International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT 3030749800, 9783030749804

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

res the emergence of disruptive digital technologies such as robotics, chnology and 3D printing and their impact on human lives and jobs in ntury societies. Incorporating a cutting edge area studies perspective, it enges and long term implications of the rise of ‘Tech Giants’ such as Alibaba, through the lens of past industrial revolutions, looking back at the hnologies and industrial developments - the steam engine, electrification, oduction, and the rise of digital technology - upon which the modern world gates the mirror profiles of the world’s largest tech companies in the US and oogle, Alibaba and Amazon, Wechat and Facebook) and provides a unique h Giants with 19th century colonial empires and monopolistic trading s of political-economic dominance. A key tool for instructors and students s on Technological History, Digital Technology and Cultures, New Media, China Studies, this book provides practical guidance on how readers can o face key workplace and societal challenges in a virtually interconnected ch Giant monopoly.

or Lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, Research Fellow versity of Singapore and Visiting Lecturer at Waseda University of Tokyo, uated from Cornell University and NUS in History and Japanese Studies, and us positions at NUS, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Singapore ement. Lim is a historian by training and also an area study specialist (on a and Japan), and he combines teaching across world history, energy and ries, (North) East Asian history, East Asian studies (Japan and China), contemporary China studies with a policy research portfolio focused on elopments in Japan, Hong Kong and China.

International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT Edited by Darío Luis Banegas Griselda Beacon Mercedes Pérez Berbain

International Perspectives on English Language Teaching

Series Editors Sue Garton, Aston University, School of Languages and Social Sciences, Birmingham, UK Fiona Copland, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

Global meets local in Palgrave’s exciting new series, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching. This innovative series is truly international, with each volume providing the opportunity to compare and learn from experiences of researchers and teachers around the world; is based on cutting edge research linked to effective pedagogic practice; shows how developing local pedagogies can have global resonance. Each volume focuses on an area of current debate in ELT and is edited by key figures in the field, while contributors are drawn from across the globe and from a variety of backgrounds.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14843

Darío Luis Banegas · Griselda Beacon · Mercedes Pérez Berbain Editors

International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT

Editors Darío Luis Banegas School of Education University of Strathclyde Glasgow, UK

Griselda Beacon IES en Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mercedes Pérez Berbain Instituto Superior del Profesorado Joaquín V. González Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

International Perspectives on English Language Teaching ISBN 978-3-030-74980-4 ISBN 978-3-030-74981-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1

(eBook)

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Luigi Spezia/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Series Editors’ Preface

Schooling is perhaps one of the most recognisable of human social activities and instantly conjures up standard images of a room, tables and chairs/benches/mats facing one way, a board, lots of young people and one older one, who does most of the talking. Of course, the reality is somewhat more varied—classrooms come in a range of different configurations, students can be all ages and the number of students in a class might be 3 or 300. Nevertheless, the notion that education is best achieved through schooling is a global hegemony, formed on the underlying principle that one size fits all. Given this universal model of education, it is not surprising that for many years, recognition of students’ individual needs was overlooked, which is not to say that classrooms were full of homogenous learners who were taught in one way by the teacher. Classrooms have always been full of a diverse group of students and teachers have always worked hard to ensure that all have a good education. However, this century has seen a turn towards understanding and addressing the individual in an educational movement that has become known as differentiation. Recent scholarship in this field has allowed us to identify areas that can affect how a student accesses schooling and is successful at it, providing policymakers, teacher educators and teachers with new lenses through which to investigate and understand diversity in learning and teaching. What are some of these lenses? In the early days, ability, special educational needs and, in our field, English language level, were three ways that students were recognised as being different from each other. Teachers tried

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Series Editors’ Preface

to attend to these differences by, for example, setting easier and more difficult questions for a reading text, by changing task outcomes for different groups or by setting different kinds of homework. More recently, other lenses have been introduced. Socio-economic background, gender, sexuality, race, language background, motivation, learning preferences and culture can all affect how students do schooling and how they learn. This list could be potentially daunting for teachers who are now expected not only to deliver the curriculum but also to ensure that it is made accessible to students in a range of differentiated approaches. Nonetheless, all teachers understand and value inclusion, “a process that helps overcome barriers limiting the presence, participation and achievement of learners” (UNESCO, 2017, p. 13). Differentiation is a process through which teachers can effect inclusion. The chapters in this volume provide insights into approaches developed by teachers and teacher educators to do so. Given that differentiation is still a relatively recent focus of attention in English language teaching and research is limited, the volume is therefore extremely timely. Specifically, the focus in this edited collection is on addressing diversity in English language teaching in three key areas: interculturality, gender and special educational needs. As the editors explain in their introductory chapter, these are of particular personal interest. They are also interrelated as they all focus on learners’ and teachers’ wellbeing (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020) and on social justice. The range of countries represented is impressive, from Argentina to Germany and from Poland to the Philippines; the contexts are also wide-ranging, from secondary schools to teacher education programmes and from undergraduate courses to those to support deaf and hard of hearing students. It is hoped that these contributions might help us all to consider how we can ensure a differentiated approach for inclusion in our classrooms, wherever we are in the world. Birmingham, UK Stirling, UK

Sue Garton Fiona Copland

References Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher wellbeing. Oxford University Press. UNESCO (2017). A guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education. UNESCO.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our families, colleagues, and the series editors Sue Garton and Fiona Copland, for their guidance and support. We would also like to thank the chapter contributors for their patience and engagement throughout the writing and editing process.

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Contents

Introduction: Diversity in ELT Mercedes Pérez Berbain, Darío Luis Banegas, and Griselda Beacon

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Interculturality Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT Melina Porto and Javier Arguiano

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Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance Carlo Granados-Beltrán

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Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom Darren K. LaScotte and Bethany D. Peters

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“Let’s Play ‘Sok Says’, Not ‘Simon Says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools Roby Marlina Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching Thorsten Merse

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Contents

Gender Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus Dimitris Evripidou Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children Rafaella R. Potestades Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities Tanja McCandie

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131 153

Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom Paola Cossu, Gabriela Brun, and Darío Luis Banegas

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Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education Carolyn Blume

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Special Education Needs The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation Anssi Roiha and Jerker Polso

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Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs Robert J. Lowe, Matthew Y. Schaefer, and Matthew W. Turner

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Dyslexia and Its Role in the Teaching Reform in China Stuart Perrin

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A Challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Ewa Domagała-Zy´sk and Anna Podlewska

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English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD Ne¸se Cabaro˘glu and Merve Tohma

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Contents

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Diversity in ELT: Present and Future Griselda Beacon, Mercedes Pérez Berbain, and Darío Luis Banegas

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Index

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Notes on Contributors

Javier Arguiano is an advanced student of the English Teaching Programme at Universidad Nacional de La Plata. He is pursuing a career in secondary school English language teaching. Darío Luis Banegas is a Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Strathclyde and an Associate Fellow with the University of Warwick. In Argentina, he is involved in online initial English language teacher education. He is an active member of ELT teacher associations in Argentina (FAAPI) and the UK (IATEFL). His main teaching and research interests are: CLIL, action research, and teacher development. Griselda Beacon is a Lecturer in American Literature at Universidad de Buenos Aires and in literature, visual and performative arts at several staterun Teacher Training Colleges in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A NILE (Norwich Institute for Language Education) consultant trainer in the UK, she has an M.A. in Literature in English and Foreign Language Teaching from PhilippsUniversität Marburg, Germany. She co-authored Together, an Oxford University Press coursebook series for secondary school tailor-made for Argentina. Her special interests include literature in ELT, visual and performative arts, creativity, CLIL, young learners, and intercultural education. Carolyn Blume is a Junior Professor for Teaching and Learning with Digital Media in the Dortmunder Competence Center for Teaching and Learning (DoKoLL) of the Technical University Dortmund. She is also a member by

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courtesy of the Department of Cultural Studies (English). Prof. Blume draws on her experiences as a teacher and school administrator in the USA and Germany to inform her understanding of EFL teacher education as it pertains to inclusion and digitally mediated foreign language learning. Gabriela Brun is a Graduate Teacher of English and a teacher educator in Argentina. She holds a diploma in Feminism and Gender. Her main interests are interculturality, CSE, and initial teacher education. Ne¸se Cabaro˘glu is a Lecturer in the English Language Teaching Department at Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. She received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Reading, UK. Her research revolves around issues related to teacher education, teacher cognition, student teacher learning, and professional development. Paola Cossu is a Graduate Teacher of English and a licenciada en Lengua Inglesa (Universidad de Belgrano). She is also a teacher educator and a facilitator in the CPD programme for the Ministry of Education in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Her main interests lie in CSE, teacher development and didactics in higher education. Ewa Domagała-Zy´sk is a researcher and English teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, working at the Department of Special Education at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. Her research interests are connected with special educational needs in the context of school and social inclusion and methodology of teaching of deaf and hard of hearing students (surdoglottodidactics). Dimitris Evripidou teaches English language modules at the University of Cyprus. He completed his undergraduate studies at Lancaster University and postgraduate studies at Middlesex University and Lancaster University. His main research interests focus on the interrelationships among Language Education, Sociolinguistics, and gender identities. Carlo Granados-Beltrán is the Academic Director of the BA in Bilingual Education at Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana (ÚNICA) and the President of the Colombian English Teachers Association (ASOCOPI). He holds a PhD in Education from Universidad Santo Tomás in Bogotá, Colombia. He also holds and MA in British Cultural Studies and ELT from the University of Warwick and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Darren K. LaScotte is a Teaching Specialist in the Minnesota English Language Program at the University of Minnesota (USA), where he teaches

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English as a second language to international students in both the Intensive English Program and Academic English Program. Within the broader scope of applied linguistics, his research focuses on second language acquisition and use, and on the resulting implications for teaching and learning. He has published on topics of language use and variation, the construct of voice and heteroglossia, and second language instruction and assessment. He is coauthor (with Bethany Peters) of the textbook Intercultural Skills in Action: An International Student’s Guide to College and University Life in the United States (University of Michigan Press). Other recent publications appear in the Modern Language Journal , Journal of Second Language Studies, and TESOL Journal . Robert J. Lowe is a Lecturer in the Department of English Communication at Tokyo Kasei University. He is the co-author of Teaching English as a Lingua Franca: The Journey from EFL to ELF (DELTA Publishing, 2018), co-editor of Duoethnography in English Language Teaching: Research, Reflection, and Classroom Application (Multilingual Matters, 2020), and author of Uncovering Ideology in English Language Teaching: Identifying the ‘Native Speaker’ Frame (Springer, 2020). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in ELT Journal, Language Teaching, and Applied Linguistics Review. Roby Marlina is a Language Specialist (Teacher-Educator) with the Training, Research, Assessment and Consultancy Department at SEAMEORELC, Singapore. His research interests lie in Curriculum and Pedagogy of English as an International Language/World Englishes, TESOL, and International Education. His works have appeared in international peer-reviewed journals such as Asian Englishes, RELC Journal , World Englishes, Multilingual Education, International Journal of Educational Research, andAsian EFL Journal ; and various edited books on themes including Teaching EIL and Global Englishes Teacher Education. His edited book, The Pedagogy of English as an International Language: Perspective from Scholars, Teachers, and Students (2014), was published by Springer International Publishing. He is also the author of a monograph entitled Teaching English as an International Language: Implementing, Reviewing, and Re-Envisioning World Englishes in Language Education (2018), published by Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group). Tanja McCandie has been involved in English education for over 20 years and has worked in various contexts in Canada, the UK, and Japan. She is the founder of www.equalityeltjapan.net, is a university teacher, a teacher trainer, and an author. Her research interests include gender, teacher education, and leadership.

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Thorsten Merse is a postdoc researcher in the field of teaching English as a foreign language at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, Germany. His doctoral research titled Other Others, Different Differences: Queer Perspectives on Teaching English as a Foreign Language pinpointed a queer-informed renegotiation of ELT pedagogy. Further research interests include the digital transformation of ELT, diversity pedagogy, critical theory and literature education. Mercedes Pérez Berbain is a former lecturer at Joaquín V. González and Juan Ramón Fernández Colleges of Education in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She holds an M.A. in Education from Oxford Brookes University, UK and is involved in English language teacher Education (ESSARP, OUP, Pilgrims). Her main interests include ELT to young learners and teacher development. Stuart Perrin is currently Associate Principal of the Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University Entrepreneur College (Taicang), a new education venture and campus built around technology-based education through concepts of AI and industry 4.0. Previous positions that he has held in the university include Dean for Learning and Teaching, and Director of the Language Centre (2012–2016). In this role, he was responsible for over 150 English language teachers, and developing the English for Academic Purposes provision for the university, as well as ensuring that students met UK English language entry requirements for those who may study at its UK partner, the University of Liverpool. He was also responsible for initiating discussion on greater inclusivity with regard to language. Stuart has previously worked in EAP and management positions in language centres at Queen Mary, University of London, and Brunel University. Bethany D. Peters is faculty in the School of Education at Greenville University (USA), where she teaches M.A. courses in the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) track. She has over 14 years of experience teaching English as a second language to international students at the University of Minnesota, where she also created instructional resources and a resource website to support faculty in various disciplines who teach international students. Her research focuses on intercultural communication and group work, faculty development, and internationalising the curriculum. She is coauthor (with Darren LaScotte) of the textbook Intercultural Skills in Action: An International Student’s Guide to College and University Life in the United States (University of Michigan Press). Anna Podlewska is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at the Medical University of Lublin, Poland, where she has been

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teaching English and Polish for Medical Purposes to students of medicine and allied health sciences since 2007. She is also affiliated with the Institute of Pedagogy at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. Jerker Polso, M.Ed., M.B.A. is a principal and special education teacher who has worked as a teacher and trainer in all levels of education in Finland. He has mostly worked in primary school as a classroom teacher and a special education needs teacher. Jerker has also worked in in-service training for teachers and principals internationally. Currently, he is the vice-principal of a Finnish comprehensive school. Alongside work, he writes his doctoral dissertation in in-service teacher training and education exports. Melina Porto is a researcher at the National Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina, Professor at Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) (Argentina) and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia (2019-–2021). She was Visiting Academic at the University of East Anglia from 2012 to 2018. She holds an M.A. ELT from Essex University (thesis supervised by Henry Widdowson), a Ph.D. from UNLP (thesis supervised by Miguel Montezanti and Michael Byram) and a postdoctoral degree in Humanities and Social Sciences (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina). Her research addresses the intercultural dimension of English language teaching and intercultural citizenship education in the foreign language classroom. Rafaella R. Potestades is currently working for an education-based nongovernmental organisation in the Philippines. She graduated with a degree in the Bachelor of Arts and Letters in English Language Studies from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in Women and Development at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her current areas of research interests centre on the construction of gender discursive identities in various social interactions found in schools, social media, and pop culture. Anssi Roiha, Ph.D. works as a Lecturer at the University of Turku, Finland, where he trains future teachers. Previously, he has worked as a teacher and student support specialist in an International Baccalaureate school in the Netherlands and as a special class teacher in Finland. Differentiation is a core component in Anssi’s teaching philosophy and he has published widely on the topic. Anssi’s other research interests include CLIL and intercultural education. Matthew Y. Schaefer has worked as an English language teacher and academic manager in France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Japan, including at

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private language schools and primary, secondary, and tertiary education. He holds an M.A. TESOL from Nagoya University of Foreign Studies and a DELTA. He has published book chapters and journal articles on reflective practice and creating a framework for accommodating students with disabilities, among other topics. His current research interests include course design, syllabus evaluation, and speaking assessment. Merve Tohma is a Lecturer in English in the Vocational School of Higher Education at Ça˘g University, Mersin, Turkey. She completed her teacher training at the Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. She received an M.A. degree from Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. Her M.A. thesis examined elementary school English teachers’ knowledge of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), classroom management and the teaching strategies applied in EFL classroom settings. Her research interests include special education needs as well as issues relating to second language learning. Matthew W. Turner is an English Language Lecturer at Toyo University. His current research interests include reflective practice, continuing professional development, podcasting in language teacher education, accessibility, and support for learners with special educational needs. Matthew is a cocreator of The TEFLology Podcast and coordinator of Japan Association of Language Teaching’s (JALT) Teacher Development SIG.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

5D ADHD BA CDA CEFR CLIL CPD CSE DHH E(S)AP ECC EFL EIL ELP ELT EMI ESL ESP FPDA HOTs ICC ICC ICT INTERSECT JALT

5-Dimensional Model Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Bachelor of Arts Critical Discourse Analysis Common European Framework of Reference Content and Language Integrated Learning Continuing Professional Development Comprehensive Sexual Education Deaf and Hard of Hearing English for (Specific) Academic Purposes Expanding Circle Countries English as a Foreign Language English as an International Language European Language Portfolio English Language Teaching English Medium Instruction English as a Second Language English for Specific Purposes Feminist Post-Structuralist Discourse Analysis Higher Order Thinking Skills Inner Circle Countries Intercultural Communicative Competence Information and Communications Technology Interactions for Sex Equity in Classroom Teaching Japan Association of Language Teachers

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Abbreviations and Acronyms

JVU L1 LGBTIQ*

LGBTQ+ LGBTQIA+ LMS LOTs MoE MoEYS OCC OCED PISA PM PSTs SEN SLA SOGIE SOGIESC SRH STEM TEIL TNE UDL UK UN UN CRPD UNDP VLE ZPD

Joint Venture University First Language Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/transsexual, Intersex, and Queer/questioning identities and experiences. The asterisk represents further self-definitions. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer and other communities Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual, and other genders Learning Management System Lower Order Thinking Skills Ministry of Education Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Kingdom of Cambodia Outer Circle Countries Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment Programme Manager Pre-service Teachers Special Educational Needs Second Language Acquisition Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics Sexual and Reproductive Health Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Teaching English as an International Language Transnational Education Universal Design for Learning United Kingdom United Nations United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities United Nations Development Programme Virtual Learning Environment Zone of Proximal Development

List of Figures

Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching Fig. 1

A snapshot from a digital story

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Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4

My family is small Poster of a female mechanic Word cloud Poster presented by a group of participants in the workshop

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Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education Fig. 1

Examining learner products

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The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation Fig. 1

The 5-dimensional model of differentiation (Adapted from Roiha & Polso, 2020)

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List of Tables

“Let’s Play ‘Sok Says’, Not ‘Simon Says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4

TEIL-informed analytic scheme for textbook evaluation Representation of users of English in English G7 Representation of phonological norms in English G7 Cultural references in English G7

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Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus Table 1

Teachers’ background information

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Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children Table 1

Gender narratives identified and accepted in the classroom

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Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities Table 1

Participants’ information

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List of Tables

Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom Table 1 Table 2

Topics and resources Summary of lesson plans

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Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education Table 1

Gender-sensitive EFL teacher preparation unit overview

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Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs Table 1

Participants’ background information

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Dyslexia and Its Role in the Teaching Reform in China Table 1

English communication skills in the academic context

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English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD Table 1

Educational interventions frequently used in the ELT teacher education classroom

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Introduction: Diversity in ELT Mercedes Pérez Berbain, Darío Luis Banegas, and Griselda Beacon

Why a Volume on Diversity? In 2019, we, the three editors of this volume, engaged in a fruitful exchange of voice messages, emails, and face-to-face meetings as we toyed with the idea of a project that would enable synergistic professional growth among us three. We agreed on working on an edited collection that we would like to read ourselves as a self-initiated form of professional development on a pervasive topic which was concerning us all: diversity—or rather the lack of it in English language teaching (ELT). Boosted by our growing motivation in dialogue, we also agreed to work on a book that could contribute to the profession by bringing together different voices, different contexts, different frameworks, i.e. diverse lived experiences in ELT. We recognised that we could not include all the possible themes or complexities that (the lack of ) M. Pérez Berbain (B) Instituto Superior del Profesorado Joaquín V. González, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina D. L. Banegas School of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK e-mail: [email protected] G. Beacon IES en Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_1

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diversity brings about, but the volume would be a picture that portrays some aspects of ELT practice and beyond. We also acknowledged that attending to diversity in ELT poses several challenges as it may increase teachers’ workload since diversity inherently leads to deploying a wider range of strategies, tools, and practices, and it necessitates quality time, support, and preparation, which are a luxury in less-resourced settings. A thorough review of English language teaching publications addressed to teachers for their professional development showed us that there is, with a few exceptions (e.g., Douglas, 2019), a paucity of handbooks or reference books, which illustrate, reflect on, and problematise how diversity may be crystallised in English language teaching. Aware of this lacuna, we put together an open call for potential contributors as a democratic approach to include diversity in terms of themes, geographical locations, and educational contexts. Indeed, the volume seeks to • Provide English language educators with situated accounts and culturally responsive activities around diversity and inclusion for their own professional practices. • Offer informed accounts related to the following areas: (1) interculturality, (2) gender, and (3) special education needs in different levels of formal education. • Reflect on opportunities and challenges around diversity in ELT. • Raise awareness on themes across the curriculum and on wider social issues. Drawing on contemporary educational underpinnings, mostly sociocultural theory (Lantolf & Poehner, 2014) and critical pedagogy (Giroux, 2020; López-Gopar, 2019; Ospina & Ramírez-López, 2016), we take a broad stance on diversity as “an inherent property of the ESL [English as a second language] classroom” (Liu & Nelson, 2017, p. 1). In this volume, we seek to explore three areas associated with diversity: (1) interculturality, (2) gender, and (3) special education needs. Albeit arbitrary and linked to our professional interests, these three areas are often interrelated since the three look at all learners’ and teachers’ wellbeing (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020) as well as the welfare and socially just development of local and global communities. That said, the volume does not cover the full spectrum that such areas entail (e.g. race, religion, age, ethnic minorities, or heritage languages). In this chapter, we pull together the key unifying concerns included in the volume. Drawing on the recent literature in the field of (language) education, we concentrate on discussing diversity (often juxtaposed with inclusion), interculturality, gender, and special education needs. The chapter

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also describes the structure of the volume and includes a brief summary of each chapter.

Diversity and Inclusion According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO, 2002), diversity is a collective strength and the success of sustainable human development rests on the recognition and promotion of local knowledge. While UNESCO’s view of diversity is closely associated with protecting and promoting cultural diversity, mainly indigenous knowledge and indigenous languages, their vision may serve the purposes of understanding diversity as the representation of human existence and the whole universe of social practices, cultural wealth, and literacy capital that it encompasses (Trigos-Carrillo, 2019). In the field of education, this focus on cultural diversity may be associated with the notion of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris & Alim, 2017). In social sciences, the term diversity is often used to describe the composition of a group by paying attention to differences among the group members (Roberson, 2006). Such differences may be observable such as linguistic repertoire, accent, age, ethnicity, or gender, or non-observable such as the beliefs or cultural systems. In other words, diversity describes what makes us different. If we take any classroom, the group will be diverse even when we think they all share the same socioeconomic background or belong to the same age group or race. Diversity is an inherent characteristic of any group (Liu & Nelson, 2017). They may stand together driven by a common denominator, but their individual selves will bear differences that contribute to the group dynamics in multi-faceted ways. While acknowledging differences is a vital step to raise awareness of the complex and overlapping contexts found within and outside schools, it may not be enough, as we need to recognise that within diversity we may have put together the oppressor and the oppressed (Freire, 1970). From a social justice perspective, the notion of diversity is reoriented to recognise inequality, mitigate the consequences of exclusion, and dismantle injustice. Social justice attempts to disrupt inequalities based on (re)distribution of resources, democratic participation as well as gender and sexuality, ethnicity, religion, cultural practices, languages, and non-conforming identities (Lamb et al., 2019). In this volume, we agree that English as an additional language is no longer a luxury; it is a means through which to have access to a wider range of intercultural practices (Hall, 2016). Therefore, we view diversity within

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inclusive education to accommodate cultural practices, gender and special education needs in English language teaching as topics of discussion and, more importantly, as curriculum enactment. Inclusion may be defined as “a process that helps overcome barriers limiting the presence, participation and achievement of learners” (UNESCO, 2017, p. 13). In the context of education, inclusion seeks to “remove the barriers limiting the participation and achievement of all learners, respect diverse needs, abilities and characteristics and […] eliminate all forms of discrimination in the learning environment” (UNESCO, 2019). This aim is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030, particularly Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UN, 2016a). Drawing on Roberson (2006), inclusion in education may be understood as the extent to which learners and teachers can access equity education and quality resources, influence decision-making processes (e.g. participation in curriculum change), and the degree to which they feel part of the educational system. Equity seeks to ensure fair treatment, equality of opportunity, and fairness in access and participation in education for all (UNESCO, 2017). Hence, inclusive education is about how to support everyone’s sense of belonging and value as a person (Petriwskyj, 2010). In ELT, efforts for diversity and inclusion, usually at the level of research more than practice, are not new. For example, in 1999, Pennycook edited a special issue on critical approaches in ELT (Pennycook, 1999) in which the authors tap into issues such as minorities, identity, and queer pedagogies to contribute to the fair representation of diversity through transformative pedagogies of engagement. However, the incorporation of an inclusive agenda in ELT seems to be moving slowly. Kubota et al. (2003) have also raised concerns about diversity and inclusion in the field as they have noted that learners’ individual backgrounds, experiences, and perceptions are seldom discussed in class or employed to inform the curriculum. In a recent study with higher education learners, Ramezanzadeh and Rezaei (2019) found that second language (L2) learners wish they could engage more in critical dialogue with marginalised voices as well as mainstream ones.

How is Diversity Understood in This Volume? The preceding section exhibits the interrelationship between diversity and inclusion, and shows a shift in the literature from diversity to inclusion.

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Nevertheless, as the title of this volume shows, we propose holding on to the construct of diversity. These are some of the reasons: • Diversity is an inherent trait of human beings as part of a plural humanity, evidenced in identities, perspectives, cultures, beliefs, endeavours, contexts, intentions, needs, and languages. Hence, diversity needs to inform the construction of the learning environment, syllabi, and curricula, “affording full accessibility to all” (Kormos & Smith, 2012, p. 12). • Learning environments which acknowledge diversity through critical pedagogy endeavour towards a more inclusive society (Banegas & Villacañas de Castro, 2016; Freire, 1970). • A critical approach to diversity exposes (often unconscious) bias, prejudice, discrimination, inequity, and injustice—a springboard for “lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UN, 2016b) and for promoting curiosity and respect for others (Beall, 2019). • Embodying diversity in the language classroom and increasing critical consciousness counteract hegemonic dominance by giving learners a chance to mobilise intercultural competencies and exercise democratic principles (Chan & Coney, 2020; Reckermann, 2020). • Celebrating diversity allows us “to rediscover our common humanity through our very diversity” (UNESCO, 2002, p. 5).

Interculturality The intricate relationship between language and cultures is now an integral part of the ELT agenda, challenging more traditional approaches in which linguistic input is anchored in a cultural vacuum. The intercultural communication process entails negotiating cultural knowledge and creating new meanings. This is what Bhabha (1994) calls an inbetween space. In the field of ELT, Kramsch (1993) expands on Bhabha’s cultural concept and coins the term third place or third culture to refer to the process learners undergo when they make sense of the world by challenging their own cultural identities through learning other languages. In the same vein, the model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) (Byram, 1997; López-Jiménez & Sánchez Torres, 2021) highlights one inherent characteristic of foreign language teaching: “the experience of otherness” (Byram, 1997, p. 4), which compels foreign language learners to experience the familiar and unfamiliar through the medium of another

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language. ICC looks at the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in various cultural contexts. It aims to enable students to develop the ability to decentre, to challenge their own worldviews, to accept ambiguity and uncertainty, and to empathise with other perspectives of the world. This model has become the basis for the Council of Europe’s recommended system of validation of language ability for the promotion of democratic citizenship (CEFR, 2018). In the last decades, intercultural education has been challenged to stretch and expand the inter cultural spectrum to embrace a fairer representation of diversity. This has been done through transformative pedagogies of engagement (Pennycook, 1999) with an intersectional lens (Collins, 2015). These pedagogies intend to cater for the needs of silenced voices stemming from former colonial contexts, or underprivileged ethnic and/or linguistic minority groups, as well as socially disadvantaged ones (Kumaravadivelu, 2016; Spivak, 1988). In Latin America, for example, critical interculturality seeks to challenge hegemonic views of social privilege through a decolonial (ELT) pedagogy which exposes imposed relations of power, a heritage of European imperialism, and denounces social, political, and ethnic inequality (Mignolo, 2000; Walsh, 2010). The intersectional lens foregrounds the many possible variables in identity construction, such as race, age, ethnicity, education, social class, religion, nationality, (native) languages, among others, which are likely to intersect with the three main areas of this volume. Keeping these intersections in mind contributes to bringing to light how the many layers of privilege and oppression articulate in society and affect learners’ access to quality education. Thus, diversity manifests itself in the intersection of the multiple dimensions of identity construction (Collins, 2015; Crenshaw, 1991). More recently, a vibrant and effervescent field, queer intercultural education in ELT, has emerged to claim for the inclusion of diversity in the active construction of the learners’ gender and sexual identities. Queer pedagogy challenges heteronormative cultural practices and has contributed to the inclusion of the voices of the LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersexual, Queer, and others) community in EFL classrooms. Critical analyses of teaching materials, gender roles, and language use have exposed the (lack of ) representation of the diversity in gender and sexual identities in the world of ELT (Evripidou, 2020; Gray, 2013; Merse, 2015; Nelson, 2009; Paiz, 2019). Hence, contemporary intercultural education in ELT has become a very dynamic and intersectional field, which proposes a dialogue among cultures, mediated by foreign languages. It aims to embrace diversity and to work

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towards decentring and developing empathy to give visibility and to empower silenced minorities to break free from all sorts of inequalities and oppressive forces.

Gender In line with the broader constructs of diversity and inclusion, in this volume, we conceptualise gender as a cultural and dynamic construct. Gender may be seen as a social institution, a system of power relations, a performance of identity, and a result of actions (Evripidou, 2020; Widodo & Elyas, 2020). In other words, gender is about being and doing in particular ways. Gender is different from sex, which refers to biological traits, but cannot be directly equated to sexuality. Yet, Butler (1993, 1999) problematises sex as a cultural norm and an ideal construct materialised over time and shaped by regulatory norms. In this volume, the lens is focused on gender and sexuality. Baxter (2013) views both gender and sexuality as broad, fluid, and multifaceted terms that are present in all humans. Humans can be thus seen as gendered and (a)sexual beings and both gender and sexuality inform people’s identities. In this volume, gender is discussed drawing on critical, feminist, and queer theories. These theories “challenge how gender and sexual identities can be understood within and across different languages and cultures, create[s] spaces where critical discussions around the sociocultural relevance of all identities, gender, sexual or others can be developed” (Banegas & Evripidou, 2021). Gender has been traditionally understood from a system of heteronormativity. Heteronormativity refers to upholding binary cis-heterosexuality (a straight woman and a straight man) as the norm against which human beings are gendered as either males or females. On the one hand, the system silences those individuals who do not fit into the binary, for example LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersexual, Queer, and others) people/community. On the other hand, the system is built on a patriarchal framework where heterosexual men are privileged over others, being discrimination against women the most recognised and discussed. It comes as no surprise that one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 is to achieve gender equality (Goal 5) by empowering women and girls to participate in all spheres of social life, and by eliminating all forms of discrimination, violence, and harmful practices against them (UN, 2016b). Fuelled by a patriarchal system, gender inequality affects all domains of life and the ELT world is not the exception. For example, authors have exposed

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how male-dominated hierarchies exercise systemic discrimination against their female counterparts (e.g., Nagatomo, 2016) in the workplace and other professional environments. One initiative to counteract this condemnable practice at least in the conference circuit is the organisation called Equal Voices in ELT (EVE), which seeks to promote gender (female-male) and language proficiency (native/non-native) parity in ELT events. There is even an award called The Fair List which recognises gender balance in ELT events in the UK. Another domain, which could be regarded as a threat to gender equality and diversity is that of teaching materials in the market. Authors have called for the development of materials, which are sensitive to gender diversity and refrain from perpetuating heteronormative stereotypes which do not represent learners, teachers, and society at large (e.g., Dahmardeh & Kim, 2020; Gray, 2013; Moore, 2020). In other words, there is a need to include, for example, professional and independent women, gay characters, or same-sex relationships in coursebooks. Together with materials, there is a pressing need to include gender and sexuality diversity in the classroom and work towards the deconstruction of gendered classroom discourse so that everyday instances of male chauvinism, i.e., the belief that men are intellectually and physically superior to women, or discrimination coated as humour are discussed and eliminated. As gender diversity has been identified as a need in ELT (Paiz, 2019), it is agreed that systemic change should include English language teacher education (ELTE) in both pre-service preparation and continuing professional development. In this regard, ELTE courses can support and empower teachers by creating spaces where sociohistorical dimensions, individual trajectories, beliefs, attitudes, and cultural practices are deconstructed and informed by theory, research, and practice. Deconstruction entails the analysis of the elements of an issue for its reinterpretation. For example, a gender perspective can help us re-examine how gender, sexuality, and (in)equality influence people’s roles and access to, for example, education and professional opportunities. Recent accounts (e.g., Banegas et al., 2020) report that when a gender perspective is systemically included in ELTE, both (student) teachers’ and teacher educators’ awareness increases and that awareness begins to inform new gender-sensitive classroom practices and materials. Preparing teachers to address LGBTIQ+ identities in ELT entails not only working on a professional dimension but also on a personal plane (Lawrence & Nagashima, 2020) as teachers are also gendered beings and gender and sexuality are part of the identity they bring into teaching. This means that (future) teachers may

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need to deconstruct themselves and reflect on their own lives as gendered and (a)sexual beings before addressing these topics in their professional practice. From an intersectional pedagogy, gender identities are also affected by other dimensions of identity construction (e.g., race, age, education) which add to the complexity of ELT.

Special Education Needs Special education needs (SEN) represents another thread in the weave of diversity and inclusion. In this volume, SEN refers to institutional and teacher education needs, which attend to learners’ functional diversity. Functional diversity is a construct, which originated in the Independent Living approach to disability. It acknowledges the different ways learners function in the language classroom (Campoy-Cubillo, 2019; Ratzka, 2007). These ways may reveal social, cognitive, emotional, sensory, and/or physical needs which may increase inequality of opportunities if they are not met (Kormos, 2020a). Learners who encounter barriers to learning bring to light a gap between performance and potential (Douglas, 2019) or may altogether refrain from participating in “high-quality education, including foreign language” (Nijakowska, 2019, p. 192). In truth, in a fully-inclusive system of education, “diversity in all its forms would be accepted as the norm” (Kormos & Smith, 2012, p. 105). Learners with various aspirations, abilities, and skills would learn side by side in a unified educational system. It would value diversity, attend to individual needs, focus on entitlement, and consider collective responsibility and equal opportunities. If this were the case, this volume would be redundant. However, the literature on SEN describes how some learners experience barriers when learning English as an additional language (Kormos, 2017), and it also reveals that some other learners are excluded from meaningful learning even when they are present in the classroom (Dexter, 2020). Diversity in SEN, far from being perceived as part of humankind, often results in experiences of difficulties in the classroom, which affect between 5 and 15% of the population (Drabble, 2013). These difficulties are referred to as “specific learning differences” (Liontou, 2019; MacKay, 2002), “barriers to participation and learning” (Booth, 2011), “specific learning difficulty” (Kormos, 2020b; Lowe, 2016), “functional diversity” (Campoy-Cubillo, 2019), and “individual needs” (Dexter, 2019). All these terms draw attention to the pressing issue of dealing with SEN in ELT to make sure that learners do not turn away from learning English as an additional language due to the

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difficulties they may encounter in the educational system and in society at large (MacKay, 2002; Kormos, 2020a). To mitigate exclusion, SEN needs to be addressed in teacher education with a focus on learning needs, such as active involvement and individualised goals (Kormos, 2017) and on specific teaching strategies, such as multisensory/multi-modal approaches and differentiated teaching and learning (Stadler-Heer, 2019). There is also an imperative to understand inclusion as “benefiting all learners, not only targeting the excluded” (UNESCO, 2005, p. 13), as well as to ensure institutional provision and teacher support (Campoy-Cubillo, 2019; Kormos, 2020a). We acknowledge that inclusive education without the necessary support puts an extra weight on the already heavy teacher’s load, calling for planning for differentiation as well as attending to learners’ differences while teaching (Connett, 2020). That said, can we afford to turn a blind eye to inclusion, which is the enactment of democratic citizenship and social justice? In this volume, SEN is discussed from a critical, socio-cultural, and interactional perspective. It acknowledges that it is society, not the individual, which needs to adjust to meet the needs of all (Kormos & Smith, 2012; Stadler-Heer, 2019). The difficulty some learners may experience when learning an additional language is the result of how they interact with barriers in the educational environment (Kormos, 2020a). This view diverts from a medical and deficit perspective, which regards some people as having intrinsic disabilities that prevent them from fitting in the established system. Thus, we question current ELT practices in which we identify threats to the laws and regulations which grant the right to all individuals for lifelong quality education, without discrimination and on an equal basis with others (Council of Europe, 2018; UN, 2006; UNESCO, 1994). One such threat is an ELT curriculum which does not include differentiations or is not flexible enough to adapt to all learners (Stadler-Heer, 2019). For example, Reckermann (2020) and Eisenmann (2017) critically evaluate methods of scaffolding and differentiating, such as individualisation and embedding storytelling techniques when reading aloud, to cater for learners with different readiness levels and learning needs. Another threat is an educational policy which is not supportive in terms of ELT resources, staff, and training (Ingle, 2017; Lowe, 2016; Kormos, 2020a). Indeed, resources and teaching methods, which foreground diversity hardly ever feature in EFL teaching (Reckermann, 2020). Last, there is the threat of society stigmatising and underestimating SEN learners in ELT worldwide. Al-Hout (2017) and Ingle (2017) report a need to promote high aspirations for SEN learners supported by high parent and teacher expectations for these learners,

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regardless of the challenges they may be facing. Most importantly, significant advocacy with all stakeholders may bring about a change in attitude towards learners with additional needs (Ingle, 2017; Kormos, 2020a). Hence, there is a call for a balance between emphasising similarities and acknowledging differences among learners (Reckermann, 2020), as well as having equity guide teaching strategies (MacKay, 2002). Moreover, there is a compelling need in ELT in particular to understand diversity from an interactional and intersectional perspective, considering learners’ strengths (e.g., holistic thinking, pattern recognition, and visuo-spatial skills) and weaknesses (e.g., planning, organising, focusing, and phonological processing) when developing their competence in additional languages (Domagała-Zy´sk & Podlewska, 2019; Kormos, 2020a). It is also important to highlight the importance of inclusive educational policies and the provision of institutional support (Kormos, 2020a). SEN can be but one aspect of disadvantage which, alongside other layers of oppression, may deprive some learners of their right to quality education in an additional language.

Structure of the Volume The 15 contributions to this volume are organised into three thematic sections which respond to the key concepts discussed in this chapter. Yet, from an intersectional perspective (Collins, 2015), these constructs interrelate with others, such as ethnicity, class, race, age, among others. Even when many of these concepts are not overtly referred to in this volume, they are present in the culturally embedded ELT contexts and classroom practices addressed. Readers will be able to establish connections among sections and chapters and participate in the weave of intersectionality. In Part I (Interculturality), readers will find five chapters, which draw on informed practices and research set in Argentina, Colombia, the United States, Cambodia, and Germany. In Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”, Porto and Arguiano utilise a narrative approach to describe a cross-curricular project with primary and secondary school learners in an Argentinian school, which helped learners mobilise their intercultural skills. In Chapter “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”, Granados-Beltrán situates his chapter at the intersection of interculturality and post-colonial studies to describe the implementation of a critical interculturality module in a teacher education programme in Colombia. In Chapter “Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom”, LaScotte and Peters describe strategies employed in

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US higher education to explicitly address interculturality in English language instruction drawing on intercultural competence theory. In Chapter ““Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools”, Marlina discusses whether intercultural and international dimensions of situated language teaching have been incorporated in secondary school ELT textbooks produced by and for Cambodia. In Chapter “Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”, Merse addresses interculturality from a queer-informed perspective and puts forward a clearly delineated and illustrated typology of tasks with a focus on intercultural awareness to challenge heteronormativity as a cultural norm. Part II (Gender) consists of five chapters that draw on experiences set in Cyprus, the Philippines, Japan, Argentina, and Germany. In Chapter “Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus”, Evripidou focuses on eight Greek Cypriot EFL teachers’ concerns about discussing heteronormativity and facilitating the exploration of sexual identities in the English language classroom. In Chapter “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children, Potestades examines teacher-learner classroom interactions and how such dialogues may challenge or maintain learners’ conceptions of gender and (self-perceived) gender identity. In Chapter “Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities”, McCandie discusses some of the issues female English teachers have when it comes to working within male-dominated working environments such as Japan. In Chapter “Supporting In-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom”, Cossu, Brun, and Banegas reflect on the outcomes of a workshop on gender diversity delivered to pre-service as well as in-service teachers in Argentina. Last, in Chapter “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”, Blume describes a module designed to examine issues on nonheteronormativity as part of an undergraduate seminar to prepare pre-service teachers to teach in inclusive settings in Germany. Part III (Special education needs) includes five chapters contextualised in Finland, Japan, China, Poland, and Turkey. In Chapter “The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation”, Roiha and Polso extend the concept of inclusion in L2 education and propose what they call a 5-dimensional model of differentiation, the dimensions being teaching arrangements, learning environment , teaching methods, support materials, and

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assessment, which is meant to be used in all aspects of a school community. In Chapter “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs”, Lowe, Schaefer, and Turner explore the cognitions and curricular accommodations of a group of teachers in Japan teaching learners with special education needs for the first time. In Chapter “Dyslexia and its Role in the Teaching Reform in China”, Perrin outlines the changes made to English-medium instruction university courses in China to become inclusive of dyslexic learners. In Chapter “A Challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students”, Domagała-Zy´sk and Podlewska share a set of principles, strategies, and communication techniques they employed at a Polish university to support deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students in L2 courses. In Chapter “English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”, Cabaro˘glu and Tohma report on a group of teacher educators’ knowledge of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and describe their actions to prepare future teachers for inclusive classrooms. Overall, the chapters in this volume are grounded in context-responsive pedagogies which combine local needs and experiences with international perspectives. Hence, while they necessarily depart from local concerns, their implications may resonate with other contexts and lived experiences across the wide spectrum of diversity in English language teaching. In addition, the chapters cover primary, secondary, higher, and teacher education and even when they are based on different research frameworks (e.g., narrative inquiry in Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT” or critical discourse analysis in Chapter “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children”), they coincide in that diversity needs to be part of the ELT agenda at the levels of educational policies, curricula, research, teacher education, and pedagogy. In addition, a common denominator across the volume is the necessity of investing in teacher preparation and continuing professional development so that diversity is systemically addressed in ELT teaching and learning. As a response to this need to strengthen the diversity agenda in ELT, each chapter includes a set of engagement priorities usually framed as questions and a list of suggested further reading that seek to invite readers to localise the experiences reported in the chapters.

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Pennycook, A. (1999). Introduction: Critical approaches to TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 329–348. Petriwskyj, A. (2010). Diversity and inclusion in the early years. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14 (2), 195–212. Ramezanzadeh, A., & Rezaei, S. (2019). Reconceptualising authenticity in TESOL: A new space for diversity and inclusion. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 794–815. Ratzka, A. (2007). Independent living for people with disabilities: From patient to citizen and customer. GLADNET Collection. Retrieved from http://digitalco mmons.ilr.cornell.edu/gladnetcollect/424. Reckermann, J. (2020). Dealing with diversity in English children’s books in the heterogeneous EFL classroom. PFLB, 2(4), 134–157. Roberson, Q. M. (2006). Disentangling the meanings of diversity and inclusion in organizations. Group & Organization Management, 31(2), 212–236. Spivak, G. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). MacMillan. Stadler-Heer, S. (2019). Inclusion. ELT Journal, 73(2), 219–222. Trigos-Carrillo, L. (2019). Community cultural wealth and literacy capital in Latin American communities. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 19 (1), 3–19. UN. (2006). The United Nations convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/con vention_accessible_pdf. UN. (2016a). Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/fZ5kEZ. UN. (2016b). Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/fZ5kEZ. UNESCO. (1994). The Salamanca statement and framework for action on special needs education. UNESCO. UNESCO. (2002). The Johannesburg declaration on sustainable development. UNESCO. UNESCO. (2005). Guidelines for inclusion: Ensuring access to education for all . UNESCO. UNESCO. (2017). A guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education. UNESCO. UNESCO. (2019). Inclusion in education. Available at https://en.unesco.org/themes/ inclusion-in-education. Walsh, C. (2010). Interculturalidad crítica y educación intercultural. In J. Viaña, L. Tapia & C. Walsh (Eds.), Construyendo interculturalidad crítica (pp. 75–96). Instituto Internacional de Integración del Convenio Andrés Bello III-CAB. Widodo, H. P., & Elyas, T. (2020). Introduction to gender in language education. Sexuality & Culture, 24 (4), 1019–1027.

Interculturality

Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT Melina Porto and Javier Arguiano

An Initial Vignette It is mid-November 2019 in City Bell, Argentina, and 6th form (primary school) and 1st year (secondary school) students are playing new sports they have just created during a field trip to the school’s country club. They are playing in mixed groups of primary and secondary students and of students in the role of sports designers and sports players. On the spot, they adapt the rules to suit everyone’s abilities and preferences and to play longer without being eliminated. They are accompanied by two English teachers, one Physical Education (PE) teacher, the English Department academic coordinator, the headteacher, the 1st year’s form tutor, a therapeutic aid (who is also a psychologist) and a janitor. They are communicating in English, a foreign language in the country: “We need rings and balls”; “The first step is do two

M. Porto (B) Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Conicet (National Research Council), La Plata, Argentina e-mail: [email protected] J. Arguiano Asociación Escuela Hebrea y Jardín de Infantes “Jaim Najman Bialik”, La Plata, Argentina

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_2

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queues”; “The ball it to be kicked”; “If you […], you kick the ball in the ring”. They feel excited, happy and motivated. Once back at school, the outdoor experience is the theme of the day. They go global and in their PE lessons, they re-design their sports with an international mindset to submit their creations for consideration of the International Olympic Committee. In his classroom, the secondary school English teacher receives these comments: “My teammates didn’t bother to help”; “Did you see that weird kid from 6th form?”; “That kid from 6th form spoke very good English”. These are a few glimpses of an interdisciplinary pedagogic project, not set up as a research project, aimed at working as a bridge between primary and secondary school, undertaken in a private and secular school (primary and secondary) in La Plata city run by the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Society (AMIA in Spanish) with a history of over 100 years in the Jewish community of the city. The primary school students are sixteen boys and nine girls, aged 11, and the secondary school students are ten boys and five girls, aged 12–13. Within each group, the students exhibit different levels of English language proficiency. On a side note, we must acknowledge the privileged status of the school, which owns its own country club and serves middle class students. Prior to the school trip, in their English and PE lessons, the students had addressed the theme healthy lifestyles in connection with sports, reflecting on the varied reasons why people do sports, how current sports originated, the differences between a sport and a game, sports rules and so on. In the English lessons, the teacher had focused on modal verbs to express rules, obligation, and prohibition (must, mustn’t); have/has to in order to describe steps; sports as a semantic field, for instance fields (field, court, course, track, arena), gear and equipment (ball, hoop, bat) and sportswear. The school bus arrived at the country club at 10 a.m. Six mixed groups with primary and secondary school students were formed and were told to create a new sport, totally different from any existing sport they knew. In a brainstorming stage, the students explored possibilities, imagined options creatively, thought about tentative aims, rules or laws, score systems, necessary sportswear, field type, equipment or gear and the like. The available equipment (different types of balls, hoops, ropes, cones and more) had been brought from the school by the PE teacher. Creativity was valued and encouraged: one group used the removable legs of outdoor plastic tables as bats and another, paper balls made by themselves. The teachers played a crucial role in this first stage as they asked guiding questions intended to raise awareness of some of the hidden or covert dimensions involved in terms of audience (Can this sport be played by anyone?

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Are there restrictions?); gender (Is this sport for boys? For girls? Is gender not significant?); age (Is this sport for young athletes? People of all ages?); sportswear requirements (Do you need a special outfit to play the sport? If so, how is that a form of exclusion?); health requirements (Can specific groups with particular health conditions play the sport? Are there restrictions? What about disabilities?); religion (Can people professing any religion play the sport?); language (Are there language barriers that prevent some groups from playing this sport?); among others. Then the collaborative task of designing a poster in English describing their sport began. Scaffolded by their teachers, they discussed how best to put their ideas on paper in a clear enough way for the other groups to understand. This step proved to be difficult and much scaffolding was needed. Once the posters were finalised, each group tried out their sport, scattered all around the premises, and this phase allowed them to see what worked and what did not, assess pros and cons, make final decisions and change their sports and posters accordingly. The six groups are now ready to introduce their sport to everyone in an oral presentation in English and perform an exhibition match or round. They are eager to show their posters, describe their newly invented sports, feel anxious to move their bodies and are enthusiastic about performing for others. The presentations and exhibitions are welcomed but also scrutinised; students question the originality and general appeal of the sports and judge some as “too boring” or “too simple”. After all the groups take their turns, students take their posters to a shed nearby, where they stick them to a wall for everyone to read in detail. Students go over the posters again and vote on the sport they would like to try out, in newly formed groups combining primary and secondary school students, and also students who designed the sport and some who did not. Sports playing begins. It is a hilarious day.

Assumptions: Views of Education in This School This vignette illustrates the philosophy of education of this school, described by the headteacher of the secondary school in a reflection log in this way: [Our work is based on a] pedagogy of Teaching for Understanding (Stone Wiske 1999), a pedagogic and didactic framework which conceptualises different entry points to access knowledge and understanding, and diversity in assessment strategies […] The heterogeneous nature of our classrooms compels us to deconstruct our homogenising behaviour, which has left a stain in our

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educational system for over a century. Aided by the Teaching for Understanding framework, the teachers can accommodate diversity and difference in their curricula and guide their students in their academic development, as they navigate greater abstraction and complexity. [Reflection log in Spanish, 8 April 2020, our translation, emphasis added.]

Departing from an understanding of the heterogeneous nature of our classrooms, the school builds on diversity (“different entry points”, “diversity”) to guarantee not only “access [to] knowledge” but also to educate for “understanding”. Teaching knowledge relates to an instrumental view of education (knowledge for study, travel, work, business and so on) while teaching for understanding involves the development of learners as human beings (Zovko & Dillon, 2018). In this philosophy, teachers can enact this complementary view by accommodating “diversity and difference in their curricula”. Then the headteacher describes how this complementarity can be enacted in the school and the focus is on teacher collaboration in networks to agree on shared indicators of learner understanding in the whole school, “generative topics” across subjects in “interdisciplinary projects” and reaching out to the “local and global communities”: To be able to do this, teachers must attend a weekly meeting where they can agree on common performances of understanding and share their experiences with their colleagues. By gaining access to generative topics in other subjects, the teachers are able to engage in interdisciplinary projects that are properly carried out and expounded upon in a presentation at the end of the school year. The school aspires to build on these experiences and to share them with the local and global educational communities at large. [Reflection log in Spanish, 8 April 2020, our translation, emphasis added.]

The project described in the initial vignette is framed within this philosophy.

Views of Language Teaching and Learning One of the groups gathers in a circle to create their poster with the help of their English teacher. They are sitting on the grass, with a yellow poster paper, paper-cut subheadings (e.g. rules, scoring system), pens and pencils. Learning is taking place outside the classroom, outdoors, in this case, the school’s country club, which becomes a fund of knowledge (Moje et al., 2004), i.e. one of the varied places and spaces where languages are used and people learn. Students are working collaboratively and this is indicated by the

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arrangement in a circle where the teacher is not at the front (of a classroom) but is rather a member with equal status. Not only place and space are important. The content of learning is too. Students have different proficiency levels in English because they go to different schools (primary/secondary), attend different years/grades, and there are individual differences. The theme “sports” is close to the students’ everyday lives. Everyone has an opinion and an experience because it is familiar. But familiarity with the topic is not enough to learn English. For learning to be meaningful, the conceptual and the linguistic functions of language need to be combined (Widdowson, 1979), in other words, it is not enough to duplicate in English what one already knows in the first language. We need to expand existing frames of reference or develop new ones. So here the conceptual, i.e. the content (sports), is integrated with language learning (the semantic field sports, modality, language for instructions and descriptions and so on) in a cross-curricular project that connects two school subjects, English and PE, to give significance to learning by proposing the collaborative and creative task of inventing a totally novel sport for everyone to play. Learning English is not an aim in itself; learning English to use it in this real context and for this genuine purpose is. The integration of content and language, called CLIL (content and language integrated learning) , is a motivational driving force (Banegas, 2012). A lot of work with the language occurs in each group and also among all the groups. For instance, to decide which newly created sport to play during the afternoon, all the groups prepare a wall display. A lot of reading and discussion takes place in which students collaboratively assess each sport with a variety of criteria set by themselves (appeal, attractiveness, suitability for group members and so on) to make a decision. In this way, the curriculum is “flexible and localised” and “takes into account learners’ diversity and experiences” (Ramezanzadeh & Rezaeiin, 2019, p. 812) in a reconceptualisation of “authenticity in TESOL [teaching English to speakers of other languages]” (Ramezanzadeh & Rezaeiin, 2019, p. 794). Another important dimension is the performative, which is obviously significant in PE but not usually attended to in the school subject English. In groups, students try out the new sports. They use English as they play the selected sport, for example by giving and revising instructions, collecting the necessary equipment, reminding others of rules, clarifying procedures on the go and so on. Roles (affecting the use of English) within groups are not pre-determined by teachers but agreed upon by the students themselves. This performative dimension means that language learning is not limited to traditional views of literacy connected mainly to reading and writing, or at

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best, to the four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening). Students use their creativity and imagination (table legs are bats), actions and movement, revealing a performative view of literacy (Zaidi & Roswell, 2017a) that takes everything that students bring with them into account. They bring their minds (i.e. the cognitive), desires and emotions, preferences, their bodies, gestures, expressions, Spanish (and other languages), and their appropriation of spaces and places (the country club, the sports field for this new sport, particular areas in the premises as learning spaces). In sum, literacy in this view captures “the prismatic character of our lives as we move around physically, virtually, linguistically and spiritually, and how we negotiate these different spaces with our own backgrounds” (Zaidi & Roswell, 2017b, p. 11, their emphasis).

The Intercultural Dimension Negotiating the physical, virtual, linguistic, spiritual and other dimensions of our lives with our own backgrounds requires intercultural sensitivity and reflection, in other words, the ability to analyse and challenge our naturalised assumptions, beliefs, values and actions and those of others. The trigger questions that the teachers posed during the brainstorming stage were aimed at raising intercultural awareness: Can anyone play this sport? Is it for boys/girls? Is it for young/older people? Are there linguistic, religious or other restrictions to play it? By reflecting on these dimensions, the students were encouraged to mobilise intercultural skills (Byram, 1997): observing, describing, discovering, analysing, comparing and contrasting, relating, de-centring (stepping outside their views and considering others), perspective-taking and interpreting. But consciousness-raising of this kind did not only occur through imagination. Considering if a sport is intended for younger or older populations invites students to imagine a particular audience. It is the kind of imagination that literature fosters. However, when the students tried out their sports to assess what worked and what did not, and when they played the sports created by others during the last phase of the project, the attention to otherness was of a different kind. The other was not imaginary but real. The others were the schoolmates and teachers all around. The comments that the secondary school English teacher received once they were back in the classroom (“Did you see that weird kid from 6th grade?”; “That kid from 6th grade spoke very good English”) show the difficulty posed by the relational dimension of language learning, i.e. getting involved with others and attempting to

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place ourselves in somebody else’s shoes to understand them with their own backgrounds. The adjective “weird” and highlighting somebody’s linguistic competence as an identity marker are evidence of that difficulty. Intercultural language learning encourages students to become intercultural speakers and intercultural mediators (Byram, 2009; Byram & Zarate, 1996) by fostering such understanding of people even if partially. The process is not easy because intergroup relations—such as might exist between the primary and secondary school students in this project—are often affected by prejudice. Judging schoolmates as “weird” or on the basis of their language competence (“very good English”) is an example of such prejudice. Allport (1954/1979) said that prejudice is not overcome by simply bringing two groups into contact with each other. For prejudice and stereotyping to be overcome, the groups working together should have equal status (here they are all students in the same school) and common goals in cooperative activity as set for instance by this project, in this case, the task of designing a novel sport.

Intercultural Speaker, Intercultural Competence and Intercultural Communicative Competence The phrases intercultural speaker and intercultural competence were coined by Byram and Zarate (1996) in work for the Council of Europe, later refined by Byram (1997). Intercultural competence is needed whenever there is interaction of people of different social groups with different cultures using the same language. When such interaction involves the use of at least one foreign language, it is called intercultural communicative competence. In both cases, the competence involves different skills, knowledge and attitudes, namely those that are needed to overcome incomprehension and inappropriate attitudes in communication and action among people of different social groups. It is not a competence that implies that they identify with native speakers in such groups. Depending on the situation, people need intercultural competence to be able to take the perspective of the other, seek ways of learning about and understanding the other’s preconceptions and find a common ground for successful communication. If they are using a foreign language, then they need intercultural communicative competence, i.e. a combination of linguistic and intercultural competences. Foreign language students need intercultural communicative competence when they are involved in interaction with speakers of the foreign language they are learning either as a native language or as lingua franca. In many contexts around the world, the problem is that “in foreign language settings,

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exposure to the target language is limited” (Philp & Iwashita, 2013, p. 355). This cross-curricular project with a CLIL basis was aimed at providing such exposure in a context in which a local immersion option (Marletta & Porto, 2019) or a transnational project, whether face-to-face as in study abroad, or mediated by technology, was not feasible (see Byram et al., 2017 for examples of this type). Three decades ago, this project would have been judged as artificial and far from authentic. After all, non-native speaker teachers were involved and the project could have been undertaken using only Spanish. However, authenticity is reconceptualised here following Ramezanzadeh and Rezaei’s (2019) suggestion to consider the learners’ localised ways, diversity and experiences. This is the same observation Henry Widdowson made 40 years ago: authenticity is not something external to the learner, to be found in materials, coursebooks, projects and so on but rather it is internal and the most contrived learning experience, within the classroom and beyond it, can become genuine or authentic when it suits the students’ purposes, needs and diverse experiences (Widdowson, 1979, 1996). In other words, when it takes “the prismatic character of [their] lives” and “their own backgrounds” into account (Zaida & Rowsell, 2017b, p. 11).

An Intercultural Challenge The intercultural basis of language learning in this project was not without problems. Allport’s (1954/1979) prejudice theory supported the decision to put together two groups of students with equal status in a project that set common goals to be achieved cooperatively with the understanding that this design would contribute to overcoming prejudice and stereotyping. Notwithstanding, the following critical incident illustrates the difficulties that emerged. The following are extracts from a retrospective reflection log written by the secondary school teacher four months after the school trip in which he narrates the experience with one group of students [emphasis added in all extracts]. He first describes the group in this way: [It is an] all -boys team. In this group we find three students from each class. Two of the secondary school boys are older than their classmates, one of them is taking the 1st year course for a second time while the other boy’s academic background was never fully disclosed to the teachers. Moreover, the former has recently begun transitioning (he had started to identify as a boy as early as September). We will refer to this student as Student A, and to the later referred to student as Student B.

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The teacher emphasises three key aspects that he observed, related to gender, age and school performance (italicised in the extract), which are social identifications that make us who we are and which can be interpreted by others in different ways, namely the fact that all group members are male; two of them are older and one of them is re-attending 1st year (a cause for stigmatisation and discrimination in local schools); and the information about gender transitioning. During the brainstorming stage, gender identification emerges as powerful, not in connection with Student A in any explicit way, but in relation to the type of sport the group wants to create, football rugby, proposed by Student B. The discussion, brought up by Student A, turns to the violent and aggressive character of the sport, associated with stereotyped male traits (“manly and aggressive ways”, “too violent”), which prompts this student to suggest a sport involving swimming with a ball. Everything goes wrong for the group when Student A’s proposal is simply discarded on the grounds that football rugby is “more fun” and he ends up feeling upset and crying (“very upset”, “with tears in his eyes”): These two students will not stop fighting over the nature of their game. Student B, who plays rugby and takes pride in his manly and aggressive ways, has imagined a hybrid game that he calls ‘football rugby’. Student A disapproves of Student B’s proposal on the grounds that such a game is ‘too violent’ . Student A gets very upset that the rest of the group should end up favouring Student B’s game, especially because he was the first to propose that they create a completely different game that involved swimming and a ball, probably ignoring that such a game already existed. When this is noted to him, he suggests that they only make a few tweaks to his original idea. He is determined to stick with it. It is at this point that Student B propounds the basics of his game. Everyone else agrees that ‘football rugby’ is a simpler game, and just ‘more fun’ than Student A’s idea. Finally, Student A gives in. Not without complaining to his teacher about his group with tears in his eyes.

What is happening to the group is that they are unable to take “their own backgrounds” into account, in Zaida and Rowsell’s (2017b, p.11) words, in a way that shows an ethical consideration of the other as a being worthy of respect. Student A’s views are simply discarded by group members, who are unable to step outside their mental frameworks to begin to see through Student A’s eyes. In Byram’s (1997) intercultural competence framework, they are unable to de-centre and see the world with a lens different from their own. Their inability has dramatic consequences for Student A, who feels emotionally affected as his gender identification is threatened.

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Worried about the group’s inability to reconcile their views, the secondary school English teacher approaches them (Student A has gone for a walk to get his mind off the game for a while) to find out what they make of the conflict. The remaining secondary school students argue that Student A’s claims that their game was too violent and ‘boyish’ was uncalled for, implying that that was not for him to say. At this moment the teacher realises that Student A is upset because his self -image as a boy has been challenged by the more ‘boy-like’ boys. Student B had taken it upon himself to gatekeep boyness and masculinity in the group for himself and the other boys only, so that Student A’s views were completely discarded.

Student A abandons the group and chooses not to take part in the sport exhibition. The group would go on to write down the rules and guidelines of ‘football rugby’ and play an underwhelming exhibition match, but Student A abandons the ship just moments before this takes place.

This critical incident shows the significance that the intercultural dimension of language learning has in terms of taking into account the learners’ diverse identifications, backgrounds and experiences. It also shows the consequences it may have on learners, in particular as far as emotions are concerned, and what happened with Student A here challenges “the established view of Foreign Language (FL) learning and teaching as emotionless, clinical, germfree absorption and transmission of linguistic knowledge” (Dewaele, 2018, p. 18). The project certainly opened up opportunities for these intercultural issues to emerge during the school trip. However, as the secondary school teacher noted in his retrospective log, “the school trip experience was not recapped as such in the secondary-school English lessons as part of the curriculum” and in this sense, an opportunity was also missed to help Student A invest his social identifications with power and agency as he engaged with others on the basis of his values and worldviews, situated in a broader framework of cultural, political, religious and other values, using a range of semiotic resources such as the linguistic, the interactional, the nonverbal, the auditory, the performative and more (Duff, 2019). Because agency is relational, multidimensional, emergent, spatially and temporally situated and achievable (Larsen-Freeman, 2019), Student A could have been helped to learn from the experience in productive and self-asserting ways. Finally, the opportunity was missed not only concerning Student A but everyone else, group members and the rest of the students alike. Language learning, because of the continuous contestation with difference and diversity that it fosters, can contribute to the development of ethical relationships

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with others, based on empathy, solidarity, respect, hospitality, care, love and inclusion, by sensitising students about issues of human suffering (Zembylas, 2020). In this sense, we agree with Zaidi and Roswell’s (2017b) call to create a more action-oriented understanding of learning that strives to create conditions for children and youth to grow deeper understandings of their inheritance, culture and practices, and to inculcate a deeper feeling of mutual coexistence where each of us realizes that we coexist and create meaning in relation to the other. What does it mean to exist in this world in relation to other human beings? (p. 12)

Implications and Concluding Remarks Considering the specificity of this setting, which as any other offers possibilities but is also fraught with challenges and limitations, in this chapter we have described a cross-curricular project undertaken with primary and secondary school students that combined learning in two school subjects, English and PE, around the theme sports. Supported by a philosophy of education centred on understanding, the teachers designed a project in which students of different ages and backgrounds got together outside the classroom and the school, in the school’s country club, to work on the collaborative task of imagining, creating and performing novel sports using English to do so. In so doing, they put the English they knew in use, learned the language in a variety of ways, and also addressed significant content for PE. Most significantly, they mobilised their intercultural skills as they felt motivated and encouraged by the CLIL focus of the project, which re-signified school learning as authentic in terms of their backgrounds and diverse experiences. While the project proved to be a valuable learning experience for the majority of the students, it also brought to the surface the difficulties and challenges involved in the intercultural dimension of language learning. Issues related to the enactment of learners’ social identifications, prejudice and stereotyping, the difficulty of de-centring, the centrality of emotions and affect, and agency, among others, emerged as important in language learning. Other issues are likely to emerge in different settings. Because the experiences of foreign language learning that students undergo can have profound consequences on their selves, as we have seen, we also suggest that promoting ethical relations with others based on empathy, solidarity, respect, hospitality, care, love and inclusion should be an explicit aim of language teaching so as to sensitise students to issues of human suffering. While education aimed at raising awareness of human suffering tends to address traumatic

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historical events such as wars, genocide and massacres (Zembylas, 2020), here we suggest that this awareness can be developed through the microdimensions of language learning drawing on “innocuous” themes such as sports as described in this chapter. Finally, concerning teacher education, this chapter evidences the need to provide teachers with opportunities to understand, and put in practice, the key concepts involved in conceptualisations of intercultural competence and intercultural communicative competence. The complexities and challenges are huge and teacher education for intercultural language learning is still underdeveloped (Baker, 2015). The project was an opportunity for the teachers involved to reflect on their practices, assess them in terms of their contributions to developing intercultural language education in their settings, re-signify those practices, imagine, plan and enact changes on this basis and in this way forge their own professional development trajectories.

