Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
In
this series:
Agendas for Second Language Literacy by Sandra Lee McKay
English Language
Teaching Materials:
Theory and Practice
,,
Ka,ren E, Johnsor
:'
6.y
Davrd
Edited by
Nigel Harwood
University ofEssex
Curriculum De\dopuent
ir
Pr*tice
by
John plowedew
Writing
Cooperative Learnirg
C.
etc@ery,
by Ken
Hyland
Ceunnmcn
I]NTVERSTTT PRESS
Contents
Ma&i4
Nr
PART
10013-2473, IJSA
crws,.cambddg..org
Infodnation on lhis t tle: *rf,w.camkidge.org/9780521 l2 t583
O Cankidg Unilr{sity
Contributo$ vii
Series editor's preface ix
Press 2Ol0
PART
This
publicdio
B:
States
aloilablefon
the Brinsh
bbrary.
in Pubticaao, data
I[fida
PERSPECTIVES ON MATERIALS
IIl. S.des.
PART
2010
42A./4-e22
ISBN 9?&G521-198561
ISBN 978-0-521-12158-3
Ellit
3
ofAneric{
PEn28i2E13
materials 33
Nigel.
design
INTRODUCTION
colyright
A:
C:
20I0000132
Hr.dback
Paprb.ck
forreading l3l
Norman
W!
Evdns, K. Jdntes
J. Andetson
writing
157
vi Confents
Listenirg
as prccess:
andsetf-regulation 179
Contributors
Chrbrtne Goh
9
10
skil
207
PART
Ll
D:
xri.ing
251
Martin Hewings
12 Writiqg
13
forposqraduate! 301
Nigel
llarwood
14 Making Fofessional
academic
15
16
materials 346
17
Authorindex 419
Subject index 428
UK
Summary
This chapter explores the influence of critical theory on materials development, focusing on situatedness, dialogue, praxb, hope, a\d refexdt!.
These theoretical constructs are exemplified through a discussion of classroom materials and activities developed in response to a particular
sociopolitical cootext military recruitment on a U,S. college campus. To
demonstrate the dialogic charactr ofcdtical teaching, students' responses
to tlle materials and subsequent modification ofprar.r are examined. The
chapter also raiss questions about balancing materials that challenge the
status quo with ones ttrat support it so that students may engage witi a range
ofpositions. In addition, questions about appropriateness artd effectiveness
of critical materials are taken up: Which ones beloug in the classroorn,
and which are more suitable for public posting, such as on all offce door?
Those inquiries demonstmte the reflexivity demanded of critical teachers
who must simultaneously present a riety of views, in the interest of
hope arrd. possibilities, while avoiding imposition of any particular ones.
This self-questioning stance acknowledges the limitations ofclassrooms as
arenas ofsocial change while encouraging hope for abelter world.
lntroduction
:r Itr 1995, Congress passed the first Solomon Amendment, derrying schools that
barred military rcoruiters from cahpus any fiinds flom the Department ofDefense.
: I The next year, Congrcss extelded the lawt reach to include ftnds from the
Depatmeds of E(fucatiorl Labor, and Health & Humao Services... .IrI 2005,
r, Coagress amended the law to explicitly state that military recruiters must be given
equal access to that prcvided other requiters. (wwwlaw.geo.getown.edu/solorEoD/
r: solomon.hhal)
109
were dweloped, illustrated by the quotes above. Signing bonuses, fasthack citizenship,r and the Solomon Amendmsnt - legislation requiring
high schools and colleges to permit military rcquiters on their campuses aimed to bolster enlistrnent. viewed together, these recruitment tools point
to the taryeting of high school and college students, including immigrant
youth, as potetrtial recruits.
