propose, text, be it literary or cultural, will bring learners to “the linguistic heart of the text” when it is analyzed from the point of view of language. The above discussion has revealed that CDA enables learners to understand what a text actually says and how it works; thus, to perceive a text critically. Carter and McRae further (1996:xxvi, xxviii) argue that the emergence of World Englishes demands learners not to make any judgments prior to the discussion of received ideas, critical opinion, and historical background. These are significant since English literature and language have been increasingly viewed as an arena of ideological contestation. I’m proposing that English language teaching activities not only need to be learner-centered, but also geared toward a critically interactive reading of the materials. To facilitate such learning, thriller can be presented in English as a foreign language classes, be they structure, reading, speaking, or writing classes.

Some suggested activities for EFL classes One possible activity to be implemented in a structure class is asking students to fill in short texts with a particular part of speech. For example, learners are to write verbs in the following blanks: They ______ at a small corner table with a red-and white tablecloth, and ______shepherd’s pie and ale, and they_____. Rhys ______her about her school. “It’s really not too bad,” Elizabeth confessed. I’m _______how little I know.” Rhys _______. “Very few people get that far. You _______ in June, don’t you?” Elizabeth _________ how he had known. “Yes.” “Do you ______ what to do after that?” It was the question she had been asking herself. “No, not really.” “Interested in________ _________?” For one quick instant her heart missed a beat. Then she realized that it was a general question. “I haven’t found anyone yet.” (Sheldon/BL 1977:180)

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To complete the dialog, learners need to figure out the context of the text and to think logically. They have to picture how Rhys responds or what he does before saying “Very few people get that far.” Students’ ability to critically analyze how the two speakers are related and how they see themselves will be demonstrated in the last blank, in which they must predict what question will make Elizabeth missed her heartbeat for a second. Their answer reflects how they sense men-women are related as well as the hegemonic patriarchy. By asking students to explain what make them decide on a particular verb, teacher elicits the learners’ awareness of how a text may function as hegemonic tool to recreate power. Using the same text, reading students may be asked to read the dialog and write questions while reading. For example, they may write a question after reading the first clause “They sat at a small corner table…” – Why did they sit in the corner? They sat at a small corner table with a red-and white tablecloth, and had shepherd’s pie and ale, and they talked. Rhys asked her about her school. “It’s really not too bad,” Elizabeth confessed. I’m learning how little I know.” Rhys smiled. “Very few people get that far. You finish in June, don’t you?” Elizabeth wondered how he had known. “Yes.” “Do you know what to do after that?” It was the question she had been asking herself. “No, not really.” “Interested in getting married?” For one quick instant her heart missed a beat. Then she realized that it was a general question. “I haven’t found anyone yet.” (Sheldon/BL 1977:180)

After that, teacher may give thought-provoking questions, such as: 1. Were the speakers dating? Why do you think so? 2. Who held control in the conversation? Why? 3. Why did Rhys ask if Elizabeth thought of getting married after school? 4. Why did the girl miss her heartbeat for an instant? Do you think that is a natural response? Please explain your answer. 5. How would Rhys respond to Elizabeth’s answer? Why do you think so?

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Before answering the questions, learners may compare their questions to the teacher’s. Besides eliciting how much students are aware of the dominant gender-based power relation, those questions also reveal to learners how much they have been a victim of patriarchal hegemony. In speaking or writing classes, learners can express how they think the speakers are related. Besides, they can ‘deconstruct’ the dialog by putting Elizabeth as the dominant speaker and write or reconstruct the conversation. What questions will Elizabeth ask Rhys? It is also possible to ask students to continue the conversation in a guided writing or speaking: 1. How would Rhys respond knowing that Elizabeth had not found someone special? 2. What would he say or do? 3. How would Elizabeth react? 4. Would that change their relationship? Particularly in speaking class, learner should explain why they think that is how the dialog will go on. To dig out learners’ logic, their peers may ask questions. To make the activities more interesting, teacher may provide different short discourses to class. If learners share their writing or share their critical opinions, the class will learn about various discourses, ideologies, and reasoning. Language approach-based classroom activities to literary texts is expected to enhance students’ understanding and interest in literature written in English as well as making EFL classes more meaningful and motivating.

References Althusser, L. (1989). From ‘Ideology and the State’, Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (translated by B. Brewster). In Rice, P. and Waugh, P. (Eds.). Modern Literary Theory (pp.54-70). London: Edward Arnold. —. (1994). Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus. In Storey, J. (Ed.). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (pp.151-162). New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. . Ashley, B. (1989). The Study of Popular Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Barker, C. (2000). Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage Publications.

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Carter, R. and McRae, J. (1996). Language, Literature, and the Learner: Creative Classroom Practice. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. Chatman, S. (1986). Story and Discourse. Itacha: Cornell University Press. “Discourse Analysis”. Retrieved December 31, 2009 from http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/discourse.htm Eagleton, T. (1991). Ideology: An Introduction. London: Verso. Fiske, J. (1996). British Cultural Studies and Television. In Storey, J. (Ed.). What Is Cultural Studies?: A Reader (pp. 115-146). London: Arnold. Hall, J.R. & Neitz, M. Jo. (1993). Culture: Sociological Perspectives. Englewood Cliff: Prentice Hall. Nachbar, J. and Lause, K. (1992). Popular Culture. An Introductory Text. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. Nguyen, T.C.L. (2005). From Passive Participant to Active Thinker: A Learner-Centered Approach to Material Development, English Teaching Forum, 43(3), 2-9. Palmer, J. (1984). Thriller. In Pawling, c. (Ed.). Popular Fiction and Social Change (pp. 76-98). London: Macmillan Press. Sheldon, S. (1977). Bloodline. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. —. (1997). The Best Laid Plans. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. —. (2004). Are You Afraid of the Dark? New York: Warner Books. van Dijk, T.A. (2001). “Critical Discourse Analysis”. Retrieved March 12, 2008 from http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Critical%20discourse%20analy sis.pdf —. (1993). Discourse and Society. London: Sage

CHAPTER TEN CORPUS-BASED STUDY OF THE SCHOOL ENGLISH IN THE EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING HENDRO SETIAWAN HUSADA

Introduction For many years some scholars (e.g. Azar, 1989; Gilmore, 2004; Hsia et al., 1989 in Hunston, 2002; McCarthy, 2004; Mindt, 1997) have been concerned with school English (henceforth SE). This type of English is often used among students and teachers at schools but “does not seem to exist outside the foreign language classroom” (Mindt, 1996, p. 232 in McEnery, Xiao, & Tono, 2006). This form of English is superficial in the sense that it is thought to be typical or common but does not conform to English as a lingua franca (see Seidlhofer, Breiteneder & Pitzl, 2006; Breyer, 2009). For example, why should students practice a structure such as that-subject clauses (e.g. that she stole the money is unquestionable) in their speaking classes, when it is, in fact, hardly ever used by native speakers in conversations (Azar, 1989 in Conrad, 2000)? Hsia et al. (1989) also gave another example of SE commonly found in many junior high schools in Malaysia. When explaining the comparative adjective larger, some Malaysian English teachers tend to give a prototypical example like Malaysia is larger than Singapore or this school is larger than that school. Here, the comparative adjective larger is followed by than. However, only from a sample of 100 lines of larger from the Bank of English (BoE),1 only 17 included than. In most lines, the adjective is followed by a noun, such as in much larger plants or a far larger proportion. Both findings suggest that teachers give authentic examples that reflect the actual use of the words rather than the contrived or artificial ones because the use of authentic examples may help students learn better (Johns, 1994 in Sun & 1

BoE could be accessed from: http://scn02.corpora.jp/~wb03/cgi-bin/login1.cgi.

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Wang, 2003) and communicate in the target language effectively and competently (O’Keeffe, McCarthy & Carter, 2007). A similar case occurs in the word any (Mindt, 1997). In many English classes in Germany or perhaps in other countries as well, any is usually contrasted with some and students are taught that some is generally used in affirmative sentences (e.g. I have some friends who live near here), while any in questions and negations (e.g. Do have any friends who live near here? I don’t have any friends who live near here). However, based on the corpus analysis, it was found that any was also used in affirmative and declarative sentences, especially when it was applied to a referent whose existence was presupposed (e.g. I thought any fool would know). In fact, it made up more than 50 percent of all cases of any, but it was rarely mentioned in the English textbooks. McCarthy (2004) also found in the Cambridge International Corpus (Spoken Corpus) that from hundreds of uses of auxiliary must, on average only 5 percent of its uses were related to obligation (e.g. you must come on time) and another 5 percent dealt with expressions such as I must admit or I must say. “But the overwhelming majority of uses of must are in “predictive” statements such as that must have been nice, you must be hungry, etc.” (p. 6). This finding is surprising because what many textbooks and English teachers have considered the most common (i.e. obligation), in fact, makes up only 5 percent of all uses of must. Similarly, O’Keeffe et al. (2007) explains, “numerous studies have shown us that the language presented in the textbooks is frequently still based on intuition about how we use language, rather than actual evidence of use.” (p. 21) In several cases, the use of SE among non-native speaker students sometimes emerges as a result of wrong explanation or misleading drills or exercises (James, 1998) which may lead to induced errors (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Stenson, 1983). For example, some English teachers in Indonesia still teach the use of singular pronouns he/she, him/her and his/her to replace the indefinite pronoun everybody; everyone; anyone; anybody; somebody; someone; or no one (e.g. Someone has left his/her wallet here or everybody has to do what he/she thinks is important) (Husada, 2006). The teachers explain that since indefinite pronouns take singular verbs, they should logically use singular pronouns. However, several grammarians (e.g. Biber et al., 1999; Ferguson & Manser, 1998; Hewings, 1999; Murphy & Smalzer, 2000; or Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1985) point out that even though in modern English indefinite pronouns take singular pronouns, they use pronouns they, them, and their (e.g. Someone has left their wallet here or everybody has to do what they think is important). Furthermore, a corpus investigation in the British

