Abstract
The book Policy Development in TESOL and Multilingualism: Past, Present and the Way Forward is edited by three qualified editors in the fields of language policy, second language, TESOL, teacher development, assessment, and teacher evaluation. This book focuses on practical issues in English language teaching, comprising curriculum development, learner assessment, program management, and teacher education (p.1). This text emphasizes the urgency of conceptualizing TESOL from ideological stance on valuing all languages and linguistic resources equally. It is important to consider the local and indigenous language when promoting English as an additional language in non-English speaking communities.
Divided into three parts, namely “The Past,” “The Present,” and “The Way Forward,” the information in this book flows and is easy for readers to follow. Within all 21 chapters, the authors present the empirical studies’ results related to policy and practices from various countries with different TESOL settings at all educational levels. In Chapter 1, Raza, Coombe, and Dudley synthesize updated information about how language learning policies are developed in a variety of historical contexts in “The Past” and how these language learning policies relate to how language is taught and learned in “The Present.” Finally, they highlight in “The Way Forward” the policies that should be well-structured to provide space for TESOL and multilingualism to synergize.
Contents and Discussions
Part I, “The Past,” introduces seven chapters of critical examinations of previous initiatives and accomplishments in language policy development, especially regarding how efforts have been made to recognize and embrace linguistic diversity at national levels. It goes into great detail on how language policies in Canada, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Morocco, other African countries, and Singapore have advanced the concept of coexistence between TESOL and multilingualism. Incongruences between official language policy and societal multilingualism in Quebec province and Canadian federal policies are highlighted by Chiras and Galante in Chapter 2, particularly in Higher Education (HE), to initiate opportunities for curriculum and policy reform in both local and global contexts. In Brazil, de Oliveira and Hofling explore Brazilian bilingual programs (Chapter 3) and criticize the new bilingual program guidelines for Brazilian sign language, border schools, and indigenous schools. They recommend that the government pay attention to pluralingual pedagogies for bilingual education that should be well-structured. In Chapter 4, Li and Abrar-ul-Hassan criticize the Chinese standardization of language assessment which influent reforms in language testing practice linked to the development of technology-enhanced language assessment.
Similar debates about linguistic diversity and multilingualism happen in some countries (Chapters 5–8). For instance, Wahyudi (Indonesia), Boudihaj and Sahli (Morocco), and Trudell (Africa) provide evidence of how proposals are made to the government to decrease the tension of dominancy in stipulating the policy about promoting only English as the language used for English Language Teaching(ELT) development. The good point is presented by Chua who explores a slightly different context in Singapore which applies the “English plus one” policy to acknowledge the mother tongue language to represent bilingual education.
Part 2, “The Present,” consists of nine chapters that examine the impact of the shift from monolingual to multilingual ideology on how languages are taught in a variety of geographic and educational situations. In Chapter 9, for example, de Costa, Gajasinghe, Green-Eneix, and Rahdez review the Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL), a policy in the United States of America that recognizes multilingualism by allowing kids to learn English in their native language and encouraging English monolingual pupils to learn a second language. However, its practice still values English over other languages. Additionally, Jee and Li illustrate in Chapter 10 how native-speakerism and standard English ideologies affect English Programs in Korea (EPIK) which signifies gaps in English as an International Language (EIL), teacher education, and teacher recruitment.
In contrast to the other authors who emphasize their arguments on the educational setting, Raza and Al Khalili (Chapters 11 and 12) shift it to economics. As a linguistical diversity country, Pakistan experienced missing the opportunity to promote national and local languages and decided to use English and Mandarin to support a mega project, China Pakistan Corridor Project (CPEC-P). Raza recommends a multilingual economic policy in which English, Mandarin, and Pakistan’s languages are used in harmony by an economical approach to language planning and policy. Additionally, Al Khalili explores the spirit of using English to advance neoliberalism has encouraged the English-dominated education system in Lebanon’s higher education. The government urges this system to increase graduate competitiveness in the job market without watching over the fact about the students’ anxiety because of insufficient experience in previous schooling.
For the advanced development status of English as a Medium of Instructions (EMI), Theodoropoulou, Taylor, and Willans (Chapters 13–15) address translanguaging to support EMI in Qatar, Nordic countries, and Vanuatu higher education. While Theodoropoulou proposes the utilization of humoristic translanguaging as a practical pedagogical strategy to promote policy development in Qatar, Taylor highlights the urgency of translanguaging, which is equally discussed with language ideologies, pluralingualism, and their implications for professors’ personal language policies and instructional practices. In the same vein, Willans urges that the EMI in Vanuatu should be catered with significant engagement of all stakeholders.
