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think TESOL Islamia is a very significant site, and particularly
within the current global order. Although it is described
as being for 'Muslim teachers and learners of English',
I think there are many others (non-Muslims and non-English-teachers/learners)
who can benefit greatly from the work and discussions
here. In my view, English and Islam are far more than
just 'a language' and 'a religion': they are massive and
complex mobilizations of cultures, worldviews, politics
and economics. We need to understand how these work together.
And since English has for so long been tied up with Christianity,
it is crucial that we explore other configurations of
teaching and learning in relationship to this dangerous
language. |
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Alastair Pennycook
Professor of Language in Education
Director of the Centre for Language and Literacy
Faculty of Education
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia |
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dominant forces behind globalisation create unethical
and artificial polarisations and hierarchies of languages
and religions. To counteract this asymmetrical world (dis-)order,
TESOL Islamia can play a significant role in challenging
inequitable and unsound essentialisms and fundamentalisms
in the professional field of teaching and learning English.
English as a global and local language will only serve
the interests of people with different beliefs, languages
and cultures if English promotes the maintenance of the
human diversities on which the future of the planet depends.
This is a two-way process in which we all have to learn
from each other. |
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Robert Phillipson
Research Professor
Department of English
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark |
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I am impressed with the strides TESOL Islamia has been
making in developing a local knowledge on applied linguistics
and language teaching. With the globalization of English
and the death of the native speaker concept, we are in
the cusp of a paradigm change in English language teaching.
We are beginning to relate to English as a hybrid language,
characterized by the diverse norms and conventions of
the communities that use them. As a result, we are also
beginning to teach English language by foregrounding the
local functions and values of the language, and adopting
the pedagogical practices that have worked best locally.
Having prioritized "native speaker" norms and
pedagogical approaches from the academic, research, and
publishing institutions in the West, we are now beginning
to "discover" and develop the linguistic and
pedagogical practices that matter to the local communities.
TESOL Islamia is fostering a dialogue on these issues
among regional and international scholars. By bringing
together relevant publications, Internet resources, and
personal narratives on English in the region, the forum
inspires local teachers and scholars to develop the resources
for a creative and critical language teaching. Scholars
from other regions can borrow examples here for tackling
similar challenges they face in their own communities—as
I always do when I visit TESOL Islamia. |
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A. Suresh Canagarajah
Associate Professor in English
Department of English
City University of New York
(Baurch College), USA
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I think
TESOL ISLAMIA is an extremely important site for Africanists
interested in exploring the nature of the relationships
between religion, African languages and English in a global
order whose full social and political consequences for
Africa have not been subjected to systematic analysis
in applied linguistics in Africa. |
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Sinfree Makoni
Associate Professor in Linguistics and
Applied Linguistics and African and
African American Studies
Pennsylvania State University, USA |
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TESOL Islamia was destined to be. TESOL has long considered
cross-cultural issues but rarely paid heed to the apparent,
or perceived, compromise of religious values. If we listen
to the millions of English speaking Muslims around the
world we can hear that their English is Muslim. The sensitive
TESOL educator can inspire confidence in Muslim learners
and give English a 'mood' that is more inclusive, more
relaxed, and even more joyful than the norm. As a vehicle
for resources about the Islamic worldview and English
language teaching, TESOL Islamia creates a learning environment
that will impact heavily on the assumptions of both Muslim
and non-Muslim. This is sorely needed in our troubled
world today. |
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Dr Fiona E Hill
Director
Almanar Consultancy
Victoria, Australia
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I was recently introduced to TESOL Islamia by a colleague
from down under. Ever since, I find myself surfing its
pages on a regular basis. With its well-conceived, well-organized
and well-edited materials ranging from opinion columns
to practical suggestions to professional articles, TESOL
Islamia is effectively fulfilling its lofty mission and
goals. It is well-known by now that English as a global
language, with its colonial projects of the past and its
neocolonial tendencies of the present, poses a serious
threat to the linguistic, cultural and religious identities
of millions of people all over the world. The threat comes
not just from the process of marginalization followed
by center thinkers who render local knowledge invisible
and inaccessible thereby making the periphery communities
continue to depend on the center for learning and teaching
English around the globe. Sadly, it also comes from the
practice of self-marginalization practiced by non-native
program administrators, teacher educators and practicing
teachers who, knowingly or unknowingly, legitimize the
characteristics of inferiority attributed to them by the
dominating group. In this context, it is heartening to
note that TESOL Islamia has made a good start in creating
the necessary awareness among the English language learners
and users around the world (not just in the Islamic world)
that the Western language can indeed be used for communicating
social, cultural, religious and literary nuances that
are completely alien to the Western traditions. I hope,
sooner or later, sooner than later, such awareness will
result in a concerted and coordinated action that can
truly shift the ELT power structure to subaltern agency.
I wish the organizers and contributors of TESOL Islamia
success in all their good endeavours. |
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B. Kumaravadivelu
Professor
Department of Linguistics and
Language Development
San Jose State University, California, USA |
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The TEFL/TESL profession (discipline?), though relatively
recent, has been established and developed according to
the dictates of mainly those who have been behind its
establishment. For a long time, the Muslim World has generally
been a mere consumer in terms of materials, teachers and
curricula. Although only recently formed, TESOL Islamia
has been been successful in bringing into question a lot
of the key issues in ESL/EFL including fundamental tenets,
practices in the Muslim world, biases in teaching materials,
qualifications of those teaching in the field in the Muslim
world and important theoretical issues related to linguistic
imperialism, linguistic rights and alienation. TESOL Islamia
has also been successful in bringing to the fore some
serious issues in the field of EFL/ESL that have always
been either marginalized or completely neglected such
as the widespread bigotry, biases, stereotypes, and malpractice
prevalent in the Muslim World. More importantly, TESOL
Islamia has also been trying to create awareness of the
impact of EFL/ESL instruction on native languages and
on fundamental Islamic values. TESOL Islamia has also
successfully uncovered some of dubious language teaching
policies in the Arab/Muslim world and their impact on
the identity of the learner and the national integrity
of the country. Finally, TESOL Islamia has given due space
to the outstanding work of such renowned researchers as
Robert Phillipson and Alastair Pennycook whose academic
integrity and respectable scholarship in the field we
are indebted to. I wish TESOL Islamia every success. |
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Muhammad Raji Zughoul
Professor of English And Applied Linguistics
Department of English
Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan |
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