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National Corpus (BNC) or the Bank of English (BoE) also gives the same explanation as that of the the grammarians. 1. But the platform general alarm goes off and everybody goes to their master stations by the lifeboat (BNC). 2. If anybody knows perhaps they could give us a call on that one (BoE) Still related to grammar, Collins (2004) investigated the uses of letimperatives in English in seven one-million-word standard corpora representing American, British, Australian and India English and 2,600,000 words of spoken English from four other corpora taken from British, New Zealand, and Australian English. The findings of his research revealed “first person inclusives with let’s have increased in popularity in recent decades, while open let-imperatives have declined in popularity over the same period” (p. 318). This sort of findings may be useful for teachers and textbook writers, so that they may adjust their grammar teaching. In a later study, Baker (2009) compared the use of pronouns in four British diachronic corpora (BLOB-1931, LOB-1961, FLOB-1991, and BE06-2006) and claimed that there were significant changes of the uses of first, second, and third person pronouns. The results of his study showed that there was a sharp increase on the use of first person (I, me, and my/mine) and second person (you and your/yours) pronouns which indicated “colloquialisation or ‘involved’ discourse appears to be higher now in written British English than in previous sampling periods” (p. 327). Third person pronoun he, him, and his had decreased significantly since 1961, while there appeared to have been an increase in the use of female pronoun she, her, and hers over the same period of time, though the female pronouns were less frequent than the male pronouns at all the sampling points. Overall, the findings reflect a cultural change, namely, a move away from gender bias in language use (ibid.). In the same year, Yeung (2009) delineated the functions and patterns of ‘besides’ used as a connective in both native speakers’ and Hong Kong Chinese learners’ English corpora. She found that a lot of university students in Hong Kong tended to overuse and misuse ‘besides’ as a connective and this problem occurred probably due to induced errors (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Stenson, 1983). From register point of view, the students were likely to use ‘besides’ in a mixture of registers which resulted in an uneven style. Furthermore, based on its pragmatic function as an additive, ‘besides ‘was simply used as an addition and not to reinforce “the preceding idea and constrains the reading of the text to

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make an inference” (p. 342.). The result of her study recommended that conventional approaches of teaching English using dictionary or textbooks should be overhauled. The use of SE often appears among non-native speakers (NSSs) who frequently acquire English through instruction (Lightbown & Spada, 2006) and it occurs mainly due to the prolonged exposure or use of artificial language by non-native speaker teachers and students. Though Widdowson (1998) argues that the language taught at school could not be authentic, the supporters of authentic language (e.g. Anderson & Corbett, 2009; Breyer, 2009; Hunston, 2002; McCarthy, 2004; McEnery, Xiao & Tono, 2006) believe that the authentic language could be obtained from the actual linguistic texts that native speakers produced and that could be collected and analyzed by computer (a corpus). Johns (1986 and 1991) is the first among corpus linguists who have suggested the use of corpora in English language teaching. He introduces his approach as DDL (data-driven learning) which helps learners use corpora to study English inductively. Through guided tasks, the learners become corpus researchers to investigate concordance lines and to try to find certain “patterning in the target language and to form generalizations about language form and use.” (p. 2). With real examples of language usage in their hands, the learners “may notice something that a teacher has overlooked, or that no textbook covers” (Hunston, 2002, p. 170). Though the inductive method may demand greater mental efforts and take more time, when it is correctly done, it can result in more effective and motivating learning in the longer term (Nunan, 2003) or discovery learning (Bernadini, 2002; Hunston, 2002). Cobb (1997) used DDL in the form of concordance to teach new words and spellings to the first-year Omani university students taking a year of intensive English in preparation for a full load of English-medium commerce subjects in second year. In his study he introduced five different activities ranging from choosing word definitions to writing words to new contexts. The activities were designed from easy to difficult, from wordlevel to text-level, and from reception to production. The findings of the study revealed that the participants got significantly better grades in both weekly quizzes and tests after having learned by means of corpus concordance. In a later year, Liu & Jiang (2009) examined the effects of integrating corpus and contextualized lexicogrammar in foreign and second language teaching to Chinese and US university students. Based on the students’ corpus search projects and reflection papers, teachers’ lesson plans and teaching journals, and a post study assessment survey, it was found that the approach brought some positive results, such as improved

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command of lexicogrammar, increased critical understanding of grammar, and enhanced discovery learning skills. However, DDL has at least three potential disadvantages. First, it may not be suitable for lower-level learners (Widdowson, 2000; Aston, 2001). Widdowson (1991) in Flowerdew (2009) further explains that transferring corpus data directly to language pedagogic materials may not be appropriate on account of the cultural and contextual aspects. Second, DDL is generally associated with the inductive approach of learning which might not be appropriate for some students. For example, Meunier (2002) found that some students disliked working inductively and, thus the teachers needed to combine both inductive and deductive approaches. Vannestål & Lindquist (2007) also notes that their students prefer more traditional method to teaching grammar by using books to inductive corpus-based approach because they do not feel they have learned anything from the corpus exercises. Third, apart from giving the learners training to be corpus literate, Johns (1986) argues that it is important for teachers themselves to have experience in using a corpus, if they expect their learners to make use of it. The question is whether all language teachers have energy, enthusiasm, and time to do it? Even if they do, will the teachers believe in its value and have a desire to do it? For example, in spite of increasing number of research on the corpus linguistics and its application on language teaching, O’Keeffe and Farr (2003) have found that not many teachers seem to have used corpora in their classrooms. Despite the abundance of research examining the presence of SE in English language teaching (ELT) textbooks, additional studies that systematically analyze students’ SE in specific classroom settings are still needed. Although the presence of SE occurs across countries, based on the previous findings of SE so far, much is still unknown to what extend students produce SE in their productive skills. Is the students’ SE more closely related to their grammar, vocabulary or multi-word expressions? Therefore, the purpose of this study was to find the presence of SE in the students’ writing and in what parts of speech it occurs. The research questions were as follows: 1. To what extend do the EFL students produce the SE in their classroom writing? 2. What types of the SE are found in the students’ writing?

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Method Participants The participants were 63 first-year students (n=63) who enrolled in the Integrated Course 1 offered in semester II 2008/2009 at the Faculty of Language and Literature (FLL), Satya Wacana Christian University, Indonesia. They were all Indonesians and their age ranged from 19 to 20 years old. When this study was being carried out, they had studied English at the formal settings for almost 9 years: 8 years from elementary to senior high schools and an average of 9 months at the FLL. With regard to nationality, language background, educational level and age, the participants could be considered homogeneous.

Data Collection The data of the current study were cross-sectional and collected from the participants’ one-paragraph final test essays with the title “Wiggles trying to romance Snowball”, a story of a male guinea pig (Wiggles) who was falling in love with Snowball (a female guinea pig). Here, the participants were asked to write a 10-sentence paragraph telling Wiggles what processes/steps to get Snowball to become his girlfriend. There were 63 essays produced, and on average, each participant’s writing consisted of 142 words.

Analysis Identification of SEs After the data had been collected, they were transcribed verbatim. Then, they were independently examined by two experienced native speaker teachers (NSTs) to pinpoint the occurrence of the SE in the participants’ writing. Since the NST raters were linguistically unfamiliar with SEs, prior to this study, they had been trained to gain an understanding of SE. At the beginning of the training the raters examined many examples of the sentences which contained SE and learned how the SE was different from the participants’ common language errors. During training, the NSTs and I also spent a substantial amount of time discussing the SE based on the three linguistic categories: grammar, vocabulary, and multi-word expressions that they were likely to find in the participants’ essays and in what ways those three categories were different from one

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another. At the end of the training, the NSTs were given a number of sentences, of which some contained SE and some others did not, and they had to find the presence of the SE in the sentences. This “test” was given in order to ensure that the native speaker raters could do as they had been expected to.

Corpus Use To avoid the raters’ subjectivity, the use of SE found in the participants’ writing was also cross-checked through the Bank of English¹ (BoE) which comprised 53,447,136 word samples and represented British English (72.92%), American English (17.74%), and Australian English (9.33%). The statistical measure in the corpus chosen to analyze the SE in the study was mutual information (MI) measure. Kennedy (2003) explains “The MI measure compares the probability of two words occurring together through intention with the probability of the two words occurring together by chance” (p. 473). Similarly, Hunston (2002) points out that MI is a measure of how strongly two words associated in a corpus based on the independence relative frequency of the two words. “An MI score around 0 suggests that the two words do not collocate while a score of 3 or higher can be considered evidence that the two items often co-occur” (Liu, 2010, p. 63).

Classification of SEs To simplify the analysis and discussion, the presence of the SE was classified into three linguistic categories: grammar, vocabulary and multiword expressions (MWEs).

Results and discussion Presence of SE in writing The first research question asked to what extend the EFL students produced the SE in their classroom writing. The number of SE found in the participants’ essays was 46. Out of all 63 essays, 49 or 77.7 per cent were identified to have SE. The number of SE found in each essay ranged from 0 (no SE found) to 3, with a mean of 0.78. The findings are astonishing because SE was found in the majority of the participants’ essays. The high percentage of SE among the essays leads us to two important questions. First, does the results of the study support the claims

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of other researchers (e.g. Farghal & Al-Hamly, 2007 ; Nesselhauf, 2003; Yeung, 2009) that SE occurs as a result of L1 interference? A further analysis on the participants’ SE clearly reveals that to a certain extend their SE occurs due to L1 interference. For example, you should go to her house and *knock the door politely. The fact that in Indonesian mengetuk (knock) does not take any preposition leads to the assumption of L1 interference. Another example is also found in the sentence when you have *taken Snowball’s heart, you should…. In Indonesian, to win someone’s heart is normally translated to mengambil hati (to take someone’s heart). As a result, it is quite obvious that the wrong expression occurred due to L1 interference. Finally, you have to be *with her, when she is sad also contains an element of L1 interference because it is a direct translation of ketika kamu bersama dengannya. Second, does the high percentage of the SE reflect some major problems of teaching and learning processes in many high schools in Indonesia? A number of studies have demonstrated that among other factors, poorly selected textbooks and teachers’ inadequate mastery of English contribute to the presence of SE. Mindt (1996) who has been concerned with SE contends that some textbooks contribute to the presence of SE because they present the teaching materials which differ considerably from a kind of English that most native speakers use. In line with this, Musthafa (2001) also echoes a similar idea that the absence of good and authentic learning materials and the emphasis on the teaching of grammar and syntax are two ongoing problems found in most Indonesian high schools. Furthermore, a closer look at several English textbooks used by high schools in Indonesia, such as Effective English (2005), English On Sky (2004), English in Action (2005), English in Context (2005), English Texts in Use (2005), Functional English for Senior High Schools (2005), Look Ahead: An English Course (2006) and Real Time (2005) also reveals that none of them are corpus-based. As as result, it is very possible that the selection of some particular language features is done mostly based on the authors’ intuition, and hence they lack accuracy and reliability (Liu, 2008b). SE is also likely to emerge due to teachers’ poor mastery of English. For instance, Medgyes (2001) who did a survey to NNS teachers found that the NNS teachers were less superior in English language competence and that they “viewed themselves as poorer listeners, speakers, readers, and writers” (p. 434). Nur (2003) also points out that apart from big class sizes and lack of school facilities, teachers’ inadequate mastery of English is one of the major problems of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indonesia. In line with this, Gass & Selingker (2008) argue that in the

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classroom the students’ English is developed from three sources of input, i.e. their teachers, learning materials, and other students. When both the teachers and the students have poor mastery of English and most of the learning materials are not selected based on the evidence of how the language is actually used, then it is quite easy to predict that their English tends to be artificial and bookish. The findings of this current study also indicate that the SE to some extend did not seem to appear by chance but followed a consistent pattern. Here, several students tended to produce relative the same SE, despite the fact that they had been given freedom to use any vocabulary or write any sentences that best expressed their ideas. For example, six participants wrote *…look at her eyes instead of …look into her eyes, when they wanted to refer to the action of looking deeply between two persons with a closer relationship. Four other participants also produced the phrase *…when/after you have been sure… instead of …when you are sure…. Still three others wrote *…had permission in substitute of …got permission. It is hard to think that all of these happened purely by accident. It is likely that the consistent pattern of SE occurs as a result of the teachers’ faulty explanation (Stenson, 1983).

