To what extend is our job to make the materials more accessible to the students? To what extend is the students’ job to learn the materials trying hard?
The reason why I am asking these questions is that I have chatted with a technician, who has utilised some unconventional pedagogical methods.
I have talked to this technician, and he said that if the non-English speakers (mostly native Mandarin speakers in his case) do not understand his speech when he teaches the student about the operation of the machines, he would invite a student (who is good at both English and Mandarin) to act as the translator. While he teaches the class how to operate the machines, he would have the student to translate the sentences word by word for him.
My gut feeling is telling me that this is an immoral practice, but I want to know why.
Perhaps it makes more sense for him because he is a technician. Thus, he just wanted the student to understand how to operate the machines. It doesn’t matter what language they understand the materials in.
All the teaching materials I have are, at the moment, all in English. In this year, I have 130 students, and about 90 of them are native Mandarin speakers. However, the students in my class have to understand the materials in order to debate, to research, and to communicate (not just understanding as in acquiring a piece knowledge or skill). If I made the materials in their languages (I speak four languages), the materials are potentially made more accessible for them. Yet, I am thinking this is somehow wrong.
I also think that we should not just consider teaching in a goal-oriented way. So many factors come into the picture – for example, fairness, as an idea. Not having a student word-by-word translator in a class is also a way to showcase that the teachers are not privileging some groups of students. What if you have Japanese, Korean, or Thai speakers in the class as well? Do you have translator in each and every language?
People usually say that teaching in English is useful because we want to prepare the students for the English-speaking industry. However, what if a student is telling me he/she would never need to work in an English-speaking country? The teaching is not merely serving the purpose of employability. I also think ‘preparation for industry’ is not a correct way to look at this issue. We should not reduce teaching in a merely ‘utilitarian’ way.
I have not sure if I am at a position to tell the students that they have to understand the materials in English. Regarding languages, I really have a lot more questions to ask. For instance:
When we are dividing students into groups, should we purposefully make sure there are different speakers in each group (so basically there is more motive for the students to speak in English)?
I realise some students would write their essay in their own languages and then use Google Translate or other online translators to translate their essay in English for their submission. I think that this is wrong, but why?
This is also about social justice. If I allow the students to use Google Translate or ChatGPT, would the students be more engaged? Students from minority ethnic backgrounds or certain genders are at a higher risk of disengagement with their learning (Rogers, 2015, p. 19). Students who haven’t attained proficient levels are also more prone to experiencing frustration and disengagement in their learning journey (Rogers, 2015, p. 21).
However, if I allow my students to graduate from my course without having proficient English abilities, is this also damaging the students’ employability and create unfairness for students who put in the work of writing the essays actually in English?
Students using machine translation tools has been an ongoing for my course in the last two years. I have been teaching in my course for 4 years; and it’s very apparent that the essays written by my students this year are sounding much more professional and academics than recent years (despite the fact that their average ELITS scores are actually lower than recent years). Just by looking at the tones of their essays, I think it’s extremely likely that lots of my students are using some sort of machine translation tools or content creation tools. Thus, this research is of utmost urgency.
References:
Rogers, L. (2015). Disengagement from Education. London: Institute of Education Press.