Suggested Further Reading Liddicoat, A., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. West Sussex: Wiley & Sons Ltd. This book addresses the complexity of language teaching and learning understood as essentially linguistically and culturally diverse. While theory and research are well developed in the field, attention to educational practice is less easily available and this book offers this perspective. O’Dowd, R., & Lewis, T. (Eds.). (2016). Online intercultural exchange. Policy, pedagogy, practice. New York and London: Routledge. This book illustrates intercultural language learning in online contexts. It is particularly useful for foreign language teachers, for whom the language of instruction is not readily available in the everyday and community contexts where their learners live and use languages. Wagner, M., Cardetti, F., & Byram, M. (2019). Teaching intercultural citizenship across the curriculum. New York: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. When language teaching with an intercultural orientation embraces its citizenship and educational duties and responsibilities, intercultural citizenship becomes the basis for language teaching. This book sets the theoretical perspectives involved in the concept of intercultural citizenship and presents classroom applications across the curriculum in a teacher-friendly format that allows replication and adaptation in varied contexts.

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Engagement Priorities This chapter illustrates an approach to developing intercultural foreign language learning that distances from other available options and practices in the field. Some of these involve for instance a focus on working with images of cultures in the classroom (such as those appearing in published textbooks or fostered in literary resources), cultural comparisons usually at the national level and attention to the five Fs approach to cultural diversity (Flags, Fashion, Food, Faces/Famous people, Festivals/Folklore). • What views of culture and language are presupposed by these applications? • In the intercultural dimension along the lines described in this chapter, how can attention to knowledge (linguistic and cultural knowledge, knowledge of how communication works, relevant knowledge of disciplinary content and so on) be complemented with the development of intercultural skills and attitudes? • In the face of accountability priorities and standardised assessment, the intercultural dimension tends to be ranked low among teacher priorities. How can this situation change? • Fostering ethical relationships with others as part of language teaching brings in ethical issues associated with our role as educators instead of trainers. What are these ethical considerations? How do they impact on our teacher identity and roles?

Acknowledgements We are sincerely grateful to the school headteacher, Carina Schuster, for her support in the process of writing this chapter. We also appreciate the valuable insights we have received from the English academic coordinator, Ethel Rosenberg. The primary school English teacher, Silvana Pellegrino, and the PE teacher, Luciana Heffes, deserve a special mention for the exceptional job done. This experience is the result of a fruitful collaboration with them. Lastly, Javier Arguiano wishes to thank María José Arias Mercader for her edifying guidance and thought-provoking mentoring.

References Allport, G. (1954/1979). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley. Baker, W. (2015). Research into practice: Cultural and intercultural awareness. Language Teaching, 48(1), 130–141.

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Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance Carlo Granados-Beltrán

Introduction The end of the second decade of 2000 has brought about many protests which have made people question the success of neoliberal and capitalist models. In Colombia, as in many other Latin American countries, people have demonstrated against the pervasive inequality and corruption in the country. The Human Development Report 2019 issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) states that some groups are continuously disadvantaged because of ethnicity, language, gender, and social class. Colombian people are the result of a combination of Spanish conquerors, indigenous people, and people of African descent who were brought as slaves to the continent. Unfortunately, these two last populations, who are considered diverse, are the most widely affected by poverty, discrimination, and prejudice. Additionally, prejudices against indigenous and Afrodescending populations, women, working-class people, and students from public universities, among others, are disseminated by people in the government and mass media. The aim of this chapter is to describe an experience attempting to implement the theoretical perspective of critical interculturality in a practical way C. Granados-Beltrán (B) Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana - ÚNICA, Bogotá, Colombia e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_3

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in an English-medium module called Language, Culture and Identity. The module is part of a Bachelor of Arts (BA) programme in Bilingualism in Bogotá, Colombia. In the pedagogical implementation I describe in this chapter, I take a critical stance towards diversity. Steinberg and Kincheloe (2009) state that a critical position of diversity aligns with the intention of critical pedagogy of unveiling the complicity of schools and education with power inequalities. This critical view works towards immanence, that is, the construction of a better future world which guarantees equality for all. In this sense, a critical position deconstructs the origin of racial, class, and gender inequalities, the way power and privilege shape consciousness, and the way marginalised groups exercise resistance. The context for the implementation of this experience is a BA programme in Bilingualism at a teachers’ college in Bogotá, Colombia. The goal of the BA programme is to educate students who will work as English teachers mainly, but not exclusively, in primary and secondary schools. Language, Culture, and Identity, one of the modules I used for the implementation, was the first module in the curriculum and was delivered in English to the second semester students, who were still not very proficient in the language. My main goal for this module was to have students recognise the origins of discrimination (e.g. racism, sexism, classism), its manifestation in current local and international practices, and the role that schools play in maintaining these inequalities. For the purpose of this chapter, I focus on the ways I pursued the understanding and appreciation of diversity in this module, based on a critical intercultural stance. This chapter is organised as follows. First, I briefly explain the conceptual framework which includes the decolonial turn, critical interculturality, and decolonising English language teaching (ELT). Second, I present the pedagogical framework based on decolonial pedagogies, counter-hegemonic teaching, and pedagogy of the question. Third, I describe my attempt to put decolonial theories into practice in a module named Language, culture and identity with some specific examples of the lessons implemented. Finally, I put forward implications this experience may have for initial language teacher education programmes at large.

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Conceptual Framework Proposed by Walsh (2009), critical interculturality is a theoretical development of the decolonial turn in intercultural studies. This author describes three ways to understand interculturality: relational, functional, and critical. Relational interculturality sees the mere co-existence of diverse populations and groups within the same territory as the main feature of interculturality. Functional interculturality recognises diversity by incorporating the groups deemed as different—indigenous, Afro, migrants, among others—into the established social structure. This means acknowledging their existence institutionally and politically and creating a discourse about valuing diversity, but with the underlying goal of eventually taking advantage of them, for example, by exploiting the natural resources existing in their territories. Finally, critical interculturality is a political and epistemic project that understands diversity as embedded within a colonial matrix of power. The different invisibilities and prejudices against the populations I mentioned above give origin to critical interculturality as a project that implies strategies, actions, and negotiations to subvert not only the power relations, but also the structures, conditions, and mechanisms of power that perpetuate discrimination of all kinds: sexism, racism, classism, and heterosexism.

The Decolonial Turn and Critical Interculturality The Modernity/Coloniality project has gathered many Latin American and Caribbean intellectuals (e.g., Restrepo & Rojas, 2010) who analyse critically the power relations established since 1492. For them, colonialism and the narrative of modernity are inextricably linked, resulting in the identification of colonisers as modern and former colonies as pre-modern, as maintained in official history. They also analyse how these relations have evolved to the present day, a phenomenon they call coloniality. Restrepo and Rojas (2010) explain that coloniality and colonialism are different concepts. Colonialism refers to the historical process of invasion of Latin America and the Caribbean by the Spaniards and the Portuguese during the XVI and XVII centuries. Coloniality, on the other hand, refers to the current effects of this colonial past in the maintenance of hierarchies in terms of race, gender, class, knowledge, and culture in former colonies. Restrepo and Rojas (2010) state that coloniality Refers to a pattern of power operating through the naturalisation of territorial, racial, cultural and epistemic hierarchies which make the reproduction of

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domination relationships possible; this pattern of power does not only guarantee the exploitation of some human beings’ capital by others at a global scale, but also the subalternisation and obliteration of knowledge, experience, and ways of life of those human beings who are thereby dominated and exploited. (p. 15, my translation)

Critical interculturality emerges as a decolonial project that aims to dismantle the matrix of coloniality by identifying, analysing, and subverting its three dimensions: Coloniality of being, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of power. Coloniality of being refers to the latent racism in Latin American and Caribbean territories which neglects and subalternises Afro and Indigenous communities. This can be seen when populations of former colonies are deemed inferior, less intelligent, or less beautiful when compared to Anglo Saxon or European ideals. This coloniality also addresses the subalternisation of identities, for example, gender (Lugones, 2008) and race (Quijano, 2000) based on geopolitical dynamics of exploitation. In this sense, feminist scholars have established connections between decoloniality and intersectionality, which views race, gender, class, and sexuality as power systems which merge, boost, and feed on one another (Mendoza, 2019), rather than as separate and additive concepts. Coloniality of knowledge refers to the subalternisation of Latin American and Caribbean knowledge because it is considered folkloric, magic, or witchcraft for not following the principles of objectivity and generalisability established by European philosophy. Coloniality of knowledge also entails the notion that anything developed and produced abroad, especially in Europe and the United States, is of better quality than local products. Finally, coloniality of power refers to the ways in which the market and the economic capital contribute to hierarchise human groups and territories in the current globalised transnational world. Although here these dimensions have been defined independently for the sake of clarity, they constitute a device of power in which they affect one another.

Decolonising English Language Teaching Decolonising the field of ELT may sound contradictory for many, as the spread of this language somehow derives from a colonial past. However, nowadays, with the spread of English as a lingua franca or English as an international language, it is recognised that there are many English speakers and teachers, not necessarily coming from the inner circle (Kachru, 1985) or core

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English-speaking countries. Despite these changes, Kumaravadivelu (2016) argues that ELT still promotes colonial practices, especially, in the countries of the outer circle (e.g., India) and the expanding one (e.g., Colombia). Kumaravadivelu’s (2016) experiences as an ELT scholar exemplify the three dimensions of coloniality explained above. He recounts how a professor tried to discourage him from pursuing his research interest in language teaching methods because it was a domain that belonged to native speakers (coloniality of being); he mentions how mainstream publishing houses will not publish one of his books because of the same reason, albeit not stated explicitly (coloniality of power). He also describes the experience of one of her students not wanting to return to her country in Southeast Asia, because British and American expatriates were favoured in the job offers for teaching English (all colonialities). He ends up by mentioning the role cooperating entities played in the formulation of linguistic policies in India (coloniality of power). The situation in Colombia is not different from what Kumaravadivelu (2016) described. Since the launch of the National Bilingual Plan in 2004, many local scholars critiqued the policy and its colonial elements: • The prevalence of bilingualism in English and Spanish and the neglect of indigenous and creole languages (spoken mostly by Black communities) in the bilingual policy. • The promotion of elite bilingualism (Guerrero-Nieto, 2010; Truscott-De Mejía, 2002). • The adoption, instead of adaptation, of the Common European Framework as the proficiency standard for Colombia (Ayala-Zárate & ÁlvarezValencia, 2005). • The marketisation of English teaching and the promotion of nativespeakerism (González & Llurda, 2016), and even of subtle racialisation (Gómez-Vásquez & Guerrero-Nieto, 2018) due to the belief that a native speaker of English should have a specific physical appearance. • The ways in which global transnational agendas have influenced through the linguistic policies on the processes of inclusion, exclusion, and stratification (Usma-Wilches, 2009). All these discussions unveil underlying problems related to the linguistic policy and possible discriminatory practices regarding class, race, and ethnicity. To disrupt the colonial matrix of power in ELT, Kumaravadivelu (2016) proposes that subaltern communities develop a grammar of decoloniality.

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The author suggests designing and using teaching strategies which are appropriate for the local historical, political, social, cultural, and educational demands of the specific contexts. He also advises reorganising teacher education programmes to develop skills in their graduates not only to become informed consumers but also to become producers of knowledge. My intention in implementing critical interculturality in some of the subjects of the BA in Bilingualism aimed at these two actions: Raising awareness of the context in which these pre-service teachers would work and promoting reflection about how prejudice might influence our teaching. The objective of the module called Language, culture, and identity was two-fold: (1) to have students recognise the origins of discrimination and how this was manifested in current local and international practices; and (2) to make them aware of how educational contexts, unknowingly or not, contribute to promote this discrimination. Below I describe the pedagogical framework which informed the module and my practice.

Pedagogical Framework Decolonial Pedagogies Díaz (2010) defines three major characteristics of decolonial pedagogy: critical understanding of history, repositioning emancipatory educational practices, and decentring the colonial episteme. Critical understanding of history involves questioning the imposition of foreign pedagogical thinking systems—European or American—as the benchmark for indicating whether colonised territories are truly modern. The repositioning of emancipatory pedagogical practices relates to the location, recovery, and valuation of experiences, individuals, and knowledge that foster the transformation of social reality. This aspect also points to the implementation of educational practices focused on the development of a historical consciousness and of critical thinking as skills that transcend the classroom. The decentring of the colonial episteme questions traditional modes of knowledge production that value the supposed objectivity and division of disciplines. This decentring seeks to generate other ways of knowing that include ‘the individual’s perspective and his/her ethical, value, historical, and epistemic orientation as key variants in the activation of formative processes’ (Díaz, 2010, p. 228). Decolonial pedagogy involves reflection on learning as a process of creating meaning that is evident in the appropriation and problematisation of reality from subjective experience.

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Transgressive or Counter-Hegemonic Pedagogy Counter-hegemonic pedagogy aims to resist the definitions and understanding of reality that dominant groups build to respond to their own interests, for example, ideas of race, gender, sexual orientation, and social economic arrangements (Chisholm, 2015). This pedagogy encourages critical thinking and promotes reflection on practice to create awareness of capitalism and to challenge the concept of education as a private good. It incorporates three elements in the classroom: content, reasoning, and counter-storytelling. At the content level, issues can be examined from the perspective of those historically marginalised. Counter-hegemonic aspects are implemented when activities are participatory and focused on critical thinking, and are designed with the intention that students see other futures and realities. Reasoning refers to an approach to discussions in which the participants pursue the construction of a higher order meaning by confronting and reevaluating their opinions and prejudices. This practice favours listening to students’ voices and, as discussion confronts students with truths that may be oppressive, it contributes to transformations that challenge the status quo and that promote more democratic processes in the classroom (Chisholm, 2015). Finally, counter-narratives is a method of telling the stories of those whose experiences are not often told, including black people, women, gays, and the poor (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). These counter-stories allow for opposition to dominant narratives (white, middle-class, heterosexual) and to problematise the perspectives and beliefs associated with them that justify discrimination and violence.

Pedagogy of the Question Freire and Faundez (2013) critique that teaching today is focused on knowing rather than questioning. For these authors, a fundamental aspect of teacher education has to do with the incorporation of the question for the promotion of epistemological curiosity. Freire and Faundez (2013, p. 69) state: In teaching, we have forgotten the questions. Both the teacher and the students have forgotten them, and in my opinion, all knowledge begins with the question. It starts with what you call curiosity. But curiosity is the question! I have the impression (and I don’t know if you agree with me) that today’s teaching, knowing, is answering and not asking. (my translation)

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One way to encourage students to prepare for each lesson is by including questions that familiarise them with the topic and that will be discussed during classroom work. Therefore, each one of the units in the module syllabus started with questions about the topic for students to prepare beforehand. This idea was the result of reflecting about how to involve students in their own learning process and to make the lessons less teacher-centred. These questions had different purposes, for example, making a theoretical clarification of some concepts used in the class, obtaining historical information about the topic, or identifying aspects of daily life in which they could see the concept in a practical way.

The Module of Language, Culture and Identity and Its Role in the Understanding of Diversity As mentioned previously, this experience was developed at a BA in Bilingualism in Bogotá, Colombia. Students on this programme are educated to become English teachers in all educational levels in both public and private sectors. Many of them come from different regions in Colombia and benefit from scholarships offered by several charities and the economic group that supports the university as part of its social responsibility. Due to this scholarship scheme, the students who attend this teacher’s college are quite diverse in terms of place of origin, race, class, and sexual orientation. Additionally, many of the students attended public education institutions, from which they graduated with certain difficulties, for example, low levels in literacy in Spanish, poor level of historical knowledge, and low performance in maths. To explain what I did in Language, culture and identity, I shall now describe content adaptation, activities developed, and connection to critical interculturality as a formative principle.

Content Adaptation This module was part of the second semester of the BA in Bilingual Education and it was the first module that students took in English. Initially, the syllabus I received from my predecessor was based on three texts: Academic Encounters: Life in Society by Brown and Hood (2002), The History of Art in Pictures by Gilles Plazy (2003), and Dianoia, a high school philosophy textbook, selected to fill the gaps in cultural general knowledge students have at the start of the BA programme. This syllabus was intended to introduce issues of general culture based on art, philosophy, and some aspects of the target culture, in

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this case, of the United States. To facilitate work with this content in English, the university favours the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) (Echevarria et al., 2008). Therefore, the use of the mother tongue is not demonised, but it is considered a resource which supports learning the foreign language. Discussions were initially held in Spanish or bilingually, but as students became more proficient in English, they started expressing their opinions in the L2. Also, the answers to the questions which opened the units could be shared either in Spanish or English. The first adaptation was to give it an orientation based on cultural studies in order to truly address the interrelation between the three key concepts that give names to the module: language, culture, and identity. Hence, the focus was on how language influences people’s perceptions and representations and how they have a social impact and influence the multiple identities of human beings: national, regional, gender, sexual, age, among others. To evaluate this change, I conducted discussion groups in Spanish. The quotes below and elsewhere in the chapter are my translation (S1: Student 1, S2: Student 2, S3: Student 3, S4: Student 4 DG1: Discussion Group 1, DG2: Discussion Group 2, DG3: Discussion Group 3): […] when one spoke of racism, one said as ‘racism is bad, let’s not practise it’ (lesson intonation) (Laughter). We’re all the same, we all have the same rights, you say that, but, for example, when you make comments like ‘work as black and earn as white’, that has a connotation […]. (S2—DG1) The topics, the topics that contributed to me, that the professor gave me help me think more about eh the information provided by the media […]. (S1— DG1)

Another adaptation pertained to some aspects of content during the development of the classes. Initially, the module had a strong British and American component due to my previous training in British Cultural Studies. However, this was later rethought and included topics and examples of local culture, which were closer to students and contributed to their understanding of the proposed theories. Consequently, some of the materials that were included were: Colombian black poetry by Jorge Artel and Candelario Obeso, studied in connection to Language and Race and compared with African American Vernacular English; the analysis of the dynamics of racism in Colombia made by Soler and Pardo (2007); student presentations on Palenque, Wayuunaiki, and Romaní languages; as well as the inclusion of parlache 1 and its relationship with social

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class. On the other hand, the local approach was also carried out through articles of newspapers that exemplified situations of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism in Colombia. The description of specific real situations allowed the appropriation of key concepts, as proposed by transgressive pedagogy. I mentioned previously that one of the fundamental elements of decolonial pedagogy is the critical understanding of history (Díaz, 2010), so, after a conversation with colleagues who led other modules during the same semester, I decided to include certain historical moments that would contextualise and problematise the themes developed in class, for example: World War II, the Middle Ages, European imperialism, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the waves of feminism, the protests of Stonewall, and the origin of some urban tribes. This work in relation to history was not done chronologically, but genealogically, in a sort of Foucauldian fashion. According to the identity marker being discussed in class (e.g., race, class, gender), students could become aware of causalities, continuities, discontinuities, and repetitions in history that somehow manage to explain phenomena that happen today. Finally, the original syllabus had numerous theoretical readings because it relied heavily on the students’ English language reading skills, which made them feel overwhelmed not only due to the complexity of the language but also to that of the concepts presented. Therefore, the module was developed in a theoretical-practical way, in which I explained the theory through mind maps and established connections with the questions previously solved by the students, as well as with their life experiences and even in a cross-curricular way with artistic manifestations such as literature or painting.

Activities Developed Thematic units usually started with students’ search for basic information on the internet. This inquiry could derive either from the questions posed in the syllabus or from questions that I assigned as homework. For example, for the unit about gender, questions such as ‘Who was Lilith?’ ‘What is hysteria?’ ‘Who were the suffragettes?’ or ‘Are all feminists lesbians?’ prepared students for theory and possible discussions arising from it. For the unit about racism, the questions prepared students to understand the history of this phenomenon by approaching questions such as ‘Who was Martin Luther King?’ ‘Who was Malcolm X?’ ‘What were the Black Panthers?’ and ‘What was Apartheid?’ among others.

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Subsequently, I introduced concepts by drawing a mind map on the board on which the concepts and relationships between them were presented. Sometimes as an exercise, prior to the presentation of the theory, a vocabulary search was carried out in the dictionary in order to facilitate students’ understanding. Delivery of the theoretical element of the module was done in English and was enriched through different materials, for example, the inclusion of short films or short videos such as the SparkNotes summary of the novel 1984 2 for the unit of Language and Ideology or Tough Guise: Violence, media and the crisis of masculinity 3 for the theme of masculinities. Additionally, critical media literacy through the use of films meant that students were exposed to the stories of those groups that are not visible (counter-narratives) and discussions in class allowed them to question and rethink their visions and possible prejudices about different social groups (reasoning). For this purpose, I used movies such as V for Vendetta for the topic of Language and Ideology, The Help for Language and Race, and Billy Elliot for Language and Gender. On the other hand, these activities served as reminders of themes seen in class by making connections with students’ emotions and experiences. In relation to this, students asserted, after being asked what strategy they had found the most useful in some group discussions held after the course: The use of films because, not only with theory one understands everything, but one also needs to have examples of it. So, the theme with the movies is cool and it also makes us realise that the movies not only serve to laugh, or to spend time but also to learn something about it. (S3—DG2) I don’t know, I mean, I think they should show us those movies, right? […] in fact, because the movies that the teacher made us ask ourselves, ‘Gee, when did that come out’, right? And they are films that inform you and, and that show you the reality that they also live in many countries. (S4—DG3)

Other activities included discussions or worksheets such as those suggested by Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy4 for example, Act as a Man/Behave as a Lady, which help to question how gender roles are constructed socio-culturally. The presentation of the theory could also be mediated by the appreciations or questions of the students such as ‘poor people exist because they lack initiative’ or ‘why is black always negative?’ These interventions by the students helped present the theory in a more tangible and closer way to their experience. Finally, the closure of the unit included some texts on the issue discussed which took place locally, usually through an article or an interview from a

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local newspaper or magazine. For example, the article Los colombianos hablan de sí mismos por estratos [Colombians speak of themselves by strata] allowed to address the problem of classism at the local level, the article El hombre que logró que su universidad le pidiera perdón por racismo [The man who got his university to apologise for racism], and the interview Colombia discrimina y es hipócrita [Colombia discriminates and it is hypocritical], in which a black model talks about her experience as a black woman in Colombia and sets the scene to discuss the issue of racism in the country.

Link to Critical Interculturality as a Formative Principle The connection between Language, culture and identity and critical interculturality can be seen in two dimensions. The first is related to an approach to content through the perspective of cultural studies. In this, culture is conceived as a space for a struggle of powers (Shi-Xu, 2005) among different groups mediated by identities (e.g. women-men, young-old, poor-rich, nonwhite-white), with a particular emphasis on intersectionality, subordinate groups, their stories and their problems (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Secondly, the pedagogical strategies described above are also part of decolonial pedagogy in the three aspects proposed by Díaz (2010). The first aspect is critical understanding of history by taking a genealogical approach to different forms of discrimination. The second aspect entails the repositioning of emancipatory educational practices by connecting students’ experiences with what has been seen in class. The presentation of different views on phenomena contributes to the development of independent critical thinking. The third and last aspect is the decentring of the colonial episteme. This can be achieved by highlighting the ways in which education has contributed to maintaining historically legitimised inequalities since the Colony. These inequalities make the Others invisible simply because they think or act differently. In relation to the implications that students see between this view of interculturality and their future work as teachers, they stated: S2: […] the idea is how to start promoting that kind of awareness and we as future teachers […] we can’t, that is, we can’t get carried away by stereotypes and we have to handle that, because that is, we’re going to have S4: Diversity S2: Cultural diversity in classrooms, wherever. And in addition to that also as promoting that to the kids, to the kids you teach […]. (S2 and S4—DG1) Obviously, this programme helps you as to understand that, as a teacher, millions of people of different ethnicities, different perspectives, different

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beliefs […] Eeh […] Well, eeh […] different, after all. So yes, what a teacher must do before […] of […] to […] have his/her calling on top is, like, respecting and tolerating. (S1—DG2)

In Language, culture and identity, we explored topics such as classism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism based not only on their historical origins but also on their linguistic manifestations and intersectional contours. In this module, some students felt empowered to talk about their own experiences, for example, being labelled for living in certain neighbourhoods or having different sexual orientations. At the end of the module, some became aware of their role as teachers in creating classrooms free of discrimination in which they could work with populations of different characteristics.

Conclusion There have been paradigmatic changes in the pedagogy of foreign languages (Lin, 2008). These began in the countries of the Indian subcontinent in the 1990s and continue to the present, fostered by professionals interested in cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and social justice. Even though this is a Colombian experience, it is important for teachers in all contexts to become aware of how identities and their ideologies affect the classroom. In addition, there is a need for teachers in training and in-service to consider how political and economic aspects influence the teaching of English in a transnational globalised context. When trying to implement language policies in their teaching practice, English teachers develop new ways of knowing and doing, which we need to recover to build local knowledge in the discipline. It is important that teachers in initial education programmes become familiar with local educational knowledge and practices in diverse contexts. In the case of Colombia, these are rural, indigenous, and Afro-descendant environments. In this way, they could begin to question the supposed universality of language teaching methods and to build the pluriversality (Mignolo, 2010) proposed in critical interculturality, not to impose a new paradigm emerging from the subaltern, but to recognise the possibility of co-existence of various paradigms. The intersection of the pedagogy of foreign languages and critical interculturality helps us to recognise that the reasons for teaching and learning a foreign language go beyond the instrumental ones. To achieve this, it is essential to address the deep ethical basis of language pedagogy, which questions and confronts existing paradigms, and searches for their change—in

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this case—the economic one. Pennycook (2012) explains that being a critical educator involves abandoning the notion of an ideal classroom and being open to teaching moments when the classroom becomes a space for transformation. Critical interculturality means that these teaching moments are not only about English, but the moments that English creates as a means for understanding the subalternised Other. This displaces the mere instrumental function of language to focus on the cognitive and intercultural ones, which permit approaching both other worlds and the different Other (Usma-Wilches, 2009). Within the pedagogy of languages, it is necessary to understand that language can serve as an instrument to maintain the status quo or to transform the injustices that lead to conflict. It is therefore important for future teachers to recognise that conflicts can occur in any instance in which language plays a primary role, for example, in intergenerational dialogue and in diverse linguistic communities, which are also politically and economically different.

Suggested Further Reading Dussel, E. (1995). The invention of the Americas: Eclipse of “the Other” and the myth of modernity. New York: Continuum. In this book, the author explains the ‘myth of modernity’ based upon the process of conquest of Latin America by Europeans. He assesses the way it has contributed to the subaltern, racialised, and ‘pre-modern’ condition of Latin America and the Caribbean. Macedo, D. (Ed.). (2019). Decolonizing foreign language education. New York: Routledge. This edited book compiles reflections by critical language scholars which interrogate the influence of colonialism on the neglect of non-standard varieties and on the promotion of white Western approaches to foreign language teaching. Mignolo, W. (2000). Local histories/global designs: Coloniality, subaltern knowledge and border thinking. Princeton: Princeton University Press. This book focuses on the coloniality of power and its origins in the XVI century, with the Spaniards arriving in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mignolo elaborates on the notions of colonial difference and on the epistemic rupture he names border thinking. López-Gopar, M. (2016). Decolonizing primary English language teaching. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

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López-Gopar presents the experience of a group of student-teachers in Mexico working with indigenous children. He uses stories, photos, and videos to document the ways the participants aimed at decolonising primary English teaching.

Engagement Priorities • Within the chapter, there is a reference to the text The Decolonial Option in English Teaching: Can the Subaltern Act? by B. Kumaravadivelu (2016), in which he explains his situation as a non-native English scholar. Have you had any experiences like his as a non-native English speaker/teacher/scholar? How did you handle them? • The chapter describes a pedagogical experience attempting to incorporate a decolonial approach to English Language Teaching (ELT) based on an intercultural critique of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and language pedagogy in an initial teacher education programme in Colombia. Could you incorporate any of these aspects in your context? How? • Colombian right-wing political groups have been critical of educational approaches which focus on making students aware of discrimination and social justice, such as the one described here. They claim that teachers’ intention is to turn students into a leftist ideology. How can we as language teachers avoid the risk of promoting certain ideologies or proselytising in the classroom? • One of the goals of this chapter was to present a vision of interculturality unlike the usual positive ones which disregard the existence of difference of power among human groups. In your context, how attainable could it be to prevent or suspend prejudice in relation to race, class, gender, age, and sexual orientation? Which obstacles could there be to achieve this goal?

Notes 1. Parlache is a linguistic variant of Colombian Spanish associated with drug dealing and crime. 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9JIKngJnCU 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI 4. https://mediasmarts.ca/

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References Ayala-Zárate, J., & Álvarez-Valencia, J. (2005). A perspective of the implications of the Common European Framework implementation in the Colombian sociocultural context. Colombian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7 (1), 7–26. Brown, K., & Hood, S. (2002). Academic encounters: Life in society. Reading, study skills and writing. Cambridge University Press. Chisholm, M. (2015). Developing counter-hegemonic pedagogy in adult and higher education [21 paragraphs]. In Adult Education Research Conference Proceedings. Available at http://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2015/papers/12. Accessed 20 May 2020. Díaz, C. J. (2010). Hacia una pedagogía en clave decolonial: entre aperturas, búsquedas y posibilidades. Tabula Rasa, 13(1), 217–233. Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2008). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model . Pearson. Freire, P., & Faundez, A. (2013). Por una pedagogía de la pregunta. Crítica a una educación basada en respuestas a preguntas inexistentes. Siglo XXI Editores. Gómez-Vásquez, L. Y., & Guerrero-Nieto, C. H. (2018). Non-native Englishspeaking teachers’ subjectivities and Colombian language policies: A narrative study. PROFILE Issues in Teachers Professional Development, 20 (2), 51–64. González, A., & Llurda, E. (2016). Bilingualism and globalisation in Latin America: Fertile ground for native-speakerism. In F. Copland, S. Garton, & S. Mann (Eds.), LETs and NESTs (pp. 90–109). British Council. Guerrero-Nieto, C. H. (2010). Elite vs folk bilingualism: The mismatch between theories and educational and social conditions. How Journal, 17 (1), 165–179. Kachru, B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. In R. Quirk & H. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures (pp. 11–30). Cambridge University Press. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2016). The decolonial option in English teaching: Can the subaltern act? TESOL Quarterly, 50 (1), 66–85. Lin, A. M. Y. (2008). Cambios de paradigma en la enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera: el cambio crítico y más allá. Revista Educación y Pedagogía, 20 (51), 11–23. Lugones, M. (2008). Colonialidad y género. Tabula Rasa, 9 (1), 73–101. Mendoza, B. (2019). La colonialidad del género y poder: de la postcolonialidad a la decolonialidad. In Miradas en torno al problema colonial: Pensamiento anticolonial y feminismos descoloniales en los sures globales (pp. 35–72). Akal. Mignolo, W. (2010). Delinking: The rhetoric of modernity, the logic of coloniality and the grammar of de-coloniality. In W. Mignolo & A. Escobar (Eds.), Globalization and the decolonial option (pp. 303–368). Routledge. Pennycook, A. (2012). Language and mobility: Unexpected places. Multilingual Matters.

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Plazy, G. (2003). The history of art in pictures. MetroBooks. Quijano, A. (2000). Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina. In E. Lander (Ed.), La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas Latinoamericanas (pp. 201–245). Caracas: CLACSO Restrepo, E., & Rojas, A. (2010). Inflexión decolonial: fuentes, conceptos y cuestionamientos. Popayán: Instituto de Estudios Sociales y Culturales Pensar, Editorial Universidad del Cauca, Maestría de Estudios Culturales Universidad Javeriana. Shi-Xu. (2005). A cultural approach to discourse. Palgrave Macmillan. Soler, S., & Pardo, N. (2007). Discurso y racismo en Colombia: cinco siglos de invisibilidad y exclusión. In T. Van Dijk (Coord.), Racismo y discurso en América Latina (pp. 181–228). Barcelona: Gedisa. Solórzano, D., & Yosso, T. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-story telling as an analytical framework for education. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44. Steinberg, S. R., & Kincheloe, J. (2009). Smoke and mirrors: More than one way to be diverse and multicultural. In S. R. Steinberg (Ed.), Diversity and multiculturalism: A reader (pp. 3–22). Peter Lang. Truscott-De Mejía, A. M. (2002). Power, prestige, and bilingualism: International perspectives on elite bilingual education. Multilingual Matters. Usma-Wilches, J. (2009). Education and language policy in Colombia: Exploring processes of inclusion, exclusion, stratification in times of global reform. PROFILE: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 11(1), 123–141. Walsh, C. (2009). Interculturalidad crítica y pedagogía de-colonial: apuestas (des)de el in-surgir, re-existir y re-vivir. In V. Candau (Ed.), Educação intercultural na América Latina: entre concepções, tensões e propostas (pp. 14–53). 7 letras.

Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom Darren K. LaScotte and Bethany D. Peters

Introduction Students most effective at acquiring English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) are those who can demonstrate mastery of not just the technical aspects of the language, but also demonstrate the ability to engage in intercultural interactions with communicative competence (Xue, 2014). However, intercultural competence development has not been prioritised as a key learning outcome in many language classrooms (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). In this book chapter, we respond to this issue in the field of English language teaching (ELT) and suggest instructional resources for teaching diverse learners about cultural adjustment and intercultural communication. Grounded in sociocultural perspectives of learning, we present a curriculum to offer an opportunity for ELT instructors to enhance their intercultural pedagogy and invite students to reflect on important cultural topics and intentionally practise intercultural skills. The goal of this course is not to D. K. LaScotte (B) University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA e-mail: [email protected] B. D. Peters School of Education, Greenville University, Greenville, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_4

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present a fixed formula for assimilation or reinforce a deficit model by suggesting that international students have numerous intercultural problems that need fixing (Kettle, 2017). Instead, we aim to provide important learning paradigms that can help to increase students’ intercultural awareness, which has broader implications for supporting their cultural adjustment experience, enhancing their social interactions, and boosting academic experiences (Baba & Hosoda, 2014; Mamiseishvili, 2012). The research and curriculum reviewed in this chapter will provide instructors with a toolkit to foster an intercultural learning experience in the ESL/EFL classroom.

A Growing Need for Intercultural Skills Development Globalisation is introducing new opportunities for intercultural experiences within teaching and learning contexts worldwide. Within higher education alone, internationalising the student experience is a growing priority for colleges and universities across the world (Marinoni, 2019) and thus opportunities for students to study abroad in diverse contexts are increasing (OECD, 2017). International student1 numbers within our context, the U.S., have grown substantially in the last decade, from over 560,000 in 2001–2002 to more than one million in 2019–2020 (Institute of International Education, 2020), providing just one example of the increasing trend in study abroad. This increase in mobility necessitates that some international students enhance their English proficiency while they work towards academic and professional goals; it also calls for the development of critical intercultural competencies that will equip them to contribute in valuable ways to a global marketplace (Galinova, 2015). In this chapter, we propose that, in addition to language skills, the development of intercultural competence is also an important aim for English language learners and one that should be actively supported by programmes and institutions in higher education contexts. Intercultural theorists demonstrate how direct experience with cultural differences, coupled with opportunities for feedback and reflection, comprise a process approach to developing intercultural competence (Deardorff, 2006). Intercultural competence, as defined by Hammer (2008), is the ability to switch cultural perspectives and adjust behaviours in a way that responds appropriately to cultural commonalities and differences. Although student populations at many institutions are diversifying, Leask (2009) points out that an increasingly diverse student population does not automatically lead students to experience intercultural interactions that result in intercultural

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competence development. Halualani (2008, 2010) and other intercultural scholars (Brown, 2009; Dunne, 2009; Peacock & Harrison, 2009) show how students of diverse cultural backgrounds are not likely to interact frequently or meaningfully even when present on the same campus. In fact, according to Yefanova et al. (2015), it is faculty who play a critical role in designing a classroom experience that will encourage students of diverse backgrounds to engage with one another in meaningful ways that can lead to valuable intercultural development. We propose that by thoughtfully integrating English language instruction with intercultural learning objectives, ELT instructors can strategically help to enhance the international student experience. Without this intentional and strategic curricular planning by faculty, students may be limited in experiencing intercultural interactions due to varying degrees of disinterest, discomfort, or anxiety (Brown, 2009; Dunne, 2009; Peters, 2018). Drawing from focus group data conducted with faculty, staff, and students at the University of Minnesota, Yu and Peters (2019) demonstrate that international students, even those who are proficient in English, often have difficulty connecting socially and academically with their U.S. classmates. International student participants report challenges keeping up with the pace of conversation, navigating the dynamics of group work, and feeling excluded when the topic of conversation is filled with cultural references. One student explained her perspective that improving language proficiency is more straightforward than acquiring the cultural understanding needed to contribute meaningfully in social situations: After a while I think most of us here speak pretty good English and don’t have such problems anymore. Then after that, it’s more of a culture thing I think. People who grow up here like, how they party is different from the way we hang out. And I cannot make conversations with them about those TV shows and songs they grew up with. (Student participant, cited in Yu & Peters, 2019, p. 111)

These are the types of cultural barriers that could be addressed and potentially mitigated by an intentional intercultural skills curriculum that complements and enhances English language instruction. Faculty and staff from the University of Minnesota have also provided insights on specific factors they perceive as intercultural challenges when working with international students. In a large campus survey involving over 1500 respondents, faculty and staff participants observed that international students often experience difficulties understanding common cultural values, adjusting to expectations for academic culture, and learning the norms

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expected for successful interaction with faculty, staff, and peers (Peters & Anderson, 2021). Interestingly, several survey respondents pointed out that it was difficult for them to separate students’ language challenges from cultural barriers, which justifies the need for English language educators to emphasise both language and intercultural skills development. A few respondents also voiced concerns that international students are not provided with adequate resources to become oriented to the local academic culture (shared at many U.S. higher education institutions), which also establishes a need for a stronger curricular focus on intercultural learning for English language learners. When students have structured opportunities to develop their intercultural skills, they are more likely to achieve several important benefits (Yefanova et al., 2015). Intercultural skills development can help international students adjust to living in a new culture as well as better understand and meet expectations within an unfamiliar academic culture (Bodycott et al., 2014). When students experience greater intercultural understanding, their social interactions and academic experiences may also improve (Baba & Hosoda, 2014; Mamiseishvili, 2012). Furthermore, when international students are more effectively equipped to navigate intercultural interactions with domestic students, their adjustment process is positively impacted (Hendrickson et al., 2011; Williams & Johnson, 2011). Although traditional ESL/EFL textbooks have primarily introduced cultural topics at a knowledge level (Shin et al., 2011), our proposal is to design instructional resources so that students have explicit and meaningful opportunities to reflect on and practise intercultural skills. We advocate for an intercultural curricular focus that complements English language instruction and incorporates practical applications from intercultural theories such as intercultural competence (Deardorff, 2006) and intercultural sensitivity—that is, the capacity to develop respect and appreciation for cultural differences (Bennett, 1986)—in ways that are relatable and actionable in students’ daily lives.

Curriculum Materials and Sociocultural Perspectives on Learning For decades, ELT professionals and their students have contributed to and benefited from the wealth of curriculum materials available to the profession. Whether in print or digital form, curriculum materials—such as textbooks, audio and video files, worksheets, teacher guides, and lesson plans—are

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considered to be essential and play a vital role in the teaching and learning that take place in our classrooms. Curriculum materials can also act as agents of change (Masuhara & Tomlinson, 2008) to teaching practice by providing a (new) visible framework for teachers to follow (Rubdy, 2003) and lend support to novice teachers who may lack confidence and/or expertise in a given subject (Garton & Graves, 2014). Given the ubiquitous nature of curriculum materials and their role in shaping teaching practice and students’ learning, it is clear that the development of such materials is a promising means to address the gap in teaching intercultural skills and in helping international students adjust to the values and practices of a new and unfamiliar culture. However, these materials can only really serve as an introductory framework for developing intercultural skills; indeed, teachers’ and students’ opportunities to share knowledge and learn from each other’s lived experiences are absolutely necessary in creating circumstances for the type of transformative learning that is needed to take place. Brown (2002) contrasts a transmission view and a transformative view of learning. A transmission view of learning emphasises a student’s acquisition of knowledge from an outside source (for example, the teacher or the textbook) without any internal modification or returning influence—that is, influence from the student onto the teacher, the material, and so on. In this view, knowledge is simply deposited into the mind of the learner without consent or agency. In contrast to this, a transformative view emphasises knowledge as socially constructed through active engagement and participation between the teacher, the learner, and the curriculum materials. In this view, teachers are not simple conveyors of knowledge and expertise; they are facilitators who guide students’ learning by fostering an environment where students bring their own experiences and background knowledge to the classroom and exert these experiences on the learning that takes place. From this perspective, curriculum materials such as textbooks, worksheets, and other resources are not intended to be memorised and recited but are meant as tools to assist in achieving a learning goal. A textbook, for example, is material in that it has a physical (material) form: bound pages of text and images; it is also social in its function (transmits and communicates information and creates space for transformative learning) and cultural in its significance and value. The designers of the textbook, too, conceptualised this material with an ideal nature and intended use. This distinction of curriculum materials as more than just physical objects is important as they embody something more; as Brown (2002) puts it: “they transmit a mode of action that does not naturally exist within the material world, but rather that exists through shared cultures” (p. 43). They are

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socially and culturally bound and can be used to assist people in achieving a goal they otherwise would not be able to on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory of human cognition describes a developmental potential between individuals and tools that can be appropriated and mastered over time. Integral to this theory is the concept of internalisation or “the process through which individuals appropriate social forms of mediation, including cultural artefacts such as language, and use it to regulate their own mental activity” (Lantolf & Beckett, 2009, p. 460). This model of cognitive learning was shown to progress in stages or zones of proximal development. Vygotsky (1978) argues that as individuals internalise aspects of these tools and progress through the stages, they also internalise this support and, over time, no longer need the tools. Despite the transformative nature of curriculum materials on a learner’s cognition, the instructional resources that have been developed to address the perceived gap in international students’ intercultural awareness are not a one-size-fits-all solution to a very context-dependent issue. Such an approach would no doubt overlook the unique qualities and characteristics of the classroom and institutional context, the varying needs of students, and the expertise of local teachers (Brown, 2002; Spillane, 1998). Instead, these instructional resources should be adapted and contextualised to the local context, which would directly address the specific needs of students, the institution, and so on, and give learners both the benefit of familiarity and of connecting them to their learning environment (López Barrios & Villanueva de Debat, 2014). Through this process of adaptation and contextualisation, instructors, too, may develop a deeper understanding of the ideas and learning paradigms underlying these curriculum materials and exert their own beliefs, values, opinions, and worldviews onto the instructional resources that result from the adaptation. This bidirectional influence of the curriculum materials onto the teacher and that of the teacher onto the curriculum materials follows Cohen and Ball’s (1999) instructional capacity and interaction framework, which emphasises a bidirectional relationship between all three elements of instruction: the teacher, the student, and the curriculum materials. Indeed, students’ beliefs, values, opinions, and worldviews, too, are paramount to the success of these instructional resources and the transformative learning that is needed to address the gap in intercultural awareness and cross-cultural adjustment.

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Instructional Resources for Intercultural Awareness and Adjustment Grounded in sociocultural perspectives on learning, we present a curriculum to offer an opportunity for students to explicitly reflect on important cultural topics and intentionally practise and internalise intercultural skills in order to gain confidence in their social interactions with instructors, staff, and peers. We wish to reiterate that the goal of this course is not to present a fixed formula for assimilation but to provide important learning paradigms that can help to increase students’ intercultural awareness, which has broader implications for contributing to understanding and promoting diversity in ELT. The examples delineated in this text can be applied globally by means of local adaptation and contextualisation. We propose these instructional resources as a course, but we are aware of the many constraints and limitations facing institutions in terms of available time, credit loads, and finances. If readers are not able to offer a course per se, they may be reassured in knowing that many of these modules and activities could stand alone and/or be the focus of a one-time professional development workshop or training, for example. They could also be incorporated into other skills-based, integrated skills, or content-based courses with a variety of modules/units. There are many options in selecting and adapting whichever resources best fit the needs of the students and the institutional context. In addition to designing these instructional materials to support the development of students’ intercultural awareness in the most general sense, we also propose contextualising the content to be specific to the experiences of international students studying at colleges or universities in your local context (such as in the U.S., in our case) to explicitly teach common and diverse cultural values and tools that can help to advance students’ intercultural awareness and development during their time studying abroad. When implementing an intercultural skills curriculum for international students, an additional consideration for educators, programmes, and institutions is to assess how to build intercultural skills in domestic student populations as well (Soria & Troisi, 2014). When domestic students are equipped with tools for intercultural skills development, there is greater potential for meaningful two-way engagement between international and domestic students (Thomas et al., 2018). We believe that this is also a promising step towards internationalising the student experience for all students—an oft-touted priority for colleges and universities worldwide (Marinoni, 2019). Below, a general course description is provided with intended learning objectives; also included are select modules with summaries and assignment

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descriptions adapted from LaScotte and Peters’ (2021) Intercultural Skills in Action: An International Student’s Guide to College and University Life in the United States—a textbook we developed for our local context. See LaScotte and Peters (2021) for the text in its entirety.

Course Overview The proposed course and sequence of modules and activities are intended to provide international students with the necessary skills to identify, understand, and think critically about concepts of culture, communication, academic norms, social relationships, and their own personal growth and development. In engagement with these curriculum materials, students will identify and analyse how core values, beliefs, opinions, and worldviews inform cultural norms and behaviours, and they will compare and contrast their experiences from their home culture (that is, the culture(s) they grew up in and most identify with now) and their host culture (that is, the majority culture that is most dominant in the local context they find themselves today). For example, a student who was born and raised in mainland China but now studies in the U.S. might compare typical values and beliefs that they have or associate with China with those of the new local community. In addition to identifying and analysing similarities and differences across cultures, students will investigate local community and/or institutionally based resources (for example, student-help centres) and conduct field research in order to discover ways to be successful in their current or future intercultural environments. As a facilitator and cultural informant to students, the instructor will support students as they develop their intercultural awareness and ability to communicate in clear and culturally appropriate ways. It is intended that after completing this course, students will be able to: • identify and analyse how core values, beliefs, opinions, and worldviews inform cultural norms and behaviours; • define, interpret, and evaluate cultural differences as they relate to the role of a student and a global citizen; • compare and contrast how core values, beliefs, opinions, and worldviews from students’ home and host cultures contribute to the local learning environment and inform interactions with peers, instructors, and other members of the learning community; • describe the purpose and availability of community and/or institutionally based resources and student services; and

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• synthesise what they have learned about themselves and others, as well as the personal and academic skills that will promote success in their current and future intercultural environments.

Module 1. Cultural Identity In this module, students are introduced to definitions of culture and what the concept of culture really entails. Culture is deeper than the obvious visible aspects such as food, language, and dress (although those parts can be important). It also includes learned behaviours, products, or artefacts, and deeply held values often associated with tradition, passed down from one generation to the next. Culture is a set of beliefs, values, worldviews, and traditions that shape how individuals live their lives and inform their communication style and behaviours (Jackson, 2014). Culture dictates the appropriate rules for how to behave and what to say (and what not to say) and through culture we also learn how to interpret other community members’ words and actions. These become our cultural norms and they greatly influence our behaviours. The longer students are in contact with other cultures, the more they are exposed to new cultural experiences. Many will give them valuable opportunities to reflect on their own cultural values and learn from new perspectives; however, some cultural experiences may conflict with their own individual culture. During this time, students will experience a period of cultural adjustment in which they bring their own culture to the learning engagement. Depending on exactly how different the new (dominant) host culture is from students’ home culture(s), they may adjust more quickly or more slowly, but all will progress through the stages of adjustment at some level. Models of cultural adjustment have been proposed to resemble a U-Curve (Lysgaard, 1955), a W-Curve (Gullahorn & Gullahorn, 1963), and most recently an M-Curve (Hotta & Ting-Toomey, 2013). Albeit different in their conceptualisation, all refer to high and low points associated with the adjustment period. An understanding of cultural differences and this adjustment process is important for students’ mental health, self-awareness, and sense of belonging as they navigate a new learning environment and foster relationships with others. Possible activities to explore cultural identities: • Identify students’ core cultural values, beliefs, opinions, and worldviews. Analyse how these inform their actions and behaviours in daily life by providing guided and individual reflection exercises. • Explore models of cultural adjustment and have students reflect on where they feel they are now. Brainstorm possible tips for coping and moving

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forward in the process. Prompt students to interview classmates to compare and contrast different adjustment paths. • Have students interview community members of the local culture to see which cultural values they identify as most important and why. Have students compare these to their own values and reflect on how their understanding of culture has evolved.

Module 2. Academic Culture Like other aspects of culture, students also acquire and internalise certain beliefs, values, worldviews, and general cultural norms from their community members about education—their academic culture. “Academic culture refers to the attitudes, values and ways of behaving that are shared by people who work or study in universities, for example, lecturers, researchers and students” (Brick, 2011, p. 2). Expected behaviours in colleges and universities are not the same across cultures, although some may be more similar to one another than others; differences in academic culture could lead to feelings of confusion and frustration with the new learning environment, such as with the approach to teaching and learning, and the typical relationship and interactions between students and faculty members, and/or the general organisation of the institution. In fact, many international students are surprised to discover the extent to which the academic environment can contribute to stress in their lives once they begin living in a new host country (Yan, 2017). Having an understanding of these academic cultural differences is important to equip students with skills for effective relationship building and participation in a global society. To mitigate feelings of stress and angst surrounding the learning environment, it is important to explore differences between students’ home and host academic cultures. What approach to teaching and learning do these cultures typically favour: teacher-centred or student-centred? What is the expected relationship dynamic between students, faculty, and staff? What do students need to do in order to be successful in the host academic culture that may be different from their home academic culture(s)? Which approach do they believe is best for their own learning style and why? Exploring these differences in expectations and cultural beliefs can shed light on an unclear topic area that many faculty and staff assume students are already aware of and take for granted. Possible activities to explore academic culture:

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• Ask students to identify aspects of their home academic culture(s), for example, the approach to teaching/learning, classroom behaviour and expectations, relationships between students and faculty; contrast these aspects with those of the host culture and identify possible cultural values that influence and underscore these differences. • Have students conduct a classroom observation at a local or affiliated institution and reflect on the classroom culture(s) they observe. They might also interview students or faculty members with specific questions about academic culture in their local context. • Asking questions of professors and other students may provide guidance, but it is likely that students will need extra support that they may find from community and/or institutionally based services. Do some online research to identify (on or off ) campus resources at your institution and list the types of support students can seek from each resource.

Module 3. Intercultural Friendships Social support is an essential part of the cultural adjustment process for international students and has been shown to provide several benefits (Sullivan & Kashubeck-West, 2015); in fact, lack of such support can cause psychological stress such as depression and homesickness for international students (Holttum, 2015). Intercultural friendships can take many valuable forms, including friendships between students of different nationalities, and friendships between domestic and international students. Both types of intercultural friendships positively influence international students’ psychological adjustment and sense of cultural identity (Hendrickson et al., 2011), and they also give students the chance to learn from the experiences of others, access useful advice and guidance about various cultural topics, and increase their intercultural awareness and understanding (Moores & Popadiuk, 2011). Domestic students in particular can experience important growth and development by building friendships with international students. Friendship with international students affords local students the opportunity to learn about other cultures. Soria and Troisi (2014), for example, found that local students who socialised with international students made gains in their global, intercultural, and international competencies. Other studies have shown that local students who socialised with international students saw improvements in their intercultural communication skills (Campbell, 2012), learned cultural adjustment strategies, and felt a sense of satisfaction from helping international students in their own adjustment process (Geelhoed et al., 2003). Possible activities to explore intercultural friendships:

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• Ask students to brainstorm the reciprocal benefits of building intercultural relationships. • Identify mutual challenges international and local students face in fostering intercultural relationships (for example, friendships). Brainstorm strategies students can use to overcome these challenges. • Students can conduct field research (via surveys or interviews) to learn about how others have experienced intercultural friendships. What were their challenges and how did they overcome them? What advice do they have for students currently experiencing challenges?

Conclusion As a growing number of educators look to recruit international students for study abroad (Marinoni, 2019; OECD, 2017), educators in ELT contexts worldwide have increasing opportunities to work with diverse student populations. Our curriculum, focusing on cultural identity, adjusting to academic culture, and building intercultural relationships, provides a path for students to develop intercultural competencies required by an increasingly diverse society. To that end, we concur with Moeller and Nugent (2014): “When language skills and intercultural competency become linked in a language classroom, students become optimally prepared for participation in a global world” (p. 2). Although culture may often be included as featured content in ELT textbooks (Shin et al., 2011), we present a framework for prioritising the process of intercultural competence development as an important curricular component to complement English language skills instruction. A process-oriented approach to teaching intercultural skills (Deardorff, 2006) can equip students with greater understanding and confidence to communicate effectively and build relationships both in academic and professional contexts (Byram, 1997). Our proposed intercultural skills curriculum, when adapted to the local context and deployed as a transformative learning tool, offers students the opportunity to deepen their intercultural learning, thereby further promoting their success in cultural adjustment, academics, and relationships (Baba & Hosoda, 2014; Mamiseishvili, 2012). To this end, ELT instructors worldwide play a vital role in inspiring their students to maximise opportunities for intercultural growth and discovery.

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Suggested Further Reading DeCapua, A. (2018). Culture myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. University of Michigan Press. This volume focuses on developing an awareness of cultural assumptions often made by educators working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This is a worthwhile read for those wishing to deepen their understanding of the research on cultural differences, while addressing common issues of minimisation and exoticisation, in an effort to mitigate cultural barriers that affect communication. Jackson, J. (2014). Introducing language and intercultural communication. Routledge. This text provides a thorough introduction to the research literature on culture and communication and is recommended for undergraduate students of intercultural communication and/or language teaching. Jackson provides real-world examples of complex topics situated within a skill-building framework, intended to further the reader’s understanding of language and intercultural communication in diverse international settings. Learning objectives, discussion questions, and a glossary are included in each chapter. LaScotte, D., & Peters, B. (2021). Intercultural skills in action: An international student’s guide to college and university life in the United States. University of Michigan Press. For readers looking for a complete text that they may use (and adapt) to provide such a course on fostering intercultural learning experiences in the ESL/EFL classroom, this textbook may offer a helpful framework, challenging readings, and detailed activities (and worksheets) to build intercultural skills. While this text is framed for our geographic context (the U.S.), the readings remain pertinent to all readers as they address aspects of interculturality from a theoretical framework and can be adapted as needed.

Engagement Priorities • In this chapter, we advocate for a greater focus on intercultural skills development in English language classrooms and we point to evidence from our context that demonstrates a need for this. What evidence do you see from your local context, research-based, or anecdotal, that would also support a stronger focus on intercultural development for English language learners?

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• We propose a transformative view of curriculum that is optimised when adapted to a local context. In what ways might you customise the curricular ideas outlined in this chapter to be most effective in your local context? • Several of the intercultural learning activities we have suggested involve students finding opportunities to interact with locals. If you are teaching in a monocultural environment, what alternative activities might promote similar intercultural development for your students?

Note 1. In this chapter, we define international students as those who are studying on a short-term, student visa in a country different from their home country.

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“Let’s Play ‘Sok Says’, Not ‘Simon Says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools Roby Marlina

Introduction Diversity is an inherent property of second language education (Liu & Nelson, 2018). For decades, English language teaching (ELT) scholars and researchers have made endless calls to incorporate into our classroom practices a legitimate recognition of various forms of diversity found in the society such as language, culture, gender, race, and economic (e.g. Kubota & Lin, 2006; Ricento & Hornberger, 1996). On recognising linguistic and cultural diversity specifically, two prominent sociolinguists—Braj Kachru (1986) and Larry Smith (1976)—have brought to our attention the global expansion of the English language, which results in a kaleidoscopic plurality of the language in terms of use, users, cultures, and linguistic forms. As an international language, English is used by speakers from a wide range of lingua-cultural backgrounds, making it a language that reflects complex and diverse identities, cultural practices, values, systems, power struggles, and beliefs (Pennycook, 2017). Prompted by a wealth of empirical research on the pluralising nature of the language, ELT has shifted from teaching English as a second or foreign R. Marlina (B) Training, Research, Assessment, Consultancy Department, SEAMEO-RELC, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_5

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language (TESL/TEFL) to teaching English as an international language (TEIL) (Marlina, 2018; Matsuda, 2012; McKay, 2012) in order to offer ELT practitioners an intellectual framework to incorporate linguistic and cultural diversity into the ELT classroom. As a paradigm that strongly advocates diversity in language teaching, TEIL also provides an intellectual ammunition to challenge pedagogical principles and practices that are exclusively based on the linguistic norms and cultural practices of the so-called native-English speakers. ELT practitioners are advised to recognise learners’ linguistic and cultural capital as learning resources, to raise their learners’ awareness of world Englishes, and to teach intercultural communication skills, i.e. the ability to communicate respectfully across cultures and Englishes (Marlina, 2018). Although TEIL-informed scholarly works have been around for three decades, the response from the world of ELT seems to be incomplete (Marlina, 2018). Many ELT materials, in particular, have been criticised for privileging native-speakers’ norms while neglecting other lingua-cultural practices. Students may be blindfolded from the actual sociolinguistic reality of English as well as the intercultural nature of communication in today’s globalising(-sed) world (Marlina & Giri, 2013; Syrbe & Rose, 2018). Recently, however, Rose and Galloway (2019) have observed an increase in the number of ELT textbooks that claim to be international and intercultural in orientation. What remains uncertain is whether the learning content and activities in those textbooks match the claim. Hence, Rose and Galloway (2019) urge that it is essential for future inquiries to explore and evaluate the tension between rhetoric and practice. The aim of this chapter is to respond to the aforementioned gap by evaluating the extent to which attempts have been made to incorporate international and intercultural dimensions in the recently published Cambodian ELT textbooks for lower secondary schools (Grade 7–9). Using the TEILinformed analytic scheme, I will explore what attempts have been made and what is still lacking. Samples of activities, as well as excerpts of interviews with two of the textbook’s editing committee members will be used to justify one’s observations and contentions. Due to space constraints, only the analysis of the Cambodian Grade 7 English textbook (henceforth English G7) will be presented in this chapter. In the sections below, I first explain the conceptual framework, i.e. TEIL, upon which the findings in this chapter are premised, and highlight key findings from previous studies that evaluate the global orientation of ELT materials. Second, I describe the context, the textbook, the analytic scheme for evaluating international/intercultural dimension of the ELT textbook, and the limitations of the study reported in this chapter. Third, I present

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and discuss the findings of my study in the light of the evaluative framework. Finally, I discuss implications for ELT writers and educators beyond the Cambodian context.

TEIL and TEIL Materials English as an international language (EIL) is neither an instructional linguistic variety for teaching nor a linguistic model for communication. It may be seen as a lens or an ideological belief to (1) inform how we conceptualise English, (2) approach the teaching and learning of English, design teaching materials, or (3) develop assessment tasks in light of the diversifying nature of the language, the unprecedented growth in the number of multilingual users of English, and the intercultural nature of today’s communicative exchanges (Alsagoff et al., 2012; Marlina, 2018). As EIL challenges practices that glorify lingua-cultural norms and practices of a particular speech community, teaching EIL means the act of professionally guiding students to: • gain knowledge of the diversity of English, • give equal and legitimate recognition of all varieties of English and its users, and • develop the ability to communicate and negotiate meanings respectfully in today’s communicative settings that are international and intercultural in nature (Marlina, 2018). To operationalise the above in teaching materials, various TEIL scholars (e.g. Matsuda, 2012; McKay, 2012; Rose & Galloway, 2019) have unanimously argued that the outcomes of the global expansion of English must be present in ELT materials. Specifically, TEIL-oriented ELT materials are more than likely to: • incorporate various examples of world Englishes; • include representations of diverse users of English and exemplify interactions between them, and; • teach intercultural communication skills. As TEIL is the paradigm of teaching grounded in the reality in which we live and operate, this reality needs to be reflected in ELT teaching materials. In other words, through ELT materials, learners can see representations of

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the actual use and users of English in today’s globalising(-sed) reality. They can also learn how to participate in social interactions that are often intercultural in nature. As reminded by McKay (2012), ELT materials should provide learners with principles or tools to help them make sense of the multifaceted linguistic world that surrounds them. However, such materials are still far from reality, as confirmed by empirical studies that evaluate the global orientation of ELT materials used in some major educational institutions in Australia (Marlina & Giri, 2013), Italy (Vettorel & Lopriore, 2013), Germany (Syrbe & Rose, 2018), and South Korea (Joo et al., 2020). All of these studies found that ELT materials in their respective contexts were overpopulated with references to UK/US-based linguistic norms and practices. In terms of the representation of English users, some textbooks attempted to include characters from outside, what Kachru (1986) called Inner Circle Countries (ICC) or the native-English speaking countries. However, these characters from Outer Circle Countries (OCC) and Expanding Circle Countries (ECC) where English functions as a second (former) and a foreign (latter) language (Kachru, 1986) were often portrayed as learners as opposed to competent users of English, implying a view of diversity as deficient (Marlina & Giri, 2013). In terms of cultural references, Anglo-dominant cultural content was still observed in most ELT textbooks. Multicultural depictions were seen in some, but the focus was solely limited to the culture of 4 Fs, namely facts, foods, fairs, and folklores (Kramsch, 1991). Activities that aimed at fostering reflection on students’ own cultures were present only in few textbooks (Vettorel & Lopriore, 2013). It is still unknown whether these findings are similarly observed in the Cambodian ELT textbooks for lower secondary schools especially when the aims of the textbooks seem to be oriented towards TEIL and intercultural communication. Prior to presenting the evaluation of English G7, the next section briefly explains the context which includes some information of the textbook, the analytic scheme for evaluating the textbook, and the study’s limitation.

