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Teaching Monolingual vs MultilingualHaving taught for ten years, I have always been exposed to different kinds of learners. Different cultures and personalities have constantly been in my midst as an educator. Teaching english becomes more and more exciting each year because of my classes? composition. As an EFL teacher and observer, I have come to realize that both monolingual and multi-lingual compositions have their advantages and disadvantages and I cannot really say that one is better over another. A multi-lingual class will always have its advantages because the students are forced to speak the english language. They gain better understanding of different cultures and classes become more lively and interactive. The 1st multi-lingual class I observed is a business english class. Students are at the intermediate level and their ages range from 30-40 years old. Thus, they are able to comprehend texts though they are not necessarily fluent or accurate yet. Furthermore, because of the heterogeneous composition, the class was very lively. Students were talking and composing dialogues and the teacher had the chance to split the class so that the different nationalities would be in one group. Students got to laugh at their mistakes and were comfortable when the teacher corrected them. In conclusion, the environment was very conducive for learning. On the other hand, a multi-lingual class also has its disadvantages and it came out in my observation and my own experiences as well. The 2nd multi-lingual class I got to observe was a little more controlled because the students were quite shy and reserved. Apart from having a low english level, their low confidence level hindered them to maximize the multi-lingual composition of the class. When the teacher asked them to do a group work and converse with each other, they ended up not communicating at all because they could not express themselves in english. The teacher was forced to stay with them so that she could ask questions and remind them that they should talk. In this case, since the students have to learn the foundations of the language first, they might rely on the teacher to give them enough input before they could apply the skills and orally express themselves in a less controlled manner. Compared to a beginner monolingual class, less interaction among students occurred. It does not necessarily follow that if the teacher is handling a multi-lingual class, it is equivalent to the class being more fun or interactive. When I handled a class composed of 16-18 year old Taiwanese, Koreans, Turkish and Filipinos, it was very multi-lingual obviously, but because of the difficulty of the subject matter, which was literature, they preferred not to talk a lot because they wanted to focus on what I was teaching. When I asked them to do group work, they preferred to stay with their cliques or the same nationalities because they were more comfortable or they could communicate better, so I had to find more creative ways of making them work better with each other. Then, I realized that the level of english, difficulty of the course and the age of the students are also aspects to be considered in determining whether or not a multi-lingual class is considered successful. Monolingual classes can be advantageous as well although a lot of teachers prefer to handle multi-lingual classes. In the classes I handled and observed, whether low or high level, students with the same language get to work faster and more comfortably with each other. They are also more confident in expressing themselves despite their inaccuracies in the language because they know each other?s weaknesses and more or less have an idea of their difficulties in communicating. Their accents are the same so when asked to talk to each other in english, they can understand each other more easily. Indeed, there is really no better class to handle. Now that I got a closer look on both kinds of classes, it can be said that a successful class should not be determined on the basis of whether it?s monolingual and multilingual. A successful class has a positive and enriching atmosphere. It allows students to appreciate the language through proper interaction and exposure.
