Paving the Way to a More Multilingual TESOL

SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL TESOL This symposium was held at the 42nd Annual Convention and Exhibit in New York, New York, United States It shows how leaders in the field of language education envision the role that multilingualism should play in an increasingly international TESOL organization As English takes on progressively new roles and expands its borders, how can English language teachers, administrators, and researchers respect and incorporate learners’ emerging multilingualism in difference contexts? Paving the Way to a More Multilingual TESOL SHELLEY K TAYLOR The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada Ⅲ Imagine if TESOL were not multilingual? As an organization whose mission is “to develop and maintain professional expertise in English language teaching and learning for speakers of other languages worldwide” (TESOL, n.d.), TESOL would cease to exist were it not for students with home languages other than English However, it does exist—it exists for students, teachers, and speakers of languages other than English To explain further, Cummins (2007) describes multilingual classrooms as classrooms that are multilingual because of the combined multitude of languages known by the enrolled students Similarly, learners served by TESOL come from a multitude of language backgrounds Therefore, imagining multilingual TESOL should not be a contentious topic Consider, however, TESOL’s (n d.) vision statement: Effective communication among communities and their individual members is essential for peaceful coexistence and for solving many of the problems now facing the world The constant flow of information from country to country and continent to continent in the shrinking world creates the need for institutions that encourage and support the development of language and intercultural communication skills TESOL, an association of English language educators who work with learners from diverse cultural backgrounds in a wide variety of settings, is uniquely positioned to give a coordinated, knowledgeable response at the global, national, and local levels to issues affecting institutions that foster the development of effective human communications TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 43, No 2, June 2009 309 The statement identifies diverse learners, countries, continents, and cultural backgrounds, but not the diverse languages spoken by those learners This omission blurs the vision of the statement: TESOL professionals without a clear view and understanding of learners’ full linguistic repertoires cannot build on their students’ prior linguistic knowledge To reconcile learner realities with the duties of TESOL professionals and the organization’s functions, it must be recognized that TESOL is, at its core, a multilingual organization The purpose of this TESOL Quarterly Symposium is not to fantasize about “what if TESOL were monolingual,” but to hear experts’ suggestions on how to better match TESOL’s reality with its vision The authors discuss what is needed to pave the way to a more multilingual TESOL— and the needs are great For example, the only presentations offered in languages other than English at the annual convention are Discussion Group sessions offered by the Bilingual Education Interest Section (BEIS), which has offered sessions in languages such as Mandarin Chinese and French in recent years; it is not possible to read the main Web site (www.tesol.org) in languages other than English, though this may limit some nonnative English-speaking TESOL educators’ access to professional upgrading opportunities; abstracts in TESOL print and e-publications are only provided in English, though BEIS’s Bilingual Basics has featured online papers in Spanish, French, and Korean, with extended abstracts in English (López-Gopar & Caballero, 2007; Munyankesha, 2008; Park, 2008) Finally, only one survey (again, a BEIS initiative) has gauged member beliefs and desires with regard to enhancing the multilingual nature of the organization and developing a clearly articulated language policy (Taylor, Smith, Daniel, & Schwarzer, 2009) A common factor that emerges from these points is that BEIS is pushing the boundaries to make way for a more multilingual TESOL This observation raises the immediate question: Why BEIS? It also raises the broader questions: What can be done to change the situation or, to use Fishman’s (this issue) term, to relinguify TESOL, and why is enhanced recognition of multilingualism in the organization necessary? This article explains how the contributors to this symposium answer those questions FISHMAN’S HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF MULTILINGUALISM IN TESOL In a historical overview of TESOL’s record of supporting home languages other than English, Fishman (this issue) outlines why TESOL created an interest section (IS) dealing with bilingual education (namely, BEIS), what BEIS’s focus and function is, and why it makes sense that BEIS should be the IS to raise the issue of multilingualism within the organization now Fishman 310 TESOL QUARTERLY questions whether TESOL ever showed adequate support for bilingual learners, bilingual education, or multilingualism, and questions whether BEIS’s concerns can be met within the organization such as it is currently configured and imagined Finally, he challenges the TESOL organization to be more and more; that is, he challenges TESOL to adopt a visionary role and more on behalf of languages other than English HOW TO PROMOTE MULTILINGUALISM IN TESOL? THE CONTRIBUTORS SPEAK The six other contributors to this symposium also argue that TESOL needs to become more multilingual and suggest how it might so Jim Cummins’s paper addresses why TESOL should articulate a position on the use of bilingual instructional strategies (i.e., instructional strategies that use rather than exclude students’ home languages) He argues that, by not articulating a position on this issue, TESOL risks becoming linked with the normalized assumption that monolingual instructional strategies are self-evidently desirable when teaching English to children and adults Cummins further argues that if, on the other hand, TESOL endorsed bilingual instructional strategies, the organization would position itself as a strong advocate for empirically supported and equity-oriented approaches to English language teaching Ofelia García raises the issue of how the success of the TESOL profession depends on “the multilingualism of the