Context, Analytic Scheme, and Limitation Context and Textbook The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—which Cambodia is a member of—established the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 with a mission to transform the ten members of the countries into a region

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with free movements of goods, services, and people. The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Kingdom of Cambodia, henceforth MoEYS, was prompted to revise ELT materials for Cambodian learners of English (Lim & Keuk, 2018). The revision was further driven by the unprecedented growth in the number of tourists from the region and other countries, of Cambodia’s trading partners from the ASEAN countries, of international aid agencies across the nation, and of partnerships with international educational institutions (Udom et al., 2020). Certain nationally prescribed ELT materials that were once used in many Cambodian public schools, such as the English for Cambodia series, became irrelevant as the content of the materials was Anglo-dominant (Lim & Keuk, 2018). Knowledge of such content, in the light of the aforementioned changing political and economic landscapes in Cambodia, was not seen to be effective enough in preparing Cambodians to communicate with diverse users of English from the region or other O/ECC. In response to the limitations of the former ELT textbook series and the perceived role of ELT for Cambodia’s changing political and economic landscapes, the MoEYS, in collaboration with other local and international educational institutions, published a new ELT textbook series—English Grade 7, Grade 8, and Grade 9 —in 2016 and 2017 as replacement of the English for Cambodia Grade 7–9 textbooks. These new textbooks were written by a team of non-Khmer English language educators from the Australian Centre for Education, and were edited by a team of Cambodian educators from the MoEYS whose role was to ensure the local appropriateness of the textbooks. English Grade 7–9 claimed to have adopted a task-based approach to language teaching. Each textbook consisted of eleven chapters covering a wide range of topics and language macro skills. The contents and activities of the textbooks were set at A1 level of CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference), with a focus on learning to appreciate linguistic and cultural diversity, and learning to communicate interculturally. As endorsed by the MoEYS and stated in all Grade 7–9 teacher’s guide books, the new ELT textbooks series aimed to help Cambodian learners of English “develop twenty-first century skills… [and] explore how different countries and culture live, learn/appreciate different cultures and different accents, and learn how to talk to people from all around the ASEAN community and the world” (MoEYS, 2015, p. 5), which seem to echo the TEIL paradigm. However, the extent to which these TEIL and intercultural communication-oriented aims match the learning activities and texts in the textbooks is still open to inquiry. In order to address this, the next section discusses the analytic scheme used to evaluate the textbooks.

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Analytic Scheme In this chapter I only selected the Grade 7 textbook for analysis and evaluation. Specifically, I analysed both written and audio components of the student’s books as well as the teacher’s books. Guided by the aim of the project and the three principles of developing TEIL-oriented ELT materials discussed in the conceptual framework section of this chapter, I employed the analytic scheme shown in Table 1, extracted from Syrbe and Rose (2018) and Rose and Galloway (2019), to help evaluate the extent to which attempts had been adequately made to support learners of English in developing awareness of and appreciation for linguistic and cultural diversity. Throughout the process of analysing the textbooks, I often encountered questions about what I was analysing, and became curious about the thoughts that had gone into the development of the content and activities. Thus, I decided to approach the editing committee members—Mr. S and Mr. V— who were experienced Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher educators based in a teacher training college in Phnom Penh and who happened to be pursuing a professional development course in Singapore. They also volunteered to participate in a two-hour focus group interview on the editing process of the textbooks; and several short followup interviews for minimising the likelihood of misinterpreting their views. Although Mr. S and Mr. V were not in charge of writing the textbooks, the insights, and experiences they had gained from their roles in “filtering” Table 1 TEIL-informed analytic scheme for textbook evaluation What to observe?

Manifestations

Target interlocutors and ownership depicted in the materials?

• Characters represented in the textbook? (names and any references to geographic locations for target interlocutors) • Nature of interactions in textbooks in terms of whether the interactions are between L1–L1, L1–L2, or L2–L2 speakers? • Which linguistic norm is predominantly used as a point of reference or benchmark? • Whose cultural references? Are they diverse? • Any evidence of intercultural comparison; or attempts to encourage explanation of one’s own cultures?

Models presented in the materials?

Culture in teaching materials?

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earlier drafts of the textbook series, and in ensuring the local appropriateness of the textbooks helped to answer various questions I encountered during the textbook analysis.

Limitations There are two major limitations to my study that need to be highlighted at this stage. First, as previously mentioned, only the analysis of Grade 7 textbook is presented in this chapter. Thus, the findings may not be entirely applicable to all Cambodian ELT textbooks. Second, no voices from teachers teaching with the textbook and students learning with the textbook are present anywhere in the chapter. I acknowledge that one should not only evaluate materials just as they are, but also how they are used to deliver lessons or responded to by students. This can be further explored in future inquiries.

Cambodian English G7: International and Intercultural Enough? Guided by the chapter’s aim and the TEIL-informed analytic scheme for textbook evaluation, this section combines the findings and discussion of my study. Let us remember that my study examined the extent to which English G7 may help learners develop awareness of and appreciation for the diversity of (1) users of English, (2) linguistic norms in English, and (3) cultural practices and values embedded in the ways in which English is used today. Overall, some attempts to achieve the MoEYS’s TEIL and intercultural communication-oriented aims can be observed in English G7, particularly in its inclusion of somewhat diverse representation of the users of English, linguistic norms, and cultural references. The details are provided below.

Representation of Users of English Informed by the TEIL paradigm, ELT materials that are international and intercultural in orientation should include representations of speakers from various lingua-cultural backgrounds, and include examples of interactions between those speakers. Results from both interviews as well as the analysis of the characters depicted in English G7 and the frequency of interactions between these characters have revealed some attempts to respond to this principle in three ways.

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First, unlike other ELT textbooks in which users of English from OCC and ECC are often under-represented (Syrbe & Rose, 2018; Vettorel & Lopriore, 2013), characters in English G7 are, to some extent, diverse and international, covering a range of countries from all three Kachruvian circles (see Table 2). There is also an attempt to depict diversity in characters not only across the national context but also within a national boundary, evidenced in the inclusion of Aboriginal Australian and Chinese Cambodian characters. The inclusion of diverse characters, as Mr. S justified, was “done so that our Cambodian students can see that English is used by anyone, not just native-English speakers” (Mr. S, my italics). Although the characters in English G7 are not necessarily from various different parts of the world, suffice it to say that attempts have been made to avoid blindfolding learners from the current demography of users of English. In addition, these attempts challenge the view of native-speakers as the only target interlocutors in international communication settings (Marlina, 2018; Rose & Galloway, 2019). Second, an attempt to inspire Cambodian learners of English to learn to appreciate diversity can be seen in its depiction and recognition of characters from OCC and ECC as legitimate users of English. For example, as a part of listening and reading activities, students are tasked to learn to understand monologues by characters from East Asian, African, and mostly ASEAN countries. Also to engage students in learning imperative sentences in an educationally engaging manner, a popular children’s game called Simon says has its name “khmer-ified” (Mr. V) into “Sok says” (MoEYS, 2015, p. 49). Therefore, instead of following Simon’s instructions, students listen and respond to instructions in English given by Sok, “a Khmer name [that is] familiar to our Cambodian students’ ears, also that they can relate to” (Mr. S). Table 2 Representation of users of English in English G7 Cambodian (local characters) Sophal Dara Bopha Mr. Sovann Ms. Mom Chamroen Panha Sreymao Saray (Chinese Cambodian)

Characters from ICC Jacky (Australia) Amaroo (Aboriginal Australian) Linda, Jay, Tom (Britain) Lucy (America) Bonny, Victoria (Canada) Faith (Ireland) Reginald (South Africa)

Characters from OCC and ECC Dhashni, Farah (Malaysia) Chisum (the Philippines) Chinedu (Nigeria) Bolormao (Mongolia) Can (Vietnam) Shin Mae Hwa (China) Hiroko (Japan)

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Additionally, unlike the deficit portrayal of non-native English-speaking characters in the textbooks discussed in Marlina and Giri (2013), English G7 attempted to avoid portraying these speakers as incompetent or novice English users. This can be seen in how the main characters, mostly Cambodians, are portrayed as language speakers rather than learners, evidenced in the phrase “I SPEAK ENGLISH” written in a speech bubble on top of Cambodian characters’ faces. As justified by Mr. S, “we want our students to see and know that Cambodians can also speak good English, and that’s reality!”. Third, analysis into communicative exchanges in English G7 has also revealed the textbook’s intention to convey to the students (though implicitly) the reality of today’s interactions in English which take place predominantly between multilingual users of English from OCC and ECC. Out of 42 interactions presented in the textbook, 22 interactions are between L2 and L2 speakers, predominantly between Cambodians. 16 interactions were between L1 and L2 speakers, with a ratio of 3:1 (3 Cambodians and 1 British within a conversation); and only 4 L1–L1 interactions. Although communicative exchanges between multilingual users of English from OCC and ECC is not adequately exemplified, there is adequate amount of evidence to claim that the textbook is somewhat international in orientation. This is evidenced in its respectful representation of users of English from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds and reduction in the frequency of native-English speakers’ involvement in interactions. Since the characters represented in English G7 are somewhat geographically diverse, one can assume that the linguistic norms used as the model for students to learn may also be diverse. To what extent is this assumption valid? The details are provided below.

Representation of Linguistic Norms From the TEIL lens, ELT materials that are international and intercultural in orientation should raise students’ awareness of the dynamic nature of English by incorporating examples of different Englishes, and by not overpopulating the materials with references to the UK/US English-based linguistic norms. However, as revealed in the analysis of the audio materials, written texts, and the main tasks for language usage, diversity seems to be recognised only in certain linguistic norms. Unlike other previously discussed textbooks where RP (Received Pronunciation) or GA (General American) is the dominant linguistic benchmark, and accent of other Englishes are often under-represented or non-existent,

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English G7 appears to have steered itself away from being similar to those textbooks, aiming to help realise the MoEYS’s vision to inspire students to appreciate different accents. As revealed in the analysis of English G7 audio tracks (see Table 3), only 31 percent comprised of ICC-based accents, with UK-based accents (24 percent) being the dominant. Over 69 per cent of its audio materials are those of Englishes accents from OCC and ECC (with 62 per cent of an educated variety of Cambodian English accent, and 7 percent of broadly South East Asians), revealing a somewhat diverse representation of English accents in English G7. When asked about the higher percentage of the English-educated Cambodian accent, Mr. S explained that during the textbook development process “we didn’t have people from some of those countries mentioned in the textbook, so we asked our advanced English students to be the voice actors”. Although there is no observable attempt in both student’s and teacher’s guidebook that explicitly direct students’ attention to the accents represented in the textbook, the somewhat diverse representations have implicitly conveyed a support for flexibility in phonological norms. Hence, potential favouritism towards a single variety of ICC English accent, and neglect towards accents of other legitimate English users are minimised. Also, the dominant representation of locally educated accents softly echoes a voice of contest towards a view of learning English through a utopian prism, i.e. by emulating native-speakers’ language usage. However, though there is enough evidence of support from English G7 towards recognising diverse phonological norms, analysis of the written texts and the main tasks for language usage has revealed a view of English as a morphosyntactically homogeneous language. Like many other previously reviewed ELT textbooks, a static view of British English grammar and vocabulary is observed, which contradicts the reality of the dynamic nature of English, and the textbook’s claim of being international in orientation. For example, the stative possessive have got —often found in British English Table 3 Representation of phonological norms in English G7 English G7 Accents

Seconds

%

Cambodian (local) UK-based (received pronunciation, and regional accents) US-based Other IC Englishes Other OC/EC Englishes Total

5673 2234 424 186 645 9162

61.92 24.38 4.63 2.03 7.04 100

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(Jankowski, 2016)—is taught and used in the main texts and tasks of textbook, indicating its use as the standard . The same view can also be observed in the key vocabulary that students are required to learn, which is predominantly found in British English such as trousers or underpants. Discussions of language changing over time, and/or prompts that encourage students to explore and speculate potential variability in grammar and vocabulary across contexts are nowhere to be found in the textbook or teacher’s book. When asked about this, Mr. V justified that they “do not want to confuse Grade 7 students… students must learn the fundamentals first before exposing them to different kinds of English”. However, lexical and grammatical variation is, as enthusiastically shared by Mr. S, “something we can introduce in textbooks for higher level students like grade 11 and 12”. Such introduction is important especially when there are, as stated earlier in the chapter, (1) a drive to help Cambodian students develop the ability to communicate effectively across Cambodian border; and (2) a claim of materials being international and intercultural in orientation.

Representation of Cultures Another TEIL-informed principle of developing intercultural-learningoriented ELT materials is that students should be (1) exposed to diverse cultural practices as the lingua-cultural backgrounds of future interlocutors are often unknown and diverse; and (2) engaged in developing intercultural communication skills. While these two points are reflected in the MoEYS’s aims, analysis of various written texts and activities in English G7 show that there are more attempts to achieve the first point than the second. The details are explained next. A large volume of cultural information in many other ELT textbooks is ICC culture-oriented with an implied assumption that learning English means learning to be a part of those cultures (Rose & Galloway, 2019). However, a considerable amount of effort in minimising Anglo-dominant content can be observed in various texts about local and global cultures in English G7. The cultural aspects in English G7 mainly cover topics that fall into Kramsch’s (1991) culture of 4 Fs. Despite this, the textbook needs to be commended for two aspects. First, as seen in Table 4, English G7 seems to be committed to raising Grade 7 students’ awareness of cultural diversity through its inclusion of texts about different customs and cultural practices in the world, “things our students may not have the chance to see in their everyday life” (Mr. S).

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Table 4 Cultural references in English G7 Category Food

Fairs/festivals

Facts

Folklore

Topics/texts about local Cambodian cultures • Eating ambok (p. 41) • Going to amok restaurant (p. 148) • Water festival (p. 40) • Ploughing festival (p. 124) • Khmer New Year (p. 122) • Chinese New Year in Cambodia (p. 130)

• Schools in Cambodia (p. 16) • Floating village in Cambodia (p. 136) • “Cool things in my country: what do you know about Cambodia?” (pp. 134–139) • Phnom Penh in the 60s (p. 170) • Famous local singers in the 60 s: Ros Sereysothea, Pen Ron, and Sin Sisamuth (pp. 174–175) • Living in Pagoda (p. 190) N/A

Topics/texts about global cultures • Pizza (p. 166)

• Cultural festivals – Thaipusam in Malaysia (p. 130) – T´êt in Vietnam (p. 130) – Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia (p. 130) – La Tomatina in Spain (p. 168) – Ivrea Orange in Italy (p. 168) – Chincilla Melon Festival in Australia (p. 168) – Weird Noodle Hair Festival in Hue, Vietnam (p. 169) • Schools around the world: Malaysia, England, and Canada (p. 16) • Clothing style on special occasions: South Africa, Australia, Ireland, and China (p. 96)

N/A

Second, a good volume of cultural information about Cambodia exceeding those of ICC also needs to be commended. Specifically, there is an attempt, though not stated explicitly, to promote Cambodian moral values as well as pragmatic norms in English. The former is evidenced in English G7 Unit Three in which students learn in English how to behave respectfully in a Cambodian classroom setting. The latter is evidenced in the use of social honorific “auntie” as a term of respect to address a biologically unrelated elderly woman or, in Unit Six dialogue, the mother of the speaker’s friend. Additionally, a degree of fluidity in local Cambodian culture can be observed in a short passage from Unit Twenty One in which a Chinese

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Cambodian describes how Chinese New Year is celebrated in Cambodia, showcasing the ethno-cultural diversity of Cambodia. All of this—if effectively and regularly pedagogicalised—can help students develop intercultural communication skills. However, pedagogical attempts that can help students achieve the aforementioned skills are, to a large extent, still minimal even though twenty-first century skills are explicitly stated by the MoEYS as an attribute the textbook aims to develop.

On Intercultural Communication Skills ELT materials that claim to be intercultural in orientation should prepare students to function effectively in the twenty-first century. Therefore, the development of intercultural communication skills is key (Gray, 2013). As these skills include (1) awareness of similarities and differences between one’s own and others’ cultures, (2) the ability to communicate one’s own cultural norms, practices, and identities in English, and (3) to resolve potential intercultural misunderstanding (Marlina, 2018; McKay, 2012), students have to be deliberately engaged in: • Exploring and speculating how language is used and the pragmatic meanings behind the use of language; • exploring and speculating similarities and differences in lingua-cultural practices, and; • developing communicative strategies to deal with intercultural differences (McConachy, 2009). While English G7 should be commended for the depiction of non-Anglodominant cultural references, learning activities found in chapters that include references to local and global cultures are often restricted only to answering comprehension questions or doing gap-filling activities. Opportunities for intercultural learning, such as exploring the relationship between language and culture, are not often found. For example, in the conversation where the social honorific auntie is used, students are only asked to answer comprehension questions about the topic of the conversation. Learning prompts that encourage students to explore the cultural meanings behind the use of auntie as a term of address, and speculate how the social honorific could vary across cultural contexts are not often observed. When students are presented with short texts on cultural festivals in the world, students are only asked to imagine themselves being at the festivals and answer questions about the name of festival, the clothes worn in that festival,

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and interesting activities that are specific to the festival. Again, a deliberate attempt to include prompts that help foster the development of intercultural communication skills is not observed.

Conclusion and Implications Diversity, as stated earlier in this chapter, is an unavoidable feature of twentyfirst-century TESOL. Not only is diversity observed in language classrooms, but is also in the nature of today’s communicative exchanges in English, in the language itself, and, hence, in the TESOL discipline. This chapter has shown that the MoEYS is more or less aware of the inevitable encounters with linguistic and cultural diversity, especially in today’s globalising (-sed) Cambodia. This is evidenced in their effort to include various legitimate English users in the textbook, minimise involvement of ICC speakers in the interactions between textbook characters, convey a flexible view of phonological norms, and avoid Anglo-dominant cultural content. Although opportunities for learning about world Englishes and intercultural communication still require considerable strengthening—making the textbook still somewhat far from the MoEYS’s TEIL and intercultural communicationoriented aims—the commitment to promote diversity in language teaching is rather visible. Then, what does this mean to ELT material writers and teachers in other teaching contexts? Encountering diversity, due to the porosity of geographical borders, is not unique to Cambodia or the ASEAN region but is also a fact in the rest of the world today. This means that intercultural communication skills and awareness of language variation should also be the aims of ELT in other contexts. If the reality of communication and language use are characterised by diversity, then such reality will need to be reflected in teaching materials. ELT material writers are encouraged to ensure that the materials reflect “accurately” (as in empirically justified) the intercultural nature of communicative exchanges in English today, and the diversifying nature of the English language. It would be a disservice to today’s language learners if they are deprived of knowledge and skills for functioning in such lingua-culturally complex reality. The above implication also applies to language teachers. I am aware that, in some contexts, teachers do not always have control over what goes into the prescribed materials, and may be doubtful of the practicality of this chapter’s findings As Tomlinson (2012) notes, it is important to note, however, that textbooks do not confine what teachers can do. Teachers also have the agency to raise students’ awareness of diversity even if the prescribed materials lack

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the effort to do so. For example, when faced with lingua-culturally unfamiliar discourses in the teaching materials, teachers can use the mnemonic of SPEAKING (Hymes, 1974, cited in McConachy, 2009, p. 119) to engage students in reflecting on, exploring, and speculating the following: • Setting: the relationship between the language used and the location of communication. Will the language change if the setting is different? How? • Participants: the connection between the language used and the participants. Will the language change if the participants are from different lingua-cultural backgrounds? How? • Ends: what is the aim of communication? Do we all have the same way to achieve our communicative aim? • Act sequence: what should be said or done first, and what is next? How may this be different if the context changes? • Key: what is the tone of communication? Can the tone be interpreted differently? • Instrumentalities: what style of speech is used? Can another style be used? • Norms: what are the observed rules of communication and politeness? If misunderstanding occurs, what is the cause? How might the rules be different in another context? • Genre: what is the observed type of text or speech event? Can this genre be found in another context? Are there any similarities or differences? If the material only exemplifies interactions between ICC characters, teachers can still engage their learners in speculating whether the linguistic forms would change if the interactions were between characters from countries outside ICC. By the same token, if a text is on how to behave respectfully in a Cambodian classroom setting, intercultural communication skills can still be developed by getting students to explore and speculate whether such norms are similarly practised in other classroom settings. If not, what are the differences? What can potentially be the reasons behind those differences? If such norms are flouted due to misunderstanding of cultural norms, what strategies can be used to minimise conflicts and develop intercultural understanding? These examples of intercultural-learning prompts are not to suggest a complete removal of prescribed materials from our teaching. Instead, they can be used as springboard for intercultural reflections, explorations, speculations, and negotiations to happen. It is hoped that there are more visible attempts to develop ELT materials that truly reflect the lingua-culturally diverse world we inhabit, and are informed by an ideological lens, like the TEIL paradigm, that advocates appreciative—but not deficit—views towards

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diversity. It is also hoped that there are more pedagogical attempts to inspire students not only to know about lingua-cultural differences, but also to learn how to communicate strategically and respectfully across differences.

Suggested Further Reading Matsuda, A. (2012). Teaching materials in EIL. In L. Alsagoff, S. L. McKay, G. Hu & W. A. Renandya (Eds.), Principles and practices for teaching English as an international language (pp. 168–185). New York: Routledge. This is a book chapter that has established clear principles for developing ELT materials for raising learners’ awareness of the pluralising nature of English in their surroundings and in the world; for inspiring them to learn to appreciate the diversity of English language users; and for developing intercultural communication skills. Marlina, R. (2018). Teaching English as an international language: Implementing, reviewing, and re-envisioning World Englishes in language education. Abingdon: Routledge. This monograph reports on a case study of Australian tertiary educators embarking upon a pedagogical journey to inspire their students to learn to appreciate English language variation and cultural diversity. Readers can also have access to multiple insights into students’ experiences of learning about diverse world Englishes and cultures. Although the study was based in Australia, the offered contentions and suggestions are likely to be implementable in other similar contexts. Rose, H. L. & Galloway, N. (2019). Global Englishes for language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This is a recently published monograph that provides readers with the latest research-informed perspectives on TESOL in the light of today’s messy sociolinguistic reality of English in the world. Specifically, it unpacks and revises major assumptions behind key areas of inquiry in TESOL such as SLA, language pedagogy, curriculum/materials development, and TESOL teacher education. In addition to offering fresh insights into those areas, it invites readers to explore the relevance of those insights in their own respective contexts.

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Engagement Priorities • Using the TEIL-analytic scheme provided in this chapter, evaluate the extent to which an ELT textbook in your context has prepared learners to use English for intercultural and multilingual communication. • As a teacher, what will you do if the characters portrayed in your own textbook(s) do not reflect the current demography of the users of English? • Are there any suggestions in this chapter you think are practical or impractical in your teaching context? Why? And for the impractical one(s), could you suggest alternatives?

References Alsagoff, L., McKay, S. L., Hu, G., & Renandya, W. A. (Eds.). (2012). Principles and practices for teaching English as an international language. Routledge. Gray, J. (Ed.). (2013). Critical perspectives on language teaching materials. Palgrave. Jankowski, B. L. (2016). “We’ve got our own little ways of doing things here”: Cross-variety variation, change and divergence in the English stative possessive. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics. https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ twpl/article/view/19589. Joo, S. J., Chik, A., & Djonov, E. (2020). The construal of English as a global language in Korean EFL textbooks for primary school children. Asian Englishes, 22(1), 68–84. Kachru, B. B. (1986). The alchemy of English. Pergamon Press. Kramsch, C. (1991). Culture in language learning: A view from the U.S. In K. De Bot, R. B. Ginsberg & C. Kramsch (Eds.), Foreign language research in crosscultural perspective (pp. 217–239). John Benjamins. Kubota, R., & Lin, A. (2006). Race and TESOL: Introduction to concepts and theories. TESOL Quaterly, 40 (3), 471–493. Lim, S., & Keuk, C. N. (2018). A sociocultural analysis of Cambodian teachers’ cognitions about cultural contents in an ‘internationally imported’ textbook in a tertiary English learning context. In H. P. Widodo, M. R. Perfecto, L. V. Canh, & A. Buripakdi (Eds.), Situating moral and cultural values in ELT materials: The Southeast Asian context (pp. 87–110). Springer International. Liu, D., & Nelson, R. (2018). Diversity in the classroom. In J. Liontas (Ed.), TESOL encyclopaedia of English language teaching (pp. 585–590). WileyBlackwell. Marlina, R. (2018). Teaching English as an international language: Implementing, reviewing, and re-envisioning World Englishes in language education. Routledge.

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Marlina, R., & Giri, R. (2013). “We provide the best international education and use international-oriented learning materials”: Questioning the “international” from the perspective of English as an International Language. In N. T. Zacharias & C. Manara (Eds.), Contextualising the pedagogy of English as an International Language: Issues and tensions (pp. 75–98). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Matsuda, A. (2012). Teaching materials in EIL. In L. Alsagoff, S. L. McKay, G. Hu, & W. A. Renandya (Eds.), Principles and practices for teaching English as an international language (pp. 168–185). Routledge. McConachy, T. (2009). Raising sociocultural awareness through contextual analysis: Some tools for teachers. ELT Journal, 63(2), 116–125. McKay, S. L. (2012). Teaching materials for English as an international language. In A. Matsuda (Ed.), Teaching English as an international language: Principles and practices (pp. 70–83). Multilingual Matters. MoEYS. (2015). English Grade 7 . MoEYS. http://oer.moeys.gov.kh/2016/11/eng7. html. Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Routledge. Ricento, T. K., & Hornberger, N. H. (1996). Unpeeling the onion: Language planning and policy and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly, 30 (3), 401–427. Rose, H. L. (2019). Researching English as an international language. In G. Barkhuizen (Ed.), Qualitative research topics in language teacher education (pp. 131–136). Routledge. Rose, H. L., & Galloway, N. (2019). Global Englishes for language teaching. Cambridge University Press. Smith, L. E. (1976). English as an international auxiliary language. RELC Journal, 7 (2), 38–42. Syrbe, M., & Rose, H. (2018). An evaluation of the global orientation of English textbooks in Germany. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 12(2), 152–163. Tomlinson, B. (2012). Materials development for language learning and teaching. Language Teaching, 45 (2), 143–179. Udom, D. S., Murg, B. J., Virak, O., & Renfrew, M. (2020). Cambodia 2020: Economic development. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Vettorel, P., & Lopriore, L. (2013). Is there ELF in ELT coursebooks? Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 3(4), 483–504.

Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching Thorsten Merse

Absences and Mismatches: How Diverse Is Intercultural Learning? The overall trajectory of this chapter is two-fold: (1) to (re)negotiate the engagement with cultural diversity in English language teaching (ELT) from a queer-informed vista, and (2) to suggest a much-needed task typology for classroom practice to engage learners in exploring diverse sexual, gender, and body identities (often abbreviated to LGBTIQ*). As will be shown, such lives, identities, and experiences have long remained—and very often continue to remain—absent from the scope of cultural learning within English language education, causing an odd mismatch with more general and euphoric proclamations of cultural diversity often articulated in the global ELT world. Before the chapter dives more deeply into this particularly contentious issue, the section below develops a critical stance on discourses of intercultural learning to provide a reflective backdrop for unfolding the issue of sexual and gender diversity within the world of ELT later in this chapter.

T. Merse (B) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_6

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Intercultural Learning: A Reflective Point of Departure into Diversity It might be a rather commonplace assumption to state that learning a foreign language is almost naturally intertwined with learning about the culture where this foreign language is spoken. Yet while cultural learning has become a mainstay within foreign language education, things become less commonplace, but more complicated when the lens of diversity is applied: What pictures of culture are painted in ELT classrooms around the world? Do we, in the first place, speak of and think about culture in the singular or cultures in the plural? What versions and nuances of, say, British or US culture are transmitted to learners eager to explore new cultural practices and knowledges? In other words, how diverse are the representations of culture that reach our classrooms—be it through the approaches to cultural learning circulated within ELT on a more global scale, be it through state-sanctioned ELT curricula endorsing certain views on culture while possibly overlooking others, or be it through teachers seeking to open their learners’ eyes for other cultures? Before this chapter ventures into a critique of cultural learning and its entanglement with diversity, it is worthwhile to take stock of existing repertoires that are generally helpful to frame learners’ engagement with culture and cultural diversity. Most notably, research under the aegis of inter cultural learning has paved the way towards how learners can be supported in approaching cultural spheres hitherto unknown to them while re-evaluating their own cultural backgrounds—hence the prefix inter-. On a global scale, Byram’s (1997) work has circulated influentially, initiating a leap forward in cultural learning with his model on intercultural communicative competence (ICC) that became useful for giving an imperative to culture-oriented learning processes in foreign language education. In a brief summary of this model (Byram, 1997, pp. 31–54), the attitudinal dimension stresses the need to encounter different cultural meanings, practices, or beliefs with openness and a curious mindset. Such attitudes are a pre-requisite for interpreting newly encountered cultural practices for their meanings and actively seeking out (discovering) cultural information (also conveyed via texts and through media), and for engaging in respectful interaction and communication. These skills, in turn, are framed by cultural knowledge, e.g., of social groups and their cultures in the interlocutor’s country. What cuts across these dimensions is the development of critical cultural awareness, where learners employ a change of viewpoints “to evaluate critically […] perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and

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other cultures and countries” (Byram, 1997, p. 53). Through this, learners can understand that their own cultural worldview is not the only available—possibly even superior or inferior—worldview, and in beginning to understand and accept cultural differences, learners increasingly challenge and relativise the cultural norms and values they have been socialised into (Byram, 1997, p. 34). Tellingly, this level of critical cultural awareness is encapsulated in intercultural learning theory as the “ability to ‘decentre”’ (Byram, 1997, p. 34). In a broad and benevolent evaluation of this intercultural trajectory, it can be read as a blueprint for engaging learners in all possible facets of cultural diversity. Indeed, Byram’s plural wordings such as “social groups” and “cultural meanings” (1997, p. 34) could suggest a wider understanding of culture, including more diversity-oriented perspectives of sexualities, genders, class affiliations, religions, or ethnicities, just to name a few, each of which could be understood as social groups in their own right—producing cultural meanings in their own right. Additionally, such a diversity perspective could also confront learners with a variety of identities and outlooks on life that might shift the norms they know of, e.g., the norm that everybody should be heterosexual or identify in clearly bi-gendered terms as either clearly female or male. With this in mind, repertoires of intercultural learning can offer an invaluable impulse for learners to open up to cultural differences, to engage with cultural diversity, and to decentre from deeply ingrained norms and worldviews while employing a mindset of openness and respect (Alter, 2015; Merse, 2017). This potentially positive—yet possibly uber-optimistic—horizon of intercultural learning needs troubling and juxtaposition with critique directed against intercultural learning emanating from a continuous stream of critical voices within ELT research. In a broad stroke, such critique revolves around the question of how culture is understood and represented in education—and as a result, how diverse such understandings and representations of culture actually are. One major obstacle towards cultural diversity can be seen in what Risager (2013) calls a “national shaping” (p. 145) of culture pedagogy that coincides with a culture-as-nation equation which Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) see critically: [s]uch a view of culture is an essentializing one that reduces culture to recognizable, often stereotypicalized, representations of cultural attributes. Identifying a culture as a national culture does not make reference to what culture is, but rather where culture is found: American culture resides in the essentialized attributes located in the territory of the United States, French culture in France, etc. Culture is an unproblematic and unproblematized construct that can be reduced to a label derived from political geography. (p. 18)

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Such a reduction can result in distorted approaches to cultural learning “privileging the nation as the endorsed site for culture” and “render[ing] invisible other ‘cultural’ groupings (e.g., according to gender or sexual orientation) to whom the label ‘cultural’ does not easily apply because they do not primarily classify as national” (Merse, 2017, p. 94). Such a view can easily lead to intuitive reactions that exclude sexual and gender diversity (or even diversity at large) from the scope of culture pedagogy—as if they were outside of culture. Blell and Doff (2014) continue this analysis and mount the reduction of cultural diversity onto a rigorous critique of the prefix inter- in intercultural learning. They argue that the inter-focus requires, as a basis for learning, a clear-cut binary opposition between the learners’ native culture and the socalled target culture, each being distinctly different from each other—and in itself homogeneous (say, un-diverse). Consequently, the authors criticise a version of culture pedagogy where cultures are viewed as monolithic entities, when in fact the cultural and global realities of the twenty-first century are more likely to bring learners in touch with “cultural complexity” (p. 80) and “more cross-cultural [...] diversity situations” (p. 85). To counter what one could call a potential loss of diversity within ELT’s culture pedagogy, the critical challenge is to move beyond binary thinking, reductionist and de-complexifying approaches, and a culture-as-nation-only view—and instead to move into a conceptualisation of cultural learning that embraces cultural diversity more rigorously. These new ways of thinking, in turn, also embrace and call for more intersectional perspectives that would move beyond singling out individual identity traits, and instead explore “how race, gender, disability, sexuality, class, and other social categories are mutually shaped and interrelated […] to produce shifting relations of power and oppression” (Rice, 2019, p. 409). For inter- and transcultural learning in ELT, this would require to explore how cultural identities and norms are always inextricably linked with each other and can impede, facilitate or empower individual and collective self-expression, cultural representation, and personal outlooks on life (e.g., when gay identity intersects with religious beliefs, gender norms, or class backgrounds). In view of this substantial critique, specific examples coming from German research are useful to understand how current efforts are being made to gradually bring the diversity of the Anglophone world into ELT classrooms. When it comes to making accessible hitherto absent or underrepresented cultural focal points, there seems to be what Volkmann (2013) calls an “intuitive turn” (p. 171) to two mechanisms:

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(1) expanding the former core reference points for cultural learning, mainly the UK and the USA, with additional national or regional cultural focal points described as ‘New English Cultures’ of a postcolonial and global world, for example India, South Africa, Canada and Australia (cf. Eisenmann et al., 2010, p. vii); (2) moving beyond monolithic and culturally homogeneous versions of culture (e.g., “the British”), with a marked interest in representing the ethnic diversity inherent to Anglophone cultures (cf. Hallet, 2010), for example through an engagement with literary texts known as British Fictions of Migration (cf. Freitag-Hild, 2010; Volkmann, 2013, p. 171) Generally speaking, such theoretical openings are emblematic of ELT’s flexible capacity to acknowledge greater cultural diversity, which is certainly to be welcomed. Yet at the same time, this particular take-on of facets of cultural diversity can quickly become fossilised in discourses of cultural learning. As Merse (2017) cautions, such discourses can all too easily obstruct the view “on other lines of difference […] that could justifiably well also contribute to making […] ‘different differences’ accessible in the classroom” (p. 105). Indeed, increasing attempts are now underway that seek to re-model cultural learning for a greater inclusivity and complexity of identities, including gender and sexual orientation, religious beliefs, perceptions of age, (dis)ability, or class affiliations (Alter, 2015; Lütge, 2013; Lütge & Merse, 2020). Such a change of minds and practices seems urgent if the global ELT sector as a whole wishes to stay in sync with today’s cultural and intersectional realities so as not to lose its credibility for cultural learning. Indeed, one should take Volkmann (2013) seriously when he warns against tendencies to “pay supposedly politically correct lip-service to abstract values such as difference, plurality, decentering, openness and tolerance towards the Other” (p. 171), while at the same time lagging behind to systematically incorporate additional angles from which to engage with cultural difference and diversity. A particularly noteworthy case of such a lagging behind will move into focus in the next section, which zooms in on the status of sexual and gender diversity as well as the engagement with LGBTIQ* identities and experiences in ELT.

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Queer Outlooks on Cultural Diversity in ELT To provide an orientational rubric for establishing a focus on sexual and gender diversity within ELT, the term queer is frequently employed, creating action calls for renewed pedagogies such as queering practice (Paiz, 2019), or queering ELT (Merse, 2019). Initially, such terminology might come across as a weird or provocative nomenclature if—out of the many possible meanings of the term queer—those were activated that signify homophobic slurs or something that is odd or strange (Jagose, 1996). While such a semantic move is certainly not desirable for a queer-informed ELT pedagogy, a considerable amount of research has been produced that taps both into the more positive and inclusive meanings of queer as an umbrella for diverse identities and political activism, and into the productively critical body of thought generated within Queer Theory (Merse, 2017; Nelson, 2006, 2009; Paiz, 2019). Most recently, Paiz (2019) has advocated for such an operationalising of the term queer—even if queer theorists such as Jagose (1996) or Sullivan (2003) resist such definitions—to generate a meaningful basis for serious intellectual groundwork that is portable into ELT practice. On a first level, queering ELT is concerned with making visible diverse sexual, gender and body identities in teaching and learning situations and classrooms. This direction is associated with a “determined push for visibility” (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2004, p. 129) exercised through queer political activism that fights for the affirmation and recognition of LGBTIQ* identities to counter their marginalisation, e.g., in people’s consciousness, in public discourse, or in education (Merse, 2019). Paiz (2019) emphasises the importance to consider the full range of identity positions encapsulated in the (allegedly simple) umbrella LGBTIQ*, and not to forget bisexual, transgender, or intersex identities and experiences over (the more mainstream?) gay or lesbian. Such an inclusive visibility strategy requires carefully crafted representational practices that bring the range of LGBTIQ* identities into classrooms, for example through literary or non-fictional texts, film, and digital resources, or in classroom conversations that unfold around topics such as family constellations, or more sophisticated discussions on human rights or discrimination. In addition, such leaps towards queer inclusion need to be coupled with more critical and exploratory engagements of “queer inquiry”, to use Nelson’s (2006, p. 2) heuristic. Mere representation, as Nelson (2009) cautions, does not necessarily lead to deep learning, therefore teachers and learners must also be

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turning [their] attention to sexual matters (identities, norms, relationships) within everyday patterns of thinking, speaking, learning, and working, with a view to understanding the complex sociosexual dimensions and meanings that are part of day-to-day interactions, cultural practices, and social structures. (p. 206)

Such a pedagogic intervention is useful in that it opens up a broad spectrum of interrogations. There is a decided turn towards engaging with heteronormativity, a concept introduced into the discussion through Queer Theory (Hall & Jagose, 2013), which describes “the normative social assumption that people are always either male or female and that they desire the opposite gender” (König, 2018, p. 199). Learners can, for example, retrace such a normalisation and privileging of heterosexuality and a bi-gendered social system in everyday practices and situations, e.g., when buying goods in drug stores marketed clearly at male or female shoppers, or when taking stock of permitted versions of love and relationships in films and TV series. Closely linked to this interrogation of heteronormativity is the exploration of how language functions for people to talk about and construct—or to police, regulate, and even discriminate—sexual and gender identities (Nelson, 2006). Such awareness-raising is a crucial component of queering ELT , which can now be more conclusively defined with Paiz (2019) as a pedagogy of creating spaces where dialogue and critical discussion around all identities, sexual or otherwise, and their sociocultural relevance can be carried out in a manner that is respectful of all identities and subjectivities. (p. 267)

Certainly, such dialogues and discussions need to be hinged on productive and engaging tasks for classroom usage, as will be shown in the last section of this chapter. In light of these reflections and pedagogic transformations, the case of LGBTIQ* issues has remained a somewhat queer—a strange or odd —case within ELT. On one level, initiatives for intercultural learning have enthusiastically adopted cultural diversity into its domain (at least as a lip-service slogan)—whereas LGBTIQ* diversity has remained somewhat of a queer oddity that has been approached more hesitantly. This might not seem too surprising in view of a discipline that research has time and again criticised for its “monosexualising tendencies” (Nelson, 2006, p. 2) and for perpetuating “the notion that sexual identity has no bearing on ELT” (Paiz, 2019, p. 266). This notion has become apparent in research on the coursebook sector or classroom discourse where LGBTIQ* identities and experiences often remain invisible (Gray, 2013; Liddicoat, 2009). On another level,

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however, an increasingly visible stream of publications has certainly consolidated the significance of queering ELT —from an early ELT grassroots task force (Nelson, 1993) to book-length studies (Nelson, 2009) on to journal articles (Paiz, 2019) or mainstream newsletters (Merse, 2019), just to name a few examples. What is now foreshadowed in very recent work (e.g., Paiz, 2019) is the need to develop innovations in material design and teacher education—a need that will be addressed now through suggesting a task typology for queering ELT.

Embracing Cultural Diversity in Practice: A Task Typology for Queering ELT The remainder of this chapter presents a task typology that offers practical avenues into designing tasks for queer-focused lessons. Primarily, the set of tasks and examples presented here is aiming at a secondary education context with intermediate and more advanced learners of English who are already capable of performing more complex language work and more demanding cultural reflections. This does not mean, however, that the nature of these tasks is per se limited to secondary education. Simpler adaptations can be transferred to primary contexts, e.g., when learners work with picturebooks to develop the language to communicate about diverse LGBTIQ*-inclusive families. In a similar vein, the tasks can also be transferred to a more adult ELT context by leveraging the age-appropriateness of texts and themes to a more challenging and complex level. Key tenets of ELT are imported into the understanding of task that informs this queer—and diversity-oriented typology (Van den Branden et al., 2009; Willis & Willis, 2007): • The tasks are meaningful in that they engage learners in exploring cultural meanings, norms and practices, and give them opportunities for reflection. • They embody authentic language use and empower learners to communicate about sexual and gender diversity. • The tasks inherit the focus on output, i.e., they lead to some form of new content that mirrors the learners’ individual engagement with the task. • There is a strong emphasis on input materials for learners to work with, and such materials serve as explicit carriers of LGBTIQ* content or examples of heteronormativity.

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The important issue here is to design tasks that link the affirmation of LGBTIQ* identities, experiences, and themes with the interrogation and reflection of heteronormativity as tasks for intercultural learning and learning about cultural diversity. With this in mind, the task typology relies heavily on previous work by Freitag-Hild (2010), who pioneered with presenting a task typology to engage learners in British Fictions of Migration. Her task typology, which was published in German for the German EFL context, contains tasks for cultural awareness-raising, changing of perspectives, reflecting on and challenging one’s own sociocultural worldviews, contextualising cultural topics in their respective discourses and realities, and for analysing how cultural difference is performed and represented in texts (p. 111). These tasks are ideal for sensitising learners to cultural complexities, intersectional identities as well as cultural norms. They can be readily adjusted to exploring heteronormativity and sexual and gender diversity as a crucial cultural forcefield, as the specifications below will show. The task typology itself was developed and implemented by me for the purpose of teacher education in Germany at the University of Munich (LMU). In this programme, the goal is to equip student teachers with an inventory for queer-informed and interculturally-minded task design. On a local level, this can be seen as a response to curricular federal updates underway in Germany. For example, in Lower Saxony, English is constructed as a subject that “engages learners in themes such as social, economic, ecological, political, cultural and intercultural phenomena, problems of sustainable development as well as the diversity of sexual identities” (Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium, 2015, p. 6, my translation and my emphasis in italics). On a more global level, the queer-informed task typology is also a contribution to much-needed new avenues in curricular materials and teacher preparation for queering ELT (Paiz, 2019). Even though the work on tasks presented here does indeed emerge from the German context based on specific local developments, the following task descriptions and examples are articulated generally to allow for adaptation and refining in other contexts. They are not meant to be used in a strictly linear order that teachers have to pass through (as if a lesson were simply a static collection of tasks). Rather, the intention is that these tasks (or a choice thereof ) can be activated as organic elements of a dynamically unfolding lesson or lesson sequence.

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Tasks for Drawing Learners into an LGBTIQ* Topic When a new LGBTIQ*-focused topic begins, teachers can use tasks that activate learners’ prior cultural and linguistic knowledge about LGBTIQ* issues and identities. This approach takes learners seriously as unique sources of knowledge, which is mirrored in research showing that learners often bring a genuine interest to class to work on an LGBTIQ*–focused theme (Nelson, 2009; Paiz, 2019). Activation tasks also build up expectations about a new topic to create a motivating context for task engagement. If necessary, teachers can also feed in relevant new information at this stage (e.g., on historical backgrounds). For example, a teacher might want to start a unit on the Stonewall Riots and their subsequent LGBTIQ* pride movements. She shows images of the iconic Stonewall Inn bar (e.g., from Google Street View) and learners describe them to make sense of what they see (e.g., the well-known rainbow flags and their symbolism). Learners might know about the historical meaning of this place, or the teacher might explain the role of the Stonewall Inn for the LGBTIQ* pride movement and its street demonstrations. Learners can also share their own experience of seeing or participating in pride parades.

Tasks for Contextualising an LGBTIQ*-Related Topic in Its Historical and Cultural Dimensions Such tasks encourage learners to discover the broader social, political, cultural, or historical contexts in which LGBTIQ*-topics are always embedded. Access to such discourses and contexts comes through input materials. This way, learners can more deeply understand the bigger picture of the issue in question. To continue the exploration of the Stonewall Riots, for example, learners can research recorded oral histories that are collected in The Stonewall Oral History Project (https://gaycenter.org/stonewall-histor ies/ or on YouTube). The student teachers in my seminars normally pair up, choose one particular eye-witness and retrace noteworthy insights that arise from the oral histories. This groundwork can be transferred to various followup activities. For example, these student teachers have moved from regular presentations in class to staging dialogues between different eye-witnesses to curating a museum tour in which the oral histories become condensed multimodal displays (e.g., as posters or digital collages).

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Tasks for LGBTIQ*-Focused Language Enrichment These tasks lead learners to extracting LGBTIQ*-related language from input materials, e.g., vocabulary or expressions that help them communicate about and understand LGBTIQ* phenomena. Language enrichment tasks can be seen as transversal to other tasks and should always be embedded when learners need new language to create LGBTIQ*-related content or voice a reflection. Usually, input material that is used anyway is an ideal source for such new language. To offer an example, a teacher might want to engage with the topic of coming out and chooses to show the video of Elliot Page’s coming out during a public speech at a Human Rights Campaign conference in 2014 (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hlCEIUATzg). This speech is a valuable source to reflect on the intricacies and functions of a public coming out. It can also be modelled into a lexis task where learners compile a log of queer-related language used by Elliot Page, e.g., to put somebody in a box, to defy norms, to lie by omission, pervasive stereotypes about femininity, courage, toxic, or to live a closeted life.

Tasks for Identifying and Laying Open the Power of Heteronormativity These tasks go to the heart of queer-informed learning as they open learners’ eyes to the ubiquitous presence of heterosexuality and a bi-gendered system as powerful cultural norms. Such tasks require situations or input materials in which heteronormativity becomes tangible and visible. This change often leads to remarkable explorations and learning effects because learners become aware of a cultural norm that is oftentimes too invisible to be noticed without conscious effort, simply because it has become so naturalised and normal in society. For example, learners can go on a photo hunt in their city or village, and document photos with their smartphones (e.g., from advertisements, shops, or public signs) that are emblematic of heteronormativity. Photo results can be collected on a shared digital platform, and in class, learners can review their findings while reflecting on the impact this task had on them. The advantage of this task is that it connects learners with their immediate environments, causing them to see what is known to them with new eyes.

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Tasks for Changing One’s Perspective into an LGBTIQ* Identity Tasks for changing one’s perspective into other life experiences and worldviews are highly typical of intercultural learning, and here, they serve the purpose for learners to understand how an LGBTIQ* person (e.g., as encountered in a text) constructs and performs their identity, and to feel into the emotions, experiences, and maybe the everyday struggles of this person. To offer an example, the online archive We Are the Youth (http://wearet heyouth.org/) chronicles live narratives of LGBTIQ* teenagers and is therefore particularly apt for perspective changes. It is also valuable because it balances out the full range of the acronym LGBTIQ*, e.g., by including transgender perspectives that are often rare to find. These life stories allow for deep perspective changes, which are particularly effective if learners transform the information they find into a new text, for example an interview with the teenagers (e.g., “Qwill, you say that your gender is like a pendulum. How do you personally use the restrictive pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’?”). What makes this story archive additionally useful is its potential for intersectional analyses, precisely because many teenagers are also portrayed in contexts that relate their LGBTIQ* identities to their backgrounds of class, religion, ethnicity, or body issues. This gives learners a unique opportunity to understand how such interrelations can shape diverse life experiences, e.g., when Via reports on overcoming bullying for being “overweight, timid, a bookworm, Asian and a masculine female”, or when Blake reflects on working against a double loss of privilege for being a black and trans man (http://wearetheyouth.org/).

Tasks for Reflection and De-centring Ideally, these tasks come after learners have engaged with norms and worldviews that surround sexual and gender diversity so as to coordinate new insights with one’s own previously held norms and worldviews. This way, learners can reflect critically on their own learning processes and articulate how far what they have learned as new de-centres what has been known before. Of course, it needs to be acknowledged that learners can perceive such reflections as delicate or private and might not readily want to share their thoughts. Therefore, teachers may need to ensure that such reflections unfold in a supportive atmosphere if they do indeed take place in the public of the classroom. It might, however, also make sense to move such private reflections into written or audio-recorded portfolios that are only shared between a learner and their teacher. To invite honest responses, teachers can exclude

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these reflections from graded assessment and instead offer individual feedback on the quality of the reflection. This practice has proven to be useful in my teacher education seminars, and after a while of getting used to such reflection work, the student teachers themselves have requested more open forms of dialogue that were realised in a dedicated discussion forum on a virtual course platform.

Tasks for Communicative and Creative Follow-ups To conclude an LGBTIQ*-related teaching unit, learners could be given an additional opportunity to condense and transfer their queer-informed learning insights into new self-made texts or creative products. At this stage, learners reach a state of greater independence and self-expression by processing their viewpoints, opinions, and knowledge into something new that is uniquely theirs, providing examples of their own deep engagement with heteronormativity or LGBTIQ* issues. Examples of such products can entail writing a commentary or an article, writing a book or film review, or creating a small drama piece or role play. To illustrate this with an example from my own teaching practice at university, the student teachers of my course have worked with the short story Am I Blue? by Bruce Coville (1994). They adapted the story of an insecure maybegay teenager who receives help from a magical fairy into a visual-digital story, which allowed them to reimagine, change and visualise their reading experience. Figure 1 is a snapshot from a digital story based on Am I Blue?, where the fairy godfather enters the story as an angel-like figure wearing a rainbow-coloured cloak referencing gay pride. By its nature of being a task typology, the collection of tasks presented here is meant to provide guidance and orientation for curating queer-informed lessons and teaching units. At the same time, they are open for re-mixing, adaptation and variation, and allow for hooking various other input materials onto the different task trajectories. Thus, the tasks can be fine-tuned to specific local contexts where they can play out their queer- and diversityoriented learning potentials in multifarious ways. As such, the task typology can become useful to different professional groups, including pre-service and novice teachers, experienced in-service teachers, teacher educators and trainers, as well as writers of curricular materials or coursebooks. Yet, in spite of the potential usefulness of this queer task typology that emerges from diversity- and queer-oriented developments in ELT research and practice, a few critical challenges for its implementation remain. At

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Fig. 1 A snapshot from a digital story

first, what needs to be taken seriously is some teachers’ potential discomfort with integrating queer topics in class, their fear of saying the wrong thing, or simply a lack of LGBTIQ*-related pedagogical knowledge (Nelson, 2015; Page, 2017). Possible solutions could include pairing up with other teachers to exchange concerns and good practices (rather than feeling isolated in view of this challenging task), and understanding that queer topics could be deeply meaningful to learners with learning opportunities that should not be avoided. Teachers can also openly acknowledge their own insecurities and explore these further together with all learners, and actively seek out professional training opportunities and resources on LGBTIQ*-inclusive education provided through organisations such as Stonewall (https://www.stonewall. org.uk/) or Educate & Celebrate (https://www.educateandcelebrate.org). A second challenge is to teach LGBTIQ*-related content in countries or contexts that are less favourable towards sexual and gender diversity (cf. Pawelczyk et al., 2014). Certainly, in view of worldwide differences in LGBTIQ* acceptance and inclusion, “teaching queer” can hardly be a onesize-fits-all model. Therefore, it would be highly difficult and questionable to simply push teachers towards queering their classrooms in contexts where promoting “homosexual propaganda” could endanger their jobs or even bring them to prison. In such contexts, what could be done is to tone down the explicitness of the teaching endeavours to be less heads-on, eg., by embedding LGBTIQ* inclusion as a dimension of recognising cultural diversity at large, by making queer topics choice options for learners in reading and writing

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activities (cf. Page, 2017), or by practicing inclusive and non-discriminatory language as a key tenet to classroom discourse. What also needs to be considered is to adjust the complexity of queerinformed teaching to younger learners (e.g., in primary levels) or learners with lower levels of English. Viable options can include leveraging the difficulty level of the input materials (e.g., by choosing linguistically simpler picturebooks, short stories, or young adult novels) and the demands of the language output (e.g., by calling for less complex and shorter contributions), or by scaffolding the gradual inclusion of LGBTIQ* materials through careful explanations and language enrichment activities. In addition, teachers can move from initial background representations of LGBTIQ* people (e.g., in depictions of families) that usualise the presence of sexual and gender diversity to more complex interrogations as learners grow older or linguistically more adept.

Conclusion By way of condensing, the trajectories of the queer-informed task typology tie in productively with the vantage points of intercultural learning and cultural diversity discussed—and critiqued—throughout this chapter. Queer-oriented task work in ELT can serve to depict Anglophone cultural contexts and societies in more nuanced and heterogeneous ways than might currently be the case. This timely intervention can serve to move beyond monolithic or heavily truncated versions of cultural diversity that focus on certain lines of cultural difference and identities while blocking others from view. A deliberate queer-informed focus on sexual and gender diversity opens up new avenues for intercultural learning that can be related to Byram’s (1997) intercultural model. Engaging with LGBTIQ* identities and experience can create situations for interpretation and discovery in which learners seek out cultural meanings and practices that might be new to them or which they have never reflected on before. Embedded in a respectful and open-minded climate, learning situations like these can contribute to developing a critical cultural awareness in learners that is also reflective of heteronormativity as part of the larger set of cultural norms and worldviews learners are encouraged to decentre from in their own intercultural learning processes. If such developments are integrated into the scope of culture pedagogy in ELT more rigorously, intercultural learning can become a “docking station” (Merse, 2017, p. 18) to intensify the focus on cultural diversity in future ELT practice and research—and move beyond any assumed lip-service to diversity.

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The case of sexual and gender diversity is a particularly insightful case in point for a facet of cultural diversity that has often been oddly—queerly—overlooked. Yet what must count as crucial to this endeavour of reconstructing intercultural learning for ELT is to remain sensitive to other cultural identities and practices that are still—and also too hastily forgotten. The tasks presented in this chapter can respond to these diversifying processes. Being rooted in intercultural learning, their logic does not have to be restricted to queer-focused teaching alone. In the future, the adaptiveness of the task typology can make for a powerful transfer to hitherto un(der)represented and intersectional facets of cultural diversity.

Suggested Further Reading Nelson, C. D. (2009). Sexual identities in English language education: Classroom conversations. New York: Routledge. With this seminal book-length study on the relationship between English language education and sexual identities, Nelson condenses rare empirical insights into the experiences of more than 100 language teachers into practical frameworks for embedding lesbian, gay, and queer themes into learning opportunities. Lütge, C., Lütge, C., & Faltermeier, M. (Eds.). (2020). The praxis of diversity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. This edited volume interweaves interdisciplinary perspectives on diversity and bridges gaps between theoretical approaches and practical applications of diversity. It is a recommended read for a broader engagement with the ramifications of diversity in culture, business, institutions, and education (including two ELT-related articles). Ludwig, C., & Eisenmann, M. (Eds.). (2018). Queer beats: Gender and the literature in the EFL classroom. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. The contributions collected in this edited volume shed astounding light on the power of literature (and also TV series, films, and digital media) to work on gender and sexual diversity in the EFL classroom.

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Engagement Priorities • The chapter focuses on current developments and points of critique within intercultural learning. Take a step back: What is the status of intercultural learning in the ELT contexts you are familiar with? What are the points of innovation or critique you would articulate for culture-minded teaching and learning as you are experiencing it? • In your opinion, what are further reasons for including a focus on LGBTIQ* diversity and a critical reflection on heteronormativity in ELT? Or: Do you contest the inclusion of these issues into the scope of ELT, and if so, why? • Identify possible adaptations of the queer-informed task typology presented in this chapter. You might want to prepare—and try out in practice—a whole teaching unit on an LGBTIQ*-related theme of your choice. Compare your results and experiences with someone else’s work, e.g., by a fellow student teacher or a school colleague.

References Alter, G. (2015). Inter- and transcultural learning in the context of Canadian young adult fiction. LIT. Blell, G., & Doff, S. (2014). It takes more than two for this tango: Moving beyond the self/other-binary in teaching about culture in the global EFL-classroom. Zeitschrift Für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht, 19 (1), 78–96. Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual Matters. Coville, B. (1994). Am I blue? In M. D. Bauer (Ed.), Am I blue? Coming out from the silence (pp. 1–16). Harper-Collins. Eisenmann, M., Grimm, N., & Volkmann, L. (2010). Introduction: Teaching the new English cultures and literatures. In M. Eisenmann, N. Grimm, & L. Volkmann (Eds.), Teaching the new English cultures & literatures (pp. vii–xii). Winter. Freitag-Hild, B. (2010). Theorie, Aufgabentypologie und Unterrichtspraxis inter- und transkultureller Literaturdidaktik. ‘British Fictions of Migration‘ im Fremdsprachenunterricht. WVT. Gray, J. (2013). LGBT invisibility and heteronormativity in ELT materials. In J. Gray (Ed.), Critical perspectives on language teaching materials (pp. 40–63). Palgrave Macmillan. Hall, D. E., & Jagose, A. (Eds.). (2013). The Routledge queer studies reader. Routledge.

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Hallet, W. (2010). Kulturdidaktik. In C. Surkamp (Ed.), Metzler Lexikon Fremdsprachendidaktik. Ansätze—Methoden—Grundbegriffe (pp. 152–156). Metzler. Jagose, A. (1996). Queer theory. An introduction. New York University Press. König, L. (2018). Another every day: Queer questions about the construction of identity at the example of David Levithan’s novel Every Day. In C. Ludwig & M. Eisenmann (Eds.), Queer beats: Gender and the literature in the EFL classroom (pp. 195–206). Peter Lang. Liddicoat, A. (2009). Sexual identity as linguistic failure: Trajectories of interaction in the heteronormative language classroom. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 8(2), 191–202. Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. Wiley-Blackwell. Lütge, C. (2013). Sprachenlernen und Identität(en) im Fremdsprachenunterricht. In E. Burwitz-Melzer, F. G. Königs & C. Riemer (Eds.), Identität und Fremdsprachenlernen. Anmerkungen zu einer komplexen Beziehung (pp. 163–170). Narr. Lütge, C., & Merse, T. (2020). Approaching diversity in education: Pedagogic and queer perspectives. In C. Lütge, C. Lütge, & M. Faltermeier (Eds.), The praxis of diversity (pp. 175–197). Palgrave Macmillan. Merse, T. (2017). Other others, Different differences: Queer perspectives on teaching English as a foreign language. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Fakultät für Sprachund Literaturwissenschaften, LMU München. Available at https://edoc.ub.unimuenchen.de/20597/ (accessed 3 April 2020). Merse, T. (2019). Putting gender and sexual diversity on the ELT map in upper secondary. TEYLT Worldwide, 2, 73–78. Nelson, C. D. (1993). Our time has come: TESOL forms lesbian/gay/bisexual task force, Part II. TESOL Matters, 3(5), 23. Nelson, C. D. (2006). Queer inquiry in language education. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 5 (1), 1–9. Nelson, C. D. (2009). Sexual identities in English language education: Classroom conversations. Routledge. Nelson, C. D. (2015). LGBT content: why teachers fear it, why learners like it. Language Issues, 26 (1), 6–12. Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium (2015). Kerncurriculum für das Gymnasium Schuljahrgänge 5–10. Unidruck. Page, M. L. (2017). From awareness to action: Teacher attitude and implementation of LGBT-inclusive curriculum in the English language arts classroom. Sage Open, October–December, 1–15. Paiz, J. M. (2019). Queering practice: LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion in English language teaching. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 18(4), 266–275. Pawelczyk, J., Pakuła, Ł., & Sunderland, J. (2014). Issues of power in relation to gender and sexuality in the EFL classroom: An overview. Journal of Gender and Power, 1(1), 49–66 Pilcher, J., & Whelehan, I. (2004). 50 key concepts in gender studies. Sage.

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Rice, C., Harrison, E., & Friedman, M. (2019). Doing justice to intersectionality in research. Cultural Studies, Critical Methodologies, 19 (6), 409–420. Risager, K. (2013). Intercultural learning: Raising cultural awareness. In M. Eisenmann & T. Summer (Eds.), Basic issues in EFL teaching and learning (2nd ed., pp. 143–155). Winter. Sullivan, N. (2003). A critical introduction to queer theory. New York University Press. Van den Branden, K., Bygate, M., & Norris, J. M. (Eds). (2009). Task-based language teaching: A reader. John Benjamins Volkmann, L. (2013). Intercultural learning and postcolonial studies: ‘Never the Twain Shall Meet’? In M. Eisenmann & T. Summer (Eds.), Basic issues in EFL teaching and learning (2nd ed., pp. 169–180). Winter. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2007). Doing task-based teaching. Oxford University Press.

Gender

Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus Dimitris Evripidou

Introduction The critical social turn in applied linguistics (Block, 2003) has encouraged teachers around the world to consider the relationship between learning and identity diversity in English Language Teaching (ELT), the role of students’ identities in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) process, and even the role of their sexual identities in learning English as a foreign (EFL) or second (ESL) language (Nelson, 1999). Due to these developments, a growing body of identity diversity research has concentrated on the interrelationships among queer theory, sexual identities, and language education (Banegas & Evripidou, 2021; Gray, 2013; Kitchen & Bellini, 2012; Neto, 2018; Paiz, 2017). However, despite advances in queering the field of ELT (Nelson, 2007), there seems to be considerable work to be done in order to address language teachers’ reluctance to explore sexual identities in EFL (Kitchen & Bellini, 2012; Rhodes & Coda, 2017). This chapter aims at contributing to relevant research carried out on EFL teachers’ reticence to explore sexual identities. Through the use of interviews, it centres on Greek Cypriot EFL teachers’ challenges which discourage them from analysing sexual identities in the classroom. More specifically, it D. Evripidou (B) University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_7

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focuses on some of their beliefs, doubts, and insecurities in deheteronormalising their EFL classrooms by means of exploring sexual identities. The chapter begins with the framework of the study before it focuses on the relationship between queer theory and ELT. It then briefly revises my previous studies conducted on sexual identity in Cyprus and provides more information about its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) context. The next two sections concentrate on the EFL teachers who took part in the study; the first provides information about their background and the way data was collected, while the second reports their collective concerns. The next section of the chapter provides a thorough analysis of the teachers’ concerns, while it concludes by providing a summary of the findings and various recommendations which aim at deheteronormalising English language classrooms.

Queer Theory Framework Queer theory serves as the framework of this study. It offers an approach that can problematise all identities, sexual, gender, and otherwise and presents channels in which the dichotomous opposition of hetero/homosexual, normalised in societies, can be deconstructed (Nelson, 2006). By interrogating the implicit assumptions of heteronormativity, it enables critiques of enforced norms of sexuality and gender and of all claims of normalcy and its processes (Britzman, 1998; Morris, 2000). As its aim is not to accomplish inclusion but facilitate inquiry by investigating ways in which sexual identities are negotiated through daily interactions, it can offer a flexible and open-ended framework for addressing both minority sexual and other identities in the language classroom. It aims at challenging clear-cut notions of sexual identities and purposely questioning the boundaries among identity categories (Nelson, 2002). Undertaking queer inquiry means turning teachers and students’ attention to sexual matters (norms, relationships, etc.) within patterns of thinking, speaking, and teaching in the classroom. It signifies all sexual identity perspectives along with the paradoxes of producing sexuality categories and searching overlooked perspectives across sexual, linguistic, cultural, and other identifications (Nelson, 2006).

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Queer Theory and ELT Developments in queer theory have contributed significantly to the way identity diversity, sexual, gender, and otherwise can be considered in the EFL or ESL classrooms. Shifting the focus from a civil-rights related framework to one that concentrates more on the analysis of discursive and cultural practices enables sexual identity to be understood as potentially relevant to anyone and not just to a minority (Nelson, 1999). Queer inquiry (Nelson, 2006), which actively challenges how sexual identities can be understood within and across different languages and cultures, can create spaces where critical discussions around the sociocultural relevance of all identities, sexual or others, can be developed (Buyserie & Ramírez, 2021; Paiz, 2017). Critical engagement, in the sense of encouraging scepticism towards received knowledge and the status-quo, can be formed on the assumption that sexual identities are integral components of social identities. In relation to ELT and thus the EFL classroom, such an assumption cannot be disputed. On the contrary, recognition that sexual identities may become salient in the English language classroom and may influence the language learning processes is essential (Paiz, 2019). The need to queer ELT stems from the need to ensure that LGBTQ+ identities, lives, and experiences are not rendered invisible and silent in the EFL classroom. Vandrick (1997) highlighted the damage of silencing queer voices by discussing the effects of hidden identities in English language classrooms. A student may hide their LGBTQ+ identity in fear of bullying, marginalisation, or even being outed to their social circles. Such situations are reified in both dominant and heteronormative discourses, in which students may feel excluded from educational spaces, plateau in their learning, and also resist teaching materials and practices (McKay & Wong, 1996; Paiz, 2019; Talmy, 2009). In turn, not only can this situation create negative learning environments with repercussions in students’ academic performances, but it can additionally affect their classroom presence and educational aspirations (Wimberly et al., 2015). The importance of queering ELT extends to linguistic value too. It allows students to become equipped with the necessary communicative competences needed to perform their own sexual identities in linguistically appropriate ways, enables respectful communication with LGBTQ+ individuals, and also helps them to construe queer identities encountered, both, in their lives and popular media (Nelson, 1999).

