24 Sept 2003, Issue 4

In Today's Email:

• British Education: "The Best You Can Be" or Hyperbole?
• Al Isra Wal Miraj - The Miraculous Night Journey
• Moral Integrity in the Native/Nonnative Speaker Divide
• Newswatch - Is Urdu the Language of Truth? (Daily Times, Pakistan, 19 September, 2003)
• New Articles - Copyright permission granted for 12 new articles

British Education: "The Best You Can Be" or Hyperbole?

It's that time of year, particularly in much of the developing world, when many private English-medium schools are aggressively promoting the merits of a British education. The classifieds seem to be replete with assurances of a 'British curriculum', 'British trained teachers', 'British native speakers', 'UK management', 'British standards', 'British exams' and so forth. One imagines how bewildering all this must be for ordinary non-English speaking parents. There almost  seems to be a suggestion in many of these advertisements that if children are not enrolled at a British school, they're almost certainly doomed to failure. And worst still, if they're at an Arabic or Urdu medium school, their opportunities for connecting with the wider world are severely limited, so some of these ads would seem to suggest.  At any rate, the magic and mystique around the 'British school' is certainly not about to wear off. British schools after all mean huge business for their owners and for British book suppliers. According to figures produced by the Department of Education and Employment (1998) British English language products are worth over 800 million pounds a year to the UK. Not surprisingly, mindful of British economic interests, the British Council would have us believe that

Quality standards for UK institutions are among the best in the world. Universities, colleges and schools continually have to prove that their courses meet strict criteria. Many other countries are now trying to follow the example of the UK...... In an increasingly globalised world economy, people need special skills and qualities to succeed. Employers want employees who can think effectively, creatively and for themselves. This is an essential part of the UK learning experience. Institutions use a variety of teaching and assessment methods to encourage independence, as well as mastery of the subject.

[British Council, http://www.educationuk.org, accessed on 21/08/2003]

But, are things really what they seem? Well, according to a report on international achievement in education published earlier this week by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Britain ranks an abysmal 21st out of the top 30 industrialised countries of the world. Korea and Japan are way ahead at the top of the table. The Evening Standard (London) writes 'Britain is now outstripped in achievement by countries including Korea, the Slovak Republic, Ireland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Greece'.

It bears emphasising that this week's revelation is by no means new information. According to the TIMSS study conducted in 1997, which also included developing  countries, out of the 41 countries that participated,  England came 25th and Scotland 29th for the performance of 13 year olds in maths. The news for science however was better for England which came 10th although Scotland ranked a disappointing 26th (Source: The Economist, 29th March, 1997). As expected, the TIMMS and OECD studies are not without their critics but what is clearly a consistent pattern in studies of this type is that pupils in East Asian and certain former communist countries repeatedly outperform pupils in the English speaking countries of the West - an uncomfortable fact that does not square with the British Council's view of the merits of British education.

Any thoughts on this sharp disparity of views are welcome? Please submit your comments on TESOL Islamia forum.

Related Articles:

UK Slides down Educational Scale
Times Educational Supplement
16 September, 2003

Lagging behind Korea, Greece and Ireland. British Schools Slide down International Table
Independent (Education)
17 September, 2003

Britain below Greece in School League
Evening Standard (London)
16 September, 2003

Al Isra Wal Miraj - The Miraculous Night Journey

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is of course the William Shakespeare of Italian literature. The Divine Comedy, his most celebrated work, is read by most school-aged children in Italy. In his influential book, Orientalism (1976:68) Edward Said argues that Dante's magnum opus is among one of the earliest (mis)representations of Islam and through which a very particular view of the Muslim world continues to prevail in the West. The vitriol towards Muslims and demonisation of Islam are vividly expressed in the Inferno. Dante's representations of Islam have since been prevalent in English literature. Indeed, as Lana Cable, Associate Professor of University at Albany (SUNY) notes

Theatrical representations of Islamic power were projected onto the early modern English stage at a time when expansion of the Ottoman empire threatened Christian rule in Europe. This contemporary political context fed the appetite among English theatergoers for a taste of what they took to define the exotic Orient: cruelty in battle, perverse eroticism in love, and imperial sensuousness in expressive style and consumption. Even heroes opposed to "the Turk", like Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine and Shakespeare's Othello, shared attributes of the early modern Islamic stereotype, demonizing Muslims as untrustworthy aliens.

But what is particularly curious about the Divine Comedy - Italy's most revered literary piece - is how despite its demonisation of all things Islamic, it is directly moulded on the beautiful narrative of the miraculous Night Journey - the Isra Wal Miraj. In an extended research study published in 1919 by Miguel Asin Palacios, a Spanish Catholic priest, striking parallels were drawn between the Divine Comedy and Prophetic accounts of the Night Journey. The 'similarities, far from superficial, pervade the entire text. Asin concluded that the Divine Comedy was not entirely an original work, as Dante had before him a ready made pattern based on Islamic writings on the after-life. With the publication of this work, Asin found himself in the eye of a storm, as nationalist Italians, the Roman Catholic clergy, and other European Christians could not reconcile themselves to the thought of their most cherished religious poem being based on non-Christian sources. Asin, however, faced up to his critics by enumerating the possible sources from which Dante could have obtained the salient features of Islamic eschatology.' (IndiaClub.com).

