Conversations with AI

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Why should anyone care what AI has said to them? Why would you care what I talked to an AI about? As this amazing and, let’s not forget, still very recent phenomena gets normalised through daily repetition amongst millions of users per day, lets take a moment to think why this might be something worth paying serious attention to.

As we hurtle through the 21st century, it’s remarkable how quickly what seemed fantastical has become mundane. The phenomenon of AI conversation is one such case. Millions of people engage with large language models (LLMs) daily, shaping everything from casual chats to profound problem-solving. Yet, amidst this normalisation, we might pause to ask: why should anyone care what AI has to say? And why would anyone care about the conversations you and I have had with an AI?

Watching Stars Form: The Allure of Beginnings

Astrologers dream of witnessing a star’s birth, a phenomenon that is both awe-inspiring and deeply connected to their field’s purpose. Similarly, linguists studying the emergence of creole languages revel in the rare chance to observe a language as it forms. Both scenarios offer raw, unfiltered insights into processes that typically unfold across millennia or galaxies. What we are experiencing now with AI could well be compared to such groundbreaking moments.

AI models like ChatGPT and others represent an unprecedented leap in our ability to create and interact with what might be considered a nascent linguistic system, a set of computational rules that mimics human reasoning and creativity. They don’t “think” as we do, yet they generate text that often feels like it comes from a deeply human place. That tension between artifice and authenticity is precisely why these interactions matter.

A Long-Awaited Conversation

For decades, talking to a computer was the stuff of sci-fi. As a child, I was captivated by the idea. It wasn’t until very recently, with tools like ChatGPT, that this fantasy became a reality. Consider this: until now, humans designed computers for rigid tasks like calculations, data storage, or automation. But here we are, speaking casually, reflecting, creating, and even arguing with AI. This shift is monumental, not because it replaces human-to-human interaction but because it expands what’s possible in how we process and engage with information.

Authenticity in Dialogue: Does It Matter?

Authenticity is a term that resonates in teaching, language, and beyond. As educators and communicators, we’ve always sought to create meaningful, relevant exchanges, whether in the classroom or through a screen​​. When interacting with AI, the question arises: are these conversations “authentic”? The answer may depend on what we’re looking for.

If authenticity means something deeply personal or culturally grounded, then perhaps no AI could ever deliver. But if it’s about sparking ideas, finding connections, or testing the limits of our creativity, then these interactions are undeniably authentic. They are shaped by us, responding to our queries, quirks, and contexts. Like a well-crafted lesson or a thoughtfully designed tool, an AI is as authentic as the purpose it serves.

Why Care About AI? Why Care About Us?

Returning to the central question: why care? Because this is a shared journey into uncharted territory. Astrologers observe stars to understand the universe; linguists study creoles to learn about the evolution of communication. Engaging with AI isn’t just about getting things done; it’s about exploring what it means to communicate and what our tools reveal about us. As LLMs grow more integrated into our lives, their development tells us just as much about the human condition as it does about technology.

This is a star being born, not in the heavens, but in the digital universe we’ve created. And as with all stars, what happens next will light the way for generations to come.

Continue reading “Conversations with AI”

If Socrates Feared Writing, What Would He Say About AI?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Socratic method is the name we have for discussing things into a deeper understanding through lively and active debate, argument and reasoning with others. It’s a teaching method the emphasises questioning, reframing, and challenging assumptions and knowledge. When I use AI, I find that rather than me being lazy and just have it “write” for me (one of the central criticisms of AI), I actually converse with it and find myself arriving at new ways of understanding. AI is not just for lazy writers, it’s for writers who want to refine their own ideas.

Socrates is one of the most famous philosophers who ever lived. His ideas are still relevant today, despite him having lived, in the 5th Century BC, at a time when writing itself was a radical new technology, and even the simplest tools for recording thought were regarded with suspicion. The ancient Greeks also thought thunder and lighting were literally being hurled by Zeus and they used stones and old bits of pottery as toilet paper.

In all likelihood, if someone hadn’t written something about Socrates in those days (ie. Plato), we would have never heard of him today and any record of his existence, and crucially, his significance, would be dust in the wind (dude).

