English 345: Thursday, September 8

Because it represents only the introduction to a special issues on the issue of Critical Approaches to TESOL, I assumed that this article by Pennycook would be more of a quick overview of the articles to be found within that issue--more of a simple synopsis if you will. So, I was very surprised that the article in itself was extremely interesting; a few points that I will discuss here were especially intriguing.

I will first start with a point at the end of the article, a quotation that I made sure to highlight as I pondered various issues in the article's pages. "Gee suggests that "English teachers stand at the very heart of the most crucial educational, cultural, and political issues of our time","  the author notes on page 346. When I first decided that I wanted to be an English teacher, the overwhelming reasons were that I loved to read and write and found satisfaction in helping others learn; unlike many of the others in this class, I had little desire (or knowledge about) in teaching L2 learners.  Yet, in the few years since then, I have found those reasons evolving, with the ideas suggested in this quotation at the "very heart" of my new reasons in wanting to become an English teacher. Yes, I still love to read and write; however, I have also found now wanting to teach others about all of the implications that come with various Englishes in use, those cultural and political applications that any piece of English--spoken or written carries with it. Even a genre as simple as a text message can be situationed in some sort of cultural and political background, and I want students to consider these implications as they learn.

A second interesting point from the article comes on page 332, in the description of Ibrahim's article within this special issue. He writes about "becoming black," about how non-English-speaking African backgrounds garner this new description once they enter "the racialized world of North America" (332). This point is pretty obvious, but it is always relevant to point out that characterizations such as race are really socially constructed as well, changing as a person changes and moves into different cultures. Considering ESL classrooms in the United States in this light, very likely most of those students are dealing with "new" social classifications in this country as well as a new language, once again emphasizing the political and cultural forces that always go along with teaching English.