The narrative of Al Isra Wal Miraj offers an ideal opportunity to practise ESL language skills with Muslim students. If you can get hold of a copy of the Zenith Reading Series published by International Thompson Asia ELT (1997), there is an entire chapter in the Intermediate Level book devoted to Al Isra Wal Miraj (Chapter, 9 pp66-73).

To find out how you can purchase an English translation of the Al Isra Wal Miraj, please click here >>>
To purchase an audio narration of the Al Isra Wal Miraj, read by Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens), please click here >>>

Moral Integrity in the Native/Nonnative Speaker Divide:

The following somewhat disturbing 'Q and A' extract is posted on the Career Helpline page of the TEFL Professional Network website, an organisation which primarily serves as a resource for English language teaching jobs around the world:

Q. Why is every employer seeking a native speaker? Could you tell me if it is possible to find a job being an English teacher of Pakistani origin.

A. If employers state that they require a native-speaker, then it is advisable not to apply for these posts. It is a question of keeping your eye on what jobs are advertised and applying only for those for which you are qualified. We strongly advise both native and non-native speakers not to apply for jobs for which they are not qualified.

[Source: http://www.tefl.com/career_centre/helpline/?id=980689543]

What is staggering about TEFL Pro Network's official response is the absence of any sense of moral integrity. There was of course a time when putting up signs like 'Blacks need not apply' were thought of as being perfectly acceptable in mainstream society. This of course did not make them any less morally repulsive. One can imagine that African Americans of the day were pretty much expected to tolerate the situation and look elsewhere for work. In all frankness, it is precisely the same sort of crude pragmatism that TEFL Pro Network expects of those who fall on wrong side of the native/nonnative speaker divide. And in the meantime, the organisation is quite happy to profit from what it claims is the largest real-time ELT Job Internet database in the world.

There's also the very important unresolved issue of glossing over the fact that Pakistani English like Indian English is a variety of English in its own right inasmuch as Irish English, Black American English and South African English are. It is frankly appalling how TESOL and TEFL continue to display a form of institutionalised prejudice that has few parallels in other educational sectors. Curiously, Siddharth Srivastava writing this week in Khaleej Times reports on how there is an increasing demand for Indian teachers to teach in the United States to fill the shortage of instructors. He writes

And here too, educationists and school managements are looking to plug the gap by hiring from India. The reasons are the same that doctors and engineers are sought - Indians provide quality, are hardworking, prepared to work for much lower salaries, and their knowledge of English is good enough to teach American kids. According to George Noflin, principal at Greenwood High School, Mississippi, who was in India recently, "The quality of teachers in India is unbelievable." Noflin interviewed 85 teachers while he was here and hired three for his school.

By no means perfect, this would be almost unheard of in TESOL!

Newswatch:

New Academic Articles:

TESOL Islamia would like to take this opportunity of thanking the Islamic Academy (Cambridge, UK),  Macquarie University (Australia) and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) for granting copyright permission to publish the following articles on the TESOL Islamia website:

Muslim Education Quarterly, Islamic Academy, Cambridge, UK:

• ALI, H H M (2001) Personality Factors in Second Language Learning, in Muslim Education Quarterly, pp64-71, Vol. 18, No. 3
   
• ALI, H H M (2001) Islamic Correctness in Language Use, in Muslim Education Quarterly, pp45-59, Vol. 19, No. 1
    
• ASRAF, R M (1997) The Cultural Implications of Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, in Muslim Educational Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp4-19
   
• CASEWIT, S D (1985) Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Muslim Countries, in Muslim Education Quarterly, pp4-24, Vol.2, No.2, 1985
   
• MOHIDEEN H and ALI, M (2000) "Mind Your Language": An Islamic Perspective in Muslim Education Quarterly, pp49-54, Vol. 17, No. 2
   
• HADED, M S (1998) Focus on the Muslim Learner of English: The Communicative Approach and the Teacher's Role, in Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, p30-40
   
• HAJA MOHIDEED bin MOH'D ALI (1999) Second Language Teaching and Learning from an Islamic Perspective in Muslim Educational Quarterly, pp47-54, Vol. 16, No. 2
   
• HAMAD, A (1999) The Problem of Culture in Language Teaching, in Muslim Education Quarterly, pp37-46, Vol. 16, No. 2
   
• SHAH, M I b A (2000) An Approach to the Islamisation of the Teaching of English: Teaching Islamic Literature in the English Language Classroom, in Muslim Education Quarterly Vol. 18, Part 1 p22-32
   
• SIMMONS, C (1994) A Comparative Study of English and Muslim Adolescent Values, in Muslim Education Quarterly, pp16, Vol. 12, No.1
  
  
  Prospect, Macquarie University, Australia:
   
• RIDA, A & MILTON, M (2001) 'The Non-Joiners: Why Migrant Muslim Women Aren't Accessing English Language Classes', in Prospect. Vol. 16 No. 1 April 2001, pp35-48
   

ITL Review of Applied Linguistics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium:

• HAGGAN, M (1998) Islam and Learning English: The Approach-Avoidance Dimension in ITL Review of Applied Linguistics, 121-122 (1998), 85-120, Departement Linguïstiek, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium