Books by Ahmar Mahboob
Ahmar’s volume brings together an inspiring collection of representative works that address criti... more Ahmar’s volume brings together an inspiring collection of representative works that address critical issues in both theory and practice within the areas of language variations in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. Ahmar has dedicated close to 30 years to a successful career as an outstanding scholar and researcher.
This book is divided into three parts. Part One delves into critical issues surrounding non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in the TESOL f ield, including the discriminations they face and, more importantly, the unique values, perspectives, and contributions that NNESTs bring to TESOL and Applied Linguistics. Ahmar powerfully demystifies the so-called “native speaker myth,” which should not define the ideology of TESOL and Applied Linguistics. He eloquently explores the concept, behaviors, and consequences of “enracement,” i.e., the act of making or causing somebody to become (very) raced, according to the author. Racial prejudices are not limited to interactions between members of a majority and a minority group; they can also occur between members of different minority groups. To combat such prejudices, we need to begin by critically examining our own “enraced” behaviors as TESOL professionals.
Part Two of the book focuses on the nature of language, language variation, and their implications for language teaching and education. Using the NNEST perspective, the author introduces the three dimensional (3D) framework (users, uses, and mode, see Chapter 11) and then presents chapters that critique and expand upon the work on World Englishes, Language Identity, and Curriculum Studies. The articles in this section challenge the monolingual biases in TESOL and SLA theories and practice, suggesting that a multilingual orientation in TESOL and Applied Linguistics would be more aligned with the mission and context of the TESOL profession.
The final part of the book, Part Three, brings together all the threads that the author has been working on over the years and weaves them into the form of a chapter that reminds readers that TESOL professionals can move beyond theoretical debates and engage in meaningful work that has a demonstrable impact on our learners, ourselves, and our
communities. This chapter intentionally includes poetry while eschewing references to make a powerful point about not conforming to typical academic norms. Nonetheless, it convincingly outlines an effective and inspiring path forward to empower our learners and ourselves as TESOL professionals. The author urges us to leave behind the promises marketed by exploitative education and instead retreat to evaluate our circumstances and consider new ways forward.
This powerful collection of articles successfully achieves the author’s intention: “to enable people from non-elite backgrounds to thrive in their personal and professional lives.” I have known Ahmar for many years, and every time I read his work, I f ind deep inspiration. I have no doubt that this remarkable volume will inspire and assist all TESOL professionals in embracing Ahmar’s vision: “strengthening your own work and doing things that empower you, your community, and the environment.” It is truly splendid! Simply splendid!
by Yilin Sun
Subaltern Linguistics and Practice challenges the goals and theoretical foundations of colonial l... more Subaltern Linguistics and Practice challenges the goals and theoretical foundations of colonial linguistics, academia, and education and provides alternative approaches and practices. The goal of subaltern practice is to create economies, projects, and resources that can be made and used by community members and leaders to develop and promote community beneficial projects in their own language (or a language of their choice). In doing subaltern and CREDIBLE work, we need to develop a new array of tools and resources. This book provides a broad introduction for how this can be done along with examples of multiple CREDIBLE projects carried out by students and members of the broader community.
The textbook is divided into four sections. In Section 1, we establish the need for this work, introduce some concepts that the CREDIBLE approach draws on and explain what we mean by CREDIBLE projects. In Section 2, we share what can be done when we adopt a CREDIBLE approach, including several examples of student projects across a range of areas such as education, environment, healthcare and economic development. Section 3 provides detailed guidelines and instructions on how to develop CREDIBLE projects with worksheets and activities that can be used to conceptualise, plan, and develop CREDIBLE projects. Finally, section 4 includes three CREDIBLE project reports as examples of how this work can be written up for wider dissemination.
This text is an essential guide to a new way of doing linguistics, reflecting the diversity and richness of today’s world.
https://www.routledge.com/Subaltern-Linguistics-A-Toolkit-for-Alternative-Education-and-Practice/Cheng-Koay-Mahboob-Mallet/p/book/9781032800325
Subaltern theory emerged as a small voice within academia decades ago. Over time, this work gener... more Subaltern theory emerged as a small voice within academia decades ago. Over time, this work generated significant debate and numerous publica
tions, talks, and conferences. However, little has changed in the experi
enced lives of the masses. This led people to wonder: “the subalterns seem to have a voice, but can they act?” Or, in other words, is there subaltern practice?
This collection of essays and poems, written with a broad audience in mind, hopes to demonstrate not just how the subaltern can identify and question hegemonic practices, but how they can create alternative frameworks and material that enable themselves and their communities. In doing so, this book aims to demonstrate not just how deep the colonial and colonising poisons run but also how to detoxify ourselves and the environment around us. Writings on Subaltern Practice is a call for action and a sharing of ideas that may enable us to regain balance and fulfil our human responsibilities.
Subaltern Practice: A practical guide questions both the goals and the theoretical foundations of... more Subaltern Practice: A practical guide questions both the goals and the theoretical foundations of colonial education as well as provides alternative practices and approaches. Therefore, in doing subaltern education, we need to develop a new array of tools and resources. This book provides a broad introduction to one way in which this can be done.
The authors and contributors to this volume all participated in a unit on Language, Society, and Power, which a core unit for the Masters in Crosscultural and Applied Linguistics, University of Sydney. Most of the material shared in this book was first developed for this unit and then expanded and modified to be of use and relevance to a broader readership.
This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, we will introduce some of the broad tools and resources that we developed to help our students achieve the goals of subaltern education. Then, in the second section, we will look at actual student projects and share how these were developed and carried out. Finally, in the third section, we will come back to the issue of use of literacy in education in more detail and share examples from another part of the world.
For the children with and within us
Table of Contents
Why are there so many fires in Austr... more For the children with and within us
Table of Contents
Why are there so many fires in Australia? 4
Can you think like a duck? 5
Who were our ancestors? 6
Can we go have a closer look? 7
Why don’t people like flies? 8
Why do people hurt each other? 9
How do they fix a windmill? 11
Why is life different in every place? 12
What’s the equation for cleaning up? 13
What is future and how can we plan for it? 14
I discovered something… 15
The pen is mightier than the sword 16
I love looking at clouds 17
How can I learn everything! 18
Why did you take a photo of this mud? 19
The Diamond Jug 21
The purpose of this volume is to promote the examination of applied and theoretical frames of ref... more The purpose of this volume is to promote the examination of applied and theoretical frames of reference that operate in the GCC and to probe the relevant aspects of scale, proportion, and the grounding of education in the gulf region. The contributions to this volume discuss different elements of policy and curriculum, teachers and teacher identity, students and student identity, and social conditions that affect teaching and learning in the 21st century in GCC states. Based on the assumption that education must support students in realizing their fullest potential as well as supporting the economic and development needs of a country, the papers included in this volume investigate the conditions of education in the GCC countries.
This collection of 16 reflective accounts and data-driven studies explores the interrelationship ... more This collection of 16 reflective accounts and data-driven studies explores the interrelationship of religious identity and English Language Teaching (ELT). It addresses the ways in which faith and ELT intersect in the realms of teacher identity, pedagogy, and
the context and content of ELT.
Since its establishment as an independent discipline in the early twentieth century, linguistics ... more Since its establishment as an independent discipline in the early twentieth century, linguistics has undergone rapid development, as is witnessed by the great diversity of theories, methodologies, and practices in the area. This prosperity is, on the one hand, a blessing for all linguists considering the wealth of linguistic knowledge that we have gained, but on the other, it leads to the segmentation of the discipline that should be an organic entirety. According to the Legitimation Coding Theory of Karl Maton (2014: 106), segmentalism in intellectual fields arises with the accumulation of new ideas or approaches that fail to integrate existing knowledge, which is caused by the strong classification and framing values both inside and outside the field. As an intellectual field, linguistics at its current state of development is also characterized by segmentalism, as is shown by the strong boundaries between different schools and subfields, and by the strong framing of research methods and procedures adopted in each school and subfield. Each school has its own premises, aim, methodology, theory, and practices that clearly demarcates its field and prevents trespassers with different backgrounds. As a result, different subfields have their own realms that are often mutually incompatible, which renders it difficult, if not impossible, to integrate them into a coherent whole. Scholars from different backgrounds no longer sit together to communicate; and even if we want, we find it difficult to understand each other as we speak different “languages”. To facilitate further development of linguistics, we need to eliminate this segmentalism, cross the boundaries, and sit together to communicate with each other.
