Well, (I must be very careful now... :-)) to be honest, I think there's
not been much communication between people of different paradigms... and
many L2 researchers seem to have the impression that CP (critical
pedagogic) people are rather "sociological", or "marxist", or "political"
or "activist" or ... whatever... on the other hand, some CP people seem
to give them (the non-CP L2 people) the impression that they are "militantly"
criticizing them... well it's certainly a difficult and complex issue,
and involves philosophical and ethical questions which are however as
practical as this one: what should be the role of researchers in an unjust
world, where there's domination (subtle or overt) and suppression of
every kind...?
I was born and have gone through most of my life in a British colony... I
do not belong to those lucky people who are born with the necessary
English linguistic and cultural capital to succeed in school in a British
colony... my parents don't speak any English at all! my community speaks
Cantonese, and we live in a life world where Cantonese is very important for
us for socio-cultural and identity reasons... it's been quite a struggle
for me to have come this far... and lots of sacrifice...
So, naturally I'd very much like to see more L2 people really address
these issues... instead we see lots of L2 mainstream or TESL theories
being exported to Asian countries... and in my home place, where these
theories have often not been indigenized... our fellow-teachers are
criticized for speaking "Hong Kong English", their accent laughed at,
and school children are criticized as "lacking in motivation and
enterprise" to "learn English", criticized for speaking their mother
tongue in the English lesson... and so on and so forth... if you were in
my position... what should you do?
Just sharing my experiences...
Yours very truly,
Angel
On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Marie Nelson wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Oct 1995, Angel M.Y. Lin wrote:
>
> > OISE, I've noticed that those who are in mainstream L2 learning/teaching
> > areas are generally more willing to listen to socio-cultural people than
> > critical pedagogic people... yes, paradigm rifts... SIGH ... what I'd like
> Angel,
>
> I'm just curious, and I don't mean to critique your syntax, but your
> observation is interesting and I'd like to know more. do you mean that
> those who are in mainstream L2 learning/teaching areas are more likely to
> listen to socio-cultural people "than critical pedagogic people are" or
> "than they are to listen to critical pedagogic people"?
>
> Thanks for the clarification.
> Marie
>
>