Kids&Us: The Natural English Fallacy

Kids&Us: The Natural English Fallacy

Franca Amongero, Aida Becerra and Rosi Silva

Introduction

There are several factors that affect the learning of a second language (L2), among which we can find age and setting (Hummel, 2009: 1). The general public, however, ignore the research that has been made by applied linguists on the matter and hold beliefs based on what they hear. One of these is that the younger one begins to learn a language, the faster the rate of acquisition and the closer the skills will be to a native-like level, which is not hard to believe since many teenagers and adults struggle with learning English. Another assumption is that the best setting to learn a L2 is the natural setting. These are the two assumptions that Kids&Us, an English language school, uses to call people’s attention, offering classes to children from one year of age until they are 18.

The token we will be analysing is the window display of a branch of the English language schools chain Kids&Us in Pardinyes, the city of Lleida, located in South-East Catalonia. It is important to keep in mind that it is a bilingual territory in which Catalan and Spanish are spoken as official languages. It is worth saying that Kids&Us is an international chain that has branches around, not only Europe, but also countries such as Japan, Morocco and Mexico, as stated in the official web-page of the brand (see references). It was founded with the aim of developing and implementing an innovative methodology to learn English as foreign language. It is aimed at kids, hence the name “Kids&Us”, and it advocates for the learning of English based on the way mother tongues are learnt, which explains its slogan “Where Natural English happens”. 

Regarding the activity domain, it is clear that education is the most fitting one, since our token is the window display of a school. The main purpose of it is to attract people's attention and make business by selling English classes, hence, and taking into account Mooney and Evans (2015) contributions, it is a commercial sign. The languages that appear in our object of analysis are English and Catalan, therefore the only alphabet present is the Latin one, making our token monoglossic. From the two languages, English is the foregrounded language, used for the name of the establishment (“Kids&Us school of english”) and for the catchy, understandable and attractive sentence (“Where Natural English happens”). Catalan, on the other hand, is rather present as a secondary language with the purpose of giving information on the services offered by the school (“Anglès a partir d’1 any”), words that, if written in English, would not be understood by most of the audience, since Englishisation in social institutions in Lleida is relatively new, as it is the case of, for instance, private language schools.

Contextualization 

Kid&Us is located in Carrer del Corregidor Escofet 58 in the neighbourhood of Pardinyes. In Figure 3, it can be seen that our token is placed in an area surrounded by other types of educational institutions like Escola Oficial d’Idiomes (EOI) and  Institut La Mitjana. It is curious that an English language school is located in front of a language school (EOI) that also offers to teach English. Yet Kids&Us, contrary to EOI, offers to teach English from age 1, and therefore, it can be suggested that its location reinforces its slogan, and consequently, the assumption that the younger the student is in contact with the L2 the better. Also, we could say that both language schools complement each other creating an unintentional business of the English language that integrates all inhabitants of the area from kids to adults.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the neighbourhood of Pardinyes is found behind the neighbourhood of Rambla de Ferran – Estació and bordering the neighbourhood of Balafia. Due to this enclosed location, the socio-economic profile of the inhabitants in Pardinyes has changed through the passage of time. According to Orvepard (2017) during the 1930s and the railway construction, the neighbourhood of Pardinyes was considered an industrial zone, and it was during the 1940s and 1970s that it was instituted as a working-class neighbourhood. Nonetheless, during the 1980s with “Pla de l’Estació de Lleida'', the neighbourhood of Pardinyes started its transformation to a residential zone (Bitrià and Camprubí, 2014). Hence, it can be deduced that its physical and symbolical isolation has configured Pardinyes as an upper-middle-class neighbourhood. As for the socio-demographic profile of Pardinyes, according to the information of the census of 2012 by La Paeria, 82.96% of the inhabitants were Spanish whereas the remaining 17.04% were foreigners (Figure 2). It has to be considered that, due to its secluded location from the centre, Pardinyes is not a tourified area. In addition to that, during the years of the housing bubble, the neighbourhood received a migrant population from other parts of the city and country (Bitrià and Camprubí, 2014). These two pieces of information suggest that it is a gentrified zone.

 

Figure 1. Map of the neighbourhoods in Lleida. Source: Gifex.

Figure 2. Information about Lleida’s neighbourhoods population. Source: La Paeria, 2012.  

Figure 3. Map of the area where the token is located and its surroundings. Source: Google Maps.

Methodology

The data collection process was conducted by means of ethnographic observation, which consisted of visiting three times the linguistic token and recording its linguistic context during the fieldwork visits. The first one was done on the 26th February 2021 by one member of the team, who encountered the establishment on her way home and took a picture of its window display. Even though she was aware of its presence, it was not until we were told about the project did she realise the diverse languages written on it. The second visit was on the 11th March 2021 by one member, who photographed the street where the token is located and its main entrance (Figure 4), as we deemed it appropriate for the project. The linguistic context of the token was also recorded, considering the languages used both inside and around the language school. The third visit was done on the 18th March 2021 by the same member, and it served to confirm what had been previously analysed.

