Jalyn Radziminski

Lens Project One

Eng: 101 Multi-Lingualism
Dr. Suhr-Sytsma
Fishing for New, Improved English Teaching Methods
It has become more and more evident that language is the gateway to our cultures,
worldviews, perspectives, and identities (Motha, 6). The more we are aware of the importance
language holds, the more we should be cautious of the spread of English dominance
internationally. Miranda further illustrates Mothas point that the replacement and
deculturalization of language minorities can in turn into conflict and convert the identities of
many.
When I look down at my notebook, I see the names of my
grandmothers, Maria Josefa, Maria Teodosia, and Maria Estefana. I think, Who
is the first missionized Indian girl named Maria? Who was the last Indian Child
to be given an Esslen name? (Miranda, 138).
Miranda reminds us the massive role language plays in our names, our identities.
Historically, deculturalization has been no accident, and Europeans filled with ethnocentrism
have made great efforts to encourage their culture to be the answer or the savior. During
Spanish colonization, the Esslen culture was subordinated by Spanish missionaries who were
trying to save them by forcing their religious views and to catch them in Evangelical nets
(Miranda, 140). Many of us are under the false assumption that colonization and the spread of
ethnocentrism has ended
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Today, English is portrayed as the savior language that opens the door to opportunity
and social advancement. On the other hand, teaching English can also have colonizing effects
and enforce language and culturally subordinating ideals (Motha, 8). Motha argues that racism
without racists is unintentionally promoted in language teaching. (17)
I am conflicted, as every English teacher, teacher educator, school
administrator, and language policymaker should be, about my participation in the
project of the global dominance of English, associated as it is with Whiteness,
wealth, power, and cosmopolitanism, arousing in all of us around the world acute
and entrenched desires for all that it has come to represent (Motha, xxi).
It is essential that educators are equipped with appropriate teaching methods to help students
understand the global context of English. Unfortunately, promoting an understanding of different
world views has continuously been at the bottom of the hierarchy of priorities in education
(Motha, 3).
Both Motha and Miranda's works explain that language attitudes are a reflection of the
ideas of racial superiority and colonial empire in our transnational society. Can monolingual
brains become decolonized in the trans-lingual world today when English is portrayed as the
savior? Are the boundaries between cultures languages and races too muddled to solve the
problem? Although Motha proposes implementing meta-awareness of language imperialism in
language education, Miranda's experiences of learning Esslen and Spanish reflect the dangers of
stopping at meta-awareness alone and the need to promote acceptance of one another's identities
via teaching methods.