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Sexual Identity-Related Studies in Cyprus I have investigated the relationship between minority sexual identities and EFL classrooms in the Greek Cypriot community of Cyprus by concentrating on teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of minority sexual identities in EFL classrooms. In Evripidou and Çavu¸so˘glu’s (2015) study, EFL teachers reported that they were positive towards the inclusion of gay- and lesbianrelated topics in their lessons. Nonetheless, further investigation revealed that teachers felt their credibility would be threatened if they were to use such topics in the classroom. Additionally, they appeared concerned with how the school authorities would react towards them if they used such topics and grew unease at what their colleagues or students might have speculated about them. Teachers also believed that they needed to have specific knowledge to be able to address gay- and lesbian-related topics or were unsure as how to handle homophobic comments in the classroom. Similarly, in Evripidou (2018), I investigated primary teachers’ reluctance towards addressing sexual minorities in the EFL classroom. Teachers did not appear to understand how learners’ sexual identities might have an impact on their learning and they also perceived minority sexual identities as mostly erotic or sexual and thus inappropriate for the EFL classroom. Additionally, primary teachers perceived children as mainly asexual which led them to believe that any explorations of sexual identities in the classroom were unnecessary. Elsewhere (Evripidou, 2020), I have also examined if and how heteronormativity may hinder sexual minority former students’ oral participation in the EFL classroom. Results showed they would avoid participating in classroom discussions due to fears of having their sexualities disclosed, their classmates and teachers’ negative attitudes towards sexual minority identities, and in some cases, due to other gay students’ internalised homophobia.

The Cypriot Context Heteronormativity, which sets expectations of heterosexuality and gender conformity, is pervasive in the Greek Cypriot society. Cyprus still ranks among the lower in terms of the legal and policy human rights of LGBTQ+ people according to ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map (ILGA, 2018). The nexus of heteronormativity, patriarchal structures, and the strong influence of the Church have constituted the main factors which lead to homophobia. LGBTQ+ persons in Cyprus tend to hide their sexual orientation or avoid revealing aspects of their gender identities leading to underreporting of

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incidents of violence and harassment. Despite challenges to the law which criminalised homosexuality, it was only in 1998 when the country was to claim membership in the European Union that it was essentially forced to amend legislation (Georgiou et al., 2004). Since the late 1990s, however, Cyprus has made some significant changes, with the last being in 2015 when civil partnership was legally introduced (Tryfonidou, 2017).

The Exploration Eight Greek Cypriot EFL teachers welcomed the idea of being interviewed for the purpose of this study (Table 1). All teachers were born and raised in Cyprus. They were in their late 30s or middle 40s, had at least ten years of teaching experience, and completed their undergraduate studies in Greek or British universities. All teachers obtained MA degrees in Applied Linguistics, Language Education, or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) programmes from the UK and were currently employed in the private sector teaching EFL to students who were in their early or middle adolescence. They were formally informed about the aims of the study, while their anonymity was guaranteed. The participants are named in this chapter through pseudonyms. The interviews were conducted in the teachers’ mother tongue (Cypriot Greek) and were translated into English by professionals. Each interview lasted for about one to two hours. What was stated, expressed, or explained by the teachers is analysed and discussed from a queer theory perspective. Words and phrases that were used in the English language during the interviews are presented in italics. After the interviews were transcribed and translated, they were subjected to a thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008). Table 1 Teachers’ background information No.

Teachers (pseudonyms)

Sex

Age

Years of teaching experience

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Angela Vassos Yannis Dina Elli Zina Hara Thalia

Female Male Male Female Female Female Female Female

37 38 38 40 42 43 44 44

14 12 11 17 19 20 20 21

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Understanding Teachers’ Concerns Five out of eight teachers reported that they were positive towards the idea of deheteronomalising their EFL classrooms by means of exploring sexual identities with their students, whereas three stated that they were still sceptical towards it. All of them, however, addressed various reasons which make such attempts challenging.

Studies and Perceived Responsibilities Three teachers explained that exploring sexual identities in the EFL classroom was not part of the input they had received as students in Applied Linguistics, Language Education, or TESOL programmes. Although they recognised the importance of various learner identity aspects in ELT and learning, they reported that the relationship among sexual identity (straight or otherwise), teaching, and learning was never addressed in their studies as part of the knowledge they were required to possess. Therefore, their weight in teaching was questioned: [w]e were never exposed to these matters at university […] we were never really taught how they [sexual identities] are related to teaching or learning so to be honest, I generally avoid them. Charis

This teacher seems to believe that since there was not a section of a university module covering such explorations, she can be justified for avoiding them in the EFL classroom. Similarly, Angela, another teacher, explained that perhaps “other identity characteristics must be more important if they [course leaders, etc.] chose not to concentrate on them”. When it was suggested that sexual identities were probably already in the classroom through the material, texts, topics they concentrated on, the classroom practices they may have adopted or even through themselves as sexual beings and as spouses (in heterosexual relationships), they both explained that as language teachers their roles focused more on teaching the language, and as Charis explained “[…] not so much on questioning what is considered normal”. When it was suggested that perhaps such explorations would also assist all their students in developing linguistic and other competences to facilitate communication with LGBTQ+ individuals or express themselves, Angela wondered whether such issues should first be explored in students’ first language with other teachers as she did not see them as part of her ELT responsibilities. Furthermore, Charis rationalised her attitude because of

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the international examinations her students take, which based on her long teaching experience, never addressed or referred to such identities. The issue related to the lack of presence of minority sexual identities in formal examination material was also discussed by three other teachers. Thalia, for instance, explained that although she taught EFL for two decades, she had never “come across the presence of such identities in past papers”.

Clear-Cut Identities and “Positive Stimuli” Four teachers expressed their concerns about the ways exploring sexual identities can be done concerning lesson plan preparation. These teachers were unsure as to how these identities can be presented or approached in their lesson plans, or the reasons they should explore all sexual identities: I’m willing to do so, but I don’t know how. I can understand if the students bring it up themselves, but otherwise how is it done? […] Do I prepare a lesson plan on them? “Today we’ll explore the life of gay people, tomorrow the straight? ” Also, why should we explore all of them? […]. Yannos

This teacher was unsure as to how sexual identities can be approached in the classroom, whether a whole lesson plan or series of lesson plans should be prepared on them, and how they would be introduced. After Yannos voiced his concerns about lesson plans, he was asked for more clarifications concerning the binary he presented and the lack of need, as he stated, to explore all sexual identities. Sexual identities were mostly understood as being clear-cut, while all individuals would identify as belonging into one of three (straight, bisexual, gay). Concerning heterosexuality, it was understood as being “already all around us” and thus it need not “more clarifications”. Another teacher, Zina characteristically explained that “[…] the point was to explore other sexualities and not the standard ones […]”. In a similar vein concerning non-heterosexual identities, Vassos, another teacher, emphasised the need of “positive stimuli” which can then be easily approached for constructive explorations in the EFL classroom: [w]e [EFL teachers] need to have a chance to start discussing them [sexual identities], they are a delicate matter […] [We need] positive stimuli from Cyprus, something acceptable from our society which we can easily talk about. Vassos

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This teacher explained that the teachers need “positive stimuli” from Cyprus to enable such explorations. When he was asked about what he meant by “positive stimuli”, he explained that he referred to “proper” representations of non-heterosexual people that can be easily used for such explorations. As he explained, they needed “someone who is proper is their ways, not too much […] not too extreme or too feminine [for gay men], or the opposite for [lesbian] women”. On mentioning that various representations can be found in the media, the teacher explained that the ones found in Cyprus were mostly considered negative or unwanted and “not acceptable for the classroom”. In trying to clarify further, it was understood that the representations of sexual minorities he considered as positive should not be too divergent from gender expression normativity.

Representation and Language The issue of gender expression was discussed by another teacher, Dina, who tried to explain her unfamiliarity with “the notions of being gay”, her concerns regarding language, and her fears concerning what identities to concentrate on or not: I think I don’t really know the notions of being gay […] I mean there is vocabulary, expressions, and concepts that I’m not familiar with. Like abbreviations [acronyms] or names of types of people, colloquialisms […] I feel responsible towards my kids [students] and I understand that some of them might turn to be- I mean, have different [minority] sexualities. Dina

Dina believes that to be able to explore sexual identities, she should first understand the semantics of certain vocabulary items, expressions, what they mean or stand for before engaging with her students on such sexual identity explorations. She gave the example of cis male, which as she did not see it written, she initially believed that it was used to refer prejudicially to a feminine gay man. On requesting for more clarifications concerning the meaning of “notions”, she explained how once a gay friend of hers reprimanded her for focusing on a gay Greek Cypriot TV series character in one of her lessons: I asked the kids to describe Vanjelis [TV series character]1 to me. They came up with a lot of adjectives, “fashionable”, “gentle”, “funny”, “different ”, “eccentric ” […] I thought the lesson was a success, but when I mentioned it to my [gay] friend, he was not very pleased. He [Vanjelis] wasn’t really a good figure [to focus on in class] apparently, because he was too feminine and did more harm than good. Dina

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The teacher was clearly referring to what her friend considered an acceptable or desired gender expression for gay men. She started questioning what gender expressions were appropriate to be presented in the classroom and she explained that due to her gay friend’s comments, she did not feel either comfortable or confident enough to explore sexual identities again as she thought the choices she made might not have been as beneficial as she had initially believed.

Discussing Teachers’ Concerns Numerous reasons were presented and discussed in the interviews. Teachers explained that at university they were never exposed explicitly to the relationship between language teaching or learning and sexual identities in the way that other aspects of learners’ identities were examined. As a result, their importance in ELT was doubted. Additionally, concerns were expressed on whether such explorations were part of their job as EFL teachers, while they also highlighted that such minority sexual identities were never present in formal examination papers, questioning further their necessity. It also seems that sexual identities were understood as falling into strict categories of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual, and questions were raised on whether lesson plans should focus on each one of them individually. Others pointed out the lack of what they considered positive visibility of some sexual identities in the Cypriot society and how they can be surfaced or approached in the classroom. Some expressed insecurities regarding the relationship between sexual identities and gender expressions, what is considered appropriate, and what would not risk the positive portrayal of some sexual identities. Finally, concerns were also expressed in terms of the knowledge they should have about the terminology of gender and sexual minorities or more specifically their unfamiliarity with certain acronyms, vocabulary, expressions, colloquialisms, and concepts. Although direct exposure to the relationship between sexual identity and language learning might not have been part of the teachers’ formal tertiary education, its importance or presence in the classroom cannot be doubted. What is considered normal or natural is already present in the classroom due to heteronormativity. Even though some teachers may not wish to explore any sexual identities, it seems explanations are needed as to how certain sexual identities are already present in the classroom through the teachers’ own practices, the material they use, and the language they teach. They may, consequently, believe that such explorations or analyses of either prevailing

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or competing norms are not part of their language teaching responsibilities. However, they do not seem to consider that such doubts to explore any sexual identities, in essence, do not only allow certain normative sexual identities to prevail in the classroom, but simultaneously support the norms-inflicted attitudes that are already there. Additionally, some teachers do not seem to realise that avoiding analysing sexual identities may simultaneously affect negatively their own language teaching responsibilities as their students, irrespective of their sexual identities, may not develop the appropriate language skills and pragmatic understandings to advocate for themselves and others by questioning the positionings of dominant discourses (Nelson, 2006). Thus, students’ development of linguistic and communicative competences depends, to a certain extent, on the negotiation of sexual identities if they are to be able to discuss them in culturally and pragmatically appropriate ways (Wadell et al., 2012), perform their own sexual identities in linguistically meaningful ways, engage in communicative interactions with LGBTQ+ individuals (Nelson, 1999), or perform communicative acts with appropriate language and sociocultural strategies. Nonetheless, although the importance of such linguistic and other explorations cannot be questioned, they believe, they can still be avoided given that international EFL and ESL examinations have never presented their candidates with minority-sexual-identity related material in any exam papers. As with commercial publishers and English language textbooks which remain avenues for heteronormative discourses and worldviews (Gray, 2013; Paiz, 2015), based on what the teachers interviewed said, the sexual identity options that are presented in examination material conform to heteronormativity. This makes them doubt the significance of such identities even more. Some teachers’ positive attitudes towards addressing sexual minorities in the EFL classroom cannot be questioned. However, thoughts concerning lessons plans on particular sexual identities, the perception of strict categories of sexual identities, or the questioning of the need to problematise heterosexual identities reveal that some are, perhaps, more familiar with a pedagogy that aims at the visibility of sexual minorities or their legitimacy. Nonetheless, these also constitute the very reasons for their difficulty as to how these identities can be approached, discussed, and analysed in the classroom. Neither can conducting lessons based on lesson plans which exclusively focus on different sexual identities be easy in a heteronormative society such as the one of Cyprus, nor can drawing definite lines among sexual identities pose a challenge to the norm. Since homosexuality is necessary to the maintenance of heteronormative discourses of normal and not-normal sexualities (Fuss, 1991), inclusion (or acceptance) of sexual minorities might

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not induce a sustainable solution to heteronormativity (Britzman, 1998; Luhman, 1998). As Britzman (1998) points out, simply exposing students to representations of gay and lesbian individuals may have little effect on their pre-existing understanding about boundaries of conventional. Similarly, in this case, possible teachers’ attempts to prepare lesson plans on different sexual identities at a time, independent of other sexualities and genders, may not encourage analyses of how sexual identities are normalised. Some teachers also believe that what they understand as “positive stimuli”, meaning positive representations, are not present enough in Cyprus to encourage a discussion on sexual identities in the classroom. On highlighting that various representations could be found in the media for possible analyses and explorations in the EFL classroom, the teachers expressed their concerns about the representations that can be found in the Cypriot media and perhaps their inappropriacy for the language classroom. Some expressed their insecurities concerning what representations are acceptable for the classroom and others acceptable by the members of the relative community of Cyprus itself. It seems minority sexual identities can become a challenge to some teachers because of their gender expression. It is believed that individuals who are gay or lesbian and whose gender expressions do not appear to adhere to the conventional are inappropriate or unwanted for the classroom. When they are willing to explore such non-conforming gender expressions, some teachers doubt their decisions about the identity representation they have chosen to focus on. It seems that even though they are willing to explore sexual identities, they aim for identities or are made to believe that they should aim for identities that conform to gender expression norms. Despite preferences to minority sexual identities that conform to certain gender expressions, as Morris (1998) points out, identities and experiences do not always fit into such limited equations. In both cases, what seems to be wanted or what they are made to believe is acceptable are identities that do not deviate too much from what is the norm and thus considered acceptable for the EFL classroom. Although such gender expression conforming representations might accommodate some students’ sense of self, they might not satisfy or might appear limiting to others, while if these unthreatening representations (Shlasko, 2005) are consistently chosen for the classroom, they may not adequately challenge heteronormativity. A non-conforming gender expression, such as the one mostly expressed by Vanjelis on Cypriot television, on the other hand, might appear accessible or accommodative to some, but at the same time, if representations are limited to those, as Rofes (2000) explains, they might reinforce stereotypes of gay men which can more easily fit into hetero-centric narratives and thus still reinforce heteronormativity.

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Furthermore, although these representations might be useful in their own ways, they cannot constitute for all minority sexual identities. As Sullivan (2003) and Shlasko (2005) indicated, minority sexual identities cannot be homogenised. They are not monolithic (Griffin et al., 2007), and one’s visibility does not make all visible. Another aspect that has surfaced from the interviews is the issue of language, or more specifically gender-and-sexuality related language that some teachers state they are unfamiliar with. It is understandable that the language related to genders and sexualities is continuously evolving (McGraw & van Leent, 2018) which might make it difficult for educators, who are not directly related to such fields, to follow up. This is evident in the field of sexuality by the collective acronyms which tend to develop over time to include, represent, or acknowledge more sexual identities or genders. Not only does the exploration of sexual identities in a foreign language for both, teachers and students, require the gaining of some knowledge or understanding of lexis, expressions, colloquialisms, and terms related to sexuality, but it also requires some understanding of gender identities, their possible gender expressions, and fluidity. Some level of understanding or knowledge of relevant theories, concepts, and language may, more easily, facilitate sexual identities explorations. These will, in turn, enable discussions of the plurality of sexual and gender identities which may help teachers understand misconceptions and even prevent, for example, misuse of terms and what they could or not mean or represent.

Conclusions and Implications The significance of discussing the social meanings of sexual and gender identities in the diversity of language classrooms has been discussed by various researchers in applied linguistics, language education, and TESOL fields. Casting our minds back to Greek Cypriot EFL teachers’ beliefs, doubts, and insecurities in deheteronormalising their classrooms, it seems they remain significantly sceptical towards exploring sexual (and gender) identities. Reasons put forward relate to the following interrelated aspects which are, perhaps, to some extent justifiable, since neither their formal education nor their current EFL contexts have equipped them with ways of theorising sexual identities. Such ways would enable the possibility of identifying heteronormative patterns of thinking, producing language, or teaching a foreign language and, in turn, attempt to question them:

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• Teachers were never exposed, during their undergraduate and postgraduate studies, to sexual identities in relation to ELT and the ways heteronormativity prevails in the classroom or the ways it might harm their students. • Teachers do not seem to fully understand the importance of such explorations in the development of their students’ language and communicative competences or how the former can contribute to the latter. • Teachers question such deheteronormalising attempts since minority sexual identities, in their own experience, have never been present in any formal examinations. • Teachers seem to be more familiar with a civil-rights framework than with queer theory and its implications in ELT, while sexual and gender identities are mainly understood as falling into strict categories or are limited to gender binarisms. • Teachers focus on certain representations of minority sexual identities that reinforce heteronormativity or stereotypes. Some, however, seem to be insecure about which representations they should concentrate on. • Teachers believe that they are unfamiliar with certain terminology, acronyms, vocabulary, expressions, and concepts that, they believe, are required to enable exploration of all identities in the EFL classroom. Given the voices explored above, recommendations can also relate to other cultures, communities, or EFL contexts, similar to Cyprus, where heteronormativity seems to prevail. There appears to be a need for in-service EFL teachers, especially in heteronormative contexts, to attend seminars, workshops, or professional development programmes which will acknowledge sexual identity as a form of identity. In such seminars teachers can discuss the ways sexual identity coyness might affect students’ learning, explore the ways its acknowledgement contributes to diversity in ELT, and help them become aware of the ways with which heteronormativity is sustained in the EFL classroom. Similarly, TESOL, language education, and applied linguistics programmes can provide some space in both theoretical and practical modules (theory, pedagogy, methodology, teaching practicum modules, etc.) for readings and discussions based on the relationship among language learning, sexual, and gender identities through queer theory in ELT. The use of queer theory can be clearly identified in module descriptors in both content and teaching strategies, as well as in the bibliography and learning support material. Practical aspects of its inclusion in the classroom can be exemplified to in-service teachers through continuing professional development seminars and teacher-students through academic modules. As most

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teachers do not seem to be familiar with the contributions of queer theory to ELT, such readings, discussions, and practical examples will encourage them to critically analyse the notions of clear-cut sexuality categories, discuss binarism and genderism, and help them to understand the importance of exploring a variety of sexual identity representations (regardless of their students’ sexual identities). Additionally, such discussions of the contributions of queer theory to ELT will inevitably familiarise EFL teachers with the language and concepts needed to avoid misconceptions and enable them to explore all sexual identities in linguistically appropriate ways. Such seminars, workshops, or programmes, both for professional development or academic reasons, can also involve their attendees in critical discussions on why identity options presented in international examination material, similarly to EFL textbooks, are not as varied and tend to sustain heteronormative views. These might encourage EFL teachers to stop doubting the importance of exploring sexual identities in the classroom, help them realise how heteronormativity prevails in their classrooms, equip them with ways which they can review their practices with, and also overcome some of the insecurities they may have concerning in-class sexual identity negotiations.

Suggested Further Reading Gray, J. (Ed.). (2013). Critical perspectives on language teaching materials. Basingstoke: Palgrave. This book draws on research carried out on teaching materials and it is located within the “critical turn” in Applied Linguistics, while the politics of representation and identity, and issues of ideology and commercialism are discussed. It focuses on a collection of critical voices on the subject of language teaching materials for use in English, French, Spanish, German, and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classrooms. Saunston, H. (2018). Language, sexuality and education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This book contains different frameworks that can help teachers reflect on their practice and implement English language lessons that enable learners experience inclusion in the construction of sexual identities. Waite, S. (2017). Teaching queer: Radical possibilities for writing and knowing. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

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Queer theory in “Teaching queer” is viewed as a methodology for the reconsideration of normative assumptions about writing, literacy, and knowledge. Teaching queer is not just teaching about queers or as a queer but teaching in ways which encourage anti-normative thinking and writing. Drawing from real-life teaching examples, student work, and classroom transcripts, it contends that the overlap between queer theory and composition presents new possibilities for teaching writing.

Engagement Priorities • If EFL teachers avoid challenging heteronormativity in the classroom in terms of sexual and gender identities, what might be the linguistic implications for their students’ competences? • An EFL teacher in the study was criticised by one of her gay male friends about the identity representation she chose to focus on in the language classroom. What was her friend’s point? Why was he not pleased? Why can one easily argue for or against his point? • Considering the particular setting, teachers’ characteristics, and what they stated, would one be correct to assume that it is their responsibility as EFL teachers to familiarise themselves with language, terminology, concepts, etc., related to sexual and gender identities? Why/why not?

Note 1. Vanjelis is one of the main characters of “Aiyia Fuxia” [The Fuchsia Goat], a highly popular Greek Cypriot comedy television series in the late 2000s. Vanjelis, whose signature colour is fuchsia, is portrayed as a gay man whose attributes are stereotypically associated with effeminacy. His pet animal is a white goat with a fuchsia bow around its neck.

References Banegas, D. L., & Evripidou, D. (2021). Introduction comprehensive sexuality education in ELT. ELT Journal , 75 (2), 127–132. Block, D. (2003). The social turn in second language acquisition. Georgetown University Press.

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Britzman, D. (1998). Is there a queer pedagogy? Or, stop reading straight. In W. F. Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum: Towards new identities (pp. 211–232). Garland. Buyserie, B., & Ramírez, R. (2021). Enacting a queer pedagogy in the composition classroom. ELT Journal, 75 (2), 193–202. Evripidou, D. (2018). The interrelationship among sexual identity, learning, and sexualisation: Primary EFL teachers’ attitudes in Cyprus. TESOL Quarterly, 52(4), 1062–1072. Evripidou, D. (2020). Effects of heteronormativity on Cypriot EFL classroom participation: Students’ experiences. Gender and Education, 32(8), 1019–1033. Evripidou, D., & Çavu¸so˘glu, Ç. (2015). English language teachers’ attitudes towards the incorporation of gay- and lesbian-related topics in the classroom: The case of Greek Cypriot EFL teachers. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 12(1), 70–80. Fuss, D. (1991). Inside/out. In D. Fuss (Ed.), Inside/out: Lesbian theories, gay theories (pp. 1–10). Routledge. Georgiou, G., Modinos, A., Papageorgiou, N., Papantoniou, L., & Peristianis, N. (2004). Cyprus: Part 1. Greek Cyprus. In R. Francoeur & R. Noonan (Eds.), International encyclopaedia of sexuality (pp. 279–307). Continuum. Gray, J. (Ed.). (2013). Critical perspectives on language teaching materials. Palgrave Macmillan. Griffin, P., d’Errico, K. H., Harro, B., & Schiff, T. (2007). Heterosexism curriculum design. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice (pp. 195–218). Routledge. ILGA-Europe. (2018). Rainbow Europe. Available at: https://www.ilga-europe.org/ resources/rainbow-europe/rainbow-europe-2018. Accessed 23 Oct 2018. Kitchen, J., & Bellini, C. (2012). Addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues in teacher education: Teacher candidates’ perceptions. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(3), 444–460. Luhman, S. (1998). Queering/querying pedagogy? Or, pedagogy is a pretty queer thing. In W. F. Pinar (Ed.), Queer theory in education (pp. 141–156). Earlbaum. McGraw, K., & van Leent, L. (2018). Textual constraints: Queering the senior English text list in the Australian curriculum. English in Australia, 53(2), 28–39. McKay, S. L., & Wong, S. L. C. (1996). Multiple discourses, multiple identities: Investment and agency in second-language learning among Chinese adolescent immigrant students. Harvard Educational Review, 66 (3), 577–609. Morris, M. (1998). Unresting the curriculum: Queer projects, queer imaginings. In W. Pinar (Ed.), Queer theory in education (pp. 257–286). Earlbaum. Morris, M. (2000). Dante’s left foot kicks queer theory into gear. In S. Talburt & S. Steinberg (Eds.), Thinking queer: Sexuality, culture, and education (pp. 15–32). Peter Lang. Nelson, C. D. (1999). Sexual identities in ESL: Queer theory and classroom inquiry. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 371–391. Nelson, C. D. (2002). Why queer theory is useful in teaching: A perspective from English as a second language teaching. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 14 (2), 43–53.

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Nelson, C. D. (2006). Queer inquiry in language education. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 5 (1), 1–9. Nelson, C. D. (2007). Queer thinking about language teaching: An overview of published work. In H. Decke-Cornill & L. Volkmann (Eds.), Gender and foreign language teaching (pp. 63–67). Guter Narr. Neto, J. N. (2018). Queer pedagogy: Approaches to inclusive teaching. Policy Futures in Education, 16 (5), 589–604. Paiz, J. M. (2015). Over the monochrome rainbow: Heteronormativity in ESL reading texts and textbooks. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 4 (1), 77–101. Paiz, J. M. (2017). Queering ESL teaching: Pedagogical and materials creation issues. TESOL Journal, 9 (2), 348–367. Paiz, J. M. (2019). Queering practice: LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion in English language teaching. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 18(4), 266–275. Rhodes, C. M., & Coda, J. (2017). It’s not in the curriculum: Adult English language teachers and LGBQ topics. Adult Learning, 28(3), 99–106. Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Sage. Rofes, E. (2000). Transgression and the situated body: Gender, sex, and the gay male teacher. In S. Talburt & S. Steinberg (Eds.), Thinking queer: Sexuality, culture, and education (pp. 131–150). Peter Lang. Shlasko, G. D. (2005). Queer (v.) pedagogy. Equity and Excellence in Education, 38(2), 123–134. Sullivan, N. (2003). A critical introduction to queer theory. Edinburgh University Press. Talmy, S. (2009). Resisting ESL: Categories and sequence in a critically “motivated” analysis of classroom interaction. In H. T. Nguyen & G. Kasper (Eds.), Talk in interaction: Multilingual perspectives (pp. 181–213). National Foreign Language Resource Centre, University of Hawaii Press. Tryfonidou, A. (2017). The legal position of LGBT persons and same-sex couples in Cyprus. The Cyprus Review, 29, 183–213. Vandrick, S. (1997). The role of hidden identities in the postsecondary ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 153–157. Wadell, E., Frei, K., & Martin, S. (2012). Professional development through inquiry: Addressing sexual identity in TESOL. The CATESOL Journal, 23(1), 99–109. Wimberly, G. L., Wilkinson, L., & Pearson, J. (2015). LGBTQ student achievement and educational attainment. In G. L. Wimberly (Ed.), LGBTQ issues in education: Advancing a research agenda (pp. 121–139). American Educational Research Association.

Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children Rafaella R. Potestades

Introduction Feminist and queer theorists have emphasised that schools are one of the social avenues for creating gender stereotypes (e.g.,Aikman & Unterhalter, 2007; Butler, 1993; Hassaskhah & Zamir, 2013). These theorists have questioned the premise of biological sex differences—female and male sex organs and characteristics—as a determiner for one’s role in society. Such biological essentialism found in the school, family, media, and religion has boxed people into a web of masculine and feminine labels; thus, stifling the ability of boys and girls to excel in various fields of study and develop their potential beyond the binary. This chapter reports on a research study which looked at the discursive patterns and content of Filipino teacher–student interactions in English language classroom discussions, such as teachers’ evaluative comments (i.e., Praise, Criticism, Acceptance, Remediation) and its impact on the students’ gender identity construction. Fairclough’s (1987) Critical Discourse Analysis and Baxter’s (2003) Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis were used to assess the effect of classroom language socialisation (stories and discussions carried out in English) on the students’ understanding of their and other R. R. Potestades (B) University of the Philippines - Diliman, Quezon City, Manila, Philippines e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_8

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peoples’ gender identities. Furthermore, this chapter seeks to shed light on how sexist or gender binary texts and lessons translate into discursive practices in the English language classroom discussions and sociocultural gender practices in the female and male students’ behaviours and perceptions about gender identities.

Gender and Development in Schools In the Fourth World Conference on Women, the United Nation memberstates agreed that schools should be purged of gender1 biases or sexist ideologies. Sadly, most states have yet to properly wean out gender stereotypes in schools’ curriculum content, learning materials, language of instruction and literacy, and methods of evaluation and assessment (Aikman & Unterhalter, 2007; Moore, 2020; Riley, 2014). The educational system is viewed as a structure that allows students to construct knowledge with the guidance from teachers; this form of collaborated conversations becomes a site for the construction and negotiation of gender views (Jaworski & Coupland, 2014). In that regard, English language teaching (ELT) educators may consciously or unconsciously influence the students’ notions of gender either about themselves or others. In the case of the Philippines, most of the country’s English textbooks portray stereotypical gender expressions and identities. Nevertheless, it is clear in the Magna Carta of Women2 that this reference for knowledge has a normalising effect. In skimming through these textbooks, they display the dominance of gender binary-assigned traits in the lessons and stories. For instance, women are often viewed to be kind, beautiful, subservient; in contrast, men are portrayed as dominant and professional (engineers, doctors, and lawyers) (Tarrayo, 2014). The unchallenged portrayal of these traditional roles in ELT classroom discussions may maintain rigid identities which may limit a child’s interests and future choices, such as career opportunities (i.e., only boys are rational enough to hold high positions in student councils and, ultimately, government positions). To help prevent engendering such stereotypes in Philippine classrooms, researchers like Hernandez and Cudiamat (2017) tried synergising about methods to integrate gender and development in the classroom. Thus, they conducted experimental research on the Grade 8 students of Lucsuhin National High School. They instructed the ELT teachers to use gender-based differentiated instruction in classroom discussions and the teachers grouped

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their students based on their gender, learning styles, and multiple intelligences. The results garnered heightened learning confidence and post-test scores with one student citing on the survey “gender based differentiated instruction gives more opportunity to showcase my hidden talent” (Hernandez & Cudiamat, 2017). Integrating a gender-based differentiated instruction in the Lucsuhin National High School classroom discourse might have helped lessen the implications of the students learned-gender binary (e.g., girls just obediently listening to discussions, boys being called to answer math questions).

Gendered Classroom Discourse According to Jaworski and Coupland (2014), a student is perceived to be a community novice because of being “less knowledgeable” and a teacher is viewed as a veteran social actor because of their “authoritative knowledge”. The former may develop their gender identity through the latter’s (re)constitution, challenge, or maintenance of a web of gendered social practices or cultural routines through classroom discourse (Jaworski & Coupland, 2014). Hence, the perpetuation of gender stereotypes begins as gender enculturation, which becomes a prerequisite before one is considered a member of a speech community or a “veteran” social actor. Just like Butler’s (1990) concept of identity, language socialisation happens when someone is recognised as a new member of the speech community through the label “It’s a boy! It’s a girl!” and this label stays with them until they cease to exist. In classroom discourse, language and socialisation are acknowledged to be connected, since this is where most linguistic processes of identities are formalised. In understanding the learning process, interactions that happen between a teacher and students affect the direction of gendered discourses (Tannen, 1996). The gender identity building may manifest in two ways: first, in the political positioning of the genders in the conversation itself (i.e., prioritising boys in science and mathematics subjects), and second, in the material sense such as discourses on gender topics (i.e., gender-neutral bathrooms, familial roles). Gender-biased narratives of characters found in ELT teaching materials and instruction (Moore, 2020; Swann, 2003) are also common setting. This has a normalising effect in naturalising certain masculine and feminine traits in cisgender3 characters. Language socialisation has a large effect on children’s social identity (Duranti et al., 2011). The result of such a situation is co-production where an intersubjective account of gender occurs between the educator and the

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students (Sunderland, 1994). This is a period in children’s lives when social structures and cultural interpretations found in the semiotic forms, ideologies, and practices of the English language guide their social engagement—how to act and what to say—with other people. Thus, in a certain speech community (i.e., schools or family), children or novices learn the local language and are guided through culturally constructed social engagements— in this study, their understanding of their own and other people’s gender identity in English lessons.

Gender-patterned Interactions in Philippine Classrooms The image of the Philippines as relatively better off in the gender and development battle still dominates mainstream media. There exists a Philippines with female presidents, non-gender binary identities such as the bakla and tibo (Patiag, 2019), matriarchal families, and gender equality in the labour market (World Economic Forum, 2018). This perspective is partly true and unfortunately also false. Admittedly, the Philippines have laws and frameworks but such policies have yet to reach full fruition because of faulty government systems and different consciousness levels of oppressive gender structures (Asia Development Bank, 2013). Furthermore, the Philippine LGBTQIA + (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual, and other genders) community appears to be visible in the media and on the streets compared to other countries, but this country’s tolerance comes with conditions. The support is only present if one maintains the identity accepted by the majority, being an entertainer. This illusory acceptance has created this surface-level perception of gender and development which has resulted in the state deprioritising and even challenging their plights (Tan, 2001). This is not to discount all the efforts and developments contributed by various women and LGBTQIA + groups, but rather this is an echo of their concerns that the war is far from over. This chapter aims to deconstruct current gender situations and stereotypes which trickled down into the country’s educational system (i.e., learning materials and classroom instruction). The chapter seeks to shed light on how such gender ideologies and situations found in classroom discourses affect the gender identity construction of Filipino children and how they view other people’s gender identities.

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Our Study This section describes our study and its context. It also presents the framework that was used to analyse the emerging gender-patterned classroom interactions and the effect of English classroom discourses on Filipino students’ sociocultural gender practice. Three English Language female teachers and 109 Filipino primary students (57 females and 52 males) from grade levels one to three from a private school in Quezon Province, Philippines were observed for this study. The main sources of analysis are the (a) classroom discussions, specifically how the educators discuss their English lesson and how they engage the students’ answers, (b) descriptive paragraphs about each student and their family, and (c) focus group discussion with the students and interviews with the teachers. The micro interactions specifically assessed were the quantity and quality of teacher’s comments to female and male students. The tool used was a modified version of a gender-equity observation checklist, INTERSECT (Interactions for Sex Equity in Classroom Teaching Observation System) (Hassaskhah & Zamir, 2013). Analysis sought to understand if there was a significant difference in the treatment toward male and female students participating in the interaction. The distinction of non-gender binary students was not used, as the researcher felt unequipped to make assumptions about the students’ Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sexual Characteristics (SOGIESC). This system was crafted to assess the Observed Frequency, i.e., the number of interactions allotted by the teachers, and Expected Frequency, i.e., the desired number of interactions to achieve gender equality or equity. The four evaluative teacher moves are defined as: • PRAISE: positively reinforces the student’s performance (e.g., “Excellent!”, “Good!”). • ACCEPTANCE: passively considers the student’s response as correct or appropriate (e.g., “Okay”, “Uh-huh”). • REMEDIATION: represents a constructed comment and encourages a more acceptable response (e.g., “What do you mean?”). • CRITICISM: explicitly negates student’s answer or action (e.g., “That’s wrong”, “Keep quiet”). The way teachers interact with students, especially as a response to their academic ideas or classroom behaviour, may affect the students’ achievement, attitudes, and subject performance (Hassaskhah & Zamir, 2013; Sadker et al., 1984). For instance, harshly reprimanding or criticising a student for their

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behaviour may affect how they move or interact with others in the classroom in the future, such as in the case of shaming girls for not sitting properly by the virtue of being modest or conservative. Such criticism might further build on the narrative of women and girls’ mobility being restricted due to their gender. Praising interactions may also signify a teacher’s idea of “correct” behaviours or “standard” answers such as praising a male student for answering loudly or applauding their answers of using “obedient” or “pretty” as “female” adjectives. Acceptance and Remediation interactions may be indicative of a teacher’s interest in further probing the answer of the student or eliciting a specific answer as determined by the teacher—which falls under their roles as Facilitators or Moderators in the discussion (Grasha, 1994). Facilitators have the power to frame discussions according to their intended goal but not totally enforcing a certain structured discussion to assure the students’ learning autonomy and independence. The quality and quantity of these four evaluative moves—which may have consciously or unconsciously interjected gender ideologies—may have a normalising effect on what students find as correct or incorrect gender actions, behaviours, and notions given that they view teachers as authoritative figures. The effect of the classroom discourses was assessed through the descriptive essay assignment given after the discussions. In this assignment, the students were assigned to describe their family members’ attitudes, roles, jobs, and hobbies. Content analysis was used to find emerging descriptions and adjectives of female and male family members, including the students themselves. Thematic concepts of gender ideologies found in the teachers’ discussions and students’ descriptive essays, and how students appreciate it were also analysed. Analyses on the data sources are framed using Fairclough’s (1987) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Baxter’s (2003) Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis (FPDA) to further explain how this form of gender discursive practice transforms into a social practice. FPDA views gendered discourses as performing and constructing gender identities throughout the interaction. For example, a certain female student being criticised for her “unladylike movements” and her adjusting to the criticism. FPDA contributes to CDA by being more nuanced to the concept of gender rather than CDA’s sole focus on power asymmetry alone; this additional framework aims to deconstruct disempowering social practices that contribute to gender inequality.

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Analysis and Discussion of Classroom Interaction According to the INTERSECT model, the 57 girls were expected to receive at least 52 per cent of each type of interaction and the 52 boys at least 48 per cent. Based on the collated data from the three primary classes, the three English teachers equally praised and criticised the students but distributed more acceptance and remediation interactions to the male students. Out of 240 acceptance interactions, there were only 95 distributed to the girls compared to the expected frequency of 125 interactions. In the overall 216 remediation interactions, the teachers only remediated the girls’ answers 77 times out of the 112 expected frequency. Based on the distribution of acceptance and remediation interactions, the teachers relatively relied on the male students more in furthering the classroom discussion as compared to their female students. In the following extracts, it can be seen that, according to Fairclough’s CDA model, the English lesson and teacher’s interpretation of the story’s ideas stand as the text that is being turned into a discursive practice throughout the class discussion. The teachers’ authoritative position indicates a power asymmetry framework in place as the students listen to their words about story characters as “truth”, so if the students hear that women are “pretty” or “kind” then they may believe this as the essential truth for all kinds of women. Baxter’s FPDA (2003) then incorporates gender identity building as part of the process of the discursive practice turning into a sociocultural practice. In every discussion, the student might physically or socially adjust to behaviours, actions, or ideas being called out or praised, or they might adhere to certain narratives such as women being obedient. The students are coded based on their grade level, sex, and number according to the order of appearance. For instance, 1G1 means the female student is from the first grade and is the first girl to talk in the discussion, whereas 1G2 would be the second girl to talk in the discussion: Context: In the first-grader’s text The Pot of Gold, the main character Berto wanted to laze around and stop working; to achieve this, he needed to look for the Fairy’s pot of gold. Teacher: What did he want to do? Yes, Via? 1G1: Play all day Teacher: Berto? 1G1: Berto want to play all day Teacher: Okay

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In most of the classroom discussions, many interactions with female students usually revolved around display questions—these are questions that require only one answer. In more complex and in-depth discussions that involve going into the morals or key points of the story, the teachers seem to engage male students more. This may be because they unconsciously assume that male students can deconstruct more complex thought processes as compared to their female students. This is evident in the extract from one of the secondgrade class as the teacher chose to explore 2B1’s answer compared with the simple acceptance of 2G1’s answer: Context: In the second grader’s text Why did Mama Change her Mind, the mother asks her children, Lonnie and Fay, to invite five guests each for their birthday party. Fay wanted to invite ten girls. Teacher: The brother is? 2G1: Generous. 2B1: He is generous. Teacher: He is generous, in what way? You said he is generous. In the end, what did he do? 2B1: He didn’t get mad at Fay. Teacher: He didn’t get mad at Fay. Teacher: What else? Teacher: He’s generous because? Teacher: Yes, Clyde? 2B2: He was generous and allowed Fay to have the ten girls in the party. Teacher: Yes, he was generous and allowed Fay to have the ten girls at the party. Okay, generous, okay.

The reliance on male students for more in-depth answers are also present in the third-grade discussion on the father’s role in the family: Teacher: When you grow up, would you rather be a mother or a father? And why? 3B1: Father. Teacher: A father, why? 3B1: Because I want to be myself and I want to be proud of it. Teacher: Why? What does your father—? Teacher: What traits of your father do you want to intake? Teacher: Do you want to be your father’s image? Huh? Teacher: You are to be like your father? You want to be your mother’s image? Teacher: No, let’s say for example your mom, your mom is doing a lot of chores, right?

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Teacher: And your father also doing the same thing but your father is quite busy, on the contrary, in terms of household chores, right? Teacher: Whom among? Is it your mother or your father?

In this extract, the male student appeared to be uncomfortable with the teacher’s constant probing as the other students were laughing at the whole conversation (i.e., the notion of a man being a mother was unconventional and funny). This may cause adverse effects on the male students’ perception of diverse gender identities and expressions (e.g., a man being a “mother” was a laughable concept). Furthermore, educators utilise the acceptance-remediation pattern for their facilitator role to develop the students’ capacity for learning independence (Grasha, 1994). Since this method is primarily distributed to male students more, girls may be deprived of the opportunity to establish their own independence from the teacher’s interpretation of certain stories or lessons. In the long term, this may inculcate female students to utilise rote memory more rather than their critical thinking skills. This was evidenced in the case of the second-grade classroom, where the female students are mostly asked display questions. According to Baxter (2003), during these classroom discourses, the female students are actually building their identity as “female students” based on how their teachers interact with them. Thus, there might be a building expectation that they would only be called to answer display or categorical questions, or only probed to a certain extent before moving to a male student.

Praise and Criticism In terms of praise and criticism interactions—although equally distributed to the students—the educators praised and criticised certain behaviours based on certain gender stereotypes. The effect is comparatively long-lasting, as these interactions are only utilised in key and conclusive moments, can commonly elicit more emotions, and are used to reiterate the teacher’s formal authority role in being the source of true answers (Grasha, 1994). This was shown in the extract below as the first-grade teacher requested the class to clap for one of the female answers on Berto’s stereotypical masculine traits: A. Cisgender as the norm in the third-grade discussion.

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Teacher: Okay, some girls are always happy being girls but sometimes some girls wish that they could be boys, are you happy being a girl, if yes, why and if no, why? 3G1: Yes, because my style is mostly a girl and that’s what God gave me, and I was created as a girl and not a boy. Teacher: 3 claps again for Faustin.

B. Berto as an active, ambitious, and assertive boy in first-grade discussion: Teacher: What did he want to do? Yes, Via? 1G1: Play all day. Teacher: Berto…? 1G1: Berto want to play all day. Teacher: Okay, Berto wanted to play all day, let’s give her another 3 claps.

In those moments, praises leave a deeper impression than the other interactions and the children may take this as a cue that this is the ultimate and correct answer about gender narratives. These interactions necessitate the negation and confirmation of gender narratives, and if left unchallenged, may further build into a web of knowledge of masculine and feminine traits—as it may be consistent with what they hear from their families, media, or religion. Most of the time, these interactions merely show the subtleties of gendering, but if they are experienced every day every day for their whole foundational years, they may result in the deep enculturation of cis-heterosexual social practices.

Construction of Gender Identities and Social Practices in Classrooms Based on the classroom interactions discussed above, Filipino female students are slightly deprived of learning opportunities in areas of understanding and explaining complex notions derived from the lesson or story. According to the English stories discussed in class and the students’ descriptive essays of themselves and their families—which were given as an assignment after their English lesson—gender topics tended to be more binary and traditional. Students would commonly describe boys as more active and assertive, having high-paying jobs, and being breadwinners. Girls are discussed as being cooperative, in low-paying jobs, and as caretakers of families.

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Table 1 shows the gender narratives observed in the Filipino teacher– student interactions—from their grammar lessons and literary texts—and which narratives were integrated by the students as assessed through their descriptive essays. The children’s gender identities emerge in the discourse as the female and male identities are generally agreed on by both the teacher and students. The dominant emerging discourse identity is a result of the student’s acquisition of certain socially constructed webs of meaning from classroom gendered discourses (Meadows, 1996). The impact of the classroom discussions is evident in the descriptive essays where the students explained their family members’ roles and in the focus group discussion, where pictures of Barbie and Ken were used in questions like “Who cleans the house more?” or “Who is stronger?”. In these data Table 1 Gender narratives identified and accepted in the classroom Gender narratives in the literary text/ activity

Gender narratives accepted by the children Boys: Active and Assertive

Boys: Active, Assertive, Funny, and Receptive

Boys: Active, Ambitious, Assertive, and Strong Girls: Attractive due to Physical Appearances, Intelligent, and Receptive Boys: Analytical, Rational, and Receptive

Girls: Cooperative, Receptive, and Tomboy

Girls: Assertive, Emotional, and Rational

Boys: “He”, Provider, and Strong

Boys: Heterosexual and Open Discussion of Same Sex Attraction Girls: Heterosexual

Grade Level

Gender narratives in the grammar lesson

Grade 1

Boys: Intelligent and Rational

Girls: Cooperative and Intelligent

Grade 2

Grade 3

Girls: “She”, Nurturer, and Homemaker

Girls: Intelligent and Receptive

Boys: Rational, Receptive, and Assertive Girls: Rational, Receptive, and Tomboy Boys: “He”, Provider, Strong, and Heterosexual Girls: “She”, Nurturer. Homemaker, and Heterosexual

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sources, the emerging gender identities were the following: Girls as cooperative, intelligent, and receptive. Boys as active and noisy. Each trait will be discussed according to where it was derived from and how the students interacted with that gender narrative.

The Beautiful, Cooperative, and Kind Girl The three adjectives to describe girls were a general pattern cohesively found across all the data sources—from the classroom discussions, descriptive essays, and focus group discussions with the children. One extract analysed is from the discussion on the female character Fay from the story Why did Mama Change Her Mind? in the second-grade class. They all agreed that Fay should be more cooperative with the Mother’s decision: Teacher: What do you think the writer feels about Fay? 2G1: She should like boys. Teacher: She should like boys. 2B1: A bad sister. 2G1: She needs to act better.

And this was further highlighted in the discussion of the moral or lesson of the story: Teacher: Yes, Chloe? 2G1: Avoid arguments. Teacher: Okay, to avoid arguments. Avoid fighting with each other.

The cooperative feminine gender theme is further highlighted in most of the criticism interactions between the teacher and female students. The educator expected girls to follow instructions regardless of their opinion. The Philippines might have available cultural resources of women being strong (e.g., women rebels or suffragists), but as the students are being taught to understand the world through English, they might follow the narrative of women being always “cooperative” or “obedient”—which is consistent with narratives from other social institutions such as the Catholic church and mainstream media—rather being “malakas” (strong) or “palaban” (fights back). In this study, girls and women were also defined as “beautiful” and

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“kind” (or good). One of the examples is from their description of the fairy from the story A Pot of Gold from the first-grade class. A: ‘Beautiful’ Fairy Teacher: What do you think is the correct word for this sentence? 1B1: Teacher! Teacher: Yes? 1B1: Fairy. Teacher: Fairy? Teacher: He was surprised when a beautiful lady fairy?

B: ‘Good’ Fairy 1G1: It was a fairy. Tell me what you want Berto, the fairy said. 1B1: Oh, good fairy, said Berto, I want a pot of gold.

These three gender narratives appeared in the descriptive essays of the children as the description of “kind”—synonymous with receptive, generous, good, supportive—was used 142 times to describe their mothers and sisters (and themselves, if female). Here are some extracts from the three classes: Their role at home is cooking every day and taking care of me as well as my sister… my mother is housewife at home serving me and my sister to caring, loving, and teaching to respect other people. (First-grade student) […] Mom […] she takes care of my brother and me. She does all the household chores; she is the best mom for me because she is always there when I need her. (Second-grade student) While my mother is hands on taking care of us of my brother and very helpful to teacher us in our lessons. (Third-grade student)

There appears to be a cohesive knitting of what a “woman” is based on what they see and from their English lessons. Female characters, girls, and women seem to be a concoction of motherhood, beauty, obedience, and infinite kindness. In the essays, around 78 women and girls are described to have or dreamt to do nurturing jobs such as being a teacher, nurse, chef, or flight attendant. Most of the participants in the focus group discussion also described Barbie as “kind” or “receptive”, so she takes care of children, listens to them when they have problems, and does the household chores. In social practice, this may manifest in various ways, for instance, a secondgrade teacher calling out her female student for not listening and asking her to follow her instructions to listen:

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Teacher: Okay, what do you do when someone’s talking in the front, you? 1G1: Listen. Teacher: You listen and behave. Okay, sit properly first and listen well.

This is common among all the three classrooms. When reprimanding female students, the teachers would mostly just shush them and tell them to listen. Another example is the same teacher criticising her student for not speaking “loud” enough in class—a classic example of biological essentialism where men are perceived to have louder voices, thus, appearing more confident: 2G1: Why did mama change her mind— Teacher: Louder. 2G1: Mama Miller told Fay and Lonnie that they— Teacher: Louder. Teacher: Louder, anak. Teacher: Okay, Clyde can try.

This may further highlight the importance of the loudness of the male voice; the teacher may unconsciously use this as a standard for their categorisation of good students. The teacher may involuntarily pattern their future interactions based on that standard. Educators may ask future female students to follow what defines a good answer—an “in-depth” one uttered in a loud and confident voice—and cooperate to obtain good grades. Upon the establishment of such narratives as norms, this may lead to certain social practices that are coherent to the binary.

The Active and Assertive Boy In the first-grade teacher’s literary text, the teacher would commonly ask questions related to Berto’s activeness and assertiveness. The teacher would accept ideas in relation to her own and would utilise remediation when she seeks the correct answer. In this case, it was concluded in the classroom that Berto needs to maintain being assertive or hardworking: Teacher: The fairy did not give Berto the things he wanted because the fairy would like Berto to? Students: Work hard. Teacher: To work hard, to achieve his dream, to get his pot of gold.

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And another similar conclusion, Teacher: When the fairy did not give the things he wanted, what did he realise? 1B1: To work hard. Teacher: Okay, Berto realised that he needed to work hard in order to achieve his dream. Teacher: Okay, he realised that he needed to work hard in order to achieve what he wanted. Because he wanted to be rich, will you be rich by playing all day?

Furthermore, the teachers maintained this identity through their own perceptions about the boys in the classroom. For instance, the teachers would commonly direct criticisms to boys more by specifically uttering their bad behaviour. This is comparatively different to how the girls are instructed to just listen and behave as compared to actively pointing out the “noisy” and “active” behaviour of the boys: Third-grade teacher’s criticisms: 1. Teacher: Rom, will you please sit properly? Teacher: What’s your problem, Rom? 2. Teacher: Gabriel, you sit down, listen.

These two narratives somewhat appeared in descriptive essays as they described themselves (male students) and other male family members to be “active”—synonymous to being sporty, noisy, or loving physical activity—69 times. I like playing basketball, soccer, sports, and others. I dream to be an NBA player. (Second-grade student) My hobbies are biking, sometimes playing with my brother, basketball with my friends, searching in the internet. (Third-grade student)

In the interview with the teachers, they all agreed that boys were relatively noisier than girls due to their love for physical activities in the classroom such as horsing around, playing, or fighting. One effect of this in terms of social practice is the tendency of the three teachers to perceive the male students’ disruptive behaviour as unacceptable. Given the assumption that

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boys are less receptive and emotional than girls, then it must be fine to be harsher with them in terms of behavioural correction. Constant criticisms may lead to them growing a dislike to the educational system by associating it to being shamed or humiliated. This may be one of the causes as to why more female students perform comparatively better in all measures of education performance and continue to higher education (David et al., 2018; Lai, 2010). Being assertive was also used to commonly describe fathers such as: The role of my father is to lead and discipline our family. He also provides our needs and protect us physically and emotionally. (Second-grade student)

The influence of the teacher’s gender ideologies on the students is mostly contingent on the consistent gender identities present in the classroom discussion. The students are more receptive to the consistent gender ideology found in their parents, teachers, and classmates, regardless of the neutrality of acceptance and remediation (Chen, 2007) because of social consensus. When they actively agree to such gender ideologies, this builds and maintains their current knowledge of gender identities. There also appears to be an alignment with the students and teachers’ own concept of gender roles. Teachers permeate the binary by giving examples based on their own gendered web of knowledge. In addition, they passively accept traditional gender themes as the standard without suggesting alternative themes. The social consensus of gender roles may be attributed to how the teachers also maintain such gender ideologies through citing their own perceptions and through accepting the students’ answers.

Conclusion When ELT educators are not fully informed of how certain perceptions can be oppressive, their own traditional gender identities become one of the dominant sources for a child’s knowledge of SOGIESC. Regardless of one’s view of males and females as equals, such unconscious gendering still influences the web of gender-knowledge that the child is continuously crafting. Since there is a form of social cohesion in the gender ideologies of various social institutions such as their families, schools, religion, and media, then the predominant perception of women and men pervades in the mind of the child. As the data above shows, if the child is immersed in understanding the world through English—with an ELT educator consciously or unconsciously

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integrating their gender ideologies—then their minds start categorising and associating things according to that source. This is the result of not having enough gender identity sources to understand why some children choose to perform non-stereotypical and queer identities. This deprivation of sources limits their understanding to certain conditions that are still in line with their gender stereotypes. For other children, since they do not have these gender identity sources that challenge traditional gender narratives, they assume that they have to follow society’s rigid distinction of females and males as seen in the interactions discussed above. In times that children want to express themselves differently, the data presented shows how they are either passively tolerated or shamed by other people. This causes turmoil to the children because they are constantly disempowered from achieving their goals and performing gender traits that are contrary to their identity. The result is either oppressing themselves due to their weirdness and unconventionality or oppressing others for expressing themselves contrary to their assigned gender. In resolving these conflicts, my best recommendation is to make sure that the English language learning process is gender-sensitive and -responsive. One way, as the classroom interactions above show, is to pay equal attention to all students. ELT educators can actively eliminate biases assigned to certain students to assure the distribution of equal opportunities. Continuously paying attention to the same students means the concentration of learning opportunities to those students alone. It is better to open oneself up to the possibility that children show their intelligence and capabilities in diverse ways. In terms of gender discussions, it is vital to diversify the ELT curriculum. Stories should have a diverse set of characters that display numerous gender identities and roles. For example, Moana is a good story because it focuses more on the struggle of being a chieftain, rather than the conflict with her femininity and the hardships attached to it. Stories that show such conflicts help children to welcome diversity. Integrating a plethora of diverse SOGIESC stories can enrich children’s sources of gender identity. ELT educators can self-assess their lessons in terms of gendering implications. In the case of using adjectives, the portrayal of emotional men, stronger women, or anything out of the binary can make it easier to build pictures of different people and diverse SOGIESC. Lastly, the teacher’s role is paramount in allowing children to express themselves beyond the binary and teachers need to intervene when students are discriminated against or ostracised for sharing their own thoughts that may be beyond the rigid gender binary and traditional notions of sexuality.

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In this chapter, I have analysed how ELT educators integrated gender notions in their practice. I have learned that the most important aim for educators is to allow students to express and perform their gender in whatever way they can. In extremely conservative educational contexts states, even the act of allowing children to sit, speak, or play in the way they want to can be sources for them to understand and express their gender identity. This chapter was written with the thought of making sure that ELT educators become one of the keys in freeing children from suffocating cages of gender stereotypes and crafting a new generation that understands others based on dignity and merit, and not on identities alone.

Suggested further readings Dwyer, C., Dweck, C., & Carlson-Jaquez, H. (2014). Using praise to enhance student resilience and learning outcomes helping students “bounce back” in the face of difficulties. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/educat ion/k12/using-praise.aspx. This blog expounds on how to use praise as a way to encourage male and female students to explore subjects beyond their socialised zones (e.g., male students in science and math subjects, and female students in English subjects). This developed mindset suggested by the study also builds the students’ resilience in case of academic setbacks in the newly explored subject. Pakuła, L. (Ed.). (2021). Linguistic perspectives on sexuality in education: Representations, constructions and negotiations. Cham: Palgrave. This edited collection combines different conceptual frameworks to examine the role that language plays in the (de)construction of sexuality and gender in education. Sauntson, H. (2012). Approaches to gender and spoken classroom discourse. London: Palgrave Macmillan. This book is a good primer for educators and researchers who wish to use queer theory in analysing the marginalisation inflicted to the LGBTQIA + children in the educational setting, especially in language practices.

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Engagement priorities • As seen in one of the teacher–student interactions of the male student becoming uncomfortable with the teacher’s probing on a diverse gender identity, what are the best strategies that ELT educators can use to avoid this and make the students more open to such ideas? • Given their socialised context from various social institutions such as their families or religion, how can ELT educators encourage their students to explore activities and ideologies beyond the gender binary? • In contexts where males or females are left behind in education, what kind of gender and equality strategy can ELT practitioners implement? • In integrating gender identities in different learning materials, would you consider the cultural nuances of other countries or communities (i.e., India’s Hijras, the Philippines’ Bakla, or Mexico’s Muxe) or just focus on the basics of incorporating SOGIESC concepts?

Notes 1. In the international development and humanitarian discourse, “gender” is commonly defined as the identity of people based on their assigned sex at birth (i.e., female and male). Often overlooking the transgender identity (i.e., a biological female identifying as a man and vice versa). 2. The Philippine’s Magna Carta of Women is a comprehensive women’s human rights law aiming to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex. https://pcw. gov.ph/republic-act-9710-magna-carta-of-women/. 3. Cisgender refers to people whose gender identity matches with their assigned sex at birth (i.e., biological female identifying as a woman).

References Aikman, S., & Unterhalter, E. (2007). Practising gender equality in education. Oxfam GB. Asia Development Bank. (2013). Gender equality in the labor market in the Philippines. Mandaluyong City, the Philippines: Asian Development Bank. Baxter, J. (2003). Positioning gender in discourse: A feminist methodology. Palgrave Macmillan. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge. Butler, J. (1993). Critically queer. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 1(1), 17–32.

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Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities Tanja McCandie

Introduction While English Language Teaching (ELT) is a profession believed to be dominated by women in terms of numbers, it is not dominated by women in terms of visible leadership, power or visible representation such as being head teachers, authors (Prentis & Mayne, 2014) and conference plenary speakers (The Fair List, 2013). While grassroots movements and organisations are being created to address inequities in ELT such as The Fair List, EVE: Equal Voices in ELT, TEFL Equity Advocates, Equity ELT Japan, and the Women in ELT Facebook group, more needs to be done to create actual change and disrupt the norm of native English speaking white males being overly represented in positions of power and leadership in ELT. Research and publications on native-speaker status (e.g., Houghton & Rivers, 2013), racial discrimination (e.g., Gerald, 2020), and the preference of white teachers within ELT (e.g. Lee & Simon-Maeda, 2006) have been increasing, yet the impact of gender, both internationally and within specific countries, has yet to be thoroughly examined. The aim of this chapter is to help raise awareness regarding the gender barriers and conflict that female educators in ELT face, via the experiences of T. McCandie (B) Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_9

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women teaching in higher education in Japan. This chapter study is part of an ongoing project centred on removing gender barriers, addressing harassment and increasing female leadership opportunities for women in ELT in Japan. Built on notions of gender discrimination and social reproduction theory, the chapter gives a brief overview of the hierarchy in the Japanese university system, addresses the gender advantages men have in academia regarding networking, job hunting, and promotions, the challenges of parenthood for working mothers (toxic) work environments, safety concerns, harassment and a lack of trustworthiness in reporting procedures. With an international readership in mind, the chapter concludes with practical and detailed suggestions for improving working conditions and striving for more equitable and inclusive working conditions for all ELT educators all across Japan and around the world. While this chapter focuses on the Japanese university, an environment as affected by engrained cultural norms as any institution, it is my belief that the experiences and barriers discussed by participants in this study could be similar to those found in many English teaching programmes, regardless of country. Nearly all narrative supplied by the present participants centres on interactions with white, Western, native English-speaking male colleagues, a group overrepresented in Japanese university EFL departments. It is hoped that this chapter will add to the literature of gender barriers within ELT and increase dialogue, aid in reflection, and address the gender status quo within. Female educators will only be able to reach their full potential with regards to leadership and visibility when gender privilege is addressed.

Gender Discrimination Gender discrimination, or prejudicial treatment based on one’s gender (Parziale, 2018), affects female English educators in Japan (Appleby, 2014; Nagatomo, 2016). As ELT attempts to address native-speakerism, the belief that native speakers are owners of a language and therefore expert teachers (Houghton & Rivers, 2013), and white privilege in terms of equity, more dialogue surrounding status quo male privilege leading to gender discrimination needs to be examined. Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) and a feminist framework aid in explaining unexamined gender discrimination and how male privilege and societal and institutional norms have led to systematic exclusion of women in many facets of ELT. The goal of SRT is to explore and analyse social norms and question the continual reinforcement and perpetuation of inequity, so that we can better understand situations

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to change them (Bhattacharya, 2017). While much of the exclusion and inequity in ELT is discriminatory, it is seemingly not done with malicious intent (Appleby, 2014). SRT offers insight as to why the status quo is maintained and problematic behaviour is largely left unexamined. Regardless of intent, exclusion and discrimination is harmful and the continual domination of white, native-speaking, male English language educators as status quo needs to be addressed. Reports of gender discrimination and sexual harassment within language schools (McCrostie, 2014) and public and private secondary schools (CurrieRobson, 2014) have received national attention in Japan. Notwithstanding, there is a lack of research pertaining to removing gender barriers, examining the clearly male hierarchy and investigating changes needed in many ELT work environments. The normalisation of gender discrimination and harassment is grounded in social reproduction, and thus SRT provides a tool for understanding (Bhattacharya, 2017) why ELT trivialises and often accepts many of these types of incidents. And while gender discrimination and harassment are highly problematic themselves, women of colour and women who are not native English speakers must also cope with their other intersections, which exposes them to even more discrimination and harassment. Intersectionality, the criss-crossing of motherhood, race, language, sexuality, socio-economic status and many other factors and their implications, is far less examined than gender discrimination. It is important to emphasise that this chapter examines the intersections of mainly white heterosexual females, some of whom are mothers, in the area of ELT at university. Other intersections and their impact on the lives of women in ELT exceed the scope of this chapter.

Context: Hierarchy in the Japanese University System Cummings observes that “the Japanese (university) system is exceptionally sexist, particularly at the point of entry” (2015, p. 238). Although female university educators are increasing in number, post-secondary institutions in Japan remain heavily male-dominated (Nagatomo & Cook, 2019). Men hold the majority of tenured positions (Kimoto, 2015; Nagatomo, 2016), and coupled with male-favouring hiring practices, this results in a situation where part-time jobs will most often be given to men. In 2015, approximately 23% of all tenured researchers and educators at Japanese universities were female and 30% of adjunct professors were female (Nagatomo, 2016).

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There is a clear hierarchy within university institutions; Japanese men most often at the top, non-Japanese men (author’s emphasis) below in terms of position, power, and respect (Whitsed & Wright, 2016). The lack of diversity is concerning as non-Japanese make up about 5.4% of university educators, often employed in ELT, with only 32% of these non-Japanese being female (Nagatomo & Cook, 2019). Approximately 75% of those women are in nonstandard employment (Hayes, 2013). Women, Japanese and non-Japanese, are generally at the bottom of the ladder in the world of academia because they are not expected to have careers despite their high level of education (Nemoto, 2016) and are subjected to gender discrimination that male educators are not. Further contextual details are included in the remainder of the chapter.