Types of SE In regard to the second research question “What types of the SE are found in the students’ writing?” All SE found in the participants’ final examination essays covered grammar, vocabulary, and MWEs. As shown in Figure 1 below, MWEs (22) were found to be the most-frequently occurring SE, followed by vocabulary (14), and grammar (10). The result supports some previous findings (e.g. Granger, 1998; Nessehauf, 2003) that foreign language learners often have problems with MWEs in their written and spoken language. Nation’s (2001) also notes that although MWEs seem to be banal for native speakers of English, they often cause problems for EFL students because they are closely structured and contain some elements of unpredictability.

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Figure 1: Three Types of SE Found in the Participants’ Essays

Based on the data analysis, the incorrect use of MWEs occurred in two different forms: the incorrect use of a collocation in a particular context and the misuse of the collocations. The incorrect use of a collocation in a particular context occurs when the participants fail to accurately use a certain collocation that is suitable for the intended context. For example, one participant produced a sentence First, you have to make an appointment with her. The expression ...make an appointment… is grammatically acceptable but generally considered appropriate only in a formal context. The MI score of 7.20 found in the BoE also indicates that make collocates with appointment. However, when the collocation is used in informal contexts such as romance, meet is considered more appropriate. Another example of the incorrect use of collocations in contexts occurs in the wrong use of the possessive pronoun your. Consider the sentences treat her as *your princess and ...give her *your flowers. Although the sentences are both grammatically correct, the participants seem not to realize that the use of possessive pronoun your instead of indefinite and definite articles a and the made the sentences semantically odd. The result of the BoE search shows that princess does not co-occur with any possessive pronouns except his, but it collocates most strongly with the articles the and a. Similarly, flowers collocates most strongly with the definite article the, but does not bond with any of the possessive pronouns except her and their. The table below shows the other incorrect use of collocations in contexts.

Corpus-based Study of the School English in the EFL Students’ Writing 143 Figure 2. Incorrect use of collocations in contexts

SE ...it *is not always something expensive. Snowball will *accept you. You have to be *with her... After *there are only both of you... ...you have to *make no mistakes to impress her. *In a good moment... When she comes to *you, ...

Reconstruction ... it doesn’t have to be something expensive. Snowball will accept you to be your girlfriend. You have to be by her side... When the two of you are alone... ...you have to do everyhting to impress her. When the timing is right... When she comes to the door, ...

Compared to the incorrect use of collocations, more participants were found to misuse the collocations. Here, the misuse a collocation occurs when the participants fail to produce the right combinations of words. For example, you should *have permission from her father before you go out with her. Most NNSs generally prefer using lexically empty verb get (see Stubbs, 2002) for the above context. The corpus search also reveals that get collocates with permission, with the MI score of 5.38, while have does not co-occur with permission, although the combination of both words are still possible, such as in ...but I can’t speak because I have no permission (BoE). The other two lexically empty verbs that the participants were often confused with are make and have. Two participants wrote *make a (small) conversation... instead of have a brief conversation or engage in a small talk. The other used have instead of make in the sentence when you have *had a good impression…. Still the other wrote you should *make a poem, when he meant you should write a poem. Finally, two other students wrote …*make a candle light dinner and when you have *done with your drink. …. Another example of ill-formed collocations occurs in the sentence ...try to *give your hands whenever she needs it. The participant seemed to know that give a hand was an idiomatic expression, however, she substituted the indefinite article a with possessive pronoun your and changed the singular form of hand to its plural form. As a result, the expression became ill-formed and the original meaning changed. It is interesting to know why the participant did it. She was probably aware that the meaning of an idiom could not be derived from its individual components; however, she overlooked the principle of invariance of

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structure, i.e. the structure of an idiom allowed no productive transformation (Liu, 2008a). Overall findings support the results of Siyanova’s & Schmitt’s (2008) study that unlike most L1 learners who rely on lexicalized routines to express their ideas, L2 learners “often acquire words individually, without taking note of their immediate environment, and that, when trying to produce an expression, they may combine words that do not normally go together” (pp. 430-431). As a result, their language productions tend to sound less idiomatic. The incorrect use of vocabulary occurs in the verbs bring, come, take, prepare, wear, and approach. Consider the following two sentences: you should *bring her to a romantic restaurant and you should *bring her something special. Despite their grammaticality, both sentences are generally considered uncommon. When the students produce such SE, it is not always easy for the teachers to explain the difference especially when the difference is not quite distinct. Besides, if we look up the two verbs in a dictionary, such as Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary (CALED) or Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE), both dictionaries do not give a clear explanation when to use bring and not take or vice versa. For example, CALED gives the same definition of bring and take that if you bring or take someone or something with you when you come to a place, you have them with you. When a corpus (or corpora) is accessible to the students, it may be a good idea to let them work with the concordance lines or collocations of the verbs bring, take, and give and see how the verbs are used different contexts. However, when the corpus is not available, it is perhaps useful to raise questions that can help them understand the difference between the two verbs. For example, do you usually bring or give your loved one something special? Do you often take or bring your friend to a restaurant? Or why can’t she go to the restaurant and thus you should bring her there? Another simple but confusing vocabulary is come. Two participants produced the sentences you should be polite, when you *come to her house and after you have *come to her house, you have to meet her parents. One may wonder why the participants still have a problem with such a high frequency word. The problem lies on the fact that come in Indonesian has a wider scope of meaning than that of English because its meaning also includes the meanings of visit, go, or arrive. For example, when asking a colleague what time she usually arrives in the office, Indonesians generally use come instead of arrive. Jam berapa Anda biasanya datang ke kantor? (What time do you usually come in the office?) The verb come is also used to replace go, when ordering someone to go to a place. Nanti sore datang ke rumah saya ya! (Please come to my house this afternoon!).

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Instead of visit, come is frequently used in the following context. Bob banyak kedatangan tamu hari ini (A lot of guests are visiting Bob today). The following table shows the other incorrect use of vocabulary. Figure 3. The incorrect use of vocabulary

SE

Reconstruction

…you should *take her hands After you have *prepared it all, you can… …you should *prepare a nice suit that you… Wiggles should *approach Snowball and… Instead, you can *put on your jeans and shirt.

…you should hold her hands. After you have arranged it all, you can… …you should pick out/choose a nice suit that you… Wiggles should get close to Snowball and… Instead, you can wear your jeans and shirt.

SE which is related to grammar occurs in two different forms, i.e. the present perfect tense and prepositions. Four participants produced incorrect phrases when/after you *have been sure…. The participants seem to have learned and understood the use of the present perfect tense, but they overgeneralized it. They might assume something that happened in the past has continued up to the moment when we speak (Swan, 1980) should be expressed in the present perfect tense. What they do not know is that this rule is not applicable in any situation especially when the adjective sure is used. The BoE also suggests that adjective sure is only used in present (e.g. am/is/are/ make sure) and past (was/were/made sure) and not in the perfect tenses. The incorrect use of a preposition occurs in the following five sentences:

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Figure 4. Incorrect use of prepositions

SE

Reconstruction

…look *at her eyes Try to be kind and charming *at Snowball You have to be close *with her …you shouldn’t be aggressive *in front of her First, you must befriend *with her friends

…look into her eyes Try to be kind and charming to Snowball You have to be close to her …you shouldn’t be aggressive to her First, you must befriend her friends

Six participants produced …look *at her eyes. Even though the use of preposition at does not change the grammaticality of the sentence, the meaning is different when the preposition in or into is used. What all the participants probably did not know is that when the look and eyes are used, prepositions in and into are generally preferred. The BoE also reveals that look can collocate with eyes with the MI score of 3.79 and fifty three out of sixty nine concordance lines confirms the use of look + in/into + eyes, while look + at + eyes only appears twice (e.g. Doctors used to look at my eyes and ask what I was doing there). Why could six participants produce the same SE? It is possible that this SE occurs as a result of excessive exposure of look + at from either the textbooks or teachers’ misleading information which eventually leads the students to conclude that the verb look always takes the preposition at and not in or into. The other misuse of prepositions is likely to occur due to interference. The combination of the adjectives and prepositions in charming *at…, close *with…, and aggressive *in front of… are very similar to those in Indonesian, while the addition of preposition with in…befriend *with her friends is also much influenced by the participant’s L1.

Conclusion Overall, the results of this study provide additional supports of the presence of SE among the students’ writing. The findings suggest that the occurrence of SE in the students’ written production cannot be underestimated because it covers 77.7 per cent of the total essays. MWEs were found to rank the highest of all, followed by vocabulary and grammar. In regard to the MWEs, SE occurred in two in two different forms: the incorrect use of a collocation in a particular context and the

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misuse of the collocations, while in vocabulary SE mostly dealt with the verbs bring, come, take, prepare, wear, and approach. Finally, with regard to grammar SE was found in the overgeneralization of the use of present perfect tense and the misuse of the prepositions.