Also part ofthe context is the publicly funded postsecondary institution
in New York City wherc I teach. Military recluite$ maintained a consistent presence during the 2004-2006 period and approached studcnts on a
regular basis. Given my position as a teacher of imnigrants at this institution I, too, am part ofthis context. As a critical teachor, with atr interest in
power, inequality, and rcsistance, 1 choose to address militaly recruitment in
my ESL classes. The students are immigrants of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Chinese, Korean, Pakistani, Egyptian, Albaniaq Polish,
Russian, Sri Lankan, Nigerian, among others), the vast majority ofwhom
On July 3, 2002, Georye Bush signed Executive Order I 3269 declaring lhal'Those
persons serving honorably in active{uty $tatus in the Armed Foroes of thc Unitcd
States, during the pefod bgginning on September I I , 200 I , aod terrninatiry on th
date to be so designaterl are eligible for naturalizstion in accordance with the 6tatutory
exception to the natnalization requircoents- . . . For thc pupose ofdetotmining qual_
iffcatiofl for the oxception from the usual requiiernents for natutalizatioD, I designato
pcriod in which the Armed Forces ofthe United States uele engagd in arhed
conflict iviih a hostile foreign force thg period beginning on September 11, 2001.
Such period will be deemed to trminate on a date designated by future Executive
Order" (www.fas.org/irp/otrdocs/eo/eo- 3269,him).
as a
attended secondary and, in some cases, middle school in the United States.
Duc to their frnancial difrcultios, those shdents are vulnerable to military
recruitnent, with its promises ofjob haioing, money, and citizenship.
The materials described in this chapter ilclude those I used to intoduce the topic ofmilitary recruitment on U.S. college carnpuses to ar ESL
class. Students' respoDses to ttrc introductory matedals are also des*ibed
as coufire materials, to dcmonstrate how both the studcnts and I coltributed
to dialogic inquiry ofthe subject matter In addition, the pedagogical decisions I made in response to students' talk and writing are also regarded as
materials- That is, in critical pedagogies, teachers' ard students' responses
arejoint contributions to a mutually informing dialogue, with unpredictable
outcomes.
112
Sa,"..h Benesch
cu
:withouthope,forFreire,isaprocessofdespairandinaction.Distinguishing
::
'
Dialogue
, When concerns are raised about critical pedagogies, they often focus on
r
face ideological activism inthe classmom" (p. 182). She promoteq instea4
"traditional teaching," claiming that it "prevents classrooms fiom becoming
bpen political training grounds and itudents from beirig used by their teachdrs for the purpose
mrrnose ofnnlitical
rrnsalwriziDo nh
/n I 9r\
ers
ofpoliticat proselytizing,
on rha
the lF+
left or
";-1,P, (p. lS2).
^" right,
I aim to show in this chapter that critical teschers can be scrupulous
about the dialogic nature oftheir praxis, avoiding undemocratic practices.
such as, "overt in-your-face ideological activism,' or .?olitical proselytizing." According to Freire (198b), in critical classrooms, studenh ..know
: that their teachers are continuously in rhe process
of acquiring new knowledgc and
that +Llthis new knowledge cannot simply be transferred to them,'
"-,1 1L.+
' 6/-(p. 33). Students are "engaged in a continuous hansfoffiEtion through
rr:r which they become authentic subjects ofthe construction ofwhat is being
: r taught, side by side with the teacher who is equally subject to the same
:i,::
Hope
C tical
': ,I
teachers facilitate examination ofthe rolationship between power
ffi.. proselytizing
F.
beyond the safe and comfortable telraill of abstract ideas, definitions, ard
testable fact(oid)s. However, the topics and materials are not pulled from
a list ofteacher irterests, but are, instea4 situated in students' lives' Thus,
military recruitment, as an increasingly widesprcad phenomenon on U.S.
collcge campuses, was an aspect of studcnts' expedence that they may not
have been equipped to respond to and was iherefore an imPortant area to
explore
tically.