As Motha suggests, one of the biggest issues of teaching English is that although English
carries a malignant nature, it is portrayed with such benevolence. The issue is that the effects of
racial and colonial ideologies are acknowledged in postcolonial contexts but less visible in
English teaching in schools K-12 (Motha, 16). Miranda forwards the NEED of the effects of race
and empire to be visible in education, or else we will be left with a substantial number of
students questioning how to learn a third language that describes a second language that
destroyed the first language the way Miranda did when she was in a summer quarter immersion
program trying to learn Spanish, the language that subordinated Esslen (Miranda, 138). In the
overall classroom setting grammar and prescriptivism is often emphasized in education and it
takes away from the non-benign nature of English and does not encourage the awareness of
historical colonization (Motha, 2). Mirandas emphasis of the unholy trinity or relationship
between the three languages brings to our attention that going beyond grammar and
incorporating historical awareness of language relationships is essential for students to develop a
heightened, or meta, awareness about the English that they are learning.
Although Mothas proposal of spreading meta-awareness of historical, colonial
relationships of languages is a great first step to take, it is not enough to effectively teach English
or any foreign language without harmfully influencing language attitudes; in fact, Mirandas
experience counters that meta-awareness could create language resistance within individuals. If a
student learned about the role that English played in the deculturalization of their languages, of
course it would disgust them. (Motha, 10) It is obvious that a student like Miranda had a metaawareness of the relationships between English, Spanish, and Esslen. However, that awareness
encouraged Miranda to feel she needed to resist learning Spanish because of its historical
deculturalization of Esslen culture. Very often, Miranda would wonder exactly when her
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ancestors began dreaming and loving in Spanish, and how Spaniards should deserve to
grammatically be able to conjugate to be when they made the Esslen extinct (Miranda, 138).
Mirandas waves of spite quickly evolved into tsunamis as she learned the language of her
ancestors oppressors. Sometimes I dream in Spanish. My mouth moves in all of the proper
patterns: the rolling r delicate placement of tongue against teeth, subtle slip of consonants. But
in the morning I taste a tide of blood, slick iron on my traitorous mouth (Miranda, 139). To
effectively teach students, highlighting the existence of hierarchies is will not solve the problem,
and can even contribute to the hierarchies and language subordination. Teachers will definitely
have to take their methods a step further than simply promoting awareness. Its essential to
encourage classrooms to be a safe space full of language mutualism, where language contact and
diverse backgrounds are accepted.
Motha questions how English teaching methods can be taken a step further to make
English instruction classrooms a place that is safe and understanding for other languages to be
allowed to live without promoting loss of heritage languages and shift to mono-lingualism that is
so common in America today (Motha, 6). Obviously in an English teaching course, learning
English will have to be the focus or the goals of the lessons. However, by giving the right tools
and teaching materials to students like Miranda, who are hungry to maintain and use their
language perspectives, they would be able to better function in classrooms (Miranda, 143). This
is the responsibility that English teachers should carry in the global context wherein English is
seen as carrying social and economic power (Motha, 2). We can make education a safe space for
language contact taking advantage of our trans-national worlds dwindling boundaries between
cultures languages and races as a tool for language acceptance and to implement better teaching
methods of English.
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Language accepting spaces can be promoted if teachers allow students to create language
contact journals, like Miranda did during her journey of learning Esslen and Spanish. For
example, each time Miranda learned a Spanish word, she wanted to learn the Esslen word it
replaced (Miranda, 138). Another way teachers could promote positive language contact is to
compare etymologies of new, English lexicons the students learn to etymologies of lexicons of
the students languages. Then, they can maintain their language while bringing awareness to
others in the room the beauty of their cultures. These examples of multi-lingual teaching methods
can make lessons much more memorable, fun, and create a space for contradictory world views
to function peacefully even when teachers and students all do not share the same identity in the
English classroom (Motha, 3).
Multi-lingual methods in American classrooms have been successfully performed before.
Dr. Marjorie Pak, at Emory University, teaches a linguistic course about the syntax and meaning
of language. Of course syntax, meaning, and grammar are essential in teaching English. When
Dr. Pak teaches how pragmatic and grammatical functions work in language, she calls on
students from diverse language backgrounds to give examples in their languages. This often
deepens the classes understanding of grammatical functions in language, while taking advantage
of the different world views in the room. It also deepens the foreign students understanding of
the material by seeing pragmatic and grammatical functions of English compared to their own
languages.
Dr. Susan Tamasi, who is also a linguistic professor of Emory University, teaches a
sociolinguistic course on the history of languages in America. In this course she highlights how
language attitudes, dominance, and subordination are a reflection of social, cultural, and racial
attitudes. The negative effects of native-English speakers attitudes on foreign accents that
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Motha asks English teachers to pay attention to (Motha, 2), is highlighted in Dr. Tamasis sociolinguistic course. Implementing more of these types of courses and methods into English
language instruction would help acknowledge and support people of different backgrounds,
spread awareness of racialism in language teaching and attitudes, and let students appreciate and
respect different peoples languages and history.
In conclusion, language attitudes are a reflection of the ideas of racial superiority and
colonial empire in our transnational society; the effects of language colonization need to rise to
the top of the hierarchy of importance when teaching English to students K-12. Languages need
to be protected in order to protect people from losing their identities, worldviews, and
perspectives. Mothas proposal implementing meta-awareness of language imperialism in
English education is the first step to combating the monopolizing tendencies of English, and
Miranda's experiences of learning Esslen and Spanish counter that we need to go beyond
awareness of language hierarchy and make classrooms safe, accepting spaces for language
contact. Of course learning English is the goal in American English teaching classrooms, and
implementing multi-lingual teaching methods will be difficult. However, implementing multilingual teaching methods would not only spread cultural awareness, but deepen the
understanding of the material learned. Patience, near obsessive persistence, and generosity of
many (Miranda, 146) are much needed to find effective ways to encourage language learning and
contact to be more of a mutualism rather than one consuming the other. However, we can start by
making our English teaching classroom not only acknowledge, but become a positive reflection
of the transnational, trans-lingual world that we live in today.

Bibliography
Motha, S. "Introduction." Race, Empire, and English Language Teacing: Creating Responsible
and Anti-Racist Practices. Amsterdam.: Teachers College, 2014. Xxi-156. Print.
Miranda, Deborah. "Intensive Spanish: A Language Aquisition Resistance Journal." Bad Indians.
Berkley: Heyday, 2013. 137-139. Print.
Miranda, Deborah. "Intensive Spanish: A Language Aquisition Resistance Journal." Bad Indians.
Berkley: Heyday, 2013. 140-147. Print.