Teaching English Toolbox

Anti-bias Education / Activism

What is justice? Example learner work recreated with Canva. ©PHZH (L. Buechel)

Minding our words and pictures

Why should we be careful of the pictures we show our learners? How can we counterbalance the compromises coursebooks make?
As teachers, if we want to respect the tenets of the curriculum, we have to be careful of the language we teach (is it inclusive?), the images we show our learners (do they only represent the world in a singular way or do they provide multiple perspectives?), the materials we work with (are our books promoting stereotypes or questioning them and addressing them?), the settings we encourage (are we getting away from “boys” do this and “girls” do that? Are we using open, adaptive projects?).

You might think about the following questions:

  • How can English language teaching reflect the values we want to see in an open and tolerant society, which is also mentioned as a core aim of education in the local curriculum?
  • How can the materials we use in English language lessons reflect the diverse society we live in and the behaviors we want our learners to demonstrate towards one another?
  • What is the role of using materials that provide rich or what some might consider provocative input to learners? For example, how can older units on "my family" be replaced with more realistic examples of families (e.g. see Elise Gravel's All Kinds of Families).

This topic is so complex, it is hard to know where to start, so we start simply, and hope that you, dear user, will fly with the ideas and go further!

Thinking about the images

This text will provide you with some ideas for working with images: Through the anti-bias looking glass: the messages we send our learners in (primary) ELT) (Buechel, L. (2022). Through the Anti-Bias Looking Glass: The Messages We Send Our Learners in (Primary) ELT. English in Primary Education: Concepts, Research, Practice. University of Bamberg Press.

Think about using recent pictures in your teaching. If you are not sure if the language you are thinking of using with these pictures, you can check the level here https://www.englishprofile.org or the Cathoven Language Hub. ChatGPT does not always analyze text correctly (per test on 18.08.2023).

Use Inclusive Language

Blackboard support. ©PHZH (L. Buechel)

  

The English language is luckily one of the easier ones to know for support inclusion! There doesn't have to be a "man" or a "woman" at the end of a word ("mail carrier" works much better than "mailman" or "mailwoman" if you don't know the person)! There is the singular form of 'they'! And it's easy enough to turn "mom" into "moms" and "dad" into "dads" or use the word "parents". We often teach pronouns in the first year of English and it is important to get learners used to the idea that you can say "they are" if you are not sure of someone's gender or if they have explicitly stated that they would like to be referred to by their name and 'they'. Here are a few tips from some recent lessons, and more info is being developed:

  • Choose names like "Quinn" or "Pat" where it is NOT clear and do call-response drills such as "Quinn is a boy - Quinn is eating" and the kids say "He is eating". Then you can play around with getting them used to the structure, e.g. "You don't know if Quinn is a boy or girl and Quinn is eating"..."They are eating!!".
  • When playing games such as "find out who" with post-its on foreheads for famous people, have learners ask "Are they a movie star?" "Are they a singer?" Like this, the structure becomes comfortable.
  • Do not FORCE gender in activities such as "he is wearing a hat" when the focus is on describing things, focus on the other things, clothing, activities, etc.... and less on gender.

These are just a few tips to get you started -This book is useful: Bongiovanni, A., & Jimerson, T. (2018). A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns (Vol. 12). Limerence Press.

Professions are often a common topic in EFL. Here are a few tips about these:

  • Make sure the professions you want your learners to focus on are general (libriarian or health care worker or mail carrier or server, etc....);
  • Make sure your model sentences BREAK the mold - e.g. "That architect is super! She did a great job" or "That construction worker really fixed our house. She was awesome" or "That ballet dancer was amazing - he was fantastic!"
  • Lists of names of professions are not so useful in general (semantic lists) - think about, on a unit on professions, focusing on verbs and duties and less on the profession names because these learners will learn when it's necessary. The verbs are more useful!

You might think about the following questions:

  • The English language is more complex than many believe and is contstantly changing. Yet textbooks are produced that do not reflect these changes. Should a primary school English language teacher keep up with these changes?
  • Should any of the following examples be integrated into English language lessons?
    • Inclusive gender: If you are not sure of a person's gender, you can ask them or refer to "him" or "her" in the plural or with other, more-specific pronouns; In English, you would say "A great teacher is a wonderful thing to have / Great teachers are wonderful things to have. They are so important" instead of "S/he is so important". Is this something to teach in the 6th grade? Keep in mind that the singular use of "they" originated in the 14th century, it is nothing new and it is unclear as to why it has not been in books from the start.
    • Getting away from "native speaker norms": The use of the present perfect has decreased significantly over the past 30 years, Should it still be taught? If more people say "informationS" than "information", why shouldn't it be acceptable.
    • Native speakers nowadays use "by" foot intead of "on foot" or do not use "fewer" and overuse "less" - should we change what we see in the books based on how we hear native speakers actually use the target language?
    • Tips for German speakers: Remember that the word 'child' is referred to as he/she/or they in English and not as 'it'. 'It' dehumanizes. How can you remember this?
  • The Lingua Franca Core provides us with examples of language that is important (the use of the present progressive vs. present simple) and language that is not important (present perfect vs. past simple) when two non-native speakers communicate - how can we focus on the important aspects in our primary school teaching because inclusion would be mastering what is important, not what is native-like?
  • Often textbooks start by teaching "Have you got?" yet "Do you have" is just as frequently used around the world and the structure of "do you" transfers to most other verbs. How can books and activities be redesigned to be less culture/variety-specific and more general?

Take an activity from the coursebook you are using where there are people involved and plan out how the singular "they/them" can be integrated or how professions can be taught inclusively! 

Black Lives Matter Project 2020

©PHZH (L. Buechel)

This was a 6 week project carried out in 2020 and materials and images for this unit can be found here. One highlight of this unit was learning about different activists. Learners were provided with some basic information and had to read the role play out loud and insert information about their selected person. 

You might ask yourselves these questions about this project:

  • If you provide learners with basic frames and have them add information and read out loud, do they learn anything?
  • Does reading out loud correlate with comprehension?
  • Does such a topic belong in schools outside the US?
  • What else would you do to address the topic should you decide it is a worthy one?