Abstract
A review of current research on popular culture and TESOL shows that the recurrent themes revolve around pedagogical affordances of popular cultural resources in TESOL, evaluation of popular culture’s pedagogical potential, and construction of learner identities via ESL/EFL popular culture. However, there is a dearth of discussion on development of critical literacies when popular culture is used in English classrooms and existing studies focus mainly on popular cultural resources that are based on Anglo-American and European cultures. Moreover, issues relating to how to use popular culture in school teaching contexts that are constrained by the need to meet official curriculum requirements and preparation for high-stake tests remain under-investigated. It is proposed that more classroom-based and narrative-based research should be done to look into the experiences and desires of EFL/ESL students from various sexual, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds as they learn English via popular culture. In addition, critical literacies and common meaning-making conventions of popular culture can be introduced to TESOL programs so that learners can become critical, active analysts, and producers in the popular cultural world that they are immersed in.
References
Barber, E. J. W. (1980). Language acquisition and applied linguistics. ADFL Bulletin, 12, 26–32.
Black, R. W. (2009). English-language learners, fan communities, and 21st-century skills. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(8), 688–697.
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Brinton, D., & Gaskill, W. (1978). Using news broadcasts in the ESL/EFL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 12(4), 403–413.
Burn, A., Buckingham, D., Parry, B., & Powell, M. (2010). Minding the gaps. In D. Alvermann (Ed.), Adolescents’ online literacies: Connecting classrooms, media, and paradigms (pp. 183–202). New York: Peter Lang.
Canagarajah, A. S. (2005) (Ed.). Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Cheung, C. K. (2001). The use of popular culture as a stimulus to motivate secondary students’ English learning in Hong Kong. ELT Journal, 55(1), 55–61.
Chik, A., & Breidbach, S. (2011). Online language learning histories exchange: Hong Kong and German perspectives. TESOL Quarterly, 45(3), 553–564.
Domoney, L., & Harris, S. (1993). Justified and ancient: Pop music in EFL classrooms. ELT Journal, 47(3), 234–241.
Duff, P. A. (2002). Pop culture and ESL students: Intertextuality, identity, and participation in classroom discussions. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(6), 482–488.
Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London: Routledge.
Hafernik, J. J., & Surguine, H. (1979). Using radio commercials as supplementary materials in ESL listening classes. TESOL Quarterly, 13(3), 341–345.
Handscombe, R. (1975). The Sunrunners: ESL by TV for Grade 3 in Ontario. TESOL Quarterly, 9(3), 289–298.
Hornberger, N. (2003). Multilingual language policies and the continua of biliteracy: Anecological approach. In N. H. Hornberger (Ed.), Continua of biliteracy: Anecological framework for educational policy, research, and practice (pp. 315–339). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Janks, H. (2004). The access paradox. English in Australia, 139, 33–42.
Kamel, K. (1997). Teaching with music: A comparison of conventional listening exercises with pop song gap-fill exercises. JALT Journal, 19(2), 217–234.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold.
Lai, C. (2015). Modeling teachers’ influence on learners’ self-directed use of technology for language learning outside the classroom. Computers & Education, 82, 74–83.
Lai, C., & Gu, M. (2011). Self-regulated out-of-class language learning with technology. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 24(4), 317–335.
Lai, C., Zhu, W., & Gong, G. (2015). Understanding the quality of out-of-class English learning. TESOL Quarterly, 49(2), 278–308.
Lam, W. S. E. (2000). L2 literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a teenager writing on the Internet. TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), 457–482.
Lam, W. S. E. (2004). Second language socialization in a bilingual chat room: Global and local considerations. Language, Learning and Technology, 8(3), 44–65.
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2007). Researching new literacies: Web 2.0 practices and insider perspectives. E-Learning and Digital Media, 4(3), 224–240.
