Internalization of English in the Curriculum - Essay Example

? Indigenous People and Cultures The English usage and curriculum has received little contestation and criticism from the colonial era, but with the current somewhat re-colonization period, both teacher and education bodies are becoming more aware of the language as a status of distribution and control of intellectual and social capital. The world over, English is receiving embracement as the formal, official, and instructional language in the day-to-day instruction language by most non-governmental organizations and governmental organizations by education policy bodies, learners, learning institutions, and political bureaucrats. The internationalization of the English language is the most powerful tool for ruling the world that has taken universal and homogenous mandates. A section of critiques and writers of postcolonial literature like Fairclough, Jenkins, McLaren, and Lankshear, among others, argue that the English language curriculum, especially in Aboriginal schools, needs critical studies and reforms as the current imposition and usage reflect the colonial relations (Clarence and Renshaw, 2009). With reference to the Aboriginal communities and the English language, there have been numerous schools of thoughts and ideologies that require an in-depth study and reform of the current English curriculum. From a personal perspective, the education system is becoming more based on policy prescription and arbitrary then being real. With emphasis to English teachers, the latter have had to widen their views and perceptions regarding the English study. Similar to other educational institutions, teachers are continuously changing roles from dispensing of knowledge to facilitating learning and aiding acquisition of knowledge by students. The wider teaching practices in New South Wales Higher School Certificate seem to be limited to examination prosperity (Alberta Education). Much less is done to extend the gained knowledge from prescribed texts into exploring the ways in which texts depicts interpretation and reading positions in the world around them. In addition, these texts further marginalize and subjugate indigenous and aboriginal literature and language (Garcia and Kleifgen, 2010). The basis of the critique will be the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training reform initiative, with the Quality Teaching pedagogy that incorporates the three dimensions of Significance, Intellectual learning, and quality learning environment. An analysis and critique of the current (postcolonial) English curriculum requires a presentation and review of the works of some English curriculum specialists in indigenous Australia in order to justify the critique approach and highlight the fact that the English curriculum needs to be reformed. The focus of the critique are the numerous suggestion presented in Australia and other countries that host aboriginal communities by these writers and other researchers. Among the notable writers and researchers, include Lankshear and his argument that the goal of literacy is to pursue and achieve a universal literate population that employs literacy in the persuasion of their economic, social, and cultural purposes (Hooley, 2009). According to Green, another researcher, the review of the available rhetoric meanings is fundamental in an English class. The argument behind his observation is that the English language has a cultural construction, thus its form has different meanings to the users. The arguments of Green follow the knowledge that people acquire linguistic skills through the first language and its dialect, and that these dialects are transferrable to the second language easily (Clarence and Renshaw, 2009). To understand the above concept, there is need to understand the Aboriginal English. According to Aboriginal English researchers, the language is linguistically complex, has a cultural embedding, follows rule governance, and is widely acknowledged by most teachers, regardless of the fact they do not know the exact form of the English language nor the people who speak it (Garcia and Kleifgen, 2010). The structure of the aboriginal English consists of four major elements: phonology (the sound system), pragmatics (the usage of the language), morpho-syntax (the grammar), lexico-semantics (meanings), and Para-linguistics. It is worth noting here that some vowels in the aboriginal English vary with those of the standard South American English. The manner in which students from the aboriginal communities develop phonemic awareness largely depends on their cultural and traditional sound system. The effect of this phenomenon results in differences in syllables and spelling, like butli to mean butterfly and catpulu to mean caterpillar. Another negative effect is that of different word meaning, an example being the word deadly in aboriginal English to mean good or fantastic in SAE, and gammon to mean a lie or a joke. Another important difference is the lack of auxiliary verbs and the format of the question in aboriginal English, as well as the gratuitous concurrence and long durations of silence (Alberta Education). Shifting focus to the numeracy in the aboriginal English, questions of measurement, quantities, and time often prompt answers in terms of events, people, and places. So, in a typical question requiring an aboriginal student to answer the number of people present in a given gathering, the student will tend to give out the names of the people in the gathering using their name rather than their numerical count. In such a case scenario, the teacher is the determinant to how correct the answer is. In the instance that the teacher aims to gauge the level of comprehension of the student, then the aboriginal student is correct (Russell and Loughran, 2007). On the other hand, the student is wrong given that the teacher is only interested in the number of people in the gathering. This is where the cultural factor debut. The aboriginal student is culturally correct, concerning the cultural effect, but incorrect as far as the current English curriculum is concerned. Green further points out that the change in classroom practice will continue to change in order to reflect the concerns. The changes, which are socially critical and student-centered, require a curriculum that permits a sense of co-existence with the traditional English goals and contents. Another critique worth mentioning is Farrell on his input to the Board of Studies NSW English syllabus. According to Farrell, students must learn to assume the conventional and socially acceptable acting and thinking that occur naturally to individuals in a given discourse (Hooley, 2009). Farrell reiterates that culture and language have a discursive and complex relationship. Discursive practice suffers influence of culture, and discursive culture further affects the cultures that it meets. The teaching of mainstream values and practices only entrenches a section of the discursive practices and marginalizes other (Killen, 2006). With the role of an English class teacher, the critical discourse analysis would be a good framework for establishing, salvaging, and renewing the threat to extinction of aboriginal literature and language. There are several forms of literacy in the indigenous context that needs embedding with the current English literacy