From: DAVIDSON@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU (Fred Davidson, DEIL, UIUC)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.slart-l
Subject: Deforeignization proposal from Leland McCleary
Date: 12 Nov 92 00:56:26 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

[I am forwarding this with permission from its author, Leland
McCleary, from TESLIC-L.   -F.Davidson]


Leland is at: mccleary@bruspvm.bitnet


                   DEFOREIGNIZATION RESOLUTION

Background:

"Deforeignization" refers to something quite different from the
common language-learning ideal of bringing one's language
performance in line with a native language standard so that it
loses it's mark of foreigness.  On the contrary, it attacks the
ideology which assumes the native-speaker standard as the only legitimate
language-learning goal, thereby stigmatizing non-standard
performance by definition.

The objective of "deforeignization" is not to produce anarchy in
language learning; it is to recognize and to make part of the
day-to-day assumptions of learners and their teachers important
facts about language that are not commonly discussed: that
standards are cultivated by elites, not in the interest of more
perfect communication, but in the interest of preserving their
social and political advantages; that language belongs to its
users, not to its gatekeepers; that communication is always
negotiated and chancey, even within a small, homogeneous speech
community, so that no amount of language standardization or
monolingualism can eliminate misunderstanding; that the world
language norm is multilingualism, not monolingualism, and that it
is quite within the capacities of the human mind for average
individuals to have command of many languages, each with rich
differences of register; that multilingualism increases the
capacity of individuals to negotiate linguistically and gives
them more flexibility in interpreting unexpected language
patterns.

I have discussed the Resolution in two workshops in Sao Paulo,
and at both events the resolution was approved unanimously by
workshop participants.  I would like to encourage more debate on
the resolution with the hope of bringing it to vote in BRAZ-
TESOL, in other EFL TESOL affiliates, and eventually at a future
TESOL convention.

In the original version of the resolution I used the terms
"Brazil" and "Brazilians".  In this version I have used generic
expressions referring to EFL countries and learners.  If the
spirit of the resolution should be taken to heart by ESL
professionals as well, this terminology could be changed to
include all language learners, and the goal of defining an
"International English" standard could be adapted appropriately.

There is nothing in this resolution, to my understanding, that
should create a climate in which learners would be "deprived" of
the right to learn one of the major standards if that is their
desire.  It is additive, not subtractive.  The only thing that it
attempts to remove is the arbitrary and coercive context in which
standards are now taught.

Please send your comments to the TESLIC branch.  Any that come
to me personally I will forward to the branch.

--Leland McCleary / Universidade de Sao Paulo / mccleary@brusp


The resolution:

(1)  WHEREAS the major "standard" varieties of English in the
world today (RP and Standard American) do not represent and never
have represented the majority of monolingual English speakers (RP
was never spoken by more than 4 or 5% of the British population);
and

(2)  WHEREAS these same standards even less represent the English
used in the world today, where at least as many people speak
English as a second or foreign language as speak it as a first
language, and where there are well-established non-native
"standards", such as "Indian English" and "educated West African
English", with their own pronunciations, expressions, discourse
norms, and literatures; and

(3)  WHEREAS most people learning English as a foreign language
will use it, if at all, to communicate with other speakers who
have also learned it as a second or foreign language; and

(4)  WHEREAS, even if non-native English speakers travel to
majority English-speaking countries, they are likely to interact
with monolingual speakers of English who are not speakers of
standard English; and

(5)  WHEREAS research has shown that intelligibility is not
dependent on standard English fluency, and that often fluent
monolingual English speakers are more difficult interlocutors for
second or foreign language speakers than are other second or
foreign language speakers; and

(6)  WHEREAS EFL students who learn to speak one of the major
standard varieties of English will be identifying themselves, not
with the British or US people, but with elites in those countries
which have not only maintained social barriers within their own
countries, but also between the rich and the poor nations as
well; and

(7)  WHEREAS as long as English language students and teachers
orient their work by the belief that the only proper target of
language learning is one of the major (UK or US) standard
varieties, learners will forever be losers, forever judged by
their deficiencies, by what they do not know and can not do,
rather than by their achievements, thus adding to the
psychological barriers of language learning; and

(8)  WHEREAS being a speaker of a second or third language, to
whatever degree of proficiency, should be viewed as a mark of
achievement rather than as a deficiency; and

(9)  WHEREAS the non-monolingual speaker of English can bring to
the language a richness of experience from their other language
backgrounds, and explore and create expressive possibilities
unlikely for the monolingual speaker; and

(10)  WHEREAS everyone should have the right to express their
particular cultural, life, and educational history through their
particular manner of speaking, without stigma; therefore

(11)  BE IT RESOLVED that English language education
professionals in EFL countries urge the study and description of
a new standard for EFL: International English; and

(12)  BE IT RESOLVED that language materials be prepared and
included in the curriculum which emphasize the great variety of
English in the world, including non-native varieties, without
stigma to any, and which will sensitize English teachers to the
wide variation in usage and the danger in identifying particular
usages as "mistakes"; and

(13)  BE IT RESOLVED that the reasons for the special prestige of
RP and Standard American in the world be studied and taught as
part of Teacher Training courses, so that their roots in colonial
and imperial history will not go unnoticed; and

(14)  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that teachers be encouraged to
accept their own version of their second or foreign language and
their students' versions, as authentic communicative expressions
that convey their uniqueness in sometimes quite original and
beautiful ways, rather than as intrinsically flawed imitations of
"someone else's" language.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU