Stories of Becoming English Teachers in Brazil and China Cultural Landscapes

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Stories of Becoming English Teachers in Brazil and China Cultural Landscapes

MELLO, Dilma (CAPES/LAEL-PUC/SP-Brazil) CUI, Hongguo (University of Alberta- Canada / Harbin Institute of Technology- China) Resumo

O objetivo deste artigo é compartilhar as experiências de como o cenário nacional de nossos países influenciou nossa identidade como professores de Inglês. Vemos os cenários de conhecimento profissional da China e do Brasil como construído por histórias diferentes em relação aos propósitos e intenções de ensino de Língua Inglesa. Pretendemos falar sobre nossas histórias, identificando o que formos, o que somos e o que estamos nos tornando, considerando o cenário educacional de nossos países. Nosso trabalho é principalmente baseado nos estudos sobre Pesquisa Narrativa desenvolvidos por Clandinin (1986), Clandinin e Connelly (1995, 2000) e Connelly e Clandinin (1999, 2004). Este artigo também se baseia nos trabalhos de Wenger (1998) e Freire (1982, 2000).

Palavras-Chave: Narrativa; Experiência, Inglês, Ensino Introduction

The teacher education landscape has been mainly constructed since the 1990s by focusing on the reflective teaching, which places the teacher in the center of many academic studies. In this sense questions concerned to teacher’s identity and teacher’s stories have been raised all around. On the other hand, the phenomenon of globalization has brought some topics related to the use of English language as the main tool for communication all over the world. One of them is connected to local solutions to the global challenge of EFL teaching as pointed by Holmes (2003). Taking into the consideration this scenery in which teacher education, identity, English teaching and global and local environments have been placed, this paper focuses on two teachers’ stories of becoming English teachers, one from Brazil and the other one from China.

When we met each other as doctoral students in the seminar issues at the University of Alberta - Canada, we thought it could be interesting to share and to discuss our experiences of learning and teaching English in our different cultural landscapes. We thought it could be important to take a look at such dissimilar perspectives, having in mind the context of diversity so much emphasized lately in the academic studies (Phillion & Connelly, 2002). This glance at our local knowledge from a perspective of global knowledge could help us to understand better the ways English teaching have been developed in our countries and the way it has contributed to teacher education. In order to carry out our research we took the Narrative Inquiry path. This choice was due to our personal experiences with this research paradigm and was also owing to the lack of narrative inquiry in the field of English language teaching, as pointed out by Phillion and He (in Press).

Following the theoretical perspective of Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000 / Connelly and Clandinin, 2004), we start this paper with our narrative of experiences. Then, we compose meaning of the stories told, also taking into account the movements of narrative inquiry (inward, outward, backward, forward) and the ways of belonging discussed by Wenger (1998) when talking about identity.

A Brazilian Perspective S ory… I was born in 1963 and went to school for the first time when I was 4. But my first contact with English as a subject came when I was in the 5

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A Chinese Perspective S ory… English has always been an important subject in China’s educational system and a major college entrance exam subject for both arts and science students.

VII CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA - 2004 ALAB - Associação de Lingüística Aplicada do Brasil

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that time. I just remember a teacher presenting to us a song and another teacher who pretended to be Mr. Sam from USA. I also remember another teacher I had when I was in grade 7.

She was always speaking English all the time and trying to teach us greetings and how to introduce ourselves in English. I couldn’t understand anything at all and from that point on I just survived in the English classes I cannot remember any other class I had before I started studying in an English cou se Institute during my graduation. But outside of school, English was often presented through pop songs played on the radios. I tried to sing them by pretending I could and inventing sounds similar to what I thought I heard. I sang and danced those English songs but I could not understand a word from them! All my adolescence was lived this way. My friends and I having fun with all those foreign songs without having any idea about its content. Nowadays I know how full we were because most of those songs were emp y of meaning. If we knew what we were singing we wouldn’t sing that at all. Even the good English songs we heard were all about other countries reality, completely disconnected to ours. We were so naïve because we did not know what we were singing and besides we did not have the slightest idea of what was happening in our own country! During the 60’s and 70’s (even the 80’s) my country was living a tragic history. The military government was imposing lots of hard things to our people. Nobody could criticize their decisions and those who dared to do so were arrested, tortured and sen to any place outside our country(Cox & Assis-Peterson, 2001). Lots of students and teachers who tried to fight against that military dictatorship died somehow. Some intellectuals say that is the reason why English songs were so powerfully introduced to our lives.