tests. These include inspirational and environmental literalism. Inspirational literacy concerns the transfer of meaning of ideas, thoughts, messages, educational facts, warnings, and such into a de-contextualized and tangible form and which the intended audience can understand pragmatically. In the western cultures, these literacy displays as interpreted as a form of art. These forms of inspirational literacy often take an aesthetic character of beautiful color, design, and texture. This fact does not make them any less ‘literate’. In addition, these presentations pose a narrative description, even with the lack of syllables and phonemics (Killen, 2006). Among the examples of this form of literacy, include stencils, body paints, body marking, message sticks, symbolic painting, and charcoal drawing, carvings of wood, rocks, and trees, and soil etching (Anderson, 2009). Some critics may argue that these forms of literacy are primitive or maybe crude, but we use such signs in our own so-pure South American English in displaying ‘exit’ signs in buildings. The second form of indigenous literacy is environmental literacy. Most aboriginal communities in the past and a portion in the present exhibit their environmental literacy through the ability to read the environment for important elements of life. For instance, some people use the sun for the season and time, others read the environment to determine the availability of water, food, and the likes, while others use landmarks for tracking or tracing in the bush, scrub, sand, and many other examples (Anderson, 2009). The current literacy tests thus do not necessarily reflect a lack or deficit of the English language skills. Considering the knowledge required obtaining environmental and inspirational literacy, an individual must poses important elements of perseverance, patience, imagination, self-discipline, analysis, concentration, and mind and body stealth (Kanu, 2011). Formal and informal means in the process of social practices in the day-to-day enable the acquisition of these skills and elements. Referring back to the NSW Quality Teaching pedagogy, the system emphasizes the teaching methods that improve the outcomes of student learning. The model has three dimensions that consist of six elements each (KBE, 2006). The intellectual quality dimension focuses on the production of deeper understanding substantive, important ideologies, concepts, and skills. This dimension of the pedagogy views knowledge as something that requires active construction, and higher-level thinking in order for students to present substantively what they learn. The six elements of this dimension include meta-language, deep knowledge, deep understanding, substantive communication, problematic knowledge, and higher-order thinking. The second dimension of the QT pedagogy is quality-learning environment. This dimension focuses on the creation of a classroom where teachers and students can work productively surrounded by an environment that encourages learning (Russell and Loughran, 2007). This dimension helps establish a positive relationship between students and teachers through the setting of explicit and high expectations between the two concern groups. The six elements of this dimension include student direction, engagement, social support, explicit quality criteria, high expectations, and students’ self-regulation. The last dimension of the pedagogy is significance, whose chief focus is the meaningful and importance of learning to students. The dimension makes connection between the various ways of knowing and cultural perspectives and out-of-class contexts with the students’ prior identities and knowledge (Mesthrie, Swann and Deumert, 2009). The elements in this dimension include cultural knowledge, inclusivity, background knowledge, narrative, correctness, and knowledge integration. The QT pedagogy clearly identifies the errors of the current English curriculum through contrast analysis. The position of a class teacher requires an individual to identify patterns for students in varying circumstances, and the collective patterns exhibited by more than one student (Mesthrie, Swann and Deumert, 2009). This enables a teacher to come up with strategies for student learning, which include, but not limited to the following. The teacher should be able to address complex and important issues affecting the quality-learning environment of the students. Some of these issues, especially in an English class, include cultural and language issues. A prime example is giving out the number of ways in which a task is done or the ways in which something may be said, but stating the correct way of doing or saying that thing in the classroom. This method of teaching shows acknowledgement of the other ways of learning (with emphasis to the aboriginal community) but stresses on the classroom way of learning. In this manner, an indigenous student is able to comprehend the difference and acknowledge the acceptable way of learning (KBE, 2006). At all instances, the teacher should be able to explain clearly the reasons behind the proposed way or language of carrying out a given task. Another important concern is to explain the purpose of everything to the aboriginal students. The students need to understand why learning is important, especially why learning the classroom English is important. The main reasons to such a question would be that the ways and language of the classroom are the ways and language of the work place. For effective learning of the aboriginal English students, incorporation of the aboriginal English into the class curriculum is necessary. The cultural and background influence of the aboriginal students cannot be omitted instantly and may require a deeper understanding (Kanu, 2011). Incorporating the elements of aboriginal English to the classroom curriculum will effectively make the students gain interest in learning the classroom English, and possibly enable them to differentiate the circumstance with which to use each language. References Alberta Education. Learning Strategies for Aboriginal students: Opportunities to Make Learning Meaningful. Retrieved on Jan 01, 2012, from http://education.alberta.ca/media/307128/o06.pdf Anderson, J. (2009). Portraits of Literacy Across Families, Communities, and Schools: Intersections and Tensions. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Clarence, C., and Renshaw, P. (2009). Reforming Learning: Concepts, Issues, and Practice in the Asia-Pacific Region. New York: Springer. Garcia, O., and Kleifgen, J. (2010). Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for English Language Learners. New York: Teachers College Press. Hooley, N. (2009). Narrative Life: Democratic Curriculum and Indigenous Learning. New York: Springer. Kainai Board of Education. (2006). Aboriginal Perspectives. Teacher Resource. Edmonton AB: Duval House Publishing. Kanu, Y. (2011). Integrating Aboriginal Perspectives into the School Curriculum: Purposes, Possibilities, and Challenges. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Killen, R. (2006). Effective Teaching Strategies. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A., and Leap, W. (2009). Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Russell, T. and Loughran, J. (2007). Enacting a Pedagogy of Teacher Education: Values, Relationships, and Practices. New York: Routledge. Read More