Pedagogical Implications The current study has two pedagogical implications. Since the occurrence of SE was found in the majority of the participants’ writing, I believe it is important for teachers to include corpora in their teaching and learning processes. This could be done in two ways. First, if a corpus (or corpora) is not available, as a start, it may be a good idea for teachers to use corpus-informed textbooks. Unlike traditional textbooks, McCarthy (2004) contends that the words, phrases, grammar, examples, contexts, as well as activities presented in corpus-informed textbooks are authentic and correspond to what students are likely to hear and see in a real communication. As a result, this will help the students speak more precisely and “produce more effective communication” (p. 17). Second, if a corpus is accessible, a lot of learning and teaching opportunities could be possibly done. In teaching grammar, for example, apart from using the examples from the textbooks, the teachers can get a large amount of authentic examples from the corpus, and thus help the students understand the grammatical feature being taught. Besides, with a corpus in hand, the teachers may also assign their students to do both inductive and deductive learning on a certain grammatical pattern. “Such learning activities, especially the inductive type, motivate students and promote discovering learning” (Liu & Jiang, 2009, p. 62). In teaching writing, the teachers can also encourage the students to make use of the corpus for finding the right collocations or idioms and how they are used in natural discourse. By doing so, the teachers can help the students work independently and write more naturally. Finally, in teaching vocabulary, based on frequency of words in the corpus the teachers can decide what words to teach first and what other words to teach later. The results of the current study also strongly indicate that the students should be taught collocations. First, the MWEs which mostly comprise collocations were found to rank the highest of all (about a half). Second, the findings also show that most of the participants produced the incorrect collocations such as *make a small conversation or *have a good impression by combining individual words, and not in the form of prefabricated units. However, since there are a large number of collocations in English, it is important to set up criteria which collocations

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need to be taught. One of the important criteria which needs serious consideration is that the collocations should be frequent and useful for the students (Nesselhauf, 2003). Since the terms “frequent” and “useful” may vary from one student to another, it is important for teachers to work with their students to decide what collocations they consider frequent and useful. Another criterion for selecting collocations is congruence of collocations in L1 and L2. Collocations are congruent in L1 and L2, i.e. Indonesian and English, if they exist in both languages and they have to be translation equivalents in Indonesian and English (ibid., 2005). Several examples of congruent collocations in L1 and L2 are make a decision (membuat keputusan), invest the money (menginvestasikan uang), exchange ideas (bertukar pikiran), or have a chance (memiliki kesempatan). In teaching collocations, congruent collocations should receive adequate attention, so that the students can take the advantage of the similarity between their L1 and L2. What draws our attention now should not be to what extend the EFL students produce the SE or what types of SE are found in their English, but how to help them minimize the use of SE in their language production. In order to address this concern, teachers need to find out to how much a corpus (or corpora) can support the teaching and learning processes and how much it helps the students avoid producing SE. These issues need to be further addressed in future research in order to help the students use English more naturally.

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—. (1994). From printout to handout: Grammar and vocabulary teaching in the context of data-driven learning. In T. Odlin (Ed.), Perspectives on pedagogical grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned (3rd Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kennedy. G. (2003). Amplifiers collocations in the British National Corpus: Implications for English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 37 (3), 467-487. Liu, D. (2008a). Idioms: Description, comprehension, acquisition, and pedagogy. New York: Routledge. —. (2008b). Linking adverbials: An across-register corpus study at its implications. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14 (3), 914518. —. (2010). Is it a chief, main, major, primary, or principal concern? A corpus-based behavioral profile study of the near-synonyms. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,15 (1), 56-87. Liu, D. & Jiang, P. (2009). Using a corpus-based lexicogrammatical approach to grammar instruction in EFL and ESL contexts. Modern Language Journal, 93, 61-78 McCarthy, M. (2004). Touchstone: From corpus to coursework. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press. Medgyes, P. (2001). When the teacher is a non-native speaker. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.). Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp.429-442). Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle. Meunier, F. (2002). The pedagogic value of native and learner corpora in EFL grammar teaching. In S. Granger, J. Hung & S. Petch-Tyson (Eds.), Computer Learner Corpora, Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 119–141. Mindt, D. (1997). Corpora and the teaching of English in Germany. In A. Wichmann, S. Fligelstone, T. McEnery, & G. Knowles (Eds.), Teaching and language corpora (pp. 40-50). New York: Addison Wesley Longman. Murphy, R., & Smalzer, W. R. (2000). Grammar in use (2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Musthafa, B. (2001). Communicative language teaching in Indonesia: Issues of theoretical assumptions and challenges in the classroom. Journal of Southeast Asian Education, 2 (2), 1-9. Nesselhauf, N. (2003). The use of collocations by advanced learners of English and some implications for teachings. Applied Linguistics, 24 (2), 223-242.

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—. (2005). Collocations in a learner corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Nunan, D. (2003). Grammar. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English language teaching (pp. 153-172). New York: McGraw-Hill. Nur, M. (2003). English language teaching in Indonesia: Changing policies and practical constraints. In H. W. Kam & R. Y. L., Wong (Eds.). English language teaching in East Asia today: Changing policies and practices. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish (Eastern Universities Press). O’Keefee, A. & Farr, F. (2003). Using language corpora in initial teacher education: Pedagogic issues and practical applications. TESOL Quarterly, 37 (3), 389-418. O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M., & Carter, R. (2007). From corpus to classroom: Language use and language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. O’Sullivan, I. & Chambers, A. (2006). Learners’’ writing skills in French: Corpus consultation and learner evaluation. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 49-68. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Essex: Longman. Siyanova, A. & Schmitt, N. (2008). L2 learner production and processing of collocation: A multi-study perspective. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 63 (3), 429-458. Stenson, N. (1983). Induced errors. In B. W. Robinett & J. Schachter (Eds.). Second language learning: Contrastive analysis, error analysis, and related aspects (pp. 256-271). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan. (Reprinted from New Frontier in Second Language Learning, pp. 54-70, 1974) Sun, Y. C. & Wang, L. Y. (2003). Concordancers in ELT classroom: Cognitive approaches and collocation difficulty. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 16 (1), 83-94. Swan, M. (1980). Practical English usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vannestål, M. & Lindquist, H. (2007). Learning English grammar with a corpus: Experimenting with concordancing in a university grammar course. ReCALL, 19 (3), 329–350. Widdowson, H. G. (1991). The description and prescription of language. In J. Alatis (Ed.), Georgetown University Round Table in Language and Linguistics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University. —. (1998). Context, community, and authentic language. TESOL Quarterly, 32 (4), 715-716.

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Yeung, L. (2009). Use and misuse of ‘besides’: A corpus study comparing native speakers’ and learners’ English. System, 37, 330-342.

CHAPTER ELEVEN USING A NEWSPAPER CORPUS TO CREATE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING MATERIALS ANEALKA AZIZ

Introduction Instructional English language materials play a significant role in language teaching and learning. The materials help learners develop their reading skills and strategies, expand their vocabulary, present and recycle grammar items and provide models for writing. They also stimulate oral communication work in language classroom (Cunningsworth, 1995). Language instructors usually use ready-made instructional materials prescribed by their own learning institution or suggested by their colleagues and publishers. Apart from that, language instructors can also adapt materials from non-instructional and/or authentic sources for their learners. It is important that language instructors participate in the development of instructional materials for their learners. In fact, it is more effective if they can do so (Dat, 2006). This is because they are more sensitive and responsive to the learners’ needs (Maley, 1995; Jolly & Bolitho, 1998). Furthermore, they are also familiar with the language ability of the learners (Pascasio, 1995) and they know what interest them (Crandall, 1995). Equipped with classroom experience and a strong sense of selfimprovement, they are the best persons to know the needs of the learners (Dat, 2006). Ideally, language instructors should develop instructional materials on a daily basis (Cochingco-Ballesteros, 1995) in order to ensure varieties in the materials used with the learners. Instructional materials taken from non-instructional sources such as newspaper articles, journal articles, brochures, etc are useful in developing general education values in learners. These materials provide information on what is happening around the world (Sanderson, 1999), keep learners

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up to date with the language change that takes place (Sanderson, 1999; Martinez, 2002) and enable them to see a wide variety of vocabulary, sentence structures, text types and language styles, which are not found in conventional teaching materials (Martinez, 2002). These materials have a very good potential to be used in the English language classroom. One of the highly used non-instructional materials in language classroom is the newspaper. The use of newspapers in the classroom is not new. The idea started in the 1890s, when educators and newspaper people realized how current materials in the newspapers could maintain an important place in the school curriculum (Cowan, 1978). However, it was in the 1930’s when The New York Times started to send free newspapers to schools (1/app/nie/). This programme was initially called “Living Textbook Program” because the newspapers supplied fresh curriculum materials on a daily basis. Later, in 1957, it was known as “Newspaper in the Classroom” (NIC) program which was sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). However, it was the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association that originated a new title for the program - “Newspaper in Education”. The new title showed the expansion of the educational use of newspapers to institutions and organizations beyond the traditional classroom setting (http://nwitimes.com/app/nie/). In Malaysia, Newspaper in Education (NIE) was launched on 6 January 1985 on the initiative of the New Straits Times (NST) (http://niexus.nst.com.my/). It was aimed at improving English language teaching and learning among teachers and students through nationwide workshops and printed education supplements. Besides the NST, The Star, which is another leading English language newspaper in Malaysia, is also a strong proponent of NIE and it has a weekly pull-out that appears on Wednesdays. The advancement of information and communication technology nowadays has offered language instructors an almost unlimited collection of potential newspaper materials ready to be exploited in language classrooms. Newspaper materials that used to be in hard copy form are now available in an electronic version. The New Straits Times Online and The Star Online are available tributaries to an unlimited reservoir of computerized database of language (known as a corpus) (Thornbury, 2004). The two e-newspapers offer language instructors a huge database of language instances to be used in the teaching and learning of the four skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing skills and even for the teaching and learning of the rules of the language-grammar. Teaching and learning of the rules of the language can be done using a deductive or/and an inductive approach. A deductive approach, also

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referred as rule-driven learning, starts with the presentation of a rule and it is followed by examples in which the rule is applied, while an inductive approach, also known as discovery learning, starts with some examples from which a rule is inferred (Thornbury, 2004). This paper does not intend to show that one approach is better than the other. Rather, it highlights the potential of using e-news articles in the teaching and learning of grammar using the inductive approach. Looking at the rules of language using the inductive approach allows language instructors the following advantages (Thornbury, 2004): • Students will find the rules more meaningful, memorable and serviceable. • Students are more actively involved in the learning process. • Students are also involved in collaborative learning. • Students are trained to have better self-reliance.

Aims This paper aims to demonstrate the basic procedure for creating a newspaper corpus. It also intends to exhibit some language activities that language instructors can create using the online news articles. However, the paper focuses on only one language point that is the teaching and learning of participial adjectives (-ed, -en and -ing adjectives).

