A Swift Glance at 5 Critical Issues in ELT

Hadi Farjami and Amir Hussain Ghebali, Iran

Hadi Farjami is assistant professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, Semnan University, Iran. He has taught EFL, EAP and teacher training courses for 15 years. He has published articles in international and national journals and authored and co-authored EFL textbooks.
E-Mail: zzmhadi@yahoo.com

Amir Hussain Ghebali has a BA in English Language and Literature and an MA in TEFL, both at Semnan University, Iran. His MA thesis is on the relationship between emotional intelligence and cohesion and coherence in writing. His broader field of interest is educational psychology.
E-mail: a_ghebali@sun.semnan.ac.ir

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Introduction
What CALL is not?
Emergentism or the need for the scholars to come back to their minds
Critical Discourse Analysis or Reading the World through Reading the Word
L1 vs. L2
The jigsaw of EQ and the importance of morality, goal orientation, learner's identity and language awareness
Conclusion
References

Introduction

This article is a constellation of 5 seemingly independent issues in the ever-widening realm of applied linguistics in a brisk review fashion. First, it zeroes in, in a deconstructive fashion, on the difference between reality and appearance, services and disservices of computer assisted instruction. This is followed by emergentism, a reconciling theory which mediates among old and novel assumptions in search of an oasis. Next is the idea of critical discourse analysis (CDA), which is a hair-splitting and pessimistic front (to some degree) that tends to uncover the statecrafts of the authorities which mediates through language to students. The next topic regards the dilemma between use of L1 in L2 as well as its advantages and disadvantages. The last topic is the jigsaw of morality, goal-orientation and language awareness encapsulated in the canister of emotional intelligence (IQ/EQ).

What CALL is not?

Language is interlocked into people's interactions and transactions in one way or another. Accordingly, the more eloquent one communicates, the more facile he/she earns his/her goal. In 1950's after the end of WWII, countries got closer into one another in terms of commerce, business, economic ties, scientific breakthroughs, and the like. Therefore, communicating through a lingua franca seemed arbitrary. Not by chance, the ball rolled into the field of super powers (old and new, the UK, and the USA respectively). And other countries willy-nilly turned to their very language. But labor of love did not work miracles this time. Learning did not sound as a piece of cake and effortless task. To tackle this impasse, laborious projects were defined to find an abracadabra by 'Circle of Prague' or 'French School', not to mention 'Bangalore Project' (still counting) on every corner of the world. But more or less they concluded the good old days' adage of "burning midnight oil'. But this "burning midnight oil" did not necessarily denote old fashioned equipment (chalk, rod, board); computer could also be taken into account. Henceforth; human beings grappled with computer and its smart trails (AI, Corpus, Concordance, and Intelligent courseware) to do a miracle. So CAI (Computer Aided Instruction), CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), TELL (Teaching Enhanced Language Learning), PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations), CALICO (1982), Euro-CALL (1986), ICALL, SALSA, SYSTEM D were engineered to grease the rail of language learning. But, in many cases this big idea has been corrupted through the course of time; and subsequently has yielded itself to wrong decisions. Some invalid beliefs have replaced the noble truth as such:

• Computer is a teacher in itself;
• Computer is an end product per se;
• Computer is to induce notions and constructs all at once;
• Computer has toppled teachers;
• Usual teaching-learning, teacher-learner interaction, learner-learner interaction have reached its end
• All and all computer is the last nail on coffin of the history-long schooling

To redress the errors and misconceptions and restore the CALL idea to the state it deserves, we should remember these facts about computer-in-education: that it is a/an

• language learning assistant
• provider of multimedia to accommodate multiple needs of learners
• high speed processor to provide students with ample information instantly
• catalyst in individualizing learning and giving agency to learner
• jump-off board to autonomy
• instant feedback provider
• source of examples

We should also remember that the computer developed and still is developing to ease the human beings concerns. But it has given rise to some inconveniences in the process:

• ambivalent (sometimes perilous) tool
• less handy equipment
• increased educational cost
• hard to be handled with
• imperfect software
• inability to handle unexpected situations
• inability to sense, and feel
• unsuitable to apply the affective theory yet

The bottom line is that the computer and CALL should be demystified of their cult-state, in case it happens. The computer is a means to scaffold students. Scaffolds need to be unbound and handover (Lier, 2001) students' autonomy and independence. Too much false faith and reliance in it will end in deficiency in many macro and micro language and communication skills.

Emergentism or the need for the scholars to come back to their minds

An overview of language teaching from the time of Bloomfield and Lado unto Chomskian Generative turn suggests that every camp in the field has generally turned its back to the opponents heedlessly. 'Behaviorism', 'Positivism', 'Empiricism' dealt chiefly with the palpable evidence which could be harvested in the nature and can be repeated and generalized in outdoor. As a result; notions such as nature, cognition, heredity, and within were blasphemous and taboos in this cult. The worshipped words were stimulus, response, reinforcement (positive/negative), extinction, extinguish, distinguish, spontaneous recovery, and classical and Skinnerian conditioning. In contrast, 'Mentalism', and its offshoot 'Cognitivism'in a deconstructive manner delved that much within and disregarded without that proposed language was processed (fired) cognitively and it was activated through "LAD", "Bio-program". They conclusively came up with "Nativism", "Innativism". 'Nativism' and 'Innativism' in reaction against 'Environmentalism' considered every single symptom of language intrinsically and negated the involvement of outdoor in language acquisition.

