The Post-method Era (TEFL)

The aim of methodologists is manifested in finding a single, ideal method that can lead to the successful teaching of all types of foreign language learners in a classroom. Each method is based on a particular theory of language and language learning. It contains detailed specifications of objectives, teacher/learner roles, and teaching procedures and techniques. It leaves no room for creativity or individualism. The teachers find themselves enslaved by a certain method and obliged to follow its rules word by word and apply its practices in their classrooms. They are regarded as good and successful teachers only when they go by the rules dictated in the teachers’ book.

One of the misconceptions introduced by Harper and De Job (2004) about English Language Learners (ELLs) states that they all “learn English in the same way at the same rate.” This misconception views the foreign learners of English as the submissive recipients of any given method. They need to accept their passive roles in the method era.  Methodologists ignored the fact that learners have different learning styles and approaches to the learning process, and that teaching methods must mainly put into consideration the learners’ needs and interests.

There is a study that was conducted to survey classroom reality from teachers’ perspective and examines how Japanese EFL teachers view CLT and whether they are making use of it. The study’s end-results state that almost all Japanese EFL teachers have their own conception of what CLT is and what they should do ideally. Even their actual classroom practices are different from their understanding of CLT. It is based on such studies and conclusions drawn from practitioners’ views that linguists came to realize that none of the teaching methods can be applied in their purest form in the actual classroom. They are not derived from classroom experiences and research studies but are imposed upon both teachers and learners. They do not reflect the diverse classroom realities.

In a paper presented during the 1989 Annual Convention of TESOL, the authors demonstrated that “Methods like the TPR, Suggestopedia and counseling learning presume many facts that are realities in the West but not quite so in many parts of the world. […] In short, the fact remains that except for possible isolated cases, these methods do not have either consistent universality of appeal or feasibility of application.”

We can safely conclude that teaching methods have failed (a) to offer creativity and individualism to teachers, (b) to respect the multicolored learning styles of learners, and (c) to produce a context-relevant “Language Program Design”.

Post-method Era (PM Era)

The identification of the complexity of the current worldwide  foreign English teaching situation and the diversity of the learning styles among foreign English learners has led some practitioners to the conclusion that we have moved to the post-method era, suggesting the abandonment of the “prolonged preoccupation [with methods] that has been increasingly unproductive and misguided.” (Stern 1985)

Principled Pragmatism. Unlike eclecticism, which is a characteristic feature of what Stern (1895) called the “century-old obsession”, the “post-method era” is based on principled pragmatism, where the “relationship between theory and practice, ideas and their actualization, can only be realized within the domain of application” (Widdowson 1990). Since the post-method pedagogy is considered to be derived on the local level from CLT, some post-methodologists suggest that rather than finding an alternative to methods, the post-method pedagogy may be understood as synthesis of various methods under the umbrella of CLT.

PM Era and Teachers. The post-method condition enables practitioners to create location-specific, classroom-oriented, innovative practices. It enables teachers to use approaches and methods creatively, based on their own judgment, and interchangeably according to their learners’ needs. In order for the post-method pedagogy to be productive for both teachers and learners, teachers need to gain experiences and knowledge to develop individual practices and techniques that will reflect their individual beliefs, values, principles, and experiences. These practices and techniques will be used interchangeably by the teachers, depending on the type of class or learners they are teaching. Teachers also need to “theorize from practice and practice what they theorize.” This is what we call “teacher autonomy”. Brown (2002) suggests a “principled approach” towards teaching where EFL teachers (a) diagnose the needs of their students, (b) treat students with successful pedagogical techniques, and (c) assess the outcome of those treatments.

PM Era and Learners. Kumaravadivelu (2001) says that “the post-method learner is an autonomous learner,” someone who is independent, self-directed, self-motivated, critically reflective, and collaborative. Thanks to the post-method era, learners have been given the chance to focus on their learning processes, first by defining their learning styles, and then by developing appropriate strategies for the accurate production and comprehension of the foreign language. Nunan (1999), however, classifies learners into concrete learners, analytical learners, and authority-oriented learners. Concrete learners are those who prefer learning by games, pictures, films and video, talking in pairs, learning through the use of cassette and going on excursions. Analytical learners are the opposite of communicative learners. They like studying grammar, studying independently, finding their own mistakes, always having homework, and learning through reading newspapers. Authority-oriented learners are those who like their teachers explaining everything for them, writing everything in a notebook, and sticking to their own textbook.

