McKay Chapter 1

“English in an era of globalization” explores the dimensions and implications carried when one considers English as an international language. Some of the dimensions that are considered include incentives for learning English in the globalized market, and the situation of English in the current era. This chapter also explores how the spread of EIL affects local languages.

McKay offered that one of the reasons why English has earned such an economic status and prestige is the proliferation of narratives that insists learning English carries with it the influence and power the language entails. She said that “in reference to English learning there are powerful narratives of English acquisition that lead learners to believe that if they ‘invest’ in English learning, they will reap the benefits of social and intellectual mobility” (9). I would have questioned this claim if I didn’t experience first hand how powerful narratives can be, especially when one considers whose narratives they are—either when they are expressed by people I know or when they are expressed as propaganda by education systems and governments. One of the things that I remember clearly when we were interviewing ELL students from class was their answer when we asked them why they were learning English. Although their wordings varied, their message was clear—they learned English because it was a tool that they could use in being seen as a prospective employee in their chosen fields.

Moreover, McKay also offers three major incentives that facilitate the continuing rise of English as an international language. These incentives include economic incentives, educational incentives and mass media incentives. Two main factors that are to be considered in economic incentives include the use of English in transnational corporations (i.e. Ford in Germany requiring its employers to speak English but not German), and outsourcing (i.e. the “brain mining” in India as economically rewarding when the workforce knows English). McKay offers that educational incentives occur through the mechanisms in policies in educational institutions and government policies. These two mechanisms enforce the English learning in school systems. However, McKay problematizes this phenomenon by illustrating the economical divide created when government institutions decide who are “worthy” and who should have the benefits of learning English. The mass media also plays a role in making English a global language. Through movies, music and the Internet, more and more people especially the younger generation, find reasons to learn English separate from knowing it as an advancement of their economic status. One of the more enjoyable reasons I had for learning English was the movies. Movies are such a fascinating medium for entertainment not only because of the moving pictures but also because of the hidden messages and sentiments that they entailed. I wanted to know what my current version of Prince Charming was talking about and to do that, I had to pay attention in class while my English teacher was talking.

week 8

“Construction of Racial Stereotypes” addresses how race and gender are portrayed in the textbooks that are being used in EFL contexts – by asking the participants to examine the images that are being used in the textbooks. This is done through a study in Sao Paolo, Brazil using ten student participants and four teacher participants in privileged, affluent universities. While interviewed by Taylor, the participants pointed out that the white Americans were displayed as rich and powerful, while the visible minorities were portrayed as submissive, poor and voiceless. Some of them pointed out the “injustice in their [minorities] lack of representation in the EFL text” (Taylor 74). One result of the interviews explored how the textbook images presented an unrealistic picture in which races were divided by continents: only white Americans lived in America and the Spanish lived in Mexico. It didn’t portray people who emigrated from one country to another. The participants also pointed out that the images only portrayed a monolithic culture that existed in a vacuum. Like Taylor-Mendes, I agree that these images need to be modified and I also agree with Taylor-Mendes when she said that “if teacher educators have not provoked thoughtful discussions with pre-service or practicing professional teachers on the implicit meaning of images, one cannot expect that all teachers would know how to begin examining the race and power issues in an EFL image and handle these topics with sufficient sensitivity” (77). I would like to think before I took TESOL classes, I would have been able to address such inequalities when I’m a practicing professional teacher. The truth is, I probably wouldn’t have been as effective. In the worst-case scenario, I most likely would have been a passive consumer and enforced the racial inequalities that are already portrayed in the textbook images. Now, one of the ways I could do is to portray America in a realistic way—where most people are middle class, the privileged few really do not constitute most of the population, some live below poverty, and certainly not all citizens—whether they are white or minority—even have basic rights.

Theme A3: Representation explores how some of our beliefs—especially those that are shaped by the media—sometimes portray an eschewed image of the world around us. It is our duty to be more critical and not let our uncontested beliefs prevent us from influencing facts and prevent us from examining what’s before us. For example, when Martha met Reza, she thought that he was sexist—that he was appalled at how women in Canada were acting and that he disapproved the fact that women weren’t subservient to men. She failed to account for the fact that Reza may have been ambivalent because of other reasons—such as starting out the bottom in Canada when he was a lawyer in Afghanistan or being isolated. I think sometimes it’s easier to take things at face value, to become passive consumers of the media (or to think that the media as an evil platform who encourages inequalities), but if we don’t take a minute to question widely held beliefs, like Taylor-Mendes said, we wouldn’t be able to address such inequalities.