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ERIC Number: EJ867870
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jun
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0039-8322
EISSN: N/A
Is a Fuller Relinguification of TESOL Desirable?
Fishman, Joshua A.
TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect, v43 n2 p313-317 Jun 2009
The author well remembers the First TESOL War (TW1), in the 1950s, a "war" personified by an obvious altercation between Professors Rudy Troike and Jim Alatis, as to whether TESOL was good or bad for bilingual education. It was imperfectly resolved, for the time being, at least, by the National Association for Bilingual Education's (NABE's) relative weakness, on the one hand, and by TESOL's declaration that it was in favor of fostering both the mastery of English and of their other-than-English home language on the part of the pupils taught by its members. Whether TESOL ever kept its promise or even made a promise in the latter connection (or whether it was merely a tactical concession to begin with) has never been formally or fully evaluated. A question now arises as to whether a Second TESOL War (TW2) is or will be required, a civil war in this case, in order to satisfy the unmet aspirations of some of the members of its special interest groups (teachers of Spanish, teachers of Japanese, teachers of speakers of other than English home or world languages) as to whether their concerns can better be addressed by TESOL than were the concerns of their NABE counterparts some half a century ago. The exact nature of the interest-section goals of teachers of languages other than English within TESOL need to be explored and opened to public debate, both pro and con. This article may be considered a preemptive strike on behalf of a peaceful but a more genuine solution to the "other" language concerns of TESOL members who are also teachers of languages other than English. A few of these concerns and some recommendations concerning their possible amelioration are briefly sketched in this article as examples of problems and possibilities in this connection.
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 700 South Washington Street Suite 200, Alexandria, VA 22314. Tel: 888-547-3369; Tel: 703-836-0774; Fax: 703-836-7864; Fax: 703-836-6447; e-mail: info@tesol.org; Web site: http://www.tesol.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A