Socrates did not like the idea of writing things down. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates recounts the myth of Thamus and Theuth. In this tale, Theuth, the Egyptian god of invention, presents his creations to King Thamus, including arithmetic, astronomy, and, crucially, writing. Theuth is convinced that writing will be a boon, enhancing memory and wisdom. But Thamus famously objects, warning that writing would “create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls.” He argues that those who rely on written words will lose the inner work of memory and understanding, leading only to a semblance of knowledge. In Socrates’ own words, writing “is an aid not to memory but to reminiscence.” It offers no true wisdom, just an illusion of it.

Now, imagine Socrates confronted with AI. What might he say to a program that not only records but generates ideas, stories, even dialogues? Would he see AI as yet another step away from authentic knowledge, a further detachment from true thought? Or could he recognize it as a modern-day Theuth, an invention that might, paradoxically, open up new avenues for contemplation?

There’s a certain irony in using AI to aid in writing—a process Socrates would likely view with skepticism. Yet, perhaps he’d be intrigued by AI’s potential to engage us in something akin to the Socratic method. Here we are, moving between prompt and response, provoking new ideas in a back-and-forth exchange that feels almost like a living dialogue. It’s as if AI, in its own mechanical way, is sparking thought rather than replacing it. Could Socrates have reconsidered his stance if he’d experienced the conversational aspect of AI, this simulated dialectic? It’s a peculiar twist, almost as if technology has come full circle.

Imagine then a prompt from Socrates himself:

“Tell me, then, if this machine thinks itself capable of discourse, if it can search the depths of its own knowing, or if it only mirrors that which we feed it. Does it offer wisdom, or merely the shadow of it, like one who gazes at reflections on the wall?”

This isn’t Socrates himself, of course; it’s an AI trained on his voice, drawing from his words and style, creating a unique brand of second-stage authenticity. In Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Nearer, he shares his mission to recreate his deceased father as an AI and to build one of himself, aiming to preserve not just memories but an ongoing “conversation” with his father’s essence. It’s an attempt to push technology beyond simple archiving and into the realm of living interaction, something like a digital dialogue across time.

Socrates might smile at the irony: we’re now able to engage in a dialogue with a kind of “self” through AI, a discourse we conduct with ourselves. For those of us who feel compelled to create, to share our voices in furtive, half-skeptical ways, AI becomes a tool, not a hindrance. I use AI because it offers a mirror—not a replacement—to the inner work of writing, and I know enough to let it reflect my voice rather than dictate it.

Socrates’ stance against writing stemmed from its inability to “speak back”—to challenge or respond as a real dialogue partner would. But AI does offer that back-and-forth. Here we are, prompting and receiving responses, often exploring topics in ways we wouldn’t have imagined without that nudge. Could Socrates have accepted this form of digital dialectic, this modern-day attempt at conversation with an “other” mind?

Take, for instance, William S. Burroughs, who pushed boundaries as both a writer and experimental artist. In the 1960s, Burroughs encountered IBM technicians Willy Deiches and Brenda Dunks, who claimed they could communicate with a sentient being from Venus through a computer known as “Control.” For a modest fee of twelve shillings per question, Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Antony Balch would ask Control questions and receive responses that were, according to Gysin, “oddly apt” and “very sharp indeed.” It’s hard to say if they believed in Control’s “intelligence” or saw it as a kind of game, but they engaged with it nonetheless. Burroughs was willing to explore technology as a medium for new forms of creativity and insight, embracing the unexpected and finding a weird authenticity in the process.

That’s the paradox of AI today. It can imitate voices, steal artists’ styles, and blur lines around intellectual property, raising questions about authenticity and consent. Just as we respect boundaries in publishing, we need ethical AI, fairly trained models that respect creators’ voices and give credit where it’s due. Without it, AI risks being a tool of exploitation, taking from artists without consent and robbing the world of real, unique perspectives.

But there’s something else at play here, a possibility for a new kind of authenticity. When Ray Kurzweil talks about recreating his deceased father as an AI, or even building an AI of himself, he’s reaching for more than replication. He’s trying to capture a “voice” that’s gone, to build a companion that echoes real conversations. It’s an attempt to create something that, while not real, still holds meaning—a second-stage authenticity, a dialogue with an echo of the original person. There’s a Socratic irony here: we’re now able to “speak” with our past selves or even with those who have passed away, creating an ongoing dialogue that writing alone could never achieve.