The Study As mentioned above, this case study is part of an ongoing project that aims to create awareness regarding harassment in the work environment for English language teachers. This chapter draws on the first stage of the project and focuses on female English language teachers and their experiences with workrelated harassment and the changes they would like to see made to create a better work environment. The project obtained ethical clearance from the author’s university and follows ethical research protocol. In this chapter, I examine the experiences of eleven female educators working as English language educators at eleven different institutions throughout Japan. All participants were recruited from a call for participants placed in The Gender Awareness in Language Special Interest Group (GALE SIG) Facebook Group, a special interest group within The Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT). Participants represent a wide range of lifestyles and job status: part-time, contract, tenured, married, single, divorced, breadwinners and dependents (Table 1). It should be noted that ten participants Caucasian and native English speakers (described as non-Japanese in Table 1 at the participants’ request). Only one participant is Japanese. The lack of diversity in participants is a reflection of the racialised preference for white native English speakers that exists in ELT in Japan (Hayes, 2013; Lee & Simon-Maeda, 2006). All the participants were required to complete a written personal history journal so that personal narratives could be collected and data could be clarified via interviews either face to face, online, or via email (Questions are listed in Appendix A). To understand the data, all journals, emails, and

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Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities Table 1 Participants’ information Name

Nationality

Employment status

First language(s)

Parental status

Data collection

P1

Non-Japanese

Tenured

English

J, E

P2

Non-Japanese

Part-time

English

P3

Non-Japanese

English

P4

Non-Japanese

Limited contract Contract

Younger child(ren) Older child(ren) Child-free

P5 P6 P7 P8

Non-Japanese Non-Japanese Non-Japanese Non-Japanese

German English English English

P9

Japanese

Part-time Full-Time Part-time Limited contract Tenure-track

P10 P11

Non-Japanese Non-Japanese

Tenure-track Tenured

English

English and Japanese English English

J, I J, E

Older child(ren) Unknown Child-free Child-free Child-free

J, I, E J, J, J, J,

Child-free

J, I, E

Child-free Younger child(ren)

J, E J, E

E E E E

Note J (journaling), E (email correspondence), I (interviews)

interviews were analysed and coded based on experience of harassment and suggestions about how to improve their work environment(s). Based on inductive coding, this chapter focuses on the following identified themes: Networking, promotions, motherhood, toxic environments, physical safety, and harassment.

Networking, Job Hunting, and Hiring The English teaching industry in Japan prefers to hire white first language English male speakers due to native-speakerism (Hayes, 2013; Whitsed & Wright, 2011). Men in Japan are often socially and culturally expected to support their families, whereas women are expected to be caregivers (Nemoto, 2016). This leads to an unexamined male privilege, which results in status quo and social reproduction. Two participants commented on the belief that men are more in need of work to support their families. One stated: “What about me? I’m not married and need work to support myself. The belief that only men need classes to make money is sexist and outdated. I need to make money too!” Another teacher-participant stated: “I’m the breadwinner. Why is it assumed that women can never be the ones bringing home the bacon?”

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Gender beliefs and hiring prospects create tension, more so in part-time teacher rooms. Rather than advertise openings for ELT positions, tenured staff are asked if they know anyone. According to Nagatomo (2015), if women are hired as English teachers, or retained when classes have been cut, they may face open hostility from male co-workers. In one participant’s experience, she was actively discouraged from applying for a position within her own institution by a male co-worker: He sent me a private email message, telling me that the job was earmarked for another colleague. I understand he was trying to help his friend, a male part-time teacher, get a job. The man was married with a small child. I figured he was to make things easier for his friend, the principal earner in the family by shooing me out of the way.

The participant contacted a tenured co-worker about the situation and she was ultimately hired for the position. Another English teacher wrote: I was in contact with a teacher who told me his school was hiring as a position was opening. I was asked to an interview and to give a demo. I felt like the interview went well and, on the way out, the teacher said the interview went well but that they were required to post the job publicly before they could hire anyone. A week later he emailed me to say that they gave the job to a different teacher (a male). I felt like I had been used. I assume they had a friend in mind who they wanted to hire but had to interview someone else to satisfy admin.

Women in ELT can also be excluded from networking (Hicks, 2013). Lack of invitations to socialise outside of working hours and gender social expectations of domestic duties often leave women at a disadvantage to hear about employment opportunities. With most women on the lower rungs of employment, they are also unlikely to be financially supported to attend events like conferences and symposium via their institution(s) and part-timers do not receive research budgets. One of the participants said “I had a colleague tell me that if they ever found out I was going on the job market, they would report me to higher ups that I was unhappy in my position and in danger of leaving”. Threatening behaviour not only makes it difficult to network and job hunt, but can create difficulties in staying in current working environments.

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Promotions and Lack of Mentors Promotion systems reward publications, not dedication to students and teaching (Kimoto, 2015). Kimoto (2015) also goes on to write that men publish more, spend more time on research as they have more support both at home and at work than women and teach fewer hours than women. This leads to men being promoted higher and faster than women, as promotion is tied to publications. One of the issues commented on by participants is the lack of transparency around point systems and supposed blocking regarding promotion. One participant wrote: Before I applied for tenure, I asked the Director about the process. She could not give me a clear answer because she said there were many details to be finalised. I thought that the details should be finalised since the ad was already up. I wondered by what criteria were being judged on. No transparency, despite all the lip service, has entered the process since I first complained to the Director in 2014. She later suggested that there was ‘gatekeeping’ by at least one tenured professor she worked with; allegedly, they had previously blocked a female from a position the previous year. I reminded him that he had blocked a female candidate one year ago from getting tenure. At this point, he said he had not blocked her and that there was no position open at that time (despite the fact that a position had been advertised).

Another teacher, who had unofficially complained about harassing behaviour from a senior staff member was shocked to see this person on a panel regarding promotion opportunities: “When I discovered that he was on the committee, I reported his behaviour (again) to a staff member. He was vicious and hostile to me during the interview. I didn’t get the job”. Due to the lack of women employed in the university system, to find female mentors and role models is problematic. Men often have more inner circle knowledge and connections (Cummings, 2015). As one participant commented “We need to find mentors and learn who the gatekeepers are. I’ve learned that I need to be more proactive but at the same time, it’s not easy because everyone is so busy”: Another participant said If I need help, I know I need to ask the two female professors I work with. I know they will help me whereas others have made it clear they have no interest. I have stayed because of the support and advice they give me. Without them, I would’ve quit by now.

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A different participant commented that some institutions in the United States assign new female staff ELT mentors and this is an idea that she thinks would be widely received and very helpful: I know in some US institutions, new female employees are assigned a mentor who is outside of their department, who takes them under their wing and supports them and guides them. I think that kind of system here would be amazing.

With so few female academics in tenured positions, it is hard to find female ELT mentors who can help women navigate through the corridors of the ivory towers in ELT in Japan. All of the women who participated in this study commented on their interest in mentoring other English language teachers so there is a raised awareness on how female language educators can provide support to others.

The Struggle of Working Mothers Cultural norms dictate that women bear the brunt of the domestic duties and child rearing (Nemoto, 2016). This is not just limited to Japan, of course, but compared to most developed nations, the expectation for women to remain at home and be the primary caregiver is very strong. In academia, female reproductive years often coincide with high productivity years. The time for formation of research niches, networking, tenure track openings, and publishing is also the time women are socially expected to decide between a career, a family, or to try to juggle both. Expecting women and mothers are subjected to gender discrimination at all stages of employment: job prospects, retention, and promotion to positions of power and leadership (Nemoto, 2016; Sabat et al., 2016). Young academics are well aware that if they want to pursue a career in academia, they have no choice but to research while young (Kimoto, 2015) and while this is often not a problem for men, it certainly puts pressure on women. English language teaching at the university level is no different. Participants with children commented on the difficulties balancing work, life, and childcare. One mother, who is employed part-time, is not covered under Japanese maternity laws due to not being a fulltime employee: I returned to work six weeks after giving birth. I timed my pregnancy to coincide with the summer holidays so that I could have six weeks off because as a

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part-timer, I don’t get maternity leave. Institutions need to be more accommodating as I wasn’t given much support or help. Schools should provide a place to breastfeed, changing facilities for all staff, and showers. I know of women who have pumped in toilet facilities and closets as there is nothing for mothers set up.

Another participant who is a mother, upon discussing her children at a new job, was asked directly who was home looking after her children: “This is a question men rarely, if ever, are asked”. Another participant said that numerous times it was hinted that she was a “poor” mother because she was not at home with her children.

Toxic Work Environments Female English language educators have commented on the less than savoury discussions and atmospheres they have had to endure while working alongside with male co-workers (Harshbarger, 2012). Local chauvinism that serves in the interests of foreign men (Kobayashi, 2014) leads to a toxic atmosphere for all. Misogynistic dialogue and behaviour is well documented in Japanese ELT environments often at the hands of Western males (Appleby, 2013; Harshbarger, 2012; McCandie & Mulvey, 2018). Unwelcoming behaviour and open hostility towards Western women at the hands of Western male colleagues has previously been documented in the university ELT environment (Appleby, 2014; Nagatomo, 2015). Research participants made it clear that they have all worked in, or are working in, toxic environments with misogyny being a concern. The participants shared numerous stories of times they were made to feel uncomfortable at work due to discussions about sexual conquests, the ranking of female students in terms of looks and how good they might be in bed, jokes about domestic violence and feminists. Also, they felt uncomfortable with comments suggesting that certain women at their institution(s) were difficult to work with, often slandered with derogatory gendered language: I once worked at a college where the self-proclaimed head teacher would intimidate male teachers into following his lead. He bullied and harassed students and teachers. Male teachers would comment about female students in a sexual manner in the teacher’s room and make sexual comments toward female teachers. For about six months, one female teacher who hailed from Eastern Europe was followed around by two younger male teachers speaking

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in mock Russian accents. She asked me for help and when I reported it to admin, I was told by the head teacher I was rocking the boat.

One participant, a contract teacher, shared a story about how a white male tenured professor once stated, upon seeing a particular student, “I want to smack that student in the face because she always looks bitchy”. This echoes the remarks of more than one participant who have commented on white male tenured professors complaining about female students and co-workers with supposed “resting bitch face” and the need for female educators to “smile more often” and other comments based on the physical appearance of females. None of the women interviewed filed official complaints with their institutions regarding toxic environments. A few participants who did speak out, either by calling out their male co-workers personally or reporting issues to senior staff, claimed that they had been labelled difficult, were told they needed to learn to relax, or were simply brushed off. One participant was told it was not a “big deal” and to “get over it” when she discussed concerns with other teachers. Similarly, another part-time teacher participant commented on the fear of being called a whistle-blower: If I call out the toxic behaviour in the teacher’s room, the inappropriate jokes, the discussions about the female students, I’ll be seen as a whistle-blower. I don’t want to be known as the whistle-blower because it could affect my chances of getting classes.

Not only do female English language teachers endure toxic behaviour, but also the fear of losing work if they complain is very real even if they can play the native-speaker card: There is no support from full-time staff. They advise you over the phone rather than put anything in writing that can be traced back to them. Complaining about poor behaviour and toxic environments may affect my job status or the number of classes I teach the following year. There is no one you can trust and fear of losing employment governs everything.

This lack of faith in seeking support enables poor professional behaviour, lowers morale, increases stress (Kimoto, 2015), and leads to teachers who feel uncomfortable resigning and finding work elsewhere (Hicks, 2013). Teachers, regardless of gender, fear speaking out regarding toxic behaviour that surrounds them in their work environment.

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Physical Safety Four participants reported concerns over their safety, or the safety of students. Three participants had concerns over unwanted physical contact, one had concerns about a senior male staff member following her to her apartment, and another was worried a male co-worker might violently attack her: “He would sometimes vandalise my bicycle at my apartment and at school”. She later stated she quit because of the toxic environment, safety concerns, his threat to kill someone, and nothing being done. Another teacher confided that she had been sexually groped by her boss, a white native English speaking male, but did not report it because she felt the reporting system was “useless”. In later discussion, the participant expressed regret for not making a formal complaint due to hearing that this particular teacher has gone on to harass and assault other female teachers. He is currently on the tenure track at the same institutions where he was employed when he assaulted her. Unwanted hugs, shoulder massages, and hands being placed on the backs and arms of participants when male staff were trying to pass/get by female staff was mentioned as unwanted physical contact. One participant commented: Ya know, many of the men I work with think they can put their hands on me. They do the arm hold or the hand on my back thing to get by or move me out of their way. A few of them have hugged me after not seeing them over the holidays. I’ve never seen any of them touch male teachers the way they touch me. It’s uncomfortable but I don’t say anything about it because I’d probably be laughed at for complaining.

Not just female ELT educators are at risk. Participants also expressed concern over teacher/student and student/student interaction: Sex in the offices between male faculty and female students was such a huge and constant problem that the university initiated a rule requiring all windows on doors to be unobstructed. Not one of the men who were known to be serially sexually involved with students was ever fired.

Another participant wrote: I recall a male professor who took a group of students out and then focused on one female student. He asked her out and started calling her every day. The student felt pressured to go out with him but finally reported him. I don’t know what happened but he wasn’t fired.

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Participants also commented on harassing behaviour from students: One male student seemed to pick targets. He would sit very close to female students, use their things without asking, and clearly made them uncomfortable. I started assigning seats to students to keep him away from the female students. I reported him to the Department Head but they shrugged and said if he wasn’t touching them and the students weren’t complaining, nothing could be done. I was complaining but it wasn’t enough.

There is a sense of resentment, anger, and fear amongst participants. There is a serious issue with the underreporting of incidents and lack of awareness amongst universities’ administrations about just how problematic teacher safety is, let alone student safety. Even when reported, problematic students are not removed from courses, university personal rarely speak to students and staff about their behaviour, and female educators end up disappointed by the lack of support offered (Harshbarger, 2012). While much of the gender barriers and discrimination commented on earlier may not be out of maliciousness, unchecked male entitlement clearly leads to concerns over safety and toxic work environments for English language teachers, particularly those who are non-Japanese.

Harassment, Sexual Misconduct, and Reporting Systems Sexual harassment has a history of being openly tolerated in Japan (Nagatomo & Cook, 2019), and the world of ELT is no different. Many women, Japanese and non-Japanese, who participate in the work force are subjected to sexual harassment. When coupled with power harassment, which men are also regular victims of, the burden and expectation is that one suffers in silence as few step forward to file complaints (McCandie & Mulvey, 2018). Nearly all of the female educators who participated in this research openly stated they have no trust in the reporting system at their current institution(s). The majority stated they have never had faith in any of the institutions they have been employed at and many have no idea as to procedures let alone how to make a formal complaint. One participant wrote: “I’m on the harassment committee, but in my five years on the committee, we have never discussed policy or had a single claim of harassment of any kind brought forward through our committee”. When asked if she felt her institution would be supportive if she made a claim she answered:

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I don’t think it would be. In theory a student or faculty member being harassed goes to a member of the harassment committee who reports it to the committee and it’s dealt with there. But in practice this is not how it works. When a case arises, it does not go through the committee but instead is often dealt with quietly.

She later went on to write “Incidents were handled privately with teachers or administration. Students who were harassed were often unsatisfied with the outcomes”. Many of those who participated in this research believe that reporting cases of harassment would damage their career so rather than report, they suffer through it or find work elsewhere in hopes of a better environment. One participant suggested that if she officially filed a harassment report “no one would hire me” and she would be blacklisted from ELT work in her area. Many expressed concern over reporting and the impact it would have on their career: Harassment is a taboo subject here, restricted only to a conversation between victim and witnesses. If an open conversation does occur, a lot of excuses are made regarding why and what happened. You’ll be labelled as a trouble maker. The default is justification over justice.

According to SRT, social phenomena replicate themselves in that status quo is often left unexamined and unquestioned. In the case of ELT, this is seen with the male dominance and questionable behaviour in working environments often unchallenged. This results in women in ELT in higher education in Japan being unable to reach their full potential. In turn, this ensures that the cycle of male dominance continues unless more is done to examine how ELT could better ensure equity for all, regardless of their intersectionality. Study participants were all asked what they would do if they had the power to create safer and more equitable working environments. Below are their suggestions.

Suggestions to Dismantle Gender Barriers Institutions, regardless of level or sector, have a responsibility to ensure a safe working environment to all ELT staff and students. The participants put forth suggestions to create better working environments for everyone, regardless of gender. They are summarised as the following:

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1. Create more transparency with regard to the hiring and promotion of English language teachers. This transparency would provide clarity as to why people were hired and/or promoted, and increase motivation for further professional development regardless of whether they are Japanese or non-Japanese. 2. Upon hiring, newly hired ELT teachers could be partnered with a senior teacher who could act as a guide and ally. This would benefit all newly hired staff, regardless of gender. 3. If there is a high turnover rate of staff, regardless of gender, investigate the reasons staff are leaving. Low teacher moral, poor motivation, and toxic environments do not grow nor disappear overnight. If semi-secure staff are looking for jobs elsewhere, are openly discussing job hunting, and parttime staff are leaving, there are issues that need to be addressed. Ignoring them will only aggravate the issue. 4. Working mothers are most often the primary parent and are unable to put in the long hours that many working fathers and child-free educators are able to. Institutions could be more supportive by looking into solutions to lessening the working hours of other staff so that there is better work/life balance for all. 5. Invest in creating reporting systems that ELT educators and students understand and trust. Female English language educators and students need to have the option of reporting incidents to women. This would aid in creating safer work and study environments for all. 6. Rather than placing blame on women for not applying for position, investigate why women do not want to work at particular institutions.

Conclusion All educators, regardless of what they teach, where they teach, their race, gender, and background want to feel valued and respected. The female educators in the present study are no different. They want to feel safe in their working environment(s), feel they are important to the institution(s) they are employed at, and have their work and efforts valued. In this chapter Social Reproduction Theory with a feminist framework was employed to analyse data on work environments and gender issues and discrimination in the university work environments. I have explored the type of harassment female English language teachers deal with, their concerns for physical safety

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and how institutions are continuously letting affected people down, regardless of gender, due to socio-cultural acceptance of gender discrimination and the dysfunctional harassment reporting systems in place. Toxic work environments, lack of respect for co-workers, especially mothers, and women left with no choice but to resign are just a few of the effects of ignoring the concerns of female educators. The lack of transparency in hiring and promotion greatly affects women in their quest to achieving upward mobility. Utilising mentorship programmes would certainly go a long way in better supporting female academic. The lack of awareness regarding needs for women who are balancing careers and motherhood is holding women back. The system as it is caters to the needs of men and men only. I hope this chapter creates more awareness and dialogue about the challenges women face around the world and the need for more equitable and inclusive working conditions for all English language educators, as these issues are not just limited to Japan but exist everywhere.

Suggested Further Reading Houghton S., & Rivers, D. (2013). (Eds.). Native-speakerism in Japan: Intergroup dynamics in foreign language education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. This edited collection contains 18 reports of intersectional concerns relating to the ELT environment in Japan. Authors discuss the complex dynamics between those with power, those without, and how equity and inclusion need to be more supported in the education system here. Nagatomo, D. (2016). Identity, gender and teaching English in Japan. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. The first book of its kind, it has been a pivotal source for creating awareness, useful material, and offering comfort to many women who have wondered if they are alone in the trenches of the ivory towers. Wadden, P., & Hale, C. (Eds.). (2019). Teaching English at Japanese universities: A new handbook. London: Routledge. In this updated edition the authors condense a series of articles written by primary non-Japanese professors making their way through the Japanese academic system.

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Engagement Priorities • Women, more so mothers, are sometimes accused of wanting preferential treatment in academia. The current academic system was designed for men and by men (Bailyn, 2003). If men are publishing more and teaching less, this results in more promotions for men and men being at the top. The hiring and promotion system heavily favours research and publications while it often ignores teaching, teacher quality, and student support. How do you think institutions should handle the hiring and promotion system? What is it like in other ELT contexts worldwide? • If other institutions in the area have a better gender balance, the issue is not related to a lack of women educators available, it is more an issue with systematic problems and toxic work environments. What can institutions do to address the issue of gender disparity in job applications? • Toxic work environments affect everyone. How can educators and administrators better deal with environments that are causing great stress to those within? How can teachers protect themselves when they are employed in an institution that clearly has a less than supportive environment? • Intersectionality needs to be discussed. Women of colour and/or first language speakers of another language suffer more systematic discrimination and face more disadvantages regarding hiring. The same can be said for members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersexual, Queer and other communities (LGBTIQ+) community and single mothers. More needs to done on better supporting and improving conditions for those who are far more marginalised. How can institutions better address their support to these communities? What can speakers of English as a first language do to become better allies? What can ELT teachers do to prevent discrimination?

Appendix A Participants were asked to journal the following questions: 1. Please give a brief description of who you are, how long you’ve been working as a teacher, and your job status and your role as an educator at your institution. 2. Please explain why you have decided to participate in this study. 3. Please describe what your work environment is like.

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4. Is there anything you’d like to share with me about what it is like to work at your institution? 5. Do you feel supported by the institution administration for teaching concerns like problematic classes, concerns about the current curriculum and other related teaching duties? 6. Do you feel you would be supported by the institution if you were to experience harassing behaviour, or witnessed someone else being harassed? 7. Could you explain what you know about the policy and procedures of reporting harassing incidents at your place of work? 8. Have you ever witnessed anyone else being harassed? If yes, was the incident handled by the administration? If no, do you know what not? If yes, how was it handled? Were those involved satisfied with the outcome? Why or why not? 9. Have you personally felt harassed at your place of employment? If yes, was the incident handled by the administration? If no, do you know what not? If yes, how was it handled? Were you satisfied with the outcome? Why or why not? 10. Do you have any suggestions on how your institution could lessen or help prevent harassment from happening? 11. Do you have any suggestions on how your institution could improve on their policies and reporting procedures regarding harassing behaviour? 12. What do you think educational institutions can do to better support female employees who have been harassed at work? 13. Is there anything else you would like to discuss about your institutions environment, harassment guidelines, policies or reporting procedures?

References Appleby, R. (2013). Desire in translation: White masculinity and TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 47 (1), 122–147. Appleby, R. (2014). Men and masculinities in global English language teaching. Palgrave. Bailyn, L. (2003). Academic careers and gender equity: Lessons learned from MIT. Gender, Work, and Organization, 10 (2), 137–153. Bhattacharya, T. (Ed.). (2017). Social reproduction theory: Remapping class, recentering oppression. Pluto Press.

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Cummings, W. (2015). The invisible academy: A US perspective on the Japanese academic profession. In A. Arimoto, W. Cummings, F. Huang & J. Shin (Eds.), The changing academic profession in Japan (pp. 235–241). Springer. Currie-Robson, C. (2014, September 28). Eikaiwa, deal with sexual harassment of teachers, before it’s too late. The Japan Times. Available at: https://www.jap antimes.co.jp/community/2014/09/28/issues/eikaiwa-deal-sexual-harassment-tea chers-late/#.WiNKA4hpHIU. Harshbarger, B. (2012). A faulty ivory tower: Reflections on directing the ELP from 2006-2012. Language Research Bulletin, 27, 1–14. Hayes, B. E. (2013). Hiring criteria for Japanese university English-teaching faculty. In S. Houghton & D. Rivers (Eds.), Native-speakerism in Japan: Intergroup dynamics in foreign language education (pp. 132–146). Multilingual Matters. Hicks, S. (2013). On the (out) skirts of TESOL networks of homophily: Substantive citizenship in Japan. In S. Houghton & D. Rivers (Eds.), Native-speakerism in Japan: Intergroup dynamics in foreign language education (pp. 147–158). Multilingual Matters. Houghton, S., & Rivers, D. (Eds.). (2013). Native-speakerism in Japan: Intergroup dynamics in foreign language education. Multilingual Matters. Gerald, J. (2020). Worth the risk: Towards decentring whiteness in English language teaching. BC TEAL Journal, 5 (1), 44–54. Kimoto, N. (2015). In A. Arimoto, W. Cummings, F. Huang, & J. Shin (Eds.), The changing academic profession in Japan (pp. 89–102). Springer. Kobayashi, Y. (2014). Gender gap in the EFL classroom in East Asia. Applied Linguistics, 35 (2), 219–223. Lee, E., & Simon-Maeda, A. (2006). Racialized research identities in ESL/EFL research. TESOL Quarterly, 40 (3), 573–594. McCandie, T., & S. Mulvey. (2018). ELT and #metoo in Japan. The Journal and Proceedings of the Gender Awareness in Language Education (GALE) Special Interest Group of the Japan Association for Language Teachers, 10, 34–49. McCrostie, J. (2014, June 16). Harassers exploit Gaba’s ‘man-to-man’ lesson format. The Japan Times. Available at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/ 06/16/issues/harassers-exploit-gabas-man-man-lesson-format/. Nagatomo, D. (2016). Identity, gender and teaching English in Japan. Multilingual Matters. Nagatomo, D., & Cook, M. (2019). “He said, she said”: Female and male dynamics in Japanese universities. In P. Wadden & C. Hale (Eds.), Teaching English at Japanese universities: A new handbook (pp. 159–164). Routledge. Nagatomo, D. H. (2015). In the ivory tower and out of the loop: Racialized and gendered identities of university EFL teachers in Japan. In Y. Cheung, S. Said & K. Park (Eds.), Advances and current trends in language teacher identity research (pp. 102–115). Routledge. Nemoto, K. (2016). Too few women at the top: The persistence of inequality in Japan. Cornell University Press.

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Parziale, A. (2018). Gender inequality and discrimination. In R. Kolb (Ed.), Encyclopedia of business ethics and society (pp. 1552–1557). Sage. Prentis, N., & Mayne, R. (2014). Where are the women in ELT. International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. Available at: https://gender equalityelt.wordpress.com/where-are-the-women-in-elt-iatefl-talk/. Sabat, I. E., Lindsey, A., King, E., & Jones, K. (2016). Understanding and overcoming challenges faced by working mothers: A theoretical and empirical review. In C. Spitzmueller & R. Matthews (Eds.), Research perspectives on work and the transition to motherhood (pp. 9–31). Springer. The Fair List. (2013). Available at: http://thefairlist.org/. Whitsed, C., & Wright, P. (2011). Perspectives from within: Adjunct, foreign, English—Language teachers in the internationalization of Japanese universities. Journal of Research in International Education, 10 (1), 28–45. Whitsed, C., & Wright, P. (2016). A bricolage exploration in genkan space: Tengu and adjunct TEFL in the Japanese university context. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29 (4), 594–615.

Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom Paola Cossu, Gabriela Brun, and Darío Luis Banegas

Introduction The aim of this chapter is to describe a workshop offered to EFL teachers in southern Argentina in 2019. The workshop sought to support teachers in the inclusion of gender-related topics in the EFL lesson as required by Argentinian laws. Thus, the chapter seeks to illustrate how diversity in ELT can be promoted by empowering teachers to include gender issues in the EFL classroom. This chapter sits at the intersection of teacher continuing professional development (CPD) , comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), and content and language integrated learning (CLIL). For the purposes of our exploration, we conceptualise CPD as a necessary ongoing and career-long process of reflection and learning-oriented towards improvement, change, autonomy and empowerment. According to de Vries et al. (2013), CPD may involve, P. Cossu (B) ISFD 129, Junín, Argentina G. Brun ISFD 129, Junín, Argentina D. L. Banegas School of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_10

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and usually overlaps with, reflection on experiences, collaboration with colleagues, and updating knowledge and skills. CPD can take many forms: from self-initiated actions such as attending a workshop or conference to formal and top-down activities such as mandatory in-house courses (Cirocki & Farrell, 2019). In a reflective report on reflective practice and effective teacher development, Darling-Hammond et al. (2017) suggest that meaningful CPD activities reflect the following features: content-focused, active learning, supporting collaboration, use models of effective practice, coaching and expert support, feedback and reflection and sustainability. While what these features mean and imply may vary across contexts, we concur that CPD should be envisaged as a prism for local knowledge generation in a reflective and proactive environment. In the remainder of the chapter, we first conceptualise CSE and CLIL succinctly. We then describe the workshop and include some of the activities carried out. Last, implications for similar CPD initiatives are suggested.

CSE and CLIL CSE is a rights-based and gender-focused approach to sexuality education. It is curriculum-based education that aims to equip learners with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will enable them to develop a positive view of their sexuality, in the context of their emotional and social development (UNFPA, 2014). Following UNESCO (2018), more specifically, CSE is • scientifically accurate: it is based on facts and evidence related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH), sexuality and behaviours; • incremental: CSE is a continuing educational process in which new information builds upon previous learning; • age- and developmentally-appropriate: CSE content is responsive to the changing needs and capabilities of students as they grow; • based on gender equality: CSE contributes to gender equality by building awareness of the centrality and diversity of gender in people’s lives; • culturally relevant and context-appropriate: CSE fosters respect and responsibility within relationships, helping students to examine and challenge norms and behaviours socially and culturally constructed; • transformative: CSE contributes to the formation of a fair society by empowering people, promoting critical thinking and strengthening young people’s citizenship. It builds the skills and attitudes that enable students

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to treat others with respect and empathy, regardless of their race, social or economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics, and • able to develop life skills needed to support healthy choices: this includes the ability to reflect and make informed decisions, communicate and negotiate effectively and demonstrate assertiveness. In Argentina, the National Law Nº 26,150 or Comprehensive Sexuality Education Law was passed in 2006. The law establishes the right of all students to receive CSE in all educational institutions, both private and state-run. It observes that sexuality involves biological, psychological, social, affective and ethical aspects, that it cannot be understood without reference to gender, and that diversity is a fundamental characteristic of sexuality. In other words, sexuality goes beyond a biological standpoint and is seen as a complex social construct as well as a subjective experience. In 2008, the Federal Council of Education introduced the National Curricular Guidelines, which suggest CSE topics for different school subjects or areas and strategies for each educational level. Additionally, the CSE programme in Argentina features five intertwined axes (Marina et al. 2014) that ensure an integral approach to all human dimensions: • • • • •

acknowledge gender perspective; respect diversity; value affectivity; exercise our rights; and take care of the body.

As CSE was originally introduced as an educational programme in Argentina (Banegas et al., 2020), teachers may need a tangible and explicit pedagogical platform that allows them to put CSE and a gender perspective into action. In the case of teachers of English, CLIL may be considered a conducive framework to support EFL teachers given the centrality that curriculum integration plays. It may suffice to define CLIL as, in a broad sense, an educational or, in a narrow sense, a language teaching approach that originated in Europe but has now spread beyond European borders (e.g. Hemmi & Banegas, 2021). As an educational approach, CLIL means teaching a complete school subject, modules, or units of work through an L2, often English. This is the option usually implemented in the European Union, particularly with young learners (e.g. Gallardo del Puerto et al., 2020; Pladevall-Ballester, 2019) or in (private)

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bilingual schools in other settings (e.g. Garzón-Díaz, 2018). At the other end of the continuum, we find CLIL as an L2 teaching approach through which content or topics (e.g. geographical features, international historical events, or sexual education) from school subjects are used to contextualise and add meaning and relevance to language learning. When adopted, languagedriven CLIL is usually the norm in state schools and higher education in, for example, South America (e.g. De la Barra et al., 2018), and Argentina in particular (e.g. Cendoya & Di Bin, 2010). Whatever the CLIL model, research studies around the world (e.g., Doiz et al., 2014; Martínez-Agudo, 2019; Otwinowska & Fory´s, 2017) coincide in viewing CLIL as an opportunity to improve motivation, cognitive skills and L2 proficiency, particularly within the areas of academic language, and intercultural and global citizenship awareness (Porto, 2016, 2018). The underlying assumption is that such areas exhibit improvement due to the fact that CLIL pedagogies rely on curriculum integration, authenticity of topics, input and tasks, and therefore learners feel driven to learn content and language (Hemmi & Banegas, 2021) integration is a key element and therefore good CLIL practices should provide opportunities for language and content support simultaneously. On this aspect, Ball (2018) highlights that primacy should be assigned to tasks as it is the task that helps merge content, procedures, and texts. Considering the relevance that tasks have in CLIL, it is important that they are pedagogically sequenced. In other words, learners should be provided with logically sequenced and meaningful lessons. Put differently, it is the teacher’s role to invest quality time and professionalism in lesson planning. While the literature provides complementary frameworks and guidelines for CLIL lesson planning (e.g. Ball et al., 2015; Genesee & Hamayan, 2016), effective lesson plans need to feature: (1) coherence at the levels of aims, procedures, content, and assessment, (2) scaffolding and support through multimodal resources, (3) task sequence from less to more linguistically and cognitively demanding tasks, (4) links with learners’ prior knowledge, (5) collaborative learning, and (6) room for systematic language awareness together with the development of oral and written language skills. One framework usually used to strengthen CLIL implementation and CLIL lesson planning in particular is to adopt Coyle’s (2008) 4C’s model. This model suggests that four parameters, which are in synergy in practice, should be embedded in CLIL: content, communication. cognition, and culture. Content refers to the subject matter of the lesson (e.g. gender diversity). In CLIL, content is expected to derive from the school curriculum. Communication entails language learning. In CLIL lessons, learners should

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be provided with instances to develop the language of learning (key concepts and terms), the language for learning (language needed to solve a task, for example, comparative adjectives to compare and contrast two figures), and the language through learning (spontaneous learners’ language needs). In turn, cognition represents the cognitive processes and procedures involved in learning content and language in tandem. In CLIL, cognition is related to ensuring that activities are sequenced from lower-order (e.g., remembering a term) to higher-order thinking (e.g., evaluating) skills. Last, culture refers to developing learners’ awareness of self and others in context. For example, a CLIL lesson on gender diversity may encourage learners to reflect on how they or others use language to label other people according to binary gender roles and how we can all develop inclusive language practices. In our view, teachers navigating the interconnections between CLIL and CSE could be supported by providing CPD opportunities in which lesson planning takes centre stage so that theoretical underpinnings about CLIL and CSE could be practically explored through explicit lesson planning with a specific target group in mind.

Context In 2019, Instituto Superior de Formación Docente N° 809, a state teacher education institution in Esquel, southern Argentina, held a regional conference for teachers and student-teachers of English. The main theme was inclusion and diversity and the main aim was to raise awareness of diversity in English language teaching with a focus on special education needs and comprehensive sexuality education. The event was attended by around 150 teachers and student-teachers who worked in primary, secondary and higher education. However, most of the teachers worked in secondary and primary education. Darío Banegas, co-author of this chapter, was in charge of coordinating the event and invited Gabriela Brun and Paola Cossu, co-authors of this chapter as well, to deliver a workshop on CSE given their interest and experience in the province of Buenos Aires and their involvement in CPD courses.

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The Workshop The workshop was called CSE in the English Classroom: constructing and reconstructing knowledge through engaging and empowering tasks. It aimed at raising awareness about teaching CSE content and revising the participants’ practices. The workshop consisted of three parts: (1) a theoretical framework, (2) examples of tasks that integrate CSE topics, namely gender and diversity, with language skills, and (3) a hands-on section in which the attendees drafted CSE-CLIL lesson plans.

Theoretical Framework Brun and Cossu began by situating the workshop within a conceptual framework which included two views on teacher identity and a view on education to support the inclusion of CSE in ELT. One such teacher identity is that of the teacher as a reflective practitioner, who is capable of “permanently re-examining the social fabric and social assumptions about the purposes of schooling within which he or she must daily practise” (Cowen, 1995, p. 21), including personal knowledge and deep-seated assumptions and biases. Teaching CSE calls for thoughtful teachers who continually think about their teaching so that it is meaningful to students’ interests and needs. This is tightly linked with the second identity discussed in the workshop, which is that of the teacher as a sociocultural mediator. As Nieto (2017) claims, teachers become sociocultural mediators by learning about students’ cultural, religious, family, intellectual and personal resources for use in pedagogy and instruction. As teachers co-construct teaching and learning experiences with their students, they need to be aware of what matters behind the subject they teach and what students need to know to make informed decisions and become social agents. Thus, teaching is best seen as the practice of freedom which, as hooks (1994) points out, is carried out with the aim of allowing students to live fully in the world. In this respect, teaching cannot be understood without critical pedagogy. Drawing on Freire’s (1973) ideas, critical pedagogy views education as an inherently political and power-related act and addresses issues of social justice and social change through education, including language teaching (Akbari, 2008). Therefore, critical pedagogy relates the school context to the wider social context in which it is embedded. It primarily aims at empowering students to think and act critically with the ultimate purpose of social change. As mentioned before, this is precisely what CSE seeks: social transformation through education.

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Tasks In the second part of the workshop, Brun and Cossu discussed and shared lesson plans with activities that integrate CSE content with language skills. The lesson plans respected Coyle’s 4C’s model: content, cognition, culture and communication and had a unifying thread, which was visibility and representation in terms of gender and diverse family configurations. These topics are of particular relevance because they tend to be regarded as sensitive and are thus generally left out both in mainstream ELT material and in teacher-produced material. Given the fact that CSE ultimately aims at equipping learners with the skills they need to become respectful citizens of the world, the treatment of such topics fosters the development of critical thinking, which is one of these skills. The first CSE topic introduced in the workshop was diverse family configurations. In our experience, we have met many teachers who regard this topic as controversial, which results in them avoiding the topic altogether or teaching the most visible or representative family members, excluding, for example, families with same-gender parents, childless families, one-parent families, among others. Many teachers in the audience shared this view and agreed that instances of CPD such as this workshop are necessary to reflect upon their practices and preconceptions and thus acquire tools to provide significant, challenging and relevant learning experiences for all students. It was agreed that the topic of family provides a natural context for introducing diversity. Welcoming diverse families means that children can see their world reflected in their school, while also learning about the diversity of the community around them. In the lesson plan that Brun and Cossu presented, which were targeted at children with a pre A1/A1 level, students learn about the different family configurations that exist, such as LGBTQ+ led families, single-parent families, grandparent-families, migrant families, among others. In terms of culture, the introduction of the topic of diverse families may encourage learners to reflect upon and respect multiple family structures in their community and expand their understanding of family diversity in the world. The lesson plan starts with the teacher sharing pictures of their family and introducing it to students, taking the opportunity to use meaningful language such as “there are (4) of us”, “we like to (play together)”, “this is my (daughter)”. The visual material presented to students should include as much diversity as possible, for example, students can be shown a poster portraying various types of families made up of people of different shapes and sizes. This diversity can be further explored in other tasks such as reading

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texts on diverse types of families and matching them to different images. The texts can easily be turned into an audio or video, or can be read aloud to foster listening skills development. In the workshop, we discussed the need to adapt the activities to make them context-sensitive not only in terms of the skills practised but also the topics presented. Literature is an ideal vehicle for the inclusion of CSE content in a contextualised and motivating way. In this case, Brun and Cossu used a picture book, The Family Book (Parr, 2010), which illustrates families that take many shapes and sizes, including LGBTQ+ led families. Although the book is not created for EFL instruction, it is particularly useful because it contains very simple language and the illustrations help get the message across. After showing some pages from the book, participants were asked to think of the meaningful and relevant language which can be taught with this resource. Some of the items mentioned were colours, numbers and animals, among others. There was a lively discussion about the power of literature to promote critical awareness and to integrate language and CSE content meaningfully. In terms of cognition, students may not only compare and contrast the different families presented in the book, but also these with their own. This is a favourable opportunity for teachers to culturally and socially mediate the text, inviting students to reflect upon the diversity represented in the book as well as that in their homes and community. As a final outcome for the lesson plan, Cossu and Brun suggested thinking of an activity that would be a true instance of the diversity present in the classroom. For example, students may make a detailed drawing and description of their families. It should be their choice who to include as this would be reinforcing the idea that love makes a family. They should be encouraged to add details that are special to their particular family, which is an opportunity for them to actually see the diversity in their local context. Figure 1 is a sample produced by a 9-year-old from Junín (Argentina) and presented in the workshop. The text written by the student reads: My family is small. My family members are my mum, baby, my brother and my dads. For reasons of space and scope, we will not analyse the teacher’s feedback. The second series of tasks, whose central topic was women’s visibility in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and the world of work, was targeted at teenage students. The main aim was to show the audience how to incorporate a gender perspective into any lesson, in this case, dealing with science and subject-specific vocabulary. This part of the workshop was introduced through a thought-provoking clip (Elle UK, 2015) which shows women being underrepresented in areas such as the arts, the media, politics, and business.

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Fig. 1 My family is small

A discussion followed about the extent to which ELT materials actually reflect the reality of our students and what teachers can do as intercultural mediators. As an example, attendees were shown a page from New English File Pre-intermediate (Oxeden et al., 2005) and were asked to critically observe the title and images presented. Section D of this unit presents passive voice and is entitled Mothers of invention. The images included show different inventions and two people: a man in a laboratory checking a pair of nylon stockings, and a woman in a kitchen using a dishwasher. In the workshop, the participants exchanged views on the messages behind the images: the title links women with motherhood and the images perpetuate socially constructed gender roles in which women are confined to the kitchen and household chores. This same discussion can be held in the classroom as a way of questioning sexism in coursebooks and developing critical thinking skills. It was also suggested that, besides working with the language in the unit, students may also engage in other tasks such as finding out about the life of Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, thus visibilising women in a traditionally male-dominated realm. The audience was constantly reminded of the importance of helping students reflect upon these issues when the opportunity arises. Next, attendees were asked to draw a scientist and give them a name and later on describe their drawings to the audience. This activity had two purposes: to explore the teachers’ representations of scientists and see whether there was gender bias, and to share a simple activity to use in the classroom

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for students to examine their preconceptions in this respect. The majority of attendees drew the stereotypical white male scientist wearing a lab coat, glasses and working in a chemistry lab. Sharing their descriptions gave the participants the opportunity to see clear examples of gender bias in their own drawings and realise the importance of both becoming aware of these existing stereotypes and helping students critically reflect upon their own. We all agreed that representation matters and, in this case, girls need to see images of a wide range of professions so that they can see their future selves reflected. Moving from women in STEM to the world of work, Cossu and Brun suggested some tasks that can be easily added to any project or coursebook unit on jobs and professions in order to devote some attention to the issue of women’s underrepresentation. One such task is to provide students with a list of jobs/professions and ask them to associate these with a gender. Certain professions tend to be thought of as being typical of women or men, such as kindergarten teachers being women and mechanics being men. The purpose is to have students engage in higher-order thinking skills by debating and supporting their arguments. Another task mentioned was asking students to search for the word footballer or baby-sitter on Google images and count how many women are portrayed as footballers and how many men are shown as baby-sitters. This activity was carried out in the workshop, followed by a discussion about stereotypes, the way language shapes our view of the world and the importance of having students critically evaluate the influence of the media. As a final task, students may be asked to imagine they are graphic designers who will create posters advertising courses that challenge assumptions on gender expectations and jobs. A poster produced by a 14-year-old student from a secondary school in Junín, Argentina was shown as an example (Fig. 2). This second series of tasks showed that teachers can easily adapt their lesson plans so that they include CSE content, bearing in mind that the development of critical thinking skills is fundamental. Delivery of effective CSE requires knowledgeable and motivated teachers who can examine their own attitudes and gain confidence to discuss sensitive and controversial topics in a non-judgmental and rights-based manner. Taking this into consideration, the last series of tasks Cossu and Brun shared in the workshop was thought to be carried out in the context of English teacher education. Also framed within CLIL, it aimed at critically analysing stories for children in terms of gender stereotypes and reflecting upon how these can affect the way we think and view the world. The suggested language

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for this lesson plan was adjectives for description, time expressions and narrative tenses. After brainstorming typical stories for children such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel among others, the participants discussed ways in which most female and male characters are depicted, and word clouds with adjectives that describe them were created (Fig. 3). Teachers may want to focus on one story and have students read it to identify the language features mentioned above and highlight examples of gender stereotypes or sexist incidents. The presenters showed the video How it should have ended: Little Red Riding Hood (HISHEkids, 2015), which shows an empowered little girl who cleverly deceives the wolf. The audience compared and contrasted how the

Fig. 2 Poster of a female mechanic

Fig. 3 Word cloud

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main characters are portrayed in each case, an activity which may also be done by using, for example, a Venn diagram or a similar graphic organiser. They came to the conclusion that these traditional tales usually have the same plot, where beautiful and dutiful princesses are rescued by handsome and vigorous princes. Next, some memes were shown, which were made by students at a teacher training college, in order to show participants how students can be encouraged to think outside the box, challenging the stereotypes in the stories. To round off this last series of tasks, the participants were presented with one possible final outcome: students are asked to write their own fractured version of a typical tale for children, which requires them to use the language, apply the content and practise the skills dealt with in the teaching sequence.

Lesson Planning In the third part of the workshop, the teachers were required to draft lesson plans integrating CSE content with language, framed within CLIL. They were given four CSE topics and resources to select from (Table 1). The teachers chose the target group and stated the aims of the plans. They worked in small groups and created a poster to share their proposals. Teachers grouped themselves and selected the topic for their lesson plans. They were allotted 60 minutes to discuss and write their proposals. Brun and Cossu monitored the groups providing guidance and clarifying doubts. There was fruitful discussion among participants on the selection of topics and the possible tasks. The majority chose the topics toys and gender and consent. Table 1 Topics and resources Level

CSE topic

Resource

Primary

Toys and gender

Primary

Diversity

Secondary

Consent

Secondary

Gender stereotypes

Supermarket brochures and posters. http://bit.ly/2H6Wv6Z http://bit.ly/2OzFWo8 Todd Parr’s book “It’s ok to be different” (2009) Video Ask. Listen. Respect: a video about consent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6X5I7 xoxEY Video Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on storytelling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfzgtOuAco&t=835s (minute 10–11)

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The reasons given were that toys are a prescribed topic in the curriculum and common in most course books. Albeit challenging, consent is an issue that needs to be addressed. A few participants opted for the topic of diversity, claiming they felt comfortable with the resource provided. Even though none of the groups worked with the topic of gender stereotypes, one of them did address the issue in the development of their lesson plan on the topic of toys. Thirteen posters were produced which were later socialised. Table 2 shows participants’ choices in terms of language and main tasks for each CSE topic. In general, the participants could integrate language and content easily. For example, in one of the posters, the participants decided to teach past simple, comparative and superlative adjectives and vocabulary related to social networks while addressing the topic of “consent”. In terms of cognition, the activities proposed involved reading and completing texts, comparing and contrasting, and writing a different version of the story shown in the video provided as a resource for the lesson plan. There were also some instances of reflection seen in activities such as discussing the pros and cons of social media, though there was no instance of critical discussion of the CSE topic chosen. However, during the presentation of their proposal, the teachers clarified that there would be a space for students to discuss the topic of “consent”. For example, they may propose ways to set clear boundaries and reflect upon why these are so important in healthy relationships. The final outcome of Table 2 Summary of lesson plans CSE topics

Language items chosen

Main tasks

Toys and gender

Toys, games, colours, parts of the body, adjectives, prepositions, have got, there is/are, likes and dislikes, singular and plural nouns Feelings, emotions, adjectives, verb to be, have got, parts of the body

Brainstorming, analysing images, listing, classifying, inventing, and describing toys, creating a playground, designing a leaflet Brainstorming, analysing pictures from the book, discussing content of the book, reading, writing and drawing, adding pages to the book Discussing the influence of social media, writing a different version of the video, discussing the content of the video, explaining consent through a metaphor

Diversity

Consent

Vocabulary related to social media, past simple, comparative and superlative adjectives, likes and dislikes, I want/I don’t want

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this lesson aimed at practising some higher-order thinking skills as students would be working collaboratively to author a different script for the video. Another proposal that showed a close integration of CSE content and language is shown in Fig. 4. In this case, the topic chosen was “gender stereotypes and toys” and the activities proposed involve both lower-order as well as higher-order thinking skills (LOTs and HOTs, respectively) such as identifying stereotypes, explaining, agreeing and disagreeing and designing a gender-neutral leaflet. The different tasks promoted instances of discussion and reflection, especially in the final outcome, which required students to work collaboratively to create a product which, as the participants claimed, reflects the need for children to see toys advertised in stereotype-free leaflets.

Fig. 4 Poster presented by a group of participants in the workshop

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Even though some lesson plans focused mainly on language, there was a deliberate attempt at including the 4 Cs. In those lesson plans that did not go beyond tasks that aimed at lower-order thinking skills, teachers noticed the need to add activities that would both aim at HOTs and be true instances of reflection. For some teachers, it was the first time they were required to plan a lesson including CSE topics and in this sense, the workshop opened a window into CSE and gave the participants the opportunity to think of proposals that could be considered the first steps towards transformative teaching practices.

Conclusions and Implications Even though this workshop was limited in terms of its time frame, it was a welcome initiative for teachers and teachers-to-be to reflect on their own teaching and acquire useful tools for the effective implementation of lesson plans that respectfully address CSE content and teach the language in tandem. In other words, this instance of CPD was beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly, this experience enabled participants and presenters to analyse how gender issues are dealt with in the materials they choose or are required to use. Secondly, we engaged in discussion about possible ways of adapting this material so as to better reflect reality in our classrooms and help students become critically aware of instilled assumptions about gender in our everyday lives. Finally, this workshop was fertile ground for reflection upon the need to go beyond the obligation imposed by the law and understand that, as educators, the inclusion of CSE concerns us all. CSE contributes to raising awareness of gender diversity and diversity in different aspects of human life. We are aware that in other contexts CSE has a different approach. In some other settings, some of the issues discussed in CSE and this workshop may be taboo or even illegal (e.g., homosexuality). However, CPD workshops on gender may be built around topics that reduce confrontation or antagonism. For example, in this workshop we did not touch on sensitive topics such as abortion, we concentrated on describing families and discussing the role of women in society and how they are represented. More instances of CPD like the one described in this chapter are needed if teachers are to become more familiar with diversity in ELT, and with CSE content in particular. Teaching from a gender perspective is not only an invaluable experience for students and teachers alike but it is also our responsibility as educators if we adhere to the two views on teacher identity

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presented in the first part of the workshop, namely the teacher as a reflective practitioner and as a sociocultural mediator. These CPD instances might include not only opportunities for reflection but also hands-on experience to equip educators with the knowledge and strategies they need to address all gender diversity in ELT.

Suggested Further Reading Dellenty, S. (2019). Celebrating difference: A whole-school approach to LGBT + inclusion. London: Bloomsbury. Although it does not concentrate on ELT, this volume examines the roots of prejudice in primary and secondary schools and it includes strategies to eradicate bullying and celebrate diversity instead. The book should be approached as a programme that cuts across all areas of educational institutions. Paiz, J. (2020). Queering the English language classroom: A practical guide for teachers. London: Equinox. This book succeeds in providing teachers of English with researchinformed practical suggestions to make their situated practices inclusive and diverse in relation to identities and values. Shane, K. (2020). The educator’s guide to LGBT + inclusion: A practical resource for K -12 teachers, administrators, and school support staff . London: Jessica Kingsley. Set in the context of US schools, the author tackles the issue of bullying and subsequent consequences such as truancy or suicidality for LGBT+ students. Drawing on good practices and latest research, the volume includes guides to create a safer environment and update school policies.

Engagement Priorities • The experience described in this chapter is in response to a national law. Would you engage in a similar initiative if CSE were not mandatory across the curriculum? • Some institutions, parents, and teachers may disapprove of merging CSE, diversity and CLIL as it may go against their principles. How could we ensure that diversity is approached with care and respect of personal beliefs? • Do you think that publishers will eventually include diverse families in their coursebooks as discussed in the workshop?

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References Akbari, R. (2008). Transforming lives: Introducing critical pedagogy into ELT classrooms. ELT Journal, 62(3), 276–283. Ball, P. (2018). Innovations and challenges in CLIL materials design. Theory into Practice, 57 (3), 222–231. Ball, P., Kelly, K., & Clegg, J. (2015). Putting CLIL into practice. Oxford University Press. Banegas, D. L., Jacovkis, L., & Romiti, A. (2020). A gender perspective in initial English language teacher education: An Argentinian experience. Sexuality and Culture, 24 (1), 1–22. Cendoya, A. M., & Di Bin, V. (2010). A CLIL experience based on the use of tasks and different genre types. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 3(1), 11–17. Cirocki, A., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2019). Professional development of secondary school EFL teachers: Voices from Indonesia. System, 85 (1), 102–111. Cowen, B. (1995). The state and control of teacher education: The knowledge fit for teachers. In R. Gardner (Ed.), Contemporary crises in teacher education (pp. 18– 34). BATROE. Coyle, D. (2008). CLIL—A pedagogical approach. In N. Van Deusen-Scholl & N. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (2nd ed., pp. 97–111). Springer. Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute. De la Barra, E., Veloso, S., & Maluenda, L. (2018). Integrating assessment in a CLIL-based approach for second-year university students. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 20 (2), 111–126. de Vries, S., Jansen, E. P., Wim, W. A., & van de Grift, J. C. M. (2013). Profiling teachers’ continuing professional development and the relation with their beliefs about learning and teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 33(1), 78–89. Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. M. (2014). CLIL and motivation: The effect of individual and contextual variables. Language Learning Journal, 42(2), 209– 224. Elle UK. (2015, October 7). More women #ELLEFeminism [video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEKo22ryWxM. Freire, P. (1973). Education: The practice of freedom. Writers and Readers. Gallardo del Puerto, F., Basterrechea, M., & Martínez-Adrián, M. (2020). Target language proficiency and reported use of compensatory strategies by young CLIL learners. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 30 (1), 3–18. Garzón-Díaz, E. (2018). From cultural awareness to scientific citizenship: Implementing content and language integrated learning projects to connect environmental science and English in a state school in Colombia. International Journal of

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Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24 (2), 242–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 13670050.2018.1456512. Genesee, F., & Hamayan, E. (2016). CLIL in context: Practical guidance for educators. Cambridge University Press. Hemmi, C., & Banegas, D. L. (Eds.). (2021). International perspectives on CLIL. Palgrave. HISHEkids. (2015, February 10). Little Red Riding Hood—Fixed Fairy Tales [video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG3_gnKSDh4. hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge. Marina, M., et al. (2014). Clase 2: “Los ejes de la ESI”, Educación Sexual Integral, Especialización docente de nivel superior en educación y TIC, Buenos Aires, Ministerio de Educación de la Nación. Martínez-Agudo, J. (2019). Which instructional programme (EFL or CLIL) results in better oral communicative competence? Updated empirical evidence from a monolingual context. Linguistics and Education, 51(1), 69–78. Nieto, S. (2017). On becoming socio-cultural mediators. University of Michigan. Otwinowska, A., & Fory´s, M. (2017). They learn the CLIL way, but do they like it? Affectivity and cognition in upper-primary CLIL classes. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 20 (5), 457–480. Oxeden, C., Latham-Koenig, C., & Seligson, P. (2005). New English file. Macmillan. Parr, T. (2010). The family book. New York, N.Y: Little, Brown. Pladevall-Ballester, E. (2019). A longitudinal study of primary school EFL learning motivation in CLIL and non-CLIL settings. Language Teaching Research, 23(6), 765–786. Porto, M. (2016). Ecological and intercultural citizenship in the primary English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom: An online project in Argentina. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46 (4), 395–415. Porto, M. (2018). Intercultural citizenship in foreign language education: An opportunity to broaden CLIL’s theoretical outlook and pedagogy. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/136 70050.2018.1526886. UNESCO. (2018). International technical guidance on sexuality education: An evidence-informed approach. Revised edition. UNFPA. (2014). Operational Guidance for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: A Focus on Human Rights and Gender.

Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education Carolyn Blume

Introduction The aim of this chapter is to describe a novel conceptual and practical approach to preparing future English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers for gender-sensitive instruction by locating a blended-learning unit on the topic within a module on inclusive language education in an English language teacher education programme. This chapter will first summarise the unit’s theoretical underpinnings in light of discourses on gender normativity in EFL and locate this teaching unit in the current context of German EFL teacher education. Subsequently, the implementation of the unit in a blended-learning format will be described. While the learning opportunity described herein is situated within a unique context, this examination of digitally mediated reflective teacher education pertaining to one particular inclusive discourse has implications for other settings, in terms of both the opportunities it provides for comparative analysis and its potential for transfer. While discourses about diversity in EFL instruction in German schools date back to the 1970s, these have traditionally focused on differences in learners’ English language abilities, and how teachers can best be prepared C. Blume (B) Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_11

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to address these disparities (Trautmann, 2010). It is only since the German ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in 2009 that EFL teacher preparation has begun to address additional forms of diversity, with the primary focus on students with special educational needs and a secondary focus on learners whose first language is not German. This more expansive consideration of diversity has in turn created an opening with which other forms of diversity, including issues of gender, are more likely to be thematised (König et al., 2015). Relevant initiatives to accompany these discourses are just beginning to gain traction in German universities and professional colleges where initial teacher education takes place. These initiatives are sometimes hampered by a variety of structural and cultural barriers relating to discourses of diversity more broadly (Trautmann, 2010). At the same time, the German Ministry of Education and Research has funded myriad initiatives to strengthen teacher education in, among other areas, inclusive teaching practices for diverse educational settings (BMBF, 2019). Given the status of English as a core subject in German schools, and the relevance of English language skills for political, economic, social, cultural and civic participation, the ability of future language teachers to address the academic and affective needs of all learners in the English classroom is of paramount importance. Moreover, the multi-faceted role of EFL in constructing identities via classroom discourses and language acts (Nelson, 2009) underscores the need for teaching practices that foster inclusive identity construction and enable learners to participate in these discourses. Thus, preparing future teachers of English to address these needs requires preparation that provides them with the ability, at a minimum, to identify and consider the implications of gender-related issues in the EFL classroom. This in turn presupposes that these pre-service teachers (PSTs) can cultivate the reflective skills that will enable them to skilfully relate theoretical knowledge to practical approaches as they pertain to, among other things, issues of gender. Embedded within a broader framework of learner diversity, a module was developed at the Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany, to provide initial EFL teacher education on inclusive foreign language teaching and learning. While diversity in this sense emphasises the various ways in which individual learners differ from one another, the notion of inclusion, as it is used here, focuses on the teaching of these individual learners in a common setting. Thus, the focus is on meeting the needs of a diverse group of learners coming together in an inclusive EFL class.

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This unit, within the module on inclusion in ELT, is conceived for PSTs in an early stage of their university studies. It is designed to sensitise these students to issues of gender as one aspect of diversity, highlighting the ways in which these issues are mediated in the language learning classroom. Intertwining theoretical and practical elements, the module focuses on issues of linguistic inclusion and exclusion, presentations of gender normativity and assumptions about gender-related language learning differences. It does this by utilising a blended-learning format, which fosters students’ agency by enabling differentiation based on personal interest, language facility and prior knowledge. While the difficulty in modifying PSTs’ deeply-held beliefs is well documented, developing empathy, building epistemic and practical knowledge, and enabling reflection is a promising approach to addressing the gap between students’ theoretical knowledge and their ultimate instructional practice (Richardson, 2003; Scorgie, 2010).

Gender Contextualised in an Inclusive Curriculum The module within which this unit is located explores various aspects of learner diversity for future EFL teachers. Gender issues thus become situated in an inclusive educational framework that more globally seeks to dismantle barriers erected by socially constructed and verbalised norms (Trautmann, 2010). In light of the centrality of language in shaping identity, and its role in constructing and propagating specific ‘social ideologies’ (Sauntson, 2017, p. 148), an examination of such integral aspects of identity within the language learning setting is unavoidable. Especially in schools, which both socialise and educate (Merse, 2017), identity, social norms and language cannot be disentangled. This is apparent in the most prosaic of activities, as early-stage learners acquire the language with which to describe themselves, their family, hobbies, and likes and dislikes. In later sequences, learners discuss what they did in the recent past, and with whom. It is only within a language learning setting cognisant of diverse identities, and how language itself codifies these identities, that these issues can be addressed in ways that are inclusive. This dovetails with premises of effective teacher education, which itself necessitates substantial reflection regarding one’s own personal and professional identity (Korthagen, 2004).

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Gender in German EFL Teacher Education Although some gender-related issues are increasingly incorporated into German EFL materials for classroom use, there continues to be a dearth of resources addressing the professionalisation needs of (pre-service) teachers. This is especially true as it relates to themes surrounding nonheteronormativity, i.e. the rejection of heterosexuality as the sole norm for gender and sexual identity (Motschenbacher & Stegu, 2013). As Banegas et al. (2020) point out, a body of literature addressing issues of gender study in the foreign language classroom exists, but there is generally scant information regarding foreign language teacher preparation on these topics. Overall, it appears that incorporating issues of gender remains a novelty in German teacher education, with an even greater paucity of empirical studies regarding the impact at either the teacher preparation or classroom level. Some research has been carried out to examine gender sensitivity in existing EFL materials in Germany, for example, with the focus on gender roles in textbooks (Benitt & Kurtz, 2016), and with sobering implications for PSTs needing guidance. A few secondary level textbooks (ages 11 through 18) address gender-related themes, by, for example, portraying or discussing homosexual relationships, but the ancillary teacher materials provide no thematic support (Claussen et al., 2017; Edelhoff & Schmidt, 2013). As Mittag (2015) points out, some of the relatively ambitious themes and content presuppose a teacher’s ability to work with the materials critically and reflectively. However, materials and professional opportunities to develop these competencies are largely absent. The unit described in the following sections highlights elements of an initiative that attempts to generate this competence, by providing PSTs with opportunities to reflect on the meaning of gender-inclusive EFL, and by offering illustrations of gender-inclusive EFL teaching. Merse (2015) identifies several critical ways in which EFL teachers can contribute to decentralising heteronormativity in the EFL classroom. The most important aspect, he argues, is that a true ‘pedagogy of inclusion needs to be complemented with a pedagogy of inquiry’ (p. 15), referring in this latter case to constructivist approaches. This recommendation aligns with principles of teacher education in general, and reflective EFL teacher education in particular (Gerlach, 2018), and informs, in addition to the content of the unit described below, the pedagogical approach that is used.

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A Blended-Learning Approach to Gender-Sensitive EFL Teacher Preparation Conceptualised as one unit of a semester-long module on preparing PSTs for inclusive EFL teaching, the unit on gender inclusivity described below was designed for early-stage (third semester) university students in an Englishmedium programme of study culminating in a bachelor’s degree in teaching EFL at either the elementary or early secondary levels, or at vocational schools. Designed with a learning management system (LMS) that includes both online and on-site phases, the unit includes obligatory and facultative elements in order to take into account the participants’ prior knowledge, areas of special interest and language skills. In light of time constraints, an emphasis is placed on raising students’ awareness and examining potential areas of inclusive teaching practice within an inquiry-based structure, with limited reference to theoretical knowledge development. The team of primary and secondary English teachers, special educators, university professors, students and subject specialists at state institutions who developed module (Straub et al., 2019) chose to focus on experiential activities that facilitate reflection and input that summarises key conceptual understandings. Thus, while the ways in which gender roles are discursively constructed is critical to understanding inclusive language teaching, readings on this topic are not included. Instead, students engage with digitally mediated tasks in a preparatory phase online, as summarised in the overview in Table 1 and described in detail below, before participating in two interactive lectures that briefly convey key conceptual understandings about gender diversity and gender-inclusive EFL teaching. Subsequently, participants critically evaluate various educational materials in light of their gender inclusivity, consider how language usage constructs inclusion or exclusion, and analyse research findings regarding gender differences in language learning. The compulsory module, which was awarded the university’s prize for excellence in teaching in 2019,1 has since been offered three times, reaching a total of approximately 135 PSTs. In the following sections, selected activities designed to sensitise students to gender-related issues, inform them and encourage reflective practitioner attitudes and skills through cognitive and affective activities are described in more detail (Scorgie, 2010).