It is out of this belief that the Free Linguistics Conference (FLC) was initiated, which aims at providing a widely accessible forum for linguists in all areas of research to come together and share their diverse perspectives and findings. The 8th Annual International Free Linguistics Conference (The 8th FLC), held at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 26-27 September, 2014, is another significant step toward this aim. In this all-inclusive forum are congregated more than 180 scholars from more than 20 countries/regions. Presentations delivered cover a wide range of mainstream linguistics, including both theoretical linguistics (phonetics and phonology, lexicology, syntax, and semantics), and applied linguistics (such as sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, language teaching and acquisition, computational linguistics, translation studies, and discourse analysis), and involve more than ten languages such as English, German, Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Tagalog and Pashto. In one word, as trespassers of both geographical and intellectual borders, scholars with different intellectual backgrounds sit together, share their insights and discoveries, and make concerted efforts to further our studies of languages.
This book, Multiperspective Studies of Language: Theory and Application, is the fruition of the concerted efforts of the scholars presenting at the 8th FLC. It consists includes 20 selected papers that are organized into four parts according to the subfields they belong to: theoretical linguistics, educational linguistics, social linguistics, translation studies and computational linguistics. All papers included in this volume were selected after going through a double-blind peer-review process.
This book describes the linguistic and pedagogical dimensions of a large action research project ... more This book describes the linguistic and pedagogical dimensions of a large action research project that deployed and extended the current work on genre pedagogy to an on-line learning environment. In particular, it explores how genre-based pedagogy can be used to support the academic literacy development of non-English speaking background (NESB) students in tertiary educational institutions to develop their academic literacy practice. The book reports on work with the Department of Chinese, Translation & Linguistics (CTL) and the Department of Biology and Chemistry (BCH) in a 2-year project called the SLATE (Scaffolding Literacy in Academic and Tertiary Environments) project. It includes theoretically and practically-oriented material that can serve the needs of researchers and practitioners engaged with the literacy development of tertiary students in both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries.
This edited collection examines how people use a range of different modalities to negotiate, infl... more This edited collection examines how people use a range of different modalities to negotiate, influence, and/or project their own or other people's identities. It brings together linguistic scholars concerned with issues of identity through a study of language use in various types of written texts, conversation, performance, and interviews.
The English language has always existed alongside other languages. However, the last 200 years ha... more The English language has always existed alongside other languages. However, the last 200 years have shown a dramatic increase in the range, extent and context of contact between English and other languages. As a result of this contact, we find marked variations in Englishes around the world. Englishes in Multilingual Contexts: Language Variation and Education explores how these variations relate to issues in English language teaching and learning. The first part of this book includes chapters of importance in studying English language variation in the context of education. The second part builds on an understanding of variation and identifies pedagogical possibilities that respect language variation and yet empower English language learners in diverse contexts. Together, the chapters in this volume allow readers to develop a broad understanding around issues of language variation and to recognise pedagogical implications of this work in multilingual contexts.
This collection of research offers an initial step in the pursuit of an appliable linguistics. Ap... more This collection of research offers an initial step in the pursuit of an appliable linguistics. Appliable Linguistics takes everyday real-life language-related problems – both theoretical and practical – in diverse social, professional and academic contexts as its starting point. It then uses and contributes to a theoretical model of language that can respond to and is appliable in the context. The concept of appliable linguistics used in this volume is informed by the work of M.A.K. Halliday, who believes that "the value of a theory lies in the use that can be made of it." The chapters in this volume thus use and contribute to an appliable linguistics that engages with a range of issues including: translation, education, language teaching/learning, multimodality, media, social policy and action, and positive discourse analysis. This collection of research is offered as an initial step in the pursuit of Appliable Linguistics, which we hope will serve as a foundation for future work across the discipline.
The NNEST Lens invites you to imagine how the field of TESOL and applied linguistics can develop ... more The NNEST Lens invites you to imagine how the field of TESOL and applied linguistics can develop if we use the multilingual, multicultural, and multinational perspectives of a NNEST (Non Native English Speakers in TESOL) lens to re-examine our assumptions, practices, and theories in the field. The NNEST lens as described in and developed through this volume is a lens of multilingualism, multinationalism, and multiculturalism through which NNESTs and NESTs—as classroom practitioners, researchers, and teacher educators—take diversity as a starting point in their understanding and practice of their profession. The 16 original contributions to this volume include chapters that question theoretical frameworks and research approaches used in studies in applied linguistics and TESOL, as well as chapters that share strategies and approaches to classroom teaching, teacher education, and education management and policy. As such, this volume will be of interest to a wide range of students, practitioners, researchers, and academics in the fields of education and linguistics.
Studies in Applied Linguistics and Language Learning brings together new and original studies in ... more Studies in Applied Linguistics and Language Learning brings together new and original studies in the area of critical applied linguistics, language policy and planning, and language learning and teaching. The book, divided into three sections, first offers critical views on various aspects of language in society, ranging from the construction of national identity, language and justice, racial and identity issues in the ELT industry, to language in business discourse. It then reports on language policy in the school curriculum, language learning in tertiary education, and Aboriginal languages policy. In the third section, it addresses issues in language learning and teaching, such as the role of parents in literacy learning, multiple script literacy, and language learning and maintenance strategies.
QUESTIONING LINGUISTICS brings together different perspectives on language studies and applicatio... more QUESTIONING LINGUISTICS brings together different perspectives on language studies and applications into a single volume and allows readers to examine how linguists of diverse traditions study and use this expert knowledge of language. By doing so, this volume invites us to reconsider the nature and focus of the field of study and questions a number of current thoughts about language theory, application, and use. In effect, the nature of linguistics, linguistic theory, and languages are called into question, as are the methods that we as linguists may take for granted in our developed research traditions.
Subaltern Linguistics by Ahmar Mahboob
This talk shares the making of The Frog River (text, art, music, and educational resources) as a ... more This talk shares the making of The Frog River (text, art, music, and educational resources) as a CREDIBLE project: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18GK8XukuG/
The Daily Star, 2021
They took away my land, I said:
Thank you for building the railroad.
They took away my wealth, I... more They took away my land, I said:
Thank you for building the railroad.
They took away my wealth, I said:
Thank you for giving me loans.
...
The Diamond Jug
Prof Nomad
Part 1
Imagine that there is a jug made of diamonds
And full o... more The Diamond Jug
Prof Nomad
Part 1
Imagine that there is a jug made of diamonds
And full of life-giving fluids sitting on a table.
Now, imagine that someone comes along
And says: This jug and everything in it is mine.
The owners of the jug reject this claim.
A long battle ensues.
Finally, the thieves leave.
But, instead of the precious jug
They leave behind a number of glasses
Of different shapes, colours, and sizes.
Each filled with toxic looking
And foul-smelling contents.
What can the owners of the jug do now?
The past is lost: only threats abound.
I first developed the metaphor of the diamond jug for an online talk on Language as Inheritance for Bukidnon State University in Mindanao in March 2021. In this talk, I talked about a precious jug that has been replaced by glasses full of poison. I used the metaphor to explicitly talk about European colonisation and its ongoing impacts by focussing on descriptive and naming practices in language studies.
When the Europeans invaded and conquered lands around the world, these lands were often inhabited by people with their own way of being, doing, and knowing, which were reflected in their diverse boli (oral and gestural language systems). They had complex social and inter-group relationships, which had sustained them and their environments for unknown generations. People were not divided into countries nor were nuclear families a norm for social organisation.
When the Europeans left the direct control of these lands, they left behind divided and, often, conflicting states/countries/territories. It also needs to be noticed, the European conquerors have still not vacated all their captured territories and peoples. The United States of America (which should, in fact, be called the United Settlements of America), Canada, Australia, New Zealand are amongst the better-known examples of continuing European settlements, but many more exist across South America and other parts of the world.
In pre-European colonisations, heterogeneous, dynamic, and environmentally harmonised communities of humans co-evolved with their environments and geography. This differentiation of their understandings of the world is embedded in their boli.