PM Era and Teaching Materials. Although linguists, methodologists, and practitioners have admitted that we have moved beyond the search for “an alternative method” to the “search for an alternative to methods,” the problem of teaching materials is hard to settle. In some countries, teachers are still confined by the Teacher Book components and are never considered good teachers by the inspectors unless they go by the book. They also need to teach using the implied textbooks, especially in countries where the two concepts of method and textbook are regarded as one. Here we give the example of the Spanish-speaking world where method and textbook share a single name, “métado”.  They can, however, use extra learning materials that suit their learners’ needs, whether use pictures and films (concrete learners), give homework that is not taken from the textbook (analytical learners), or just stick to the textbook and give hand-outs (authority-oriented learners). They can also “adopt, adapt, [and] develop” any method and create different teaching materials according to their learners’ socioeconomic and linguistic characteristics, cultural backgrounds, and needs. In this context, Kumaravadivelu (2006) calls for a “pedagogy of particularity,” by which he means being “sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular social milieu.”

Are Teaching Methods Universal or Culture-specific?

Are Teaching Methods Universal or Culture-specific?

Nada Mrabet

ISLT

Abstract

This paper discusses the appropriateness of the application of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in EFL classrooms, with a focus on Tunisian secondary teachers and students. The paper begins with an introduction of teaching methods, the teacher versus learner centeredness dichotomy, how methods failed to account for cultural diversity, and the birth of the post-method era. I will be focusing on two contexts, China and Singapore. Then, I will apply their findings to the Tunisian context to see whether I will find the same results. Therefore, I prepared two questionnaires, one for 11 secondary teachers, and another for 70 secondary students from different parts of Tunisia. According to the quantitative data I got, Tunisian teachers do not adopt CLT to the fullest. They make adjustments depending on their learners’ needs and expectations.  As for the students, they were divided into two categories: those living in the rural area prefer a teacher-centered approach, and those living in the urban area prefer a learner-centered approach. The universality hypothesis is refuted.

                    Keywords: CLT, teacher-centered, learner-centered, cultural diversity, post-method.

Introduction

CLT is the most recognizable and adopted humanistic approach in EFL classrooms around the world. At first, despite the fact that, like the rest of the teaching-methods, CLT is the product of the West, some non-West countries, which have different cultural teaching and learning backgrounds than the West, are applying CLT in their English-language classrooms. These cultural differences were later on acknowledged by many countries, e.g. China, Singapore, Egypt, and Japan, the thing that led them to either stop adopting CLT and create their own approach to EFL teaching, or make some adjustments to CLT. In this paper we will discover whether the cultural differences between the West and Tunisia will lead the latter to stop applying CLT to their English-language classrooms and create a specially-made approach for the Tunisian context. 

Theoretical Part

Teaching Methods

Definition of Teaching Methods. In their “Dictionary of Language and Applied Linguistics” (2002), Richards and Schmidt claim that different methods of language teaching are based upon: “(a) the nature of language, (b) the nature of second language learning, (c) goals and objectives in teaching, (d) the type of syllabus to use, (e) the role of teachers, learners, instructional material, and (f) the activities, techniques, and procedures to use” (p. 330)

The characteristic feature of teaching methods is eclecticism. It has been used (a) to overcome the limitations of any teaching method and (b) to promote “the careful, principled combination of sound ideas from sound sources into a harmonious whole that yields the best results.”  That is why the search of methodologists was focused on a single, ideal method, which can be generalized across widely varying audiences, and which would successfully teach students a foreign language in the classroom.

Teaching Methods. Teaching methods can be divided into two types:

(1)   Traditional Approach: The grammar-translation method enables students to read the literature of the target language. The teachers are both decision-makers and translators from the mother-tongue to the target language and vice versa. The learners are passive and not allowed to make mistakes. The textbook codify the grammar of the target language into discrete rules for students to learn and memorize.

