A settlement has been reached in one of the largest lawsuits filed under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, over providing Spanish-language ballots and assistance to voters in nearly half of Florida’s counties.
After a long legal battle, the settlement provides for Spanish-language ballots, election materials, hotlines, websites, voting assistance, and signs at election supervisors’ offices.
The Rivera v. Barton lawsuit, filed in 2018, argued that election officials had not complied with the Voting Rights Act when they didn’t provide ballots and information in Spanish to Spanish-speaking voters who had recently moved to Florida from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, so they can register and vote in stateside elections when they move from the island to the mainland. Over a million Puerto Ricans, the vast majority of whom received school instruction in Spanish, now live in Florida, and nearly 900,000 were eligible to vote in 2018.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 states that individuals who were taught in a U.S. school where the primary language is not English, such as those in Puerto Rico, cannot be denied the right to vote just because they cannot understand English. Marta Rivera Madera, 73, was the plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I feel good and I am very pleased with the decisions they took,” she said in a telephone news briefing.
In 2019, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the 32 counties to take steps toward providing Spanish-language ballots and assistance in time for the March 2020 presidential primary election.
As the Department of Education releases $122 billion directly to states as part of the American Rescue Plan, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona is encouraging states to make sure students who have been hit hardest by COVID-19 are provided with the resources and support they need. American Rescue Plan funds can be used by SEAs and school districts to equitably expand opportunities for students who need the funds most, including students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, students with disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, and students with inadequate access to technology.
Under the plan, states with large numbers of English learners will receive considerable windfalls— California $15 billion, Texas $12.5, New York $9, Florida $7, Illinois $5, Georgia $4, and Puerto Rico $3 billion.
The funds are intended to support efforts to reopen K-12 schools safely this month and equitably expand opportunity for students who need it most. Cardona delivered the news directly to state education commissioners in a letter and said the Department will begin to make these funds available to state educational agencies (SEAs) this month.
“This pandemic has taken an extraordinary toll on students, parents, educators, and schools, and we know that our schools, students, and communities need help now to reopen safely and quickly, and to stay open,” said Cardona. “These funds from the American Rescue Plan and the extraordinary steps the Department is taking to get these resources to states quickly will allow schools to invest in mitigation strategies to get students back in the classroom and stay there, and address the many impacts this pandemic has had on students—especially those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.”
In his letter, Secretary Cardona urged states and school districts to utilize these funds with the same sense of urgency the President and Congress used to pass the American Rescue Plan Act and with the same commitment that families and educators have to getting students back in classrooms for in-person instruction safely.
The ARP ESSER funds may be used to address the many impacts of COVID-19 on pre-K through 12 education, including:
Investing in resources to implement CDC’s K-12 operational strategy for in-person learning to keep educators, staff, and students safe; improving ventilation; purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE); and obtaining additional space to ensure social distancing in classrooms.
Avoiding devastating layoffs and hiring additional educators to address learning loss, providing support to students and existing staff, and providing sufficient staffing to facilitate social distancing.
Implementing strategies to meet the social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs of students hit hardest by the pandemic, including through evidence-based interventions and critical services like community schools.
Funding crucial summer, afterschool, and other extended learning and enrichment programs.
Hiring additional school personnel, such as nurses and custodial staff, to keep schools safe and healthy.
Providing for social distancing and safety protocols on buses.
Funding for Wi-Fi hotspots and devices for students without connectivity for remote learning and supporting educators in the effective use of technology; and
Additional uses as allowed in the statute.
Secretary Cardona also reaffirmed the Department’s ongoing commitment to providing technical assistance, guidance, and best practices to states as they work to utilize these funds.
As we celebrate this month’s confirmation of the first U.S. education secretary, Miguel Cardona, to have learned English as a second language, maybe we can afford ourselves some optimism about the future of public education in the nation and how recent experiences may show us that the only way forward is to redouble our commitment to and investment in schools and teachers.
The global pandemic, economic policies in reaction to it, and associated school closures have redrawn the boundaries for education. We’ve been thrown in at the deep end of educational technology and discovered very quickly that sometimes it works very well and sometimes it doesn’t, but what we do know is that technology does not replace teachers, and it works best when teachers can use it in smaller groups to intensify personalized instruction. We need more well-trained teachers now to help students overcome the fallout of school closures, and we will need to recruit and train a lot more teachers to cope with the impending shortage.