RefleiNW
Cdtical teachers must be sensitive to the demands of self-othering, of anathe status quo. Students who are unaocustom6d to positioning themselves outside of normative discourses can 6nd the process challenging
They may rcsist critical scrutiny because it seems to threaten their routine ways of thinking and behaving, Houever, resistance on the part of
some students does not require abandoning critical \[ork (Benesch 2001,
2006). Furthermore, there may be other students who have alrcady adopted
a critical stance to social norms, but from a cynical perspective leading to
alienation and hopelessness, These varied reactions point to tho need for
cdtical teachers to tread lighdy and thoughtfully, taking into account tlose
who identifu with the status quo, those rvho already stand outside ofit, and
those who have not yet considered their position. Critical teachels attend to
this range while being mindful of the limitations of classroom curricula in
enacting social change
Ilumility about limitations, what Pennyco ok Q00l) calls self-reflexivity,
avoids grand and self-aggrandizing ctaims aboit what can be accomplished
lyzhg
Praxts
Pennycook (2001)posits praxis, "a constant reciprocal rclationship between
theory and pmctice" (p. 3), as a contlal concern of cdtical applied linguistics. Yet, there continues to bo a shofiage of examples ofthe practice side
of praxis, some exceptions being Goldstein (2003), Lin (2004), Morgan
( i 99 8), and Rivera ( I 999). My support for more examples of critical teaching is not to oppose theory building, but, Ether, to argue for theorized
accounts of messy classroom interactions, including their unpredictable
responses and constant modifications in light ofthose rcsponses. Examples
of clas$oom interaction are needed to demonstrate the critical scrutiny of
discourses and diatogio toaching. These examples show that students do rot
passively absorb matedal, but, rather, respond in a variety ofways, including opposition, insights, boredom, and humor. How these varied responses
are taken up is an essential aspect ofcdtical pedagogy, one that needs to be
documented morc fuIly. This chapter aims to rcveal the textue of a oitical
dialogue betrveen students and teacher working togetier on a complex and
pressing issue.
Situatedness
Though my response to concems about proselytizing in previous paragraphs focused in part on the cenfality of dialogue, it is important to
distance critical pedagogies from student-centerod process pedagogy with
its promotion of students' individual voices. Critical pedagogies ale concerned, above all, with collective solutions to social inequality, encouraging
ways to achieve social justice. This is the reason for self-othering and for
scrutinizing topics not normally discussed in college classrooms, such as
military lecruiunent. That is, ffitical pedagogies iftroduce material that
has generally been ignored because of its political naturq and push inquiry
Va ous antiwar, civil librties, religious, and student groups have developed
couoter-recruitment materials as a rcsponse to the prcsence of military
rccruiters on U.S. high school and college campuses. These materials serve
to inform parents and studerfs of their ghts ao4 more generally, to offset
the impact of the morc widely available, and more expensively produce4
recruitnent materials. Howeyer, my aim in this section is not to desc be
certain pro- or counter-recruitment matcrials. Rathe!, I will discuss how
I intoduced the topic, bow students respooded to it and how I modified
my teaching according to students' responses. That is, in critical teaching,
there is reciprocity between the materials and praxis, or, to put it another
way, critical praxis can be seen cs materials development.
b".iil;"-"i;;,;;;^;;
aUouijil;;;;
1:,:^.-t:ll"1"rd:rs
military
and do not, tlerefori, nied to be
rccruiters..Thorgb other..no', rcsponses in"tua"a
"hi"ld.Ji;;;;;;;;;;;"J;
,"riution, on tt i, ttr"rnl.
for
t"
*",
rl"uldn't
lr;..I::.1,1.1*
*!1r:
il;lt.;
niii
ifio.;b"dy;ffi
lu,ii;;;;; fi ,:ffi
_,,
change
^L,nd6 my mind.
'.:_r
;;il;;
";
;" ii,
Another concern about this particular article was that the title of the
essay
ffi
fu;;,il,t":liffiffit
fl:::I::Ja
(3) protecting the country is ;ur duty.
Th" ,lrr";;;;;;*il;;;;;:
are-equipied to mate a aecis-ion
beallowed-..").