Procedure for Creating a Newspaper Corpus As mentioned earlier, this paper intends to demonstrate the basic procedure for creating a newspaper corpus from an on-line newspaper and to exhibit some language activities that can be created from it. An on-line newspaper needs to be selected. For this purpose, The Star Online, which is one of the leading English language newspapers in Malaysia, is selected. A local online newspaper is chosen because students may have read the news, hence they can relate to the content of the newspaper better. The Star Online also allows users to access its news archive without requiring them to register or pay any membership fee. To create a newspaper corpus, language instructors need to select as many news articles as possible. Size of a corpus is important as it determines the number of language instances available for language instructors to use. However, it is not necessary for language instructors to create a newspaper corpus of the size of the British National Corpus (BNC). It depends on the language instructors themselves to determine the

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size of their corpus as long as the number of language instances that they need is sufficiently provided by the corpus. This is based on what is stated by Sinclair (2000: vii): “The type of work will certainly be constrained by the corpus size, but that has nothing to do with the quality.” Language instructors need to create the newspaper corpus in a text format (.txt) to enable WordSmith Tools 4.0 to analyze it. To do that, they need to copy the news articles onto a blank word document. Once they are done, save the file as a text file. After that, language instructors need to determine the objectives of the lesson. For instance, the teaching of adjectives that use the present participle (-ing) and past participle (-ed, -en) forms. For this purpose, language instructors need to create three sets of concordance lines that contain the use of these types of adjectives. The objectives of the lesson are used to determine the types of language activities to be created. The graphical representation of the general procedure to create language activities based on a newspaper corpus is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Graphical Representation of the Procedure to Create Language Activities-Based on a Newspaper Corpus

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Sample Lesson The concordance lines generated by WordSmith Tools 4.0 enable language instructors to create different language activities for students. For illustration purposes, a lesson on participial adjectives is chosen to show how learning about these types of adjectives can be carried out using inductive approach with the help of concordance lines. Language instructors need to determine the objectives of the lesson. The objectives will help language instructors limit their search on a particular grammar item. Besides that, the amount of time spent to ‘clean up’ the concordance lines is also reduced. ‘Cleaning up’ the concordance lines for a specific lesson is indeed tedious and very time-consuming. This is because there is too much information, some of which is not relevant to the lesson. By specifying the objectives of the lesson, the scope of information to look for is narrowed. Figure 2 shows the objectives of the sample lesson. Figure 2: Objectives of a Sample Lesson

After setting the objectives of the lesson, language instructors can start analyzing the newspaper corpus using the Concord tool, which is one of the main functions of WordSmith Tools 4.0. Create three sets of concordance lines that have participial adjectives in them by specifying words that end with –ed, -en and –ing respectively. Planning a lesson to teach participial adjective using an inductive approach is not easy. Thornbury (2004) says that it is a demanding process to plan a lesson using an inductive approach as teachers need to select and organize the data carefully, so as to guide the students to make correct conclusions about certain language rules. Language instructors have to decide on which concordance lines to use. This decision depends largely on the objectives of the lesson, language ability of the students and how much instructors’ intervention

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will take place. Remove unrelated concordance lines that contain words in these forms but do not function as adjectives. Figures 3-5 show samples of concordance lines for participial adjective ending with –en, -ed and –ing respectively. These sets are just samples of how concordance lines look like. For teaching purposes, especially in the teaching of the rules of language using the inductive method, the list of the concordance lines should be longer, so as to provide more instances of each type of participial adjectives. This can be done by increasing the size of the corpus created. Figure 3: Sample of Concordance Lines Containing Participial Adjectives (-en)

Figure 4: Sample of Concordance Lines Containing Participial Adjectives (-ed)

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Figure 5: Sample of Concordance Lines Containing Participial Adjectives (-ing)

After that, language instructors need to prepare an outline of the activities that will take place in the classroom. This outline provides stepby-step activities on what students need to do with the concordance lines. Figure 6 shows an outline of activities that language instructors can use to teach participial adjectives. Figure 6: Sample Activities

Language instructors also need to prepare a template in which students can write their answers. For instance, students can use a template as shown in Table 1 to list all the participial adjectives that they can find in the

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concordance lines. Add more rows depending on the number of concordance lines prepared for the task. Table 1 shows some examples of how to use this template. Table 1: Sample Template 1 Types of Participial Adjectives -en

-ed

-ing

Adjectives

Noun

EURNHQ IUR]HQ VZROOHQ WUHDWHG XQUHVROYHG VSUDLQHG VKRSSLQJ IDVFLQDWLQJ ILVKLQJ

VSLQH RFHDQ IDFH ZDWHU FDVHV DQNOH FDUW SODFH FRPSDQLHV

Students can use Table 2 to list all the words that appear immediately before each participial adjective and determine the parts of speech of those words. Add more rows depending on the number of concordance lines prepared for the task. Table 2 shows some examples of how to use this template. Table 2: Sample Template 2 Types of Participial Adjectives

Words before Adjectives

-en

a the her

-ed

and several his

-ing

discarded this with

Adjectives

Parts of Speech

EURNHQ IUR]HQ VZROOHQ WUHDWHG XQUHVROYHG VSUDLQHG VKRSSLQJ IDVFLQDWLQJ ILVKLQJ

article article pronoun conjunction determiner pronoun verb determiner preposition

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For the final task, students are required to make several conclusions regarding the use of word before participial adjectives. The template as displayed in Table 3 is used for this purpose. Students are required to tick (/) appropriate column to indicate their findings in the previous tasks. Table 3 shows some examples of how to use this template. Table 3: Sample Template for Conclusion noun

pro

-en

/

-ed

/

-ing

verb

adj

adv

prep

art

det

conj

/

/

/

/

/

/

Language instructors should assist students in making the conclusions about their findings to prevent them from making wrong conclusions. Thornbury (2004) also cautions those who use the inductive approach to teach the rules of language about the tendency of students making a wrong hypothesis about the rules. Therefore, language instructors should assist the students and never let the students to be too independent while attempting the tasks given.

Enhancement Activities Language instructors can also create enhancement activities based on the concordance lines generated. For this purpose, language instructors need to get the complete sentences from the concordance lines. Figures 7-9 show some of the enhancement activities that can be created from the concordance line.

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Figure 7: Sample Enhancement Activities 1

Figure 8: Sample Enhancement Activities 2

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Figure 9: Sample Enhancement Activities 3

Conclusion and Recommendations On-line newspapers offer language instructors a huge source of materials that can be used in language classrooms. Language instructors need to spend some time to use their creativity in exploring the possibilities of creating instructional materials from this source. Furthermore, the availability of software such as WordSmith Tools 4.0 has enabled language instructors to harvest the potential of these materials for teaching and learning purposes. Language instructors who decide to adopt the approach of teaching specific grammar items using concordance lines should consider the following things: • Keep on building up the size of the corpus. A larger corpus contains more instances that language instructors can use in preparing teaching / learning materials for their students. • Employ the deductive approach as well in the teaching of language rules. Not all students have the same learning preferences. This approach of teaching may appeal to certain groups of students but may repel the others.

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• Maintain involvement throughout the teaching / learning process. Students should not be left alone to derive their own conclusions about certain rules of the language.

References Cochingco-Ballesteros, C. A. (1995). Spoken English handbooks and audio tapes for the elementary grades. In A. C. Hidalgo, D. Hall, & G. M. Jacobs, Getting started: Material writers on material writing. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Cowen, M. S. (1978). The history of the newspaper in education program. Washington: ANPA Foundation. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.eric.ed.gov/" http://www.eric.ed.gov/ on 5 September 2010 (ED344805). Crandall, J. (1995). The why, what, and how of ESL reading instruction: Some guidelines for writers of ESL textbooks. In P. Byrd, Material writer's guide. US: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your coursebook. UK: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Dat, B. (2006). Developing EFL materials for local markets: Issues and consideration. In J. Mukundan, Focus on ELT materials. Malaysia: Pearson / Longman. Jolly, D., & Bolitho, R. (1998). A framework for materials writing. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maley, A. (1995). Material writing and tacit knowledge. In A. C. Hidalgo, D. Hall, & G. M. Jacobs (Eds.), Getting started: Material writer on material writing. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Martinez, A. G. (2002). Authentic Materials: An overview. Retrieved February 23, 2006, from http://www3telus.net/-linguisticsissues/ authenticmaterials.htm Pascasio, E. M. (1995). The English series - Experiencing language: A response to the Philippine bilingual policy. In A. C. Hidalgo, D. Hall, & G. M. Jacobs (Eds.), Getting started: Material writers on material writing. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Sanderson, P. (1999). Using newspaper in the classroom. UK: Cambridge University Press. Sinclair, J. M. (2001). Preface. In M. Ghadessy, A. Henry, & R. L. Roseberry, Small Corpus Studies and ELT: Theory and practice. John Benjamin Publishing Company. Thornbury, S. (2004). How to Teach Grammar. Malaysia: Longman.

CHAPTER TWELVE PESSIMISM AND OPTIMISM IN SOME CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE STUDIES JOSEPH ERNEST MAMBU

Introduction I was fortunate to have talked to my undergraduate student Adi Pratama who recently raised my awareness of the main difference between post- theories and “traditional” critical theory. While the former is overall pessimistic, the latter is relatively more optimistic. Typical of posttheories (postmodernism, in particular) is the tendency of relativizing things and rejecting a single, absolute “truth”. Concerning agendas of social change established by the optimistic critical theory, Adi Pratama suggests, postmodernism tends to turn down such optimism. That said, postmodernist tenets have been pervasive in the works of scholars of general education or TESOL embracing beliefs in critical theory (e.g., Giroux, 1983; Janks, 2010; Kanpol, 1999; Lin, 1999; Mambu, 2010; Pennycook, 2004). The questions are whether (1) the pessimistic postmodernism is at all interfacing with the optimistic critical theory, and (2) the two are mutually exclusive. In particular, Janks (2010) and Pennycook (2004) seem to concur with the first. On the one hand, they are optimistic about the spread of critical approaches to language studies. On the other hand, they are pessimistic that critical approaches to language studies are at their final forms, resistant to further criticisms/ problematizations/deconstructions/re-designs. In the following sections, optimism and pessimism are viewed through Janks’s and Pennycook’s lenses of Critical Literacy and Critical Applied Linguistics respectively and my own interpretations of their ideas in light of other critical approaches.