Since some B azilian musicians tried to use their songs to fight for our freedom their songs were forbidden to be performed on the radios (Busnardo and El-Dash, 2003) . The military government did not want people to be aware of what was happening in our country. We were denied to live our real story. Considering this context, and also the influence of other countries in our lives, we were educated to think English was important to be learned. An English speaking person or any fo eign people were considered more important and maybe more

Among other reasons, such as self-improvement or to cultivate a meaningful hobby or simply to enjoy it, older people in China sometimes study English to take exams for promotions and other opportunities. On a personal level, proficiency in English is key to a host of opportunities to enter and graduate from universi y; to go abroad for further education; to secure desirable jobs in public and private sectors, foreign-invested companies, or joint ventures; and to be eligible for promotion to higher professional ranks (Ng &

Tang, 1997; as cited in Hu, 2002, p.30).

Grammar translation and audio-lingual methods have been the mainstay of English teaching in China, as Tang and Martino (2000). All through my English learning and training processes, almost all of my chinese-born English instructors used direct, teacher-centered and textbook- centered teaching methods. Each unit of a typical English textbook that teachers used in my high school and college English classes in China consisted of texts, vocabulary lists, grammar explanations, and exercises. The texts usually had two parts: one was drill exercises in dialogue forms; other was a passage. Some exercises were English sen ences with missing words that required student’s choosing f om a given vocabulary list. There were always translation exercises at the end of each unit. In my junior high school years, when I had bnit learned by heart the English grammar rules and vocabulary in our textbooks, I found translation from Chinese into English difficult, and I feared that task, especially when i invariably appeared in our English exams. By the time that I was in college, I knew more detailed English Grammar rules and more English words, and I was sick of doing translation exercises from Chinese to English because fixed answers to get a good mark in the exams. Our own translation, if it was missing key words in the fixed answers, could not guarantee good marks, even if the

translations made perfect sense. I felt i a waste of time and boring memorize the exact words in the answers when I could have spent the time doing more creative learning. One reason for the widespread use of grammar translation and audio-lingual methods in China is that “English curriculum and teaching practice is perhaps that ä language teaching methodology using

repetition and drill is similar to the approach used to teach Chinese” (Strong, 1992, p.3).

Memorization seems to be the only way to learn

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schools, English was considered an “activity”

(LDB - 1961/1971) as well as Arts and Physical Education. It did not fail any student and it is possible to have a language course institute in charge of English teaching at schools. It is interesting to notice that while English language reached a high prestige in society in school it had low prestige. Teachers from language institutes were and are still today considered more important than those who teach in our public and private school systems. It happens because most of those who work for language institutes have already had some kind of experience abroad or have fluency in this language while most of teachers from public and private schools have never left Brazil and don’t have a good development in all skills. There are also the cases o “na ive speakers” who teach only in language insti utes being responsible for some “status” this kind of school has. Because of our story with the military dictatorship, some Brazilian people don’t like English language at all. They see i as a symbol of foreigner influence in our country and blame I (Cox & Assis-

Peterson, 2001). But this influence was so strong that many parents in the northeast of Brazil, for example, gave their children English names, even with wrong spelling in it. Lots of stores are also named this way and some people like to insert some English words into their everyday conversation as a way of showing how important they are. Those who deny this language consider this kind of reaction as an assumption o the Dominant language. It means that we were so culturally dominated that we even adopted the dominant language (Vieira,1987). Becoming an English Teacher I’ve grown up in the middle of all this landscape I painted here. As soon as I understood what English meant to the story of my country I decided I would not have i as a kind of God in my life. Even so, I found out that what really amazed me was the power of communication. So I decided to learn as much languages as possible. I found out languages are not some people’s property. They are all ours if we can use them. Once I heard “learning a foreign language can make us go over the stereotypes”. I agree with that statement. I think that by learning a new language one can see oneself and the world in different perspective.

However, in many school landscapes in Brazil English teaching is told to be a way of getting

to read and specially write Chinese characters.

Memorization was also a tradition at one time in China’s education. S udents had to learn by heart such masterpieces as the works of Confucius and Mencius in order to pass the different stages of exams to earn a title and a position, or to become a scholar or a writer. This emphasis on memorization, sometimes even without unde standing the meaning of the words being memorized, has been revived in at least some parts of China, as well as the trend to re- evaluate China’s cultural heritage, which was destroyed in the \Cultural Revolution. Today students in China continue to rely on

memorization to pass exams, and it seems in most cases that memorizations is the only method that works, despite the goal of creating space for creativity in the curriculum. In recent years student-centered teaching - of which CLT is the main example - has been introduced, discussed tried out and encouraged in curriculum design, classroom practice, and teacher training program in China, but it has been hard to implement it. My initial reaction to this new trend is that I fear that it is for show.