But 'Emergentism' (or 'Interactionism', 'Connectionism', 'Associationism') tended to incorporate the commonsensical issues from every camp to come up with a patchwork theory. They mostly mediated among other theories and reconciled extreme notions. It sounds good but in practice tailoring together physiology, perception, processing and working memory, pragmatics, social interactions, and properties of input and learning mechanisms (O’Grady, in press) seems an odyssey. The momentum to this ideology can be detected in 'chaos theory' - (a candle can burn down a whole city)- and SCT (Socio-Cultural Theory of Vygotsky or socio-constructivism) which lent themselves to an "Ecological" point of view- or to view the world in totality and not in a greenhouse and vacuity. "TRIZ" a theory in management says that every phenomenon should be evaluated chronologically since its genesis up to the state of being. Therefore, cognitivism in absence of behaviorism would have never been generated (Chomsky is identified by Skinner and the same for other figures and theories). In brief, absence of one hypothesis would have derailed the upcoming train of thought.

Critical Discourse Analysis or Reading the World through Reading the Word

In this millennium, English is linking vast populations over the globe. The estimate envisions a number amounting roughly to one thousand million people dealing with this tongue either as survival English of "fish and chips" and "O.K." or the native-like speech. By the advent of modern technologies and the flattening of the world into a global village, the physical borders of states are breached not by artillery and infantry but through the push of TV remote controllers. This message-based invasion would in the long run inflict the targeted people with a cultural shock and dissociate them from their emotional bonds (anomie) towards a 'je ne sais quoi' attribution. This metamorphosis takes place in a viral manner all over the world until every single mind is brainwashed in toto.

The afore-mentioned delineation is the opinion of some leftists in the ever-widening realm of linguistics, who resort to some terms such as: "linguistic imperialism, linguistic hegemony" or to some clauses like: "language is the custodian or gate-keeper of culture"; or "the stealthy crawling of an exterior culture (thanks to language) would amputate the sovereignty of a state"; and to counteract any probable infringe, they have devised an intellectual defence shield in the name of "Critical Discourse Analysis" (CDA)(Van Dijek, Pennycock, Paulo Frère, Fairclough, Connerton). And in pragmatic front, they critically scrutinize texts and prescribe modification, adaptation, adoption (Jo McDonough, 2003). Or generally speaking they would localize the article in a patchwork fashion.

CDA is the natural offspring of several disciplines (journalism, sociology, politics, and linguistics) and it best wishes to parse the text, co-text, context (micro, meso, macro analyses) impartially. Text is the target since it is considered as a source of power. Subsequently this power yields itself to bias and discrimination by means of demagogues. Therefore, critical analysts tend to analyse the text as well as its intention to raise awareness and empower and emancipate people of being merely mob (Freire, 2005).

This all-out movement, then, has constituted a base in the name of ‘critical pedagogy’ to monitor all courseware to know ‘how’ and ‘what for’ they are educating learners. Since school is a place of gathering the people from different ideological and biological backgrounds, accordingly, critical analyst is set to deal with these concerns seriously. If not, there may lapse an effrontery (sexism, ageism, hedonism, materialism, utilitarianism) to minorities. Moreover, students may be enslaved by insidious wishes of statesmen.

But regardless of those goodies of CDA, it is worth thinking that Critical Discourse Analysts have gone on extreme in some cases and viewed the world in all black or all white, which is exemplified when Pennycook (1994) says that every schooling and teaching is political.

L1 vs. L2

Learning a language other than cradle tongue must be easy to some extent since the acquirer is not to invent a wheel from scratch. The learner has earned a pool of knowledge (implicit or explicit) concerning his mind chemistry deep in his brain. But the surface knowledge of the new language and its performance norms are to be from scratch.

In part to facilitate this task, methods and techniques, one after another, were released into the market of which some cursed the mother tongue and adverted the English-only rule while others took it as an ancillary source. Some resorted to translation, others to repetition and mimicry. Some focused on process, others narrowed on product. But recently the debate of L1 in teaching L2 has mounted up to articles, conferences and dissertations.

But is L1 really entitled to a place in L2?

Some scholars believe since classrooms are the sheer source of input, teaching through mother tongue would dwindle chances of students to making success (mostly in EFL) (Krashen, 1985). Nevertheless; others believe that once a problem arose turning to L1 is a nice trick. The controversy still exists and both seem to make sense in their reasoning.