It is noteworthy that many Indigenous languages did not have terms or concepts for things such as land ownership, religion, race, culture, numbers, literacy. These and other coloniality-enabling concepts were first introduced (through translation, borrowing, or word smithing) and normalised in the colonies; today, they are maintained through a web of systems, networks, and institutions, including education, economics, international law, law, police, and military.
These ongoing colonial forces encourage further and continuing divisions among group of peoples pretty much across the whole world. These divisions, in many contexts, lead to conflicts, which, at times, can turn violent and devastating for humans, non-human life, and the environment.
After the talk at Bukidnon State University, I developed the metaphor into Part 1 of The Diamond Jug, shared above. After writing Part 1, I realised that in addition to pointing out problems and issues, I need to share potential ways out of the mess that many of us find ourselves in. I then wrote parts 2-4 of the poem. Part 2 of the poem describes the current situation where the world is divided and devastated by conflicts, exploitation, and oppression – of both living and non-living beings. Parts 3 and 4 of the poem then focus on solutions and possible ways forward.
To read the rest of the essay/poem, please visit: https://wemountains.com/06/29/1958/
I wrote this poem when I accepted who I had become over time: a Poster Boy.
Playing the game of ... more I wrote this poem when I accepted who I had become over time: a Poster Boy.
Playing the game of the colonizers, I had learned to climb up the ladder of “success”, as defined by the colonials and internalized by us.
This ladder being one that many of us learn to climb from childhood. “Success” is: to learn English (at the cost of mother tongue and other local languages), study in English medium schools, go abroad (preferably to the US or another western country), get a job abroad (preferably in a western country), and make money by working for our colonizers.
Uploads
Books by Ahmar Mahboob
This book is divided into three parts. Part One delves into critical issues surrounding non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in the TESOL f ield, including the discriminations they face and, more importantly, the unique values, perspectives, and contributions that NNESTs bring to TESOL and Applied Linguistics. Ahmar powerfully demystifies the so-called “native speaker myth,” which should not define the ideology of TESOL and Applied Linguistics. He eloquently explores the concept, behaviors, and consequences of “enracement,” i.e., the act of making or causing somebody to become (very) raced, according to the author. Racial prejudices are not limited to interactions between members of a majority and a minority group; they can also occur between members of different minority groups. To combat such prejudices, we need to begin by critically examining our own “enraced” behaviors as TESOL professionals.
Part Two of the book focuses on the nature of language, language variation, and their implications for language teaching and education. Using the NNEST perspective, the author introduces the three dimensional (3D) framework (users, uses, and mode, see Chapter 11) and then presents chapters that critique and expand upon the work on World Englishes, Language Identity, and Curriculum Studies. The articles in this section challenge the monolingual biases in TESOL and SLA theories and practice, suggesting that a multilingual orientation in TESOL and Applied Linguistics would be more aligned with the mission and context of the TESOL profession.
The final part of the book, Part Three, brings together all the threads that the author has been working on over the years and weaves them into the form of a chapter that reminds readers that TESOL professionals can move beyond theoretical debates and engage in meaningful work that has a demonstrable impact on our learners, ourselves, and our
communities. This chapter intentionally includes poetry while eschewing references to make a powerful point about not conforming to typical academic norms. Nonetheless, it convincingly outlines an effective and inspiring path forward to empower our learners and ourselves as TESOL professionals. The author urges us to leave behind the promises marketed by exploitative education and instead retreat to evaluate our circumstances and consider new ways forward.
This powerful collection of articles successfully achieves the author’s intention: “to enable people from non-elite backgrounds to thrive in their personal and professional lives.” I have known Ahmar for many years, and every time I read his work, I f ind deep inspiration. I have no doubt that this remarkable volume will inspire and assist all TESOL professionals in embracing Ahmar’s vision: “strengthening your own work and doing things that empower you, your community, and the environment.” It is truly splendid! Simply splendid!
by Yilin Sun
The textbook is divided into four sections. In Section 1, we establish the need for this work, introduce some concepts that the CREDIBLE approach draws on and explain what we mean by CREDIBLE projects. In Section 2, we share what can be done when we adopt a CREDIBLE approach, including several examples of student projects across a range of areas such as education, environment, healthcare and economic development. Section 3 provides detailed guidelines and instructions on how to develop CREDIBLE projects with worksheets and activities that can be used to conceptualise, plan, and develop CREDIBLE projects. Finally, section 4 includes three CREDIBLE project reports as examples of how this work can be written up for wider dissemination.
This text is an essential guide to a new way of doing linguistics, reflecting the diversity and richness of today’s world.
https://www.routledge.com/Subaltern-Linguistics-A-Toolkit-for-Alternative-Education-and-Practice/Cheng-Koay-Mahboob-Mallet/p/book/9781032800325
tions, talks, and conferences. However, little has changed in the experi
enced lives of the masses. This led people to wonder: “the subalterns seem to have a voice, but can they act?” Or, in other words, is there subaltern practice?
This collection of essays and poems, written with a broad audience in mind, hopes to demonstrate not just how the subaltern can identify and question hegemonic practices, but how they can create alternative frameworks and material that enable themselves and their communities. In doing so, this book aims to demonstrate not just how deep the colonial and colonising poisons run but also how to detoxify ourselves and the environment around us. Writings on Subaltern Practice is a call for action and a sharing of ideas that may enable us to regain balance and fulfil our human responsibilities.
The authors and contributors to this volume all participated in a unit on Language, Society, and Power, which a core unit for the Masters in Crosscultural and Applied Linguistics, University of Sydney. Most of the material shared in this book was first developed for this unit and then expanded and modified to be of use and relevance to a broader readership.
This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, we will introduce some of the broad tools and resources that we developed to help our students achieve the goals of subaltern education. Then, in the second section, we will look at actual student projects and share how these were developed and carried out. Finally, in the third section, we will come back to the issue of use of literacy in education in more detail and share examples from another part of the world.
Table of Contents
Why are there so many fires in Australia? 4
Can you think like a duck? 5
Who were our ancestors? 6
Can we go have a closer look? 7
Why don’t people like flies? 8
Why do people hurt each other? 9
How do they fix a windmill? 11
Why is life different in every place? 12
What’s the equation for cleaning up? 13
What is future and how can we plan for it? 14
I discovered something… 15
The pen is mightier than the sword 16
I love looking at clouds 17
How can I learn everything! 18
Why did you take a photo of this mud? 19
The Diamond Jug 21
the context and content of ELT.
It is out of this belief that the Free Linguistics Conference (FLC) was initiated, which aims at providing a widely accessible forum for linguists in all areas of research to come together and share their diverse perspectives and findings. The 8th Annual International Free Linguistics Conference (The 8th FLC), held at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 26-27 September, 2014, is another significant step toward this aim. In this all-inclusive forum are congregated more than 180 scholars from more than 20 countries/regions. Presentations delivered cover a wide range of mainstream linguistics, including both theoretical linguistics (phonetics and phonology, lexicology, syntax, and semantics), and applied linguistics (such as sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, language teaching and acquisition, computational linguistics, translation studies, and discourse analysis), and involve more than ten languages such as English, German, Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Tagalog and Pashto. In one word, as trespassers of both geographical and intellectual borders, scholars with different intellectual backgrounds sit together, share their insights and discoveries, and make concerted efforts to further our studies of languages.
This book, Multiperspective Studies of Language: Theory and Application, is the fruition of the concerted efforts of the scholars presenting at the 8th FLC. It consists includes 20 selected papers that are organized into four parts according to the subfields they belong to: theoretical linguistics, educational linguistics, social linguistics, translation studies and computational linguistics. All papers included in this volume were selected after going through a double-blind peer-review process.
Subaltern Linguistics by Ahmar Mahboob
Thank you for building the railroad.
They took away my wealth, I said:
Thank you for giving me loans.
...
Prof Nomad
Part 1
Imagine that there is a jug made of diamonds
And full of life-giving fluids sitting on a table.
Now, imagine that someone comes along
And says: This jug and everything in it is mine.
The owners of the jug reject this claim.
A long battle ensues.
Finally, the thieves leave.
But, instead of the precious jug
They leave behind a number of glasses
Of different shapes, colours, and sizes.
Each filled with toxic looking
And foul-smelling contents.
What can the owners of the jug do now?
The past is lost: only threats abound.