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Jank’s Critical Literacy: Cognitive, optimism, bodily and affective pessimism as well as optimism Janks (2010) with her interdependent theory incorporating notions of “domination”, “access”, “diversity”, and “design” has optimistically set the tone for research agendas in the field of critical literacy (see her chapter 2, in particular). The theory is optimistic as it allows scholars to have a better framework to inquire into issues of, (1) oppressions through and (a) domination by powerful groups in societies (cf. Freire, 1970), (b) lack of access to quality education, (c) ignorance about the fact that our society is so diverse that it cannot always be forced to comply with a dominant group’s wishes, and (2) designing better alternatives of (a) viewing the world in order to attain justice and (b) actualizing the justice through legal advocacy – to name but a few. Interestingly, Janks (2010) provides some room for pessimism. While at the cognitive level people can be very critical, their critical thinking is at times at odds with their bodily (or, from a Christian perspective, “carnal”) desires (see Janks’s last chapter). It is much easier for some men, I think, to banish pornography on the grounds that it exploits women sexually, to the chagrin of feminists. It is the same men, however, that at times surreptitiously browse through porn websites to satisfy their unbearably resilient sexual desires or exchange sexist jokes with fellow men. Furthermore, citing Weber’s study, Janks reports that some feminist teachers were upset and pessimistic when their female students could optimistically show their feminism that vehemently opposed patriarchal values on the one hand but their desire remained to have slim and goodlooking appearances typical of female models on the sexist advertisements these students attempted to deconstruct critically. In other words, from Janks’s perspective, identification with slender and beautiful model-like bodies is still pervasive even among many women involved in deconstructing patriarchy. As Janks succinctly puts it, “[w]here identification [with favorite models] promises the fulfillment of [these female students’] desire, reason cannot compete” (p. 212), despite cognitively critical, deconstructive reading of sexist advertisements. How can humans (men, especially) live with these two contradictory forces: feminist optimism and “carnal” pessimism? This question is certainly too big for me but as far as language studies are concerned, we can explore humans’ paradoxical ways of thinking and behaving through examining specific discourse patterns that show ironies in (1) literary works (e.g., a British author Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel entitled Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel

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like The Double1), (2) religious texts (e.g., my discourse analysis of exparanormals claiming to have been converted to Christianity – see Mambu, 20092), and (3) pre- or in-service EFL teachers’ narratives that comprise “inconsistent” stories: juggling idealism (or optimism about certain beliefs like Critical Pedagogy or Communicative Language Teaching) and pessimistic reality (e.g., hectic schedule, conflicts with friends, spouses, or relatives, etc. that prevent them from implementing their idealism). Why bother exploring these issues through the discourse lens? As a discourse analyst I am challenged to know how human beings express their cognitive and affective (or emotional) capacities in living their lives. In turn, more down-to-earth, day-to-day issues emerge and are worth discussing in language classrooms, e.g., humans’ hypocrisy, honesty, integrity, double-mindedness, face- or image-saving strategies in ordinary people’s and public figures’ lives, and pessimism as well as optimism. Apart from sexually-oriented, bodily pessimism that seems to overcome cognitive optimism as illustrated above in Weber’s study, Janks (2010) implies that blissfulness beyond reason signifies some sense of optimism. Quintessentially, Janks (2010) makes a distinction between “desire” and “pleasure”.3 As she puts it: “While desire can consume us, pleasure can renew us. Critical literacy work in classrooms can be simultaneously serious and playful. We should teach it with a subversive attitude, selfirony and a sense of humour” (p. 224). As she also suggests, “[s]ocial action can take the form of parody, satire and caricature” (p. 220). Humors are beneficial to our students regardless of age. Combining some degree of cognitively oriented critical literacy and affective pleasure, 1

On the back cover of Dostoyevsky’s (1972) English translation of The Double, Penguin Classics comments: “…in The Double … a government clerk encounters a man who exactly resembles him – his double, perhaps, or possible the darker side of his own personality”. 2 One ex-paranormal’s discourse raises my pessimism about his true conversion. For example, claiming to believe only in Jesus Christ, the ex-paranormal kept referring to his non-Christian, shamanistic grandfather’s message to follow “The Light” and renounce his psychic inclination after seeing “The Light”. 3 Research on the link between language and desire (e.g., through their metaphors; see Deignan, 1997) has shown us that “desire” is often associated with negative attributes (e.g., “Desire is pain, … illness, … madness, … [with] the experiencer of [it being] an animal” [pp. 28-32]), although some desires are positive (“clean” or “healthy”; pp. 36-39). To me desire is neutral but it raises its negativity leading to “pessimism” when an optimistically cognitive belief in feminism against patriarchy is in opposition to bodily identification with some female celebrities’ “sexy” bodies, which I mentioned earlier.

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I remember exemplifying how to make a humorous introductory paragraph for an expository-argumentative essay in my Academic Writing course in the Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, last October 15th, 2010: The former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (a.k.a Gus Dur) once stated on a TV show hosted by Jaya Suprana that all Indonesian presidents have their own lunacy. To begin with, President Soekarno, our first president, was crazy about women. Soeharto, Soekarno’s successor, was crazy about wealth. The third president Habibie was crazy about developing airplanes. Regarding his own self, Gus Dur thought of himself as crazy indeed. The history goes on beyond Gus Dur. From my perspective, the next president, Megawati Soekarnoputri has her own craziness: she was crazy about shouting “Merdeka!” [Liberty!] in many of her speeches. Our present president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), has been deemed crazy about preserving his good image in front of the public. SBY may neither be a flamboyant playboy like Soekarno, nor an ardent treasurer hunt like Soeharto, nor a techno-mania like Habibie, nor a highly impulsive president like Gus Dur, nor a female president lavishing on “Liberty” shouting but very quiet in many occasions. Despite more than 60% support from the Indonesian people as confirmed by the 2009 direct presidential election, SBY has an obvious weakness: he has been too much concerned about his image. In this essay, I would like to discuss (1) in what ways SBY usually attempts to build and maintain his good image during his presidency since 2004 to date, (2) how his politics of image has failed him, and (3) what he should do in order to survive well until 2014.

My example is certainly not final. My students and I are still able to revise or edit this written discourse. In fact, I have edited the 15-October first draft. Anyway, my point is how readers of my paragraph are supposedly forced to get attracted to the humor shared among Indonesians before I become “serious” again as reflected in the last sentence – the “thesis statement” of the essay – where I try to be balanced: pessimistic about his persistent image-saving politics and optimistic about his presidency notwithstanding people’s vehement opposition to him. Besides that, exploring jokes relevant to the Indonesian context is oftentimes more meaningful, especially to our Indonesian students learning English, than if we use many Western humors. In so doing, I practice Janks’s (2010) call for “subversive attitudes” through jokes. This was not safe during Soeharto’s presidency but Gus Dur ever since he was still a president in

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1999 has set the tone for his people to make political satires in a fruitful – albeit controversial – manner.4

Pennycook’s critical applied linguistics: Pessimism and optimism in problematizing practices While Hillary Janks (2010) has shared her considerable optimism in the cognitively oriented domination-access-diversity-design framework and a hint of pessimism as well as optimism through humans’ emotional and bodily desires or pleasures, Alastair Pennycook (2004) implies such optimism-pessimism interface in some other subtle ways. Emphasizing on “problematizing practices” in Critical Applied Linguistics, he views things in a much more postmodernist way than that of Janks. In other words, problematizing practices are relatively more pessimistic, on the whole. However, it may be optimistic in some parts of their applications. Following Pennycook, the unfolding discussion will touch upon the goal, politics, theoretical bases, focus of analysis, and weaknesses of problematizing practices.

Engagement with difference: Pessimism about singleminded orthodoxy, optimism about diversity The goal of problematizing practices is “engagement with difference” (Pennycook, 2004, p. 798). The process of engaging educators with activities that celebrate diversity may be optimistically intriguing. However, Pennycook hints to the notion that educators are not pushy by imposing his own beliefs on students’ (or colleagues) lives from diverse racial, social, educational, or cultural backgrounds. This is certainly a pessimistic stance compared to “emancipators” from dogmatic (“conservative, evangelical”) Christians who are more (or too) optimistic in their agendas to convert the world from their one-sided perspective. But the degree of optimism is still there: Pennycook’s (and like-minded people’s) confidence in his/their good standing perceives righteousness as no so much as imposing one’s own beliefs than giving options for people to choose. Some other options are provided by politics that inspire problematizing practices.

4 And I do hope we are still able to enjoy this freedom of expression – thanks to the “Reformation Era” starting in 1998 – in many years to come in Indonesia.

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The case of feminism: Pessimism about naïve feminism, optimism about problematizing naïve feminism The politics of problematizing practices is enriched by “feminism, postcolonialism, queer theory, etc.” (Pennycook, 2004, p. 798) that somewhat optimistically challenge rigid patriarchy, colonialist mentality, and homophobia (extreme fear to homosexual people), among others. Let me focus on feminism here. Pessimism is shown by problematizing certain feminist frameworks that “approach men and women as… unitary groups” thus “obscur[ing] oppression in terms of class and race…” (Pavlenko, 2004, p. 54). Some feminists may be trapped in thinking of men as oppressors and women as the oppressed. While it may be true worldwide that a lot of women are oppressed by the patriarchal system, problematizing practices also encourage us to deconstruct an over-simplistic thinking that only women are oppressed and only men are the ultimate culprits. In reality, many men have been oppressed by women, either because wives are too dominant in their families that their husbands “shrink back” in trepidation or women are “mean” bosses in professional realms. Besides that, many women have been oppressed by fellow women. Recall how homemakers have tortured their maidservants physically or verbally, starting from a biblical story of Sarah and Hagar in the book of Genesis, not to mention Indonesian female workers abroad who are abused by housewives. Exploring how naïve feminism is critically deconstructed in a way boosts some degree of optimism for critical applied linguists who zealously yearn for constant problematizations.

Pessimism and optimism when dealing with postoccidentalism and anarcho-particularism Close to politics, the theoretical bases for Pennycook’s (2004) problematizing practices are “post-occidentalism” and “anarchoparticularism” (p. 798). The former is similar to postcolonialism in that it attempts to go beyond the “Western” or former colonialists’ biases in viewing the world. There is an optimistic turn to the “non-Western” world from Africa, Latin America, and many Asian countries. Regarding anarcho-particularism, Pennycook further elucidates that it keeps questioning what is meant and maintained by many of the everyday categories of applied linguistics – language, learning, communication, difference, context, text, culture, meaning, translation, writing, literacy,

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assessment – as well as categories of social critique – ideology, race, gender, class, and so on. (p. 800)

Similar to the politics of problematizing practices that deconstruct naïve feminism – an issue in gender, anarcho-particularism optimistically and vigorously addresses many questions regarding things listed by Pennycook above and beyond. For example, is democracy a panacea? Why democracy and not theocracy? Assuming democracy is used, whose definitions of democracy are we using in Indonesia? The “Western” or “Occidental” democracy? The Soekarno’s “Guided Democracy”? The Soeharto’s “Pancasila (Five national principles) Democracy”? These are anarchist and subversive questions, and one may wonder pessimistically if they are in any way useful to our language learners. Yes, when they are interested in exploring political issues. If not, anarchist thinking may be channeled through writing pensively in a language other than the students’ first language, just like what I am doing now, on issues they like to engage with, to be shared among themselves or to teachers who are committed to suspending harsh judgment and prejudice. This is how language teachers optimistically accommodate students’ pessimistic views of the world around them expressed in a foreign language like English. It all depends on them whether their pessimism may turn to optimism, when they find solutions to problems, or to more robust pessimism, when their optimism faces insurmountable hurdles that discourage them from continuing on being optimistic, especially when it comes to making a better world through emancipatory actions typically endorsed by “more traditional” Critical Pedagogy and Literacy. At this phase, we cannot force our students to keep their enthusiasm. At least, we have given them options to view the world more critically (or anarchically) and we have challenged them to share critical applied linguists’ optimistic passion in problematizing many of the givens or taken-for-granted things.