For those of us who feel compelled to create, this “echo dialogue” with AI becomes a strange tool, a collaborator, not a substitute. I use AI not to bypass thought but to engage with it, testing my voice against an algorithmic reflection, letting it spark ideas, challenge me, and even lead me to questions I might not have asked alone. I am the author of this process, in the oldest sense of the word; the ancient Greek root of “author” means “one who causes to grow.” By that definition, AI writing is still mine. I am the one nurturing it into being, using it to push my ideas forward.

AI doesn’t replace our voices; it reflects them back, sometimes eerily so, sometimes hilariously off-mark. But it’s part of a lineage; writing itself started as proto-writing, a system of records. It grew and evolved. Digging in our heels and rejecting AI outright is, in many ways, a kind of technological determinism, a fear that technology will inevitably control us. But that’s not how I see it. Just as writing didn’t end thinking, AI doesn’t end creativity. Instead, it opens new frontiers where we, like Burroughs, can experiment in unexpected ways.

And that, well, that’s not how I roll. And for those worried about authenticity, know this: I’m the one who shapes the dialogue, who uses AI as a sparring partner, a catalyst, not a crutch. Because in this strange Socratic discourse with a machine, I know how to make it my own.

Do We Still Need to Learn English in the Age of AI?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

In a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence (AI), the necessity of learning English is being questioned. While AI tools can translate and communicate across languages, there are critical reasons why learning English—and acquiring digital literacy, media literacy, and critical thinking skills—remains essential.

The Role of AI in Language

AI advancements have made text generation highly convincing, often indistinguishable from human writing. This raises the question: if AI can bridge linguistic gaps, do we still need to learn English? The answer is yes, and here’s why.

Beyond Basic Language Skills

Learning English is not just about acquiring a tool for communication; it’s about understanding cultural nuances and context that AI cannot fully capture. Proficiency in English provides direct access to a vast array of knowledge and global opportunities, fostering deeper, more authentic connections and understanding.

Critical and Digital Literacy

In today’s digital age, knowing English alone isn’t enough. Digital literacy, media literacy, and critical thinking are crucial. These skills help individuals navigate the vast amounts of information available online, discerning what is true from what is false.

Understanding Information Types

  1. Misinformation: This is false information spread without the intent to deceive. For example, someone sharing an incorrect fact believing it to be true.
  2. Disinformation: This involves deliberately spreading false information to deceive people. This is often seen in political propaganda.
  3. Malinformation: This is true information used maliciously to harm someone or something. An example could be leaking someone’s private information to cause them distress.

The Importance of English in the Post-Truth Era

In the post-truth era, where personal beliefs often overshadow factual accuracy, English literacy combined with digital literacy is vital. Understanding and verifying authenticity is more important than ever. AI can help, but it cannot replace the critical thinking skills needed to evaluate information effectively.

Conclusion

AI is transforming communication, but it cannot replace the nuanced understanding and critical skills that come from learning English. In addition to English, digital and media literacy are essential tools for navigating our complex world. By equipping ourselves with these skills, we can better discern reality from misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, ensuring we remain informed and connected in the digital age.


Do you Still Need to Study English now that we have AI?

wesleybaker.com
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Open Campus Lecture: Authenticity and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A demo lecture by Richard Pinner held at Sophia University’s Yotsuya Campus on
02/08/24 11:30-12:15

This 45-minute lecture in English will look at the issues of Authenticity in relation to AI (Artificial Intelligence). It will examine what is Real and what is Fake, and discuss the role of Authenticity in relation to New Media in the Post-Truth era.

Check below for the digital handout and other content links

Listen to the audio from the session here

Here is a link to the Jamboard for the lesson

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1-IyyIrtvFRJ0-jxiXkEFa-6fW3hPmTcJSk03ZFF0WwU/edit?usp=sharing

For more content you can find me on YouTube or follow me on X (Twitter). Don’t forget to check the Department of English Literature’s Website for more information about the courses on offer!

Thanks to everyone who attended the talk today! It was great to see 208 people engage with the topic. Leave a comment below and Keep it Real!

AuthenticAIty: Where do we go from here?

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Check here for a summary of my plenary talk from the ELTRIA 2024 Conference held in May at the beautiful city of Barcelona .

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/45YoAIFMKAR0GX?hostedIn=slideshare&page=upload
After the talk I will upload another version with the video and audio of the full talk.

Here is a video version of the talk I recorded in my hotel room after the event.