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Table 1 Gender-sensitive EFL teacher preparation unit overview Stage

Objectives

Activities

Online 1.1

• To raise awareness of the problematic nature of heteronormativity in a typical German EFL classroom • To generate alternative responses to heteronormativity • To acquire theoretical knowledge on issues of heteronormativity in EFL/ESL • To improve listening comprehension • To examine gendered language in the context of EFL teaching and learning • To identify opportunities for gender sensitivity • To examine the political, social and cultural implications of using gendered language in the context of EFL teaching and learning • To identify ways to incorporate nongendered language in language and teaching practice

PSTs read an excerpt from an anonymised online forum and answer questions designed to scaffold their comprehension and reflection

Online 1.2

In-person 1.1

In-person 1.2

Online 2.1

Online 2.2

In-person 2.1

• To generate an awareness of the range of gender and sexual diversity in the general population • To mediate between German language resources and English usage • To critically evaluate the heteronormativity of existing EFL materials • To reflect on the implications of the materials review

PSTs view a video with interactive elements and respond to closed-format questions In a plenary, PSTs debrief the initial online activity PSTs then work in small groups to analyse learner products In a brief expert talk, PSTs are introduced to concepts of gatekeeping and performativity before evaluating style guides’ recommendations regarding nongendered language usage. Finally, PSTs compare the language used by L1 and L2 English speakers PSTs use given links, and research on their own, to develop a Wiki that defines terms pertaining to gender and sexual identity and diversity PSTs evaluate images from selected EFL resources in terms of their representation of diversity PSTs engage in a discussion regarding their evaluation of the EFL resources (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Stage

Objectives

Activities

In-person 2.2

• To critically assess the appropriateness of gender-inclusive educational materials for specific EFL settings • To understand and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of various conceptual approaches towards gender-inclusive EFL instruction • To improve listening comprehension • To critically examine empirical research regarding gender-based learner differences in EFL • To improve reading comprehension • To align illustrative materials and tasks with the different approaches towards gender-inclusive EFL instruction

PSTs work in small groups to evaluate additional EFL materials

Online 3.1

Online 3.2

In-person 3.1

In-person 3.2

• To critically evaluate existing research regarding gender differences in language learning

PSTs view a pre-recorded lecture and respond to comprehension questions, using the answers provided to check their understanding

PSTs read one section of Schmenk’s (2009) analysis of studies on gender-based learner differences in EFL

PSTs work in groups to examine illustrative materials and tasks, and identify their appropriateness for the various models of gender-sensitive EFL instruction PSTs work in expert groups to summarise their assigned text excerpts and share the conclusions with the other course participants. In a plenary, common themes are identified

Raising Awareness The unit begins with an online activity that has, as its primary goal, the objective of raising empathy for a given learner and scaffolding the transition from learner to teacher, thereby initiating reflective processes. Using a prompt from a public online posting, students are assigned the task of analysing a forum contribution by Lia, who posts her frustrations anonymously: So, there was this sentence in the book: ‘Jamie’s girlfriend was there too.’ As a girl asked whether Jamie is a girl’s name, [the teacher] just responded: ‘No, look carefully. Jamie’s girlfriend. That has to be a boy’s name. A girl can’t have

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a girlfriend, well, actually […], no, definitely a boy.’ God, was I angry, but she wasn’t willing to engage in a discussion […]. It really depressed me and made clear that teachers are actually not the smartest and most tolerant […] Greetings, Lia. [Author’s translation]

Following the model of a reflective task (Gerlach, 2018), students initially summarise the incident before being prompted to identify the options open to both Lia and the teacher in this situation. Finally, students consider why Lia may have used the venue of an online forum to express her frustration with this incident. The students enter their responses online, and may view anonymous answers of other students once they submit their own answers. In this way, the PSTs contribute their own initial analyses of the situation, and subsequently explore their peers’ perspectives, leading to opportunities to elaborate or modify their own positions, which are then discussed in the following class session. The anonymity of the online phase facilitates safety and open dialogue. Given the importance of developing the PSTs’ awareness of the ways in which diversity is relevant to all aspects of the language classroom, a second activity requires students to reflect on their conceptions of normed English. Designed primarily to raise participants’ awareness of the ways in which heteronormativity in the language classroom is exclusionary, students are required to correct a passage in which, among bona fide errors, the singular they construction is used (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Examining learner products

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A discussion ensues when the students try to clarify whether Kim is a male or female name, so that they can assign the corresponding pronoun to the passage. Through a series of dialogically constructed, scaffolded questions, the students are challenged to consider the reasons why the use of a singular, gendered pronoun has been impressed upon them as the only correct language form and what the implications of this steadfast imposition might be for variously gendered students. Additional issues relating to gatekeeping of (English speaker) identity and notions of performativity are touched on here as well (Pennycook, 2004), and connections are made to the inclusion of diverse identities in the EFL classroom more generally. The information that common style guides recommend the use of the singular they provokes multilayered reflection pertaining to linguistic varieties, language norms as artefacts of interaction, and the exclusionary reification of supposedly standardised forms. Using Sunderland’s (2000) observation that ‘experience suggests that while non-native speakers of English are happier with he or she than “singular they”’ (p. 211) while the reverse is true of native speakers’ as a starting point, students are encouraged to think about how issues of authority and power are intertwined in language. Finally, in an important conceptual development, students begin to question—if they have not done so already—the authority of their own teachers, creating discursive, linguistic and pedagogical distance between themselves and those to whom they were apprenticed as learners (Lortie, 1975).

Understanding the Discursive Construction of Gender in EFL After completing the initial activity online, students view excerpts of a video featuring Professor John Gray as he discusses non-heteronormative invisibility and identity in English language learning materials.2 Students assess their comprehension of the video and engage in an initial analysis of its content by means of embedded interactive questions,3 completing multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true–false and summative tasks. Despite the fact that these formats are largely behaviourist, they facilitate student agency via unfettered access to the video and immediate feedback. In addition to acquiring content knowledge regarding the topic at hand, students’ understanding of the academic and colloquial language in the video is scaffolded. Subsequently, students contribute to an online Wiki in the LMS, defining terms related to various issues of gender identity. Provided with an initial collection of German language resources as a series of links, students employ

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their mediation skills to translate the content to the target format, language and audience. The co-construction of the Wiki creates a lasting resource that demonstrates how students’ understanding and knowledge of the themes and language deepen as entries accumulate or grow over the course of the semester (Lund, 2008). In this way, participants also contribute to the visibility of gender-related themes in EFL teacher preparation. In another online activity, students complete a survey, evaluating the degree to which various materials reflect or counteract common gender stereotypes. In one image and text from a popular German textbook, Charlie, who is portrayed as typically male, participates in, and simultaneously disrupts, his sister’s ballet class. Whereas some students acknowledge the atypical presentation of a boy attending a ballet class, others point out that his behaviour is disruptive to the otherwise all-girl class. Furthermore, his sister comments on his antics with a good-humoured ‘Oh, Charlie!’ The depiction of a boy as a troublemaker opens the door to subsequent class discussions of how such stereotypes may harm all genders. Although the majority of the illustrations derive from texts and materials commonly used in German EFL classrooms, some images from EFL textbooks used in Iran are incorporated (Skliar, 2007). The inclusion of these images highlights the absence of varied cultural portrayals in German EFL textbooks, such as those of women in headscarves and invites intersectional analyses. Students begin to consider the ways in which stereotyping codifies gender identity in ways that are reductive and exclusive (Schmenk, 2004).

Encouraging Reflective Practice In the first year of the programme, a guest lecturer from Great Britain with expertise in gender-related teaching in EFL provided insights into her research in person for this module (Way, 2016). In subsequent iterations, students have watched the lecture online for the unit described in this chapter, completing guiding viewing activities prepared by the lecturer and students who originally participated.4 In her lecture, Way recapitulates the theoretical and conceptual issues related to gender-sensitive teaching in EFL before discussing evidence of the challenges faced by youth who identify as nonheteronormative. Subsequently, using the tripartite structure elucidated by Nelson (2009) and Macdonald et al. (2014), she describes the ways in which teachers can address these issues productively in the classroom, namely in terms of counselling, controversies, or discursive approaches. Way takes care to point out the pitfalls and potential of the three variations before modelling

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a critical inquiry approach to examining illustrative materials that support the various approaches, ending with a collaborative evaluation of the materials’ appropriateness for the PSTs’ situated teaching environments. The next phase heralds a shift in focus to examining stereotypical perceptions of the role gender plays in language learning, with a focus on how research on this topic frequently oversimplifies the complexity of gender and its role in language learning. In expert groups, students read a chapter of Schmenk’s (2009) book questioning received wisdom about gender-specific patterns in EFL, and one of three subsequent sections detailing a particular empirical study, as well as Schmenk’s critiques of the study. In this way, students grapple with some of the research that delineates language learners’ strengths and weaknesses along binary gender distinctions, as well as the methodological and analytical criticisms of the given study, before translating these conclusions to their potential teaching practice.

Evaluation Although the entire module was evaluated in a mixed methods approach that analysed its impact on attitudes towards inclusive EFL, beliefs about EFL learners and participants’ reflective competence (Blume et al., 2019), the research did not focus specifically on gender-related beliefs and knowledge. Therefore, despite evidence that the participating students developed more inclusive beliefs and more sophisticated reflective schema overall, the relationship between the unit described here and these changes is not documented. The closed-response items in the various instruments did not address gender-related issues specifically, and no student mentioned them in response to the open-ended prompts. This silence suggests that the topic was not seen as warranting comment, itself a telling indicator of the module’s perceived significance. Additional anecdotal evidence suggests that the affective and cognitive impact of the module varied among participants. Like the learners in Nelson’s (2015) study, at least some students found the unit on gender ‘personally meaningful’ (p. 6). While not systematically elicited from students, one programme member volunteered during the Way lecture that they had not been exposed to any of the themes or content in their own secondary schooling, leaving them with a feeling of exclusion (personal communication, 1 November 2017). Another student revealed during class how the lack of broad gender representation in her own school career made her feel invisible, so that she was glad to have ideas about how

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she could address this topic differently in her future classroom (personal communication, 6 November 2017). Evidence for cognitively-based reflection based on an empathetic stance can be gleaned from student work completed in the course of the module.5 In response to Lia’s situation, for example, participants contributed written answers that demonstrated their understanding of the issues as they relate to Lia, the teacher and the EFL classroom. In hypothesising about what the teacher might have done in response to the question regarding Jamie’s sexuality, one student wrote the following: If the teacher would have had in mind that some students of her class could be gay, she maybe would have acted more open-minded. They could have talked about that topic in class and be open and tolerant about it. If she wouldn’t have ignored the situation the students would not be upset about it.

Most responses in this task reveal empathy with Lia and criticise the teacher’s handling of the situation. Notwithstanding, the following excerpt indicates that some participants have a more nuanced understanding of the factors shaping the teacher’s behaviour in comparison to their peers: The worst case might be that the teacher thinks that people who decide not to live in heterosexual relationships are ‘not normal’. Another possibility would be that she doesn’t know how to talk about a delicate topic like sexuality in general with her students. She might also rate her students as too young to deal with topics that are out of the ordinary and - in her opinion - could confuse them.

A minority of students’ entries demonstrate a lack of critical understanding for the issue, despite the scaffolding intended to support this development: In a situation like this, the teacher could have looked for real proof to determinate [sic] if the person is a male or a female. But in my case, I will suggest not paying attention to that detail because I do not think it makes any difference to the story if the character is male or female.

Finally, many students were able to generate alternative strategies for the unknown teacher in this incident, including validating the learner’s query, encouraging students to identify text-based evidence that reveals Jamie’s gender, and using the incident as a springboard for a discussion of gender and stereotypes. Three students in the initial cohort of 27, for which there is complete data, wrote their term papers on the issue of gender in the EFL classroom.

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Expanded upon in a subsequent undergraduate thesis, one author later interviewed non-heteronormative EFL learners regarding their preferences for gender-sensitive language learning environments. Although an in-depth analysis of these projects would more fully illuminate the connections between the authors’ attitudes and knowledge, and the content of the module, the fact that some students opted to focus on gender themes for their research suggests that the unit created receptivity towards the topic and an understanding of the relevance of these issues.

Conclusion Given the dearth of materials and research regarding teacher preparation for gender-inclusive language teaching, this contribution documents a pilot project designed to raise awareness and inculcate PSTs with the attitudes and knowledge necessary for a truly diverse EFL setting. By implementing online activities and opportunities for dialogical interaction as well as reflective growth, the unit illustrates how these concepts can be integrated into a module focusing on ways to meet the needs of all language learners. While empirical evidence of its impact is beyond the scope of this description, student responses indicate that the mixture of activities designed to encourage reflective practice in this regard contributed to awareness, empathy and increased knowledge among some participants. In the future, further data collection and analysis could determine the degree to which the outcomes are shaped by specific activities and elements. More significantly, a long-term study that traces the attitudes and activities of these future educators once they enter the language learning classroom could reveal the ways in which the inclusive principles and practices of this unit are reflected in their teaching. By incorporating the aforementioned unit in a module otherwise devoted to issues of learner diversity, an appropriate conceptual framework was established. This approach provides learners with contextualisation in line with universal themes of equity, non-discrimination and inclusivity. In doing so, it avoids the marginalisation of gender and sexuality-related themes that can occur when a separate module on these issues is offered (Rayaprol, 2011). It additionally facilitates an understanding of intersectional issues when examining educational practice in heterogeneous classes, complexifying as it does the identities of the future teachers’ putative students. While this approach limits, due to the range of topics that necessarily need to be covered in the module as a whole, the development of theoretical understandings of gender

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identity and construction, it insures that the entire cohort is required to critically examine the implications of gender issues for teaching EFL. In addition to carefully considering the ways in which the content of the unit scaffolds the understanding of the PSTs in the module, the pedagogical methods that are used are equally important. Although it is notoriously difficult to change PSTs’ beliefs, the data raised in conjunction with this module suggests that the guided reflection that took place during this unit may effect belief change (Blume et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the difficulty of strengthening reflective skills remains apparent, as the data reveal a generally low level of reflection and significant disparities in reflective abilities regarding issues of diversity in the cohort overall. Thus, the challenge remains of understanding how to improve reflection as it pertains to diversity, and especially for those PSTs who struggle with envisioning inclusive environments. The activities that generated the most discussion and reflective responses were those that linked issues of identity and language to EFL instruction. Concentrating on the role of language in terms of informing identity, manifesting gender norms and highlighting stereotypical portrayals in media and research, this unit connects theoretical notions of inclusion to subject-specific discourses and practices. In so doing, it raises awareness of how language itself can contribute to inclusive practice.

Suggested Further Reading Decke-Cornill, H., & Volkmann, L. (Eds.). (2007). Gender studies and foreign language teaching: A conference held at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in the spring of 2006 . Tübingen: Narr Francke. This edited volume brings together a range of gender-related topics relevant to foreign language teachers. With one exception, the contributions are in English and address issues central to second language learning, such as interaction and culture. Elsner, D., & Lohe, V. (Eds.). (2016). Gender and language learning: Research and practice. Tübingen: Narr Francke. This edited volume emerged from a lecture series designed to raise awareness among pre-service and in-service teachers of gender-related issues in EFL learning and teaching. It offers a series of essays and guiding questions on various aspects of gender-related language teaching, including a definitional foundation and analyses of research regarding gender differences in language learning, gender construction in language and texts, and gendered teaching and representation.

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Motschenbacher, H. (2010). Language, gender and sexual identity: Poststructuralist perspectives. IMPACT: Vol. 29. Amsterdam: Benjamins. This monograph focuses on an analysis of gender-related issues in linguistics from a post-structuralist perspective. Addressing issues of linguistic structure, gender-informed research in various linguistic fields, and gendered discourse, the text is a sophisticated introduction to the field of queer linguistics, and is most suited for teacher educators or researchers.

Engagement Priorities • The chapter indicates that the impetus for the module development emerged from recent interest in education for diversity and increased immigration from non-European regions. How might teacher educators productively address the concerns of PSTs regarding conservative attitudes about issues of gender diversity among recent immigrants? • The unit described in this chapter was designed for a specific context, namely a German EFL teacher preparation programme. What elements of this unit could be relevant for other settings, especially ones without the contextualising frame provided by the focus on diversity? • To what degree does the blended-learning approach adopted in this case both provide and limit certain pedagogical opportunities? • The research shows that most PSTs ultimately adopt the pedagogy and practice of their school mentors or school communities. How can the receptivity towards gender-sensitive instruction initiated in this module be sustained over the course of subsequent years of study and adopted in practice, especially when mentors or school communities are sceptical of such inclusivity?

Notes 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcrJujeHxM&feature=youtu.be. 2. The video has since been replaced online with a more recent version of Gray’s lecture, and can be found here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/gen der-sexuality-elt-%E2%80%93-inclusive-education-vs-queer-pedagogy. 3. https://h5p.org/. 4. https://tefl.web.leuphana.de/?page_id=808. 5. All responses were collected anonymously via Moodle (LMS). Students were informed in advance that their work would be analysed for research-related purposes and had the opportunity to decline participation.

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References Banegas, D. L., Jacovkis, L. G., & Romiti, A. (2020). A gender perspective in initial English language teacher education: An Argentinian experience. Sexuality and Culture, 24 (1), 1–22. Benitt, N., & Kurtz, J. (2016). Gender representation in selected EFL textbooks: A diachronic perspective. In D. Elsner & V. Lohe (Eds.), Gender and language learning: Research and practice (pp. 169–188). Narr Francke. Blume, C., Gerlach, D., Roters, B., & Schmidt, T. (2019). The ABCs of inclusive English teacher education: Attitudes, beliefs, and (reflective) competence. TESLEJ, 22(4), 1–18. BMBF. (2019). Interim results of the ‘Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung’—Initial findings from research and practice. Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Claussen, S., Hanus, P., Klemm, K., Schröder, K., & Bier, H. (2017). Camden town. Diesterweg. Edelhoff, C., & Schmidt, T. (Eds). (2013). Notting Hill Gate 1. Braunschweig: Diesterweg. Elsner, D., & Lohe, V. (Eds). (2016). Gender and language learning: Research and practice. Narr Francke. Gerlach, D. (2018). Reflective tasks: An approach to integrating reflective practice. English Language Teacher Education and Development, 21, 58–63. König, L., Surkamp, C., & Decke-Cornill, H. (2015). Negotiating Gender. Aushandlungs- und Reflexionsprozesse über Geschlechtervorstellungen im Fremdsprachenunterricht anstoßen. Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch, 49 (135), 2–9. Korthagen, F. A. J. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: Towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20 (1), 77–97. Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press. Lund, A. (2008). Wikis: A collective approach to language production. ReCALL, 20 (1), 35–54. Macdonald, S., El-Metoui, L., Baynham, M., & Gray, J. (2014). Exploring LGBT lives and issues in adult ESOL. British Council. Available at: https://esol.britishco uncil.org/sites/default/files/attachments/informational-page/Exploring_LGBT_L ives_Issues_Adult_ESOL.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2020. Merse, T. (2015). Queer-informed approaches and sexual literacy in ELT: Theoretical foundations and teaching principles. Language Policy, 26 (1), 13–20. Merse, T. (2017). Other others, different differences: Queer perspectives on teaching English as a foreign language. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Department of English and American Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Mittag, M. (2015). Geschlecht als leerer Signifikant. In J. Wedl & A. Bartsch (Eds.), Teaching Gender? Zum reflektierten Umgang mit Geschlecht im Schulunterricht und in der Lehramtsausbildung (pp. 251–260). transcript Verlag.

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Motschenbacher, H. (2016). Gender, inclusion and English language teaching: A linguistic perspective. In D. Elsner & V. Lohe (Eds.), Gender and language learning: Research and practice (pp. 97–112). Narr Francke. Motschenbacher, H., & Stegu, M. (2013). Queer linguistic approaches to discourse. Discourse and Society, 24 (5), 519–535. Nelson, C. (2015). LGBT content: Why teachers fear it, why learners like it. Language Issues, 26 (1), 6–12. Nelson, C. D. (2009). Sexual identities in English language education: Classroom conversations. Routledge. Pennycook, A. (2004). Performativity and language studies. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 1(1), 1–19. Rayaprol, A. (2011). Teaching gender in Indian universities: Reflections on feminist pedagogy. Sociological Bulletin, 60 (1), 65–78. Richardson, V. (2003). Pre-service teachers’ beliefs. In J. Raths & A. C. McAninch (Eds.), Teacher beliefs and classroom performance: The impact of teacher education (pp. 1–22). Information Age Publishing. Sauntson, H. (2017). Language, sexuality, and education. In S. Wortham, D. Kim, & S. May (Eds.), Discourse and education (3rd ed., pp. 47–159). Springer. Schmenk, B. (2004). Language learning: A feminine domain? The role of stereotyping in constructing gendered learner identities. TESOL Quarterly, 38(3), 514–524. Schmenk, B. (2009). Geschlechtsspezifisches Fremdsprachenlernen? Zur Konstruktion geschlechtstypischer Lerner- und Lernbilder in der Fremdsprachenforschung (2nd ed.). Stauffenburg Verlag. Scorgie, K. (2010). Fostering empathy and understanding. A longitudinal case study pedagogy. In C. Forlin (Ed.), Teacher education for inclusion: Changing paradigms and innovative approaches (pp. 84–92). Routledge. Skliar, O. S. (2007). Gender representations and gender bias in ELT textbooks published in the Middle East: A case study of ELT textbooks published in Turkey and Iran. Unpublished Masters thesis, Department of English Language Education, Middle East Technical University. Straub, R., Spöhrer, S., & Meimerstorf, L. (2019). Disziplinen- und phasenübergreifende Kooperation für die Lehrkräftebildung fruchtbar machen – Einsichten aus dem Entwicklungsteam TIES im Kontext inklusiven Englischunterrichts. In C. Blume, D. Gerlach, N. Benitt, S. Eßer, B. Roters, J. Springob, & T. Schmidt (Eds.), Perspektiven inklusiven Englischunterrichts: Gemeinsam lehren und lernen: Dokumentation zur Tagung vom 20. und 21. September 2018 an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. Available at: https://inklusiver-englischunterri cht.de/tagung-2018/. Accessed 2 Feb 2020. Sunderland, J. (2000). Issues of language and gender in second and foreign language education. Language Teaching, 33(4), 203–223.

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Trautmann, M. (2010). Heterogenität – (k)ein Thema der Fremdsprachendidaktik? In A. Köker (Ed.), Herausforderung Heterogenität: Ansätze und Weichenstellungen [Barbara Koch-Priewe zum 60. Geburtstag] (pp. 52–64). Klinkhardt. Way, P. (2016). LGBT inclusive materials in ELT: An investigation into teacher and learner responses towards nonheteronormative materials within a UK-based context. Unpublished masters thesis, School of English and Languages, University of Surrey.

Special Education Needs

The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation Anssi Roiha and Jerker Polso

Introduction Due to trends in inclusive education, teachers are often faced with increasingly diverse and heterogeneous classes that cannot be effectively taught by simply following a one-size-fits-all approach. Consequently, recognising students’ individuality and uniqueness in learning has started to receive more attention in many educational contexts across the world. However, attending to learners’ individual needs poses its challenges to teaching. Differentiation is often presented as a solution to this predicament and is considered to be one of the key features in inclusive education. In short, differentiation is a pervasive pedagogical approach that transcends all teaching (Tomlinson, 2014) and that aims to accommodate and cope with the diversity of students (Suprayogi et al., 2017). It encompasses a myriad of practices that teachers can use to support the learning and even upbringing of each student. This chapter endeavours to respond to the theme of diversity in English language teaching through differentiation. Initially, we discuss the theoretical underpinnings of differentiation. We then present our 5-dimensional model A. Roiha (B) University of Turku, Turku, Finland J. Polso University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_12

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of differentiation (hereafter 5D model) which we have created in the Finnish educational context. Finally, we take a critical view of the model and reflect on ways in which it could be used in less-resourced educational contexts.

Theoretical Background of the 5D Model Differentiation is not a theory of its own but rather a synthesis of several theoretical perspectives. The 5D model builds on the theoretical concepts of constructivism, zone of proximal development , multiple intelligences and motivation. Differentiation can be seen to rely on the constructivist approach to learning, according to which students actively construct their learning. This individual process is influenced by their prior knowledge (Rauste-von Wright et al., 2003). It is important that teachers are aware of students’ pre-understanding of a topic and approach their learning individually. Zone of proximal development (hereafter ZPD) is a concept by Vygotsky (1978) that relates to students’ individual learning. Vygotsky (1978) defines ZPD as the distance between a student’s actual development level and their potential development level attainable under the guidance of their teachers. The 5D model advocates that teachers become aware of their students’ ZPD to provide them with appropriate challenges. Therefore, in ideal circumstances, every student would always work on their individual ZPD. Gardner’s (2008) theory of multiple intelligences suggests that human intelligence can manifest in nine different forms. While suffering from the lack of empirical evidence, the theory nevertheless underscores the diversity of learners and how teaching should cater for the needs of all students, which is also one of the postulates of the 5D model. Also, motivation (e.g. Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2013) underpins differentiation as differentiated teaching is based on students’ interests. When students are interested in what they are learning, they are also more inclined to face challenging learning situations (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009). One of the most influential conceptualisations of differentiation is that of Tomlinson (2014) who defines differentiation as a proactive teaching approach that endeavours to maximise each student’s learning. Tomlinson (2014) argues that teachers can modify content, process, product or learning environment based on students’ readiness, interests and learning profiles. By content, Tomlinson (2014) refers to the aims students are expected to reach and the materials used to achieve this. Process, in turn, relates to the types of activities students will engage with to form an understanding of the topics

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discussed whereas product represents what students have learnt. Tomlinson’s (2014) views of differentiation as a pervasive and student-centred teaching approach are also underpinning the 5D model (Section “The 5D Model in Practice”). However, the 5D model aims to offer a more concrete and tangible instrument for implementing differentiation than Tomlinson’s (2014) more theoretical conceptualisation. Other scholars who have influenced the 5D model are Thousand et al. (2007). They argue that ideally differentiation adheres to the universal design for learning (hereafter UDL) approach. According to Thousand et al. (2007), in order to differentiate, teachers need to gather information about the students and based on that, proactively design the content, product and process in their teaching. The UDL approach emphasises the importance of getting to know one’s students and constantly revisiting one’s teaching. In that way, the UDL creates a cycle in which gathering information about the learners works as a premise. When differentiation is defined in a broad sense (e.g. Tomlinson, 2014), it resembles UDL as they can both be seen as proactive approaches in which teaching is made accessible for all learners. Similarly, the 5D model perceives differentiation as an ongoing and constantly evolving process. Like Thousand et al. (2007), we also want to highlight the importance of knowing one’s students well as a starting point of differentiation.

The 5D Model in Practice Practitioners seem to understand differentiation somewhat differently and find it challenging. Typically mentioned challenges include lack of time and resources, large class sizes and lack of knowledge of effective differentiation methods (e.g. Roiha, 2014; Tomlinson & Imbeau, 2010). Particularly novice teachers often feel that they lack the appropriate knowledge to differentiate purposefully (van Geel et al., 2019). The primary aim of the 5D model is to provide both pre- and in-service teachers with an easy-to-use framework for implementing differentiation. The 5D model of differentiation is not a scientific framework but rather a practical tool for differentiation. It relies on the notion that differentiation is implemented holistically in five dimensions of teaching which are teaching arrangements, learning environment , teaching methods, support materials and assessment . The 5D model progresses from general to specific. First, it is essential to ensure that the general teaching arrangements and learning

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Fig. 1 The 5-dimensional model of differentiation (Adapted from Roiha & Polso, 2020)

environment support the learning of each student before moving on to differentiating more specifically in teaching methods or with support materials. Also assessment has a central role in differentiation. Only when the support in all the other dimensions is in place can students’ learning be assessed in a differentiated way. Assessment measures the students’ progress in relation to their individual goals. It guides the teaching and gives vital information to teachers in terms of differentiation. In the 5D model, each dimension is informed by the students and their individual characteristics, such as learning profile, self-esteem, interests, readiness, needs, motivation, personality and history. The model is not tied to any specific subject but can be applied in all education (Fig. 1). The model has been studied using a small-scale survey with 40 Finnish teachers (Laari et al., 2021). The study showed that teachers focused predominantly on differentiation of teaching methods, learning environment and assessment. The least employed dimension was teaching arrangements. However, on average, all the dimensions received attention consolidating the proposition that the 5D model covers the areas of differentiation in a comprehensive way (Laari et al., 2021). Next, we elaborate on the different dimensions of the 5D model and outline several differentiation practices in each dimension with respect to English language teaching.

Dimension 1: Teaching Arrangements The first dimension in the 5D model is teaching arrangements by which we mean various macro-level differentiation practices that can be implemented both within and between classes. In this section, we focus on flexible grouping,

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co-teaching, remedial teaching, learning assistants and part-time special-needs education. Flexible grouping is a teaching arrangement in which students are temporarily grouped based on certain criteria such as learning abilities, learning styles, social relationships or interests. Although the research results on flexible grouping differ (e.g. Tieso, 2005), in our teaching experience, we have found it to be an effective method to acknowledge the diversity of learners. Flexible grouping does not aim at permanent homogeneous groups. It is important that the teaching in the groups is differentiated and tailored based on the students’ needs. The teacher can, for instance, group the students based on their learning styles and instruct each group in a more personalised way while the others are working on more mechanical and independent activities. Flexible grouping is a natural method to use when practising oral communication in English language. Sometimes students can be grouped based on their interests, and at other times, based on their ability levels. The groups can then engage in conversations about their preferred topics at an appropriate level. For some students, topics or vocabulary can be given beforehand as homework. In addition to interests and abilities, students can also be grouped based on their learning preferences. One group can consist of students who prefer to study a textbook chapter through drama while another group is engaging with the chapter using computers. The idea of flexible grouping is that the groups are not fixed but rather their composition is changed frequently. The grouping should not be stigmatising, and it should not have a negative effect on students’ learner self-image, which can easily happen with permanent homogeneous grouping. Another teaching arrangement, which pertains to flexible grouping, is coteaching. In the literature, the definition and practices of co-teaching vary and concepts such as supportive teaching, parallel teaching, complementary teaching or team teaching are often used interchangeably (e.g. Thousand et al., 2006). By co-teaching in the 5D model we mean all forms of teaching in which two or more teachers simultaneously teach in the same classroom. Similarly to flexible grouping, the advantages of co-teaching have not been indisputably proven. A few meta-analyses, however, seem to indicate that co-teaching is a beneficial approach concerning students’ learning outcomes (e.g. Murawski & Swanson, 2001; Scruggs et al., 2007). Positive results on co-teaching have been found also in Finland (Ahtiainen et al., 2011). In English lessons, the subject teacher can practise co-teaching with the classroom teacher or special-needs teacher. From the perspective of differentiation, co-teaching enables the teacher to focus on individual students more which

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helps the teacher to know the students better and thus directs future differentiation. Students also benefit from both teachers’ expertise and the teaching can be more versatile even when the class-size consequently increases. For instance, the teacher who has a better knowledge of English can instruct a grammar activity while the more artistically oriented teacher can go through a topic using drama or visual arts. Remedial teaching is another functional teaching arrangement. Its purpose is to prevent and mitigate learning difficulties. Remedial teaching should be provided to all learners who have (occasional) difficulties in learning English. In Finland, the Basic Education Act (628/1998) obligates teachers to arrange remedial teaching to all students who have temporarily fallen behind in their studies. The most common way to implement remedial teaching is to reactively provide additional guidance when certain difficulties have been observed. However, it is often useful to provide remedial teaching proactively. The teacher can go through a grammatical feature or a textbook chapter in advance to pre-empt learning difficulties and provide a student with a better grasp of the content covered in lessons. An alternative to traditional remedial teaching is to arrange students’ access to different year-level English lessons. In most syllabi, English follows a spiral structure, that is, certain themes are covered in different grade levels in different breadth and depth. For instance, a Grade 5 student who struggles with the language can join the Grade 3 English lessons and consolidate their understanding of a certain grammatical structure. Conversely, a student in need of extension can join a higher grade level to receive extra challenges and more appropriate teaching. If resources are scarce, older or high-performing students can be utilised in remedial teaching. High-performing students teaching struggling peers both strengthens the content knowledge of the high-performing student and improves their social skills, while simultaneously serving as remedial teaching for the weaker student. Learning assistants provide a valuable resource for teachers in terms of differentiation. Learning assistants are very common in Finland since in 2015, there were approximately 7500 learning assistants working in Finnish schools. In 2018, there were around 2200 comprehensive schools (Grades 1–9), i.e. on average 3–4 learning assistants work in each Finnish school. Learning assistants are usually educated professionals who can effectively support the learning of both low and high achievers. Learning assistants also enable the use of flexible grouping or co-teaching. As an example, learning assistants can carry out a mechanical activity to the rest of the class while the teacher is simultaneously instructing a small group of students who need extra assistance.

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Part-time special-needs education is a Finnish idiosyncrasy, which we would like to highlight as an excellent teaching arrangement enabling differentiation also in English language. Part-time special-needs education means that a student receives temporary support from the special-needs teacher either in-class or outside the classroom. Finland has a strong culture of special education. In academic year 2017–2018, nearly a quarter of comprehensive school students, i.e. 22%, received part-time special-needs education (Official Statistics of Finland, 2018). It is even proposed that part-time special-needs education has been an important factor behind Finland’s PISA success (Kivirauma & Ruoho, 2007). Similarly to remedial teaching, according to the Basic Education Act (628/1998), a student who has difficulties in learning is entitled to part-time special-needs education. Even though there is no track record of the subjects in which part-time special-needs education is offered, typically special-needs resources are allocated to academic subjects such as languages. The struggling students can for instance cover a grammar topic or textbook chapter in the guidance of the special-needs teacher. In Finland, the special-needs teacher also periodically tests all the students to detect, for example, dyslexia and to prevent students from developing a more severe learning difficulty later on.

Dimension 2: Learning Environment The second dimension in the 5D model relates to learning environment, which we have broadly divided into physical and psycho-social environments. It is important to pay attention to both of them, as they can have a significant impact on students’ learning (Brooks, 2011; Yeager & Walton, 2011). The physical learning environment needs to be based on the students’ needs. Differentiation is best practised in foreign language classrooms which have places for a wide range of work, for instance, writing, reading, individual work and group work. The ideal classrooms are easily modifiable and adaptable to different learning situations. In truly differentiated classrooms, students do not necessarily have their own named places, but the current place can be selected based on the type of work they are doing. As profound differentiation is a whole school approach, different classrooms of the school can be equipped differently. For example, one classroom can have a setting that fosters group work while another one can have a lot of information technology equipment. In this way, teachers can also practise flexible grouping and make use of the different classrooms more effectively. When the general physical learning environment is in place, it may be easier to modify the learning environment of an individual student. Students

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can, for instance, have a list of English sight words or high-frequency words laminated on their desks or their seat can be next to a wall with other important language visuals. A conducive language classroom has a lot of support material on display. Tourism and marketing material, such as posters with slogans or tourist magazines offer a visual and easy access to written language. Also comics or children’s books are practical. Naming and labelling everyday objects or for example colours in the classroom might benefit students. It is important to make sure that the material is clearly organised and on its place and that the overall view of the classroom is calming rather than excessive. Regarding the psycho-social learning environment, diversity and different strategies can be normalised in differentiated classrooms. The teacher plays an important role in creating such an atmosphere in the classroom. Differentiation entails that not all students need to work on the same tasks or in the same way. It is important to verbalise the different practices and the reasons behind them to the entire class. For instance, teachers can explain why some students are using audio books and others computers instead of a textbook. Talking openly about the different needs of students promotes the acceptance of difference and normalises diversity. Collaborative learning and the use of different groupings enhance positive classroom atmosphere. Particularly in English lessons, speaking often causes anxiety in students. Therefore, it is important that the psycho-social learning environment promotes students’ feeling of safety to speak and use the language. Teachers can also support the active participation of individual students by using small-groups and by paying attention to students’ affective features when forming the groups.

Dimension 3: Teaching Methods The third dimension of the 5D model covers teaching methods. Particularly suitable for differentiation are student-centred teaching approaches such as inquiry- and phenomenon-based learning (e.g. Murdoch, 2015; Symeonidis & Schwarz, 2016). These approaches naturally direct students towards transdisciplinary learning which is the current trend in many educational contexts. Several teaching methods can be used within the framework of the above approaches. For instance, projects allow for more individualised and student-centred learning than traditional teaching. Projects also enable to set individual learning objectives or to use collaborative learning. They support students’ understanding of themselves as individual learners with specific strengths. The working time with projects is often flexible. Some students may need several weeks to complete their project, whereas others

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might finish theirs in only a week. The product of the project can also vary, and it can take the form of a recording, video, poster or PowerPoint presentation based on students’ skills, abilities and preferences. With clear guidelines, projects can be used to practise certain language features. Another differentiated teaching method, which bears similarities to traditional project work (Stoller, 2002), is what we have labelled contractual project work. The idea is that students set individual goals for themselves (in the guidance of their teacher), plan their learning process and make a learning schedule for themselves. Contractual project work calls for and also supports self-directness and learner autonomy and has to be carefully scaffolded by the teacher. The method is very independent and individual, and students can progress at an individual pace. Contractual project work can be done either individually or in pairs or groups. Both ways suit language teaching extremely well. Students can, for example, decide which grammar form or vocabulary they want to study in a given week and how to organise this. Station work is a functional teaching method, in which students work in different stations for a certain period of time. This method enables individual progress as well as the use of peer support and collaborative learning. From the standpoint of differentiation, the stations can contain differentiated work and the groups can be formed with differentiation in mind. The teacher can focus on supporting the stations or the groups that need more assistance while the others can work more independently. Some stations can be dedicated to scaffolded group discussions while others focus on reading or writing. There can also be an information and communication technology (ICT) station and game station in which students practise the language through play. The time frame for this working method can range from one lesson to a week depending on the extent of the stations. Within all the above-presented methods, teachers can differentiate their teaching focusing more specifically on the four main language skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading. Listening comprehension can be differentiated in various ways. It is important that teachers pay attention to their own speech. By altering the complexity of the language, the teacher can take all learners into account better. A topic can first be introduced using complex language and after that in a more simplified way. It is useful to support important speech such as instructions or the main message, for instance, with visuals, gestures or expressions. When listening to texts, students can be given vocabulary lists with most important words or even the entire transcript of the text which they can follow while listening. Under some circumstances it can be justified to provide the students with the transcript both in English and in

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the students’ first language. The transcripts can also be given to students to read at home before the listening activity at school. In differentiated classrooms, the students who struggle with speaking can be granted the opportunity to answer in single words or sometimes rely on their first language, which is in line with the principle of translanguaging. As a pedagogy, translanguaging refers to enabling learners to use their full linguistic repertoire to make meaning (Nikula & Moore, 2019). Students can also be given sample sentences or vocabulary lists to support them in various conversation exercises. In general, students feel safer when they work in small-groups (Pihko, 2007). The groups can occasionally be formed so that the weaker learners are grouped together in order for the teacher to support them more intensively. Students with difficulties speaking English can also be allowed to record their reading or oral production at home and give the recording to the teacher to be listened to at school. Although the emphasis in foreign language learning tends to be on oral production, writing is still an important skill that needs practising in English lessons. Similarly to speaking, teachers can differentiate the writing objectives of the students. Instead of requiring full sentence production, some students’ goal could simply be to produce single words in English. From the perspective of differentiation, open-ended writing assignments are particularly suitable to use as they can be completed according to the students’ individual abilities. When writing an essay, the high achievers can produce complex texts with multiple subordinate clauses whereas the low achievers can only write in simple sentences or even in bullet points. Reading in a foreign language is a challenging and tedious task for many learners. Teachers can take several measures to alleviate this process. Firstly, it is important to provide students with texts that are at an appropriate level for them. With low-achieving readers, common texts often need simplification. Teachers can shorten and simplify the texts for instance by replacing difficult words with easier synonyms or by deleting the subordinate clauses that are not essential to the text. Teachers can also make annotations to the text or underline, bold, italicise or translate the key words and phrases. Students can also be given glossaries or word lists to support their reading. Sometimes these can be made by a high achiever as a differentiated activity. Simplified texts can be used also in the years to come, which will save time for further preparation. Often it is good to pay attention to visual aspects of the text (e.g. font size, subheadings, diagrams) and to teach reading strategies for the students. One can also utilise students’ own texts which better engages them in learning.

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Dimension 4: Support Materials The penultimate dimension of the 5D model is support materials which can be used to aid students’ learning. English language classrooms may offer robust support if they are equipped with plenty of language-related materials that provoke students’ interest in the language such as games, maps, posters, magazines and books in English. Individual student’s learning can be supported with a variety of tools depending on the student’s needs. For instance, for students with Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder features, reducing stimuli by using partitions, noise-cancelling headphones or even wearing a hood or a cap in the lesson can make them concentrate on learning. Likewise, for example, seating cushions or structuring one’s work with an hourglass or a time timer can help to focus more actively. Communication is a crucial part of language learning. Concurrently, speaking and especially English pronunciation is often the most challenging part of language learning for many students. Sometimes students can have difficulties with their oral motor functions, particularly if the phonemes of one’s first language differ a lot from the English phonemes. There are a variety of practical tools to support and direct students’ pronunciation. For example, a mirror can be used for this purpose. With the mirror, students can observe the position of their tongue, for example during sounds /θ/ (e.g. thing) and /ð/ (e.g. other). Another useful way to demonstrate the correct pronunciation, keeping safety measures in mind, is to use a candle and have the students observe how the flame flickers when pronouncing certain sounds. Students can also use digital devices to record and listen to their own speech and compare it to a model recording. Video recordings are an excellent tool also in practising public performance and presentations with more advanced language learners. ICT in general offers a wealth of possibilities for differentiation. Some students can use computers and headphones to listen to the texts multiple times while others carry on with the lesson. Audio recordings of the texts can be given to low achievers before the lessons so they can familiarise themselves with the texts in advance. The students who feel anxious about speaking in front of the class can record their speech on their phones at home and play it at school. For writing, most computer writing programmes have a spell-check function that highlights spelling mistakes and guides the students’ production. There is also an abundance of online exercises available that can be used in differentiation for different students.

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Dimension 5: Assessment The final dimension of the 5D model is assessment, which guides students’ learning more than any other factor (Hayward, 2012). For that reason, it is pivotal that differentiation also extends to assessment. In Finland, differentiation is very much embedded in assessment as the Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014) states that ‘even mild learning difficulties and any shortcomings in the students’ skills in the language of instruction […] should be taken into account when planning and implementing assessment and demonstration situations’ (Section 6.2). Assessment is often roughly divided into pre-assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment. They all have different purposes, but similar methods can be used in all of them. To ascertain students’ prior knowledge and level of ability, teachers must utilise pre-assessment which is a prerequisite of effective differentiation. Only by knowing the students’ current level, teachers can plan and implement their teaching purposefully. Based on the students’ pre-knowledge, individual goals can be set and their progress can later be assessed in relation to these goals. Formative assessment can also be translated as assessment for learning as its function is predominantly to support and guide students in their learning process. Summative assessment, on the other hand, means assessment of learning and is usually implemented at the end of a teaching period (Harlen, 2012). In English language teaching, multiple assessment methods can be used in all of the above-mentioned forms of assessment. Too often teachers still tend to rely on a written exam at the end of a unit. In accordance with the 5D model of differentiation, assessment should expand also to other methods of assessment, such as portfolios, learning journals, presentations, projects, homework or pedagogical discussions. If a teacher chooses to use exams as the central means of assessment, it is important that the exams and the entire exam situation is differentiated. For low achievers, it is beneficial to limit the content they need to learn and create the exams accordingly. That way the students do not need to revise the entire course book but only the parts they will be tested on. Other ways to take students’ individuality into account is to provide them with individual exams which have questions that are at an appropriate level. For instance, the learners who struggle with English can have exams that contain more recognition instead of production and application exercises. Students will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning orally which is often in line with the objectives of teaching. That is, typically the primary goal is to learn how to orally communicate in the language while the exams often focus mostly on

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assessing reading and writing. During the exam situation, students should also be provided with the assistance that they require. This could entail extra time, added teacher assistance or even a group or take-home exam. Self-assessment is emphasised also in differentiation. The European Language Portfolio (hereafter ELP) is a good example of differentiated selfassessment in foreign languages. In it, the learners reflect on their language learning and intercultural experiences. The ELP consists of a language passport, language biography and dossier (Council of Europe, n.d.). Each learner can work on the ELP according to their individual abilities and it can take the form the learner wants, thus promoting individuality and differentiated working culture. It is important to keep in mind that not all students need to be assessed in the same way or even at the same time of the learning process. Some students can benefit from a formative pedagogical discussion halfway the unit whereas for the others, the teacher can rely on them progressing in their learning as expected. Similarly, even though the majority of the class can demonstrate their learning with a written exam, some students can be given the option to do so with a recording or video. Differentiated assessment methods do not automatically mean differentiated goals or individualised curriculum. In general, students need to be given the chance to be tested at their own level rather than making them take a test that they will fail.

Conclusion This chapter addressed differentiation in English language teaching. We have endeavoured to demonstrate how the 5D model can serve as an exemplar for the implementation of differentiation in various educational contexts. The model has been created in the Finnish education system and therefore some of the practices described in this chapter may not be feasible in other contexts as such. However, it is important to bear in mind that the model only provides a framework for differentiation and the various differentiation strategies in each dimension can and should vary according to the context. For example, teachers can use various assessment and teaching methods, as long as they are approached from the perspective of differentiation. The dimensions of the model are also emphasised differently in various contexts depending on the resources available and the needs of the students. In some schools, it is possible to implement very systematic and extensive differentiation with teaching arrangements, while in others differentiation focuses more on teaching methods and support materials. The main purpose of our model

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is to foster a mindset of differentiation whereby one uses the differentiation practices feasible in one’s own school setting. For instance, with regard to support material, their purpose is to facilitate students’ learning. Therefore, it is not necessary to use a professional seat cushion to help concentrate if the student’s own pillow serves the same purpose. We acknowledge that the lack of time poses its challenges to differentiation. Our model is meant to provide a wide range of ideas on how to differentiate in several dimensions. In an ideal situation, all the dimensions should receive equal attention but this is not always possible in practice. Therefore, we encourage teachers to focus first on one or two dimensions and start to gradually build their toolkit of differentiation practices. Moreover, differentiation is partly a value judgement; teachers must decide how much time they spend on certain things. It is also important to acknowledge different levels of differentiation. If teachers adopt differentiation as a part of their teaching philosophy, they approach all teaching with students’ individuality in mind and use small-scale differentiation practices, such as extra time or differentiated homework, flexibly and spontaneously. We argue that effective differentiation requires a change in the way traditional education is perceived. At a school level, differentiation calls for a more collaborative working culture in which teachers and other professionals truly cooperate. At the classroom level, not all students need to work on the same tasks, in the same way or at the same time. For the 5D model to yield the best outcome, it is equally important to designate resources for differentiation. For instance, co-teaching or support materials require financial investment. This also requires commitment and participation from the school administration. We believe that the 5D model can respond to student diversity and provide English language teachers with tools to face heterogeneous classrooms. Profound differentiation helps each learner to study in the mainstream class and to reach their maximum potential in English language learning.

Suggested Further Reading Peterson, J. M., & Hittie, M. M. (2010). Inclusive teaching. The journey towards effective schools for all learners. Boston: Pearson Education. This book discusses inclusion thoroughly and from several viewpoints. The book also provides a lot of practical examples of how inclusion can be supported in schools. Roiha, A., & Polso, J. (2020). How to succeed in differentiation? The Finnish approach. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational Ltd.

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This book discusses the 5D model in more detail and offers more concrete ways to differentiate one’s teaching. Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. N. (2013). Assessment and student success in a differentiated classroom. Alexandria: ASCD. This book focuses on differentiated assessment which is a topic that challenges many teachers. The book is well structured and covers several aspects of differentiation such as pre-assessment, ongoing assessment and summative assessment.

Engagement Priorities • Teachers often find differentiation challenging. What challenges can you identify for successful differentiation? How could you personally tackle these challenges? • In your teaching, do you mostly focus on supporting the learners who have learning difficulties or the learners who need extra challenges? Can you come up with ways to also support the other end of the continuum? • Can you think of differentiation methods which would benefit all students in the classroom? • When reflecting on the 5D model, do you find it to be a useful and tangible approach to differentiation in your respective country and educational context? Why/why not?

References Ahtiainen, R., Beirad, M., Hautamäki, J., Hilasvuori, T., & Thuneberg, H. (2011). Samanaikaisopetus On Mahdollisuus. Tutkimus Helsingin Pilottikoulujen Uudistuvasta Opetuksesta. Helsinki Department of Education. Basic Education Act. (628/1998). Available at: https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaanno kset/1998/en19980628.pdf. Accessed 24 Jan 2020. Brooks, D. C. (2011). Space matters: The impact of formal learning environments on student learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(5), 719–726. Council of Europe. (n.d.). What is the ELP? Available at: https://www.coe.int/en/ web/portfolio/introduction. Accessed 21 Jan 20. Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2013). Teaching and researching motivation (2nd ed.). Routledge. Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. (2014). (4th ed.). Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education.

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Gardner, H. (2008). Multiple intelligences: New horizons. Basic Books. Harlen, W. (2012). On the relationship between assessment for formative and summative purposes. In J. Gardner (Ed.), Assessment and learning (pp. 87–102). Sage. Hayward, L. (2012). Assessment and learning: The learner’s perspective. In J. Gardner (Ed.), Assessment and learning (pp. 125–139). Sage. Kivirauma, J., & Ruoho, K. (2007). Excellence through special education? Lessons from the Finnish school reform. International Review of Education, 53(3), 283– 302. Laari, A., Lakkala, S., & Uusiautti, S. (2021). “For the whole grade’s common good and based on the student’s own current situation”: Differentiated teaching and the choice of methods among Finnish teachers. Early Child Development and Care, 191(4), 598–611. Murawski, W. W., & Swanson, H. L. (2001). A meta-analysis of co-teaching research. Remedial and Special Education, 22(5), 258–267. Murdoch, K. (2015). The power of inquiry: Teaching and learning with curiosity, creativity and purpose in the contemporary classroom. Seastar Education. Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow theory and research. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive psychology (2nd ed., pp. 195–206). Oxford University Press. Nikula, T., & Moore, P. (2019). Exploring translanguaging in CLIL. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(2), 237–249. Official Statistics of Finland. (2018). Special education [e-publication]. Available at: https://www.stat.fi/til/erop/2018/erop_2018_2019-06-19_tie_001_en. html. Accessed 21 Jan 2020. Pihko, M. K. (2007). Minä, Koulu ja Englanti. Vertaileva Tutkimus Englanninkielisen Sisällönopetuksen ja Perinteisen Englannin Opetuksen Affektiivisista Tuloksista. University of Jyväskylä. Rauste-von Wright, M., von Wright, J., & Soini, T. (2003). Oppiminen ja Koulutus. WSOY. Roiha, A. (2014). Teachers’ views on differentiation in content and language integrated learning (CLIL): Perceptions, practices and challenges. Language and Education, 28(1), 1–18. Roiha, A., & Polso, J. (2020). How to succeed in differentiation? The Finnish approach. John Catt Educational. Scruggs, T. E., Mastropieri, M. A., & McDuffie, K. A. (2007). Co-teaching in inclusive classrooms: A metasynthesis of qualitative research. Exceptional Children, 73(4), 392–416. Stoller, F. (2002). Project work: A means to promote language and content. In J. Richards & W. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 107–119). Cambridge University Press. Suprayogi, M. N., Valcke, M., & Godwin, R. (2017). Teachers and their implementation of differentiated instruction in the classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67 (2), 291–301.

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Symeonidis, V., & Schwarz, J. F. (2016). Phenomenon-based teaching and learning through the pedagogical lenses of phenomenology: The recent curriculum reform in Finland. Forum O´swiatowe, 28(2), 31–47. Thousand, J. S., Villa, R. A., & Nevin, A. I. (2006). The many faces of collaborative planning and teaching. Theory into Practice, 45 (3), 239–248. Thousand, J. S., Villa, R. A., & Nevin, A. I. (2007). Differentiating instruction: Collaborative planning and teaching for universally designed learning. Corwin Press. Tieso, C. (2005). The effects of grouping practices and curricular adjustments on achievement. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 29 (1), 60–89. Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd ed.). ASCD. Tomlinson, C. A., & Imbeau, M. B. (2010). Leading and managing a differentiated classroom. ASCD. van Geel, M., Keuning, T., Frèrejean, J., Dolmansb, D., van Merriënboerb, J., & Visscher, A. J. (2019). Capturing the complexity of differentiated instruction. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 30 (1), 51–67. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They’re not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267–301.

Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs Robert J. Lowe, Matthew Y. Schaefer, and Matthew W. Turner

Introduction Students with special educational needs (SEN) are part of the diverse fabric of ELT classes, and this is increasingly being recognised by the field. This can be observed through the designation of inclusion as a key concept in ELT Journal (Stadler-Heer, 2019), and the publication of dedicated practical teacher resource manuals for teaching SEN learners (e.g., Kormos, 2020). However, while SEN support in mainstream education is well-established (Cotterill, 2019), and research has been carried out regarding the language learning of SEN students (Enjelvin, 2009), little attention has been paid to the professional development of language teachers who work with SEN students. This chapter attempts to address this through an exploration of R. J. Lowe (B) Department of English Communication, Tokyo Kasei University, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] M. Y. Schaefer Center for Language Education and Research, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] M. W. Turner Faculty of International Tourism Management, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_13

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five English-as-a-foreign-language teachers’ pedagogical responses to teaching learners with a range of SEN in a Japanese university English programme. In Japanese higher education, English is often a required subject of study. In the past, these compulsory classes were usually offered on a departmentby-department basis and were often taught by part-time lecturers. However, an increasing number of universities are developing programmes with large numbers of instructors, who are tasked with teaching English to the entire student body. These programmes may be taught primarily by non-Japanese staff, or, increasingly, by a mix of Japanese and non-Japanese instructors. What these instructors most often have in common, however, is their professional training. The majority of instructors on courses such as the one investigated in this chapter received their professional training from institutions in the so-called West, most commonly in the form of a masters in applied linguistics or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). While such qualifications are considered standard in the field, they generally do not include courses on teaching students with special educational needs (Abdallah, 2017; Sowell & Sugisaki, 2020), which are a common feature of more standardised and mainstream government-approved teacher education programmes, such as those accredited by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Carpenter, 2020). The five teachers included in this study, although highly qualified, shared a lack of official SEN training, and are thus reflective of many ELT professionals around the world. While there are various definitions related to special needs and learning differences, for this chapter we have chosen one used by the Department for Education and Skills in the UK, which considers SEN to be when a student “has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age” (DfE, 2015, p. 16). We have chosen this definition because it is broad enough to cover conditions such as sensory and/or physical impairments, as well as cognition and learning needs, communication and interaction difficulties, and social, emotional and mental health difficulties (Connor, 2017). We define inclusive education as approaches to teaching which make the class accessible to students regardless of their abilities and needs. In 2016, the Japanese government implemented the Act on the Elimination of Disability Discrimination, which suggested that higher education establishments provide reasonable accommodations for SEN students (Boeltzig-Brown, 2017). This has helped encourage a growing awareness of SEN issues within Japanese universities, with some institutions implementing

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support frameworks aimed at achieving more inclusive education (Young & Schaefer, 2019). Examples of these policies include more formal identification of specific SEN diagnoses and improved awareness raising and sharing of information among teachers. Despite this, given that the majority of practitioners’ teacher education did not include a focus on SEN support, they may have concerns about their ability to provide a suitable learning environment for SEN learners (Kasparek & Turner, 2020; Lowe, 2016). However, as yet little is known about the nature of language teachers’ beliefs and practices in light of these changes. In this chapter, we first provide some background on the study and define key concepts such as teacher cognitions, before introducing the teachers whose experiences are discussed. We then draw on the reflective accounts of the five teachers to examine both their pedagogical responses to teaching their SEN learners, and the changes in their beliefs that resulted from this experience. We hope that the experiences described here will resonate with those of readers, and will help teachers to consider how they could make their own classes accessible to the diverse group of students who are gathered together within the broad label of SEN.

Our Study This chapter considers teacher cognitions; that is, the “unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching” (Borg, 2003, p. 81). Teacher cognitions encompass beliefs, knowledge, assumptions, attitudes regarding students, teaching contexts and instructional approaches. Teachers’ cognitions are influenced by their initial training, contextual factors related to their specific teaching settings, professional development activities, and classroom practice (Borg, 2003). Previous studies about supporting SEN learners have demonstrated that teachers’ attitudes and stereotypes can impact upon student performance in school (Hornstra et al., 2010; Smith, 2013), with other studies focussing on the position of language teachers’ sense of preparedness and self-efficacy (Nijakowska, 2019). There is little research, however, on the relationship between teacher cognitions and the instructing of SEN learners in EFL settings. As such, this chapter explores how assumptions and prior beliefs may influence approaches taken by practitioners when teaching SEN students, and also how these experiences may subsequently have influenced their developing beliefs, knowledge and attitudes. The project was guided by the following questions:

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• To what extent did teachers feel prepared to support SEN learners, and what were their initial perspectives on teaching SEN learners? • What approaches did they take in creating an inclusive environment for their learners, and how did their perspectives change? We selected a case study approach to navigate these questions. Case studies are in-depth analyses of issues within contexts that attempt to draw meanings and understand issues from the perspective of participants in a specific setting (Harrison et al., 2017; Stake, 1994). Applied to teacher education, case studies derive insightful pedagogical principles by presenting stories of contexts that help reach more poignant understandings of issues (Duff, 2019). We utilised reflective writing to learn about our case, which Borg (2006) describes as a process whereby teachers express written thoughts “in relation to particular topics and experiences” (p. 293). Participants’ retrospective accounts included their teaching background and any previous training or experience with regard to SEN, in order to understand how their cognitions changed as a result of the experiences detailed here.

The Participants and Context The five participants were selected due to their experiences working with SEN learners on an English communication programme at a private university in Tokyo, Japan. This was a required large-scale programme for first-year students, employing forty-two lecturers, with course aims including the development of discussion skills, communication strategies, and spoken fluency. The course followed a strongly unified curriculum, meaning that lesson aims, methodology, and assessment measures were all standardised. Students were assessed chiefly through their ability to appropriately employ set phrases that demonstrated performance of target discussion behaviour (e.g. “I think that…” as a way to introduce an opinion). The set phrases included both statement stems and questions (e.g. “What do you think?” to ask for an opinion), as well as utterances for negotiation of meaning (e.g. “I’m sorry but I don’t understand”) so that students were expected to remain active throughout their discussions, which could last up to twenty minutes. Support for instructors assigned to teach SEN students was provided by programme managers (PMs) and administration staff, with information about their students’ needs and advice about possible accommodations given. Regular meetings in which instructors would explain how their students were

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responding to the course, any adjustments made, and whether or not other students’ learning experience was being affected were also organised. The multiple participants represent a cross section of voices, in terms of teaching experience and background, combining to form a singular case that details the diversity of actions and perspectives of SEN accommodation in a university programme. This table provides some background information about the participants: Table 1. The study also considers diversity in terms of the type of SEN students the instructors taught and, therefore, the range of accommodations applied. The following are summaries of this information for each participant (Note: the participants are named using pseudonyms). However, it should be remembered that accommodations for SEN students, while to some extent generalisable, are also specific to individuals. What works for one hearingimpaired student, for example, may not work for another, and so all of these examples should be seen as illustrative rather than guidelines for how to accommodate certain types of SEN. Ashley I taught a student with (severe) autism and a stutter […] He was hardworking and very focused on using English only in our lessons, but he required extensive preparation time to help him comfortably participate in a discussion. He requested and received 1-to-1 instruction […]. It was recommended to follow the same script every week and sit side-by-side. I allowed him prep time Table 1 Participants’ background information Pseudonym Ashley Celine

Doug Johnny

Yumi

Postgraduate qualification

Other related qualifications

Prior teaching experience

SEN Guidance?

MA TESOL (US) MA TESOL (UK)

BA Linguistics (US) TESL Certificates

Nothing reported Yes, in-house training

MEd TESOL (US) MA TESOL (US)

BA Education (US) BA English (US)

MA TESOL (US)

Japanese High School teaching license

University ESL teaching Teaching assistant in Japan Peace Corps in China University EFL/ESL teaching and administration EAP/ESP teaching

Yes, limited Nothing reported

Yes—part of license

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between activities and modified some activities, such as the 3-2-1 Fluency [this is a speaking fluency activity, adapted from Maurice (1983), in which students repeat the same monologue three times with increasing time pressure]. For Fluency, he would write out his responses to the questions before class and then just practise reading and re-reading them for speed […] Before each discussion he had 10 min to silently prepare […]. At the start of each lesson we would review the lesson plan together. At the end of each lesson I would give him the following week’s lesson plan so he would be aware of what would happen.

Celine This student was almost completely blind. He would use a braille machine to help support his studies since he could not read visual text. He used the braille machine in order to read and use the course textbook, but it took more time for him to retrieve and locate information than it would for other students using their coursebook. [H]e was responsive to feedback about his discussion skills, […] had strong self-initiative [and] would often memorise prompts or topic questions to aid his learning and participation in class activities. Nevertheless, he sometimes struggled to know when to ask a question or take initiative in the discussion, and instead would wait to be called upon in the discussion rather than to initiate a topic himself. [W]e had to make several accommodations in the class. First, the quizzes were printed in braille, and I would record his answers to the quiz personally while the other students took the written quiz. We also [made] braille flashcards of the phrases learnt in class to facilitate his acquisition of the new language. As for giving instructions, everything was done orally and presented in advance as a class. For instance, if we were to discuss three questions in an activity, myself or other students would read out loud all three questions before starting the activity. In the feedback portion of the lesson, I would usually have the students ask each other questions in pairs or in a group about their strengths or points to improve in the discussion. […]. I took the approach that each activity would have to be simple enough in order for it to be easily remembered through quick verbal explanation.

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Doug I taught one student who used a wheelchair. I was informed before the first lesson that I should adapt my lessons to avoid requiring him to move around in the classroom. […] […] I modified the lesson so that other students would move around him for alternative groupings. This was a minor accommodation, and one that I also used for students who were temporarily injured or otherwise had difficulty moving around. I taught another student who didn’t verbalise in English or in any other language. [Doug taught this student one-to-one after she had failed the regular ‘group’ version of the course.] This seemed related to severe anxiety. She seemed somewhat passive in that she did not initiate communication, but she seemed active in the sense of processing everything and responding according to her interests and needs. We [i.e. Doug, the programme managers, and co-teachers] converted all the speaking tasks into real-time writing tasks. I also took advice from previous teachers about sitting side-by-side with the student, using a small whiteboard and phrase cards, and being careful about eye contact and body language while waiting for the student’s response. […] I was especially sensitive to reading the student’s emotional state and tried to calibrate my subtle behaviours and the overall classroom atmosphere to co-create a sense of safety.

Johnny The student, [with] auditory processing disorder, [had] a lot of anxiety around learning a language due to his disability […] The student [was] visibly nervous in class. He [did] better in pairs than in groups. The main accommodation here [was] to spread pairs and groups out across a large classroom, to which this class was assigned with this learner in mind. I […] also [used] guided discovery and dialogue comparisons for target language presentations as these have a more visual/reading component, and when students discuss these they tend to do so more quietly than when they discuss a test-teach-test […] prompt. I […] also [tried] to be sensitive and encouraging with respect to the student’s anxiety.

Yumi [The student’s] body was half-paralysed because of a vaccine. She was in a wheelchair and had difficulty writing.

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She was passionate about learning and was hardworking (though she said it took some time for her to start accepting her condition and get the passion for learning back). I asked other students to move so that she did not need to move much. However, when she said she could or when she wanted to, I also let her move in class, too. I made sure that she had enough time to write when she worked individually, or increased more pair speaking preparation time (instead of writing) when they generated ideas for discussions.

Participant Reflections Questions were shared with the participants via email to structure and guide their reflective writing. The questions encouraged the recounting of different stages of supporting SEN learners, from pre-experience perspectives, to teaching experiences, through to post-experience perspectives. The emergent themes have been collated and synthesised into paragraphs.

