English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
English Language Teaching in its Social Context
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~ orwhatassignments,LANGUAGE FOR TEACHING A LANGUAGE 253<strong>in</strong> relation to the learn<strong>in</strong>g of written as well as spoken <strong>English</strong>, and is well illustrated by theresearch ofAlex Moore (1 995) who studied the progress of children of non-<strong>English</strong> speak<strong>in</strong>gimmigrant families enter<strong>in</strong>g secondary schools <strong>in</strong> Brita<strong>in</strong>.Because of his close and cont<strong>in</strong>uous <strong>in</strong>volvement <strong>in</strong> classroom events as a k<strong>in</strong>d of ‘actionresearcher’ (Elliot, 1991), Moore was able to observe, describe and analyse teach<strong>in</strong>g andlearn<strong>in</strong>g over several weeks or months <strong>in</strong> one class. One of his special ‘case studies’ was ofthe progress of a Sylheti boy of 15 who had been <strong>in</strong> Brita<strong>in</strong> one year s<strong>in</strong>ce com<strong>in</strong>g fromBangladesh (where he had been educated <strong>in</strong> Bengali). Moore focused on Mashud’s classroomeducation <strong>in</strong> writ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>English</strong>. Mashud had quite a few problems with ‘surface features’ of<strong>English</strong> such as handwrit<strong>in</strong>g, spell<strong>in</strong>g and grammatical structures, but was an enthusiasticwriter. However, Moore and Mashud’s teacher (Mrs Montgomery) both noticed that:his work had a particular idiosyncrasy <strong>in</strong> that whenever he was set creative writ<strong>in</strong>geven discursive writ<strong>in</strong>g ~ he produced heavily formulaic fairy-storystylemoral tales which were apparently ~ accord<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>in</strong>formation volunteered byother Sylheti pupils <strong>in</strong> the class - translations of stories he had learnt <strong>in</strong> his nativetongue. (Moore, 1995: 362)Despite be<strong>in</strong>g a will<strong>in</strong>g pupil, Mashud seemed unable to transcend this traditional style ofgenre, and write <strong>in</strong> the genres that his teachers knew would be required of him <strong>in</strong> the Britisheducation system and <strong>in</strong> wider society. Further consideration led Moore and MrsMontgomery to some hypotheses about why this was so:It has to be said that neither Mrs Montgomery or I knew enough about Bangladeshior Sylheti story-tell<strong>in</strong>g traditions to be able to expound with any degree of confidenceon the cause of Mashud’s particular way of go<strong>in</strong>g about th<strong>in</strong>gs. The key to our futurepedagogy, however [. . .] lay <strong>in</strong> Mrs Montgomery’s very wise recognition that ‘‘therecould be the most enormous difference between what Mashud has been brought upto value <strong>in</strong> narratives and what we’re tell<strong>in</strong>g him he should be valu<strong>in</strong>g”. (Moore, 1995:366)Ths <strong>in</strong>sight <strong>in</strong>to Mashud’s difficulties with genres of writ<strong>in</strong>g was supported by a more carefulanalysis of Mashud’s texts, which had a l<strong>in</strong>ear, additive, chronological structure associatedwith oral, rather than literate cultural traditions (Ong, 1982).The outcome was the teacherdesign<strong>in</strong>g activities for Mashud which would support or ‘scaffold’ (Bruner, 1986; Mayb<strong>in</strong>,Mercer and Stierer, 1992) his development as a writer of <strong>English</strong>:If we responded appropriately, Mashud would, we hoped, learn someth<strong>in</strong>g of whatwas valued <strong>in</strong> expressive writ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> his new school, and how that was different from- though no better than ~ he may have learned to value at school <strong>in</strong> Bangladesh.(Moore 1995: 368)This approach proved successful, as dur<strong>in</strong>g the rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g period of Moore’s researchMashud showed clear progress <strong>in</strong> com<strong>in</strong>g to understand and cope with the demands ofwrit<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the genres of <strong>English</strong> required <strong>in</strong> the British school system. Describ<strong>in</strong>g researchwith children <strong>in</strong> a Spanish-<strong>English</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual program <strong>in</strong> Californian schools, Moll andDwor<strong>in</strong> (1 996) also highlight the important role of a teacher <strong>in</strong> help<strong>in</strong>g learners make thebest educational use of their bi-cultural language experience <strong>in</strong> develop<strong>in</strong>g their literacyskills <strong>in</strong> the second language.