Miriam: Just to start off could you give a brief overview of your work in
English education, what led you to do it, and what led you to create the CELL program (Center for English Language and Literacy)
Chris: How far back would you like me to go
Miriam: As far back as college if you'd like
Chris: I have always loved other cultures. Part of that comes from growing up,
my parents had a love for cultures, so I grew up having internationals at our table, people from China, South America, Central America, all over the world would come to our table for Thanksgiving. When I was 16 I did my first mission trip overseas, to Singapore, and that was awesome for me. It was my first time to travel and I realized how big the world was and how much I loved the world. And that's when I had the thought that I could do this forever, spend time with other cultures and talk to people. Not just travel, for me it wasn't about the travel, it has always been getting to know people of other cultures.I went to college and studied English education. I'm leaving parts out, I
dropped out of college, maybe you didn't know that, but I did a gap year. Everyone gets shocked and concerned when I say I dropped out but I went to college as premed because I wanted to help people and realized I didn't enjoy it. I took a gap year, I went on another mission trip with teen missions, I went back to Singapore, I spent time in Thailand. When I say love for other cultures I also love sharing Christ with other cultures and encouraging people and helping them understand their purpose. I worked for a year and my boss encouraged me to study English education. I knew by then this would be helpful because at this point I'd realized the need all around the world to learn English. Immediately from there I went to China, spent two years there teaching English, came back to the United States, met a beautiful woman named Jeannie Blake, and she was the first person I'd met who loved culture as much as I did, and I married her. At that point, I decided maybe I should work at the international students and scholars office, because I'd always loved working with other cultures. This is the office that welcomed international students to Purdue University, thousands of people from China, thousands of people from all over the world. I helped process their immigration paperwork, helped them get established in the community, helped run an international friendship program. However, I wasn't satisfied with all the paperwork, I was working with people every day but I wasn't connecting with people. It's one thing to process paperwork, it's another to help them as individuals.Long story, I ended up pursuing graduate studies which led me to a Ph.D in
Applied Linguistics. I realized that at least I could help prepare American students for working with other cultures. My first job was 5 years at Western Carolina University where I taught graduate students how to teach English as a second language, then we moved here to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and this is where as soon as I arrived I was introduced to Germans who had come from Germany to build a polysilicon chip plant called Wacker. This German company promised anyone who came to the US to assist in establishing the company would receive English lessons. As soon as I arrived at Lee I snatched up that contract, saying Lee would be the main provider of English language services. I did that for a year and kept meeting people from all over the world living in Cleveland, and we decided to start the Center for English Language and Literacy to meet their English needs. I teamed up with my students to teach free conversation classes every Thursday night. Those who attend as grown every year, it seems like every year something new happens in the program. But the core mission has always stayed the same, and that is to provide quality student centered English classes to the community and prepare Lee University students, TESOL majors, to be excellent teachers. We gave them the experience of teaching English in this program, my students design and teach the program .We now have a Tuesday and Thursday night program which teaches over 120
students, including recently many refugees from Ukraine. A family from Afghanistan. Refugees from Cuba, Venezuela. People from South America, Central America, it's a beautiful place.
Miriam: Wow I didn't realize so many people were represented in the program. In
your work teaching English overseas were there any moments were cultural differences a barrier?
Chris: I would say a barrier but a challenge. For example, when I arrived in
china I decided I was going to be a good professor, I would give homework, make exams challenging, and everyone would have to work for an A. And one day I was teaching class and I noticed a paper being passed around the room, one student passing it from another to another to another, until it made its way up to me. I opened the piece of paper and it said "the reason [name of student] is crying is because your class is too difficult for us". It turns out, in China every class has a class monitor, and that monitor is responsible for the class, representing the class and facilitating interactions from freshman to senior year. Believe it or not the students stay in the same classroom and the teachers go to classes. This led to quite a long after-class discussion with my students and the sum of it was that, I had no idea, but college was a time for students to relax in college because they had worked so hard to pass the college entrance exams that the college years were a time to chill. I did find that out to be true, college is not nearly as hard as high school was for them.
Miriam: Did you have any interactions while working abroad, other than that
experience in China, that changed how you taught English?
Chris: I did. That was the main one, secondly I went to China unaware of the
fact that most students were getting instruction that did not help them use English in a meaningful way. Most of them were learning textbook English
Miriam: Like how high school classes teach it?
Chris: Yes exactly. I realized that to teach my students English I needed to
give them authentic language practice, so I would invite foreigners to my classes to practice with them, I would have on Friday night "jazz chance" that gets them speaking in natural English. I tried to create instructional extracurricular activities to get htem practicing English.