Now is the time to capitalize on the recognition of the amazing work that educators do. Parents and others have experienced firsthand some of what is expected of today’s teachers, and there is a groundswell of appreciation for and admiration of their work that needs to be translated into higher salaries, more professional development, and improved working conditions.
However, the urban school districts that most need additional funding to recruit and train teachers are the most likely to have their budgets slashed as a result of the sharp decline in commercial property values caused by the retail and office closures during pandemic shutdowns. Property taxes account for up to 30% of the tax revenue that cities and towns use to fund schools and other local services, but it is predicted that such revenue could drop by up to 10% in some municipalities.
Lawmakers in Washington have been negotiating a possible stimulus package providing up to $350 billion for states and cities, but there are still plenty of objectors to such a plan who see the funds as a bailout for poorly managed local governments. The federal government has shown that it has deep pockets when it comes to subsidizing businesses and there is a general acceptance of the idea that we need a grand plan of investment in infrastructure to build our way out of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, so why not allocate spending specifically for the modernization of schools, the implementation of new technologies in them, and the recruitment and retention of well-paid educators to train the next generation of Americans to cope better with our rapidly changing world?
A New Deal for education would be one of the best investments the country could make in its future. President Obama famously claimed that every dollar spent on early childhood education resulted in a return to society of over seven dollars. President Biden and his new education secretary should push forward the case for massive investment in all levels of public education and make sure that our teachers are rewarded as the most valued essential workers.
With COVID-19, many schools are utilizing online instruction. At this time, we must not forget our children with special needs. Children with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. For them to successfully learn online requires multifaceted measures using all available tools and approaches. This is best achieved when schools, teachers, and parents work together.
With that said, here are some general ideas for how educators can better fulfill their obligations to students with disabilities who are being educated online during this COVID-19 global pandemic:
1. Before putting instruction online, talk to students/parents about how best to help accommodate their disabilities when engaging in online learning. This will ensure access to online instruction and offer you a clear picture of technologies students have at home.
2. Modify instructional presentation to meet the individual or disability-specific needs of your students and provide learning materials in advance. For example, use highly contrasting colors for students with visual disabilities. Microsoft Office and many learning management systems such as Canvas have the function to check online instructional materials for potential barriers.
3. Ensure flexibility with student submissions to demonstrate their knowledge, providing appropriate assignment alternatives for the students’ disability-specific needs. We recommend the use of the Universal Design for Learning framework for educators to design instruction for the variability within the classroom to provide mastery-oriented instruction for all students.1
4. Keep auditory disabilities in mind and ensure that audio recordings are high quality with accurate captioning. Video-hosting services like YouTube allow users to edit the automatic captioning for accuracy and to add punctuation. When recording audio or video content, describe what is on screen and announce what is being selected or written. Remember that media that communicate clearly to you may not communicate as clearly to others with sensory impairments.
5. Set up your virtual office hours to work with those students with special learning needs. Be flexible and accommodating. Provide communication instruction through both visual and auditory modalities and allow multiple ways of responding and enough time for response.
6. Provide timely feedback on student learning and offer students prompt encouragement. This timely communication with students increases the social, cognitive, and emotional presence of your online instruction.
7. If possible, assign workgroups of students with and without disabilities so they can learn from and help each other during this special time. Ensure that one student is assigned the role of note taker for the group and that if a student requires American Sign Language (ASL) the interpreter is within the same workgroup. Learner–learner interaction is as important as learner–content interaction and learner–instructor interaction for online learning.
As teachers, we also need to work with parents more closely at this time. Here are some tips for how to work with parents of children with disabilities who are learning online at home.
1. Maintain clear and frequent lines of communication that are respectful of family schedules and that use means of communication that are preferred by families.
2. Make a schedule to communicate with them regularly and inform them of your virtual office hours.
3. Avoid the use of jargon and clearly explain those terms used within the student’s individualized education plan (IEP) so that it can be maintained within the home as a learning environment.
4. Create an online parent community. Share relevant and useful resources with parents that assist their children with effective online learning. At the same time, through this online community, encourage parents to share their thoughts and ideas on how to better assist their children in online learning.
5. Provide parents with information to ensure that they are using needed accessibility features on their computers. Sites like Office Accessibility Center2 with built-in accessibility features for operating systems like Windows or Mac and UsabilityGeek3 can be especially helpful.
