Week 13: Multilingualism, World Englishes

Kubota and Ward's article "Exploring linguistic diversity through World Englishes" is a useful resource to start teaching students the importance of learning about diversity and the word "Standard English". We all come from different linguistic backgrounds, have different accents, and should respect each other as members of the community. I liked how the unit was composed of different topics and learning materials. The word "World Englishes" is composed of different accents and dialects of the English language around the world. I don't think there is a single person that has the same accents/dialect as another person. There is always linguistics differences because everyone has different linguistic backgrounds. This article reminds me of the movie "American Tongues" which is a real eye-opening movie about different accents and dialects of native speakers of English within the US. There are different linguistic accents between non-native speakers and native speakers of English, but there is also differences in accents within a single community of native speakers of English. It is so important to realize that we all come from different linguistic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, and we should respect each other and learn from each other as well. In chapter 3 of Mckay's book, she talks about multilingual societies and diglossia mainly comparing India and South Africa. Diglossia simbolizes "a community where two or more varieties of the same language have different roles to play in society", such as for school purposes and informal situations. English language learning is supported by various official language-in-education policies that make it the main language to learn. The main incentives to learn English are for the purposes of citizenship, and social and economic interaction. It is necessary to maintain the mother tongue as well as designing English learning environments that support bilingualism. Students should be aware of the importance of bilingualism (keeping their own native language as well as learning English). Farr and Song explains the importance of negotiating language education in local contexts to appropriately serve our learners. They discuss the bottom up and top down processes and how they play a part of adjusting the policies for various groups of people. We need to show appreciation for all types of languages when teaching language inside and outside of class. We want our students to become knowledgeable about other languages and cultures. They also mention that language education policies can intervene with research findings. Overall, these readings helped me become more aware on the importance of bilingualism and multilingualism in the classroom. We need to teach the importance of both and embrace it in the classroom.