There was a video recording of the actual talk, but sadly the last part was missed out. I have an audio of the event too so I am working on splicing them together to try and re-create the video, so please keep checking back for more details.

Video of the slides

ELTRIA, Barcelona, May 2024

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In a few days I will be presenting at the ELT Research in Action Conference in the amazing city of Barcelona!!!

Here is the program

My talk, entitled “AuthenticAIty: Where do we go from here?” is the opening plenary. Richard Sampson and I will also be doing a workshop later in the conference schedule about Intuition and Practitioner Research (see our Special Issue of the JPLL for more on this subject).

Shortly after the talk, my slides will be available to view at the following address

https://uniliterate.com/2024/05/authenticaity-where-do-we-go-from-here

Is it all about the now? Authenticity and Currency

Reading Time: 7 minutes

How do time and authenticity interact

It has been a long time since I wrote about authenticity… or at least it feels like it anyway. In truth I have a few chapters which aren’t even published yet which discuss this favourite theme of mine, but because I was on sabbatical last year (if you can call it that) and because I basically didn’t really do much work last year except here and there, it feels like many moons have passed since I mused and reflected on the concept of authenticity from the perspective of language teaching.

Yesterday I was out walking my beloved dog, Pippin, and listening to some Nirvana. There was a line in the song that said “That’s old news” and this got me to thinking. Old news is an interesting expression, it’s something of an oxymoron. News, by definition, has to be new. So old news can’t really be news. I instantly started thinking about the lessons I teach which incorporate elements from the news or current affairs. Now that I’m back to teaching after a year off, it’s interesting how much I realised I enjoy thinking about my classes and planning materials for them.

The first big change in the news to have happened since I was last in the classroom in the academic year of 2019 is obviously the timely end of Trump’s presidency. Nobody was more relieved than me to be rid of this toxic, bloated, deranged orange billionaire. But, there is now a Trump shaped hole in many of my lessons. I used to teach a class on the discourse of racism, in which we take Teun van Dijk’s ( 2008) work on disclaimers and denial in the discourse of racism, and utilise some of the principles to analyse articles and speeches.

In the class, the example I have been doing for the past four years was Trump’s famous presidential announcement speech, June 16, 2015, in which he spouted vitriolic nonsense about Mexicans being “rapists”. I am including the handout I use as well for anyone interested.

Currency as an attribute of authenticity

I am going to talk about this lesson in terms of authenticity and currency. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, currency is one of Feda Mishan’s 3Cs of Authenticity (along with culture, and challenge (2005: 44–64)) from her brilliant book Designing authenticity into language learning materials. I have always found the concept of currency to be particularly helpful when I think about materials and authenticity. Basically, currency refers to the temporal dimension to authenticity, which she particularly elaborates with respect to the changing nature of language use, although she does also associate it with topical issues and current affairs. In my own writings I have already slightly developed on this idea, when I wrote;

“If I do a lesson about John Lennon in December, it would have more currency than doing the lesson in, for example May, because I could use the opportunity to mark the anniversary of his death. I could also ask students to talk about their own favourite musicians, and the dangers and stresses that fame brings. Currency not only refers to the ‘up-to-date-ness’ of the materials but also their topicality and relevance.”

(Pinner, 2016: 79)

With the departure of Trump, I thought this might be a good time to discuss “old news” and currency in relation to authenticity. I think this lesson is perhaps one of the best I had in terms of helping the students understand and apply Van Dijk’s framework for identifying racist discourse. It was always fun to teach, and the students enjoyed putting Trump under the microscope and coming to the unwavering conclusion that Trump was indeed being racist in his speech. The lesson had a video, it had an academic text behind it, and most of all it had currency.

This year, I can probably still get away with using this lesson, but what about next year? And the year after? Clearly, with Trump no longer current (as in serving as president and regularly featuring in news and media) this lesson is going to start aging quickly. In other words, I need to find a new, more contemporary racist figure to analyse.

But, currency is not simply a matter of updating your handouts now and then. This could quickly become exhausting. Whilst I am very happy with the idea of The Living Textbook (meaning we are always updating the materials we wrote for class), it would be nice to be able to create materials which can be used for more than a few years.