6. Offer parents relevant online learning resources so they are better informed of how to help their children with disabilities learn. Sites such as LD OnLine4 and Understood.org5 provide information about instructional techniques with links to specific online instructional activities that will enable children to practice skills independently.
7. Provide examples of how typical household tasks can be used as instructional activities. For example, use recipes when cooking family meals to reinforce concepts related to measurement, have the child watch/read the news, and have discussions about current events to promote concepts related to civics, government, etc.
8. Identify what operating system, speed of internet, and special software students utilize at home and within the classroom. Offer free alternatives for screen reader applications, magnification, text to speech, dictation, and file conversion to aid parents. UsabilityGeek, Control Alt Achieve,6 Microsoft Learning Tools,7 SensusAccess,8 and Zamzar9 are all free tools to aid parents.
The impacts of COVID-19 are far-reaching and are changing our teaching practice. Within every challenge is an opportunity. We hope these tips can better help students with disabilities and can help parents play an increasing role in their children’s long-term educational success by better implementing the home–school partnerships envisioned in IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).
Dr. Charles Xiaoxue Wang is a professor of educational technology and Lucas Faculty Fellow (2020–2021) at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Dr. Doug Carothers is a professor of special education at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Steven Bianco is a graduate student at Florida Gulf Coast University, the Electronic Information Technology (EIT) accessibility specialist for Florida SouthWestern State College, and the chair of the Florida State EIT Consortium for FL-AHEAD.
Native American communities will be receiving a big boost in the most recent COVID-19 relief bill—according to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, this bill includes the largest federal investment in Native American communities in the country’s entire history, with $31.2 billion devoted to funding Tribal governments and their communities. The bill includes a $20 million grant for preserving Native American languages and mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Native languages, which tend to be spoken more widely among older populations who are more susceptible to the virus.
“This historic funding is a down payment on the federal government’s trust responsibility to Native communities and will empower American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians to tackle COVID-19’s impacts on their communities,” said Senator Schatz (D-HI), the committee’s chairman, in the press release.
According to the bill, the $20 million grant will go toward “emergency Native language preservation & maintenance.” The majority of money going toward Native communities—$20 billion—will be dedicated to “combatting COVID-19 and stabilizing Tribal community safety-net programs.” The bill also includes grants to improve Native American healthcare systems, housing programs and education programs in response to the problems the pandemic has exacerbated.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique obstacles for the nation’s Native American communities. The Coronavirus Language Access Act, which was introduced to the Senate in August, wouldhave provided Native American communities with funding for coronavirus-related language access services, such as translations of CDC materials, however the bill did not receive a vote. However, a new version of this bill was introduced by Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) in February.
In November, Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) introduced a companion bill to the Senate’s Native American Languages Resource Center Act, which aims to create a designated center for preservation and education of Native American languages—at the time, it was noted that curfews and stay-at-home orders had the potential to damage efforts at language preservation and revitalization, thus strengthening the need for a federally funded resource center. When vaccines first began rolling out in December, many Native American communities, such as the Cherokee Nation, gave fluent speakers of Native languages priority in receiving the vaccines.
A new version of the Coronavirus Language Access Act has been introduced to the House of Representatives by Grace Meng (D-NY). An earlier version of the act was introduced to the Senate in August 2020, however it did not receive a vote before the previous Congress ended.
“COVID-19 continues to ravage our nation, especially communities of color. To help close the health disparities these communities face, federal agencies must translate COVID-19-related materials into additional languages.” Meng said.
The Coronavirus Language Access Act would require all federal agencies that currently receive assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide written resources in 20 languages, thus expanding language access for residents with limited English proficiency. Meng noted that the Coronavirus Language Access Act is especially necessary now, as vaccine distribution continues to ramp up. The legislation would require that public health communications about the vaccine be available in multiple languages so that no linguistic community is left behind.
In February, a study linking limited English proficiency and racial minority status with higher rates of COVID-19 incidence and mortality was published in JAMA Network Open. The researchers advocated for increased capacity of language access services similar to those outlined in the Coronavirus Language Access Act. The act has gained the support of other groups as well, such as the Hispanic Federation, the National Health Law Program, and the Joint National Committee for Languages–National Council for Languages and International Studies.
