A warning, I have been writing for a few hours (teacher training stuff) and I have been listening to Charlton Heston narrating Nietzsche on the Internet. Taking a break to write on my blog might be mistimed, but I am in the mood...........
I have been thinking about my work lately - Teaching English to non-native speakers. I have always had a creeping feeling that when I teach others this language, that I am really teaching for the first time in my life, or that I am merely a pedantic beneficiary of a very beneficial and serendipitous birth. My expertise and perhaps, leverage, lie in the fact that I have something others don't. This is more than a subtle distinction between the other subjects I sometimes teach (philosophy, psychology, math) where I have emerged from my peers and excelled earning the right to then return and teach. I have had a massive head start here in English instruction that I did not enjoy in my other subjects. It is not that I know it better or that I learned it quicker or more thoroughly as with my traditional areas of expertise. In fact, with those disciplines, I overcame decades of intellectual and motivation retardation to catch and eclipse others to be honored to teach them at post graduate levels. If not careful, one might attribute intellectual differences, even superiority in such a journey. I don't however; just hard work and stubbornness. But in teaching English, I feel like a silver spooned heir haughtily flaunting my wealth to those of less privileged circumstance. And if I was less than honest a minute ago about not feeling superior at times, there is no such notion when I stand in front of these speakers of other languages! It emerges that the relative distance in our ability lies not in intelligence, motivation, work ethic, or skill. It is simply that I have had fifty plus years running start; that is all. To take this examination further, I am not particularly adept at second language acquisition myself. Sure, I dabble in a few, but I am nowhere near fluent in them. As a matter of truth, my Arabic, Swahili, and Afar don't even reach childish status. My students are on their third, fourth, or even fifth language! So here I am teaching a subject (second language acquisition rather than English per se) and all most all of my students are my superiors. It strikes me often that most of them are quickly passing my comparative capabilities. I smile as I think about this though, and that brings me full circle back to the beginning of this short tirade. Maybe I am teaching for the first time in my life. Maybe I am sharing wholesomely a gift I did not earn. Maybe the fact that I feel no particular distance in our expertise (once again, second language acquisition vs. a specific language) frees me to blossom as a "more capable peer" something Vygotsky wrote about a hundred years ago and I have extolled incompletely for nearly thirty. Maybe I can take this new phenomenological stance back to philosophy, psychology, and math. Maybe I am teaching for the fist time in my life. If so, about time :)
I have been thinking about my work lately - Teaching English to non-native speakers. I have always had a creeping feeling that when I teach others this language, that I am really teaching for the first time in my life, or that I am merely a pedantic beneficiary of a very beneficial and serendipitous birth. My expertise and perhaps, leverage, lie in the fact that I have something others don't. This is more than a subtle distinction between the other subjects I sometimes teach (philosophy, psychology, math) where I have emerged from my peers and excelled earning the right to then return and teach. I have had a massive head start here in English instruction that I did not enjoy in my other subjects. It is not that I know it better or that I learned it quicker or more thoroughly as with my traditional areas of expertise. In fact, with those disciplines, I overcame decades of intellectual and motivation retardation to catch and eclipse others to be honored to teach them at post graduate levels. If not careful, one might attribute intellectual differences, even superiority in such a journey. I don't however; just hard work and stubbornness. But in teaching English, I feel like a silver spooned heir haughtily flaunting my wealth to those of less privileged circumstance. And if I was less than honest a minute ago about not feeling superior at times, there is no such notion when I stand in front of these speakers of other languages! It emerges that the relative distance in our ability lies not in intelligence, motivation, work ethic, or skill. It is simply that I have had fifty plus years running start; that is all. To take this examination further, I am not particularly adept at second language acquisition myself. Sure, I dabble in a few, but I am nowhere near fluent in them. As a matter of truth, my Arabic, Swahili, and Afar don't even reach childish status. My students are on their third, fourth, or even fifth language! So here I am teaching a subject (second language acquisition rather than English per se) and all most all of my students are my superiors. It strikes me often that most of them are quickly passing my comparative capabilities. I smile as I think about this though, and that brings me full circle back to the beginning of this short tirade. Maybe I am teaching for the first time in my life. Maybe I am sharing wholesomely a gift I did not earn. Maybe the fact that I feel no particular distance in our expertise (once again, second language acquisition vs. a specific language) frees me to blossom as a "more capable peer" something Vygotsky wrote about a hundred years ago and I have extolled incompletely for nearly thirty. Maybe I can take this new phenomenological stance back to philosophy, psychology, and math. Maybe I am teaching for the fist time in my life. If so, about time :)
Dotty Feightner would be so proud
ReplyDeleteIronic, huh?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I do quite appreciate teachers for their noble job of emparting their knowledge to the next generation/ younger people. I am actually grateful that my English teacher at http://preply.com/en/english-by-skype was really patient with me because it was really hard for me to fully grasp it's content. I do hope teachers will realize how important they are and for students to appreciate their work.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
ReplyDelete