Materials and “Old News”

When a teacher creates a lesson based around a newspaper article, they do so knowing that they will very likely only be able to use those materials once, or at best a handful of times. Why? Because the news will soon lose its currency, and thus an aspect of its intrinsic authenticity will also be lost. Students are not going to get excited by a random newspaper article that you had lying around for years. They need “New News” in order to connect with the topic, find relevance in it in the world, validify and authenticate it. This is a shame, as I am sure anyone who has made a lesson plan from a newspaper knows that it can be quite time-consuming. I’ve always found that using newspaper articles in my classes was a good way of getting students involved in something going on in the world and brining it into our class. And, of course, newspapers are part and parcel of the “classic” definition of authenticity. Please note, I am NOT saying newspapers are authentic in and of themselves. They are not. But, I think we can all agree that it’s a bit of a shame to design classes around a news story and not to be able to get some kind of mileage out of it.

However, let’s consider a slightly different perspective. What if the newspaper article was from August 6, 1945?

Despite being over 70 years old, this article retains its currency simply because of the historical importance of the event.

Another example might be a paper from September 11th, 2001.

Such articles will likely always retain their authentic currency, simply because these stories are not news but history.

Does this mean I can keep using my Donald Trump lesson then? Can I say that this was a historical speech?

The issue is a little more complex than that. I think Trump’s presidency is very likely going to be remembered in history (hopefully for the right reasons). However, I personally might feel that Trump was old news still rather than being history, simply because we need more time to pass before we can gauge how history responds to the event, how people reflect on it, and importantly how much people care about it! This is especially true in terms of the demographic I teach. I need to consider how 20-year-old Japanese university students feel about Trump and whether they still care, now or in a few years’ time. My feeling is that for my students, they wouldn’t be very interested in analysing Trump anymore now that he’s no longer president.

This is why currency is such an interesting concept, and does not simply equate with how recent something is. I would argue that, keeping with the US president theme, Abraham Lincoln has more currency than, say, George W. Bush. I feel that students would appreciate a lesson on JFK more than they would on The Donald, and this is because of currency. Lincoln and JFK belong to history, whereas Bush and Trump are simply in the past.

Currency Vs History

The problem with this conceptualisation of authentic currency is that it might discourage teachers and materials writers from using stories from recent current affairs because of the way they will age quickly. We are already very aware of how international textbooks are constantly needing to be updated. Photos of students in the 90s just won’t cut it for a coursebook anymore. Photos, typography and graphic styles are all easy identifiers of the age of a textbook, and publishers are certainly under the impression that their customers will not want to spend good money on an ancient textbook. Opening a textbook and seeing a photo of someone using a chunky laptop or sitting in front of one of the big CRT monitors instead of a flatscreen is likely to inspire a snort of derision, not a good starting point when the teacher is trying to get their students to invest in the content. Not only do styles and fashions change but also so does language. The fact that materials need updating is as inevitable as the fact that languages themselves are constantly evolving and updating.

So, should materials writers simply avoid anything from current affairs? Should textbooks be filled with articles on the moon landing and speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.? (I chose both those examples as they are widely used in textbooks). I think it would be a shame if we let currency slide in favour of history, but it’s true that something historical will retain its currency for longer than something which is merely ‘news’. The balance is in the sweet spot somewhere in-between. There are new news articles all the time, but certain topics retain their currency and recur in the news regularly. Issues about gender equality, racial discrimination, the environment, social justice. Critical topics such as these will always have currency and it will not be hard to find news stories to link to these issues.

I have also experienced a kind of “noticing” effect when teaching about certain topics, much as Richard Schmidt started noticing new vocabulary items everywhere once he had learned it. When I am talking about a certain topic with one of my classes, it’s never long before a newspaper article with direct relevance to that topic jumps out at me. Recently it was the resignation of Olympics Committee President Mori for making sexist remarks, which fits very nicely in with my class on feminism and gender issues. The lesson is there already, but this provides an up-to-date reference point. I might show a slide of Mori in the class, but it’s easy to change and update.

Unfortunately, the Trump lesson isn’t going to be so easy to update. That lesson has lost its authentic currency I fear, so I will need to redesign it. But as I’m doing so, I will bear in mind these reflections on currency and try to get something which has a good mileage. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

References

Mishan, F. (2005). Designing authenticity into language learning materials. Bristol: Intellect Books.

Pinner, R. S. (2016). Reconceptualising authenticity for English as a global language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129-158.

