Blog Assignment#3: Language Policy, Language Teachers’ Beliefs, and Classroom Practices

        I find the research by Farell and Tan helpful in my research because first it practically gives you an example on the kind or category of problem one will work on, and second, it gives you the kind of data that you might work on.  The problem shown by this research zeroes in on the “impact of a top-down imposed language policy on the beliefs and practices of… school teachers concerning the use of non-Standard English in their classrooms and confirmed those of previous studies that teachers’ reactions to language policy is a complicated process.”(Farell and Tan, 2008)  The research could not have been more relevant than the Philippine context.  It can be argued that the dilemma of the teachers and the confusion in the use of a “standard” as presented by this research is also true in our context.   I also think that the  paradigm of “grassroots/bottom-up” language policy of Canagarajah can also be addressed here since, the research focuses on a particular grassroots context--the classroom.


     Regarding the data, the complexity of teachers’ reactions, the linguistic schizophrenia, and the teaching practices used in class, are some salient features that I could possibly look at and analyze for my research.  I think, the research findings can be the “hypothesis”  for a replicated research with a different data source and different contexts--in my case, I‘ll be using a videotape recording of an English class we had at our school about a year ago.

     Though I am bent on using Farell and Tan’s research (I.e. replicate or adapt it), I am still going to look closely at the data at hand that I already have, because there might still be some interesting patterns in the way the students (and to a certain degree, the teacher) speak.  As Canagarajah points it, there many exciting and surprising things that a researcher can find through an ethnographic research.

     To sum it up, first, I find the research by Farell and Tan as an eye-opener to a certain degree, and second as a model for my research.