Talking Pictures

Neil McBeath, Oman

Neil McBeath served as a uniformed education officer in the Royal Air Force of Oman from 1981 to 2005. During that time, he took two Masters degrees and was awarded the Omani Distinguished Service Medal. Refusing to renew contract, he taught at the Technical Service Institute in Saudi Arabia for two years. He has now returned to Oman and is teaching at the Sultan Qaboos University. E-mail: neilmcbeath@yahoo.com

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Background
The lesson
Conclusion
References

Background

The article “Talking Pictures” was written in 2012, and was originally sent to an on-line ELT journal published in New Zealand. It was accepted for publication, but then nothing happened, and all attempts to link with the journal have since failed. It would appear that the publication was one of those which flourish when an enthusiast is at the helm, and die when that person leaves.

The article was then resubmitted to TESOL Arabia Perspectives, a peer-reviewed print journal published by TESOL Arabia. The editors sent it for peer review, and then sent on a copy of the review, which read as follows:

I am happy to admit that the lesson described “was more interested in social issues than in linguistic ones”, primarily because it was devised for students who would major at the College of Law and the College of Education, and as far back as 1996, Hywell Coleman edited a book called Society and the Language Classroom, which contained papers by Dick Allwright, Adrian Holliday and Virginia LoCastro. I took it for granted that we now accepted that language and culture were intertwined. This was a lesson in English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP), or Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where critical thinking and fluency commanded more attention than lexical/syntactic accuracy. This was never intended to be a “painting-by-numbers” lesson, tied to the type of aims and objectives that are so crucial to passing CELTA.

The comment that “Talking about pictures is not the clear focus” makes me wonder if the reviewer is himself/herself a competent reader. The pictures are of real people and the focus is on them. Their stories are on the internet. They are not instantly forgettable invented characters from textbooks. The paper actually anticipated Jilkova’s paper at IATEFL 2013. Entitled, “Activities to develop students’ language skills while supporting their careers” Jilkova’s paper urges the SISI approach (Something Important Something Interesting), enabling students to become actively involved in learning, to apply their own experience and opinions and to share these with others.

My students engaged with the stories precisely because they were those of real people, and while I admit in the article that their experiences in American may be “foreign” to Gulf Arabs, I strongly disagree that “The discussion of specific issues in American culture is mainly irrelevant for our readers.” Again at IATEFL 2013, a scholar from Taiwan, Shih-Chiueh Chien, stated that “In an era of globalization….professionals need to communicate effectively across languages and cultures” (P. 148 - my emphasis) and both the law and education are areas of international difference.

On the same point, the statement that “it is unlikely that Gulf students would have sufficient cultural references to take from the task what the author intended” reinforces my belief that the reviewer failed to understand what s/he read. The students themselves raised questions of what, exactly, could be defined as “mild” Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. They were also aware of Miranda rights, and of the fact that in the USA, laws can differ from state to state. They therefore showed themselves perfectly capable of handling abstract ideas that were intrinsic to their own areas of academic specialization, albeit different from their own culture.

My experience of students in Oman, both in the Sultan’s Armed Forces and at Sultan Qaboos University has convinced me that many of them have a considerable awareness of life outside the Arab Gulf. Indeed, their knowledge is particularly impressive when contrasted with expatriate teachers’ lack of awareness of life within the Gulf. It does Gulf Arab students no service to suggest that they are in some way deficient, or that they are incapable of attaining the level of general knowledge that we might assume in undergraduates from BANA countries. The following paper demonstrates how competent their performance can be once their interest has been engaged.

The lesson

Step 1.

The students were shown the photographs of two African-American males: Picture A and Picture B. It was stressed that these were real people, and that the information that followed was also true.

Step 2.

The students were asked to arrange themselves in groups of four or five. They were then presented with slips of paper on which single sentences had been written. They were asked to decide which sentences applied to Subject A or to Subject B. They were also asked to be ready to justify their choices.

The sentences were as follows:-

His name is Michael Davis.
His name is Jabrill Peppers.
He lives in Newark, New Jersey.
He lives in Stockton, California.
He lives in a small apartment.
He lives in a house.
His mother is a special education assistant.
His mother has a Masters degree in divinity.
His older brother was killed in a gang shooting.
He has been arrested for assaulting a police officer.
He likes football.
He wants to be a doctor.

Step 3.

After the students had made and discussed their choices, they were asked to share these with the other groups. Only then was the class as a whole given the following information.

Subject A is Jabrill Peppers, who lives in Newark, New Jersey. He lives in a small apartment with his mother, who is a social worker and who has a Masters degree in Divinity. Jabrill’s older brother was killed in a gang shooting, but Jabrill himself is still at High School. He is an American football player of such exceptional talent that he featured in an article in The New Yorker (McGrath 2012) when he was only sixteen years old. Jabrill is almost certain to be offered football scholarships from a range of American Universities, but he is an Honor Student, whose marks alone will be good enough to gain entrance to higher education. His mother keeps reminding him that he is only ever one game away from an injury that could stop him playing football forever, and so his backup plan is to study orthopedic medicine. That way he will have a profession if he does not become a player in the National Football League.

The students were also given a picture of Jabrill in a rather sunnier mood; Picture C, below.

