We+know+what+you+need+-+Problematizing+English+language+teaching+in+the+global+south

**"We know what you need": Problematizing English language teaching in the "global south"**

Paula Mellom, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Georgia [pjmellom@uga.edu] Cori Jakubiak, Assistant Professor, Grinnell College [corijakubiak@gmail.com]



**Keywords:** Language instruction, marginalized communities, linguistics, language and identity

**Track:** Community outcomes and impact

**Format:** Research paper


 * Time & Date: ** Friday 2:00-3:10
 * Location: ** Salon 10

**Summary:** Peculiar tensions exist surrounding international service-learning, particularly when the service involves teaching English as a foreign language, and those “serving” come from a “developed” country and those “served” live in a “developing” country. Such tensions exaggerate problems of power discrepancies, reciprocity, and sustainability. This study examines host community attitudes toward English and English language teaching where there are differences of socio-economic status, ethnicity, and language between the students engaged in service and the host community, exacerbated by historical, political, and economic factors that impact host community attitudes toward the country from which the servers come.

The data will include interviews collected from adults and children who have received English classes in a rural, mountainous Central American town, as well as reflections from university students there to study and teach English, regarding their ideas about the role of English in development and its impact on the community. It is expected that the community members interviewed will have a certain level of ambivalence toward English and what it represents for the community and its impacts on the culture and identity of future generations.

Reflections on the role of English in marginalized communities will become increasingly critical if current trends in demographic shifts continue. Recent data show that Latinos comprise 22% of the K-12 population nationwide while the vast majority of teachers are still white, middle-class women. These classrooms may become more and more akin to the service learning experience where the teacher/server is “serving” a population of students/served that resembles the “other.”

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Gelmon, S. & Billig, S. (Eds.) (2007). //From Passion to Objectivity: International and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Service-Learning Research (PB) (Advances in Service-Learning Research)//. Online: Information Age Publishing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Heller, M. (2002). Globalization, diaspora and language education in England. In D. Block, & D. Cameron (Eds.), //Globalization and Language Teaching// (pp. 47-64). New York, NY, USA: Routledge.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2001). //Domestica: immigrant workers cleaning and caring in the shadows of affluence//. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Kraft, R. (2002). International service-learning. In //Learning to serve: promoting civil society through service-learning// (Kenny, M. Ed.). Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 297-314.

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