And besides China’s classrooms landscapes are still resul s-oriented ones in which the students need to be prepared to achieve the best grades possible in the exams. My second reaction is that this approach can cause discomfort to teachers and students due to our cultural identity, so it seems we need to play a position we are not used to and it can be embarrassing. My third reaction is related to the idea of disregard the

“old” methods, which might still be useful.

Working as an English Instructor In second-year university I began to teach English to elementary children as a part-time job, and after my

graduation I was hired by the universi y as an instructor of English. I enjoyed many of the classes, especially the children’s, where I felt more confident than I did in the universi y classes. But I struggled in most of the classes I taught. I was not confident enough to be a mature instructor. In my relationship with my students I have always perceived myself as inferior to them in terms of common knowledge.

The metaphor of an older or a younger brother to them (depending on whether the students are older or younger than I am) seems to describe how I see myself as an instructor. I am a so not confident that I am proficient enough in English to be a good instructor. As I lived my life within

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this metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), I was like a brother leading a group, knowing that one day soon they would all surpass me in English and in everything else. They would soon expose me as an impostor as an instructor, or they might already have found me out but were just too polite to reveal their discovery They most likely were discussing me unfavourably behind my back. However, I tried to maintain my cover story and live it out; I pretended that I was comfortable and confident, and I managed to get along I once taught a night class that had been privately organized, and students chose to attend these part-time classes by paying tuition out of their own pockets. Sometimes teaching these privately offered classes is more

demanding and challenging than teaching regular full-time classes for the simple reason that students must be satisfied that they have received their money’s wor h. In regular elementary and secondary schools and universities, students have much less say regarding satisfaction with classes and teachers.

I wanted to be creative in teaching class. I tried to make my class interesting and encourage my s udents to participa e; however, I was uneasy and felt that I was ostentatious by trying to put on a show. As I reflect on my uneasiness, I know that it was connec ed to my lack of

confidence in myself as an English language user or teacher. I had no self-image of a competent and interesting non-native-English-speaking teacher and I felt uncertain about who I should be. The students were accommodating and gave me mainly positive feedback on my effor s.

However, they had little experience with being involved in active participation in the class, and they might have had some uneasy feelings too.

As I tried to shift my image of who I was as a teacher I began to realize that I was also shifting who they were as students. As an instructor I felt lost and uncertain about what I knew and who I was.

Composing meaning of our stories

Before going to the meanings we composed from our narratives, we bring the way we look at it. In terms of narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 20000 / Connelly and Clandinin, 2004), we

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worked on its four movements (inward, outward, backward and forward). When we looked at the social conditions (our national landscapes) in which we became English teachers, we were going outward. But when we looked at our selves we were in the inward movement. Thinking about temporality, another important focus of narrative inquiry, we situated ourselves in the present time and looked back in time to find what we were. Then we looked forward, trying to see what we think we want to become. In terms of identity, we followed the ideas of Wenger (1998). For him identity is related to the idea of belonging and it can happen through being aligned and engaged.

Alignment means to coordinate our energy and activities to fit the structure established by the system and engagement means an action involving a process of meaning negotiation.

In order to present the meaning we composed from our narrative of experiences, we decided to apply a dialogue format. This decision was taken to match one of the points narrative inquiry paradigm tries to achieve, which is to search for different kinds of languages to express academic knowledge construction (Clandinin e Connelly, 2000 / Connelly and Clandinin, 2004). It also could help us to deal with our own stories in our shared writing activity. We did not want just one voice to be heard or strongly emphasized. On the other hand we did not want to rely on a third outsider voice, implementing a distant academic voice analysing the stories told. This procedure also finds support in Apple (1990) and in Ely, Vinz, Anzul and Downing (2001).

Dilma - I agree when Pennycook (1994) says that critical teaching is to recognize the political nature of education. When I look back at my story I see English subject as a strong political tool. It seems it was a foreign giant invading my country, establishing rules, interfering in our society landscape. When I wasn’t aware of what was happening in my country, it became Mr. English, something so important to be imitated. It was all around making my days not only at school but also in my spare time even if it did not make any sense. Maybe that is the reason why I don’t feel comfortable making English subject as fun for my students, despite of all the training I have been exposed to. Maybe I feel I am doing the same the military dictator government did: using the language to make people just think about it as just content to be learned and not a way of critically reflecting on their own way of living. Later, aware of the power of language teaching, similar to Freire (1982), I decided not to accept the role of knowledge reproduction or creation of linguistics clones as taken by Orlandi (2001).