In a January presidential memorandum on racism toward Asian Americans, President Biden also stressed the importance of language access services, noting that “the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, in coordination with the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, consider issuing guidance describing best practices for advancing cultural competency, language access, and sensitivity towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the context of the Federal Government’s COVID-19 response.”
In order to provide translations of COVID-19 related communications, the Coronavirus Language Access Act would provide a total of $200 million in funding to agencies required to increase language access services. Among numerous additional measures, the act would also require the CDC to create an informational hotline staffed with trained interpreters who can help provide information on the virus and vaccines to residents with limited English proficiency.
“Ultimately, one’s grasp of the English language should never determine their ability and access to fighting against this pandemic. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and look forward to it becoming law,” Meng concluded.
The exclusive or predominant use of inner-circle Englishes in English language teaching (ELT) materials creates and perpetuates myths about the ownership and legitimacy of English. It maintains the hegemonic structure that privileges inner-circle Englishes.
“But teacher, he speaks with an accent!” My memories sometimes take me back to my ESL classrooms and my highly motivated students with a hunger for English and a thirst for knowledge of the world at large. I remember showing them fascinating, inspirational TED Talks by Shabana Basij-Rasikh,1 or May El-Khalil,2 or Joseph Kim.3 They all seemed thoroughly absorbed in the content of the TED Talk and in their admiration of the speaker’s courage, sincerity, or determination. And then, as if to throw cold water on a warm classroom atmosphere, there was sometimes one student who would say, “But teacher, he/she speaks with an accent!”
Countering Myths about English At this point, I would explain that English is a world language, with native speakers, nonnative speakers, users, and learners all over the world; so they, my students, needed to understand different speakers with various accents. Then I would test their knowledge of English in the world by asking them what they thought was the world’s largest English-speaking country (demographically). Invariably, they would all say “America!” (the U.S.). I would surprise them by informing them that it is in fact not the U.S. but India, where over a quarter of its more than a billion people speak English.
My students were not alone in thinking that the U.S. is at the center of the English-speaking world. However, the reality is that as an inner-circle country, the U.S. is in the minority of English-speaking places worldwide. The concept of the inner circle is part of a paradigm developed by Kachru (1985), who posited three concentric circles (see Fig. 1). The inner circle, consisting of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S., is where English originated and was first disseminated, where it predominates as the national or official language (or one of two in Canada), and where it does not share its status with indigenous languages. The outer circle consists of countries such as India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, and many others, where English was spread through a later period of colonialism and has developed into official status, which it sometimes shares with indigenous languages. Outer-circle Englishes are also sometimes referred to as world Englishes. And in the expanding circle, consisting of countries such as Brazil, Thailand, Germany, and Mexico, English is a foreign language with no official status. Most countries are in this outermost circle. Although it has been challenged and updated, the Kachru model is the most enduring paradigm of the English language worldwide. But how is the Kachru model related to ELT? One answer is that it codifies a hierarchy that has always existed in which inner-circle Englishes are privileged and Englishes from the other circles are effectively subjugated. How this affects ELT materials, including listening, is what we explore in this article.
Figure 1: The Kachru Model
Demographics Matter One can put the minority position of the U.S. in perspective by considering the role of English in just three countries—India, China, and Nigeria. India, the world’s largest English-speaking country, has an English-speaking population that is larger than the entire population of the U.S., with at least 350 million speakers (Crystal, 2004, in Srivastava, 2010) and English as one of its official languages. China had as many as 300 million users and learners of English by 1995 (Yong and Campbell, 1995) and presently has at least 600 million learners of English (Qiang and Wolf, 2005). Nigeria, demographically the largest country in Africa with over 200 million people and dozens of languages, has only one official language: English. Nigeria has more English speakers than the entire population of the United Kingdom (Pinon and Haydon, 2010). Nigeria also has the distinction of being the home of the world’s largest producer of motion pictures, with many movies in English and English-based creole.
The anglophone Caribbean, a major English-speaking region spanning over 25 countries and territories, would straddle the inner and outer circles but is not included. I offer the exclusion of this region as one example of the injustice, inadequacy, and inaccuracy of the original Kachru model. Perhaps because he recognized that it did not include all Englishes, Kachru transformed his original model. It now comprises an infinite number of concentric circles with the highest proficiency being at the center and lower proficiency in the outermost circles (Graddol, 2006). In this model, anyone has the potential to be included in the inner circle. In my view, it regards the English language as consisting of all English speakers worldwide, irrespective of their sociohistorical relationship to the language.