Miriam: That sounds like it would be a much more effective style of teaching,
even in general. In countries where English isn't the dominant language, why do you consider English education to be necessary on a global level?
Chris: English is now the world's lingua franca, not because American culture is
superior, English does not belong to America, it does not belong to any culture, it is the world's language. And that's another interview for you, but there is a good reason for why English is now the world's language. If a country wants its citizens to be prepared to do business, they have to prepare them in English. It is also the primary language in college education, even if it's not for classes it is the primary language for publication. 80% of the world's main academic journals are published in English. The United Nations, the World Bank, global commerce in general is done in English.
Miriam: Do you have any direct examples of how you've noticed English education
improving people's lives?
Chris: Everywhere I've been, the people in China who I taught English to, I've
lost track of them, but I am 100% certain that they are making so much more than I am doing business with foreign companies. For the first year I kept track of them, I know they went on to business, and I think they are now literally living the lifestyle of Crazy Rich Asians.
Miriam: Like the movie?
Chris: It isn't the best thing in the world but it definitely helped their
lives. I'll give you a better example, more representative. When I was in Cambodia I met a girl while I was eating dinner, probably in 5th grade, and she said "would you like to buy any of these beautiful items". She was selling trinkets, but handmade ones, pretty nice. And when she was finished and I had purchased something, I asked how she knew English and she said she had learned English to sell the items her mom was making, and through her knowledge, she was pretty much supporting her whole family selling items to tourists.
Miriam: How did she learn?
Chris: I don't know if she told me, but I think she learned ESP, English for
Specific Purposes. The more I talked to her the more I realized that she didn't know much beyond the items she was selling and a little information about her family, but that was all she needed to know to take her family out of poverty. Then here, in CELL, I cannot tell you how many people I've met who've learned English and it has been a game-changer getting jobs in the United States and moving beyond minimum wage. Jobs that no one wants for a career. I meet people who've moved to the United States who were lawyers. For example, I'm working for a woman who was a lawyer in Columbia, she moved to the US, I'm unsure of the circumstances, but she tells me she lost everything. She lost her career, her ability to talk to people, her sense of value, because she was considered ignored here. Now she's learning English, and she at least has the hope of getting a professional job again.And of course our refugees, it's a part of maintaining legal refugee status in
the United States to be taking English classes.
Miriam: I didn't know that. Solely to maintain refugee status, how many people
have joined the program?
Chris: Maybe 60.
Miriam: That's a large number for a place as small as Cleveland, Tennessee.
Chris: Cleveland has 150 refugees right now, which is as high as Chattanooga. We
are considered a very supportive community for refugees, which I'm proud of.
Miriam: That is something to be proud of. How do you foster community in the
CELL program with so many cultures and languages represented?
Chris: In order to foster community there are 4 things that need to be fostered
in each person. To be seen, to be wanted, to be heard, and to feel you're making a difference. You, me, everyone, need to be seen, heard, wanted, and we need to make a difference. So to form a community, you need to meet these needs. We in CELL try to create this through, one, this might sound small, but we have a fifteen minute break between our classes every Tuesday and Thursday night where we talk, we share, we listen to each other, and we tell stories. All these people from twenty countries mingling around. We start by getting to know their names, finding out what they're interested in. We don't teach from a textbook, our class doesn't look like your high school Spanish class.For example, we had a woman from Haiti who had to leave quickly and none of us
knew why, and one of our teachers reached out and discovered her dad had just died and she couldn't return to Haiti. And we took care of her, we checked up on her. We make a point to make sure they're seen and heard beyond the classes, we want to make them feel like they're wanted. We've had teachers go while students are in the hospital, we celebrate birthdays.And for the first time this semester, we have two of our students becoming
teachers assistants, including the Columbian woman I mentioned earlier. If you can give agency to people who are learning English, they will learn as they teach it.
Miriam: That's interesting because I feel that's true for many nonprofit models,
they're more successful when you give agency to the people you're helping. And it's cool you're using this model in your program. We're almost out of time, so I have one final question. What advice would you give to students pursuing a career globally?
Chris: Number one, learn a language, whatever you do don't be a monoglot. Number
two, I meet so many students who just want to travel. No. Get to know a culture, dig into that one culture, and get to know their culture well, honor shame or guilt innocence, get to know the difference and what type the one you're studying is. Number 3, do it in the United States, meet people of other cultures here. Sometimes I honestly question people's interest in other cultures if they don't start in the US, are they interested in other cultures or do they just want to travel? Call it what it is, you want to stick your nose up against the bus window and look at tourist sights.
Miriam: Yes, there's a difference between spectating and active involvement.
Well thank you for taking the time to interview, I learned a lot.
Chris: Of course, great to be here.