world and the bilingualism of its students” (this issue, p TO COME) She argues that TESOL must recognize its multilingual learners’ home languages, acknowledge the role their home languages play in their acquisition of English, and frame learning English in terms of a continuum of emergent bilingualism She argues against viewing learners in binary perspective (i.e., as either proficient in English or not) She discusses the ramification of shifting perspectives on children, teachers, educational policy makers, parents and the community, and society overall with regard to multilingualism Joan Wink focuses on listening to the voice of TESOLers worldwide— those whose voices are not heard if their multilingualism is not recognized as well as the sceptical “other” who does not support bilingualism at the individual, group, or societal level She raises the issue of how to include even dissenting voices in a dialogue about maintaining and developing minority home languages and societal multilingualism Wink speaks to the power of making connections at the personal level through metaphors, visual depictions of complex concepts, and the stories of individuals in TESOL’s multilingual worldwide village to extend and keep the dialogue going Rita Silver questions TESOL’s relevance in a multilingual world and whether the organization can meet both local and global needs She stresses key differences between the local needs of U.S.-based teachers of SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL TESOL 311 English as a second language and the global needs of teachers of English as a foreign language, especially given differences in the two groups’ views on bilingualism and multilingualism Observing that the discrepancy between local/global views of bi/multilingualism as either good or bad are so great that many teachers outside the United States view TESOL as irrelevant, Silver urges TESOL educators to define who they are and what their goal for their students is—is the TESOL vision one of English competence or multilingual competence? Robert Phillipson’s paper moves the discussion from the personal to the political by analyzing TESOL’s role as an organization embedded in a sociopolitical context Phillipson argues that when the organization’s machinery expanded the reach of English worldwide, it had far-reaching ramifications—making English, in many respects, a lingua frankensteinia Phillipson stresses the need for professional rethinking of English teaching projects and political support to ensure that sustainable English teaching occurs within the context of national language maintenance Finally, he raises the issue of learners needing to not only develop English proficiency, but also to develop multilingual competence Tove Skutnabb-Kangas raises the issue of what TESOL can in order not to participate in crimes against humanity In answer to her question, she outlines mother-tongue medium educational initiatives around the globe These initiatives develop children’s mother tongue proficiency, proficiency in the state language, and proficiency in another language, frequently English In so doing, they counteract earlier policies and programs that prohibited mother tongue development in ways that can be categorized as crimes against humanity To answer Skutnabb-Kangas’s question about what TESOL is doing to not participate in crimes against humanity, she asks what TESOL is doing (i.e., Is it supporting mothertongue-medium instruction? Is it supporting multilingualism?) Skutnabb-Kangas’ questions hark back to Fishman’s comment about TESOL’s moral imperative to provide visionary leadership with regard to multilingualism There is not only overlap in their views on the issue of TESOL’s leadership role, but, as the summaries show, there is also overlap in the contributors’ focus on the development of bi/multilingual competencies Their texts explain why enhanced recognition of multilingualism in the organization is necessary and how it might be achieved Now it is up to TESOLers to take up Fishman’s challenge and develop visionary ways to more on behalf of languages other than English in the organization ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Suresh Canagarajah for inviting me to coordinate this symposium and for his support in advancing the discussion on multilingualism in TESOL 312 TESOL QUARTERLY Thanks also to the contributors and to Zheng Zhang, my research assistant at The University of Western Ontario THE AUTHOR Shelley K Taylor is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education and member of the graduate faculty in French Studies at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada She is an English–French–Danish trilingual Her research focuses on multilingual children enrolled in bilingual education programs (ethnic Kurdish children in a Danish-Turkish program; minority language children in Canadian French immersion programs) REFERENCES Cummins, J (2007) Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 221–240 López-Gopar, M E., & Caballero, J J (2007) Políticas de lenguaje: Ejemplos de Oaxaca, México (Language politics: Examples from Oaxaca, Mexico) Bilingual Basics, 9, Retrieved July 18, 2008, from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/ sec_issue.asp?nid=3077&iid=10029&sid=1 Munyankesha, P (2008) Lés défis du plurilinguisme officiel au Rwanda (Official multilingualism in Rwanda: Challenges and goals) Bilingual Basics, 10, Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid= 3077&iid=11792&sid=1 Park, H.-R (2008) (Open Source: The gateway to the Open Source community) Bilingual Basics, 10, Retrieved November 13, 2008, from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid= 3077&iid=11109&sid=1 Taylor, S K., Smith, P., Daniel, M., & Schwarzer, D (2009, March) From “nice words” to action: TESOL/BEIS, multilingualism, and language policy that reflects member and learner needs Paper presented at the 43rd Annual TESOL Convention and Exhibit, Denver, CO, United States TESOL (n d.) TESOL’s mission, values, and vision Retrieved July 18, 2008 from http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=218&DID=220 Is a Fuller Relinguification of TESOL Desirable? JOSHUA A FISHMAN Yeshiva University (Emeritus) New York, New York, United States Ⅲ I well remember the First TESOL War (TW1), in the 1950s, a “war” personified by an obvious altercation between Professors Rudy Troike and Jim Alatis, as to whether TESOL was good or bad for bilingual education SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL TESOL 313