Yet, despite the prominence, institutionalization, study, and use of English worldwide, the concept of the inner circle as the center of the English language continues to predominate. This has significant implications for many aspects of ELT, such as the creation, publication, and distribution of materials, including those used for teaching listening.
Some questions that may come to mind as we consider diverse Englishes in listening materials are:
Is there a racial dimension to the hierarchy that privileges inner-circle Englishes?
Where else in the ELT field is the hierarchy of Englishes present?
Why are world English speakers often not perceived as native speakers of English?
What is the relationship between the idealized native speaker and the inner circle?
What is the relationship between attitudes toward a language and attitudes toward its native speakers?
How can this be affected by diversifying ELT materials?
What are some other ways we can disrupt the hierarchy of Englishes through the use of ELT materials?
Incorporating Diverse Englishes in Listening Materials English speakers in the outer and expanding circles far outnumber those in the inner circle. This is especially noteworthy in a rapidly shrinking world, where individuals and communities from disparate countries and cultures are brought into more frequent interaction through migration, commerce, education, entertainment, and electronic media. It is also significant in diverse countries like the U.S., where all Englishes are represented. This is partly because the U.S. is a country of immigrants, as well as the recipient of visitors of many types, including international students. In such an environment, it is reasonable to help English learner (EL) students understand diverse Englishes. English is the first and only world language, in that it is spoken as a native language worldwide and has a global population of nonnative speakers that surpasses its native speakers.
As a world language, English is spoken in myriad accents. Given the global demographics of the English language and the likelihood that ELs will use their English with other nonnatives (Seidlhofer, 2005) and/or with world English speakers, listening materials should include diverse speakers with diverse accents. Even though most English speakers worldwide are outside the inner circle and much, if not most, English-language communication takes place in the two outer circles, it is the inner circle where the vast majority of EL materials originate, including listening materials. These materials are overwhelmingly based on inner-circle models and usually feature native speakers from the inner circle. However, it is my contention that EL materials, especially for listening, should take an inclusive approach that incorporates diverse Englishes from all three circles. In this way, ELs can develop the ability to understand Englishes from outside of the inner circle.
In order to take a more inclusive approach to the use of listening materials, teachers may need to adapt their own thinking to a broader view of the English language and consideration of an increasingly globalized world. It seems that Cooper (2020), in her discussion of anti-racism, would agree: “How are we best preparing ourselves to model healthy citizenry for future generations? There is no single path or step-by-step guide with all of the answers. It will take a multipronged approach. Fundamentally, we must start with ourselves before we can teach and authentically engage others in this necessary work.” So in ELT, one prong would be the incorporation of diverse Englishes. Moreover, listening material featuring diverse Englishes more closely reflects the real world in the present and the future. In a narrowing world, we will all need to learn to understand each other—culturally and linguistically. The basic human need to be understood reminds me of the lyrics to Xscape’s song “Understanding“ (1993), about two young people trying to bridge a communication gap.4
What I need from you is understanding…
But you don’t wanna meet me halfway Then the understanding dies
There’s no way that we can work it out If we don’t pull together I don’t mean to be demanding I want some understanding
Many ELs learn and use English because their objective is to understand and be understood by the greatest number of people worldwide. Because English is spoken so differently around the world, it seems that the development of listening skills that extend beyond inner-circle English would help students accomplish this objective.
Students (and their parents) tend to believe that their teachers present the highest-quality, most valuable, and generally best material and that what their teachers do not present is less valuable, of lower quality, or even negligible. So, if we don’t take an inclusive approach to teaching listening, students will only value inner-circle English and not other Englishes.
By teaching only inner-circle English listening, we create a hierarchy in which students will not see value in the other Englishes. Treating nonnative and world Englishes as “less than” native Englishes can have a negative effect on the linguistic self-esteem of EL students, who, by definition, are nonnative English speakers. Even though students tend to trust their teachers to select and use the most appropriate materials with them, my students’ comments about “accent” reflected a preference for inner-circle listening material.
