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Friday, April 15, 2005
My brain leaps on and on, hooked on new... reading English and the Discourses of Colonialism Alastair Pennycook, 1998, Routledge... a nice little statement about the difference between the way the Eurpean based holocaust has been remembered, mourned, learned from, and the way colonial brutality has been glossed over, justified by the supposed savagery and inferiority of the "natives". 'Meanwhile, despite pressure from China, South Korea and other East Asian countries, Japan is less often and less openly called on to remember the massacres in China and elsewhere' (1998:17) Well, the Chinese sure are having another go right now, marching in demos...
But to get back to my class, Pennycook quotes Phillipson's 1992 discussion of Robinson Crusoe's English lessons to Friday in Daniel Defoe's book, who points out that 'Crusoe's assumption of mastery over Friday and his immediate start on the project of teaching Friday English (rather than, for example, learning Friday's language), are iconic moments in the long history of the global spread of English' (1998:11) .
This made me think of how I can indeed speak Japanese and how I do use it to increase solidarity with my students, in other words knowing where the student is, and as a time-saving device so that I can get the why and wherefore across quickly and efficiently(more uses of code-switching could well be in evidence in my blog, a possible new field of interest?), which are teacher motivation strategies that are not mentioned in Doernyei's list or model.
If learning is socially constructed, then motivation is socially constructed, and teacher motivation strategies must be socially constructed??Not quite sure what I'm saying here, I'll have to think it through and see if it's just me tripping on too much reading...
I also want to keep in mind the Self and Other perspective, which I guess will become clearer as I read on...
Renata 6:43 pm
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