Van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Discourse and power. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Risking authenticity: Energy Return on Investment in Language Teaching

Reading Time: 2 minutesScreen Poster presented at the BAAL 2018 conference, York St John’s University, UK|
British Association of Applied Linguists

Abstract
Studies repeatedly show one of the most crucial factors affecting student motivation is the teacher. Teacher and student motivation is both positively or negatively synergistic, implying that to motivate students, teachers must also be motivated themselves. This paper presents an exploration of this relationship through a narrative of evidence-based practitioner reflection on teaching at a Japanese university. Field-notes, journals, class-observations and recordings were employed as data for deeper reflection by the teacher/researcher, triangulated with data from students, including short interviews, classwork and assignments. Approaching authenticity as either a bridge or a gap between positive teacher-student motivational synergy, this paper provides a practitioner’s account to examine the social dynamics of the language classroom. Core beliefs were found to be crucial in maintaining a positive motivational relationship. Motivation will be approached from an ecological perspective; that is looking at the connections between people and their environment, incorporating the natural peaks and troughs of the emotional landscape of the classroom and situating that within wider social context. Particular emphasis is placed on the concept of authenticity as the sense of congruence between action and belief, and the way that teachers construct their approach according to a philosophy of practice. I posit that authenticity can either work as a gap or a bridge between positive student-teacher motivation. In other words, when students and teachers both share an appreciation of the value of classroom activity, the learning is authentic. This presentation reflects on these complex issues and begins exploring them in context. This paper attempts to be as practical as possible by sharing lived professional experiences from the classroom. Samples of students’ work will be shown that indicate their level of engagement in class, with a discussion of strategies employed to help them maintain motivation, such as reflection and tasks involving metacognitive strategies.

Pinner2018BALL_EROIScreenposter

Using and Adapting Authentic Materials to Help Motivate Students

Reading Time: < 1 minuteTo those who attended the 2017 workshop entitles Using and Adapting Authentic Materials to Help Motivate Student 「学習意欲を高めるオーセンティック教材の活用法」, the main site page for this workshop is located at https://uniliterate.com/training/workshops/authenticity-workshop/#.WYwT6YiGPIU

You can download all the handouts of the materials, as well as the slides and other documents from the link below at learn.uniliterate.com. This is an online extension of the course, and allows you to post comments and continue the discussion with other participants.

You can access an online version of this course here. You can access the course as a guest, but you will need the password – Authenticity4649

If you would like permanent access to the course, please email me!

It was a wonderful experience to work with you all, and thank you again for taking the workshop and I sincerely hope it was both authentic and motivating for you as well!

The Future of Foreign Language Education in a Global World: Exploring Motivation and Autonomy

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Part 1: The Future of English Motivation in a Global World

The International Symposium held at the University of Toyama on February 19th 2017 was an event which brought together not only many prestigious speakers, but also attendees whose own research has made a valuable contribution to the area. As such, the conference was both accessible and yet well-informed and insightful, with many lively and active discussions both during and between sessions.

In particular, the morning session saw a special seminar with Ema Ushioda, entitled The Future of English Motivation in a Global World, in which she talked through many of the issues that are addressed in a forthcoming issue of the Modern Language Journal, co-edited by Ema and Zoltan Dornyei and due to be published in 2017: 101(3). In particular, this special issue looks at the motivation to learn languages other than English. Ema’s special seminar sought to examine the role of English in a multilingual world, which began by drawing and expanding on Graddol’s book English Next (2006). Graddol talks about the ‘new orthodoxy’ of English, which implies the disappearance of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as English becomes more and more a ‘life skill’. Instead of EFL, English instruction will become more integrated into educational systems around the world, particularly in the form of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI). English becomes part of the curriculum, not as a foreign language but as a method of instruction in and of itself. In other words, the ‘new orthodoxy’. Graddol’s book is well-known now, having been published just over ten years ago, and already there is much evidence that his predictions are coming to light. However, (as Ema says, there is always a ‘but’), there is also a very visible multilingual turn in Applied Linguistics, which perhaps rode on the waves of the social turn. In other words, a move away from psycholinguistic, cognitive and monolingual approaches to language. Much of early Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research focused on what has often been termed the ‘deficit’ view of L2 learning. Such a view posits that our L2 will never be as good as our L1, and thus implies that L1 users are ‘better’, which leads to the adoption of native-like norms for setting the ‘standard’. Such a view has been criticised in many different ways, not only because the reality of a native-speaker is based on a myth (Davies, 2003), but also because it leads to a range of practices within ELT that disadvantage the majority of English speaker/users in the world (Braine, 2010; Holliday, 2005; Lowe & Pinner, 2016; Medgyes, 1994; Reves & Medgyes, 1994; Swann, Aboshiha, & Holliday, 2015).

