The CLIC Project: Language stories matter

Abstract

Emotional well-being, social justice, human connection and personal development-all have been gaining attention and space in the field of TESOL in varied educational settings. It is happening in an effort to move away from the status quo of hierarchical relations, punitive practices, and the unilateral transfer of knowledge which have been shown to be harmful, limiting, and disempowering (Lapadat & Lapadat, 2020;Pentón Herrera & McNair, 2021). This shift is of great import because it creates opportunities for human connection and harmony in contexts that were formerly based on maintaining distance and inequality. Deliberate focus on personal and interpersonal aspects of second language (L2) learning leads to the emergence of psychological and physical spaces where students can feel supported along their multifaceted journey into a newly acquired linguistic and cultural reality. As learners navigate their expanding selves (Norton, 2013;Pavlenko & Norton, 2007), they can voice their fears and anxieties or aspirations to feel a sense of comfort and peace within themselves and with those around them.Here we present a project founded on human connection. As teachers and project initiators, we recognize that our role in teaching a language and the culture associated with it is closer to that of facilitator rather than master. We acknowledge the debilitating sense of "feeling like an outsider" and encourage learners to address and reframe it with self-understanding, compassion, and care. 1 We assume the delicate task of demonstrating how learners are already a part of a new linguistic or cultural group, rather than educating them to integrate into a reality that still awaits. In this space, the learner's changing self and their positioning of that self in the various spheres of life (e.g., as students, leaders, employees, community members, care givers) are put to the forefront of language development, where teachers and learners become co-creators of knowledge and co-constructors of the L2 narrative.The CLIC (Culture, Language, Identity and Community) Project, offered as a 3-credit seminar, was construed as such a space, both physical and intellectual, where learning an L2 occurs in tandem with the learning of the L2 self. Both are driven by sharing L2 speaker stories and experiences. The fundamental premise of the project is that language is one of many elements in evolution for English learners, alongside, for example, learner identity, the sense of belonging to 1 Project participants were registered in our university English as a second language (ESL) programs. They were students with various backgrounds (international students, newcomers, and local French-Canadians).