Sep 01 2009
Preparations for Global Participation
Communication is fundamental in promoting cultural understanding. It is the driving factor in instilling acceptance, tolerance and success on the international platform. As the world increasingly moves towards a tighter global community, English continues to be the language of transnational communication. Teaching English to freshmen in Japan is an important step in providing the necessary tools for students to succeed in a world that demands a level of communication conducive to sharing ideas between cultures and varying points of view. What is essential in the classroom to prepare students for the responsibilities that lay ahead are the mechanical aspects of the language and the establishment of a safe atmosphere where opinions are encouraged, listening is ethical and criticisms are constructive. This level of understanding begins however with the student’s confidence and motivation in learning and speaking English. To set the path towards functional participation on the global stage, it is paramount to provide the students with the encouragement to learn and the sense of safety for being vocal; thus supplementing and maximizing the assigned curriculum.
On teaching English, instruction should focus on grammar points, and setting up the patterns of speech. After this, roles and situations should be provided to the student where s/he can freely practice. This fundamental approach lays the foundation of solid English knowledge brick-by-brick and readies the student for more advanced and specialized areas, where spoken practice occurs in tandem with more critical and thought-provoking discussions.
However, the real success of the students begins with the classroom. Not necessarily with the basic instructions in speaking, grammar, listening and writing, but more so in the level of safety given to the students. Safety is important because it encourages the student to speak up when s/he feels that something must be said. Safety allows students to disagree or agree without fear. It is the groundwork that nourishes the vocalization of varying opinions and consequently is the element that illustrates the existence of opposing views. Without safety the dangers are disastrous. Classrooms would run the risk of nourishing fear and quietness as well as blockading avenues for idea sharing. The absence of safety in the classroom would ultimately be detrimental to the growth and success of the student and their cross-cultural understanding.
At basic English levels, safety in the classroom sets the foundation for what will become essential to the student developing the confidence to form and express their opinions. Whether students can formulate their views in English is not so much the point in the early stages of English learning, but encouraging them to ask questions, helping them to see that there are no “stupid questions,” and having them do pair-work to learn more about their fellow students will help develop their inquisitive and expressive skills for more advanced discussion-based classes later on in their studies.
In the advanced classes there are three elements that are essential in supplementing discussions in order to prepare the student for the level of cross-cultural communication required of them once they graduate from university and undertake their professional lives. These elements are deeply rooted in the safety of the beginner’s classes, but the difference is that here is where early classroom dynamics materialize into functional communication etiquette. These principles are ethical listening, constructive criticism and expressing one’s self with confidence.
Ethical listening means understanding that others may have differing views, and it is the act of taking those views into account without being outright judgmental or dismissive. The ethical listener is aware that they are part of a larger dialogue that warrants investigations of opposing sides. Whether this listener agrees with the opposing opinion or not, they realize that being judgmental or dismissive is insensitive to the other side and those actions carry a potential for animosity and communicative degradation.
It follows then that the task of avoiding judgmental and dismissive attitudes is the essence of constructive criticism. Here the critic makes the effort to understand where the opposition is coming from argumentatively. For the purposes of classroom discussions this trait serves to strengthen cultural awareness. Outside the classroom this trait is the bond that forges personal and professional successes by sending the message to others that their own successes are also in your best interest.
Confidence is the final trait that is essential in communicative success between transnational boundaries and within the classroom. The level of authority that is conveyed through the confidence of the speaker assures the listener that what the speaker has to say is worth listening to. Ultimately the goal in teaching English is to help develop this confidence and to ensure that the students graduate university with an active voice in their communities and the abilities to pursue and initiate change and innovation in whatever endeavors they decide to undertake.
What should be stressed to undergraduate freshman English students is that a well-rounded participant in the international community is capable of opinionated communication rather than mere grammatical knowledge of the language. There are ethics involved when addressing opposing views. The English language itself is a multicultural language that transcends the anglophone world. The acquisition of English opens up the student to an estimated fifty-three different countries and thus a considerably larger population accessibly presents itself for direct dialogue. What the ethics provide is a framework for successful interactions between people, nations and continents.
The best way to provide the essential tools for freshmen studying English as a second language is to give them the safety to express themselves in the classroom. The instructor should give the beginner students the encouragement to speak as often as possible, and the practice to do so through the curriculum. For the more advanced students, the ethics for the international communicator need to be contextualized by explaining how much of the world opens up to them through English, and explaining the level of success obtainable through ethical interaction. What is essential in every classroom regardless of level is not limited to grammar study and conversational practice, but also a passion for imparting and obtaining new perspectives on society and culture here and abroad. The safe classroom emboldens students to formulate and organize ideas and to speak English with confidence through meaningful discussion.