'- *-'
sioil.
cloo-sing
to make a choice.
saia they
[f,1".,i!ii,;li
"il,ii:7,rr{iii{trlfJ
ai-fo"si;;t"il;;
rearuite.s
;"r*i:ii
whether the *rit"r, u youngrii, Uorr-i;H;;,
ffiilHr";:liff:?}:
coflr'icrions about notioining tlemsetre's. rf,."v
*"rijir,'Jr"#
han(
studonts had v{fittsn, but, instead a testimonial from a student about being
However, like the others he, too, does not bcliev that recruiters persuade
people u/ho do not $,ant to join the military to do so.
ln addition, R3 includes an observation found in the response of thc
next group of "no" rcsponses: Remuitels prwide useful information to
stodents. This theme assumes that recruiters are no different from other
resist:
R8r I think that collegs should be allowed to bar military recruiters because rre
v'/ant other unlatown people in ott ciry colleges who v.'anl to lalk lor 30
min$es and teke our time. t think ifpeople want to join lhe military they'll go to
the military depahrrent and ask them about berc6ts and othe! information. Also, I
think that they shouldn't tell yourg people to join tlre military. People are tee and
doil
R4: My opinion
studett
R9:
military
R5r No, I diragree and college studeots should not be allo\,red to bar military '
rccruiters, Thc college studnts still need to go to school, ald thly have e right
to join the military o! not. Many people said thal military glves benelts aid olfet
As I will show next, the author ofR9, Isaac, a yomg man bom in Nige a,
was writing ftom his experience, and those ofhis ftiends, ofbeing recruited.
t dny things. Like the milltary pay money for college sludeits, and the)
wit! pay the studentt dthey join the hilitary.But I think that colloge students have
their o$n decision to make a choice
stude ts
Finally, one "no" rcsponse agrees with others that "everyonc has a right
to make Oreir own decision," but includes a ncw theme, 'brotecting the
country is our du!/':
Discussion
Aflrr
'l
responses,
should choose for themselves whother or not to join the military afld that
colleges should therefore not ban recruiters. However, as I will show no(tt
this viewpoint was interrogated during the class discussion of the initial
written responses. What.infomed that discussion was not so much what
if
To summarize the'ho"
R6r No, thg colleges should not be allowed to bar military rccruiiers. Because
ght to makc their owll decisioE. I think th^t ereO)one
everyone should has
should guatd thetu or,'k country which is d.uty. "the military recruiters arc related
r
'
of
felt comere4 unsure if he was permitted to simply walk away from this man
}l,earing a military miform.
The experience had upset Isaac, pa icularly becsuse he thought he had
been racially targeted. To test his hypothesis, I asked the class how many of
r them had been recruited either oII campus, in high school, or by phone. As
: it tumed out, only Isaac and Diana (R2), the young woman fiom Colombia,
Citical
"trtJ;,
l"r.ri"ri!rl",
lilri" Ii'"-rr*n
###;"; ;;';
:1Ti;#":H'"#'#""$ 'i"ii'-"1"fi'v'*n*is
approached on
ii,.-..^ii1"rt"r". The only two students who had been
i"*p.. #J"1-d*,i, 1111":::"t"i[fi: ",1''n,1'*** response that
that
'
seem surprisins
,"r,oor.
sctt ;:i1;:,ir";,"*y tr,"i.i"yin
more students are willing to leave
students
gerian-born
Ni
that
sripports the ob"ervation
It may
"*:
il;;;il;r;
tn dtsnronortionate numbefi ln
secmcd to have bcen enlisting
that time' two were
the university ttitt"a in tt"q at
addition'
from
:il";il;;.
