Dialogic Approaches to TESOL

Book excerpt: This book locates dialogic pedagogy within the history of TESOL approaches and methods in which the communicative approach has been the dominant paradigm. Dialogic inquiry in the form of story telling, oral histories, and knowledge from the ground up and from the margins has much to offer the field. In dialogic approaches, the teacher and students learn in community and the students' home languages and cultures, their families and communities, are seen as resources. Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows explores teacher research, feminist contributions to voice, social identity and dialogic pedagogy, and the role of teachers, students, families, and communities as advocates and change agents. After a brief history of TESOL methods and an introduction to dialogic pedagogy, four features of dialogic approaches to TESOL are identified and discussed: learning in community, problem-posing, learning by doing, and who does knowledge serve? The main text in each chapter considers a single topic related to the concept of dialogic pedagogy. Branching text leads to related discussions without losing the main point of the chapter. This structure allows readers to become well-rooted in each component of dialogic pedagogy and to "branch out" into deeper philosophic understandings as well as actual practices across a range of contexts. Dialogic Approaches to TESOL offers a place for dialogue and reflection on the prospects for transforming educational institutions to serve those who have historically been excluded and marginalized. It provides questions, frameworks, and resources for those who are just beginning in the field and for U.S.-based educators who want to bring critical multicultural and multilingual perspectives into language arts, reading and literacy education.