Snyder 1

Heaven Snyder

C&T 598

Dr. Cho

14 June 2017

Canagarajah (2014) and Yoo (2014)

Canagarajah

Quote:

Language awareness is different from a knowledge of grammar in each separate

language. It is about how grammars generally work in all languages. This may not be an explicit

knowledge of grammar, but an intuitive knowledge developed from ones ongoing experiences

with language in everyday life. This kind of awareness has helped successful multilingual users

intuit the grammar of the new speakers they interact with, adopt their grammars or borrow their

words for their purposes, and find a middle ground between the divergent grammars of both

parties in a communicative interaction. Language awareness doesnt necessarily depend on

formal teacher instruction (see Borg, 1994). Everyone is endowed with language awareness,

based on our human capacity to communicate, and can develop it socially. Researchers of

international English have found that multilinguals in everyday contexts negotiate their diverse

Englishes very effectively, demonstrating complex language awareness (see business contexts in

Firth, 1996; and small traders in Han, 2013). Of course, this language awareness can be

cultivated in classrooms, if teachers dont impose the grammar of specific English varieties as
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correct and inflexible. Students can be encouraged to look beyond specific grammars to treat

them as examples of how grammars in general work in communication. Pg. 6

Reflection:

I really love this quote because I feel it is exactly what Ive experienced as a linguistics

student. As part of the major we study a variety of sub-fields like syntax and sociolinguistics but

I feel that everything has been toward the cohesive goal of developing language awareness. So

its especially interesting then that Canagarajah talks about this awareness being developed

outside of the classroom when the last few years have been marked by me discovering this

awareness totally academically. I think this perspective is really important for me to be reminded

of because I dont want to approach TESOL with the high minded or distant idea that linguistic

study is somehow the only way to become adept at the things multilinguals are adept at, like

recognizing divergent grammars when they come into contact with them.

Question:

How can teachers present the idea that there isnt just one correct English variety?

Yoo

Quote:

Nonnative teachers in the Expanding Circle should thus resist the temptation of claiming

the ownership of English because there is nothing to gain from acquiring it. Instead, we should

rightfully claim the status of the only ideal teachers of English to our students. So, help us

empower ourselves by giving us the respect that we deserve as

the ideal teachers of English to EFL learners, not the ownership of English, which

rightfully belongs to the speakers of English in the Inner and the Outer Circles. Pg 5
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Reflection:

This is an excellent summary of everything that Yoo lays out in the article and I so

appreciate this perspective. I think its easy to convince ourselves because of the variety and

spread of language that there is no real shape a variety has to take in order to be considered

legitimate but in this article Yoo is arguing that it doesn't matter that Korean English teachers

dont have Konglish to claim as an English. They are already in a powerful position as second

language learners that have reached such a height that they can shepherd other learners through

the same process. They have invaluable insight into the English language and crucially are able

to make contrastive judgments; they can understand why Korean to English learners make

similar mistakes, struggle with the same grammatical features. Additionally this point of view

doesn't affirm an English as being the only true English, Yoos aim isnt to discredit the Outer

Circle Englishes, and this is an important distinction from saying that Konglish cant be an

English because its not American or British English.

Questions:

How can we spread the idea that non-native language teachers are ideal teachers?