I first developed the metaphor of the diamond jug for an online talk on Language as Inheritance for Bukidnon State University in Mindanao in March 2021. In this talk, I talked about a precious jug that has been replaced by glasses full of poison. I used the metaphor to explicitly talk about European colonisation and its ongoing impacts by focussing on descriptive and naming practices in language studies.
When the Europeans invaded and conquered lands around the world, these lands were often inhabited by people with their own way of being, doing, and knowing, which were reflected in their diverse boli (oral and gestural language systems). They had complex social and inter-group relationships, which had sustained them and their environments for unknown generations. People were not divided into countries nor were nuclear families a norm for social organisation.
When the Europeans left the direct control of these lands, they left behind divided and, often, conflicting states/countries/territories. It also needs to be noticed, the European conquerors have still not vacated all their captured territories and peoples. The United States of America (which should, in fact, be called the United Settlements of America), Canada, Australia, New Zealand are amongst the better-known examples of continuing European settlements, but many more exist across South America and other parts of the world.
In pre-European colonisations, heterogeneous, dynamic, and environmentally harmonised communities of humans co-evolved with their environments and geography. This differentiation of their understandings of the world is embedded in their boli.
It is noteworthy that many Indigenous languages did not have terms or concepts for things such as land ownership, religion, race, culture, numbers, literacy. These and other coloniality-enabling concepts were first introduced (through translation, borrowing, or word smithing) and normalised in the colonies; today, they are maintained through a web of systems, networks, and institutions, including education, economics, international law, law, police, and military.
These ongoing colonial forces encourage further and continuing divisions among group of peoples pretty much across the whole world. These divisions, in many contexts, lead to conflicts, which, at times, can turn violent and devastating for humans, non-human life, and the environment.
After the talk at Bukidnon State University, I developed the metaphor into Part 1 of The Diamond Jug, shared above. After writing Part 1, I realised that in addition to pointing out problems and issues, I need to share potential ways out of the mess that many of us find ourselves in. I then wrote parts 2-4 of the poem. Part 2 of the poem describes the current situation where the world is divided and devastated by conflicts, exploitation, and oppression – of both living and non-living beings. Parts 3 and 4 of the poem then focus on solutions and possible ways forward.
To read the rest of the essay/poem, please visit: https://wemountains.com/06/29/1958/
Playing the game of the colonizers, I had learned to climb up the ladder of “success”, as defined by the colonials and internalized by us.
This ladder being one that many of us learn to climb from childhood. “Success” is: to learn English (at the cost of mother tongue and other local languages), study in English medium schools, go abroad (preferably to the US or another western country), get a job abroad (preferably in a western country), and make money by working for our colonizers.
This book is divided into three parts. Part One delves into critical issues surrounding non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in the TESOL f ield, including the discriminations they face and, more importantly, the unique values, perspectives, and contributions that NNESTs bring to TESOL and Applied Linguistics. Ahmar powerfully demystifies the so-called “native speaker myth,” which should not define the ideology of TESOL and Applied Linguistics. He eloquently explores the concept, behaviors, and consequences of “enracement,” i.e., the act of making or causing somebody to become (very) raced, according to the author. Racial prejudices are not limited to interactions between members of a majority and a minority group; they can also occur between members of different minority groups. To combat such prejudices, we need to begin by critically examining our own “enraced” behaviors as TESOL professionals.
Part Two of the book focuses on the nature of language, language variation, and their implications for language teaching and education. Using the NNEST perspective, the author introduces the three dimensional (3D) framework (users, uses, and mode, see Chapter 11) and then presents chapters that critique and expand upon the work on World Englishes, Language Identity, and Curriculum Studies. The articles in this section challenge the monolingual biases in TESOL and SLA theories and practice, suggesting that a multilingual orientation in TESOL and Applied Linguistics would be more aligned with the mission and context of the TESOL profession.
The final part of the book, Part Three, brings together all the threads that the author has been working on over the years and weaves them into the form of a chapter that reminds readers that TESOL professionals can move beyond theoretical debates and engage in meaningful work that has a demonstrable impact on our learners, ourselves, and our
communities. This chapter intentionally includes poetry while eschewing references to make a powerful point about not conforming to typical academic norms. Nonetheless, it convincingly outlines an effective and inspiring path forward to empower our learners and ourselves as TESOL professionals. The author urges us to leave behind the promises marketed by exploitative education and instead retreat to evaluate our circumstances and consider new ways forward.
This powerful collection of articles successfully achieves the author’s intention: “to enable people from non-elite backgrounds to thrive in their personal and professional lives.” I have known Ahmar for many years, and every time I read his work, I f ind deep inspiration. I have no doubt that this remarkable volume will inspire and assist all TESOL professionals in embracing Ahmar’s vision: “strengthening your own work and doing things that empower you, your community, and the environment.” It is truly splendid! Simply splendid!
by Yilin Sun
The textbook is divided into four sections. In Section 1, we establish the need for this work, introduce some concepts that the CREDIBLE approach draws on and explain what we mean by CREDIBLE projects. In Section 2, we share what can be done when we adopt a CREDIBLE approach, including several examples of student projects across a range of areas such as education, environment, healthcare and economic development. Section 3 provides detailed guidelines and instructions on how to develop CREDIBLE projects with worksheets and activities that can be used to conceptualise, plan, and develop CREDIBLE projects. Finally, section 4 includes three CREDIBLE project reports as examples of how this work can be written up for wider dissemination.
This text is an essential guide to a new way of doing linguistics, reflecting the diversity and richness of today’s world.
https://www.routledge.com/Subaltern-Linguistics-A-Toolkit-for-Alternative-Education-and-Practice/Cheng-Koay-Mahboob-Mallet/p/book/9781032800325
tions, talks, and conferences. However, little has changed in the experi
enced lives of the masses. This led people to wonder: “the subalterns seem to have a voice, but can they act?” Or, in other words, is there subaltern practice?
This collection of essays and poems, written with a broad audience in mind, hopes to demonstrate not just how the subaltern can identify and question hegemonic practices, but how they can create alternative frameworks and material that enable themselves and their communities. In doing so, this book aims to demonstrate not just how deep the colonial and colonising poisons run but also how to detoxify ourselves and the environment around us. Writings on Subaltern Practice is a call for action and a sharing of ideas that may enable us to regain balance and fulfil our human responsibilities.
The authors and contributors to this volume all participated in a unit on Language, Society, and Power, which a core unit for the Masters in Crosscultural and Applied Linguistics, University of Sydney. Most of the material shared in this book was first developed for this unit and then expanded and modified to be of use and relevance to a broader readership.
This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, we will introduce some of the broad tools and resources that we developed to help our students achieve the goals of subaltern education. Then, in the second section, we will look at actual student projects and share how these were developed and carried out. Finally, in the third section, we will come back to the issue of use of literacy in education in more detail and share examples from another part of the world.
Table of Contents
Why are there so many fires in Australia? 4
Can you think like a duck? 5
Who were our ancestors? 6
Can we go have a closer look? 7
Why don’t people like flies? 8
Why do people hurt each other? 9
How do they fix a windmill? 11
Why is life different in every place? 12
What’s the equation for cleaning up? 13
What is future and how can we plan for it? 14
I discovered something… 15
The pen is mightier than the sword 16
I love looking at clouds 17
How can I learn everything! 18
Why did you take a photo of this mud? 19
The Diamond Jug 21
the context and content of ELT.
It is out of this belief that the Free Linguistics Conference (FLC) was initiated, which aims at providing a widely accessible forum for linguists in all areas of research to come together and share their diverse perspectives and findings. The 8th Annual International Free Linguistics Conference (The 8th FLC), held at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 26-27 September, 2014, is another significant step toward this aim. In this all-inclusive forum are congregated more than 180 scholars from more than 20 countries/regions. Presentations delivered cover a wide range of mainstream linguistics, including both theoretical linguistics (phonetics and phonology, lexicology, syntax, and semantics), and applied linguistics (such as sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, language teaching and acquisition, computational linguistics, translation studies, and discourse analysis), and involve more than ten languages such as English, German, Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Tagalog and Pashto. In one word, as trespassers of both geographical and intellectual borders, scholars with different intellectual backgrounds sit together, share their insights and discoveries, and make concerted efforts to further our studies of languages.