Pessimism and optimism implicated in discursive mapping: Janks revisited Focus of analysis in problematizing practices involves “[d]iscursive mapping, resistance and appropriation…” (Pennycook, 2004, p. 798). These concepts are not clearly explained by Pennycook himself in the article but let me clarify them from my understanding. Discursive mapping may mean making tentative maps of critical issues. The mapping is sketched out individually or collaboratively in such a way that a sense of coherence (or logical flows) can be apparent. Janks’s (2010) domination-

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access-diversity-design interdependent theory may be a good framework for such discursive mapping, especially if it is synthesized with Paulo Freire’s (1970) notion of thematic inquiries that allow dialogs between learning participants (be it labeled as “lecturers” or “students”) to discuss issues of oppressions mediated or triggered by a picture, for example. In one session of my elective course Critical Pedagogy in English Language Teaching last September 2010, I gave a picture of four smiling dark-skinned boys of African descent in their funky clothing, typical of middle-class status. One boy, second from the left, holds a bowl of food, with the bowl representing the alphabet “O”. The first boy on the very left holds a tray with a letter “H” on it. Two other boys display “P” and “E” on their trays. Altogether, a word emerges: HOPE. Under the picture of boys are captions that read: “When you fill their cup, you don’t just fill their belly; You fill their mind and feed their future”. The ad was designed by the World Food Programme, with a slogan “fill the cup” inside a circular logo embellished by a picture of red cup. Under the logo is another slogan: Fighting Hunger Worldwide (see the last page before the back cover of the Newsweek magazine, 24 & 31 May 2010 edition). After explaining Janks’s (2010) fourfold theory, I asked them to read the picture to find issues of domination, access, diversity, and design. When talking about domination, students were relatively pessimistic. They began to be more aware of social classes that divide societies of the world, e.g., “the haves” as the dominant group vs. the “have-nots” that often are at the mercy of the affluent through humanitarian aids. It is necessary that poor children, presumably represented by the four boys in the picture, can taste a better life through access to more quality education, for instance. Regarding diversity, many students of mine lambasted the design for it degrades the black people. They rightly suggested that not only children of African descent who suffer from hunger and poverty. Therefore, in terms of design, they recommended that children of various ethnicities and of a different sex (girls) should have been represented in the picture. Designing is an optimistic process, whereas discussing domination only often restricts students to pessimism. A balanced mixture of optimism and pessimism is arguably acceptable and discursive mapping allows this to happen. The above example of applying Freire’s (1970) and Janks’s (2010) to do discursive mapping in my class also makes it possible to incorporate issues of resistance (i.e., resisting domination and diversity

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blindness) and appropriation (e.g., appropriating access to a better life through education), plus re-design.5

Pessimism and optimism through the “weaknesses” of problematizing practises With regard to their weaknesses, Pennycook (2004) mentions that problematizing practices run the risk of “[p]ossible relativism, irrealism, and over-emphasis on discourse” (p. 798). Regarding irrealism, Mautner (2001) elucidates that it is a theory that repudiates “the idea of an objective reality and of the idea of truth” (p. 284). Inherent in irrealism is hence postmodernist pessimism that paradoxically adores relativism in an optimistic way. In my opinion, relativism is not an omen which critical applied linguistics should fear too much. In fact, relativism allows flexibility. Discursive mapping is so adaptable that not only theories of Freire plus Janks but also other critically inclined scholars who may enrich our ways of critically viewing the world. I understand that relativism and irrealism may lead scholars, educators, and students to pessimism, thanks to the tendency of criticizing anything taken-for-granted, making almost if not all things relative, that they lose sight of an overarching (and optimistic) vision to transform the world. Put another way, without an optimistic vision, anarcho-particularism may end up with compartmentalized problematizing practices that have no clear-sighted future for a greater good of humanity. It is my contention, however, that optimistic visions are still possible and safer at an individual level; otherwise, the tendency of imposing one’s values on others is too great to avoid. If personal values are at all shared, it is up to those who listen to or read the values to accept or reject them. Those who accept our views may collectively work on the same vision (let’s say, Communicative Language Teaching/CLT), but ideally we do not oblige others to not have the same vision to think and act like us. Even when at the same group of CLT believers differ in their views, relativism is appropriate because it is not about “right” or “wrong” but which side (e.g., Jack C. Richard’s [2003] version of CLT and Sandra

5

Regarding design, one group in my Critical Pedagogy in English Language Teaching wrote: “Things that we’re going to change from the advertisements are [a] change the picture – includes other ethnicities in the picture portrays the real conditions world wide. [b] The contradiction between the picture of the children and the message of the ads – The kids picture state of happiness but the message conveys such deep sorrow” (copied verbatim).

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J. Savignon’s [1997] version of CLT)6 is believed by each individual, regardless of which CLT version, to have more plausibility to the individual. To compensate the irrealist determinism, relativism provides some room for individuals with optimistic visions to transform the world to relativize absolute relativism. Once relativism is negated by relativism, individuals doing problematizing practices like me are free to optimistically believe in reality considered to be “objective” or “true”. And those irrealists rejecting my individual belief in “objective” or “true” reality (of God, for example) mean they have absolutized their irrealism, which contradicts the very irrealism they are supposed to respect: no absolutism. Notwithstanding my individual stance, optimism does not necessarily correlate with certainty. Optimistic people often encounter uncertainty but with hope they persevere to venture into uncharted lands and waters. Nevertheless, optimism in “emancipatory modernism”, as shown in (Neo-)Marxist critical theory, is too certain about its belief in “its own rightness… that an adequate critique of social and political inequality can lead to an alternative reality” (Pennycook, 2004, p. 800). Citing Widdowson, Pennycook states that such a belief in “its own rightness” has made emancipatory modernists “ideologically committed to a single perspective”. As a Christian involved in problematizing practices, I will be trapped in emancipatory modernism if I impose my Christianity on others interacting or working with me. As I said earlier, I may be optimistic about my personal belief, but I would rather keep it for myself unless others are willing to listen to (and follow) my Christian values. In language studies, over-optimism about one perspective is more debilitating than empowering. For instance, Pavlenko (2004, p. 66), citing Abu Odeh’s study in the Arab world, rejects occidental (and a biased) view of feminism. Whereas for Americans wearing Western attire makes non-American people (especially women in Arab cities) look “civilized”, “empowered”, and “feminine”, such attire only subjected Arabic women to more rampant sexual harassment. Reverting to traditional Islamic dress with a veil successfully prevented Arabic women from sexual harassment. While Americans may view feminism as women’s individual freedom to wear anything they desire to show their existence, such a view falls flat in the Arab world. More at issue there is that feminism means no or minimal sexual harassment, even at the expense of relegating individual freedom so much idolized in the Western world. In essence, Arab feminism has led Arabic women to live more optimistically.

6

Interestingly, they do not cite each other’s works.

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Another kind of over-optimism is shown by many (applied) linguists often labeled as Western, including those from the Eastern world adopting Western values, who put their excessive trust in the Standard English. It is true that mastering some degree of the “standard” English may empower speakers whose first language is not English because their voice(s) will be more attended and listened to by advanced English users worldwide, “native” or “nonnative”7 (see Mambu, 2010, chapter 4). Starfield (2004) in her introduction to concordancing for students completing their Ph.D. dissertation in Australia avows the benefit of concordancing (cf. corpus linguistics). Informed by concordance outputs showing how advanced English users in a corpus compiled by Thurstun and Candlin (as cited in Starfield) construct their arguments, these students learned how to experiment with using certain expressions often appearing in the corpus (e.g., “according to”, “suggest”, “claim”, “my research is also concerned with…”, “considerable attention has been paid to…”, and “this section attempts to challenge the underlying assumption that…”) that allowed them to profess academic authority more convincingly (pp. 152-153). If Starfield stops here, she would have perpetuated the dominant role of the “standard” English. Her own article is limited to her findings of how the “standard” English has empowered Ph.D. students participating in her study. Fortunately, she seems to be aware of the issue of identity apart from “native”-oriented corpus construction. She aptly contends: “The constitution of the corpus… raises broader and more critical questions as to who counts as legitimate speakers of the language and of who has not only the right to speak, but the right to be heard…” (p. 147, italics added). By saying so, Starfield implies that over-optimism to “native”-oriented corpus of English overlooks how English is appropriated by its users worldwide. Pennycook (2007) has extensively exemplified hip-hop lyrics from Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan that blend English and local languages in highly creative ways that international intelligibility often ensured by mastery of the “standard” English is not at all the issue. Let me use an Indonesian rapper Saykoji’s hip-hop excerpted lyrics of his composed song Copy My Style (downloaded from http://lirik.kapanlagi. com/artis/saykoji/copy_my_style_%2528english_version%2529, November 2, 2010):

7

Double quotation marks indicate my reservation about the terms. McKay (2002) asserts: “… it is foolish to accept the construct of native speaker as a model of competence” (p. 31, emphasis added).

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Some words were changed but the rest he keep it “Make lirik persis cuman diubah dikit” (using very similar lyrics, only some have been changed) is not at all an English sentence. But it is all fine in its own right because Saykoji tried to maintain the rhyme “it” for his last two lines (… diubah dikit / … he keep it). I believe Many English “native” speakers (or orthodox [applied] linguistics) may be pessimistic about upgrading hiphop lyrics such as this to be legitimate English. Scholars like Pennycook, at least, will probably agree with me to constitute another set of corpus comprising (inter)national hip-hop lyrics which will allow critical applied linguists to optimistically appreciate hip-hoppers’ rights to be heard, free from prejudice and linguistic or cultural discrimination from the so-called English “native” speakers. In addition to relativism and irrealism, Pennycook (2004) laments over the limitation of problematizing practices as overemphasizing on discourse. Probably he is aware of postmodernist/poststructuralist tendency of problematizing practices which imply “discourse determinism”, analogous to the traditional Marxist critical theory on “economic determinism”. Whereas economic determinism seems to oversimplify social relations in terms of class struggles between the capitalist class and the proletariat class, discourse determinism appears to position discourse above individuality/subjectivity. Citing Burkitt’s idea, Vitanova (2005) implies that Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory – which shares a similar interest in discourse, just like poststructuralism – addresses Pennycook’s (2004) concern: “While in poststructuralism discourses position individuals, in Bakhtin’s framework ‘individuals actively use speech genres [i.e., discourse] to orient themselves in their relationships and interactions’” (p. 153, italics original). From my view, then, Bakhtin is optimistic about selfhood or self-agency’s role in shaping discourse, while at the same time also admits the strong influence of discourse on individuality. Different from discourse determinism about which Pennycook is worried, Bakhtin allows us to delve into self-other interface in discourse, especially the self’s role in assuming an authorial role in discourse. Vitanova’s (2005) concern on “authoring the self in a non-native language” in view of Bakhtin (1981) who has paved the theoretical ways to analyze voice through self is likely to be followed up in many Indonesian contexts. Scant attention has been paid to the role of Indonesian EFL teachers and learners in optimistically initiating social transformation through English language teaching, learning and use.