The direct method’s main objective is to achieve good pronunciation. The teachers play the role of demonstrators, always leaving the floor for the learners. They use both textbooks and real-life objects and visual materials. The learners are active. They speak to practice their pronunciation skills.

The audio-lingual method intends to build communicative competence. It is a teacher-dominated method where teachers have central and active roles. Thus, the learners have a little control over the content, pace, and learning-style.

(2)   Humanistic Approach: The communicative language teaching approach helps the learners achieve effective communicative skills. The teachers are needs-analysts, counselors, and group process managers. The learner plays the role of a negotiator between the self, the learning process and object of learning. The materials are text-based and task-based with the use of realia.

The total-physical response’s main focus is about teaching oral proficiency at beginning levels. The teachers have a direct and active role. The learners are active as well. They are required to respond in a physical manner, either collectively or individually. For the very first lessons, teaching materials may not be use, only real-life objects and posters.

The main objective of the community language learning is to attain a near-native like mastery of the target language. The teachers are counselors and paraphrasers. The learners are treated as clients and not students. The classroom materials are personalized by the learners.

Each teaching method prescribes for the teachers what to do in the classroom and how to do it, the kind of teachers they are supposed to be, and the type of materials to use. It also specifies the kind of learners all learners must be.

Teacher centeredness Vs. Learner centeredness. The status of teachers in CLT differs from that in traditional methods. In traditional methods, teachers enjoy a high status where they are the source of knowledge, the controllers of their classrooms, and the decision makes. Learners are viewed as the passive recipient of their teachers. They are supposed to listen to their teachers, do whatever they ask them to do, and follow them blindly without challenging or questioning them. However, in CLT, teachers no longer enjoy that high status, and the distance between them and their learners has been narrowed down to a rather equal one. Teachers are no longer the source of knowledge, the controllers of their classrooms, and the decision makers. Learners are the ones who pave the way for knowledge to take place; they are the dominators in the classroom, and the ones who choose which activities to do and which materials to use.

Teaching Methods and Culture

Methods assume too much about a context before the context has even been identified. They are over-generalized in their application to practical situations. Several contexts came to prove later on that the western-methods-makers are ignorant of, and even indifferent to the socio-cultural realities of Afro-Asia. Through these context-differences, practitioners have discovered that even some of the recent humanistic approaches and methods may be unworkable, unproductive or even unwise to be applied in places and under conditions that are quite unlike those that gave birth to them. In Japan, Linju Ogasawara (1983) from the Japanese Ministry of Education warns about the dangers of the over-rated application of “hot from the oven” linguistic theories from the West in the English-language classrooms in Japan. In China, Liu Xian (1988) from Jilin University elucidates how imported humanistic methods are impractical in China and how Chinese teachers of English have turned out better works in the Chinese context, and that they should not rely on foreigners to find the appropriate ways to approach their English-language classrooms. In a paper presented during the 1989 Annual Convention of TESOL, the authors claimed that “methods like the TPR, Suggestopedia and counseling learning presume many facts that are realities in the West but not quite so in many parts of the world. […] In short, the fact remains that except for possible isolated cases, these methods do not have either consistent universality of appeal or feasibility of application.” What Westerners do when developing or giving birth to new methods, is “evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originally in the standards and customs of [their] own culture.” This leads us to the conclusion that much of the modern knowledge developed in the West will automatically appear ethnocentric to the non-west. Burns (1985) also mentions how countries like Germany, Japan, Egypt, Brazil and India are restructuring English teaching to exclude the contexts (cultural, social, etc), purposes and needs of the West.

Examples of cultural contexts where CLT could not be adapted.

       The Chinese Context. Zhang et al. (2013) examine the appropriateness of CLT from the perspective of the Chinese culture of teaching and learning. Chinese researchers and teachers are required to adopt CLT as the ‘right’ and most appropriate approach for the Chinese English-language classrooms. Chinese researchers argue that since CLT is based on Western settings, it is not culturally appropriate. This is to note that the Chinese culture of teaching and learning which is traditional by definition. Since teachers’ values and teaching behaviors differ from one culture to the other, these values and professed role of Chinese teachers are so rooted that they have kept these Chinese teachers from adopting a new learner-centered methodology. Chinese learners, on the other hand, are finding it hard to adopt CLT because (1) it is difficult for them to change their ways of learning, (2) they depend on their teachers to get knowledge, and (3) they have negative attitudes towards CLT. They regard CLT as games for entertainment and not as a serious approach to efficient learning. To conclude, teachers’ roles and learners’ learning styles and attitudes in China are culturally contradictory to those of CLT. This renders the shortcoming of CLT in neglecting context.