Taking advantage of the generally stable and dominating position of English in schools of Finland and Israel-Palestine (Chapters 16 and 17),Ennser-Kananen, Skinnari, and Iikkanen focus their investigation on prospects for teaching English through frameworks that promote language awareness and equity in educational situations and extend to a query of whether and how multilingualism and language awareness should be promoted by the new national curriculum (Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education/FNCCBE). Khawaja, Jakar, and Schvarcz explore the role of English in the Israel-Palestine region, where Arabic and Hebrew are the major of communication—related to the recent TESOL issue, which acknowledges L1 for English language learning, to engage all learners in effective language learning. Both chapters address translanguaging plays a significant role in teaching English in Finland’s Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) context, and English acts as a mediator between Israelis and Palestinians.
Part 3, “The Way Forward,” encompasses five chapters that emphasize the possibility for policy reform and indicate TESOL as part of education and broader language acquisition. In Chapter 18, Reynolds explains how Texas, Thailand, and Spain ignore the possibility of a multilingual turn in the fields of TESOL. Reynolds strongly suggests transforming the curriculum standard to form English learning with multilingual resources. In contrast to multilingual ideas, Melo-Pfeifer explores a new concept of equalizing English and the students’ first language (L1) in Chapter 19. Teaching Other Languages to Speakers of English (TOLSE) could be applied to the multilingual classroom where some of the students are native speakers of English. In addition, Gezer and Dixon show in chapter 20 that multilingual education is applied in Turkey and included in language planning. They consider the importance of using minority languages, Kurdish, and foreign languages, Arabic and English, to respond economic and geopolitical advancement of the country. Turkish is a medium of instruction national wide as well as ELT can embrace the linguistic and cultural nature by accommodating Kurdish and Syrian refugees through language policy and planning.
Furthermore, Angel, Lin, and Huang find possibilities of having Native English Speaker Teachers (NESTs) and Non-Native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs) for the multilingual community (Chapter 21) and recommend TESOL policymakers design a policy to accommodate collaboration between both groups of teachers to avoid symbolic power of “native” English. Finally, in Chapter 22, Aronin exposes the promotion of The Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) concept to students or institutions to meet their needs in a multilingual environment. It is a realization of multilingual practices, language acquisition, as well as administrative and language policy-related issues in multilingual education, which requires the involvement of teachers and researchers to integrate other students’ languages into English as a second, foreign, and additional language.
Critiques and Recommendations
From the content perspective, this book provides its readers with a variety of viewpoints on topics such as teaching techniques, material innovations, intercultural communication, TESOL and multilingualism, and other relevant subjects. They are highlighted from languages as entities that should be linked to multilingual setting in TESOL. In accordance, TESOL should serve as a non-discriminating, value-adding activity that provides students with advantages of valuing their own language (s) when learning English as a foreign or second language. This book has comprehensively provided related examples from different parts of the globe. CPEC-C project in Pakistan can be a model for the other countries that employ TESOL in ELT and English Lingua Franca (ELF) contexts. Additionally, multilingualism which involves English and minority language(s) (Cenoz & Gorter, 2019) like in EMI (pp.71, 155, and 178), CLIL (p.211), and other classroom contexts, has to be nurtured with the teachers’ awareness to provide opportunities in using those languages. This book also strongly advices the readers to consider their willingness and ability to adapt TESOL and multilingualism in many ways as required by current English learning context. Teaching English in English (TEE) in Korea (p. 125) that employs NNESTs to teach English, collaboration between NESTs and NNESTs (p. 271), Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) in Finland (p. 289) have been elaborated to encourage teachers to respect multiple language acquisition in multilingual practices.
Furthermore, specific country’s histories and developments also exemplify diversified language policies referred to. Translanguaging proposed by (García, 2019; García & Wei, 2015) is feasible to the current context because its affects to the students’ complete linguistic repertoire. How it provides students flexibility to control their learning and self-regulate when and how to use a particular language based on the context have been discussed in aforementioned countries (pp. 161, 177, 189, 217). This book worth reading by TESOL and Multilingualism enthusiasts who want to see its specific practices through a translanguaging lens.
One of the limitations of this book concerns with the teachers’ diverse contributions that should affect policy development. Although some parts have touched how teachers’ voices and government affirmation about teachers as prospective policy makers contribute to policy development in TESOL and multilingualism, only NESTs’ voices in Korea which clearly contributes to the decision of shifting the ideology from native-speakerism to TEE. This indicates that the editors focus on the policy development, the concept and implementation of each policy as well as impact on the language policy enhancement.
The editors’ goal in connecting three edges of a triangle (past, present, and future) has covered all empirical proceedings regarding how policy is developed according to multiple aspects that each country encounters within certain periods of time in a field of TESOL as it intersects with multilingualism. Therefore, this book is an advisable reference for English language teachers, pre-service teachers, researchers, policy developers, and administrators.