Values & Principles in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

LANGUAGE

• Cognitive learning • Reflects the substance of fields such as education, sociology, psychology, politics.

Language teachers usually focus on the capacity of learning and

overlook the hidden messages.

Does language reflect the concepts – messages or

does it reinforce and create new codes of meaning?

Concepts, messages, codes form social norms.

social norms social patterns

concepts social normspower

Chain of power

Who imposes power

• on a country?

• on a community?

• on a group of people?

• on the family?

• on the classroom?

Power and Educational Material

Publishing house Teachers Students

publishers – editors

Teachers are decision makers.Teachers have the responsibility of choice.

Teachers impose power on students.

Meet the Stars What if I were a celebrity?

The message

• You are worthy only if famous.

• You are worthy when you exert the least effort, to gain fame and fortune.

• What remains for the rest of us is to confine ourselves to being mere observers of the rich and the famous.

Leonardo Di Caprio – Hair: short, blond

Eyes: blue Character: kind

Emma Bunton – Hair: long Eyes: blue Character: friendly

Jamie Lee Curtis – Hair: short, brown Eyes: blue Character: clever

Facial features reveal your personality! Smile, sneer, laugh, pout!

• Attractive men and women are blonde and have got blue eyes.

• People who are blonde and have got blue eyes are kind and friendly.

• Blonde women aren’t clever and have no need to be.

• Clever women are not blonde.

The message

I’m your number one fan

Designer clothes are a must! (…)

But I don’t agree, no, no not at all!I make my own dress code, my own set of rules!

• I know the song. This will be fun to learn.

• It’s cool to be a fan.

• What must I do, how must I act to be a real fan?

The message

“Making a Million”(millionaires under thirty)

Isaak Asimov

• You are worthy only if you’re making millions and are under thirty.

• My hard-working parents can’t be worth much. I’m not worth much.

• My teachers aren’t worth much. Otherwise they wouldn’t be my teachers. They would be celebrities.

The message

She is old. She can’t dance.

She is old. She travels a lot and has a lot of fun.

• Old is bad.

• Old is unhappy.

• Old is boring.

The message

My family and fashion

“… in fact she is the most fashionable person in my family…”

“Poor Carol. She is a fashion victim!”

• You are successful only if you are fashionable.

• I must be fashionable and buy all the latest trendy clothes.

• I need a lot of money.• If I’m fashionable everyone is going to

love me.• I must do what fashion magazines tell me

to.

The message

My grandma is 60.

My dad is a doctor.

My granddad is 67.

My mum is a teacher.

(John) I love football. My sister plays the cello.

Mary is an architect. Her daughter is following in her mother’s footsteps.

• I don’t have such a family! There must be something wrong with my family.

• My mother is older than my father. That is not normal.

• I only have a father. I am deprived compared to others.

• Boys like football and girls like the arts.

The message

HILLSIDE PRESS

• You can be successful if you are a woman.• You can also lead a happy family life if you are

successful.• The older you are, the better it gets.• Life doesn’t end when you are no longer young.• Life is fascinating.

The message

Educating learners for a BETTER WORLD

!