Teach English in Xinling Zhen - Enshi Tujiazu Miaozu Zizhizhou

Teaching English to a monolingual group of students come with certain benefits. These benefits range from using a single common language for vocabulary definitions, to creating a less intimidating environment for students, or the likelihood of having one culture of students for a teacher to cater to. But the benefits to teaching English to multi-lingual groups easily outweigh the benefits of teaching English to monolingual groups substantially. It could be argued that teaching to a monolingual group may be a cause for teachers to become lazy and make students want to revert to the common native language instead of challenging themselves to use English. Ultimately in the end, it will be a disservice to the students. Through teaching English to a multi-lingual group, this type of situation could be avoided. Teaching a group of multi-lingual students is not only beneficial to the students, but it is beneficial to the teachers as well. Having a variety of languages could serve as a means of unity between learners to challenge themselves and each other. Students can experience a variety of different cultures from their own. Finally, getting a chance to listen to various accents can only be helpful for students and their futures. I myself have experienced both teaching to a monolingual group as well as learning with a multi-lingual group, and have a strong opinion on this topic. I am an American, teaching English as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan. Here, I get to teach English to a monolingual group of high school students who all have the common native language of Japanese. Teaching vocabulary typically includes the use of Japanese, which is inevitable, but is what students are used to. Students feel much more comfortable where using their native language is understood by their peers. Allowing time for students to discuss certain things in Japanese is something I struggle to balance inside the classroom. In complete honesty, I use my Japanese from time to time if students truly are not understanding what I have told them in English. It makes the pace of the lesson faster, but at times, I know I am taking the easy way out. Due to this personal experience, I find this as the major negative aspect to teaching English to a monolingual group. After reading the units with heavy emphasis on avoiding the use of the students’ native tongue inside the classroom, it resonated with me because it is something I wish to utilize, but still have yet to fully commit to doing. Along with some feelings of guilt, I reflect on the importance of getting students to use whatever English words they know to try to communicate with the native English-speaker in the classroom. In contrast, I attend a weekly Japanese class along with other adults who come from various parts of the world such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the United States. Here, we all must speak Japanese, and have no choice but to speak in Japanese. Our teachers only speak Japanese, which means any type of communication requires every single Japanese word we can drive out of ourselves, along with gestures, sound effects, and anything to communicate with each other. This type of learning environment feels much more genuine and meaningful, and builds our perseverance towards learning and improving our knowledge of the Japanese language. This is why I feel it is one large benefit of teaching multi-lingual groups. Though it is possibly a difficult task for school-aged students to initially have the drive and willingness to be in this type of environment, it will contribute greatly to the improvement of their English skills. Another significant reason why teaching English to a multi-lingual group is better is how different languages are very likely to come with different cultures. By communicating with individuals from different parts of the world, it allows learners to gain much more knowledge than just the English language. They can learn about that peer’s native language, expand their horizon, increase their outlook, and have better attitudes towards cultures other than their own. Through the use of the common language of English, learners can get a better understanding of various foods, music, pop culture, what schools in other countries are like, and much more. This can contribute to creating global thinkers, which is useful for the individuals and the world. A third benefit of teaching English to a multi-lingual group is for students to get a chance to listen to a variety of accents. Of course, English is not only spoken by Americans, and as it becomes the global common language, there is a higher need to understand different accents of people around the world. If a student is only practicing listening and speaking in a classroom with one English speaker with an American accent and 39 other Japanese accents, it limits the learners. Pronunciation of words can vary from country to country, and the Roman alphabet may not even exist in a person’s home country, which is used to learn pronunciation. When speaking to these individuals, it gives people a valuable and precious chance that cannot be experienced in a classroom of monolingual students. Although it seems that teaching English to a monolingual group of students is easier to control and put into action, there are more benefits to teaching English to a multi-lingual group of students. It creates a much more engaging and meaningful learning environment through giving them the only option to use the English language. Students can learn about different cultures in conjunction to learning the English language. And finally, it allows students to get a chance to listen to a variety of accents different from their own. Students will ultimately feel more accomplished through this type of teaching style. All of these benefits can be felt by the students, but are also large factors to helping the teacher become a better teacher and fellow learner.