     The Singaporean Context. Tan (2005) examines the appropriateness of CLT from the perspective of the culture of teaching and learning in Singapore. He investigates how the CLT can be culturally inappropriate for primary schoolchildren due to the Asian-Confucian values and practices. The latter is “a system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius which do not favor the communicative approach.” Tan (2005) mentions a number of writers like Ellis (1996), Collins (1999), and Critchley (2004) to confirm his argument about the cultural inappropriateness of the communicative approach in the Asian context. To conclude, CLT is only efficient if it is culturally appropriate. Otherwise, it must be wisely adapted to suit the local needs of schoolchildren depending on their cultural backgrounds and contexts. 

Post-method Era

Acknowledging the complexity of the current worldwide foreign English teaching situation and the diversity of the cultural contexts of the foreign English classrooms has led some practitioners to the conclusion that we have moved beyond methods, to the post-method era. In this regard, post-methodologists suggest the abandonment of methods in favor of the recognition of strategies of teaching designed to reflect specific cultural backgrounds, local needs and experiences. Post-methodologists offer an ‘alternative to methods’ which enables practitioners to generate location-specific, classroom-oriented practices. This way, individual teachers may draw on diverse principles at different times applying procedures that best match their own cultural background in teaching. Kumaravadivelu (2006) calls for a “pedagogy of particularity,” by which he means being “sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular social milieu.”

Practical Part

My study was conducted only on secondary English-language teachers and learners. I can justify my choice by the fact that learners at that level are more aware of their own learning styles and learning processes than basic education learners. They know exactly how they want to learn, how they want their teachers to deliver information, and the type of materials they want to use. This way we will have more concrete results.

Hypothesis

CLT is a culturally specific teaching method that cannot be appropriately applied to the Tunisian secondary schools.

Teachers

Participants. I handed a questionnaire to 11 secondary teachers of English: 5 from Kairouan (urban and rural), 5 from Tunis and 1 from Sousse.

Method. The questionnaire that I prepared contains 5 multiple-choice questions that aimed to (a) know whether Tunisian teachers literally apply CLT in their classrooms, and (b) to see whether they have succeeded or failed to apply it appropriately.

  Questionnaire.

Results.

Discussion. First, let me draw your attention to the fact that the Official Language Program implicitly states that Tunisian teachers are required to use the Communicative approach. Some of the fundamental principles of CLT that are mentioned in this book are: (1) ‘the learner is at the core of the learning process’, (2) and ‘language is seen as a means of communication.’ What this chart shows is that the majority of Tunisian teachers: (1) “often” do classroom activities, (2) either use both of the textbook and other materials or do not use the textbook at all, and (3) instruct their learners when solving a problem. This means that their approach to the classroom is CLT-like. CLT advocates the excessive use of activities, reliance on materials other than the textbook, and instruction while solving problems. However, 10 out of 11 teachers said that they change their teaching methods depending on their learners’ needs. And 5 out of 11 teachers think that the teaching method they’re following does not suit all of their learners. This means that they are not completely satisfied with CLT as their sole method to apply in their classrooms.

Conclusion. These findings imply that CLT may be culturally inappropriate to apply to the Tunisian context, perhaps because Tunisian teachers do not feel that CLT is efficient enough to be used with all of their learners or even to be used to the fullest with the learners who are already comfortable with the set of activities and techniques of CLT.

Learners

Participants. I handed the questionnaire to 70 secondary students: 40 from Tunis, 29 from Kairouan and 1 from Gafsa.

Data and Method. The questionnaire that I prepared contains 6 multiple-choice questions that aimed to (a) diagnose the type of teaching techniques that learners are being exposed to, (b) observe how learners actually prefer to be taught, and (c) see whether they have the same learning style as the one imposed on them by CLT.

Questionnaire.

Results.

Discussion and Conclusion.