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Furthermore, if discourse is understood only from the linguistic perspective as something beyond sentence or clause levels but limited to verbalized texts (written or oral), then I might be pessimistic about overemphasis on such linguistically oriented discourse. On the contrary, problematizing practices in critical applied linguistics have actually opened up a plethora of ways to (1) ask discourse-related questions pertaining to identity, sexuality, power/domination and its impact, access, diversity, and design, among others (p. 803; see also Blommaert, 2005; Janks, 2010), and (2) envision real actions (e.g., to eliminate poverty in a certain rural area) based on reflections on the aforementioned discourserelated questions. Attention to discourse per se is certainly not enough but removing it altogether and jumping to real actions without discursive talks/mapping is nonsense (cf. Freire, 1970). Uncertainties due to ever-increasing discourserelated questions may be fearsome and overwhelming, and raise pessimism as well as skepticism, but they may also enhance optimism. We never know how to do noble deeds without raising discourse-related questions. I understand that a seemingly noble intention is often masked by a hidden agenda of becoming famous or other motives. Nonetheless, too much worrying or pessimism about people’s insincerity will only discourage us from doing good things. Optimism forces us to think of better questions to solve problems, not only to pose problems.

Final Remarks At the cognitive level, optimism that attempts to save the world through emancipation or empowerment as often perceived through a modern, Western lens has been challenged by postmodern-problematizing pessimism about one-sided modernistic perspective. But postmodernism has its own optimism: that it keeps questioning and problematizing. Likewise, some modernists have their own reservations (pessimism) about problematization. As postmodernists pose more problems, modernists attempt to reduce problems, often under the guise of solving problems, and oversimplifying them. However, absent from modernists’ attention are the struggles encountered by the marginalized groups in order to alleviate hunger and poverty, for instance. The modernists believe that humanitarian aid like exemplified above by the ad on the Newsweek magazine will overall suffice to address poverty, whereas the problem of poverty alleviation is not that simple. Through postmodern-problematizing practices, we are driven to think of more problematic issues revolving around poverty, especially through discursive mapping suggested by Pennycook

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(2004), facilitated by Janks’s (2010) domination-design-diversity-design framework, and Freire’s (1970) notion of thematic investigation. In turn, optimistically we hope that posing problems will lead us to address problems in more prudent and comprehensive ways than simply using one perspective (e.g., of feminism and of native-speakerism) to solve problems. However, emotional and bodily desires are very likely to problematize cognitive optimism. While to some people bodily desires should obey cognitive logic and will, some decide to get carried away with emotions and bodily desires. Extending Pennycook’s (2004) discussion on problematizing practices, I find it worthwhile to ask if we will ever question the taken-for-granted superiority of rational (or even spiritual logic) over emotional and bodily desires, including sexual drives. This question may make some devout Christians or other religious people attempting to embrace postmodern-problematization pessimistic about addressing it, lambasting it “sinful”. In fact, Pennycook (2007) ushers in controversial transgressivity: “without transgression of boundaries there is neither thought nor pleasure” (p. 41). Further he contends that “thought and desire are intertwined in ways that rationalist philosophies of mind cannot account for”. Transgressive philosophies optimistically collapse the dichotomy between rational thought and desire/pleasure or jouissance in French, thus presumably disregarding the religious notion of “sinfulness” activated by “carnality”. Can religious people be transgressive applied linguists, then? To me as a Christian, my transgressivity is my personal, optimistic pleasure in apologetics, i.e., using my Christian logic to problematize Pennycook’s own transgressivity that apparently casts doubt on (or pessimism about) sinfulness due to carnality. At a “more neutral” plane than spirituality are jokes (see again my paragraph on the six Indonesian presidents’ craziness) that merge cognition and pleasure to be pessimistic and/or optimistic. Recall as well how hidden motives (e.g., for free and yet pretentious publicity) are not in line with the sincere spirit of noble intentions to alleviate poverty and have pushed the limit of problematizing practices from the cognitively rational domain to the bodily realm. And what do people do when rational optimism clashes with bodily desires which in turn degrade optimism to mere pessimism? Perhaps as a starting point we need to inquire into linguistic strategies people use when they shift from rational optimism to pessimism, thanks to their bodily desires. Again, this agenda emphasizes on discourse; and so are analyses on ironies that take on both optimism and pessimism in literary works and non-fictitious narratives I mentioned earlier when discussing Janks’s (2010) ideas.

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Central to these discourse-initiated inquiries are problematizing practices: rationalist as well as transgressive philosophies have their own optimism and pessimism. These philosophies may be incompatible in many ways but from the core spirit of problematizing practices, people belonging to any school of thoughts are challenged to identify limits of their own and others’ beliefs or practices. For example, rationalist Christians and non-Christian transgressive philosophers alike can be pessimistic about many Christians’ “fossilized” homophobia, but together they can be optimistic about educating young people regardless of their religions to nurture healthy relationships with people with distinctive sexual orientations. Accordingly, narratives of how heterosexual and homosexual people in Indonesia interact with each other need to be collected. Close discourse scrutiny on their conversations, given that we obtain ethical consents from parties concerned, awaits our attention: how homosexual people conceal or disclose their sexual orientations; how heterosexual people feel awkward or at ease when talking to homosexual people; how heterosexual people take delight in mocking homosexual people; how critical educators address such mockery with homophobic students in classroom discourse. To this extent (of raising these new questions), I feel some sense of optimism, using some sort of “pessimistic, postmodern” transgressivity – notwithstanding (or in essence owing to) some degree of my “optimistic” Christianity8, a religion commonly associated with “rationalist modernism” believing in “progressivity” rather than “transgressivity”. All in all, I do not personally yearn for absolute pessimism – or “radical pessimism” which is prone to “pragmatic paradox: if everything is as hopeless as the radical pessimist thinks, what good can he [sic] hope to achieve by publishing his [sic] views optimistically?” (Mautner, 2000, p. 419, emphases added). To me postmodern pessimism only ignites more insights into addressing a plethora of perspectives not necessarily in agreement with each other in more critical and optimistic ways. As Hargreaves (2006) puts it nicely: “Postmodernism and post-structuralism also lent critical theory greater openness and complexity, acknowledging other significant sources of inequality and injustice as well as social class – especially race, gender, sexual orientation and disability” (p. xvii). 8

Crookes (2009) recently admits that “[d]iscussions of spirituality or religion in TESOL… have been… looked on with extreme skepticism…” (p. 26). My optimism is to challenge such skepticism and I contend that religion is one source of ideas for “a philosophy of teaching” (p. 1). Edited articles compiled in Wong and Canagajah (2009) contain (dis)agreement with whether and how spiritual values transpire in language classrooms.

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Finally, I concur with Waite, Waite, and Fillion (2006): “Lest we come off as too nihilistic, too negative, we must acknowledge that, at heart and as [critical] educators, we truly kindle the spark of hope and optimism in our souls” (p. 142).

References Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press. Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crookes, G. (2009). Values, philosophies, and beliefs in TESOL: Making a statement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Deignan, A. (1997). Metaphors of desire. In K. Harvey & C. Shalom (Eds.), Language and desire (pp. 21-42). London and New York: Routledge. Dostoyevsky, F. (1972). Notes from underground and The double (J. Coulson, Trans.). London: Penguin Books. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). New York: Continuum. Giroux, H. (1983). Theory and resistance in education: A pedagogy for the opposition. New York: Bergin & Garvey. Hargreaves, A. (2006). Foreword. In K. Cooper & R. White (Eds.), The practical critical educator: Critical inquiry and educational practice (pp. xv-xviii). Dordrecht: Springer. Janks, H. (2010). Literacy and power. London and New York: Routledge. Kanpol, B. (1999). Critical pedagogy: An introduction. Westport: Bergin & Garvey. Lin, A. M. Y. (1999). Doing-English-Lessons in the Reproduction or Transformation of Social Worlds? TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 393-412. Mautner, T. (2000). Dictionary of philosophy (4th ed.). London: Penguin Books. Mambu, J. E. (2009). Polyphonic discourse in Indonesian conversion narratives. Salatiga: Widya Sari Press. —. (2010). Personalizing critical pedagogies in foreign language education. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University Press. McKay, S. L. (2002). Teaching English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pavlenko, A. (2004). Gender and sexuality in foreign and second language education: Critical and feminist approaches. In B. Norton & K. Toohey

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(Eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 53-71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pennycook, A. (2004). Critical Applied Linguistics. In A. Davies & C. Elder (Eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 784-807). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. —. (2007). Global Englishes and transcultural flows. London and New York: Routledge. Richards, J. C. (2003). Communicative Language Teaching today. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Savignon, S. J. (1997). Communicative competence: Theory and classroom practice (2nd ed.). New York: The McGraw Hill-Companies, Inc. Starfield, S. (2004). “Why does this feel empowering?”: Thesis writing, concordancing, and the corporatizing. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 138-157). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vitanova, G. (2005). Authoring the self in a non-native language: A dialogic approach to agency and subjectivity. In J. K. Hall, G. Vitanova, & L. Marchenkova (Eds.), Dialogue with Bakhtin on second and foreign language learning: New perspectives (pp. 149-169). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Waite, D., Waite, S., & Fillion, S. (2006). Duplicity, democracy, and domesticity: Educational leadership for democratic action. In K. Cooper & R. White (Eds.), The practical critical educator: Critical inquiry and educational practice (pp. 137-150). Dordrecht: Springer. Wong, M. S., & Canagarajah, S. (Eds.). (2009). Christian and critical English language educators in dialogue: Pedagogical and ethical dilemmas. London and New York: Routledge.

CONTRIBUTORS Alan Maley Jayakaran Mukundan Universitas Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Anealka Aziz Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia Christine Manara Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia Hendro Setiawan Husada Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia Joseph Ernest Mambu Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia Lanny Kristono Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia Nugrahenny T. Zacharias Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia Parlindungan Pardede Universitas Kristen Indonesia, Indonesia Purwanti Kusumaningtyas Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia Roby Marlina Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia

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Vishnu S. Rai Department of English Education, Tribhuvan University, Nepal Yuli Christiana Yoedo Faculty of Letters, Petra Christian University, Indonesia