Week 12

For this blog, we read CH 2 and 3 of McKay. There were a lot of important terms and practices used throughout these two chapters. I was very interested in Kachru’s model of concentric circles of English speakers. There were three concentric circles, which were, the inner, the outer, and the expanding circles. The inner circle focuses on English as the primary language. Places such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany are considered Inner Circle. Within this inner circle, “individuals that do not speak English are referred to as language minority students,” or “English Learners,” furthermore, “ these students include immigrants, refugees, and long term residents who come from non-English speaking homes.”(McKay 31). Within the inner circle, the Swann Report by the Department of Education and Sciences strongly encouraged mainstreaming, meaning only focusing on learning English and not learning other languages. They believe that learning other languages, other than English, will hinder learning English.

The outer circle is when English serves as a second language in a multilingual country and one in which English is one of the officially recognized languages of the country. In these countries, people frequently use English mostly in social contexts outside the homes. Some of these places include, India, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Finally, the Expanding Circle is the last circle of Krachu’s model of concentric circles. This circle is when English is studied widely as a foreign language. It is more of a want rather than a necessity to continue studying English. There are a lot of problems motivating the learners. Furthermore, many teachers lack English proficiency and lack confidence in the language and teaching. Some places that would be examples of Expanding Circles are China, Germany and Korea.

These differentiations between the uses of English languages are very interesting to me. I think that these circles are good representations of the various uses of English. Both Chapter 2 and 3 show how multilingual speakers use English for specific purposes. Various factors influence how much of a second language that an English as a Second Language Learner learns or cares for learning. Some examples of these factors are seen as domains, such as the family itself, religion, location, education, government, etc.  I do also believe that economic status is another factor that ties in with the willingness to learn English as a second language. In chapter three we see that English is seen as a dominant language and one that is associated with making money, having better paying jobs, which results in a higher overall income.

I liked how the chapter also went over how it was unconstitutional to place English as a Second Language learners or English Language Learners in classrooms that have teachers that only speak English. As a future bilingual teacher I have read about the negative affects that can contribute from situations such as these. It is important for there to be bilingual programs. It not only can benefit the ELL students but also any monolingual student can also learn a second language as well. Furthermore, it will make all students aware of the fact that there are other ways of speaking and although English is the dominant language, it will also make them aware that it is important to take other languages in account because eventually in their future they will come across paths with someone that does not speak their language.