     On the Global level. The majority of learners: (1) said that teachers do most of the talking, (2) want to always do activities and discussions, (3) said that they mostly rely on the textbook to do activities, (4) said that their teachers instruct them while solving problems, and that they prefer doing tasks with their teachers’ instruction, and (5) attested that when they are about to correct a task, they discuss the answers either with their teachers and other learners, or both. Some of these answers contradict with CLT. For example, in CLT teachers must use materials other than the textbook. To conclude, the fact that the teachers are the ones who do most of the talking, and that they mostly rely on the textbook means that the teachers do not apply CLT to the fullest. They still moderate some of its major aspects to make them fit their own cultural background as well as their learners’, which is mostly traditional, i.e. teacher-centered.

     On the Local Level. When I separated the answers of the learners from the rural area of Kairouan from the answers of the learners from the urban area of Tunis, I got totally different results for questions 1, 3 and 6. On the one hand, the majority of learners from Tunis said that : (1) they do most of the talking in the classroom, (2) their teachers use both of the textbook and other teaching materials, and (3) when it is time to correct a task, they discuss the answers with fellow learners. On the other hand, learners from Kairouan said that: (1) their teachers are the ones who do most of the talking, and (2) when it is time to correct a task, they refer to their teachers to discuss the answers. To conclude, learners from the rural area of Kairouan are following a teacher-centered approach. They are still stick to the old-fashioned, traditional approach to learning where the teacher enjoys a high status as the knowledge holder and the learners as the vessel that receives that knowledge. However, learners from the urban area of Tunis are following a learner-centered approach. The teachers share the same status with their learners. They are no longer the source of knowledge. The learners seek for information from each other.

Conclusion

Methodologists develop methods with the ultimate aim of producing one single, ideal method that will fit all English-language classrooms around the world. This quest for universality has led these methodologists to turn a blind eye, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to the possibility that their methods cannot be appropriately applicable to the non-West contexts. Research studies conducted about the appropriateness of CLT in the Chinese and Singaporean contexts led us to the conclusion that the applicability of certain teaching-methods, more precisely CLT, is determined by the cultural teaching and learning background of the context. The same was proved following my study of the appropriateness of CLT in the Tunisian context. CLT is not fully appropriate to be applied to the Tunisian English-language classrooms. Sometimes teachers change some CLT techniques to make them suit their learners’ needs and cultural background. Tunisian learners do not share the same cultural background, neither with the West, nor with the non-West, and not even other Tunisians from different area. Learners in the rural areas prefer the traditional teacher-centered approach, while learners in the urban areas prefer the trendy learner-centered approach.

References

Brown, D. (2002). ‘English Language Teaching in the Post-method Era: Toward Better Diagnosis,       Treatment, and Assessment’. In Richards, C., & Renandya, W. (Eds.). Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. (pp. 9-18). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Harper, C., & Jong, E. (2004). Misconceptions about teaching English-language learners. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 48, 2. Education Periodicals. pp. 152.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The Postmethod Condition: (E)merging Strategies for Second/Foreign Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1. pp. 27-48.  

Nayar, P. B.(1989). From Krasher to Ashen: Ethnocentrism and Universality in TESOL. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Spez%ers of Other Languages(23rd, San Antonio, TX, March 7-11, 1989).

Richards, J., & Rogers, T. (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York : Cambridge Press University.

Zhang, D., Li, Y., & Wang, Y. (2013). How Culturally Appropriate Is the Communicative Approach with Reference to the Chinese Context? Creative Education. Vol.4, No.10A, 1-5.

Tan, Ch. (2005). How Culturally Appropriate is the Communicative Approach for Primary School Children in Singapore ? The Reading Matrix. Vol. 5, No. 1, 21-35.

Is Multilingualism a Social Problem?

Master’s Program- Applied Linguistics

Academic Year: 2012- 2013

Course Title: Sociolinguistics

Instructor: Dr. Mohamed Jabeur

Student: Nada Mrabet

Topic

 Is Multilingualism a Social Problem?