This book, Multiperspective Studies of Language: Theory and Application, is the fruition of the concerted efforts of the scholars presenting at the 8th FLC. It consists includes 20 selected papers that are organized into four parts according to the subfields they belong to: theoretical linguistics, educational linguistics, social linguistics, translation studies and computational linguistics. All papers included in this volume were selected after going through a double-blind peer-review process.
Thank you for building the railroad.
They took away my wealth, I said:
Thank you for giving me loans.
...
Prof Nomad
Part 1
Imagine that there is a jug made of diamonds
And full of life-giving fluids sitting on a table.
Now, imagine that someone comes along
And says: This jug and everything in it is mine.
The owners of the jug reject this claim.
A long battle ensues.
Finally, the thieves leave.
But, instead of the precious jug
They leave behind a number of glasses
Of different shapes, colours, and sizes.
Each filled with toxic looking
And foul-smelling contents.
What can the owners of the jug do now?
The past is lost: only threats abound.
I first developed the metaphor of the diamond jug for an online talk on Language as Inheritance for Bukidnon State University in Mindanao in March 2021. In this talk, I talked about a precious jug that has been replaced by glasses full of poison. I used the metaphor to explicitly talk about European colonisation and its ongoing impacts by focussing on descriptive and naming practices in language studies.
When the Europeans invaded and conquered lands around the world, these lands were often inhabited by people with their own way of being, doing, and knowing, which were reflected in their diverse boli (oral and gestural language systems). They had complex social and inter-group relationships, which had sustained them and their environments for unknown generations. People were not divided into countries nor were nuclear families a norm for social organisation.
When the Europeans left the direct control of these lands, they left behind divided and, often, conflicting states/countries/territories. It also needs to be noticed, the European conquerors have still not vacated all their captured territories and peoples. The United States of America (which should, in fact, be called the United Settlements of America), Canada, Australia, New Zealand are amongst the better-known examples of continuing European settlements, but many more exist across South America and other parts of the world.
In pre-European colonisations, heterogeneous, dynamic, and environmentally harmonised communities of humans co-evolved with their environments and geography. This differentiation of their understandings of the world is embedded in their boli.
It is noteworthy that many Indigenous languages did not have terms or concepts for things such as land ownership, religion, race, culture, numbers, literacy. These and other coloniality-enabling concepts were first introduced (through translation, borrowing, or word smithing) and normalised in the colonies; today, they are maintained through a web of systems, networks, and institutions, including education, economics, international law, law, police, and military.
These ongoing colonial forces encourage further and continuing divisions among group of peoples pretty much across the whole world. These divisions, in many contexts, lead to conflicts, which, at times, can turn violent and devastating for humans, non-human life, and the environment.
After the talk at Bukidnon State University, I developed the metaphor into Part 1 of The Diamond Jug, shared above. After writing Part 1, I realised that in addition to pointing out problems and issues, I need to share potential ways out of the mess that many of us find ourselves in. I then wrote parts 2-4 of the poem. Part 2 of the poem describes the current situation where the world is divided and devastated by conflicts, exploitation, and oppression – of both living and non-living beings. Parts 3 and 4 of the poem then focus on solutions and possible ways forward.
To read the rest of the essay/poem, please visit: https://wemountains.com/06/29/1958/
Playing the game of the colonizers, I had learned to climb up the ladder of “success”, as defined by the colonials and internalized by us.
This ladder being one that many of us learn to climb from childhood. “Success” is: to learn English (at the cost of mother tongue and other local languages), study in English medium schools, go abroad (preferably to the US or another western country), get a job abroad (preferably in a western country), and make money by working for our colonizers.
Until a couple of hundred years ago, most human population lived nomadic lives.
This changed for most of us when our lands were stolen and/or our elders compromised by deceit, subjugation, and physical as well as socio-semiotic violence by a handful of European powers.
With the introduction of land ownership, humans could no longer freely move around their Indigenous lands. Instead, they were forced to move to settlements (of various sizes).
Today, while humans are sold dreams of “development”, Mother Earth and all her children – including most humans – are suffering.
This pain was first created by stealing our lands; then, for many, intensified by passing total control of everyone and everything to dependent and corrupt governments. Ironically, many celebrate these governments as their Independence.
Today, colonial control is largely maintained through a set of beliefs established and perpetuated through “education”, endorsed and marketed as a universal human right.
Formal education through schooling (including madrassahs and most convents/Grammar Schools) is either a 19th or 20th century practice in most parts of the world and was introduced during colonisation. Before that, nomadic and Indigenous “education” had different practices and philosophies.
While it is impossible (because of their systemic eradication) to know what all the various ways of “education” were in the nomadic worlds, we can identify some principles. Most importantly, children learnt from people who performed things that were of value and use to the community.
What children learnt and the “knowledge” they developed was geographically relevant. In order for humans to thrive in a natural environment, they developed understandings of things and patterns in their regions. This knowledge, often encoded in language, dance, song, and art, guided humans in their life and interaction with their environments.
Most – BUT NOT ALL – of this knowledge is now lost. And, it is possible to identify myths established through colonial and corporate practices, which contribute to the ongoing exploitation of peoples and the natural world.
This essay shares ten of those myths.
Why is it that while religions teach peace, people kill and exploit each other in the name of religion?
A one-line answer to this question: The term religion leads to a confusion between two things: 1) practices (action/verb), and 2) a category (entity/noun).
https://wemountains.com/11/10/1822/
If our knowledge is increasing every day (as measured by the number of research publications), why is it that we see such high levels of social and environmental injustice around the world?
A one-line answer to this question: It is the kind of knowledge one creates that matters, not how much knowledge one makes.
Or, as I will demonstrate in this essay, our current ways of understanding knowledge and knowledge making need to be reformed.
To get us going, let’s do a little activity (you can do it in real, or you can imagine it: the choice is yours to make):
Take a bucket and put about 100 random objects in it. It doesn’t matter what the objects are as long as they are all different. Now, spread them out on the floor and sort them. It doesn’t matter how you sort them, just do it.
Good
Now, jumble everything up and then sort the stuff again.
Now, jumble up everything once more and ask someone else (who has not seen you do this) to sort the stuff out. Tell them what I told you: they can do it any way they like, there is no right or wrong way.
The chances are:
- Each time you sorted the items, you did it differently; and,
- The other person sorted the things differently from you
Congratulations! You have just become knowledge makers.
Prof Nomad
Preamble:
This essay is based on an understanding that European colonisation was carried out through both physical and socio-semiotic violence. This socio-semiotic violence includes the formation of new concepts and categories in English, e.g., ‘country’, ‘language’, and ‘religion’; an introduction of new forms of education and literacy; and, using these categories and processes to divide up and influence peoples’ beliefs and practices. While the Europeans physically retreated from their colonies starting the middle of the 20th century, the socio-semiotic processes that they put in place continue today. In this long essay, we will identify some of these processes and see how they allowed the Europeans to turn Colonisation 1.0 into Colonisation 2.0, while their colonial subjects celebrated ‘independence’. The essay further looks at signs of another on-going transition, which can be considered a shift to Colonisation 3.0. The essay identifies possibilities that are available during times of flux and shares strategies that can be taken to help people end socio-semiotic colonisation.
Full text available at: https://wemountains.com/05/12/1596/
Table of Contents of Part B
Chapter 5 - Under-vaccination in affluent NSW suburbs 2
Chapter 6 - Know Your OSHC 6
Chapter 7 - Promoting the use of reusable bags in Chinese supermarkets 11
Chapter 8 - Creating awareness for sex education 16
Chapter 9 - Choose to Reuse 20
Chapter 10 - A Guide to dealing with Menstruation 26
Chapter 11 - Sweat Up, Never Give Up! 29
Chapter 12 - Promoting Environmentally Safe Memorial Practices 33
Chapter 13 - Promoting the learning of Taicang dialect 38
Chapter 14 - Mental Health 41
Chapter 15 – Organic Farming 45
Chapter 16 – Rental Issues 49
Chapter 17 - Protecting the river from pollution 53
Chapter 18 - Food Safety in University of Sydney Village 56
Chapter 19 - Promoting healthy food choices in a high school canteen 60
Mahboob, A. & Cheng, L. (in preparation). Part B: Examples of students’ CREDIBLE projects. In A. Mahboob & L. Cheng, Doing Subaltern Education. Publisher details to follow.
