heteronormativity / diversity in foreign language pedagogy

[Kevin Moss]

My colleagues at Middlebury have begun addressing issues of  
heteronormativity in language pedagogy both at Middlebury and the  
schools abroad. If Seelangers out there have any thoughts on this,  
I'd love to hear them. We're now expanding the discussion to include  
other kinds of diversity as well (race, class, disability, where  
appropriate).

Here were our original questions and the feedback from the first  
meeting:

Some topics we should address:

1. How to make space in dialogues / roleplay for non-normative gender  
and sexuality, family structures, romance.

2. How can we teach terms / concepts in the target language for  
sexual identity: slang, in-group language, pejorative terms.

3. Textbooks: which textbooks actually allow this to happen and how  
can we supplement those that don't?

4. Cultural context in the target country(ies), including what not to  
say. What is the legal and social status of queers?

Feedback from the first meeting last year:

Several students commented on skits, videos, or activities that  
seemed to reinforce gender/sexuality archetypes. Some faculty did not  
allow, for example, two male-identified students to participate in a  
dialog between marriage partners. Some class activities were  
described as “appallingly normative.” In most cases, if the students  
themselves took the initiative to point out these situations to  
faculty, they later became more open. The general impression is that  
faculty are worried that other (presumably heterosexual and  
normatively gendered) students would feel uncomfortable with queering  
activities, that it’s more a case of “harmless ignorance” than an  
intentional policy. But should the burden of correcting the erasure  
of queerness be on the students? Some students also commented that  
while occasionally students did perform the “other” gender in  
dialogs, this often became an object of exaggerated gender  
performance and humor.

Some suggestions / best practices / things to consider:

1. Faculty can acknowledge discomfort or ignorance about the topic,  
rather than merely remaining silent.

2. Make space in dialogs, skits, videos for non-heteronormative  
families and romance.

3. We should find and share any resources out there, for example in  
ESL pedagogy, that can serve as a model for addressing gender and  
sexuality in an inclusive way. Invite language departments to think  
about how their curriculum addresses these issues.

4. Some textbooks have been updated, and we would like to see  
inclusion of queer gender and sexuality as well as race / ethnicity /  
disability in any new materials we produce, including addressing  
these issues in the K12 language initiative.

  5. Gender segregation in dorms both during the academic year and in  
Language Schools naturalizes gender in a way that may make some  
students uncomfortable.

  6. Gender and queer issues should be addressed in the preparation  
of students for study abroad, both in upper-level courses and in the  
orientation sessions run by the study abroad office (this happened  
last year already and should be continued).

Kevin Moss

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