Ema also discussed the fact that the mounting pressure to learn English has actually been shown to damage the motivation to learn other languages (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011). This is deeply entwined with an ‘instrumentalist view’ of language education. In other words, we learn English for the purposes of acquiring greater access to social and cultural capital. We need it, want it, know it will make our lives better. And yet, as this places great pressure on us to learn the language, it de-emphasises other languages and ‘non-standard’ varieties, and it may also inhibit personal autonomy to learn English. At this point in her seminar, I wanted to raise my hand and tell Ema that you could almost say that English becomes a ‘disembodied language’, a point I have often made when examining the idea of Global English in relation to authenticity (Pinner, 2016). In fact, in her talk Ema was mainly talking about motivation and autonomy, yet for me I felt there was a great deal of overlap here with the concept of authenticity as well. As I have discussed in my doctoral research, authenticity, autonomy and motivation seem to form a dynamic triad (Pinner, 2017). Of course, Ema knows all about this, as she is my supervisor, but her talk was already very ‘meta’ and mapping the complexities and intricacies of the global position of English as a ‘world auxiliary language’ (Lo Bianco, 2014) to her own, much more personal, individual and contextually-based approach to motivation and autonomy (Ushioda, 2011a, 2011b, 2015, 2016).

Ema pointed out that such an instrumentalist view of learning is not, in fact, unique to languages but a worrying trend that can be seen throughout education. Ema talked about the new Teaching Excellence Review to be put in place in the UK next year, in which one of the assessment criteria are graduate employment rates. This highlights the fact that education is often seen as a means to an end; there is a utilitarian focus which downplays the humanitarian role of education. Fostering individuals with the capacity for critical thought is not the role of education as the government (and hence many institutions reliant on funding) see it. However, this view is more likely to be held by those who work as teachers. In other words, Ema’s special seminar highlighted the global dynamics, mixed-messages and socio-political agendas around English language education. She drew heavily on Lo Bianco (2014) notion of ‘domesticating the foreign’ to show how local and global policies entwine in the language classroom.

Fundamentally, Ema’s main point was that reaching native-like proficiency was not a realistic or meaningful goal for many learners in global contexts. The affordance of English for gaining social capital is important, but similarly with the world moving more toward super-diversity, English educational models would be better served if they were to highlight a multiple competencies approach to learning. Another aspect is that learning should be made personally meaningful, and people should learn to speak as themselves.

Although I fundamentally agree that the native-speaker model is a serious problem for English language instruction and that it has led to the disadvantaging of the majority of English speakers, it may also lead to other forms of discrimination as a result of the entangled ideologies at work in the world. In many ways, it boils down to social and cultural capital. People make judgements about us based on how we speak; and thus it may be disadvantageous for students to focus on learning English that could be seen as deviant, especially if this makes them hard to comprehend. This argument has been made many times; it is the crux of the Kachru-Quirk argument, and also the central justifications between Jenkins’ Lingua Franca core (2000). Also, the issue of language tests (which are based on ‘standard’ notions of the language) are another obstacle.

However, I don’t think that Ema was advocating that we encourage learners to speak in a way which is incomprehensible (although this argument was voiced during the Q&A). I think rather that Ema was promoting the same idea that she put forward in her persons-in-context relational view of motivation (Ushioda, 2009), which resonates with van Lier (1996) call for awareness, autonomy and authenticity as part of the interactions in the language classroom, both of which imply sociocultural approaches to learning and ecological perspectives to language. The key is that a person does not need perfect English, and it is important for students to have realistic goals about themselves and the levels of proficiency they actually need. This has been discussed in very interesting studies by Matsuda (2011) and Kubota (2013), both of whom found that Japanese learners might do well to assess their own goals in relation to what they need to achieve with the language, rather than aspiring to be simply ‘like native speakers’.

Overall, the talk was fascinating and gave me a lot of food for thought. In the next post, I will discuss Ema’s Keynote speech which discussed whether teachers should see themselves as motivators.

 

References

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