Essay

         Many countries concede themselves as monolingual rather than multilingual or bilingual. This misconception often comes about due to the fact that those countries operate as monolingual either de facto or de jure. Only a quarter of all nation-states recognize more than one official language. Unbeknownst to the other three quarters, monolingualism is only the tip of the iceberg. If they look beyond the surface, they will find a great deal of diversity offered by societal multilingualism. This essay seeks to prove that multilingualism is not a social problem. I will first list what sociolinguists conceive as problematic in multilingualism; provide a problem-solving approach to these problems; illustrate the advantages of multilingualism; and explain why one should stop perceiving it as something of a problem.  

                                                                             

         A major problem that is causing an enigmatic quandary is the nationist-nationalist conflict. Fishman (1972) defines a nation as “any political- territorial unit which is largely or increasingly under the control of a particular nationality.” Nationists use the old colonial language as their official language because the governing institutions and records are already in that language. However, “a solution to a nationist problem often creates a nationalist problem” (Fasold, 1984). Choosing the old colonial language as the official language of a newly independent colony contradicts with the concept of nationality which refers to “a group of people who think of themselves as a social unit different from other groups” on the local and global scales. Not only in the field of general government administration do nationists and nationalists live in an ongoing conflict, but also in education. Nationists follow what they consider the best and most efficient strategy and choose to use ethnic-group languages in the educational institutions. This is what Fasold (1984) calls “contranational nationalism”: This nationist choice contradicts with nationalism because it does not fulfill unity of language.

           Fasold (1984) suggests two approaches to settle this problem: (1) Either develop a national language or (2) develop nationalism on grounds other than language. Still, the first suggestion may bring about the nationism-nationalism conflict anyway when selecting the language, promoting its acceptance and developing the language itself. Another approach adopted by Ireland is to declare both the nationalist and the colonialist languages official to serve the nationist purposes while promoting nationalism at the same time. A similar case is India. The only difference between Ireland and India is that the latter country have declared a deadline when English will no longer be used de jure.  In education, a similar approach is adopted in India where they use the ethnic-group languages for initial education and then switch to the national language for more advanced levels. This way the minorities will not be denied their linguistic right to speak their own language. This pragmatic approach will get multilingual governments out of dictatorship’s way.

          Being Multilingual is no longer “a marker of high status” (Edwards, 1994) to a certain group of people referred to as the Elite. It is rather “a contribution to a more dynamic society” (Fasold, 1984). Many countries came to prove Fasold right. The most striking example of all is the United States of America, with an average of 322 spoken languages, probably because it is built on a multi- migration system. Another probable reason is that the Founding Fathers declared no official language in the American constitution. Doing that would narrow the rights of those who have a limited English competence. Indeed, the secret of power, progress and prosperity in America lies in its diversity in terms of both language and ethnicity. This example proves multilingualism as a resource of democracy. As we may see in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s: quality-of-life index of the year of 2005, multilingual countries which citizens enjoy the highest levels of political and civil liberties are listed on the top of the Worldwide quality-of-index, such as Ireland, Italy, Singapore, and the United States. Therefore, a good management of multilingualism will definitely lead multilingual countries to prosperity and the well- being of their peoples.

           Although Fasold (1984) insists on the existence of monolingual countries, Auer and Wei (2007) came to reject this idea and said that “the world is de facto multilingual”. They consider multilingualism “natural”, and the real problem is monolingualism. The problems that arise through multilingualism are not the result of the existence of multilingualism itself, but rather crop up because of certain contexts like those set by nationism and nationalism. According to Auer and Wei (2007), Multilingualism started to be marginalized during a phase of European history in which nation-states like the United Kingdom and France unleashed a concept stating that in order to be part of a nation, one needs to speak its language. In fact, it took these two nation-states hundreds of years to marginalize languages other than English and French. Nation-states believe that one official national language is capable of unifying their people. Even in research within the field of linguistics, Auer and Wei (2007) see multilingualism as being marginalized by linguists due to the bias of European thinking to monolingualism. This state has changed since two decades ago.

