Monolingual Ruins The Trick
So you speak
English-only, right?
By Sydney Weng
One
of the first few things you’ll encounter in a SLA (Second Language Acquisition)
course is that it is generally ideal to have bilingual instructors rather than
monolingual ones. Which is why it is particularly bemusing for me to read
comments that seem to elevate monolingual native speakers of English and put
down non-native-speaking English teachers on Facebook forums for English
Teachers in Taiwan.
Surely,
if you didn’t at least read something about SLA you must have realized after
‘years and years’ of experience that being a native speaker doesn’t guarantee
effective teaching methods. It simply means that you speak relatively fluent
English than those who haven’t mastered the language. It also proves that
unlike your bilingual peers, you probably do not have the faintest idea on what
the brain has to go through when acquiring a foreign language. Nor do you
understand how grammar from the first language may affect acquisition of the
second language. Thus attesting to the fact that monolingual native speakers
are more likely suited for children who are prepped for successive early
bilingualism than students with other needs.
Unfortunately,
Taiwan is by no means anywhere near providing curriculums or programs that
ensure early bilingualism for children under the age of seven.
There
are two main trends that dominate ESL classrooms in Taiwan at the moment. The
most dominant one includes institutions and programs that focus on student
performance in standardized tests, while the second most dominant trend
features classrooms that aim to provide immersive teaching environments for
children under the age of seven. The former features bilingual teaching methods
and is widely implemented in public and private institutions. The latter favors
monolingual teaching methods and targets children who are young enough to learn
language with both hemispheres of the brain.
That
being said, it’s rather obvious that the necessity for native speakers mostly
exist in monolingual classrooms for children ‘under the age of seven’. Yet, if
we take a closer look at the resources and hours put into implementing
immersive learning environments in Taiwan, one may realize that very few
institutions actually do provide programs that ensure effectiveness through a
concentrated and secluded environment for students to gradually absorb the
emotional and cultural nuances in a foreign language. Thus, allowing us to
reexamine the paranoid obsession over favoring native speakers over non-native
speakers in any ESL classroom.
It’s
incredibly true that many bilingual or ESL instructors do not speak flawless
English. It is also painstakingly unfortunate that SLA teaching standards in
Taiwan are shamefully low for both bilingual and monolingual classrooms. Plenty
of TESOL-trained instructors can barely string a simple sentence while a lot of
native speakers speak worse English than professionally trained and experienced
bilingual teachers. Nonetheless, the purpose of my argument is not to
contradict hardworking and qualified teachers or to fuss over who makes the
least grammar mistakes, but to invite an understanding that native speakers
aren’t always the most ideal choice when it comes to hiring ESL instructors.
Or even so, to point out that monolingual native speakers are the least
ideal for teaching English as a Second language.
Growing
up in the so-called ‘bu-xi-ban (cram-school)’ industry for two decades of my life
has taught me two things about being an ESL (English as a Second Language)
instructor: 1) Your nationality or mother-tongue has nothing to do with
with your effectiveness as an instructor. It’s mostly based on effort and
experience. 2) If you happen to be white and come from a country where English
is the official language, people assume you’re qualified to ‘teach English’.
The
result of these choices often lead to a stubborn preference over Canadians,
Americans or British citizens with a polished Oxford accent. In many cases, a
lot of these ‘teachers’ do not have much experience in acquiring a second
language themselves. Let alone understanding the lexical and syntactic
struggles native speakers of Mandarin suffer from while learning English. This
is completely understandable because English can literally get you anywhere in
the world. Furthermore, as long as there is one person in the room incapable of
communicating in anything but English, it is often considered polite in Taiwan
to drop the Mandarin and start speaking in English.
A
lot of parents or students are under the impression that hiring someone with a
passport from the UK or the US ensure them with a qualified English instructor.
Unfortunately, blue passports don’t guarantee good teachers . Those come with
time spent training, money spent on degrees and a general ability to
communicate effectively. By ignorantly endorsing ‘stereotypically
foreign-looking’ native speakers for the sake of speaking relatively ‘proper
English’ not only discourages experienced bilingual teachers, but also invites
racism and supremacy in the industry.
The
problems with bilingualism, where many tend to nit-pick on, is that for those
who fall into the category of ‘early bilingualism’ often go through systematic
glitches where their brain borrows words or phrases from both mother-tongues,
thus creating an illusion of imperfect grammar. Those who are part of the ‘late bilingualism’ group may suffer from occasional
grammar mistakes when producing authentic content. In spite of these minor
misgivings, which can be avoided with hard-working class-prep, bilinguals are a
lot more capable of introducing a second language to a student due to their
inherent knowledge on both languages. Thus providing them with the advantage to
further explain, pinpoint and solve problems most ESL students encounter while
learning a second language.
So
for the parents who have trust issues with experienced bilingual teachers and
monolingual native English speakers who have the intrinsic need to act as
grammar nazis to belittle non-native speakers: There are many things to
consider beyond ‘flawless’ grammar. So before one shoots a comment like
“perhaps you should teach your own native language”, think again, because
teaching is a process of communicating and problem-solving. If an instructor’s
only attribute and value to the classroom is ‘proper grammar’, it’s best we turn to Siri instead.
I bet you she’s smarter than the most of us.