Another reason to take an inclusive approach that incorporates diverse Englishes is that there is a tendency to associate attitudes toward a language with attitudes toward speakers of that language. The inclusion of diverse Englishes can contribute to more inclusive attitudes toward traditionally marginalized English-speaking populations worldwide. This is meaningful, given that the outer circle, the anglophone Caribbean, and most of the expanding circle are populated by people of color. This comes to mind in light of recent awareness of the role of race and hegemony in many areas of society, including education. In my view, we need to extend this awareness to ELT, and diversifying listening materials is a way of doing so. Bryan and Gerald (2020), in their article in this series “The Weaponization of English,” make a similar point: “We acknowledge that there is much work to be done with regard to eliminating anti-Black racism and decentering Whiteness…“
From Three to Infinity: English Is All English Speakers The perception of English-speaking countries is usually limited to the inner circle. However, English is a world language partly because there are English-speaking countries on every continent, including South America. (Though associated with the anglophone Caribbean, the South American country of Guyana, a former British colony that achieved independence in 1966, has English as its official language. See McArthur (1998), p. 97, for a diagram of English-speaking countries worldwide.) English-speaking countries in the outer circle, as well as English-speaking countries that are not included in the original Kachru model (e.g., Jamaica), are generally not included in ELT establishment perception of English-speaking countries. Because of this, these countries—and their populations—are also not included in students’ perceptions of English-speaking countries and legitimate English speakers. Reasons for the perception of inner-circle English as more valuable and more prestigious than the Englishes of the outer two circles are sociohistorical, geopolitical, economic, cultural, and racial (racist) rather than linguistic.
In recent years, more diverse listening materials have become available. Publishers will publish whatever they believe will sell most successfully. So, it is our responsibility as ELT professionals to help raise awareness among them of what materials are beneficial and what materials we would like to select for our students. But we don’t always have to wait for the publishers to make these materials available. Through resources such as Democracy Now!, NPR, American Public Media, C-SPAN, the BBC World Service, CGTN, and TED Talks, among many others, we can bring the world into our classrooms and create our own authentic listening materials using diverse Englishes.
Are we going to forego the use of speeches by Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, Desmond Tutu, or Greta Thunberg, all of whom have either won or been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, just because they are nonnative or world English speakers? If we do, we will be forfeiting valuable opportunities for our students to learn about their world and hear some examples of English at its most eloquent.
Given the global demographics of the English language and the multitude of accents in which it is spoken, it is imperative that EL listening materials reflect the diversity of English usage worldwide. Inclusion of diverse Englishes and English speakers in EL materials provides invaluable opportunities for students to learn to understand, respect, and value a broader spectrum of Englishes and moves us closer to the day when, instead of saying “But he speaks with an accent,” our students will say, “Teacher, I like his accent!”
References Bryan, K.C., & Gerald, J.P.B. (2020, August 17). The Weaponization of English. Pass the Mic series. Retrieved from Language Magazine: https://www.languagemagazine.com/2020/08/17/the-weaponization-of-english/ Cooper, A. (July 2020). “Dismantling Racism: Working from the Inside Out.” Language Magazine. Crystal, D. (2004), in P. Srivastava (2010). “A Legacy We Have (Almost) Made Our Own! English Language… in India.” Fortell, 18, p. 4. Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. British Council. www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/pub_english_next.pdf Kachru, B. (1985). “Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English language in the outer circle.” In R. Quirk and H. G. Widdowson (eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures (pp. 11–30). Cambridge University Press. McArthur, T. (1998). The English Languages. Cambridge University Press. Pinon, R., and Haydon, J. (2010). The Benefits of the English Language for Individuals and Societies: Quantitative Indicators from Cameroon, Nigeria, Rwanda, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Euromonitor International. www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Euromonitor%20Report%20A4.pdf Qiang, N., and Wolf, M. (2005). “Preface,” Articles Written by Niu Qiang, PhD and Martin Wolff, JD about English Language Teaching in China. www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china Seidlhofer, B. (2005). “English as a Lingua Franca.” ELT Journal, 59(4), 339–341. Yong, Z., and Campbell, K. P. (1995). “English in China.“ World Englishes, 14, 377–390.
Mary Romney is a retired educator who spent over 40 years in English language teaching in Madrid, New York, Barcelona, and Connecticut. She has an EdM in instructional media, an MA in TESOL, an MA in Spanish, and a BA in Spanish. She has been active in the TESOL International Association for over 30 years.
