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Editorial
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Critical Literacy:
An indispensable, but missing, ingredient in Thai
Education
Snea Thinsan, Language Education,
School of Education, Indiana
University,
U.S.A.
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Thailand is one of the
nicest places in the world in which to live, but it is not a place with
the least social and other problems. In fact, it is like a volcanic
beautiful mountain surrounded by breathtaking beaches!
If you look at the trends of the many problems in the Thai society and
how the young people are behaving nowadays, you will agree that certain
things need to be done, especially with the education system. In
particular, now that
the world is becoming smaller, it is mandatory that Thais be critically
literate in English, the language of power and for power. I will point
out some serious problems and the worrying trends in the Thai society and
propose a promotion of critical literacy (CL) in English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) teaching.
Problems
Inside/ Local
While Thailand has
attracted millions of visitors annually and has enjoyed the influx of
foreign money
for its natural beauty, rich culture and nice people, there are also
many serious problems that have long existed and that were added with naive
tourism policies. Let me mention just a few.
First, our female citizens are being exploited or maltreated in numerous
ways: child prostitution, flesh trade developed out of the increasing
demand by foreign male visitors from countries with more economic power,
family violence, and so forth. Try and type "Thai" and "Women" or
"Girls" in any search engine and you will realize the degree
and magnitude of this
problem.
Another aspect of serious
problems has to do with the environment: air pollution, water
contamination, and deforestation, which are basically the results of the
corruptive governments and civil servants, as well as the development
policies that have emphasized GDP growth on the expense of the
environment. Bribery of different forms is everywhere in
Thailand, we have to admit. The environmental problems are serious
because they have destroyed the pleasure that nature offers to us and
affected both our mental and physical health in effect. Think about the air pollution
level in Bangkok, garbage crisis in Chiang Mai, and water pollution in
the industrial areas around the country. Our environment policies are
not lenient, but the enforcement is weakened by the power of money and,
in some cases, by the politicians’ power that is manipulated by their
foreign and domestic counterparts in business.
Morality is also
deteriorating in our society. News about people cheating, murdering,
raping, etc. dominates the front pages of newspapers across the country.
Buddhist monks, who are supposed to lead the society toward refined
life, are committing serious sins everyday, leaving people without faith
in anything but money. Thais in big cities are accused by many
foreigners of being money-oriented. This means that we value money above
morality and civilized manners.
Global
As problems caused by
domestic factors are growing in numbers and degree of severity, Thailand
is also facing threats from outside. The Thai Baht attack in the mid
1990’s resulting in the economic collapse in 1997 is a clearest example
of the outside threats in the globalization age. What is said in a
foreign land is now heard by people from around the world because of the
power of computer technologies and the Internet. In that light, Thailand
cannot ignore what the global community says about it, its people, and
its policies because, for instance, it may affect foreigners’ decision
whether to invest, trade, or do business with Thais. No longer can Thais stand
alone as a nation without the need to cooperate and compete with other
nations. While nations in the globe try to cooperate and/or compete in many ways, the
citizens of Thailand have to be
prepared to communicate in English, a dominant international language.
The voices expressed in English by foreigners now come with hidden
agenda, embedded imposition, never neutral. Thus, we need to unpack the hidden systems of
power, values, and cultural models that come with the English language that we experience,
as well as their roles in the international communication and transactions.
Given
the fierce
competition among nations, Thais need not only be competent in English,
but they also have to be able to understand the sociocultural and
sociopolitical issues that the new communication tasks impose in this
powerful
foreign language, and they must also be able to manipulate the language well
in communicating with the global communities. These problems that I have chosen as examples
above are interrelated and caused by multiple factors in the complex
sociopolitical and sociocultural systems at local, national and
international levels. For people to understand them and act
adequately to solve them, it requires serious actions by all the parties
involved. However, looking at the ways Thais, young and old, are
behaving and thinking, some may sigh heavily in despair. We Thais
normally lack the sense of community responsibility because we adopt the
“None-of-my-business” attitude. While we depend on our family and
selected groups, we ignore the others. A husband beating a wife
next door, we think it is their household business, not ours. Child
prostitution, they are not my children! We are simply ignorant of the
problems around us unless they affect us directly. Let's look at other
characteristics of Thais in general.
(Top)
"Thainess"
Thais are traditionally raised to be
submissive to the superior’s suggestions or commands. We are grateful
people, who will pay back to our parents and those who have done us a favor
with respect and submission to their imposition, even when it is not
ethical nor constructive. My father kept voting for the same politician who had done
nothing substantially good to the community and the country, simply
because the man seasonally gave small bucks (distributed within his political
party) to the village temple before an election. Worse, some people voted for
him because he had given them money under the “vote buying” scheme. In
like manner, students believe teachers are good people who can give them
knowledge for which they should be grateful; so they rarely question or
challenge what they are told to do or to believe, being afraid to
irritate or upset their teachers. After all, the people in power at the top level, namely politicians,
rich businesspeople, and government authorities can do virtually
anything to their benefits without being systematically challenged. Are Thais
aware of all these scenarios? I think and hope we do, but too many of us just
don’t care! Plus, gratitude is a good virtue I personally practice and
believe in. The point is gratitude may be misused or manipulated.