While I wrote this text at ICLAP2019, we decided to translate the text and release it simultaneously in multiple Pakistani languages . I would like to thank colleagues from across the country who helped with these translations.
Please note that LAP will be happy to add translations/renderings of this text into other languages. Please contact Ghulam Raza if you are interested in contributing a translation.
Respect!
Balochi text: translation by Baloch Panah
English text: Ahmar Mahboob
Punjabi text: translation by Amna Anwar; and, oral rendition by translation by Ayesha Awan
Pushto text: translation by and Muazzam Sharif and Amjad Hussain Nadir
Saraiki text: translation by Kaleem Asghar and Ghulam Raza
Sindhi text: translation by Dr-Mazhar Ali Dootio
Urdu text: translation by Raza Kashif
http://www.iclap.org/ICLAP2019/Language%20for%20Life%20-%20ICLAP%202019.pdf?fbclid=IwAR22xcj2QdS-El5MpJJnqOCE6dNc-donJ4pWI9Wy_LTkhMllMvpbnajoYFU
The investigation focusses on the relationship between the material and socio-semiotic worlds. In specific, how changing calendars and
And, it is also meant to make us reflect on the depth of the socio-semiotic violence we are all experiencing. When one’s calendar becomes disconnected with seasons, everything breaks down.
And, to make this more fun, Prof Nomad has set up an Essay competition to encourage more people to participate in this.
Topic:
Describe the socio-political context in which the Jalali calendar was replaced by the current Islamic calendar and the impacts of this change on the Muslim world.
Context:
Omar Khayyam, in collaboration with other leading scholars of his days, developed a solar calendar that was adopted by the Muslim world in 1079. The Jalali calendar replaced the lunisolar calendar used by Muslims since the time of Prophet Mohammad. The lunisolar calendar required regular interventions (by adding extra months to a year) in order to keep the seasons and months in alignment. The Jalali calendar superseded the lunisolar calendar because it provided a highly reliable calendar, where the 12 Islamic months were synchronised with the seasons, e.g. Hajj, a trading/spring festival that pre-dates Islam, was held in March, a much better season for people in the desert regions. And, Ramazan came in December, a month when the community would be getting low on stocks, the days are shorter, and the weather much cooler. Today, while the Jalali calendar is still used as the official calendar of Iran and Afghanistan, it is no longer the common Muslim calendar.
For more info and to submit your essay, please visit: http://www.flcgroup.net/ramazan2020/
We have already established that SL is work that empowers local ways of being, doing, and saying by encouraging and supporting local economies, practices, projects, and resources. The work can be done by anyone and in any language/dialect. Ultimately SL is practice; not theory. In this chapter, we will introduce you to a CREDIBLE approach to doing research as well as Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA). PDA is a tool that can be used to develop CREDIBLE projects.
Mahboob, A. & Cheng, L. (in preparation). Chapter 3: CREDIBLE research and Positive Discourse Analysis. In A. Mahboob & L. Cheng, Doing Subaltern Education. Publisher details to follow.
For everything it is not, here’s what SL is. First of all, SL is practical. It is a form of linguistics that is meant to be practiced outside of the classroom. It is work that is carried out BY the community FOR the community. The efforts of SL should bring empowerment, well-being and prosperity to the community. Secondly, SL is for everyone, regardless of a person’s linguistics background or knowledge. It can be carried out by anyone in ANY language. The best people to bring about positive change to the community are those who are in the community themselves. Their very membership to the community is a benefit for the work of SL. Finally, SL is workable in any language, in the simplest form. SL hugely incorporates the use of socio-semiotics to influence change. The purpose of SL is for the betterment of the community and so that means communicating in a language or form that best suits them.
Mahboob, A. & Cheng, L. (in preparation). Chapter 2: What is subaltern linguistics. In A. Mahboob & L. Cheng, Doing Subaltern Education. Publisher details to follow.
To access the full article, please visit: https://wemountains.com/09/12/1410/
To access the full article, please visit: https://wemountains.com/07/02/1371/
From the letter:
Positive Pedagogy, based on my colleague and my work on subaltern linguistics (e.g., https://wemountains.com/01/20/1071/)
and positive discourse analysis (e.g., http://www.isfla.org/Systemics/Print/MartinPapers/JA-2004%20Positive%20Dicourse%20Analysis%20Solidarity%20and%20Change.doc), will aim to set up practices where students, led by their elders, and supported by educational institutions will develop resources to address key needs identified by community elders. The goal of this will be to create resources that the communities need locally and, thereby, reducing dependence on external resources. By doing this, we can change education to become an enabler of our economy rather than an “expense”.
Positive pedagogy will draw on the philosophy of ‘apni madad aap’ (help yourself: participatory citizenship) and provide students tools to use literacy in order to bring benefit to their communities. Literacy, in this pedagogy, will be a tool; not the goal of education. Educationists will model how literacy can be used to find particular kinds of information and for particular needs. This will enable specialized literacies and practices, which will be one strength of Positive Pedagogy.
Positive Pedagogy can be realized in different ways and can draw on contextual cues to build its theoretical frameworks. For example, in our case, one way of enabling participatory citizenship is to develop it in alignment with Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of Unity, Faith, and Discipline. A pedagogy for enhancing participatory citizenship can enable our citizens to learn to create resources locally. In doing so, Positive Pedagogy can enable local economies and help the country – and reduce national debt.
The initial idea for this project came from a conversation with Kuku Yalunji elder, Uncle Bennet, in Far North Queensland in mid-2024. The song was composed collaboratively by Sunny Boy (Ahmar Mahboob) with students in LNGS 7501 - Professional Practice (Prof.P2024) during semester 2, 2024, at the University of Sydney. The students also translated the song into Cantonese and Putonghua and developed workbooks to teach/learn Cantonese, English, and Putonghua.
Yan Liu did the artwork for the project and Madilyn Tyzzer & Hayden White composed the music for the song.
For details and additional resources, please visit: www.flcgroup.net/the-frog-river/
The book can be used by children, their parents, students, and teachers, or simply anyone with an interest in learning Vietnamese.
With features focused on the use of both visual and audio stimuli, Learning Vietnamese with The Ribbit Ribbit Pond aims to encourage literacy and language learning.
We also aim to promote vocabulary and language skills through this entertaining story to unleash your creativity as part of your Vietnamese learning journey.
The student workbook will revolve around a moving storybook called "The Ribbit Ribbit Pond".
It will combine the pictures and texts in the original book with the matching Chinese audio resources to provide rich Chinese learning activities so that learners can independently acquire simple but useful Chinese with fun and relaxation.
In developing this workbook, we carried out register analysis on high scoring CREDIBLE project reports written by students in previous years. This helped us understand how the linguistic features of CREDIBLE project reports are crafted. We used this analysis to develop the material for this workbook.
This workbook is an example of an outcome of subaltern linguistics, which is operationalised through the CREDIBLE approach. In this project, a group of students worked together under Sunny Boy’s guidance to create a resource to support the needs of others. Subaltern practice is an approach to creating material, resources, and practices that address our needs.
https://ctltp.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/
People who join this group will work with Associate Professor Ahmar Mahboob, University of Sydney, and his team of researchers, tutors, and students, to collaboratively develop projects and material to support students, teachers, parents, and others as they respond to the closing down of schools and other educational institutions due to COVID19.
Participants will be trained to create material, resources, and activities that can be used by the participants and others who are affected by COVID19. In developing this material, we will pay special consideration to both the constraints and the opportunities of our contexts.
In socially/physically distanced education, students are distanced from their schoolmates, teachers, and the school environment/resources; however, they are closer to those who live with them, including parents, siblings, caregivers, others. This unique community embedded educational context opens up a number of new opportunities that are not usually available within ‘normal’ educational settings. In this course, we will explore some of these opportunities.
‘Education in the time of COVID19’ is a practical course, one in which participants will develop and engage in projects. It is designed with a diverse range of participants in mind, including students, teachers, parents, caregivers, administrators, researchers, educationists, others…
For more info and details, visit: http://www.flcgroup.net/courses/education101-intro/
This workbook is an example of an outcome of subaltern linguistics, where a group of students worked together under my guidance to create a resource to support the needs of other students in our Department. Subaltern linguistics is an attempt to create material, resources, and practices that contributes to supporting our local communities.