Pre-experience Perspectives When asked about their general attitude towards teaching SEN students, all agreed that some kind of accommodation should be provided in EFL classrooms. Johnny and Doug explicitly said that they had a general attitude of inclusivity regarding SEN issues, although both admitted that this was somewhat vague. As Doug put it, “my attitude was that teachers should try to teach the actual students in their classroom as well as they can”. However, they also acknowledged that they primarily thought of physical disabilities when first approaching the issue. Johnny revealed that his prior beliefs came mainly out of his experiences in the service industry, where he had to consider how customers “should be able to enjoy a meal in a barrier-free environment”. Doug acknowledged that he held a “deficit” view, i.e. teachers should teach the majority of students to certain standards, but it is understood that not all students would reach this standard and that “some university courses weren’t for everyone”. Therefore, his attitude to SEN students was focused on how disabilities were connected to “standards” in relation to target learning outcomes. He saw how mobility and sensory issues were unconnected to these standards, and therefore appropriate accommodations were relatively easy to identify, while developmental or cognitive issues were strongly related to these standards, and therefore it seemed unrealistic to expect students with

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such disabilities to meet them. Similarly, Ashley expressed general apprehension at not knowing the feasibility of accommodating SEN learners while still meeting the curricula aims. Celine, Yumi, and Ashley strongly implied that they agreed with inclusive approaches. Celine expressed support for systems in which teachers, students, administration, and, when applicable, the students’ parents co-create and oversee a formalised plan for adapting courses for students’ needs. She also said that teachers should be provided with consultation, as necessary, to “prevent burnout, and give the teacher an opportunity to talk through any difficulties or concerns, and allow for some oversight on classroom teaching”. Both Celine and Yumi stressed the importance of communicating with SEN learners at the beginning of courses to better understand their individual circumstances and needs. Celine added that teachers should also educate themselves generally about students’ particular disabilities. Yumi felt that teachers’ abilities to provide appropriate accommodations included letting students do what they could or want to do, but not risk overly pushing them. She also saw it important “to communicate with other students [and] support their understanding of what support to provide as a classmate” and to give equal attention to all class members. The teachers were also asked to reflect on their feelings upon learning that they would have a SEN student in their class. There were initially mixed feelings, with slightly unfavourable trends. Doug and Johnny expressed both positive and negative thoughts, with Yumi and Ashley focusing only on concerns. Regarding his student with mobility issues, Doug had no worries. In keeping with his general attitude to such students, he felt that making the necessary adjustments to his classroom practice would be “an interesting and novel challenge, especially because it was not a particularly difficult challenge”. For his student with developmental issues, he had more concerns. He said that he was initially confused about how a non-verbal student could complete a speaking course. However, he was somewhat assured by the amount of collaborative planning among PMs and fellow teachers, and their willingness to make significant adjustments towards creating an engaging course for the student, thus allowing her to use language in a relatively authentic way. However, another concern that Doug had was that the adapted course may not be successful and feature high levels of discomfort in the classroom for him and the student. He also worried that it “might not end up being educational for the student and instead just be a frustrating hoop to jump through”. Ashley had similar concerns as well as self-doubts, due to her lack of training, asking herself if she was “the best qualified person for this student?” Johnny was pleased to be given the opportunity to help a

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student and to try something new, but also admitted to feeling “burdened by the extra work” he might have had. Celine’s concerns were very much tied to her general attitude—she wanted to know as much as possible about her students’ individual needs to effectively communicate with them, and have someone to discuss how to design appropriate accommodations with.

Experiences When asked if, in retrospect, there were any accommodations the participants wish they had made, some interesting responses emerged. Several expressed regret that they had not spoken directly with students about their needs or classroom experiences. Yumi noted: “I had a chance to talk to the student more after they completed the […] course […] but I wish I had had that conversation at an earlier stage”. Doug similarly stated: “I wish that I had taken more time to check in with him (and other students) about his experience of the course and if any other adjustments would be helpful”. In general, it seems that these teachers grew an awareness of the need for direct student dialogue about their needs. The mix of practical concerns with those focused more on the participants’ attitudes towards their students was also reflected in their suggestions of how their experiences could benefit others in the future. Some suggested that attitudinal adjustments were needed. Johnny, for example, said that teachers should be as “helpful and patient” as possible, while others made more specific recommendations. For example, Yumi expressed regret that she had focused “too much” on the student’s disability, and this prevented her from seeing the student in a similar way to other class members. Doug gave perhaps the most wide ranging response: …the principles of universal design seem really helpful for improving one’s overall teaching for all students. Students with disabilities can help us clarify how we can teach with more sensitivity to our actual students’ actual needs. The accommodations that we make for students with identified disabilities can also helpfully inform our accommodations for other students. Here, I’d point to the example of using similar mobility accommodations for temporarily injured students or students simply feeling bad.

This statement highlights ways in which Doug’s experiences provided an opportunity for him to fundamentally reconsider his classroom practice; moving from the more formalised disabilities of the students to the individual differences of all the students in a class.

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Finally, participants were asked whether their experiences matched prior expectations. As noted earlier, participants mentioned having somewhat negative expectations in advance, marked by uncertainty around their ability to offer SEN support. However, reflecting on their experiences, this trepidation seems to have transformed into confidence. Johnny suggested that his concerns were “unfounded”, possibly because “this fear motivated me to think very carefully about how to best teach the students”. Celine reported the experience as being “interesting and pleasurable” because the student was “keen” and worked well with other class members. Doug similarly noted that despite concerns, he finally felt he was “simply teaching”, and further stated that while the “normality” of teaching these students challenged his assumptions, in retrospect he thought it strange that he would have “expected anything different”.

Post-experience perspectives The teachers were divided into those who felt a significant shift in attitudes after their experience of teaching SEN learners (Ashley, Johnny, and Doug) and those who felt a minor one (Celine and Yumi). Johnny reflected on two key points. First of all, reflecting through his subsequent position as a PM, he clearly felt that his negative reaction when he was asked to teach a SEN student (“burdened by the extra work”) was erroneous: I know it’s not a great reaction, and it’s one I try to discourage among the teachers I supervise, but I did have that reaction myself initially. As a manager I think it’s important to acknowledge that teachers may feel this way and then help them get over it by viewing the situation as a whole-class issue rather than an individual student issue. I think this can help reduce this reflexive discrimination to be more goal-oriented and, ultimately, lead to better inclusive practice as a matter of course.

Johnny became aware that hidden disabilities (i.e. cognitive or developmental issues) necessitate more numerous and more complex accommodations than physical disabilities, representing a shift in focus from his prior perspective. This also led him to realise how unaware he may have been of disabilities previous students of his may have had. Overall, the experience raised important issues for Johnny in terms of the need for better pre-service teacher training regarding SEN accommodation and for greater inclusivity with as wide a range of disabilities in mind as possible. Ashley was generally impressed by the programme’s framework to provide appropriate support. This helped her reflect on the importance of taking into

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account context, issues of visibility, and that teachers assigned SEN duties “demonstrate enough experience in teaching in general, enough maturity, and enough flexibility and organisation to handle such a special circumstance”. Ashley also came to feel that teacher attitudes towards teaching SEN students as being “beyond their pay grade” were potentially damaging and should be tackled. The experience led her to believe in the importance of having teacher support networks, as this was a key factor in alleviating prior feelings of apprehension. Doug shared this idea of the benefits of collaboration, though he focused more on teachers and students working together to shape the course into its most effective form. This came out as his biggest shift in perspective: from an “unexamined and unrecognised assumption” that SEN learners should be taught only by experts in particular disabilities to a more “positive” view in which SEN students are included in mainstream classes. In addition, he reflected on how considering alternative classroom activities and forms of assessment leads to important questions about what is good for all students, not only SEN learners. Celine focused on a criticism of how the programme dealt with SEN issues, feeling that “there was sometimes unnecessary burden put on students to achieve certain things that assumed they were equal in ability to other students”. This was in line with her prior perspective, but now she had an example of a dyslexic student who she felt was being unfairly assessed on reading skills. She voiced support for the possibility of an exemption or alternative being offered. Yumi’s experience also reinforced her previous attitude, which was that teachers should provide academic support to meet SEN students’ needs in accordance with how other students are taught. All respondents identified both challenging and enriching experiences, although the challenges were generally framed as welcome opportunities to develop aspects of their teaching skills. Yumi felt unsure of how to respond to her student’s openness with discussing her disability and difficulties inclass. Yet, she additionally said that this was something she would appreciate the opportunity to learn to do. Celine reflected more generally on the challenges of creating an inclusive environment and how “all students regardless of disability have a right to access education, and so as teachers we have to ask ourselves some difficult questions about what language education means in the classroom”. On a similar topic, Johnny’s experience raised for him the complex issue of “the feasibility of individualised instruction versus the need for standardised learning outcomes”, with Ashley facing a similar problem regarding how her student may have fared in a class among other students. Her other challenges focused on her particular SEN student’s needs, including a lack of eye contact. Doug mentioned the challenge of overcoming

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his own doubts about whether the modified version of the course he was teaching was effective, including whether or not the learning outcomes that were being achieved and assessed were really appropriate. In addition to these challenges, there were positive experiences that the respondents found similarly enlightening. Yumi learned, through listening to her student’s in-class comments, that “being disabled does not define the student”. Similarly, Johnny began to view disabilities as individual learner variables, noting that “a disability is just part of a profile, and understanding that total profile, whether a student has a disability or not, is helpful if not necessary in optimising that student’s learning experience”. In addition, he realised that each SEN student that he taught had informed his teaching and teacher training. Doug shared this point, noting that the experience allowed him to think more “flexibly, sensitively, and responsibly” when teaching subsequent classes. He also noted that adapting curriculum elements helped him understand the course better and develop alternative routes to identical goals, or rethink goals altogether. In addition, he found the collaboration involved in teaching his particular SEN student motivating and a reminder that novel experiences, while initially worrying, are often more achievable than expected. Ashley also reflected on how her initial difficulties meant that eventual successes she saw in the student made the course all the more rewarding.

Discussing Participants’ Responses and Developing Teacher Cognitions The data outlined above revealed a number of insights about the effects that attending to learners’ special educational needs had on teacher cognitions. Initially, participants expressed quite sensitive attitudes towards the teaching of SEN students in general and assumptions that appropriate accommodations should be made for the students in order for them to participate in class. This is one area in which the beliefs of the participants showed little change, and even expanded in some cases. Through reflections, the participants articulated claims of holding inclusive views before their experiences, of having classes tailored towards inclusivity, and of identifying times when they could have been more inclusive. What did appear to change is their knowledge and understanding of SEN, their beliefs about special educational needs protocols, and their feelings of confidence regarding abilities to teach these learners.

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With regard to their beliefs about the nature of SEN, there were some significant developments. While all the teachers had differing experiences, a number of common themes emerged regarding their evolving cognitions. The first of these was the realisation that learner disabilities should simply be regarded as individual differences, and not necessarily considered as something different from the other individual differences present among other class members. For example, Doug realised that accommodations that are made for SEN learners can also be beneficial to all, and that class and materials design should take into account the class as a whole, rather than being designed for the majority, with accommodations targeted at accommodating the minority of SEN learners. Another major thread in the narratives revolved around the self-confidence of participants. The teachers who already had some degree of training had better ideas of what should be done (creating individual learning plans, etc.), while those who had no prior experience indicated a greater level of anxiety about the prospect of teaching SEN students. These teachers expressed a general sense of apprehension, either because they were concerned about students being able to meet the “standards” of the course, or because they felt unprepared. On learning they had a SEN student in-class, most had mixed feelings. While some felt that making the necessary accommodations would be interesting, others worried that the presence of the student would make the course difficult to teach. Apprehensions were also raised about the possibility of “discomfort” between the teacher, the student, and the other class members. However, these worries soon dissipated when teaching commenced—as Johnny said, this concern was “baseless”. The participants felt that the classes quickly gained regularity, with concerns about SEN all but fading. There was, on this point, a remarkable transformation in the self-beliefs of the teachers, who went from being unsure of themselves to being confident and feeling able to provide advice to others. This mirrors their growing knowledge of SEN (and it seems likely these two points were self-reinforcing).

Conclusion The majority of language teachers entering the ELT profession via fieldspecific training (MA TESOL degrees, etc.) have very little, if any, training in teaching SEN students. It is therefore valuable to understand the processes such teachers go through when engaging in this kind of teaching for the first time. In this chapter, we explored the developing cognitions of a small

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group of teachers who found themselves teaching SEN students for the first time, and the implications this had for their practice. The reflective accounts revealed some general developments in the cognitions of the participants in this study, particularly regarding their knowledge of and beliefs regarding SEN, and their self-confidence in being able to teach SEN learners. The experience of teaching students with special educational needs seems to have been a positive one for the teachers, contributing to new professional knowledge and changes in their professional identity and classroom practice. This is, of course, only a small case study, and the case in question was quite privileged, as all the teachers were working in a programme which held diversity and inclusion as a priority and provided a great amount of support to this end. Other teachers with less institutional support may have a very different experience, and thus it would be beneficial to see more studies in the future which explore a more expansive range of contexts. This study, however, provides a starting point for this research and provides some suggestive examples of how teachers can approach the teaching of diverse SEN learners sensitively, inclusively and confidently. While it may be intimidating for teachers to work with SEN learners for the first time, the findings of this chapter suggest that taking an inclusive approach, treating the learner as an individual, and discussing their needs with them directly, can go a long way to overcoming initial concerns. In addition, our findings have implications in terms of TESOL programmes, which may need to incorporate inclusive pedagogies (Kormos, 2020). Further, it raises the question of whether treating special educational needs as examples of individual differences rather than as a unique category, can help teachers to successfully include all learners in the class.

Suggested Further Reading Gray, A. (2018). Effective differentiation: A training guide to empower teachers and enable learners with SEND and specific learning difficulties. Abingdon: Routledge. This general guide establishes good practice with supporting SEN pupils. Kormos, J., & Smith M. (2012). Teaching languages to students with specific learning differences. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. This book details the complex language learning processes of people with specific learning differences. Stevens, C. S. (2013). Disability in Japan. Abingdon: Routledge.

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This title provides an overview of the history, situation, and discourse of disability in Japan.

Emergent priorities • The teachers in this chapter felt unprepared for teaching SEN learners. How prepared do you feel to teach students with special educational needs? • Most ELT training programmes do not include SEN instruction as a major topic. How can ELT training better prepare teachers for teaching SEN learners? • One major insight from the teachers in this study was that rather than thinking of SEN learners as a special group, teachers should focus more generally on differentiated learning. Should SEN be considered as something separate from other individual differences?

References Abdallah, M. M. (2017). Towards improving content and instruction of the ‘TESOL/TEFL for Special Needs’ course: An action research study. Educational Action Research, 25 (3), 420–437. Boeltzig-Brown, H. (2017). Disability and career service provision for students with disabilities at institutions of higher education in Japan: An overview of key legislation, policies, and practices. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 30 (1), 61–81. Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36 (2), 81–109. Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. Bloomsbury. Carpenter, J. (2020). EFL education for the visually impaired in Japan: Data from five interviews. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 13(1), 57–78. Connor, J. (2017). Addressing special educational needs and disability in the curriculum: Modern foreign languages. Routledge. Cotterill, T. (2019). Principles and practices of working with pupils with special educational needs and disability. Routledge. DfE. (2015). SEND code of practice. London: DfE Publications. https://www.gov. uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.

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Duff, P. (2019). Case study research: Making language learning complexities visible. In J. McKinley & H. Rose (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of research methods in applied linguistics (pp. 144–153). Routledge. Enjelvin, D. G. (2009). Teaching French to a non-sighted undergraduate: Adjusting practices to deliver inclusive education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 33(2), 265–279. Harrison, H., Birks, M., Franklin, R., & Mills, J. (2017). Case study research: Foundations and methodological orientations. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 18(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-18.1.2655. Hornstra, L., Denessen, E., Bakker, J., van den Bergh, L., & Voeten, M. (2010). Teacher attitudes toward dyslexia: Effects on teacher expectations and the academic achievement of students with dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 43(5), 515–529. Kasparek, N., & Turner, M. W. (2020). Puzzling about special educational needs in EFL teacher development: A duoethnographic inquiry. In R. J. Lowe & L. Lawrence (Eds.), Duoethnography in English language teaching: Research, reflection and classroom application (pp. 112–132). Multilingual Matters. Kormos, J. (2020). Specific learning difficulties in ELT. Cambridge University Press. Lowe, R. (2016). Special education needs in English language teaching: Towards a framework for continuing professional development. ELTED, 19, 23–31. Maurice, K. (1983). The fluency workshop. TESOL Newsletter, 17 (4), 29. Nijakowsaka, J. (2019). Foreign language teachers’ preparedness to cater for special educational needs of learners with dyslexia: A conceptual framework. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 34 (2), 189–203. Smith, D. (2013). Deaf adults: Retrospective narratives of school experiences and teacher expectations. Disability and Society, 28(5), 674–686. Sowell, J., & Sugisaki, L. (2020). An exploration of EFL teachers’ experience with learning disability training. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 13(1), 114–134. Stadler-Heer, S. (2019). Inclusion. ELT Journal, 73(2), 219–222. Stake, R. E. (1994). Case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 236–247). Sage. Young, D., & Schaefer, M. Y. (2019). Collaborative support for students with disabilities. In P. Clements, A. Krause & P. Bennett (Eds.), Diversity and inclusion (pp. 136–142). JALT.

Dyslexia and Its Role in the Teaching Reform in China Stuart Perrin

Introduction This chapter explores how the teaching of English through English for specific and academic purposes (ESAP) courses, as part of an English medium instruction (EMI) programme in mainland China, has had positive benefits for the teaching of dyslexic students. This is of particular relevance because dyslexia is not recognised as a disability within mainland China, and therefore it often falls outside the scope of special education needs. The growth of EMI can be considered an international phenomenon in higher education (Galloway & Rose, 2021). Macaro defines EMI as ‘the use of English language to teach academic subjects (other than English itself ) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language of the majority of the population is not English’ (2018, p. 1). As Jiang, Zhang and May (2019) report, one country that has seen a growth in EMI courses and programmes in China. Students in China start to study English at a young age, typically during their primary education years, so in effect those who later study on EMI programmes or at EMI institutions are expected to be well-prepared.

S. Perrin (B) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_14

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Much of this growth can be attributed to favourable changes in the regulatory system, which have allowed the possibility of international education collaborations. Perhaps of greatest significance is the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools («中华人民共和国中外合作办学条例»), passed in 1983 by the Chinese Ministry of Education (MoE), allowing for Chinese—foreign joint educational ventures. Similarly, the Education Act of the People’s Republic of China (1995) further encouraged cooperation, including partnerships or joint ventures between Chinese and UK/USA/Australian institutions (Huang, 2007). In 2003, the opening up of the Chinese Higher Education sector to foreign involvement and cooperation within the country was further encouraged with the 2003 law on Chinese-foreign cooperation in Running Schools. The MoE further stated the target of increasing the number of EMI courses in The National Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan Guideline (2010), and this message has been further enhanced through the Belt and Road initiative (Macaro & Tian, 2020). As of June 2018, the MoE indicated that there were about 1090 active Chineseforeign cooperative institutions and projects at the undergraduate level and above, including 9 full joint venture institutions, with partners ranging from the UK and USA to Russia and Israel (Redden, 2018). Whilst not all of these programmes or institutions teach in English, as has been highlighted, the MoE encourages the use of English. This has equally led to an increase in the number of ESAP courses provided across the full spectrum of universities and colleges, as students need to learn the academic English skills and literacies required for successful study on these EMI programmes (Madhaven Brochier, 2016). The growing number of ESAP classes as a result of the growth of EMI programmes, and the increased attractiveness of China as a destination for degree-level study, has also had an unexpected positive impact on the teaching of students with dyslexia, both international and local mainland Chinese students. The chapter begins with a discussion on special needs education within mainland China, focusing especially on how dyslexia is viewed and dealt with, particularly with regard to the Chinese language. A brief discussion follows on the effect that EMI has had on raising awareness of dyslexia. The core of the chapter is the description of a case study of one Joint Venture University (JVU, University X) within mainland China. It draws on the teaching practices of ESAP, and shows how aiming for inclusive, global education and redesigning some ESAP modules, led to consider the best approaches and support needed to teach (ESAP to) dyslexic students. It highlights the similarities between the skills and techniques used for teaching ESAP students

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within the language classroom and teaching dyslexic students, concluding with suggestions and insights that can have a wider impact on the learning and teaching experience of students with dyslexia within mainland China and beyond.

Special Needs Education Within China In the 1980s, mainland China started to legislate for inclusive education for all, passing a legal mandate in 1986 that the compulsory education system needed to include education for all students with disabilities (Pang, 2010). For children with visual, hearing and mental impairments, special schools were created, further strengthened by the Teachers’ Law (1993) and the Education Law (1995) which both call for offering educational initiatives for individuals with disabilities. Vehmas (2010) suggests that special education is about identifying categories of special needs and designing specific curricula to meet those needs. However, within mainland China there is no specific definition of inclusion, and mainland China currently only recognises six classes of disability; visual, hearing, intellectual, physical, psychiatric and multiple impairments (Kritzer, 2011), failing to cover all the categories common in other countries. Hu and Szente (2010) highlight that this limited idea of disability and therefore inclusivity needed to be addressed, identifying specifically emotional disorders and speech-language disorders such as dyslexia. In the 1990s the Learning in the Regular Classroom (LRC) movement took the notion of inclusivity further (Ellsworth & Zhang, 2007). As a result, children with disabilities could be educated in Chinese general education classrooms, though students needed to adjust to life in a typical Chinese school, with inevitable inconsistencies in teaching practices (Deng & Zhu, 2016; Kritzer, 2011). Special schools also exist, but regardless of which a student attends, they are likely to be faced with many challenges. As Kritzer (2011) highlights, the focus within mainland China is on providing students with special needs an education, rather than providing an equal education.

Dyslexia Within China Dyslexia can be considered a common learning difficulty, which has global spread. It is a characteristic that one is born with, and will not go away (Pennington et al., 1990), though the effects of dyslexia may change through

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life. Dyslexia is characterised by difficulties in the development of literacy and language related skills (Khalid & Anjum, 2019; Lyon et al., 2003) with people suffering from dyslexia having difficulties understanding meaning when reading. Chung and Ho (2010) highlight that many of the studies and research on dyslexia have been with alphabet-based languages, and that it was often thought that non-alphabet-based language speakers did not suffer from dyslexia. However, since the 1980s it has become increasingly evident that Chinese speakers (readers) may suffer from dyslexia (Chan et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2012), with much of the available research based on studies in Hong Kong. For example, Chan et al. (2006, 2008) identified the most common cognitive defects being weakness of visual-orthographic skills, rapid naming and morphological awareness. Children in Hong Kong are tested for dyslexia around the age of seven, with a number of behaviour checklists covering multiple skills available for possible identification of specific learning difficulties. For those identified at risk of reading failure, early intervention often focuses on eight core literacy components (see Ho, 2010 for an explanation) to help build core skills. A study by Chung and Ho (2010) found significant growth in oral language, visual-orthographic knowledge, morphological awareness and character recognition, showing the importance of these early interventions. Identification of dyslexia in mainland China is less advanced, with Chinese classrooms and teachers facing a number of challenges. Mainland China still follows the ‘whole class method of teaching’ (Deng & Harris, 2008, p. 23), which focuses on repetition both in subject content and learning style (Hao & Yin, 2015), often as a result of class size and the main focus being on passing examinations. Therefore, there is little time for attention to be given to those students who are struggling, with these students being allowed to drift as the focus is on the majority of the class (Pang, 2010). In addition, there is a lack of appropriate diagnostic testing and testing expertise (Worrell & Taber, 2009; Zhang et al., 2012) to be able to identify students who have learning difficulties. Most universities in mainland China also still follow the rote learning styles (Lei & Hu, 2014). However, norms are being challenged and opportunities created as a result of greater recruitment of international students, as well as the growth of a variety of EMI programmes (Lei & Hu, 2014). The increased number of international students has meant an increase in the number of students who have dyslexia recognised by their home educational cultures, and an expectation that it will also be recognised within China. The UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), for example, reported that they expected Chinese institutions that partner with UK institutions to have UK standards

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of QA, including levels of support to students with learning difficulties (QAA, 2013). For many EMI institutions within China, some form of learning and teaching support is the norm for most if not all students, as students need to acquire English language skills to be able to effectively complete their studies. Much of this English language support is through dedicated language centres, and through the increasing adoption of ESAP programmes (Han et al., 2019). Hyland (2006) described ESAP as a way of teaching the specific language and academic needs of learners, and is often seen as a textoriented approach which provides access to the academic and communicative competencies that a learner needs to be able to engage in their academic communities through disciplinary discourse. This, however, highlights a problem faced by students who have dyslexia. Kirby et al. (2008) indicate that understanding complex texts, taking notes, understanding and synthesising course materials, and reproducing this information through written-based assignments, all causes difficulties and creates anxiety and stress. As a result, Couzens et al. (2015) highlight that students are more likely to use more surface approaches to learning, motivated by the desire to avoid failing at their studies, rather than deep learning approaches, where learners look for understanding and meaning. As the following case study illustrates, the pedagogical strategies used within ESAP classes in the EMI institution provide unique opportunities for students with dyslexia to be able to study and perform on a more level playing field.

The Case University X (pseudonym), established in 2006, is an EMI transnational education (TNE) university located in mainland China. It is accredited to deliver both a UK degree through its UK partner institution, and a Chinese degree through its Chinese partner institution. Students therefore receive a double degree at undergraduate level, though only the UK degree at postgraduate level, meeting the requirements of both UK and Chinese quality assurance and regulatory systems. Over 90% of students are Chinese native speakers, and over 50% of staff are non-native speakers of English. The aspiration is to have 20% of the student body international by 2025. ESAP classes are provided to both undergraduate and postgraduate students to ensure they have the language skills to successfully complete studies. At undergraduate level, these classes are mainly

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credit-bearing modules in year one, with a reduced amount in year two. The modules need to be passed to progress to the next year. The university tries to create what is often termed a truly international university working and teaching in English, without compromising quality within its context. The UK Quality Assurance Agency in a review of UK transnational education within China (2013) noted that the university followed processes typical of the UK, and commended the English language support that was offered to all students. It did not identify the need to support students with dyslexia, but did suggest that as the university grows, its UK founding partner would need to ensure that quality assurance processes are embedded in UK practice. Undergraduate students are enrolled in broad subject areas for Year 1, following a broadly similar curriculum for their subject area. During the first year, they ‘choose’ their degree programme, which then guides their study for the duration of the programme. In 2016, Year 1 provision underwent a periodic review, followed one year later by a similar review of the Language Centre. As a result, in 2018, a comprehensive review of Year 1 provision was carried out, largely though not exclusively because of some concerns about students’ English language abilities. As a result of this review, some changes were made and a study was set up to determine the affordances/effectiveness of such changes. Below I describe the changes made, followed by the outcomes and their implications.

Changing Year 1 Four drivers for change were identified. Firstly, concerns had been expressed by academic departments that students struggled to communicate orally in English. Secondly a recognition that language classes needed to give students more foundational skills in English before the transition to ESAP. Thirdly more time was needed to help students transition from high school to UK style higher education study. Fourthly, ensuring that the ESAP provision was inclusive of all students, including the increasing numbers of international students, and that it supported dyslexic students in particular. As a result, the new Year 1 was simplified. Prior to the changes, students started ESAP modules in their first week of study, continuing until their final week at the end of the second semester. Students also had relatively detailed academic content classes, though generic in nature, as well as compulsory classes required by the Chinese government. International students studied Chinese language instead of Chinese government compulsory classes. The

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changes have two main elements; an introduction of general English in semester 1 to help build into more complex ESAP classes in Semester 2, and academic taster modules for the last six weeks in Semester 1, to help with degree programme choice. In Semester 2, students study semester long ESAP modules, more detailed academic discovery modules, according to each student’s programme choice, Chinese government required modules in mathematics, culture and physical education, or Chinese language modules for international students.

Inclusive Education for All In recognition of increased and differing needs of international students, as well as a recognition of potential learning issues with local students, the changes also included an attempt to address the needs of students with learning difficulties, especially dyslexia (Indrarathne, 2019). Whilst going through the processes of design and approval for the changes, and looking at the accommodations that would be needed for ESAP teaching to all students, the similarities between the requirements for developing students’ study skills in Year 1 and for teaching dyslexic students became clearer, and those findings informed the final decisions. The most popular approach for teaching dyslexic students is the multi-sensory approach (Kamala, 2014), also called the Orton-Gillingham Approach (Reid, 2009). This approach promotes the use of all the senses in learning, with Kamala (2014) calling it structured, sequential, and cumulative, and requiring a systematic approach by teachers. Multisensory learning involves the use of visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic-tactile senses together to enhance memory and learning of written language, making links between the visual (language we see), auditory (language we hear) and kinaesthetic-tactile (language symbols we feel) pathways in learning to read and spell (International Dyslexia Association, 2005). According to the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (2000) teaching dyslexic students language should include: • being simultaneous—using all the senses at the same time to enhance learning and retention of information; • being systematic and cumulative—being logical and beginning easy and progressing (logically) to more difficult aspects and materials of language. Scaffolding approaches (Wood & Wood, 1996), a common strategy in

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second language learning classrooms, allow teachers to revise, cue elicitation and make links to past (and future) learning (Hammond & Gibbons, 2005), as well as (academic) contexts (Heron & Webster, 2019); • giving direct instructions—continuous student–teacher interaction; • using diagnostic teaching—careful analysis and review of students’ needs, clear content presented and little abstract thinking; and • using synthetic and analytic instruction—synthetic instruction presents the parts of the language and then teaches how they work together to create a whole, whilst analytic instruction is the opposite, highlighting the whole and then showing how it can be broken into its individual parts. The broad principle for change was to bring together three strands into a meaningful and inclusive syllabus (Indrarathne, 2019): (1) the cultural context of studying at university, (2) collaborative learning and (3) cooperative learning, with corresponding skill sets, as highlighted in Table 1. Adapted from Edwards (2012), the three-strand approach presented in Table 1 highlights the nature of the linguistic challenge facing all students studying in a second language, namely how to provide the students with the skill sets they require to be collaborative and cooperative learners within the context of university. It was felt that there were striking similarities between the teaching styles and requirements needed to work with dyslexic students, as highlighted in the multi-sensory approach, and for all students working in a second language at university, adjusting to a new and different learning culture. By working to tackle issues related to English language learning, the university would also be working to address issues with regard to working with dyslexic students. The following section goes on to explore the ESAP teaching practices that were adopted in more detail. Table 1 English communication skills in the academic context Cultural context

Collaborative learning

Cooperative learning

Active learning Critical thinking Self-study Independent learner Objective setting Time management Student centred Group work

Brainstorming Pair work Classwork Feedback Discussion groups Problem solving groups

Research projects Presentations Group writing Case study Discussion

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Principles Guiding the ESAP Approach: Relevance to Teaching Dyslexic Students The international nature of the university means that it attracts both local Chinese students who want an international education, as well as international students who wish to study in China but have not developed their Chinese language skills for an academic environment. All students need to attend ESAP classes to ensure they have the skills needed to be successful in their studies. As an international university which wants high calibre international students, it needs to ensure appropriate support for students with learning difficulties to meet international standards. Chinese students with dyslexia have therefore benefited from this repositioning, both in terms of recognition of dyslexia, and in the support and teaching techniques within the (language) classroom. The ESAP teaching strategies adopted through the inclusivity for all approach (Indrarathne, 2019; Kormos & Nijakowska, 2017; Nijakowska, 2019) can be summarised as follows: • The use of technology enhanced learning to provide students with a flipped classroom experience, where materials are placed prior to lessons on the virtual learning environment (VLE) platform, allowing students more time to prepare at their own speed (Gordon, 2014). Class time is then spent with the students on discussion, expanding the pre-posted information. As well as being more student-centred (Long et al., 2016), the flipped classroom has provided students with time to read and reread articles, listen to podcasts, or watch recorded or pre-prepared lectures/PowerPoint presentations, meeting the needs of a diverse range of learners (Lo & Hew, 2017). Since the changes to year one, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, student feedback suggests that the flipped classroom combined with effective online technologies provides a full range of students with comfort in choosing their own learning speeds (Rajaram, 2019). • Extensive use of scaffolding techniques to build on prior knowledge, and providing clear structured links. Carson and Leki (1993) highlight that learning, especially with regard to writing, should be seen as a process rather than a focus on the end product. Seviour (2015) shows the need to closely guide and support students in the learning process, including a process of draft and feedback, and building clearly on previous lessons, which has significant impact on students learning processes. • Personalising texts and situations. Wai-Cook (2019) highlights the need for tasks and materials to be relevant to students’ learning, with some targeting

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on weaknesses to help students improve. The flipped classroom approach now used means texts are given out in advance. This allows time for discussion to take place to establish the personal elements, through group or pair work, rather than individual study time in class. Texts are also carefully selected to avoid too much clutter. This also allows for a range of senses to be used, to the benefit of dyslexic students. Teaching students how to identify the important information in texts when reading through, for example, identifying topic sentences, reducing anxiety. Fostering the use of technology in the classroom, not just to provide preand post-class information. Edyburn et al. (2005) showed that the use of technology for students with learning difficulties promotes independence and self-worth and increases motivation and productivity. The lessons now encourage the use of text to speech apps, so that all learners can see and hear words and texts, which, as Moorman et al. (2010) suggest, results in reading gains for students, as well as increased interest in reading. Actively teaching students simple then more complex note-taking skills, concentrating on small chunks to retain information, and also providing them with the opportunity to review. Allowing time for revise and review in the curriculum; in other words, de-cluttering the modules and syllabus and not trying to move ahead too quickly (which is often a problem with many EAP courses).

The strategies listed above are common practice for both ESAP professionals and for professionals working with dyslexic students. What is new, however, is the systematic linking together of the rationale for using these techniques to meet a common goal in supporting the inclusivity needs of studying ESAP, which are transferable to meeting the needs of dyslexic students studying beyond ESAP within the university environment.

Implications and Outcomes of the Changes Internal evidence from the university suggests that mainland Chinese students’ are not fully prepared for study at university, especially where they are expected to study in English. This may be because of prior learning styles, lack of language knowledge or possibly because existing learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, have not been diagnosed and accommodated in high school. The need to study ESAP at an EMI institution provides many opportunities to address some of these issues. The recalibration that this particular university is attempting in its Year 1 ESAP classes is designed to redress the

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high school imbalance and better provide students with the language and communication skills needed for university success. In addition, following an all-inclusive approach which used the strategies described above when teaching ESAP benefitted students with dyslexia. It should be noted that the changes to Year 1 have, at the time of writing, only been in place for two semesters, and that there have also been changes to teaching generally as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it is possible to highlight some initial observations and implications in relation to the impact that the new programme has had on students with dyslexia. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, there has been a noticeable reduction in students who have failed the semesters and have had progression issues. Whilst learning difficulties have not been previously acknowledged as reasons for failing, evidence from progression board hearings have suggested the success of the all-inclusive initiative, with those students who had previously struggled in their studies fully appreciating the flipped classroom techniques. Students have cited they appreciate the time to study at their own pace, to pre-prepare for class discussion, and to review PowerPoint presentations later rather than struggle in class. Adding to this, ESAP teachers have expressed that there have been more detailed interactions in class, with a greater participation from all students. One further outcome that has demonstrated the success of the all-inclusive initiative has been the increased use of the additional student support dropin facilities beyond the classroom. Students have been accessing support for additional help with understanding concepts and ideas that have been pre-posted on the virtual learning environment (VLE) by class teachers. In addition, students have been accessing additional support for follow-up work after class time. Whilst it has not been possible to identify whether those students seeking additional help have dyslexia or other learning difficulties, the increased use of the facilities since the all-inclusive initiative has been launched suggests a greater range of students are engaging with their studies and wanting more. Two additional outcomes that were not initially considered have also been identified. As Nijakowska (2019) suggests, one outcome is a clear need for training language teachers to work with students with dyslexia. The changes to the delivery of Year 1, especially the ESAP classes, have been designed to be all-inclusive, but teachers have reported that whilst they are comfortable dealing with language issues, they do not feel qualified to deal with underlying learning difficulties. The second outcome is the requests from academic lecturers working in Year 1 requesting for additional language support for

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their classes. As a result, and drawing on the genre/ESAP philosophy advocated by Hyland (2007, see also Flowerdew, 2020), an integrated learning approach is being introduced for these modules. Through the transfer of the same strategies identified earlier, the all-inclusive approach will be able to influence the learning of students with dyslexia outside the language classroom. This new initiative is at an early stage, but initial signs are encouraging.

Conclusion For many students, it is often when they are at university that they are first diagnosed with dyslexia, with associated difficulties in literacy and languagerelated skills. It is likely that all students suffer to some extent from the transition to university; for students with dyslexia the suffering can be magnified. For students studying at an EMI institution, there is the added pressure of studying in a language that is not their first language, which can only add to the pressures of those who have learning difficulties such as dyslexia. However, EMI institutions offer opportunities to provide help to students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia in ways that perhaps other (first language) institutions cannot, through the almost universal student need for some form of language support. The changes introduced in Year 1 at University X have started to show what is possible with an all-inclusive approach to learning. There is of course no reason why such inclusive initiatives should be limited to EMI institutions. Carefully developed and tailored language programmes, built around the needs of all learners can be very supportive of inclusive education in any institution, providing insights on how techniques used can be adapted in other areas of the learning experience. However, EMI institutions have the advantage that the majority of students are in need of language support as they are predominantly studying in a second language, i.e. it is easier to engage all students and cater for the needs of all. The current study has not yet been able to conclude firmly that supporting students with dyslexia within the EMI context through its all-inclusive ESAP programmes had a positive effect, but initial observations of changes in student activity and behaviour, suggests that the changes have made learning less stressful for all students. However, initiatives such as the one at University X will only be successful if there is adequate professional training of staff, if there is appropriate investment in appropriate technology, and if the whole academic community buys

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into the need for holistic support for students in all subject areas. A commitment to inclusive education is not a temporary thing, it is life-changing for students and has the potential to be equally so for teaching staff too. Within ESAP teaching, diversity can be described as fundamental to its success. All students need to benefit from the methods and cultural spaces created within the ESAP classroom so that they can negotiate meaning and ensure that successful learning takes place. Within the ESAP classroom in mainland China, there is often a silent minority; those students who have a learning difficulty such as dyslexia, but who do not have this recognised within the education system. This chapter links to the theme of diversity within ELT by exploring how changes to ESAP teaching within an EMI institution within mainland China enabled inclusivity for all students, including those with dyslexia, by focusing on shared teaching techniques designed to meet the needs of all the learners in the language classroom, and within the wider university.

Suggested Further Reading Daloiso, M. (2017). Supporting learners with dyslexia in the ELT classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This is a practical teaching guide for those EAP/ELT professionals who need to accommodate learners with dyslexia in their English language classrooms. It encourages reflection on inclusive teaching practices, and provides a clear methodological framework for teachers. Goodman, D.S. (2014). Class in contemporary China (China Today). Cambridge: Polity. To understand issues surrounding dyslexia in China it is important to understand modern day China. This book does this as well as anyone, highlighting the tremendous change in China that is also driving the world today. Macaro, E. (2018). English medium instruction: Content and language in policy and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Prof. Macaro presents an overview of the research, policy, and practice of English Medium Instruction around the globe. EMI cannot be ignored, and this book provides a balanced in-depth explanation as to why.

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Engagement Priorities • EMI institutions are to some extent a luxury within countries such as China, catering to a privileged minority. To what extent to you think that the practices of inclusivity highlighted can be transferred to more traditional (Chinese) universities? • Technology enhanced learning is at the forefront of changes to the role of the modern university. With the advent of SMART technology, what impact will this have on the traditional learning experience, and on institutions’ ability to provide individual tailored support for students with learning difficulties? • Providing learning support for students with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties can be costly. In what ways can less wealthy countries still engage to promote more inclusive education opportunities? • Teacher education programmes play a key role in ensuring that staff are equipped with the latest techniques and knowledge before entering the classroom. Is this true for the EAP teacher in your own contexts? If not, how could it be enhanced?

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A Challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Ewa Domagała-Zy´sk and Anna Podlewska

Introduction When we, the authors of this chapter, started teaching English as a foreign language to deaf and hard of hearing students in the late 1990s at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland), henceforth KUL University, it was a real challenge. This group of students with special educational needs (SEN) was simply exempted from compulsory foreign language classes at each stage of education. It was almost impossible to find information about teaching strategies or materials, and it was difficult to find colleagues in this field. The majority of English teachers and trainee teachers concentrated on maximising academic performance, often leaving behind those with special needs, especially when their pronunciation mistakes or lack of speech made it challenging to evidence success in a conventional way. Fortunately, such challenges led European teachers of English to start networking and supporting E. Domagała-Zy´sk (B) Department of Special Education, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland e-mail: [email protected] A. Podlewska Department of Foreign Languages, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_15

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each other through the International Research Group English for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.1 Our aim was similar: to overcome those challenges and offer the best quality English as a foreign language (EFL) education for our deaf and hard of hearing students, according to their needs and communication modes. Approaches to support such students have varied, from concentrating on sign language communication (Kontra et al., 2015; Pritchard, 2013) and reading skills (Sedláˇcková & Foniokova, 2013) to speaking and using extensive technological support (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2001, 2015b; Podlewska & Keller, 2014). Today we are ready to share our experience from this journey to spread the message even further. The aim of this chapter is to present principles, strategies and communication techniques which have been and might be effective in English classes for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students within an inclusive education perspective (Kauffman, 2020; Rieser, 2008). These techniques have been developed during an action research project (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013a, 2013b), which makes them evidence-based ways of teaching (Knoors et al., 2019). In this chapter we first describe what we call the deaf and hard of hearing generation @. We then describe a set of teaching and learning strategies for DHH classes with EFL and ESP orientations. Finally, we make recommendations to support DHH students beyond our context.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals in generation @ In our experience, DHH members of generation @ (people born in the midnineties or later) are usually open and ready to enjoy social life—travel or browse the internet and meet or chat with new people. They have never experienced life without technology; therefore, they are often good at using the internet for socialising and learning. From experience, we also know that the aspirations of DHH students are inextricably linked with the need to acquire skills in a foreign language, despite the difficulty they often experience. Exempting this group of students from foreign language classes means offering them incomplete and poor quality education (Domagała-Zy´sk & Kontra, 2016). Nowadays, fluent use of foreign languages, especially English, is a must for all those who want to pursue a professional career and feel included as global citizens. What often makes it difficult for DHH students to achieve this goal is their hearing loss. When teachers try to describe the strengths and needs of the

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DHH learner, they usually gather as much information as possible about the learner’s background (Crowe & Guiberson, 2021). There are many types and levels of hearing loss, which may determine the person’s perceptual capabilities and sometimes their range of linguistic production. It is the DHH person themselves who may provide the most accurate information concerning their needs and expected forms of support. The conversation between the teacher and prospective student may need to address two fundamental issues: 1. The student’s previous experience of learning a foreign language (hearing/deaf family, mainstream/special class, oral/sign//mixed communication). 2. The scope of the impact of hearing loss on the student, especially in terms of the functional skills relevant to language learning (in reading, listening, writing and speaking English). Our experience has taught us that it is particularly important to determine whether and to what extent the student is able to use audio recordings; some DHH people are able to listen to recordings using headphones, but sometimes it is necessary for them to read the transcript simultaneously for better comprehension. Our DHH students have been regularly exposed to exercises focusing on pronunciation, word stress and intonation and profited from that (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013b). Such exercises largely improve the quality of perception of foreign language speech.2 Other important ways of supporting our teaching are showing films with subtitles, and using British or American cued speech3 (Podlewska, 2013). The teacher may also ask about the student’s favourite techniques and strategies for learning a foreign language, and treat the student as an expert on his or her learning process. A question about their experiences of using textbooks might be profitable. DHH students often complain that their books are visually difficult to access (e.g. because of glossy paper that creates glare) and do not provide enough space for writing down answers. DHH students may also have other conditions such as visual impairment or physical disability, which requires further attention to the visual and physical accessibility of the materials used. Another key consideration is the student’s reason for learning the language. Taking into account the student’s previous experience and current capabilities, the teacher and student may need to discuss the extent to which the student intends to learn to speak in the foreign language. Experience shows that those individuals who communicate in speech in their first language also want to

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speak in their second or additional language (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013b). The general principle is that for a student with hearing loss, it is possible to learn to speak in a foreign language with a degree of success comparable to their use of speech in their first l language (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013a, 2013b). This means that a vast majority of DHH students are able to learn to speak a foreign language and they have full right to do so. The next questions may be about the student’s degree of hearing loss and perception of speech sounds. DHH people are not a homogeneous group, and their levels of hearing loss range from mild to profound. These categories are defined as follows: • Mild hearing loss means a threshold of hearing sensitivity in the range of 21–40 decibels (dB). (In other words, people can hear sounds at 21–40 dB or louder.) Mild hearing loss may cause difficulty in correctly identifying some elements of colloquial speech. • People with moderate hearing loss means that a person cannot hear a significant part of everyday speech sounds, as their sensitivity to noise is in the range of 41–70 dB. • Severe hearing loss means a threshold between 71 and 90 dB, enabling a person to hear only very loud speech sounds but not normal everyday talk. While communicating, they tend to use lip-reading. • Profound hearing loss means that a person cannot hear speech at all, because their sensitivity threshold is 90 or more dB. People at this level may use a hearing aid or cochlear implant, which usually improves their ability to perceive sounds, but does not facilitate full hearing. Not only audiological measures but also cultural and psychological factors may influence the student’s performance (Kontra, 2013; Krakowiak, 2013; Nabiałek, 2016). There are students with a slight hearing loss who use sign language and do not generally communicate in speech, but there are also those with a profound hearing loss who communicate in speech and lipreading, and do not sign. Educational success should be understood on an individual basis, because a major achievement for one student may be just an ordinary skill for another. Teachers may wish to avoid comparing students with each other. The only comparison should be, if any, between the individual student’s past and present level of ability. At the beginning of the learning process, teachers and students may agree on their preferred way of communication. In the case of students with profound and severe hearing loss, especially those who attended special schools for DHH students, teachers may need to use the services of a sign

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language interpreter or cued speech transliterator (Kontra, 2013). When such services are not available or appropriate, a common method of communication is writing. Even if a teacher does not know sign language, our experience shows it is advisable to learn at least some basic signs (DomagałaZy´sk, 2013b; Kontra, 2013). Students who sign appreciate the fact that the teacher is able to use sign language for everyday utterances such as “See you next week”, “I’m sorry” or “Today is a cold day, isn’t it?”. Through building their own sign language skills, teachers can demonstrate respect for and solidarity with their students, in addition to providing them with a role model for language learning. This increases students’ confidence and willingness to learn. Students with mild to moderate hearing loss usually are able to use speech, especially in one-to-one conversations. Our experience shows (DomagałaZy´sk, 2015a) that it is very useful to communicate through the modern technological devices and services that students like to use, such as text messaging, social media and email. In the initial interview it is also advisable to discuss how to optimise the physical environment for good communication. Sometimes a student has better hearing in one ear than the other, and the teacher can position herself to take advantage of this. The distance between the student and teacher also matters, as some students receive speech better with a slightly greater distance. Finally, it may be necessary to determine whether there is a preference to voice pitch which could affect the student’s learning, as some students perceive lower-pitched voices more accurately, while others prefer higher-pitched voices. Technology becomes even more important during the time of online or e-learning: DHH students can also benefit from videoconferencing tools as it gives them the possibility to lip-read more easily than in crowded classrooms and they can also use live subtitles techniques (Lewandowska, 2020).

Teaching English to DHH Students Right from their very inception in 1998, classes at the KUL Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education have been grounded in the premise that students with hearing loss are capable of progress in EFL when they are provided clear visual access to both the syllabus and the language of instruction. Also, one of the core principles governing the work of the Centre’s teachers is that all methodological decisions are made for the benefit of the students so that they can fully engage in the didactic process and take

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an active approach to learning. Hearing loss is not seen as an insurmountable barrier to developing articulate and coherent communication skills in a foreign language. Rather, it is perceived as a challenge with plenty of opportunity to set the academic arena for DHH students to successfully compete alongside their hearing peers. Teaching for quality EFL in DHH education requires the combination of theory, methods and hands-on experience, but also, and perhaps most importantly, willingness to collect student feedback and to reflect on one’s pedagogical practices. The validity of this didactic approach has been supported by research. Domagała-Zy´sk and Podlewska (2012) conducted a pilot study aimed at examining English speech production competence in Polish DHH students. The study included a mixed-gender group of eight students with hearing loss ranging from moderate to profound. These participants made digital recordings of approximately three minutes in length wherein they read short passages from their English course books. These were then presented to a panel of native hearing listeners, who provided independent ratings of content comprehension and pronunciation correctness. These ratings were analysed statistically, and the researchers found that on average, content comprehension received a 6.2-point rating on a 10-point-scale (62%), whereas pronunciation correctness got a slightly lower rating of 5.2 points (52%). The researchers conclude that Polish DHH students, if appropriately guided, can achieve a high level of speech intelligibility in the target language. These results have important pedagogical implications. When integrating pronunciation into foreign language programmes it is important to distinguish between segmental (individual sounds our DHH students are having difficulty with) and suprasegmental features (word, phrase, and sentence stress and intonation as well as connected speech), paying equal attention to both and eliminating pronunciation errors that interfere with successful communication. Podlewska (2014) conducted a large-scale investigation into DHH students’ mastery of the four main elements of language knowledge (pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar) and the four main skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing). The study involved learners from several countries, and […] demonstrated that mastery of the speaking skill (M 2,78) and pronunciation of the target language (M 2,61) are high priorities for the subjects. Indeed, speaking received the highest rating overall whereas pronunciation took fourth place, and these results held across groups with widely different first language backgrounds. (Podlewska, 2014, p. 158)

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There is a body of evidence (e.g. Guiberson, 2014; Kontra et al., 2015) showing that these results are consistent with those obtained for the hearing cohorts. They rated speaking and pronunciation highly, probably because of their desire to easily negotiate with the world they live in, obtain a comprehensive education, participate in research and knowledge exchange at conferences and increase their employability. Since the ability to orally communicate with speakers of other languages is seen by DHH students as being of prime importance, it would be pedagogically unsound not to help them reach their potential. On the other hand, DHH students are often at a disadvantage in developing intelligible pronunciation if they do not hear clearly enough to perceive the nuances of the phonemic inventory of a given language. The need, then, is for teachers working with DHH students to have a thorough understanding of the nature of the problems they are attempting to remediate. Just like acquiring intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative competence, developing a solid conceptual framework for the task of imparting foreign spoken languages to DHH students is a necessary step towards the creative crafting of teaching and learning strategies. Persistent demands from DHH students of English for further ways to build their spoken language skills have led their teachers to develop a new approach to teaching oral communication with a wide range of diversified accommodations and strategies. The most important accommodations employed by the Centre include: • A liberating and empowering listening environment: The Centre’s classroom was chosen and refurbished in such a way that it has the acoustic conditions and the insulation against background noise appropriate to its intended use. Reverberation time was reduced by softening the hard surfaces. The classroom is equipped with an induction loop, computers, an electronic interactive whiteboard, variable lighting, desks and chairs that can be easily rearranged and placed in a single arc for creating a DHHfriendly seating arrangement in which every student sees everyone. One of the walls is lined with mirrors for pronunciation practice. • Institutional support: The Centre assists DHH students in the mode of communication best suited to them. If necessary, services such as sign language interpreting, note-taking, speech-to-text reporting are provided within and outside regular hours (such as a field trip or a workshop). • A tailored foreign language instruction: At John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin courses in foreign languages are non-elective and are offered to students as part of three-year first-cycle or five-year long cycle programmes.

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They typically comprise 60 classes (120 contact hours over 4 semesters) and are conducted in groups of twenty students. DHH course participants may apply for a course extension. They may also request to attend a course taught in a smaller group or on a one-to-one basis. DHH students with voicing capability who wish to work on speaking may arrange to do so. Instructional strategies developed by the Centre include the use of cued speech. Even though cued speech was originally devised to provide an access to the language foundation necessary for attaining literacy by deaf children, it has been beneficial to individuals of all ages with any type and degree of hearing loss. Teachers at the Centre have found it a very useful and supportive tool for focusing on developing specific language skills such as speech production and intensive and extensive listening. Cued speech is used with DHH adult students to help them clarify their articulation, to minimise the frequency of phonetic errors occurrence and to ease the strain of lip-reading in the target foreign language.4

English for Specific Purposes, ESP-Ecially for DHH Students The study of modern foreign languages is more and more often seen as an essential skill accompanying other subjects such as business, law and science. Foreign language competence coupled with a very specific orientation is often essential for academic purposes and workplace success. The vocational argument is often effective in motivating Polish EFL learners, and DHH students are no exception (Ochse, 2013). When given the choice between attending a general English course or an ESP course related to their area of study, the vast majority of both hearing and DHH students choose the latter. ESP courses at the Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education (led by both authors of this chapter) are offered to DHH students as part of either the five-year Master’s degree programme or the three-year first-cycle degree programme. They are designed for intermediate or upper-intermediate learners of English and comprise 60 classes (120 contact hours) over a two-year period. There is the possibility of extending the course to three years to allow for more practice. The objective of ESP courses as taught to DHH students majoring in different fields of study is to provide tools such as selected grammar structures, terminology or collocations to enable them to use the English common in their respective fields (Domagała-Zy´sk & Podlewska, 2019). From a cognitive perspective, ESP learners need to

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communicate conceptual knowledge, which requires them to become familiar with the principles and relationships that underlie a domain and its subjectspecific terminology. Conceptual knowledge is acquired at a fast pace through mindful engagement with materials in a range of contexts (from subjectspecific texts in the learners’ L1 to conversations in English with tutors in class and practical settings). This increases both general and technolectal linguistic competence in English.5 Obviously, not all information on terminology relating to a specific domain can be taught via direct instruction, even less so when it is taught simultaneously in two languages. That said, language learning should not be separated from acquiring research skills that enable one to look for information about unfamiliar concepts. On the other hand, it is of vital importance to provide additional explanations of key concepts, especially if their L1 and L2 equivalents are not semantically identical. However, we have to remember that for DHH students with a limited L1, direct translation may be of limited use. To give an example, in legal English the terms lease and tenancy are used interchangeably. Both can be translated into Polish as either najem or dzier˙zawa. The problem is that under the Polish law, only dzier˙zawa covers the right to collect fruits (the income or goods derived or produced from property) whereas neither the USA nor the UK law draws such a distinction. DHH students’ learning of ESP and modern foreign languages are heavily written text-based. The reasons for that are twofold. First, novice ESP teachers who are not yet familiar with the subject-specific fundamentals seek security in presenting written texts that they consider to be representative of the specialism they have only just started to develop. Moreover, if a class is primarily written text-based with no videos to watch, discussions to moderate or audio materials to listen to, very few accessibility problems arise. However, relying too much on specialist texts or, worse still, on collective deciphering of such texts, may become counterproductive because of the lack of twoway interaction. In teaching reading to DHH students as part of an ESP course, the focus should be on the development of student strategies to exploit authentic materials (e.g. legal and medical documentation, podcasts, vodcasts) as learning resources.

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Teaching and Learning Strategies Recommended for English Classes with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Our teaching experience and action research projects (e.g. Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013b) provide evidence that in the process of teaching foreign languages such as English to DHH students, many general teaching and learning strategies are regarded as effective. These strategies are varied and depend on the teacher’s characteristics and preferences, the institution’s dominant teaching approach and contemporary methodological trends. In the field of surdo-glottodidactics—the methodology of teaching language to DHH people—there is still a shortage of methodological materials for teachers of the deaf (Knoors et al., 2019) and therefore there is an urgent need for evidence-based publications presenting particular methodological and pedagogical solutions. Seven of the aspects of teaching that are most relevant to DHH students are briefly discussed below.

Individualisation DHH students usually experience challenges in language learning, e.g. in developing an age-appropriate vocabulary size. Thus it is very important to individualise within the scope of the general teaching programme, for example with respect to the vocabulary words that we want them to know. The more the goals are personalised and negotiated with the student, the higher the motivation and aspirations (Domagała-Zy´sk & Podlewska, 2012, 2019). This often increases the learner’s level of motivation and makes the teaching more effective.

Emotionalisation Students tend to be most interested in what is going on in their immediate environment. This means that reading and grammar exercises that include emotional and personal elements, e.g. relating to their classmates or family members (“Alex, does your grandmother feel well?”) invigorate the learning and make the language meaningful to the students. In order to remember things, we need to get to know them in an emotional context, whether this involves positive emotions (gratitude, happiness, joy) or negative ones (anger, sadness, worry). When a word is accompanied by an emotion, it can be much more readily understood and remembered. This means that a good emotional

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atmosphere, and emotion-based incentives and activities may support the DHH students’ achievements. This was confirmed in numerous studies (e.g. Dole˙zalova, 2013; Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013b; Gulati, 2016).

Lexical Analysis DHH students tend to be good linguists. Many are bilingual in a sign language and their first language (e.g. Polish or Czech). If they use speech, it is usually connected with many hours of speech therapy classes, where they develop not only spoken language skills but also linguistic and metalinguistic knowledge. DHH students who get to know a new word often want to know everything about it—its meaning, forms, grammatical rules and exceptions, synonyms, antonyms and usage in context (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013b, 2016; Falkowska, 2013; Podlewska, 2013, 2016). This is because many DHH students have acquired their first spoken language in the same way that non-deaf people acquire a second spoken language.

Multi-Sensory Memorisation Because they rely less on hearing, DHH students feed their brain with other signals, so the input directed at them should be both visual and kinaesthetic. Visual stimuli can be also beneficial and with CIT contemporary development—short films with subtitles, pictures of unknown places and concepts are easy to find (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2015a; Gulati, 2016; Nabiałek, 2013; Podlewska, 2013). The teacher might associate new words with smells or tastes so as to make the memorisation as multisensory as possible—learning new vocabulary can be connected with tasting new fruit, or smelling cooking oils of different kind.

Structuralisation Although using a foreign language flexibly and fluently is a common aim, it is advisable, especially at the beginning, to highlight the clear and predictable structure of the foreign language to the DHH students. English is a language with a specific and fixed word order, so it is necessary to learn the structure in order to build correct sentences. The position of the sentence parts (subject, verb, and object) differs in affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences, and the teacher can demonstrate this in a visual way to help the students

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produce their own sentences. A simple example can look like this (see also Dole˙zalova, 2013): Question word

Auxiliary

Subject

Predicator

What time How much Where How

do do does does

you you she she

start? earn? work? feel?

Experiential Learning This concept was introduced by Kolb (1984), who suggested that the most effective way of learning is to experience a situation first-hand and then try to describe and understand it. That is why he proposed a four-step learning cycle, consisting of (1) experience of a concrete situation; (2) reflective observation of this situation; (3) abstract conceptualisation and (4) active experimentation. This concept can be fruitfully used in English language classes. For example, a student comes to the classroom and informs the teacher that she has a right, by which she means that she has passed her driving exam (1). Together with the teacher, the student analyses and discusses the situation (2), e.g. My sister does not have a driving license and I do. The next step is to describe the situation again, using correct English, and write it down with the teacher’s support (3). After the text has been written, it can be shared with other people, e.g. friends on social media (4). The teaching experience shows this learning cycle might be very profitable for DHH students (Domagała-Zy´sk, 2013b, 2016) as they employ a wide range of strategies to make meaning.

Conclusion We believe that what matters nowadays is not only being but participating. English is for many nations an essential tool to be able to participate in culture, education and work. This chapter has aimed to lead the reader through different stages of our experience of teaching English as a foreign language to DHH students, starting from a multifaceted challenge, through regular courses to our nowadays’ feeling of participation in an unexpected adventure. Offering DHH students the best quality EFL teaching involves developing a support system, extensive use of technology, creativity, fruitful

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meetings with other teachers, and most of all, participation in our students’ struggles and successes. Although the strategies described above are rooted in our situated practice, we believe that they can be adapted to suit the demands of DHH students in other settings. What is important is that teachers adapt them and create new strategies which are based on students’ experiences, needs, wants and personal trajectories. By listening to students, EFL/ESP teachers will be able to create learning moments which are student-centred. We do hope the readers of this chapter will be able to actively participate in such moments.

Suggested Further Reading Domagała-Zy´sk E. (Ed.). (2013). English as a foreign language for the deaf and hard of hearing persons in Europe. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL. The book provides evidence-based EFL DHH teachers’ reflections on organisation, communication and methodological issues connected with teaching English to deaf and hard of hearing. Domagała-Zy´sk, E., & Kontra, E. H. (Eds.). (2016). English as a foreign language for deaf and hard -of -hearing persons: Challenges and strategies. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. The book includes chapters about best practices, challenges and innovative teaching strategies for DHH students of English as a foreign language. Knoors, H., Marschark, M., & Brons, M. (Eds.). (2019). Deaf education beyond the western world: Context, challenges, and prospects. New York: Oxford University Press. The book is not only about English—it offers a picture of deaf education beyond the Western world from the perspective of local scholars associated with educating deaf and hard-of-hearing learners.

Engagement Priorities • The model of universal learning design enables teachers to design their classes in such a way so as to make it possible for every student, including those with special educational needs, to participate fully in each activity. Would you be able to implement this model in your teaching context? • Technology helps a great deal when teaching DHH students. What technology-supported activities would you be able to design and implement in your teaching context?

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• To what extent is what we know about effective EFL (and other modern foreign languages) teaching transferable to DHH students?

Notes 1. An excellent selection of online ideas and materials for teaching EFL to deaf learners is provided on Naomi Epstein’s website https://visualisingideas.edublogs. org/. 2. In the case of people with profound and severe hearing loss, recorded texts might be replaced by transcripts or specialised video recordings that clearly show the face of the speaker. 3. Cued speech is a multisensory communication approach originally designed for use with profoundly deaf children. It employs eight handshapes in four different locations near or on the face to supplement the natural mouth movements of speech. The eight handshapes represent groups of consonants that are visually different on the mouth and the four locations represent vowels. Mouthshape– handshape pairs and mouthshape–hand placement pairs combine to form a visual representation of all the sounds of spoken language and thus remove all ambiguities in lip-reading. 4. For more information on the use of cued speech at the Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education see Podlewska (2013, 2016). 5. For a detailed discussion of competences important in teaching and learning language for specific purposes see Górnicz (2013).

References Crowe, K., & Guiberson, M. (2021). Professionals’ perspectives on supporting deaf multilingual learners and their families. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 26 (1), 70–84. Dole˙zalova, M. (2013). An English quest: An art of teaching English to the deaf and hard-of-hearing students. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 153–162). Wydawnictwo KUL. Domagała-Zy´sk, E. (2001). O uczeniu j˛ezyka angielskiego uczniów z uszkodzeniem słuchu. J˛ezyki Obce w Szkole, 7, 106–110. Domagała-Zy´sk, E. (Ed.). (2013a). English as a foreign language for deaf and hardof-hearing persons in Europe. Wydawnictwo KUL.

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Domagała-Zy´sk, E. (2013b). Wieloj˛ezyczni. Studenci niesłysz˛acy i słabosłysz˛acy w procesie uczenia si˛e i nauczania j˛ezyków obcych [Multilingual. Deaf and hardof-hearing students in the process of teaching and learning foreign languages]. Wydawnictwo KUL. Domagała-Zy´sk, E. (2015a). Uso de las TIC en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en estudiantes sordos universitarios: Una experiencia en la Universidad Católica de Lublin. Escuela Abierta, 13, 137–153. Domagała-Zy´sk, E. (2015b). Projektowanie uniwersalne w edukacji osób z wad˛a słuchu [Universal design in education of hearing-impaired persons]. In M. Nowak, E. Stoch, & B. Borowska (Eds.), Z problematyki teatrologii i pedagogiki [Issues in theatrology and pedagogy] (pp. 553–568). Wydawnictwo KUL. Domagała-Zy´sk, E. (2016). Vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL classes for deaf and hard of hearing students. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk & E. H. Kontra (Eds.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons: Challenges and strategies (pp. 135–152). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Domagała-Zy´sk, E., & Kontra, E. H. (Eds.). (2016). English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons: Challenges and strategies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Domagała-Zy´sk, E., & Podlewska, A. (2012). Umiej˛etno´sci polskich studentów z uszkodzeniami słuchu w zakresie posługiwania si˛e mówion˛a form˛a j˛ezyka angielskiego [Competences of Polish students with hearing impairments in terms of speech production in English]. In K. Kutek-Sładek (Ed.), Student z ´ niepełnosprawno´sci˛a w ´srodowisku akademickim (pp. 134–157). Wydawnictwo Sw. Stanisława BM. Domagała-Zy´sk, E., & Podlewska, A. (2019). Strategies of oral communication of deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) non-native English users. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 34 (2), 156–171. Falkowska, J. (2013). Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual? Using different languages in an EFL class for the d/deaf. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 55–72). Wydawnictwo KUL. Górnicz, M. (2013). Teaching medical translation to non-medical students: A case study with some theoretical insights. JAHR, European Journal of Bioethics, 7, 129– 144. Guiberson, M. (2014). Bilingual skills of deaf/hard of hearing children from Spain. Cochlear Implants International, 15 (2), 87–92. Gulati, B. (2016). Visualizing: The most effective way to teach ESL to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk & E. H. Kontra (Eds.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons: Challenges and strategies (pp. 153–168). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Kauffman, J. M. (Ed.). (2020). On educational inclusion: Meanings, history, issues and international perspectives. Routledge. Knoors, H., Marschark, M., & Brons, M. (Eds.). (2019). Deaf education beyond the western world: Context, challenges, and prospects. Oxford University Press.