Using L1 at the right time and rightly would lead to the following benefits:

• Saving time and energy
• Preventing and removing the confusion
• Conveying crucial meaning beyond the shadow of a doubt
• Explaining instruction in a user-friendlier language
• Checking comprehension
• Helping learners cooperate to each other
• Enhancing teacher-learner relation in term of attitude
• Providing enough affordance to students to reach eureka moments
• Paving the way for scaffolding
• Constituting rapport
• Causing some hindrance to linguistic hegemony
• Raising language awareness
• Helping students participate

But there are opposing arguments:

• Laziness
• Failure to maximize English exposure
• Reliance on L1
• Translation-oriented teaching
• Minimizing the chance to master other competences
• De-motivating to eradicate errors (fossilizations) and develop strategies to deal with conversation failure

L1 use in teaching L2 bears some advantages and as usual disadvantages (trade-off is fine); therefore, no magic chant is found yet to lead to the same result since classes vary, teachers vary, cultural backgrounds vary, as a result, the adept teacher is the authority.

The jigsaw of EQ and the importance of morality, goal orientation, learner's identity and language awareness

Emotional intelligence is a fairly renowned idea apparently hatched in the field of management and its resonance has reached many disciplines. Back in classical Greece, Plato advocated the motto “Know Thyself”, which was imprinted on the temple of Memphis. Recently, it reemerged in the flamboyant dress of Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Quotient, Emotional Literacy or EI and EQ. But the essence has remained untouched. Savorey and Mayor (1990) who unearthed this issue and Goleman (1995) who fathered it commercially have enlisted some essential components as follows:

• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Motivation
• Empathy
• Social skills (Mortiboys, 2005)

Deliberating on the above elements brings to mind that the whole edifice of humanity is recapitulated in this quintet, which starts with self-identification and stretches toward else-identification. The first step is the hard step. Self-awareness denotes: getting conscious of weakness, strengths, ups and downs by means of reflective thinking. Once one is cognizant of his state of being, the stage action begins (from word toward deeds). Then, s/he steers the affective and emotional states (good or bad) and heads toward sustainable development and betterment. Awareness is not doubtlessly restricted to emotional states since mood and cognition is interwoven. In the realm of linguistic awareness the learner-- should he be emotionally intelligent-- would investigate his/her self meticulously or as the French author, Victor Hugo says, “where the telescope finishes, microscope starts”. Through tossing his knowledge (implicit/ explicit, declarative/ proceduralized) incessantly, the language immigrant would be alerted to different situations and contexts through self, peers, and teachers' teaching, evaluation, and feedback.

Goal-orientation is a personality characteristic in which the language learner modifies his styles and strategies toward the end wisely. Style is a cognitive and habitual norm of a person which marks—partially-- his personality. Strategies, hard to define though, is the micro-techniques the person adopts in different circumstances. Both style and strategy are meta-cognitively driven and highly interwoven into self-awareness, i.e., Emotional Intelligence of the learner. Once the learner is aware of his styles (self-awareness), s/he adopts apt strategies (self-regulation), reaching goals in a sustainable and wise manner and this can gear up his/her motivation to a still higher level. The end gain will be social and communicative skills in the target language, which is so crucially reliant on empathy, the element of EI which is also crucial to the success of learning process at every turn. So, emotional Intelligence stands for the minute-by-minute conscious and reflective life; and, the emotionally intelligent learner would instantly eradicate any suspicious defect as soon as s/he detects it before being wrestled down by it.

Conclusion

This paper briskly went over some threaded and peopled topics in the spiral of applied linguistics in an innovative and deconstructive sense. The leading-edge notion of CALL has turned corrupt and then obsolete short after its emergence, and this article attempted to oil the rusty notion. Next, an induction of emergentism, a theory cast to bail out the bad check of linguistics in a reconciling manner, was served. Then, the leftist CDA was presented, which claims to be an intellectual defense shield to emancipate students of being manacled in the statecrafts of the oppressive ones. This followed by an Abel-and-Cain-like story of L1 and L2 was and how insight into this issue can ease the acquisition of L2. Last, the hustle and bustle of Emotional Intelligence was touched in relation its main components.

References

Davies, A. (2007). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: From Practice to Theory. Edinburugh: Edinburugh University Press. Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York : The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. McDonough, J. Shaw. C. (2003). Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teacher's Guide. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Krashen, S. D. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. London and NewYork: Longman. Lier, L. v. (2001). Constraints and Resources in Classroom Talk: Issues of Quality and Symmetry. In C. N. Mercer (Ed.), English Language Teaching in its Social Context A Reader (pp. 90-107). London: Routledge. Miles, R. (2004). Evaluating the Use of L1 in the English Language Classroom. Birmingham: University of Birmingham. Mortiboys, A. (2005). Teaching with Emotional Intelligence: A Step-by-Step Guide for Higher and Further Education Professionals. New York: Routledge. O’Grady, W. (in press). Emergentism. In P. Hogan (Ed.), Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pennycook, A. (1994). The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman.

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