Part 1 describes the purpose of an article review and gives examples of how the Introduction, Body and Conclusion stages function to achieve that purpose.
Part 2 focusses on how information is organised analytically in the Body stage of the article review and describes the typical criteria for evaluating aspects of the article.
Part 3 outlines some useful language resources for making evaluations and achieving an academic style in article reviews.
Part 4 provides some steps for writing the review, including advice on reading critically.
The top-down organisation of the ratings sheet encourages tutors to think about all three strands of meaning at the level of genre initially, before moving on to consider metafunctions at the discourse semantic level – concluding with a focus on the lexicogrammatical realisations of the higher level metafunctional meanings.
This book is designed as a resource to be used in FLC’s Language Travels project in North Lombok. The goal of Language Travels is to enable language maintainance by developing a micro-economy in and through the target language. By developing a Sasaknese-based micro-economy and resources, Santi and her team can contribute to boosting the prestige of Sasak and to provide easy-to-use resources for langauge learning-teaching. The prestige of a language, resources available in it, and economic opportunities in/through a language/dialect are key ingredients for creating a viable and sustainable language maintainance program. As such, this resource and the Language Travels that it will be used for are CREDIBLE and subaltern projects that aim to empower the local communities and their environment.
‘The Ribbit-Ribbit Pond’ exemplifies a CREDIBLE project, aiming to tackle a real-world issue and foster positive change. Unlike typical academic work that often prioritises Western theories and marginalises non-Western perspectives, CREDIBLE projects focus on empowering communities to address the real problems they face. This chapter will illustrate this approach by using ‘The Ribbit-Ribbit Pond’ as an example, highlighting the core principle of collaboration with communities at the heart of CREDIBLE projects.
https://www.flcgroup.net/ribbit-ribbit-pond/
The book can be used by children, their parents, students, and teachers, or simply anyone with an interest in learning Vietnamese. With features focused on the use of both visual and audio stimuli, Learning Vietnamese with The Ribbit Ribbit Pond aims to encourage literacy and language learning.
We also aim to promote vocabulary and language skills through this entertaining story to unleash your creativity as part of your Vietnamese learning journey.
The student workbook will revolve around a moving storybook called "The Ribbit Ribbit Pond".
It will combine the pictures and texts in the original book with the matching Chinese audio resources to provide rich Chinese learning activities so that learners can independently acquire simple but useful Chinese with fun and relaxation.
Australia’sNational Tobacco Campaign (NTC) is one of Australia’s longest running public health campaigns and has been successful at reducing smoking rates in Australia since its inception in 1997 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020). While there has been a large amount of research investigating the NTC’s impact on reducing smoking rates (e.g. Boyle et al., 2010; Department of Health and Ageing, 2004; Young, 2016), there has been little research into the NTC’s campaign materials themselves and how they work to effect change. This thesis explores the development of these materials and the overall NTC from 1997-2019. It investigates how these campaign materials draw on various semiotic resources including language, image, film and sound to help stop Australians smoking. Throughout, the goal of this research is to understand the NTC in a way that can aid in the design of future public health interventions. To do so, this thesis employs the methodological approach of Positive Discourse Analysis which advocatesfor the analysis of successful interventions so as to inform future interventions (Bartlett, 2017; Martin, 2004b). This thesis also employs Systemic Functional Linguistics as its analytical approach to provide detailed text analyses of the NTC materials including TV ads, radio ads and posters. The analytical tools deployed in this thesis explore meanings across all three metafunctions.A key challenge for this research is to be able to link the multimodal patterns of individual campaign materials to the overall 22-year change and development of the NTC. In order to do this, this thesis proposes a set of ‘rhetorical strategies’ that offer a means of seeing patterns that recur throughout the campaign. These rhetorical strategies are ‘zoomable’ analytical tools in the sense that they can move between individual campaign materials, across whole
ivcampaigns, and all the way up to the NTC’s large-scale development over time, while at the same time, linking individual campaigns within the NTC to each other. Perhaps most importantly, these rhetorical strategies have also been developed to be appliable to both analysis and design.The first set of strategies concerns whether the materials frame their message in terms of negative consequencesof smoking, or positive outcomesof quitting. The second set of strategies characterise whether technical information is being given about the health effects of smoking or quitting, or whether individual and personalised stories and experiences are being foregrounded. The final set of strategies concern whether the messaging surrounds actual impacts that have already occurred for the smoker, or possible future paths –whether positive or negative –that they may travel on when smoking or quitting. Together these strategies build a complex yet consistent set of meanings that progressively build knowledge and values around smoking such that it is now uncommon in Australia for a person not to know that smoking kills
PREFACE
The Ribbit-Ribbit Pond is a children’s book that resulted of my inquiry into a number of areas in the field of Applied Linguistics. My creative process of the book was informed mostly by theories on how to develop intercultural communicative competence, and on how to follow the principles of translanguaging literacy. Moreover, the content of the book, both in the verbal and visual modes, attends to the interpersonal and ideational metafunctions of language, two concepts that are crucial for Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). As a result, the text of the story was written by paying attention to the following concepts of SFL: transitivity, nominal group structures, and appraisal (see Appendices 2, 3, and 4); the images, on the other hand, were constructed in light of Kress and Van Leeuwen’s principles about the interactive meanings in images and their narrative structures (2006) (Appendices 5 and 6), and Painter’s system of visual focalisation and logico-semantic relations (2007) (Appendices 5 and 7). It is the combination of all these theories that enable The Ribbit-Ribbit Pond to transmit a positive attitude towards immigration and multilingualism in children.
Nevertheless, you will notice that the amount of literature I review has been minimised, and a great deal of terms have been left out of the report or de-technicalised when possible. Indeed, this dissertation does not follow the writing conventions established for research papers. This is mostly because this is a project-based dissertation, and as such, this document needed to be structured so as to serve the purpose of the project; in a sense, I had to create my own genre that complied with the purposes of my project.
8
This dissertation is meant to be read not only by an academic audience, but also by a more general audience who might be interested in doing their own research and projects. Thus, I have minimised my literature review and de-technichalised terms in order to make my project accessible to my target audience. On top of this, the format of this dissertation adopts a pedagogical approach; what in other dissertations you can find as chapters, here you will find them as units, and each unit has been further divided into different lessons that examine an aspect of my project with the purpose of teaching readers how I fulfilled my project, and of guiding them in the fulfilment of theirs.
Unit 1 meticulously describes the Ribbit-Ribbit Pond project, which is presented and explained as a CREDIBLE project. Unit 2 provides a review of the literature that informed and guided my creative process, specifically the following: the development of intercultural communicative competence, translanguaging, and the study of language in both verbal and visual modes from a social semiotic perspective. Next, Unit 3 deconstructs The Ribbit-Ribbit Pond and presents a thorough analysis and discussion of the semiotic resources employed in the book. Unit 4 provides a note on the pedagogical value of The Ribbit-Ribbit Pond for English language educators, whose work has motivated me to engage in the creation of this book. Lastly, Unit 5 offers the reader a discussion of the limitations and implications of my project, and a summary of the strategies that have been employed, which is expected to prepare and guide them in their future projects.
From the analysis of data, four main themes emerge: (1) Language Travels brought economic benefit to the community through channelling the expenses of the programme straight back to the community; (2) Language Travels improved the prestige of the language in the eyes of the community through participation from a wide audience and the intentional learning and performance of the language; (3) Language Travels helped to build self-confidence in early language learners in the community through their participation in language teaching activities; (4) the success of Language Travels can be measured through parameters that can be short-term and/or long-term such as participant engagement, community feedback, programme continuity and increased use in the language.