Hongguo - In my story I see English subject as an important one in my country educational landscape. But it was important not as a way of learning about other cultures but only a way of achieving high grades in the exams. So, English became sentences to be memorized, words to be repeated, and exercises to be filled like the idea of a banking education as expressed by Freire (2000). There was little space for creativity and maybe that is why I have tried to have some genuine fun and enjoyment as some of the main elements in the curriculum I want to live with my students. But living in China’s cultural history, tradition and present exam-oriented landscape, especially the way teachers’ teaching contents are fixed and structured by outsiders, I found little safe space for having my own voice in my teaching and for enjoying teaching with my students.

Dilma - Another point that called my attention and bothered me much was the demanding for a native speaker pronunciation. It sounded like an imposition to me. Again, it was the story of having a foreign language imposing my way of speaking! I have always been proud of my English made in Brazil. I always try to tell my students it is possible to learn a language without the need to travel abroad. It is good to travel but not a must, I think.

Hongguo - This is one point in common in our stories but in China it happens because of our result- oriented educational landscape (as opposed to experience-oriented as proposed by Dewey), it happens that there are only right and wrong answers to be accepted. So there is the idea of right translation and right pronunciation. That is why not being a native speaker made me feel inferior, afraid of being a impostor, not able to teach the right English to my students.

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Dilma - In my case, I did not feel like being exactly like a native speaker despite of all the demand from schools, coordinators, workmates and also the students. I have never thought it was so important. Leffa (2001) says English became an international language and because of it lost its identity, its nationality. So nowadays there are the English spoken in South Africa, that is different from the one spoken in Australia, that is different from the one spoken in Nigeria and so on. So there is a Brazilian English already recognized and available to be taught. I agree with this author and it makes me think I wasn’t wrong in my idea of keeping my Brazilian accent.

Hongguo - I see your point but in my case I was the one demanding the native-like pronunciation probably because I’ve learned I was supposed to achieve the right thing and probably because I have been trying to secretly train myself to pronounce as a native English speaker. But when I thought I couldn’t do so I felt like being an impostor. But I feel some kind of imposition concerned to the use of communicative approach in China’s educational English teaching landscape. I wonder if it is appropriate to our local (Canagarajah, 1997) way of constructing knowledge. And now when I am a little more comfortable with it I wonder if I can safely survive with it in this others-decide teaching landscape.

Thinking about our identity according to Wenger (1998), we see both of us trying not to be just aligned to what our national cultural landscape push us to. You, Dilma, do not want just to teach English for fun because you see it as a political and powerful way of learning and being open to what the world is doing, so learning a new language can empower the students even to fight for their rights. That is right. And you, Hongguo, don’t want to teach English just as a tool for the students to achieve high grades in the exams. You want to work on creativity, on experience and even cultural experiences. And the enjoyment in your case is a way to run away from the hard living for exams relation lived in your country.

But we both feel a little bit lost in the middle of this becoming experience. We looked back at our stories, we looked to our present and made meaning of our stories, learning from them and finding our own voices. But when looking forward we see this story has no end. We don’t want to be aligned to an specific way of teaching. We are engaged (Wenger, 1998) in this becoming identity, always searching for new or different paths to follow according to our needs, according to our students’ needs, according to our local landscapes.

Final comments

When we thought about writing a paper on Narrative Inquiry, using our own stories of learning and teaching English within our national landscapes, we thought it would be an easy task. But as soon as we had our narratives done we realized how hard it would be to keep this work going on. First, it happened because we were so used to work on sameness that we blame ourselves for not having written similar stories. They were so different in format, in the way each of us wrote and expressed our personal stories that we did not know how to make meaning of them. We tended to compare the stories, finding out their similarities and differences but we were not comfortable doing that.

We did not want to homogenize the stories told. The idea was to keep them different and try to find our stories of becoming English teachers in different landscapes. So it was natural we had different stories to tell and we had to respect it.

We also had to face the challenge of writing this cooperative piece of work with courage to expose our stories, to try a different way of writing and to do it all in English. After all it is still the language of the global knowledge (Holmes, 2003)

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