          Multilingualism is perceived problematic for nationism and nationalism. While nationists adopt a pragmatic approach towards language by picking the old colonial language as the official language or using ethnic-group languages, nationalists seek to unify their nations by recognizing one official national language. The conflict occurs when choosing the one language to be recognized as official. There are roughly 6.900 languages in the world and only around 200 nation-states. Like it or not, nationists and nationalists should give up to the fact that “multilingualism is the rule not the exception” (Genesse and Cenoz, 1998). The majority of these languages are unofficial due to the fact that nationalists believe that diversity is capable of endangering their nationality. Auer and Peter (2007) declare all of these assumptions null and void and say that it is time to stop perceiving multilingualism as a problem and start appreciating it as a resource, and that the real problem is monolingualism. %

                                                                 References

Auer, P., & Wei, L. (2007). Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

Fasold, R. (1984). The Sociolinguistics of Society. Oxford: Blackwell Hudson.

The Economist Intelligence Unit. 2005. Quality-of-life index. Retrieved from:

http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf

Post-reading impression of Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Christian Grey, one of the two leading characters, is depicted as the Adam of all Eves. He is synonymous with Mr. Perfect. 

Most of the focus was put on CG and why he's become a Dom. But no focus was put on Anastasia and why she's 23, always blushing, never had a boyfriend and still a virgin, till she's met CG. Plus, I don't know how her mother's many marriages is supposed to add any weight to the book or to Ana's psyche or character. It's like adding an interesting ingredient to a recipe but you never use it when cooking the dish. 

Reading Fifty Shades of Grey was the greatest mistake I have ever made during my short picnic in the world of literature. You will realize that only when you will read a good piece of literature afterwards. And when I say good, I mean sophisticated characters, good flowing English, and a strong plot with an interesting climax. 

This author-like James succeeded in making her readers believe that CG is the Mr. Perfect that all girls want. He's NOT! He's Fifty Shades of fucked up. And that says it all. It's actually the touched-for-the-first-time feelings and orgasms that Ana experienced that made CG look like a Greek God. Again. He's NOT! CG is the manifestation of the imaginative lover that all shallow girls want to have, or that the author herself wants to have. Rich, sexy, knows how to treat a woman. 

You have a wet dream with that kind of men. You don't fall in love with them or write a whole trilogy about them. Perhaps that's what inspired the author at the first place, a wet dream. Or perhaps that's the kind of men she wanted for herself after her looks failed her to be with such a man (no offense). 

James, read more quality books, let go of your imagination, come back in a couple of years and we'll see what you'll come up with. You see, writing books is not about turning porn into words or making money out of it. It's more about creating alternative worlds for readers. Authentic readers entrusted you with their lives and precious time and you've let them down. 

However, I do like to read the story from inside CG's mind. That would be more fucked up. And probably more interesting. 

The good thing though is that every here and there you'll find names of good songs or musical pieces which I have enjoyed more than the book itself. 

My Face For Peace. Be part of it.

My Face for Peace- Nada

A few days ago I have found out about this great initiative made by Saeeid and his wife Cordula in a bid to smooth the way for global peace. I sent my picture along with the statement above and a couple of days later it was published.  

To find out more about My Face For Peace, visit their official website, Facebook fan page and Youtube account.   

Don't hesitate to participate and send your picture and statement.
Peace.

في تونس: اليوم تعدد الزوجات.. غدوة زواج القاصرات.