Language Travels was conducted as a pilot project to explore the use of tourism as a means of prestige planning to empower communities of endangered languages to value and keep using their language. The emerging themes from the data point to the success of Language Travels in creating a language-based micro-economy surrounding the use of MPC in a tourism setting. As such, Language Travels can provide a model to adapt from for future projects seeking to achieve similar goals.
https://theconversation.com/can-criminal-suspects-be-identified-just-by-the-sound-of-their-voices-114815
One of the most consistent findings in the NNEST literature is that both students and teachers find the NNESTs (and other teachers) proficiency in the students’ vernacular as a positive and useful resource. If this finding is indeed valid, then one might ask: why is it that ELT teacher education programs and teacher educators do not train the teachers in judicious and pedagogically appropriate uses of local languages in the classrooms? Why is it that the administrators do not sanction or approve of the use of local languages in classrooms (and sometimes the whole school)? And, why is it that teachers feel ashamed and guilty of using local languages as part of their lessons? In this brief essay, I will share some of the reasons for a lack of engagement in local languages in TESOL & Applied Linguistics and will then (based on some current research) outline ways in which teachers may use local languages to achieve their pedagogical purposes."
made an impact on how our non-NNEST colleagues in TESOL (the association) look at us within
professional settings. The impact of the NNEST movement in other venues—such as hiring—is,
however, far less secure. For example, we can note how the discriminatory discourse in job ads has
shifted from requiring "native speakers" to requiring candidates from a list of specified inner circle
countries; interestingly, these are all White Anglo-English dominated countries. This change in the
lexicon is a thin veil that attempts to hide the racial and L1-based discrimination in the field.
In the desolation of today,
I hang on to the promises of tomorrow:
When life will be in harmony
And struggles gone.
I believe that things will change
And I will fly again over the rainbows
Looking down at forests and rivers
Spotting wildlife, as they enjoy their day.
Waiting for tomorrow, I watch
Videos about nature and read books
About wildlife; I imagine the future
And think of stuff to take along.
And, then, I remember, yesterday and today:
Where we pump more oil and burn more coal
Cut more forests and mine more gold.
And then, I wonder, how tomorrow will be.
How will tomorrow be, if today:
We kill each other and nature too;
We build more weapons and borders too?
Will tomorrow be beautiful, if today we neglect?
Ahmar Mahboob
I wrote this poem last year as we were leaving the beautiful mountains of Swat. The poem is dedicated to Javed Iqbal Torwali and Noor Rehman Torwali.
The river wept, as we left
But its tears were not for us.
It cries not for those who leave;
It cries for those who stay:
The fish that live in acid rapids
And the birds that prey on them;
The trees that struggle to stay green
Amidst all the dust and grey.
The river wept, as we left
But its tears were not for us.
It cries not for those who leave;
It cries for those who stay:
The fields of plastics amidst the wheat
And lands drenched in chemicals;
The children who grow up in dirt
Never knowing what pristine meant.
The river wept, as we left
But its tears were not for us.
It cries not for those who leave;
It cries for those who stay.
Ahmar Mahboob
A cockroach, Sir Gentle Roach,
Wearing his favourite four piece suit
Looked down upon the firefly and said:
Ha, what, you don’t even wear clothes!
“For they will hide my glow” replied the firefly
Ha, what, you don’t even own a home!
“For we are the eyes of the wind” replied the firefly
Ha, what, you are so tiny and small!
“For we leave more for the rest” replied the firefly
Ha, what, you don’t even have money
“Money? What is that?” asked the firefly
Ha, you are so useless and weak;
Shoo, fly away, its not like you own this land!
Slowly, the fireflies started to leave.
And as they left, the wind lost its way,
The river turned black, the fish drowned.
Down by the banks, where the flowers danced,
There was only stink and sticky mud.
And there you see him, Sir Gentle Roach
Smoking a pipe in his four piece suit.
Prof Nomad
If only I had stopped her from drinking!
She did say that the water tasted funny;
And it looked yellow, and smelt of metal...
Why didn’t I stop her; why didn’t we fly away...
Yes, it was hot and we were thirsty;
But I should not have let her drink!
The poison spitting vehicles, the sewage rivers
Black belching factories, the plastic killers
Chemical plants, the garment dyes
Coal power plants, and unidentified crimes...
We knew what fed that water;
And yet I let her drink!
Where will I fly to now? With whom?
I have known no love but Padma;
And now she is gone.
Ahmar Mahboob
Ha, there you go, this is how you suffer:
The virus that killed you is yet to die himself
And, already, those alive are thinking beyond you.
You, who were not all that divine, in ways you know best,
Are now no more than a stat, a part of a number,
Of yet another epidemic,
That future historians and academics will research
To make a living.
Ahmar Mahboob
Symbols divide us; symbols unite us.
If your symbols match mine, perhaps we can be allies;
If your symbols, I don’t recognise, you will be strange - at best.
Through symbols we make sense of the world;
Through symbols we live our lives.
In language, sounds and scribbles are symbols;
In religion, clothes and food become symbols;
In culture, there is nothing that is not a symbol;
In arts, in science, even in math, symbols rule our worlds.
Symbols make our worlds, whether human or not:
Where some use symbols in the here and now,
We use symbols to escape place and time.
A clever use of symbols, and, lo,
We can go to the moon and come back.
A wise use of symbols, and, lo,
We can create a world just and fair.
A neglect of the symbols, and, lo,
We can fight and feed conflict.
A malicious use of symbols, and, lo
We can destroy our worlds.
Symbols are just symbols, they mean and they don’t mean:
A harmony in symbols is harmony in life;
A disarray in symbols is hell with no end in sight.
Ahmar Mahboob
https://www.facebook.com/SASG.USyd/videos/1197945073661395/
A country deeply divided on ethno-linguistic lines, Pakistan is in dire need to reconsider its policies towards language if it hopes to survive and thrive as a unified national entity. Currently, Pakistan is a country that does not have any 'Pakistani'-speaking people; instead, it is a country where people see themselves and others as Balochi-speaking, Hindko-speaking, Punjabi-speaking, Pashto-speaking, Sindhi-speaking, Seraiki-speaking and Urdu-speaking, etc. Our ethnic languages separate us. And while Urdu, as a national language, is used in most parts of the country, the idea that it has been successful in uniting us as a nation is a controversial one. To create a unified national identity, we need a language that brings us all together.
Ahmar Mahboob gives a valuable insight into the most effective approach. Below are some links where you can get a more in depth look at his approaches. Is peer assessment any good? How and when should we focus on grammar?
Read more: https://www.academia.edu/17498183/Understanding_and_Providing_Cohesive_and_Coherent_Feedback_on_Writing
Englishes: https://youtu.be/ssKfpxICrQQ. This interview was
recorded on the campus of City University of Hong Kong during the IAWE conference, 2012. I recorded this interview for the currently shelved ROEWE project. It was recorded immediately after I interviewed Prof Halliday and there were times when both of them were in the room and listened to each other - hence the references to each other's interviews.
https://youtu.be/hZcppxuWSCg
https://www.facebook.com/ahmar.mahboob/videos/10156457695409125
https://www.facebook.com/ahmar.mahboob/videos/10155823400459125/
or
https://youtu.be/e4MyqcDfmL8
The chapter outlines alternative ways in which to conceptualise and practice education. The chapter includes real-life examples of projects where students and teachers have experimented with some of the ideas shared in this chapter. While the examples and discussion in this chapter will focus on Pakistan, they are relevant to other exploited contexts as well.
Ahmar Mahboob / Sunny Boy Brumby / Prof Nomad
A recording of this talk is available here: https://youtu.be/VZ9lMJAvsGU
The roots of modern linguistics lie in the colonial era and many early “linguists” were agents of colonial powers who served in various positions for European empires (think of Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady). Amongst others, one purpose of this initial work was to enable the political strategy of divide-and-conquer. Over time, modern linguists have added to this work, but not revised or decolonised its foundations or approaches. One consequence of this lack of reflexivity is that much of linguistic work today continues to adopt divisive approaches and contribute to divisions in communities.
In this session, we will first identify some foundational problems with the establishment of the discipline, e.g., separating out ‘human language’ from ‘non-human communication’, limiting linguistics to structural-functional analysis, and ignoring other sensory systems in meaning-making and communication. We will then consider a few ways of defining language before extending our discussion to all sensory systems and their relevance to socio-semiotics. The session will then outline some alternative approaches to doing linguistics and look at projects that have drawn on this work. In doing so, we will both question the history of linguistics and outline potential alternatives and the future of linguistics.
Ahmar Mahboob / Prof Nomad / Sunny Boy Brumby, born of South Asian refugees and South Asian social, economic, and political oppression, grew up in exile in the United Arab Emirates, where he was educated not just through conventional schools but also through relationships with artists, poets, journalists, politicians, and writers—all friends of his parents. With them, he had grown to identify oppressive practices in academia and governance. Working on issues of disempowerment and marginalisation, he draws on observation, analysis, and practice to develop his work.