Dear Dr.
Pennycook,
My name is Juanito de Los Palotes and I’m a teacher of English in XXXXX, province of XXXXX. I’m a very
enthusiastic professional about the teaching of English and I teach at the primary
and secondary school levels.
The place I live
in is very isolated, and I have very few resources to work with, but my
students are very interested in learning about new language and cultures, so I
try to do my best to help them in this endeavor. Despite the fact that in the
place where I live it is very difficult to buy any instructional materials or
to access the most updated research on the teaching of languages, I try to keep
in touch with some of the professors at the nearby University of XXXXX, located
in Cercadenada, the capital of my province, who provide me with copies of your articles and
books. I really admire the work you do and your view on the teaching of
English. I believe learning a language is much more than mastering a code and I’m
convinced that critical perspectives on language teaching are the only way to
promote our students’ awareness and engagement in social change.
However, the
reason I’m writing to you is that I’ve been facing a lot of frustration lately.
I’ve tried to incorporate a critical perspective on the teaching of English to
my students and I believe I have done so with moderate success. Even though I
have found this to be a very big challenge, and the fact that doing so has put
me through a personal struggle in order to abandon dominant discourses in my
own view of language and learning, I believe I have succeeded – at least
partially – in helping my students become aware and engaged in processes of
social changes in my community. I have been able to bring into the classroom
issues related to the ways English has come to be a dominant language in the
world as well as the consequences of this phenomenon in our country and even in
our village. Through this many of my pupils have learned about the history of
our country, how it has been continually oppressed by outside forces and the consequences of this oppression. Many
of my students have become interested in these topics, but I have to say I have
been facing lots of difficulties in this approach.
For example, one
of my students in 11th grade has decided that she no longer wants to
learn English. She argues that learning
English is no longer relevant for her. She says that she doesn’t want to perpetuate
the dominance of this language. She even stated that she didn’t understand why
she had to learn English, the language of the oppressors, to fight their
oppression. She told me she considered this to be a paradox. She believes that
she should concentrate all her efforts in transforming the harsh realities of
our community and that to do so, her native language was more than enough.
This, of course, is a big issue, since all my students need to take an English
test at the end of the year, and my job is very much contingent on the
performance of my students in this exam. She does come to my class, but refuses
to do any tasks. To my luck, this has
been the case of only one student.
However, there
is another big concern which is the main reason of my letter. Despite the
paramount importance of your proposal, I have found almost none references to
how this pedagogy can benefit the actual learning of the language. Clearly, my
students have become aware of the power of language, but unfortunately, this
has served me little in having them learn the language itself. I’m not saying
we shouldn’t adopt the pedagogy you propose, I’m just saying I would love to find
ways of how we, teachers, can help our students to learn English as much as
about English. I hope you understand this is also my responsibility. I understand that I need to figure this out
for my own community of learners and should draw on my own expertise, but any kind of help would be much
appreciated. I’m sure your experience can help me and many more teachers comprehend this
a little bit more. Throughout my career I have had very few success experiences
in terms of my students becoming fluent English speakers and I would like that
to change.
Finally, I just
want to thank you for taking the time to read this and I really do hope you can
answer me back or have one of your assistants do so. I have received an offer
from the principal of my school to become a social science teacher and, as much
as I would like to do that (in part because of you eye-opening articles), I am
sure I can find ways to balance my classes in a way that they are
socially-engaging pedagogy as well as a language learning experience.
Sincerely yours,
Juan Pérez.
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