ليوم تونس كيف العادة قاعدة تمر بحكاية تافهة أخرى. حكاية انتجوها ناس تافهين و كبروها ناس أتفه منهم. الحكاية هذي اسمها "تعدد الزوجات". قلك السيد عادل العلمي، سود الله وجهه، يلزمنا نطبقو شرع الله. كيفاه يحب يطبقوا؟ إنو كل راجل يولي عندو الحق يعرس ب-4 نساء. وبعض السفهاء و تجار الدين إلي كيفو قلك أيه هيا نسمعوا كلام ربي. المصيبة مش انهم يحبوا على تعدد الزوجات. المصيبة انهم عاملين رواحهم يحبوا يطبقوا شرع الله وقتلي هوما في الحقيقة يحبوا يستعملو الدين باش يشبعو شهواتهم و رغباتهم. "عباد" (بش منقولش رجال) تلقاهم بطالة و تشرب و تزطل وتزنى جاهلين بالدين لا مستوى لا ثقافة و كيف سمعت على تعدد الزوجات ولاو في قمة الدين و يقولو هاو الرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام تزوج بأكثر من مرا. معناها هكا نيتك إنتي؟ تقارن في روحك بالرسول؟ تي الرسول عليه الصلاة و السلام منجمش يعدل بناتهم وكانت السيدة عائشة عليها السلام أحب زوجاته إلى قلبه. معليناش في هذا لكل. معناها احنا صارت في بلادنا ثورة باش ها المرضى عقلياً و المكبوتين جنسياً ياخذوا 4 نساء؟ معناها احنا مشاكلنا زواج و إشباع رغبات؟وخالي عاد من %0.000000000000000000000000000001 نساء هاكلي ماشين هازين شعارات و يطالبوا بتعدد الزوجات. تي كان جيتو عاهرات في جسدكم أشرفلكم من العهر الفكري إلي تمرسوا فيه! و الأفظع هو إنو ها "العباد" قاعدة تتهم في الناس إلي ضد تعدد الزوجات ب إنهم "اغايرن و برة و ميحبوش يشاركو رجالهم مع حتى حد." خسئتم! تي احنا قاعدين نحميو في أنفسنا و فيكم شخصياً و في مجتمعنا عربياً كان أم أمازيغياً من الوطأة متاعكم إلي تمارسو فيها كل مرة يتجبد فيها ملف "تعدد الزوجات". محسوب هالي يحبوا على 4 نساء ماشي في بالكم يحبوا يسترو نساء و يكونوا عيلة و يستقرو؟ هاكم يحبوا على وثيقة عقد نكاح لا أكثر لا أقل. يا كهو عاد. اليوم تعدد الزوجات. غدوة تقلي نحلول تزاوج القاصرات قال شنوا الرسول عليه الصلاة و السلام تزوج السيدة عائشة عليها السلام و عمرها 6 سنين و دخل عليها عمرها 9 سنين. إلي هي حكاية اخراجها البخاري إلي الأحاديث متاعو يتبعوا فيها و يزيفوا فيها الوهابيين تجار الدين متع السعودية إلي يحرفوا في دين الإسلام و يستعملو فيه كحجة باش يبررو بها أفعالهم الدنيئة قدام العباد و نساو رب العباد كيف بش يسألهم نهار اخر على أفعالهم و تحريفهم للإسلام. حسيلو ملخر مضمضو و امسحو شواربكم .مليح. حراير تونس مستحيل يخليوكم تردولنا بلادنا . دولة من دول الخليج الوهابية. 

WORDSMITH Tools of Text Analysis

The WORDSMITH tools is ‘an integrated suite of programs for looking at how words behave in texts.’ It ‘controls’ the programs it contains: Concord (makes a concordance using plain texts or web text files), KeyWords (locate and identify key words in a given corpora), and WordList (generate word lists based shown in alphabetical and frequency order). 

Johnson & Ensslin (2006) discussed the methodological concerns about keyword analysis and the reliability of the BNC reference corpus when compared to research corpora in order for the latter to be neutrally analyzed. They identified two problems. The BNC constructed by Scott and composed of a set of 90.7 million words taken from the late 1980s and early 1990s, failed to cover themes outside that time frame, the thing that resulted the “problem of age disparity”. The other problem is related to “proper names” in newspapers and media discourse. Proper names may appear as “key” keywords in any newspaper corpus. Scott (2000), however, came to rule out proper names of any kind in view of the fact that they change over time. Sinclear (2004) argued that articles including proper names should be excluded on the basis that they put the homogeneity of the research corpus at risk. But what about articles containing household names that are deeply related to the area one is investigating? Johnson & Ensslin (2006) suggested a couple of exits with dreadful setbacks: Either build one’s own comparator from scratch to generate a more reliable list of the most frequent words, which is time consuming, or conduct an extensive editing work on the keyword lists, which will eventually put the reliability and objectivity of the study into question. 

What some other analysts did to leapfrog these setbacks, like Baker (2004), is promoting a carefully triangulated quantitative and qualitative analytic methodology by combining between statistical findings and what Baker (2004) called “inclusive and subjective” interpretations, to eschew both the lexical-only approach and the subjectively-collected data. 

Johnson, S. & Ensslin, A. (2006). Language in the News: Some Reflections on Keyword Analysis Using Wordsmith Tools and the BNC. Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics, 11.