Page 270 - Beyond Methods

258 Ensuring social relevance
ports on Chinese politics. Without espousing any particular point of view himself, and under the guise of offering criticism of the Western bias, stu- dents were covertly led to comprehend alternative points of view.”
What follows from the above discussion is that language teach- ers, if they are serious about ensuring social relevance in the class- room, can ill afford to ignore the sociopolitical and sociocultural reality that influences identity formation in the classroom nor can they afford to separate the linguistic needs of learners from their so- cial needs. In other words, they can hardly satisfy their pedagogic obligations without at the same time satisfying their social obliga- tions. In fulfilling these obligations, they will have to reconcile two apparently opposing tendencies: on the one hand, knowledge of a standard variety, however it is defined in a particular context, is es- sential for personal growth as well as professional opportunities; on the other hand, respect for and recognition of the home languages that learners bring to the class can only enhance their chances of developing linguistic and communicative competence in their L2. Keeping all this in mind, let us now turn to sample microstrategies that might help teachers ensure social relevance in their classroom. See also microstrategies in other chapters (e.g., chapters 7 and 10) that deal with sociopolitical relevance.
Microstrategies for Ensuring Social Relevance
As always, modify the following microstrategies to suit the profi- ciency level of your students. You might also wish to delete or add to the activities that constitute these microstrategies.
Microstrategy 11.1. Una Coca Cola por favor
11.1.0 As an L2 teacher, you might have noticed that learners, at least in private conversations, engage in what is called code mixing, that is, mixing features of L1 and L2, sometimes resulting in humorous sit- uations. Try to pay attention and collect true stories that you can later use for a classroom activity. You can also collect such stories from stu- dents, newspapers, or Internet chat rooms. Here’s one such example: