Preparing Culturally and Linguistically Competent Teachers for English as an International Language Education

Abstract

Despite recent scholarly advancements in teaching English as an international language (EIL), its implementation in TESOL classrooms has been challenging and limited. Because English teachers play a significant role in EIL implementation in their daily lessons, preparing EIL-oriented teachers becomes critical. This article outlines major developments in EIL and their implications for teacher competence and discusses the ideological challenges in integrating EIL in teacher education. It concludes with a detailed description of a three-step EIL-oriented pedagogy for TESOL teacher education courses and programs that aims to foster teachers' linguistic self-respect, build their pedagogical competence for plurilingual teaching, and transform their classrooms.With its ever-increasing use and spread by people of different nations for communication in global migration and flow, English is widely accepted as an international language. As an international language, it enables speakers to share ideas and cultures with others across the globe, and its varieties become established alongside local languages and embedded in the culture (s) of the countries in which they are used. English as an international language (EIL), therefore, refers to a function that the English language performs in international, multilingual contexts in which users from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds

Making Visible Awareness in Practice: Literacy Educators in Diverse Classrooms

“…With our intention to examine the issues of multilingual and multicultural awareness presented by the literacy teacher‐educators, we fill a gap in the research about how teacher‐educators who demonstrate these elements of awareness can support diverse student populations, as well as in‐service teachers, within the context of partnerships in K‐12 literacy classrooms. As research has shown, while many teachers can effectively use generalised pedagogical approaches to address the cultural and linguistic needs of CLDs (Gay, ; Li, ), they must also be able to use these pedagogies within specific content areas, such as English language arts and reading, mathematics, science, and social studies (see Gay, ). Learning about the awareness of language and culture that teacher‐educators demonstrate when supporting literacy, and specifically, writing instruction, is critical for enabling in‐service teachers to address students’ diverse needs in this subject area.…”

(Critical) Multilingual and Multicultural Awareness in the Pedagogical Responsiveness of Educators

“…Teacher educators who come to understand and respond to cultural differences need time, space, openness to change, multilingual and multicultural awareness, as well as experiences with practice, boundary-crossing, and transformational learning (de los Ríos & Souto-Manning, 2015;D'Haem & Griswold, 2017;Dixson & Dingus, 2007;Han, 2016;Howe & Xu, 2013;Merryfield, 2014;Smith, , 2018Williams & Berry, 2016). Despite variability in teacher educators' responsiveness (Li, 2017), research indicates they are also better able to relate to students when they know more about language and culture by developing awareness of difference in their teaching practices (Costa et al, 2005;.…”

“…This notion, along with Ladson-Billing's articulation of culturally sustaining pedagogy, allowed us to consider the "multiplicities of identities and cultures that help formulate today's youth culture" (Ladson-Billings, 2014, p. 82;Paris, 2012), as well as the "within-group" and "across-group" cultural practices necessary for cultural competence (Paris, 2012, p. 95). In conjunction, linguistically responsive pedagogy-the use of guidelines for integrating principles of learning with principles of language to support students' language difference (see Lucas & Villegas, 2013)-provided a lens to examine educators' pedagogical responsiveness to students and teachers' literacy needs across a range of linguistic groups (e.g., Li, 2017;Lucas & Villegas, 2013).…”

An overview of research on the pedagogy of English as an international language - Roby Marlina & Ram Ashish Giri, The Pedagogy of English as an International Language: Perspectives from Scholars, Teachers and Students. Switzerland: Springer, 2014. Pp. 265. Paperback $112.65, ISBN 9783-3-319-06126-9

“…The next article, ‘Implementing EIL paradigm in ELT classrooms’ by Ali, however, shows satisfactory evidence of a paradigm shift in the attitudes among Malaysian teachers. Putting these studies in consecutive chapters is significant in that the revealed perception differences among teachers working in varying cultural contexts helps raise readers’ awareness that a key first step towards the implementation of an EIL paradigm is to explore the attitudes that teachers hold as to this perspective, since they are the key agents in translating EIL principles into ELT classrooms (Li, 2017).…”