Nigerian-bom
is thatwhile
mrtlarl responses' most stdking
To sum uP the findings ot thc
the"'"#';;;;nses
seeir
q vrew.miligr j;::}",'J;r::::";;*i#',"r:";
il.p""iui.tkeatFrome"':"'1;::n'n"J"#"Tii:1ff
i'"l,$:+#.i
.".ond sroup has conceptualized po\^
and wouro
them
ovsr
military pcople
:il';;il;:;;;;;er'orunirormed
to
ill-prepared
fecling
intrusion' Derhaps
liilinfi;;
;"al
class period as part
was ratseo ouring thi fotlowing
concern
resoond. This
nil aiscussion ofttre homework assignment'
with the
Follow-uP discussion
wrrw two
LU write
was to
'-"""i.",ip'pt:ii" groups
homewolK wa.5
"'- rcsponse
The homework
:T.::::"i1"**:;
to share their
iret
about the "no" essay t'
and one aooul
essav
essay ano
t.] share with
wrtn
---.,^-^.^.
quote
qlesbons,o"tuttio* to u ^,,^rF to sharc
r"sponse papers and choose
becatr bv
to read
**1..:l:li:"Jli:T"?l ifiillillx.lJiil:Ti
Il
rour-parr rcspons".p"p*
wor4
wue phmse'
-_ sentence
v_'---' ol
wa
a rcactllrn
reaction to
vocabularY.
Citical
believe
betw8en young immigrants and rePresontatives ofthe military. Though power was discussed implicitly when shrdents
sought shategies for avoiding or deflecting rccntiters' pitches, it was not
foregmunded in those discussions. Having had lime to think about lhe
lessons, I rcalize that there miSht h3ve been ways to laiso awaleness of
power differentials between students and recruiters, in terms of age, status,
and other social factors, including gender, in cases where young women
arc being recruited by men. Such a discussion would allow students to
examine the assumption expressed in R2 that studcnts can 'Just say no" to
reouiters. It might lead them to consider why it is hard for some to just walk
tion, the contrast betwen the glossy military ads and the cheaply produced
courter-recruitment materials would lend itself to a discussion of power
relations.
away.
Alother approach to
issues
matorials.
lowing questir:n:
status?
Guatemala, his life on the stre;ts of Guatemala City as an oryhan, and his
eventual flight to the United States, riding dangerously on top of trains that
took him thiough Mexico to the U. S. border and then to Los Argeles' Gutier'
rez was assigned a foster family, eamed a high school dcgree, and attended
community aollege briefly. He then joined the U.S. Marines. After complet'
ing boot camp, Gutierrez was sent to Kuwait and ther to lraq whgre'
$e
he was
-on
fire"l
'
:
.'
'
ment'' had been on my ofrce door all summer, when, one day in the fall 2006
semester walking toward my office, I saw a young man reading it intently' As
i apfroactred thJOoor, I introduc6d myselfto the young man, he introduced
himself, and I invited him into my office. I asked 'Angel" fuseudonym)
join
what had made him stop to read the list. He told me that he lYanled to
permismother's
his
years
needed
old
and
the U.S. Army, but was only l7
.ior. si" *uJ orr;ted. When t asked why his mother refused to sign the l
who are being recruited. Angel was surprised that such haterials existed.
He asked about the group and then, to my surprise, asked how he could
join it. Though I never saw Angel again and don't know whether or not he
chose to join the U.S. military, I ha( at least, introduced him to materials
that coutd help him make au informed decision.
As a self-declared counter-recruiter, l'm left with the question ofwhether
to present counter-rccruitment materials in the classroom, perhaps in conjunction with lecruitment materials. Or, should I instead continue to present
, ,an open-ended question, leadiog to debate in the classroom and leave
counter-rccruitment outside the classroom where I am more comfortable
expressing my antiwar views? Or, perhaps I will attempt both a debate and
: a presentation of competing materials, though these activities could lead to
spending more time on the topic than students will want to. These questions are characteristic of critical pedagogy with its constant reflectiofl on
.