What are our young
members
doing, then? Aren’t they our new hope? Concerned teachers and adults
always complain that Thai students lack critical thinking, are lazy to
read and think profoundly, are enslaved by fashion and luxurious
lifestyles, give up their cultural identities for the superficial
misleading Western pop cultures, lack interest in political engagement,
are easily influenced by peers and the media, are easily drawn into
drugs and irresponsible sex, and the list goes on. These claims may not
hold true for all young people, but the trends are obvious. It is
therefore easy to conclude that too many young people in Thailand are
not sensitive enough about the problems around them, and they are even
the victims or the creators of the problems themselves. Without the
ability to perceive social and other problems around them as problems or
some things wrong to pursue, these young people will not look at the many factors
contributing to them. In essence, they will probably not see themselves
as capable of making a difference, either. The worst can be that
they simply think such problems are not their personal problems.
(Top)
Why Critical
Literacy? And How?
Having said all the above, I wish to propose critical literacy as a solution to be implemented in
our education system. In addition, because global influences also
contribute to the local problems either
directly or indirectly, EFL teaching should promote critical
literacy, too. What is critical literacy, then?
To make critical literacy the easiest
to understand, let me briefly explain how it is practiced in the U.S.
The best definitions are given by professors at Indiana University, who
see critical literacy practices in education in four
dimensions of efforts in disrupting the common place; interrogating
multiple viewpoints; focusing on sociopolitical issues; and taking
action and promoting social justice (Lewison, et. al, 2002). I believe
that critical literacy is the indispensable ingredient in Thai
education, but has been missing. Therefore, it should be promoted in all
sorts of education, including EFL teaching, at all levels. Why?
How?
To start with, critical
literacy enables us to see problems as something wrong in the first
place and see the taken for granted differently. We need to start there
because, as discussed earlier, Thais in general have very low
sensitivity about the problems around them unless they are badly
affected by them. Critical literacy encourages people to critically look
at what they normally see as acceptable, normal, or neutral, a.k.a. the
status quo. In
EFL classes, teachers could invite issues that stimulate different ways
of thinking so that the supposedly known and accepted practices in the
society are questioned.
Having sensitized
themselves, the students can then start to question a given practice
and move on to ask questions that will allow them to see the same issue
from different perspectives. This is a crucial step because Thais are
normally submissive to the superior and accept the imposed view without
asking questions. Thai students are, in that light, perceived as passive
learners, who only wait to take notes of what the teacher has to say.
This is also pretty much due to the fact that Thai education emphasizes
memorization rather than originality and multiple perspectives on one
issue. While uncritical students are an indicator of critical problems in
Thai education, we can also see them as a welcoming gesture for critical
literacy to the classrooms. We can turn crisis into
opportunity!
Asking many questions on a
given issue may not be enough; we need to learn to ask the right
questions that will lead us to a real, or better, understanding of problems around
us. As I have mentioned above, any given problem is connected with many
other problems caused by the various socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and
sociocultural factors both within the Thai society and in the global
community. The questions to be asked, thus, should eventually address
the hidden factors at different levels. Since critical literacy
encourages us to see social practices as potentially unjust, the
discussions usually lead us to see the inequality of access, unbalanced
power, unequal access, and unfair treatments. The actual culprits, thus,
can be identified, which will lend a good basis for the next dimension
of critical literacy: taking social actions.
Social actions are
traditionally seen as radical because social activists normally take on
social injustices or challenge the status quo violently, but the actions
can be based on a well-informed consideration of factors and thus become
sensible and acceptable to all parties involved while still bringing
about desired changes. I believe everyone is good at heart and
interested to
see the society a more livable place for everyone, but they need to see
the long-ignored unjust practices as wrong and understand their roots
before they feel inspired to make a difference and actually do so. Of course, the
students can take a social action and may learn to practice the other
three dimensions of critical literacy, too. We can leave that for
further explorations by teachers and students at work.
Our EFL classes can use local issues in local English
newspapers that reflect local problems. We surely have plenty of other
local resources to provide them with multiple perspectives. At the same
time, the richness of web-based materials, powered by strong search
engines, will allow them to access information of all types both on
local and international issues. The possibilities are immense.
(Top)
Closing
Remarks
I have been teaching English for 15 years and often felt that
what I was doing meant so little to the world in my life time. With critical
literacy as part of our goals in EFL teaching, I see the lights at the
other end of the tunnel. We have been dealing excessively with
the linguistic aspects of foreign language teaching and learning, and
yet, Thai
students’ proficiency in English, according to our esteemed researcher
and educator, Professor Kanchana Praphal, fell below all, except one,
nations in Southeast Asia!! (See http://www.dailynews.co.th/news/43704.html
for details.) Even after at least 12 years of learning English, our
youngsters gain an average TOEFL score below 450. Perhaps, we have not
treated language learning properly because we separated it from the
hearts and souls of learners. Why don’t we let our students feel lives
around them and become inspired to make changes to their world through
reflections and practices that encourage them to use the critical lens they might
already have in the eyes of their brains?
Snea Thinsan
December,
2002
Reference
Lewison, M. Flint, A. S.
and Van Sluys, A. (2002). Taking on Critical Literacy: The journey of
the newcomers and the novices. Language Arts V. 79 (5), pp 382-392
(Top)
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