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Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall. Kontra, E. (2013). Language learning against the odds: Retrospective accounts by Deaf adults. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 93–112). Wydawnictwo KUL. Kontra, E., Csizer, K., & Piniel, K. (2015). The challenge for deaf and hard of hearing students to learn foreign languages in special needs schools. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 30 (2), 141–155. Krakowiak, K. (2013). My deaf child—Who is she? Who is he? In E. DomagałaZy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 13–26). Wydawnictwo KUL. Lewandowska P. (2020). Dost˛epno´sc´ edukacji zdalnej dla uczniów z niepełnosprawno´sci˛a słuchow˛a w klasach IV–VIII [Accessibility of online education for students with hearing impairment in grades 4–8]. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), Zdalne uczenie si˛e a specjalne potrzeby edukacyjne. Z do´swiadcze´n pandemii Covid-19 (pp. 11–40). Episteme. Nabiałek, A. (2013). From a blackboard to an interactive whiteboard: Teaching English as a foreign language to deaf and hard of hearing students at Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna´n. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard of hearing persons in Europe (pp. 197–206). Wydawnictwo KUL. Nabiałek, A. (2016). Immersion in the English language for deaf students. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk & E. H. Kontra (Eds.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons: Challenges and strategies (pp. 169–182). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Ochse, E. (2013). English for specific purposes and the deaf professional: The SignMedia Project. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 77–92). Wydawnictwo KUL. Podlewska, A. (2013). The use of cued speech within an empirically-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language to hard of hearing students. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard of hearing persons in Europe (pp. 181–196). Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL. Podlewska, A. (2014). Deaf and hard of hearing students’ perspectives on foreign language proficiency. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), Developing language competence of people with hearing and speech disorders (pp. 153–162). Wydawnictwo KUL. Podlewska, A. (2016). The use of cued speech to support the development of verbal language skills in English language instruction for deaf and hard-ofhearing students. In: E. Domagała-Zy´sk, E. H. Kontra (Eds.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons: Challenges and strategies (pp. 23–40). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Podlewska, A., & Keller, P. (2014). The use of cued speech and information technology in English language instruction for students with hearing impairments. In J. Baran (Ed.), Chosen topics of supporting persons with a disability (Vol. 2, pp. 185–203). Wydawnictwo Naukowe UP.

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Pritchard, P. (2013). Teaching of English to deaf and severely hard-of-hearing pupils in Norway. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 113–134). Wydawnictwo KUL. Rieser, R. (2008). Implementing inclusive education. Commonwealth Secretariat. Sedláˇcková, J., & Foniokova, Z. (2013). Reading strategy instruction for deaf learners of English: Definitions, contexts and implications. In E. Domagała-Zy´sk (Ed.), English as a foreign language for deaf and hard-of-hearing persons in Europe (pp. 135–152). Wydawnictwo KUL.

English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD ˘ and Merve Tohma Ne¸se Cabaroglu

Introduction Research on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) so far has revealed that approximately one child in every classroom is estimated to have ADHD (Anderson, 2020; Trout et al., 2007). The symptoms of ADHD are present in children as young as 2–3 years of age, which may lead to the misperception that the disorder is only observed in children. ADHD can be a lifelong condition that changes and evolves as a person ages. Moreover, symptoms may not be as clear as in children. In adults, hyperactivity may decrease but adults with ADHD have a higher risk of developing such symptoms as impulsiveness, depression, anti-social behaviours, anxiety, increased anger expression and difficulty paying attention (Daffner-Deming, 2021; Faraone et al., 2000; Richards et al., 2006). Hence, it is essential that all educators are equipped with the necessary information about students’ functional diversity, in particular learners with ADHD. Furthermore, teacher education needs to

N. Cabaro˘glu (B) Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] M. Tohma Ça˘g University, Mersin, Turkey

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_16

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prepare future teachers to teach learners with learning difficulties in inclusive classrooms since they are likely to meet students with ADHD (Ewe & Aspelin, 2021). In this chapter, we report on Turkish English language teaching (ELT) teacher educators’ perceived knowledge of ADHD. We explore to what extent and how much they know about the symptoms, diagnosis and causes of ADHD. Additionally, we share the educational interventions these teacher educators use when teaching, along with the findings on whether these educators teach about ADHD and teaching strategies for ELT. We recognise that the framework and findings included exceed the scope of ELT since the teacher educators did not exclusively address strategies for supporting students’ linguistic development. Nevertheless, the nature of the findings may indicate that ELT professionals may need to go beyond ELT and develop understanding of other issues in (teacher) education. We hope that our study raises awareness about un(der)explored interventions among educators who work in different contexts in ELT.

What Is ADHD? Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity (Anderson, 2020; Murphy, 2005). The American Psychiatric Association (2013) defines ADHD as one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders with childhood onset, with a prevalence rate of 5.29% worldwide. The behavioural problems that emerge with ADHD have considerably negative effect on the social, academic or occupational functioning of the individual. Studies have shown that individuals diagnosed with ADHD in childhood meet the diagnostic criteria even 8– 10 years after diagnosis, and that symptoms of hyperactivity decrease with age and symptoms of inattention persist (Barkley, 2006). The exact causes of ADHD are still unknown, yet studies conducted so far indicate that several factors could be put forth as etiological agents to the occurrence of the disorder (Ewe & Aspelin, 2021; Weyandt, 2007a, 2007b) which include the interaction of various genetic, biological, psychosocial and environmental factors (Biederman & Faraone, 2005). The symptoms of ADHD in children are well defined and are usually noticeable before the age of six (Ewe & Aspelin, 2021). However, it is more difficult to define ADHD in adults due to the scarcity of research and to the fact that symptoms in adults tend to be subtler than childhood symptoms (Anderson, 2020). A review of the literature reveals that adults diagnosed

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with ADHD have a lower quality of life when compared to the adults without ADHD (Agarwal et al. 2012; Hong et al., 2021). University students with ADHD are reported to be more depressed, more easily frustrated or emotionally inhibited, and less academically advanced (Advokat et al., 2011). Adults diagnosed with ADHD are highly prone to display disruptive behaviours which may result in a difficulty in management of emotions and lead to social problems followed by personality disorders in severe cases. Studying at a university is a challenging period when the individuals’ orientation to a new environment is taken into consideration (Kim, 2013). Students diagnosed with the disorder are reported to have poorer grades, lower standardised tests scores, greater need of special education services, higher rate of absenteeism, increased risk of school dropout and less risk of pursuing post-secondary education (DuPaul et al., 2011). Treatment of ADHD is considered to be essential in reducing symptoms and psychological distress as well as enhancing the functioning of the individual (Lichtenstein et al., 2012). ADHD treatment is based on a multimodal approach combining medication and some other specific interventions (Kooij et al., 2010). Interventions within the school context are considered particularly relevant. For that purpose, the US Department of Education (2008) proposes a programme which integrates three components, namely academic instruction, behavioural interventions and classroom accommodations. Among these, interventions related to academic instruction include strategies such as peer tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, task and instructional modifications and strategy training (Daffner-Deming, 2021; Raggi & Chronis, 2006). Behavioural interventions, on the other hand, require addressing three basic questions about causes, consequences and functions of behaviours (Elik et al., 2015) and involve interventions such as preparation of goal sheets and behaviour charts, managing challenging behaviour of students with ADHD, and help with time management. Classroom-based interventions can be either proactive or reactive and include issues such as general classroom organisation and structure, reward and frequent feedback, (Rajwan et al., 2012) as well as visual or auditory prompts and classroom rules. To reduce the academic related difficulties, studies (e.g. Brock et al., 2009; Daffner-Deming, 2021) suggest educational interventions such as: adjusting the task difficulty/duration, supporting peer/class-wide tutoring, increasing novelty/interest level of tasks, providing rule reminders and visual cues, allowing self-pacing of work and a choice of activities, giving clear/direct instructions, increasing physical movement, giving feedback and encouraging self-monitoring.

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In the case of intervention strategies for students with ADHD in the ELT classroom, teachers can use a variety of active learning strategies: (1) asking learners to guess the meaning of a word from context, (2) promoting handson activities, raising phonological awareness (Villalobos, 2012), (3) teaching study skills (e.g. using planning sheets or story mapping) (Davis & Florian, 2004), (4) focusing on small chunks of language at a time, (5) providing explicit explanations of how language structures work, (6) getting students to practise through repetition, (7) providing content variety in terms of the type of input and action required (Smith, 2015) and (8) using personal vignettes as support (Pentón-Herrera, 2020). It has been reported (e.g. Anderson, 2020, Pentón-Herrera, 2020) that in order to build a classroom environment where all students, and students with special needs in particular, feel safe and included, a change in teacher attitude and classroom practices are required. Such a change in attitudes, in turn, necessitates having information and experience about learning difficulties (Carroll et al., 2003). In this regard, knowledge comes both from experience and through training. Studies show that teachers’ level of knowledge increases with the amount of exposure to ADHD students in the classroom (Anderson et al., 2012; Kos et al., 2004). The knowledge acquired by the teachers does not only depend on the number of years they have been teaching but on their experience with teaching ADHD students in particular (Anderson et al., 2012). In-service training also plays an important role in increasing teachers’ knowledge of ADHD (Kos et al., 2006). Although psychologists or clinicians perform a diagnosis of ADHD, they point out the role teachers play in this process. Comprehensive knowledge based on the observations of teachers is important in terms of evaluation and differentiation of ADHD, (Atkins & Pelham, 2001) as they spend more time with students and have more experience in judging typical or atypical behaviour based on their experience with multiple students in a variety of settings (Kovshoff et al., 2012). To put it differently, in order for the teachers to lead the student through the treatment process about a disorder, they must first make the initial observation of that disorder and have the required level of knowledge about its symptoms for diagnosis. It should be noted that the role of teachers is not to diagnose and treat, but to support the finalisation of the diagnosis by sharing observations and assessments in the diagnosis and treatment process (Almacioglu, 2007). Due to the pervasiveness of ADHD across the educational system, teachers’ role in contributing to its diagnosis and in creating an inclusive learning environment for students with ADHD, we conducted a small-scale study in the area of ELT which we elaborate upon in the next section.

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Our Study Our study aimed to describe the level of knowledge of Turkish ELT teacher educators about the symptoms, diagnosis, causes and treatment of ADHD, as well as the intervention strategies they frequently use when teaching students with ADHD. We held interviews with eight EFL teacher educators (seven female and one male) working at two different universities in Turkey. One of them held an MA degree and the rest held both master’s and doctorate degrees. Their teaching experience ranged from 13 to more than 40 years. One of the participants taught at BA level only, the other seven taught both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Interview findings are presented below regarding (1) teacher educators’ perceived knowledge of ADHD, their sources of knowledge about and exposure to ADHD, and (2) their intervention strategies and challenges in teacher education.

Teacher Educators’ Perceived Knowledge of ADHD Seven out of eight participants explained that they had little information about ADHD and that they did not feel confident to put their limited knowledge into practice. Most of the knowledge they had acquired was not through formal education, but rather from indirect information from observations and from their self-studies (e.g. through reading books and articles on ADHD out of curiosity, or through watching documentaries). Only one participant stated that she possessed sufficient knowledge about ADHD since she had students with ADHD in the previous years and that she had carried out research to deal with this situation in the classroom. Nevertheless, she insisted on the importance of having more comprehensive special education training. The interviewees’ answers reveal that ELT professionals need to be aware of ADHD. This finding correlates with the literature, which reports that it is likely that at least one student in an ELT class has attributes of ADHD (Legato, 2011; Pentón-Herrera, 2020). Therefore, ADHD is an issue which ELT education needs to address.

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Sources of Knowledge of ADHD Our participating teacher educators stated that they obtained information about ADHD from a variety of sources. The most frequently mentioned resource was self-studies (i.e. reading books, articles and magazines or attending lectures). The second most important source of knowledge was their social environment, which includes learning from their own family members, friends, colleagues and students’ parents. As the third source, the teacher educators mentioned learning from experts such as counsellors, psychologists or psychiatrists as effective sources of information. Finally, two participants explained that their knowledge of ADHD originated from exposure to a child with ADHD in their environment, and to students they taught during their internship period.

Exposure to ADHD Only one teacher educator explained that she had a student diagnosed with ADHD, while the remaining seven had difficulty in answering this question. One of the participants said “I had one or two students that I suspected of ADHD […] by observing their behaviours in the classroom”. Another participant, explained “the question of whether the student has ADHD remains only in the dimension of doubt” as the university students were adults and they could control their behaviours.

Teaching Pre-service Teachers About ADHD and Related Intervention Strategies All the ELT teacher educators who participated in the interviews indicated that, albeit limited, they did touch upon ADHD-related issues within the frame of individual learner differences and learning difficulties in the courses they taught. To exemplify, one educator said: One of my relatives is a primary school teacher and I know that she encounters many students with ADHD problem. Chances are highly likely that our student teachers will also meet such learners in the future throughout their teaching career. For this reason, I try to raise an awareness through our discussions.

The same participant further explained that during the discussions, she emphasised the importance of avoiding labelling learners as “lazy” due to a

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bad grade or low performance. She advised them to refer such learners to special education needs teachers. Other participants also explained that in their courses, they required their students to do some background reading on ADHD and other specific learning difficulties. Additionally, they often held class discussions about how to address individual needs of students with ADHD and how to deal with related disruptive behaviours.

Challenges The teacher educators mentioned three types of challenges: ADHD students’ need for movement, lack of attention and the need for engaging in extra tasks. In relation to this, some participants stated that students with ADHD needed more assistance than other students during the lesson. For example, one teacher educator said: “Even though they are adults, they have trouble sitting calmly”. Additionally, another participant reported that students with ADHD suffered “a rapid loss of attention during the lesson” and that they had “problems with intrinsic motivation”. Furthermore, the same participant mentioned the following: This situation can also be exhausting for me. I’ve been experimenting with several different ways of helping them focus their attention on the activities.

The teacher educators explained that they gave additional duties to the students with ADHD to take into account their need for mobility or lack of attention (for example, “asking the student with ADHD to clean the board or to open a window to ventilate the classroom”). Even if the teacher educators felt challenged sometimes, they explained that they did not have major problems when compared with, for example, teachers of young learners with ADHD: University students are aware of the fact that they have ADHD as they are more conscious students due to their age. This allows them to control themselves and to avoid creating an environment that causes problems in the classroom.

Perceived Difficulties According to our participants, students with ADHD had cognitive, speech and language impairments, as well as social problems, which resulted in a lack of willingness to learn English. To exemplify, one teacher educator said:

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At university level, students have the biggest problem when it comes to focusing their attention. In terms of learning English, the student may lose track of the course subject at that moment and may not be able to fulfil the tasks.

As explained earlier, individuals with ADHD are more prone to talk excessively and louder, blurt out answers and interrupt others’ conversation (Westby & Watson, 2004). In line with this, one of the participants said: These students do not wait for their turn because they have focusing problems. They can blurt out answers [...] even though I do not give them the right to speak.

Similarly, one teacher educator complained that the student with ADHD would “express what he wanted to say whenever he wanted to” and that “although I told him that he should ask for permission, he often forgot about it. He had difficulties in overcoming this problem”. Two educators stated that the students with ADHD at university did not have many problems because “they are now in a college and are older”. In education, each student has different and unique needs, and teachers need to appeal to as many students as possible, including students with special difficulties, using a wide range of strategies. When it comes to teaching English to students with ADHD, teachers need to make informed decisions and use different strategies because the needs of learners with ADHD can be challenging to meet, considering both the students with ADHD themselves and the whole class. In fact, the strategies used for students in different age groups and the frequency of use of these strategies vary according to age and to the degree of intensity of ADHD (Gioia & Isquith, 2002). For example, the physical movement strategy may be the primary preferred strategy for younger learners, while it may be a secondary strategy for adults who have gained self-control. In the light of the above discussion, we asked the ELT teacher educators to state the educational interventions they most frequently used in their classrooms. Table 1 displays those interventions. As seen in Table 1, the most commonly preferred methods are adopting an appropriate attitude when teaching. To exemplify, one teacher said: I keep teacher’s attitude above every strategy. The calmness, flexibility and understanding of the teacher are very essential. These increase the intrinsic motivation of the student. Learning does not occur if motivation is missing.

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Table 1 Educational interventions frequently used in the ELT teacher education classroom Educational interventions Teacher attitude, varied presentation and format of materials Peer tutoring Physical movement Physical arrangement of the classroom, active teaching, novelty, use of cues, prompts and attention checks Teacher attention, choice, self-management, clear and direct instruction

Number of educators using the interventions 5 4 3 2

1

This teacher educator also believed in the importance of using variety of materials (“both visual and auditory”) for drawing the attention of students with ADHD and to make smooth transitions between activities. Out of the eight teacher educators, four expressed a preference for peer tutoring. For example, one educator said: I think peer tutoring has an important role in learning English. When forming groups in the classroom, I put the students with ADHD with the students who have better attention span and high motivation in the same group. Pair-work works well with these students.

Moreover, three participants said that they preferred physical movement as a strategy. One participant said: I give tasks involving various physical movements to control the mobility of my student with ADHD. When I place such responsibilities on him, he is happy to do so and control is finally provided.

Another teacher educator supported this view and explained that she asked those students, for example, to “clean the board” or “make photocopies of some documents” to help them work off their energy.

Teacher Educators’ Perceptions of Their Ability to Teach Students with ADHD When the teacher educators were asked about their own ability to teach ADHD students, four of them stated that they felt inadequate about teaching students with ADHD. For example, one of the educators, who explained that

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he did not have much experience with ADHD students and that he had some information about this learning difficulty through reading books and articles, said: If I had been working with groups of young learners, I wouldn’t know what to do because the symptoms manifest much more clearly and intensely with those students. However, as the level of awareness of university students is higher, I’m less likely to encounter negative situations brought about by this disorder. I have not felt the need to improve myself so far. So, I feel insufficient and not well equipped.

Similar concerns were mentioned by another teacher educator who stated that she felt moderately sufficient as she was not “very knowledgeable about ADHD in terms of theory”, but to some degree, she had “the necessary patience, smile, understanding and empathy”. Out of eight, two educators expressed that they felt adequately equipped to teach to students with ADHD.

Expert Support In our study, we asked educators whether they received any expert support for dealing with students with ADHD. Three of them reported to have received support from a psychological counsellor, whereas the rest reported to have never referred to an expert for support. In relation to this, one educator said: When I suspected that a student of mine had ADHD, I consulted a close friend who is also a psychological counsellor. Her support really helped me to cope with the difficulties I experienced with this student.

In relation to expert support, the following educator said: I did not receive any expert support because I had no student diagnosed with ADHD in my class. If I had a student that I suspected of having ADHD, I would absolutely get an expert’s support. But these students do not show their symptoms as young learners do. Due to their age, they know how to cope with this situation.

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Lessons Learnt Our participating ELT teacher educators reported to have scarce knowledge of ADHD, and that they are even less knowledgeable about symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. In a similar vein, the related literature shows that many teachers around the world lack knowledge of and have little or no education in ADHD and the required intervention strategies (e.g. Sciutto et al., 2000). In education, in our case in the field of ELT, teaching practice is often shaped by the teachers’ knowledge and perceptions. Therefore, adequate teacher education is essential to correctly monitor students and implement the necessary intervention strategies in order to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment. In line with previous studies (e.g. Kos et al., 2004), the teacher educators in our study referred to their teaching experiences with ADHD students as the main source of knowledge about this specific learning difficulty and the intervention strategies used. Moreover, previous research shows that the amount of exposure to students with ADHD leads to increased knowledge of the characteristics of this learning difficulty and the choice of intervention strategies teachers implemented (e.g. Sciutto et al., 2000). These findings have several implications: Firstly, irrespective of which level they teach, educators play a pivotal role in the education of learners with ADHD. Through conscientious observation of students in the classroom, teachers are in a good position to refer students for expert evaluations and diagnosis. Classrooms are the most likely places where the core behaviour characteristics occur (Stampoltzis & Antonopoulou, 2013). Secondly, teachers’ knowledge of ADHD affects their own attitudes towards learners with ADHD and their willingness to implement appropriate interventions to meet learners’ needs to ensure they learn. Finally, teacher educators are teaching future teachers who, in turn, will have one-to-one contact with students in mainstream education, and play an important role in the teaching and assessment of their own students. One may argue against this idea based on the claim that it is the special education teachers’ responsibility to inform parents and/or other teachers about ADHD. However, not all schools have a special education service or an adequate number of special education teachers. Thus, the finding that teacher educators lack the necessary knowledge of ADHD points to a need to address this topic both in pre- and in-service education programmes. Both teacher educators and their students must be knowledgeable and learn to accommodate their teaching to students with ADHD.

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Both our findings and the literature show that educators’ perceptions of their knowledge level and their own ability to teach and support students with learning difficulties in the classroom affect their attitudes and beliefs about inclusion (Fuchs, 2010). A knowledgeable teacher can empathise their students with ADHD, dismantle hurtful behaviours in the classroom and treat their learners equally. This means treating learners in equitable and open-minded ways and being considerate of their unique and/or diverse differences. Inclusion is a positive educational placement for students, especially for those with specific education needs, in classrooms where both learners with and without impairments can benefit from learning together any subject, including English as an additional language (Fuchs, 2010; Kormos, 2020). To create such a learning environment, a knowledgeable teacher about ADHD is essential to implement the necessary intervention strategies. We also learnt from our findings that teacher educators were interested in and attempted to find ways to support the learning process of the students who showed characteristics of ADHD. The majority of the strategies reported by our participants were not specific to ELT, but were general teaching strategies intended to help learners with engagement, attention, literacy, organisation and study competencies beyond L2 proficiency. This observation may be due to the fact that educators either did not know language specific intervention strategies to teach students with ADHD or that they simply did not mention them during the interviews. It could also respond to the fact that teacher educators reckon that issues like attention, engagement and literacy permeate all areas of education, ELT included. These teaching strategies are in line with the literature which mentions peer tutoring in the form of pair- or group-work (Greene & Mitcham, 2012), small groups which enable teachers to address ADHD students’ attention problems, time management and organisational skills (Ivask, 2015). Findings are also consistent with the multisensory structured learning approach (Nijakowska, 2013), which facilitates learning by presenting information in a highly structured way and activating different sensory channels, e.g. visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. This method is particularly effective in ELT in general, and with students with learning difficulties in particular (Kormos, 2020). One final lesson we learnt regarding the intervention strategies used by the teacher educators is that their choices or preferences did not seem to be informed decisions. Contrary to this, the literature shows a considerable difference in the teaching of educators who monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies they implement (Weyandt, 2007b).

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Conclusion and Recommendations Although limited by its relatively small number of participants, the study revealed that the ELT teacher educators interviewed lacked the necessary knowledge about ADHD in terms of its symptoms, diagnosis and intervention strategies. Thus, we suggest that teacher education programmes are designed based on the inherent diversity of learners and their right to inclusive education, addressing content on ADHD and other specific learning difficulties to equip future teachers with the necessary skills, knowledge and resources. Only then, will teachers be empowered to make informed decisions and create an inclusive learning environment. Additionally, if ELT teacher education programmes are to prepare teachers to teach in inclusive settings, they need to mirror practices in their teacher education programmes. To accomplish this, higher education institutions may include special education needs modules, practical content such as examples of situated teaching strategies and inclusive lesson plans with differentiated instruction so as to equip future teachers with the necessary tools to face the challenge. This will surely have positive consequences not only in terms of addressing the specific needs of their own pre-service students but also in terms of becoming role-models for future teachers. Furthermore, to meet the needs of all educational practitioners, and of ELT teachers who teach students with learning difficulties in particular, there is an urgent need to provide regular in-service training programmes in all schools. This will enable educators to share resources and strategies informed by research. Needless to say, teachers who cannot participate in in-service training due to reasons such as financial problems, time constraints or heavy work load need institutional support to be able to do so. In-service training is an imperative component of curriculum design, since it addresses authentic classroom situations that, in turn, inform teacher education programmes for the benefit of future teachers and their innumerable students.

Suggested Further Reading Bray, M. A., & Kehle, T. J. (Eds.). (2011). The Oxford handbook of school psychology. Oxford: OUP. This book addresses a diversity of topics ranging from theoretical issues like individual differences, theories of intelligence and learning disabilities to practical implications such as how to academically assess the learners and classroom environment. It may serve as a useful resource for teachers as it

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provides a detailed account of how to intervene with a learner who has ADHD. Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2007). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention. New York: Guilford. In this book, a coherent framework for fusing the present knowledge base into practice is established. In addition to different types of learning disabilities, a detailed account of reading disabilities is also given which we think might be useful for language teachers in particular. Kormos, J., & Kontra, E. H. (2008). Language learners with special needs: An international perspective. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. This book portrays the language learning processes of learners with special needs (e.g. dyslexia or ADHD) as well as of learners with disabilities (e.g. students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing). Language teachers’ views about inclusive education and the specific techniques and strategies they can use are also explained. Rief, S. F. (2016). How to reach and teach children with ADD/ ADHD: Practical techniques, strategies and interventions (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. This book provides comprehensive information about causes of ADHD, types, criteria for diagnosis as well as treatment and coping strategies. As this book includes some detailed information regarding the educational interventions that can be employed by the teachers it may serve as a great resource.

Engagement Priorities • Given the findings (from this study and others) regarding the link between knowledge and intervention strategies, there is a strong need to investigate how teachers’ knowledge affect their behaviours and perceptions of students with ADHD. • We believe conducting a similar study with a larger sample size in different contexts will be valuable in terms of gaining broader insights into the strategies used for supporting students with ADHD to create a repository of information. • Given that the symptoms of ADHD are closely related to academic achievement from an early age through adulthood and the scarcity of research on language learning experiences of adults with ADHD, there is a need to understand the difficulties those learners face and to design appropriate intervention strategies.

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• Finally, it would be interesting to extend this study to portray the perspectives of students with ADHD in relation to the educators’ intervention strategies.

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Diversity in ELT: Present and Future Griselda Beacon, Mercedes Pérez Berbain, and Darío Luis Banegas

Introduction In this volume, we sought to provide situated accounts around diversity in three interconnected areas: (1) interculturality, (2) gender, and (3) special education needs. Through such research-informed as well as pedagogicalbased experiences, we aimed at reflecting on the opportunities and challenges around diversity in English Teaching Language (ELT) and raise awareness on the need to dismantle those practices that obstruct diversity. In this concluding chapter we address five questions which may help capture some of the highlights and commonalities across the contributors’ chapters and extend the debate beyond the circumstances and contexts illustrated in the volume. The questions are: (1) Who are the direct beneficiaries of teaching approaches that focus on diversity? (2) Who else may benefit from a diverse learning context? (3) What actions have been carried out to bring G. Beacon (B) IES en Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina M. Pérez Berbain Instituto Superior del Profesorado Joaquín V. González, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina D. L. Banegas School of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1_17

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diversity into teaching? (4) What else can practitioners do to contribute to diversity in ELT? and (5) What are the future directions in the ELT agenda concerning diversity?

Who are the Direct Beneficiaries of Teaching Approaches that Focus on Diversity? This volume highlights diversity in education and offers a collection of chapters that delve into ways to deal with diversity in the world of ELT and contribute to raising awareness and acting upon social injustice. The three areas addressed—interculturality, gender, and special education needs— dialogue with one another and share research-informed teaching practices that focus on every person’s right to have access to education, to no discrimination, to gender equality, and to an identity of their own (UN, 1989). The direct beneficiaries of teaching approaches that focus on diversity are the most vulnerable people in education, especially learners who have been marginalised and made invisible by a number of intersectional factors such as citizenship (Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”), ethnicity (Chapter ““Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools”), colonialism (Chapter “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”), physical and mental disabilities (Chapters “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Need”–“English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”), gender (Chapters “Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”–“Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities” and “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”), and otherness (Chapter “Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom”). However, we acknowledge that there are other intersectional factors such as race, social class, migration, physical appearance, underprivileged social backgrounds, age, and religion among others, which may lead to stigmatisation and discrimination (Collins, 2015). In all the cases, these experiences damage the individual’s physical, emotional, or mental health. Hence, ELT needs to recognise and address intersectionality in the language curriculum. Despite the breadth of the direct beneficiaries mentioned above, we acknowledge that many of the chapters included in this volume are set in

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contexts with rather privileged socioeconomic and institutional conditions which already support diversity in the ELT agenda. In this sense, there is scope to explore diversity in settings where teaching and learning occur in less privileged circumstances (e.g., lack of resources, large classes, lack of teacher preparation or support). In addition, there is also room to examine how constraints can be overcome to make diversity and inclusion part of signature language teaching pedagogies. Signature pedagogies refer to “the types of teaching that organise the fundamental ways in which future practitioners are educated for their new professions” (Shulman, 2005, p. 52). In the chapters focusing on intercultural education (Chapters “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”–“Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”), cultural diversity stands out. These chapters bring to the foreground the fact that some cultural practices (e.g., queerness, own culture appreciation) are still either absent or misrepresented in ELT materials, theory, and practice. Queer pedagogies (Chapter “Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus”; Gray, 2013; Nelson, 2009; Paiz, 2019) and critical interculturality (Chapter “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”; Mignolo, 2000; Walsh, 2010) merge to challenge heteronormativity and colonisation in the ELT curriculum. The claim for recognition includes several underrepresented groups. For example, international students at Western universities learn to develop intercultural skills to make sense of the cultural world they are immersed in (see Chapter “Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom”). Members of the LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersexual, Queer and others) community, who struggle for their right of an identity of their own, gain visibility and develop agency (see Chapters “Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”, “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children”, “Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom”, and “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”). Former colonial voices, silenced by long-lasting effects of European imperialism, break free from the stigma of the stereotype they were shaped into (see Chapter “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”). Finally, the analysis of textbooks and other teaching materials which question Anglo-dominant cultural content benefit learners of English as a

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foreign or second language (EFL/ESL) in the geographical (and metaphorical) margins of Western mainstream ideologies (see Chapter ““Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools”). When it comes to gender, the chapters on gender identity construction in the EFL classroom give visibility to the struggles which girls, women, nonbinary, and transgendered people undergo in the process of attaining gender equality. In situated contexts, these chapters explore the discursive patterns and ideological content of teacher–student interactions and how this teacher talk impacts on the learners’ gender identity (see Chapter “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children”). Also, these chapters deal with the insecurities and reticence teachers express in deheteronormalising their EFL classrooms by means of exploring sexual identities (see Chapter “Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus”) and the struggles of female university educators in Japan working in a heavily male-dominated environment (see Chapter “Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities”). The sharing of experiences of inclusive language education in preparing future EFL teachers for gendersensitive instruction (see Chapter “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”), as well as the delivery of in-service workshops on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) offer clear and practical examples on ways to deconstruct gender stereotypes, to fight against heteronormativity and to work towards gender equality (see Chapter “Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom”). We acknowledge that these chapters are set in contexts that somehow promote or do not obstruct gender diversity. Notwithstanding, we must recognise that the accounts described in them may be highly problematic in countries where, for example, homosexuality is criminalised (e.g., Bangladesh, Jamaica, United Arab Emirates), or where gender diversity intersects with religious groups that condemn non-binary identities. Finally, the chapters on special education needs (SEN) foreground the uniqueness of every person and the heterogeneous nature of the ELT classroom. Approaches based on differentiation focus on offering a variety of tasks to learners so as to respond to this heterogeneous nature (see Chapter “The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation”). In the same line, the underlying aims of teacher education on SEN in ELT pursue to provide teachers with a theoretical and practical background on the field to equip them with tools to face the challenge of inclusion in their

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educational contexts. The sharing of experiences and projects carried out with learners with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or who are deaf or hard of Hearing (DHH) give these learners visibility and inform teachers on these specific situations (see Chapters “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs”,– and “English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”).

Who Else May Benefit from a Diverse Learning Context? The chapters in this volume show how attending to diversity benefits some learners. However, when we look at inclusion with a broader lens, we see that the benefits may extend to the whole class and educational community. By being part and parcel of diversity itself, the whole class is an active participant in the enactment of diversity. This ripple effect may allow every participant to develop critical intercultural communicative competences due to experiencing diversity in “an ‘everybody’ approach”; one which responds to the differences of individual learners through options that are made available to everybody (Spratt & Florian, 2015, p. 94; see also Black-Hawkins, 2017; Connet, 2020). This inclusive pedagogical approach takes diversity as an asset in the learning of all. This is achieved mainly through teacher intervention which fosters reflection to help students develop attitudes of empathy, understanding, and respect towards diversity (e.g., Britton & Leonard, 2020; de Jong & Harper, 2011; Lawrence & Nagashima, 2021). The examples mentioned below show the impact that diversity may have on the whole class through teacher intervention; thus, consolidating the learning of all approaches and extending the debate beyond the contexts described in the chapters. Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT” describes a power struggle between two children who argue over the choice of a sport. It results in a hurt boy, accused of suggesting a sport which is not “manly enough”, and many silent crossed-armed bystanders. The conflict begs for a group reflection on gender and ethics. In Chapter “English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”, a teacher interviewed says that some learners “blurt out answers” without respecting classroom norms and that “[s]ymptoms of ADHD can be challenging for both the student himself and the other students around him”. We see how the whole class learns precisely from those events and interactions.

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Learning opportunities abound in queer-oriented task work in ELT with pertinent questions and discussions. For example, learners develop critical cultural awareness in their own intercultural learning processes (see Chapter “Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom”), reflect on heteronormativity (as seen in Chapters “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”, “Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”, and “Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus”) and on diverse and dynamic cultures in the classroom (as is the case described in Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”). Both teachers and learners deconstruct and (re)construct gender identities via engaging in experiential tasks (see Chapters “Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom” and “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”). Gender issues may create havoc at the workplace in the academic world (e.g., Chapter “Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities”), whereas children, at an age when language socialisation has a large effect on their identity, express their gender and aim to understand others on the grounds of dignity (e.g., Chapter “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children”). We see the endeavour of a class who deal with difficulty collaboratively (e.g., Chapters “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs” and “English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”); they sit around peers who cannot move around that easily (e.g., Chapter “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs”) or expect differentiated tasks (e.g., Chapter “The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation”). Other classes learn what dyslexia is like, along with the holistic support which teachers offer (e.g., Chapter “Dyslexia and its Role in the Teaching Reform in China”). Still others see the use of giving feedback to their teachers (e.g., Chapter “A challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students”) and the value of discussing learning difficulties openly (e.g., Chapter “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs”). Everyone learns from diversity, develops empathy, and sees how interventions impact on their peers’ and their own learning. This

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may rarely happen in courses which are not inclusive (e.g., Chapter “A challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students”) or when the learners’ tasks do not live up to the pedagogical aims stated in their course books (e.g., Chapter ““Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools”). The above mentioned flashbacks evidence there is further need for critical, counter-hegemonic, inclusive, and intersectional pedagogies which challenge all teachers and learners to learn how to live in diversity (Brennan et al., 2019; Connet, 2020; Giroux, 2020; Paiz, 2019; Stadler-Heer, 2019). Tension is bound to arise and so is human interdependency. This is the role of an ELT pedagogy which is anchored in diversity, intersectionality, and criticality, against tendencies that pay lip-service to values such as justice, difference, plurality, decentring, openness, and otherness.

What Actions Have Been Carried Out to Bring Diversity Into Teaching? Representation, the tapestry of diversity in our teaching practices, seeks to offer everyone the right to have access to education, free of all sorts of discrimination against them. Below, we mention the actions presented in the different chapters to act upon and embrace diversity in education. These actions seek to transform the learners’ realities towards deconstructing teachers’ homogenising behaviour in the ELT classroom. There is a common thread running through all the chapters which brings this diverse tapestry together. Every chapter focuses on one aspect of diversity, expands on the main characteristics of their object of study, and points out difficulties and challenges. They offer visibility to the issue, act upon it and inform teachers so that they can develop awareness to transform their own teaching practices. The actions carried out are also varied and include textbook evaluation, in-service workshops, interviews, task typologies, research-informed courses, teachers’ reflective writing, classroom observations, presentation of conceptual approaches, and results of action research projects and case studies. As part of the actions taken, several authors favour interviews as a method to collect data which, in turn, informs research studies on diversity. Direct quotations allow readers to have access to the voices of inservice teaching professionals in different educational contexts. In Turkey, teachers express their worries about the lack of in-service training to learn

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more about ADHD and share their own class interventions (see Chapter “English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”). In Cyprus, the interviews reveal the teachers’ anxiety and reticence to explore topics related to non-heteronormative sexual identities (see Chapter “Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus”), whereas in Japan, the female academics interviewed voice their struggles to gain some rights for promotion in a male-dominated university system (see Chapter “Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities”). In the Philippines, the selected method is class observation. In the recorded interactions between teachers and students, the teachers show rather essentialist views on gender identity construction, which in turn affect the students’ own perception of themselves (see Chapter “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children”). In Japan, teachers’ cognitions are analysed through teachers’ retrospective accounts gathered from their Reflective Writing (see Chapter “Uncovering Diverse Perspectives and Responses to Working with English Learners with Special Educational Needs”). In Cambodia, interviews to textbook editing committee members focused on the role which culturally embedded content plays in the development of a sense of local identity in a lower secondary school (see Chapter ““Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools”). Some chapters display course design, delivery, and their theoretical underpinnings to include diversity as part of their academic offer. All the educational levels are included—university, primary, secondary, and continuing professional development, and can be used as examples to follow in different school contexts. In Argentina, for example, an interdisciplinary project based on a pedagogy for understanding combines English, Spanish, and Physical Education to create bonds between primary and secondary learners. As a result, students develop language and intercultural skills as well as autonomy (see Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”). In teacher education, several courses are introduced and discussed in detail. In Colombia, a course on language, culture and identity was designed and carried out from the perspective of critical interculturality and intends to decolonise the curriculum of foreign language learning in a BA Programme in Bilingualism (see Chapter “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”). International students at a university in the USA take part in a contextualised ESL/EFL course designed to offer resources for cultural awareness and intercultural communication

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(see Chapter “Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom”). In Germany, student-teachers take part in a course based on a conceptual and practical approach to gender sensitive instruction, which contributes to developing empathy and respect towards non-binary individuals (see Chapter “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”). Similarly, a workshop on comprehensive sexuality education for in-service teachers in Patagonia presents the objectives, approaches, teaching materials, tasks, and results of the experience (see Chapter “Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom”). Other actions towards diversity involve the sharing of the results of a case study on dyslexia in China (see Chapter “Dyslexia and its Role in the Teaching Reform in China”) and the findings of an action research project with DHH students in Poland (see Chapter “A challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students”). Chapter “The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation” discusses the theoretical underpinnings of a 5-dimensional model of differentiation created to cater for diversity in Finnish classrooms. Finally, in Germany, task typologies are designed to engage student-teachers at university with queer cultural diversity. These typologies intend to equip (future) teachers with an inventory of queer-informed and interculturally minded task design (see Chapter “Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”). All of these actions add to the tapestry of diversity and contribute to creating a bank of resources teachers may use to start their own process of transformation. More importantly, these actions contribute to our understanding of how diversity can be brought into ELT. Nevertheless, it should be recognised that these actions necessitate institutional support (e.g., material resources, professional development opportunities, interdisciplinarity). Asking teachers to create language teaching materials that attend to diversity has a direct impact on their workload. Hence, the complexity of diversity may be experienced as a burden, particularly among teachers in less favourable working environments. Despite this realistic shortcoming, the literature offers inspiring examples of teachers who have worked for diversity and inclusion in challenging circumstances (e.g., Accardo, 2020; de la Barra & Carbone, 2020).

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What Else Can Practitioners do to Contribute to Diversity in ELT? We approach this question with the conviction that diversity needs to be acknowledged, promoted, and extended through an inclusive agenda. Below, we return to the engagement priorities posited by the chapter contributors and include our views as editors and ELT educators. Concerning ELT pedagogy and research, the contributors’ engagement priorities can be grouped into four broad categories. The first category is connected to resources and it highlights how teachers can elaborate their own paper and digital-based materials (e.g., Chapters ““Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools” and “Dyslexia and its Role in the Teaching Reform in China”) that aim at differentiated and inclusive learning for creating culturally sustaining pedagogies from and for the contexts which teachers and learners inhabit. The second category is associated to teachers’ perceptions and cognitions. For example, future projects may wish to explore further how teachers’ own views of language, culture (e.g., Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”), gender (e.g., Chapter “Deheteronormalising the EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Beliefs, Doubts, and Insecurities in Exploring Sexual Identities in Cyprus”), and special education needs (e.g., Chapter “English Language Teacher Educators’ Knowledge and Classroom Practices of ADHD”) influence their pedagogical decisions and regular practices regardless of their professional preparation and continuing development. Hence, the third category involves the necessity of including a systemic diversity orientation in both initial teacher education (e.g., Chapter “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”) as well as continuing professional development (e.g., Chapter “Supporting in-Service Teachers for Embracing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the ELT Classroom”) so as to provide rigorous frameworks that support teachers’ practices. This support may be particularly important in situations where teachers, who have already been prepared to and agree with diversity, work in institutions with a vision or hidden curriculum which does not support them. The last category amalgamates curricular, ethical, and political considerations. For example, future studies may investigate in what ways the formal and the enacted curriculum are transformed to make diversity and inclusion a permanent feature in ELT. While curriculum changes respond to ethical and political decisions, institutions, individual teachers, or other stakeholders may

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refuse to adopt, for example, a queer pedagogy (e.g., Chapter “Task Typologies for Engaging with Cultural Diversity: The Queer Case of LGBTIQ* Issues in English Language Teaching”). In such cases, an issue worth examining is how diversity can be included in a manner that values respect, multiple opinions, and personal beliefs which are constitutive of people’s identity. It goes without saying that adopting a diversity and inclusion lens in ELT as reflected in this volume aligns with a critical view of education, a view that seeks to decolonise the curriculum and imbue it with local pedagogies. This move may create tensions since diversity may need to acknowledge the unequal distribution of power among those represented. Albeit being necessarily political, initiatives towards diversity need to be concerted, free from proselytism, and steering away from morphing into a cancel culture. In terms of research methodologies, the volume has included document analysis (e.g., Chapter “Let’s Play ‘Sok says’, not ‘Simon says’”: Evaluating the International and Intercultural Orientation of ELT Materials for Cambodian Secondary Schools), narrative inquiry (e.g., Chapter “Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT”), conversation analysis (e.g., Chapter “Exploring the Role of Teacher Talk in the Gender Identity Construction of Filipino Children”), and interview-based qualitative analysis (e.g., Chapter “Gender Barriers and Conflict in ELT in Japanese Universities”) as discussed above. In addition, the volume shows contributors’ tendency towards a reflective attitude on their own teaching practice (e.g., Chapters “Promoting Understanding of Diversity by Taking a Critical Intercultural Stance”, “Fostering Intercultural Learning Experiences in the ESL/EFL Classroom”, “Dyslexia and its Role in the Teaching Reform in China”, and “A challenge, a Must, an Adventure: English as a Foreign Language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students”). Hence, the volume is rich in examples of good practice as assessed through the protagonists’ eyes, i.e., teachers and learners. In this regard, reflective practice, in some cases coupled with teacher research (e.g., Chapter “Preparing Pre-service Teachers for the Singular They: Inclusive EFL Teacher Education”), may be identified as a potent conduit that allows educators to disseminate their informed practices, explorations, and concerns with a wider community of practice. By allowing learners, colleagues, and the authors themselves to have a voice in the pedagogical contours of English language education, the chapters contribute to diversity of voices, which is a mechanism that ensures fair representation of the plurality on which societies are built. In search of diversity, inclusion, and plurality, diversity for ELT can profit from pedagogical accounts and research projects that examine context through a micro-lens

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handled by teachers. In other words, teacher research seems to be a transparent and encouraging road to cement diversity in ELT, for it is teachers who are in close contact with diversity day after day. Together with the research methods featured in the volume, future description and analysis of diversity in action, i.e., inclusion, could also benefit from surveys and arts-based research (Leavy, 2019). In particular, the use of roleplay (e.g., Schmid & Rolvsjord, 2020), drawings such as significant circles or photovoices (e.g., Villacañas de Castro, 2019), or creative writing (Akdal & S¸ ahin, 2014) may offer further insights into issues of perceptions, beliefs, and reflections on past and present experiences of educational actors. In addition, future endeavours may incorporate other stakeholders such as parents, very young learners, policy makers, curriculum developers, and school administrators, and even authors of coursebooks with a less restrictive agenda such as Taylor and Coimbra (2019). In so doing, the field will benefit from listening to other powerful voices which shape and influence formal education at both micro and macro levels.

What are the Future Directions in the ELT Agenda Concerning Diversity? For diversity and inclusion to thrive and become an inherent element of ELT, social justice needs to be incorporated as a philosophy of education, a paradigm that allows ELT to respond to wider educational imperatives and systems. ELT needs to be part of the broad educational sphere. According to Ortaçtepe Hart and Martel (2020): English for social progress and social justice has already transformed the way we perceive language instruction both as a means for communication and as a political act through which we can cultivate in our students a sense of critical inquiry, responsibility, advocacy and ownership, and a desire to interact with different communities in order to address the numerous problems we face in our world. (p. 2)

In the quotation, centrality is given to responsibility and engagement with diversity within a framework of critical citizenship. Diversity permeates these layers; in this ecosystem, language education can become a channel through which socially just modes of thinking and doing become mainstream rather than alternative. While in the section above we discussed possible courses of action at individual and micro levels of socio-educational activity, we recognise that these need to be imbricated in meso and macro

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levels as conceptualised in the Douglas Fir Group’s (2016) framework of the multifaceted nature of language learning and teaching. At a meso level, institutions need to deconstruct concepts such as investment, identity, agency, and equity to orient themselves towards sustaining diversity and making decisions on how to enact educational equity policies (Chan & Coney, 2020; David & Brown, 2020). In the case of ELT, this implies that schools, universities, and ministries of education develop curricula, policy, and concomitant resources that attend to diversity at the levels of design, implementation, and evaluation. The future needs teachers who are systemically prepared and exposed to experiential modes of enacting diversity. Hence, curriculum and teacher education should strive for adopting a diversity perspective. Such a diversity-driven meso level can only be possible if the macro level of ideological structures is comprised of belief systems and values that recognise and promote diversity.

Conclusion The five questions discussed above have sought to bring together the commonalities and highlights across the chapters in this volume to underscore the actors, benefits, and actions involved in diversity in ELT. They encompass a variety of courses of action that might extend the issue of diversity beyond this volume at the levels of contextually sustaining pedagogies and research. In addition, the questions recognise potential hindrances as well as implications and future directions at macro levels of (language) education. When we embarked on this volume, we were interested in raising awareness of (the lack of ) diversity in ELT and concomitant issues in society by including accounts in the areas of interculturality, gender, and special education needs. The chapters have confirmed that diversity is, as discussed in Chapter “Introduction: Diversity in ELT”, an inherent trait of human beings and society at large. While it seems crass to point out the intrinsic nature of diversity, the chapters have demonstrated that learning environments do not necessarily acknowledge diversity for their own benefit. On the contrary, all the chapters have departed from experiencing diversity as a problem and have arrived at diversity as a right by dismantling deep-seated discourses of hegemony, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and homogeneity not only in ELT, but also beyond the borders of ELT. It is worrying to recognise that in this regard, ELT reflects the general socio-political cartography of our times in which discrimination is entrenched. Nonetheless, the chapters bear witness

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to initiatives which seek to critically contest those unjust, limited, and above all, unreal representations of human life. This volume shows that we may need micro-actions that are systematically and collectively constructed, maintained, and extended from within ELT to have a wider and sustainable impact on all areas of social practice. If you have reached this far into the volume, here is our invitation: let’s celebrate diversity by making it possible in contexts where diversity is hidden, silenced, and/or criminalised. These contexts are not far away territories; the need for embracing diversity can be literally found round the corner from our homes.

References Accardo, S. P. (2020). Comprehensive sexuality education activities in the EFL lesson through emergency remote teaching (ERT). Argentinian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(2), 8–19. Akdal, D., & S¸ ahin, A. (2014). The effects of intertextual reading approach on the development of creative writing skills. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 54, 171–186. Black-Hawkins, K. (2017). Understanding inclusive pedagogy: Learning with and from teachers. In V. Plows & B. Whitburn (Eds.), Inclusive education: Innovations and controversies interrogating educational change (pp. 13–30). Sense Publishers. Brennan, A., King, F., & Travers, J. (2019). Supporting the enactment of inclusive pedagogy in a primary school. International Journal of Inclusive Education (pp. 1– 18). https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1625452. Britton, E. R., & Leonard, R. L. (2020). The social justice potential of critical reflection and critical language awareness pedagogies for L2 writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 50, 100776. Chan, E. L., & Coney, L. (2020). Moving TESOL forward: Increasing educators’ critical consciousness through a racial lens. TESOL Journal, 11(4), e550. Collins, P. H. (2015). Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1), 1–20. Connet, H. (2020). Action research to improve confidence in meeting diverse need and the quality of inclusive practice through lesson observations. Support for Learning, 35 (2), 178–191. David, R. D., & Brown, K. (2020). Diversity, equity, and language teacher education. In S. Conrad, A. Hartig & L. Santelmann (Eds.), The Cambridge introduction to applied linguistics (pp. 295–307). Cambridge University Press. de la Barra, E., & Carbone, S. (2020). Bridging inequality: Cooperative learning through literature in two vulnerable schools in Santiago. Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 22(2), 49–63.

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De Jong, E., & Harper, C. (2011). Accommodating diversity: Pre-service teachers’ views on effective practices for English language learners. In T. Lucas (Ed.), Teacher preparation for linguistically diverse classrooms: A resource for teacher educators (pp. 73–90). Routledge. Douglas Fir Group. (2016). A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. Modern Language Journal, 100 (S1), 19–47. Giroux, H. A. (2020). On critical pedagogy (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury. Gray, J. (2013). LGBT invisibility and heteronormativity in ELT materials. In J. Gray (Ed.), Critical perspectives on language teaching materials (pp. 40–63). Palgrave. Lawrence, L., & Nagashima, Y. (2021). Exploring LGBTQ+ pedagogy in Japanese university classrooms. ELT Journal, 75 (2), 152–161. Leavy, P. (Ed.). (2019). Handbook of arts-based research. Guilford Press. Mignolo, W. (2000). Local histories/global designs: Coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking. Princeton University Press. Nelson, C. D. (2009). Sexual identities in English language education: Classroom conversations. Routledge. Ortaçtepe Hart, D., & Martel, J. (2020). Exploring the transformative potential of English language teaching for social justice: Introducing the special issue. TESOL Journal, 11(4), e568. Paiz, J. M. (2019). Queering practice: LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion in English language teaching. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 18(4), 266–275. Schmid, W., & Rolvsjord, R. (2020). Becoming a reflexive practitioner: Exploring music therapy students’ learning experiences with participatory role-play in a Norwegian context. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1–13. Shulman, L. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 134 (3), 52–59. Spratt, J., & Florian, L. (2015). Inclusive pedagogy: From learning to action: Supporting each individual in the context of “everybody”. Teaching and Teacher Education, 49 (1), 89–96. Stadler-Heer, S. (2019). Inclusion. ELT Journal, 73(2), 219–222. Taylor, J., & Coimbra, I. (2019). Raise up! Taylor Made English. UN. (1989, 20 November). United Nations convention on the rights of the child (p. 3). Treaty Series, 1577. Villacañas de Castro, L. S. (2019). Translating teacher funds of identity into curricular proposals for the EFL classroom: A model for student-teacher innovation and professional development. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 19 (1), 25–41. Walsh, C. (2010). Interculturalidad crítica y educación intercultural. In J. Viaña, L. Tapia & C. Walsh (Eds.), Construyendo interculturalidad crítica (pp. 75–96). Instituto Internacional de Integración del Convenio Andrés Bello III-CAB.

Index

A

C

Academia 154, 156, 160, 168 Academic culture 57, 58, 64–66 Accommodate/accommodation 4, 13, 24, 123, 211, 230, 232–239, 241, 242, 253, 256, 271, 285, 293 Agency 30, 31, 59, 86, 193, 199, 252, 303, 313 Argentina 11, 12, 21, 173, 175–177, 180, 182, 308 Artefacts 60, 63, 199 Assessment 23, 33, 75, 103, 132, 176, 213, 214, 222, 223, 232, 240, 286, 293 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 13, 283–296, 308 Authenticity 25, 28, 176

Cambodia 11, 12, 76, 77, 84–86, 308 Case study 156, 232, 243, 248, 251, 309 China 12, 13, 62, 247–252, 255, 259, 260, 309 Classroom discourse 8, 97, 105, 133, 134, 136, 139, 192 Classroom practice 8, 11, 73, 91, 118, 231, 237, 238, 243, 286 Cognition 13, 60, 176, 179, 180, 185, 230–232, 241, 242, 308, 310 Collaborative task 23, 31 Colombia 11, 37, 38, 41, 44, 45, 48, 49, 51, 308 Coloniality 39–41 Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) 173, 175, 177, 304, 309 Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) 25, 28, 31, 173–177, 182, 184, 188

B

Blended learning 193, 205

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021 D. L. Banegas et al. (eds.), International Perspectives on Diversity in ELT, International Perspectives on English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74981-1

317

318

Index

Continuing professional development (CPD) 8, 13, 125, 173, 308, 310 Controversies approach 200 Counselling approach 200 Counterhegemonic teaching 43 Creativity 22, 26, 276 Critical inquiry approach 201 Critical interculturality 6, 11, 37–40, 42, 44, 48–50, 303, 308 Critical thinking 42, 43, 48, 139, 174, 179, 181, 182 Cued speech 267, 269, 272, 278 Cultural adjustment 55, 56, 60, 63, 65 Cultural difference 56, 58, 62–64, 67, 93, 95, 99, 105 Cultural diversity 3, 33, 48, 73, 74, 77, 78, 83, 85, 86, 88, 91–95, 97, 99, 104–106, 303, 309 Cultural identity 63, 65, 66 Culture(s) 5–7, 27, 31, 33, 38, 39, 42, 44, 45, 48, 57–59, 62–65, 67, 73, 76, 83, 85, 88, 92–95, 105, 107, 115, 125, 176, 177, 179, 217, 223, 224, 250, 253, 254, 276, 303, 306, 308, 310, 311 Culture teaching 4 Curriculum 2, 4, 10, 25, 30, 32, 38, 55–62, 66, 68, 88, 132, 147, 169, 174–176, 185, 188, 222, 223, 232, 241, 252, 256, 295, 302, 303, 308, 310–313 Cyprus 12, 114, 116, 117, 119, 120, 122, 123, 125, 308

D

Deaf 13, 265–267, 269, 272, 274, 278 Decolonial pedagogies 38, 42 Decolonial turn 38, 39 Differentiated learning 244

Differentiation 10, 12, 193, 211–225, 286, 304, 309 Disability 9, 94, 230, 235, 238, 240, 241, 247, 249, 267 Discrimination 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 29, 37–39, 42, 43, 48, 49, 51, 96, 153–156, 160, 164, 166–168, 230, 239, 302, 307, 313 Diversity 1–13, 24, 25, 28, 30, 38, 39, 48, 61, 73–76, 79–81, 86, 88, 92–99, 102–105, 113, 115, 124, 125, 147, 156, 173–180, 185, 187, 188, 191–193, 195, 198, 203–205, 211, 212, 215, 218, 224, 233, 243, 259, 283, 295, 301–314 Dyslexia 217, 247–253, 255–260, 296, 305, 306, 309

E

English as a foreign language (EFL) 6, 10, 12, 55, 56, 58, 67, 99, 113–119, 121–127, 154, 173, 175, 180, 191–195, 199–205, 231, 236, 266, 269, 270, 272, 276, 278, 287, 304 Englishes 74, 75, 81, 86 English language teaching (ELT) 1, 2, 4–13, 38, 40, 41, 51, 55, 57, 58, 61, 66, 73–83, 85–87, 89, 91, 92, 94–99, 103, 105–107, 113–115, 118, 121, 125, 126, 132, 133, 146–149, 153–156, 158, 160, 161, 163–168, 173, 178, 179, 181, 187, 193, 229, 230, 242, 244, 259, 284, 286–288, 290, 293–295, 301–304, 306, 307, 309–314 Equity 4, 11, 135, 153, 154, 165, 203, 313 Ethical relations 31

Index F

Family 96, 131, 134–136, 138, 141, 145, 146, 158, 160, 178–180, 193, 267, 274, 288 Finland 12, 215–217, 222 5-dimensional model of differentiation 12, 212, 309 Flipped classrooms 257

319

Heteronormativity 7, 12, 97–99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 114, 116, 121–123, 125–127, 194, 198, 303, 304, 306, 313 Higher education 4, 12, 56, 58, 146, 154, 165, 176, 177, 230, 247, 248, 252, 295 Hiring 155, 157, 158, 166–168

I G

Gender 2–4, 6–9, 12, 23, 29, 37–40, 43, 45–47, 51, 73, 91, 93–98, 102, 105, 114–116, 120, 121, 123–125, 127, 131–136, 139–142, 146–149, 153–155, 158, 162, 165–168, 174, 175, 178–182, 184, 187, 192–195, 199–205, 301, 302, 304, 305, 309, 313 Gender diversity 8, 91, 94–96, 98, 99, 102, 104–106, 176, 177, 187, 188, 195, 205, 304 Gender expression 120, 121, 123, 124, 132 Gendering of Children 140, 146 Gender stereotypes 131–133, 139, 147, 148, 182, 183, 185, 186, 200, 304 Germany 11, 12, 76, 99, 192, 194, 309 Global 56, 62, 64–66, 73–76, 83, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 99, 176, 248, 249, 266 Globalisation 56

H

Harassment 117, 154–157, 164–166 Hard of hearing 13, 265, 266, 269, 272, 274, 305 Hearing loss 266–270, 272, 278 Heterogeneous classroom 224

Identity 4, 6–9, 12, 27, 33, 38, 42, 44–46, 48, 49, 94, 96, 97, 102, 113–115, 118, 121–123, 125, 126, 131, 133–135, 137, 139, 141, 145, 147–149, 175, 178, 187, 192–194, 199, 200, 204, 243, 302, 303, 306, 308, 311, 313 Inclusion 2–4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 31, 45, 47, 80, 83, 96, 104, 105, 107, 114, 116, 122, 125, 126, 173, 177, 178, 180, 187, 192, 194, 195, 199, 200, 204, 229, 243, 249, 294, 303–305, 309–312 Inclusive education 4, 10, 11, 104, 193, 211, 230, 231, 249, 253, 258–260, 266, 295, 296 Inclusivity 95, 195, 203, 205, 236, 239, 241, 249, 255, 256, 259, 260 In-service teachers 12, 103, 125, 213, 309 Intercultural 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 26–33, 38, 39, 50, 51, 55–63, 65–68, 74–76, 79, 81, 83, 85–87, 89, 91–94, 99, 105–107, 176, 181, 223, 303, 305, 306, 308 Intercultural communication 65, 67, 74–77, 79, 83, 85–87, 308 Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) 27, 32, 92, 305

320

Index

Intercultural competence 27, 55, 56, 58, 66 Intercultural curriculum 58 Intercultural friendships 65, 66 Intercultural learning 56–58, 66, 68, 83, 85, 91–94, 97, 99, 102, 105–107, 306 Intercultural skills 57–59, 61, 66, 303, 308 Interdisciplinary project 24, 308 Internalisation 60 International 12, 13, 22, 40, 42, 56–62, 64–66, 74, 75, 77, 79–83, 119, 122, 126, 154, 176, 247, 248, 250–253, 255, 266, 303, 308 Internationalising the curriculum 56, 61 International students 65, 68, 252, 253, 255 Intersectionality 11, 40, 48, 155, 165, 168, 302, 307 Intervention strategies 286, 287, 293–296

J

Japan 12, 13, 153–157, 160, 164, 165, 167, 232, 304, 308

K

Knowledge of ADHD 284, 286–288, 293

Learning difficulties 216, 222, 225, 250, 251, 253, 255–258, 260, 284, 286, 288, 289, 294, 295, 306 Learning disability 256, 295 Learning environment 4, 5, 12, 60, 62–64, 115, 203, 212–214, 217, 218, 231, 255, 257, 286, 293–295, 313 Lesson planning 176, 177, 184 LGBTIQ 6–8, 91, 95–100, 102–105, 107, 168, 303 Linguistics diversity 3 Literacy 3, 25, 26, 44, 47, 127, 132, 250, 258, 272, 294

M

Materials 6, 8, 45, 47, 58–60, 62, 74–79, 81–83, 85–87, 98–101, 103, 105, 132–134, 149, 181, 187, 194, 195, 199–201, 203, 212, 242, 251, 253, 255, 265, 267, 273, 274, 278, 291, 303, 309, 310 Mentorship 167 Motherhood 143, 155, 157, 167, 181 Motivation 1, 166, 176, 212, 214, 256, 274, 289–291

N

Networking 154, 157, 158, 160, 265

O L

Language education 32, 73, 91, 92, 113, 117, 118, 124, 125, 191, 240, 253, 304, 311, 312 Language socialisation 131, 133, 306 Learner’s background 267 Learner identity 118

Otherness 5, 26, 302, 307

P

Pedagogy of the question 38, 43 Performative 25, 30 Performativity 199

Index

The Philippines 12, 132, 134, 142, 149, 308 Poland 12, 265, 309 Pre-service teachers 12, 42, 192 Professional development 1, 2, 8, 13, 32, 61, 78, 125, 126, 166, 173, 229, 231, 308–310 Promotion 3, 6, 41, 43, 154, 157, 159, 160, 166–168, 308 Provisions 10, 11, 252

Q

Quality 2, 4, 6, 9–11, 40, 103, 135, 136, 168, 176, 250–252, 266, 267, 270, 276, 285 Queer linguistics 205 Queer Theory 96, 97, 113–115, 117, 125–127, 148

R

Race 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 39–41, 43–47, 51, 73, 94, 155, 166, 175, 302 Reflection 23, 24, 26, 28, 42, 43, 56, 63, 76, 87, 97–99, 101–103, 107, 154, 156, 173, 174, 185–188, 193, 195, 199, 202, 204, 241, 305, 312 Reflective writing 232, 236, 307, 308

S

Scaffolding 10, 23, 105, 176, 197, 202, 253, 255 School trip 22, 28, 30 Sexual diversity 106 Sexual identities 6, 7, 12, 99, 113–116, 118–126, 308 Singular they 199 Sociocultural theory 2, 60 Special educational needs (SEN) 2, 4, 9, 12, 13, 177, 229, 247,

321

265, 289, 295, 301, 302, 304, 310, 313 Student-centred learning 218 Support materials 12, 213, 214, 221, 223, 224

T

Task design 99, 309 Task typology 91, 98, 99, 103, 105–107 Teacher cognition 231, 241 Teacher collaboration 24 Teacher education 8–11, 13, 32, 38, 42, 43, 51, 98, 99, 103, 177, 182, 191–194, 231, 232, 260, 283, 287, 293, 295, 304, 308, 310, 313 Teacher educators 8, 13, 78, 103, 205, 284, 287–289, 291, 293–295 Teacher reflection 23, 28, 42 Teachers’ concerns 12, 114, 118, 121 Teacher training 78, 184, 239, 241 Teaching arrangements 12, 213, 214, 223 Teaching English as an international language (TEIL) 74–79, 81, 83, 86, 87, 89 Teaching methods 10, 12, 41, 49, 213, 214, 218, 223 Teaching strategies 10, 11, 42, 125, 255, 265, 284, 294, 295 Teaching techniques 255, 259 Technology 28, 180, 217, 219, 255, 256, 258, 260, 266, 269, 276, 277 Textbook 12, 33, 58, 59, 62, 66, 74, 76–83, 86, 89, 126, 132, 194, 200, 215, 217, 218, 234, 267, 303, 307, 308 Tools 2, 59–61, 76, 179, 187, 221, 224, 269, 272, 295, 304

322

Index

195, 251, 265, 304,

Training 10, 45, 49, 61, 78, 104, 184, 230–232, 237, 239, 241, 242, 244, 257, 258, 285–287, 295, 307 Transformative view of learning 59 Turkey 12, 287, 307

230, 232, 233, 236, 248, 252, 254–256, 258, 260, 271, 285, 288–290, 292, 308, 309

W U

United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) 192 University 13, 44, 45, 48, 50, 57, 67, 99, 103, 118, 121, 154–156, 159–161, 163, 164, 166, 192,

Women 7, 8, 37, 43, 120, 132, 134, 136, 137, 142, 143, 147, 149, 153–162, 164–168, 180–182, 187, 200, 304

Z

Zone of proximal development 212