Subject B is Michael Davis. In November 2011 he was five years old and attending the Rio Calaveras Elementary School in Stockton, California, where his mother is a special education assistant. Michael suffers from mild Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but instead of offering him any kind of support, the school brought in a police officer called Lt. Frank Gordo so that Michael could be “scared straight.” Their encounter did not go well. Michael became visibly agitated when he was first taken to see Gordo, and when the policeman reached out and touched Michael’s hand, Michael “pushed my hand away in a batting motion, pushed papers off the table, and kicked me in the right knee.”

The policeman’s reaction to this was to put Michael face down on the floor, zip-tie his hands and feet, take him to the Stockton Kaiser Psychiatric Hospital for evaluation, and charge him with assault.

Those charges were later dismissed.

Step 4.

The students were asked for their reactions to what they had just learned.

Commentary.

So far as Jabrill Peppers is concerned, several students felt that Picture C gave a totally different image than the surly gangsta rapper portrayed in Picture A. They also said that, to them, “He likes football” had suggested soccer, rather than American football. Most importantly, however, several students admitted that the hoodlum image shown in Picture A had led them to the assumption that his mother could not be well educated.

Most discussion, however, centred round Michael Davis. The young women from the Early Childhood Education courses were positively shrill in their denunciation of (A) any school that implemented a “scare straight” programme for five-year olds and (B) any policeman who was insensitive enough to agree to participate.

I found this interesting. I had discussed this case with a Warrant Officer from the Royal Oman Police, himself the father of six children, and he had stated that he would flatly refuse to attempt to frighten a child. Indeed, he regarded the role of the ROP as primarily reactive – the force existed to respond to crime that had been committed, and to offer advice and assistance. For this reason, minor driving offences were often dealt with using informal cautions. Policing was not heavy handed.

The Law majors, moreover, made the interesting point that Lt. Frank Gordo’s statement might not be telling the whole truth. They suggested that Michael might well have pushed the papers off the table by accident, and that he might have kicked Gordo while trying to extricate himself from what he regarded as a threatening situation.

Oman is far less paranoid about “stranger danger” than the United Kingdom, but the Law students had a point. Michael’s mother, or peer group, might well have warned him to avoid being touched by strange men, or white policemen, or both. In fact, in the very strictest application of American law, Lt. Gordo committed an assault on Michael by touching him, UNLESS he previously indicated that he was going to do so.

Follow Up.

The students were referred to footage on Youtube showing Jabrill Peppers playing American football. This was regarded as mildly interesting, but no more than that.

So far as Michael Davis was concerned, the interest became almost personal. The Education majors felt their future profession had been placed on trial, and the Law students began to behave like Michael’s defence counsel.

One young woman questioned the definition of “mild Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” suggesting that he might be no more than an energetic little boy, and what exactly was the definition of “mild”? Another questioned whether it was possible to make any sort of diagnosis at the age of five, unless, of course, the child was autistic or physically handicapped.

The law students raised the question of the age of legal responsibility, pointing out that this varies from country to country. They also felt that it is absurd that any five-year-old could, or should, be held responsible for criminal activity.

One young man also raised the question of whether Michael had actually been read his Miranda rights. He had found information on those rights on the Internet:

• You have the right to remain silent
• Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law.
• You have the right to an attorney.
• If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.
• Do you understand these rights I have just read to you?

This triggered the immediate response that a frightened five-year-old would find them incomprehensible, and when asked “Do you understand?” he would probably reply “Yes” hoping this was the correct answer.

Citing the same Wikipedia article, another student pointed out that “Some jurisdictions provide the right for a juvenile to remain silent if their parent or guardian is not present” and suggested that it might be interesting to discover whether California was one of those jurisdictions.

Finally, a third student raised the point that, legally, Michael could have exercised his full rights by immediately asking Lt Gordo, “Are you detaining me, or am I free to go?” Had he asked this at the start of the interview, Lt. Gordo would have been in violation of law unless he had released Michael immediately.

All this, of course, demanded a level of sophistication that was far beyond anything that could have been expected from a frightened five-year-old, and the ladies in the class were quick to point this out.

Conclusion

This was a successful activity.

The contrast between the menacing boy from the ‘hood and the cute child with the huge brown eyes triggered responses that were based on preconceptions of how people ought to live up to stereotypes, which is basically prejudice.

The “real” facts, for lack of a better term, demolished those prejudices, and engaged my students in a searching examination of what many might regard as, at best, bizarre educational and policing practices. This had direct relevance to their future majors, and offered an interesting contrast with the expected behaviour of educational and security personnel in a traditional Arab society.

The entire exercise was also an interesting example of English for Specific Academic Purposes in action. It engaged interest, triggered emotional responses, motivated research and produced both findings and logical conclusions.

References

Allen, W.S. (1974. 5th Edition). Living English Structure. London. Longman.

Chien, S. (2013). Writing for scholarly publication in English for Chinese researchers. In Tania Pattison (ed). IATEFL 2013; Liverpool Conference Selections. Faversham; Kent. IATEFL. 148-149.

Coleman, H. (1996). Society and the Language Classroom. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.

Jilkova, J. (2013). Activities to support students’ language skills while supporting their careers. In Tania Pattison (ed.). IATEFL 2013; Liverpool Conference Selections. Faversham; Kent. IATEFL. 152-154

McBeath, N. (1993). The Preparation of a Resource; Magazine Pictures as Visual Aids. Journal of English Language Teaching (India). XXVIII/5.

McGrath, B. (2012) The Jersey Game. The New Yorker, January 2, 2012. 38-53.

Please check the British Life, Language and Culture course at Pilgrims website.
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Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.