Lee, C. (2013). ‘My English is so poor…so I take photos’. Meta-linguistic discourse of English online. In D. Tannen & A. M. Tester (Eds.), Discourse 2.0: Language and new media (pp. 72–84). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Lee, C. (2014). Language choice and self-presentation in social media: The case of university students in Hong Kong. In P. Seargeant & C. Tagg (Eds.), The language of social media: Community and identity on the Internet (pp. 91–111). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lin, A. (2012). Multilingual and multimodal resources in genre based pedagogical approaches to L2 English content classroom. In C. Leung & B. V. Street (Eds.), English: A changing medium for education (pp. 79–103). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Lin, A. M. Y., & Luk, J. C. M. (2005). Local creativity in the face of global domination: Insights of Bakhtin for teaching English for dialogic communication. In J. K. Hall, G. Vitanova, & L. Marchenkova (Eds.), Dialogue with Bakhtin on second and foreign language learning: New perspectives (pp. 77–98). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lin, A., & Man, E. (2011). Doing-hip-hop in the transformation of youth identities: Social class, habitus, and cultural capital. In C. Higgins (Ed.), Negotiating the self in a second language: Identity formation and cross-cultural adaptation in a globalizing world (pp. 201–219). London: Equinox.
Liu, J. (2004). Effects of comic strips on L2 learners’ reading comprehension. TESOL Quarterly, 38(2), 225–243.
Lo, M. M. (2013). Negotiating task, text and new literacies in online comic strips. In P. Benson & A. Chik (Eds.), Popular culture, pedagogy and teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 166–179). London: Routledge.
Mackie, A. (2003). Race and desire: Toward critical literacies for ESL. TESL Canada Journal, 20(2), 23–37.
Mackie, A., & Norton, B. (2006). Revisiting “Pearl Harbor”: Resistance to reel and real events in an English language classroom. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 29(1), 223–243.
Madge, C., Meek, J., Wellens, J., & Hooley, T. (2009). Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university:‘It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work’. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2), 141–155.
McLean, A. C. (1976). TV comedy and the teaching of English. English Language Teaching Journal, 31(1), 10–14.
Mroz, A. (2014). 21st century virtual language learning environments (VLLEs). Language and Linguistics Compass, 8(8), 330–343.
Murphey, T. (1989). The top forty for teachers. The Language Teacher, XIII, 5.
Murphey, T. (1990). The song stuck in my head phenomenon: A melodic din in the LAD? System, 18(1), 53–64.
Murphey, T. (1992). The discourse of pop songs. TESOL Quarterly, 26(4), 770–774.
Murphy, J. M. (2014). Intelligible, comprehensible, non-native models in ESL/EFL pronunciation teaching. System, 42, 258–269.
Nation, I. S. P., & Heatley, A. (2002). Range: A program for the analysis of vocabulary in texts [software]. Retrieved from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation/nation.aspx.
Norton, B., & Vanderheyden, K. (2004). Comic book culture and second language learners. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 201–221). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, M. (2012). EFL learner collaborative interaction in second life. ReCALL, 24(01), 20–39.
Richards, J. (1969). Songs in language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 3(2), 161–174.
Rodgers, M. P., & Webb, S. (2011). Narrow viewing: The vocabulary in related television programs. TESOL Quarterly, 45(4), 689–717.
Sandsberry, L. (1979). Magazine ads and logic in the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 13(4), 501–507.
Sayer, P., & Ban, R. (2014). Young EFL students’ engagements with English outside the classroom. ELT Journal, 68(3), 321–329.
Stapleton, P., & Radia, P. (2010). Tech-era L2 writing: towards a new kind of process. ELT Journal, 64(2), 175–183.
Sylvén, L. K., & Sundqvist, P. (2012). Gaming as extramural English L2 learning and L2 proficiency among young learners. ReCALL, 24(3), 302–321.
Sylvén, L. K., & Sundqvist, P. (2016). Extramural English in teaching and learning: from theory and research to practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–93.
Thorne, S. L., & Reinhardt, J. (2008). Bridging activities, new media literacies, and advanced foreign language proficiency. Calico Journal, 25(3), 558–572.
Thorne, S. L., Black, R. W., & Sykes, J. (2009). Second language use, socialization, and learning in Internet interest communities and online games. Modern Language Journal, 93, 802–821.
Wang, F., Burton, J. K., & Falls, J. (2012). A three-step model for designing initial Second Life-based foreign language learning activities. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 8(4), 324.
Willis, P. (2003). Foot soldiers of modernity: The dialectics of cultural consumption and the 21st-century school. Harvard Educational Review, 73(3), 390–415.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Liu, Y., Lin, A.M.Y. (2017). Popular Culture and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL). In: Thorne, S., May, S. (eds) Language, Education and Technology. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02328-1_38-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02328-1_38-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02328-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02328-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education