Paving the Way to a More Multilingual TESOL 

It shows how leaders in the field of language education envision the role that multilingualism should play in an increasingly international TESOL organization.. As an organization whose

SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING

MULTILINGUAL TESOL

This symposium was held at the 42nd Annual Convention and Exhibit in New York, New York, United States It shows how leaders in the field of language education envision the role that multilingualism should play in an increasingly international TESOL organization As English takes on progressively new roles and expands its borders, how can English language teachers, administrators, and researchers respect and incorporate learners’ emerging multilingualism in difference contexts?

Paving the Way to a More Multilingual TESOL

SHELLEY K TAYLOR

The University of Western Ontario

London, Ontario, Canada

䡲 Imagine if TESOL were not multilingual? As an organization whose mission is “to develop and maintain professional expertise in English lan-guage teaching and learning for speakers of other lanlan-guages worldwide” (TESOL, n.d.), TESOL would cease to exist were it not for students with home languages other than English

However, it does exist—it exists for students, teachers, and speakers of languages other than English To explain further, Cummins (2007)

describes multilingual classrooms as classrooms that are multilingual because

of the combined multitude of languages known by the enrolled students Similarly, learners served by TESOL come from a multitude of language

backgrounds Therefore, imagining multilingual TESOL should not be a

contentious topic Consider, however, TESOL’s (n d.) vision statement: Effective communication among communities and their individual mem-bers is essential for peaceful coexistence and for solving many of the prob-lems now facing the world The constant fl ow of information from country

to country and continent to continent in the shrinking world creates the need for institutions that encourage and support the development of lan-guage and intercultural communication skills TESOL, an association of English language educators who work with learners from diverse cultural backgrounds in a wide variety of settings, is uniquely positioned to give a coordinated, knowledgeable response at the global, national, and local levels to issues affecting institutions that foster the development of effec-tive human communications

The statement identifi es diverse learners, countries, continents, and

cul-tural backgrounds, but not the diverse languages spoken by those

learn-ers This omission blurs the vision of the statement: TESOL professionals

without a clear view and understanding of learners’ full linguistic

reper-toires cannot build on their students’ prior linguistic knowledge To

rec-oncile learner realities with the duties of TESOL professionals and the

organization’s functions, it must be recognized that TESOL is, at its core,

a multilingual organization

The purpose of this TESOL Quarterly Symposium is not to fantasize

about “what if TESOL were monolingual,” but to hear experts’

sugges-tions on how to better match TESOL’s reality with its vision The authors

discuss what is needed to pave the way to a more multilingual TESOL—

and the needs are great For example, the only presentations offered in

languages other than English at the annual convention are Discussion

Group sessions offered by the Bilingual Education Interest Section

(BEIS), which has offered sessions in languages such as Mandarin Chinese

and French in recent years; it is not possible to read the main Web site

( www.tesol.org ) in languages other than English, though this may limit

some nonnative English-speaking TESOL educators’ access to professional

upgrading opportunities; abstracts in TESOL print and e- publications

are only provided in English, though BEIS’s Bilingual Basics has featured

online papers in Spanish, French, and Korean, with extended abstracts

in English (López-Gopar & Caballero, 2007; Munyankesha, 2008; Park,

2008) Finally, only one survey (again, a BEIS initiative) has gauged

mem-ber beliefs and desires with regard to enhancing the multilingual nature

of the organization and developing a clearly articulated language

pol-icy (Taylor, Smith, Daniel, & Schwarzer, 2009) A common factor that

emerges from these points is that BEIS is pushing the boundaries to

make way for a more multilingual TESOL

This observation raises the immediate question: Why BEIS? It also raises

the broader questions: What can be done to change the situation or, to

use Fishman’s (this issue) term, to relinguify TESOL, and why is enhanced

recognition of multilingualism in the organization necessary? This article

explains how the contributors to this symposium answer those questions

FISHMAN’S HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF

MULTILINGUALISM IN TESOL

In a historical overview of TESOL’s record of supporting home languages

other than English, Fishman (this issue) outlines why TESOL created an

interest section (IS) dealing with bilingual education (namely, BEIS), what

BEIS’s focus and function is, and why it makes sense that BEIS should be the

IS to raise the issue of multilingualism within the organization now Fishman

questions whether TESOL ever showed adequate support for bilingual learners, bilingual education, or multilingualism, and questions whether BEIS’s concerns can be met within the organization such as it is currently confi gured and imagined Finally, he challenges the TESOL organization

to be more and do more; that is, he challenges TESOL to adopt a visionary role and do more on behalf of languages other than English

HOW TO PROMOTE MULTILINGUALISM IN TESOL? THE CONTRIBUTORS SPEAK

The six other contributors to this symposium also argue that TESOL needs to become more multilingual and suggest how it might do so Jim Cummins’s paper addresses why TESOL should articulate a posi-tion on the use of bilingual instrucposi-tional strategies (i.e., instrucposi-tional strategies that use rather than exclude students’ home languages) He argues that, by not articulating a position on this issue, TESOL risks becoming linked with the normalized assumption that monolingual instructional strategies are self-evidently desirable when teaching English

to children and adults Cummins further argues that if, on the other hand, TESOL endorsed bilingual instructional strategies, the organiza-tion would posiorganiza-tion itself as a strong advocate for empirically supported and equity-oriented approaches to English language teaching