For a century now, Tanzania’s courts have been operating in both English and Kiswahili (Swahili)—that’s set to change soon, however, after the country announced measures that would switch all English-language proceedings to Kiswahili, the most widely spoken language in the nation.
Proponents of the new plan say that the measure will help destroy the linguistic barriers that prevent the judicial system from effectively administering justice. According to a local newspaper in Tanzania, the country’s vice president, Samia Hassan Suluhu, said that the language barrier has an especially profound impact on rural residents who often have little knowledge about the mechanics of the country’s justice system, preventing them from effectively accessing court systems.
“Tanzania is an independent state, and therefore, it is unfair for people to be denied justice because of language,” Suluhu told Tanzania’s Daily News, underlining the colonial legacy of English.
Following the country’s independence from the UK in the 1960s, Tanzania began introducing Kiswahili at all legal levels. Still, English has remained in frequent use in the courts throughout the country’s history, despite the fact that Kiswahili is spoken by a much larger population of the country’s residents.
Despite the country’s courts already conducting about 70% of proceedings in Kiswahili, many materials, such as judgements, are recorded in English. To ease the transition, a Kiswahili law dictionary is in the works under the direction of Tanzania’s Ministries of Justice and Education.
This is Tanzania’s latest move to embrace Kiswahili as its national language, coming nearly six years after the country introduced a similarly Kiswahili-centric education policy. After gaining independence, the country had a bilingual education system in which students were instructed in Kiswahili in elementary school and in English from high school onward. In 2015, the country revamped this system so that students would receive instruction in Kiswahili only, at the time making it the first sub-Saharan nation to conduct education only in an African language.
This article was written by Andrew Warner and appeared in the February, 2021 issue of Language Magazine.
The World Language Advancement and Readiness Grants Program is accepting applications from Local Education Agencies (LEAs) for elementary and secondary programs until May 7, 2021. Innovative applications for the establishment, improvement, or expansion of world language programs are being prioritized. The programs should target elementary and secondary students as they advance from elementary school through secondary school to achieve advanced level of proficiency in those languages.
In addition, any Local Education Agency (LEA) awarded a grant under this program must use the funds to support programs that show promise of being continued beyond the grant period and demonstrate approaches that could be disseminated to and duplicated in other LEAs. Awarded projects may also include a professional development component. DoDEA intends to award multiple grants, subject to the availability of funds. Each individual grant award will be a minimum of $500,000.00 and may be up to a maximum of $3,000,000, for a period of up to five (5) years.
The Federal Institute of Native Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation has announced an initiative to develop educational materials and revitalize indigenous languages in the Siberian republic of Yakutia, many of which have low populations of native speakers. According to a report from TASS Russian News Agency, many children in Yakutia learn an indigenous language before entering primary school, but do not maintain these linguistic skills through to adulthood due to a shortage of teachers that speak these languages.
“The problem is, we do not have training programs for teachers and tutors to learn to speak those languages,” said Natalia Sitnikova, a representative from the institute spearheading the project, in an interview with TASS. “There is a shortage of primary school teachers who speak the languages of [Yakutia]. Our goal is to have teachers and tutors speak and teach native languages.”
The official languages of Yakutia are Russian and Yakut, a Turkic language spoken by nearly half a million people (it’s classified as a vulnerable language by the Endangered Languages Project). However, Yakutia, along with many other regions throughout Siberia, is home to a wide range of Indigenous languages that are much less widely spoken, such as the Evenki and Even languages—the latter of which is classified as severely endangered. According to a 2005 report in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, drastic revitalization efforts are necessary for the long-term survival of Evenki, which is one of the larger minority languages spoken in the region.
It seems that Russia’s Federal Institute of Native Languages is looking to undertake such drastic efforts, with an initial project set to launch this year. The current project will consist of various digital training programs and interactive resources for teachers to use in the classroom. According to TASS, only 40 schools in regions with high indigenous populations are currently equipped to teach students in languages other than Russian or Yakut. During the Soviet era, many indigenous people primarily learned Russian in school—according to Sitnikova, this has led to a generation of parents not speaking these indigenous languages despite wanting their children to learn them.
“This aspect has been ignored, and we still can see only Russian and Yakut languages as teaching media in many schools,” she told TASS. “Schools where most students study in native languages are very rare.”
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