.
nc""r.ury pupe.s, he told me that she aln'ays worried about him' Next I
NJ,
Materials and the way they arc presented and explored reflect teachers' theories, whether or not those theories are cxplicitand conscious. My choiceof
military recruitment as a topic exprEssed my concern, as a critical teacher,
about the unequal power of the military whose presence on college cam, r, puses forces students to conftont a choice they may not be sumciently
informed to make. Amcd with glossy materials, psychological knowledge,
well-rehearsed pitches, and the promise of financia| rewards and citizenr ship, recruiters have abundant social capital. Immigraflt students, on the
oiher han( haye little. Conflonted by recruiters, they may not have the
knowledge required to make an intelligent and appropriate cholce. My goal
:,r in inEoducing recruitment in an ESL reading class was to equip students
with a vadety of ways to respond. And, of course, as they worked on the
: materials, +t"-,,,---they werc --.r;-^
reading, --^-L:nn
speaking, l:-+--:-listening, 6-,{
and *,-i}:-a;writing in 6^-,]-*lacademic
-"+-;-lEnglish. Because the materials were situated in their daity lives, students
had the chance to think deeply about matters affecting their daily lives, an
imporlant formdation for acquiring academic skills.
The pedagogy described in this chapter is situal
situated in a particular time
and place, during the U.S. occupation oflraq and at a publicly firnded U.S,
. college. I'm therefore not recommending that othrs adopt or even adapt
the materials. Rather, I hope that the descdption of students' responses !o
the materials in one class offers an example of critical praxis. Readers of
'
',
l,
ard (ii)
a matedals designer?
in this chapter were designed for lgamers in
described
5. ihe materials
a postsecondary setting in the United States. To vr'hat extent could a
similar approach be taken when designing materials for the context
in which you are or will be teaching?
(i)
a teacher;
Evaluation
6. Look at some textbook materials you havc used with a class in the
past. Ir light of this chapter, how might you modi$ these materials
to experiment with teaching critically?
Adaptation
Design
Bcnesch, S. (2006). Critical media awareness: Teaching resistaice to interpellatior In Edge (ed.). (Relocatihg TESOL in an age of enpire. Houndsmil|
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 49-64.
Dss kune Lebea des Jote Anbnio Gutierrez (2006), dir. Hoidi Specogna, New
Yo*: The Cinema Guild.
Fairclough, N. (1995). C/,!icdl discourse onabsis: ?he qitical stu6, of language.
London: Longman.
Foucault, M, (1980). Power and strategies. ID C. Cordon (ed.). Powet / knowledge:
Selected interviews and other wltlnqs, 1972-7 7. New York Pantheou Bools,
w. 13445.
Frcitre,P. (1994). Pedagog/ o/rppe. New York Corltiouum.
*eke,P. (1998a). Pedagog of the heart.Ne'N Yotk: Continuum.
pp.2l-9.
Morgaq B. (1998). Ire ESL class,oo, : Teachihg, ctitical pructice, and comm nity
development- Totortot UrJi\ersity of Toronto Press
New York Tines (2005). Swiff road fo! U.S. citizer soldiers alrcady fightiry in [raq.
August 9, Al l.
(2005). Should colleges be allowd to bar military Bcruiters? Novem-
7. Using what you have learned in this chaptor, choose one issue afecting
the lives ofstudents you teach or will teach. Prcpare a reading / writing
On
Pennycook, A. (1994).
teaching.
References
Benesch, S.
Canp*
ber
lrndolri Longman.
Crrical applied linguistics: A ctitical intod ction,Mahwah
NJ: Erlbaum.
Rcagan, T (200a). Objectifrcation, positivi$n, and larguage studies: A reconsideratlon. Critical lnqiry in La guage St dies l(l)t 4l-60.
fuvera, K. (1 999). Popular research and social hansfomstion: A community-based
approach to crirical pedaqory.IESOL Quarrerly 33(3): a85-500.
Santos. T. (1998). Th6 place ofpolitics in second language writing. ln T. Silva &
P K. Mafsuda (eds.). On second language rirrrg. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum,
pp- 173-90.
PeDnycook, A. (2001).
opts-lglish.pdf
wvw.counterecruihnentguide,org
rf, ww.law.georgeto.
wn.edr/solomon/solomoo,htrn