Ofelia García raises the issue of how the success of the TESOL profes-sion depends on “the multilingualism of the world and the bilingualism

of its students” (this issue, p TO COME) She argues that TESOL must recognize its multilingual learners’ home languages, acknowledge the role their home languages play in their acquisition of English, and frame learning English in terms of a continuum of emergent bilingualism She argues against viewing learners in binary perspective (i.e., as either profi -cient in English or not) She discusses the ramifi cation of shifting per-spectives on children, teachers, educational policy makers, parents and the community, and society overall with regard to multilingualism Joan Wink focuses on listening to the voice of TESOLers worldwide— those whose voices are not heard if their multilingualism is not recognized

as well as the sceptical “other” who does not support bilingualism at the indi-vidual, group, or societal level She raises the issue of how to include even dissenting voices in a dialogue about maintaining and developing minority home languages and societal multilingualism Wink speaks to the power of making connections at the personal level through metaphors, visual depic-tions of complex concepts, and the stories of individuals in TESOL’s multi-lingual worldwide village to extend and keep the dialogue going

Rita Silver questions TESOL’s relevance in a multilingual world and whether the organization can meet both local and global needs She stresses key differences between the local needs of U.S.-based teachers of

English as a second language and the global needs of teachers of English

as a foreign language, especially given differences in the two groups’

views on bilingualism and multilingualism Observing that the

discrep-ancy between local/global views of bi/multilingualism as either good or

bad are so great that many teachers outside the United States view TESOL

as irrelevant, Silver urges TESOL educators to defi ne who they are and

what their goal for their students is—is the TESOL vision one of English

competence or multilingual competence?

Robert Phillipson’s paper moves the discussion from the personal to

the political by analyzing TESOL’s role as an organization embedded in

a sociopolitical context Phillipson argues that when the organization’s

machinery expanded the reach of English worldwide, it had far-reaching

ramifi cations—making English, in many respects, a lingua frankensteinia

Phillipson stresses the need for professional rethinking of English

teach-ing projects and political support to ensure that sustainable English

teaching occurs within the context of national language maintenance

Finally, he raises the issue of learners needing to not only develop English

profi ciency, but also to develop multilingual competence

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas raises the issue of what TESOL can do in order

not to participate in crimes against humanity In answer to her question,

she outlines mother-tongue medium educational initiatives around the

globe These initiatives develop children’s mother tongue profi ciency,

profi ciency in the state language, and profi ciency in another language,

frequently English In so doing, they counteract earlier policies and

pro-grams that prohibited mother tongue development in ways that can be

categorized as crimes against humanity To answer Skutnabb-Kangas’s

question about what TESOL is doing to not participate in crimes against

humanity, she asks what TESOL is doing (i.e., Is it supporting

mother-tongue-medium instruction? Is it supporting multilingualism?)

Skutnabb-Kangas’ questions hark back to Fishman’s comment about

TESOL’s moral imperative to provide visionary leadership with regard to

multilingualism There is not only overlap in their views on the issue of

TESOL’s leadership role, but, as the summaries show, there is also overlap

in the contributors’ focus on the development of bi/multilingual

compe-tencies Their texts explain why enhanced recognition of multilingualism

in the organization is necessary and how it might be achieved Now it is up

to TESOLers to take up Fishman’s challenge and develop visionary ways to

do more on behalf of languages other than English in the organization

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Suresh Canagarajah for inviting me to coordinate this

sympo-sium and for his support in advancing the discussion on multilingualism in TESOL

Thanks also to the contributors and to Zheng Zhang, my research assistant at The University of Western Ontario

THE AUTHOR

Shelley K Taylor is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education and member of the graduate faculty in French Studies at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada She is an English–French–Danish trilingual Her research focuses

on multilingual children enrolled in bilingual education programs (ethnic Kurdish children in a Danish-Turkish program; minority language children in Canadian French immersion programs).

REFERENCES

Cummins, J (2007) Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual

classrooms Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10 (2), 221–240

López-Gopar, M E., & Caballero, J J (2007) Políticas de lenguaje: Ejemplos de Oaxaca, México (Language politics : Examples from Oaxaca, Mexico) Bilingual

Basics, 9 , 2 Retrieved July 18, 2008, from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/ sec_issue.asp?nid=3077&iid=10029&sid=1

Munyankesha, P (2008) Lés défi s du plurilinguisme offi ciel au Rwanda (Offi cial

multilingualism in Rwanda: Challenges and goals) Bilingual Basics, 10 , 2 Retrieved

December 12, 2008, from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid= 3077&iid=11792&sid=1

Park, H.-R (2008) (Open Source: The gateway to the Open Source community) Bilingual Basics, 10 , 1 Retrieved

November 13, 2008, from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid= 3077&iid=11109&sid=1

Taylor, S K., Smith, P., Daniel, M., & Schwarzer, D (2009, March) From “nice words” to

action: TESOL/BEIS, multilingualism, and language policy that refl ects member and learner needs Paper presented at the 43rd Annual TESOL Convention and Exhibit,

Denver, CO, United States

TESOL (n d.) TESOL’s mission, values, and vision Retrieved July 18, 2008 from

http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=218&DID=220

Is a Fuller Relinguifi cation of TESOL Desirable?

JOSHUA A FISHMAN

Yeshiva University (Emeritus)

New York, New York, United States

䡲 I well remember the First TESOL War (TW1), in the 1950s, a “war” per-sonifi ed by an obvious altercation between Professors Rudy Troike and Jim Alatis, as to whether TESOL was good or bad for bilingual education