Figure 4. Street view of the language school. Picture taken by the authors (11th March 2021).

As regards language policies, the token under analysis follows the top-down linguistic policies approved by the Lleida City Council in 2014, according to which all public signs should be written in Catalan, in Spanish or in Catalan along with the language of the territory they are addressing to. It also abides by article 32.3 of the Act 1/1998 passed by the Government of Catalonia, which states that fixed signs and banners intended for the public must be written at least in Catalan except for the commercial names, to which this regulation does not apply for window displays. That is why the name and the slogan of the token are in English, whereas the advertising information is in Catalan. The presence of the English language might be explained by the nature of the establishment, which is the education of English as a foreign language. Because it advocates the nativespeakerist method, local Catalan-speaking teachers are asked to pretend they use English-only with kids.

The use of English in the name and the slogan aligns with the bottom-up linguistic policies of the token. Kids&Us is created by an enterprise trying to promote immersion in the target language and to convey a commercial message. As part of a franchise, all linguistic expressions have to be affiliated with the company, since it aims to provide all kids with the same learning process of acquiring English naturally.

The linguistic context of our token is conditioned by the languages heard inside the language school and in its surroundings. During our fieldwork visits, we spotted teachers speaking exclusively in English with kids. However, since we could not grasp the language used among the working staff, we decided to ask them, so we ended up doing ethnographic visits with the people in the emplacement and conducting informal, non-recorded, semi structured interviews. They stated that they tried to speak English between themselves, although they tended to use Catalan and sometimes Spanish in meetings. On the other hand, the children's parents or guardians spoke mostly in Catalan and some in Spanish.

Even though English is the prominent language in the token and its linguistic context, we can observe how the local language is present in "Anglès a partir d'1 any" in order to target Catalan locals. Therefore, Catalan is an index of an educated teaching corporation that proves to be knowledgeable about the Catalan educational system. That is to say, as an educational institution, Kids&Us addresses the general public in Catalan with the aim of reflecting that it follows the Catalan educational framework, and thus, that it belongs to the local community.

Results and discussion

Figure 5. Linguistic token. Picture taken by the authors (26th February 2021)

Following the list of values attributed to linguistic landscapes by the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia taken from the European Landscape Convention, we considered that our token, which can be seen in Figure 5 (above), has productive, identity and social values. First, we regarded its productive value as the most relevant, since the main aim of the language school is to derive financial benefits from teaching English. It offers an innovative learning methodology that intends to catch parents or guardians' attention so as to encourage them to enrol their children there. The presence of English was deemed to be a resource to enhance its image and its commercial purpose, as English has gained international prestige. By making reference to "Natural English", it positions itself as the best setting to learn the language in order for children to attain a native-like competence. Therefore, it is a strategy designed to appeal to parents and thus to earn money.

Second, we attributed identity values to our token because of the message it conveys. People running Kids&Us project a globalised and international image towards the audience, identifying themselves with the culture and society of English speaking countries. Therefore, the token defines itself as a setting where not only do kids learn the language but they also are in contact with the culture. Even though passers-by may not belong to the English culture, they may be interested in their kids learning such a globalised language, which allows the token to establish ties with them.

Last, we related the social values to the communal use that the token is intended to provide. As a language school, it is a place of community interest, where students are exposed from an early age to the target language to reach ultimate attainment. Because Kids&Us aims for the immersion method of language learning, it adopts a nativespeakerist approach, that is to say, it presents the native English speaker as the model to follow. Therefore, it attunes local Catalan-speaking teachers to pretend to be natives and thus to reproduce a reductionist view of English as monolingual and devoid of contact with other languages.  

As for the social meanings that the token implies, globalisation and the necessity of mastering English seem to be the clearest ones. With the proliferation of global values, English has begun to pop up in our daily lives to the point that people have become used to seeing it on advertisements, streets, and local shops. The consequences of this phenomenon are far and away too vast to explain in this paper, however, there is one related to our token under analysis that is worth mentioning, and that is the recently appearing necessity for people to learn English as a L2. A clear proof of this phenomenon is how many educational systems all over the world have decided that English must be taught at all levels of education, including university. For instance, in Spain, one must have at least a B2 level in order to obtain a university diploma, as the law in force established the 9th May 2018. Even the youngest members of our society are under this pressure to learn the lingua franca. 

Not only can we sense this urge to learn English in educational institutions, but it is also visible when one walks the streets of any city of today’s world, and that includes Lleida, where we have found our token. English schools advertisements attract the audience’s attention, and it seems that, as Figure 5 shows, one-year-olds are no exception. Taking advantage of the common, yet still unproven belief that “compared to adults, children are very successful second language learners” (Bongaerts, Planken, & Schils, 1995: 30), language schools offer an appealing service that, they claim, will guarantee the successful learning of the language from a young age in a “natural” setting. 

Our token represents how this need to be a proficient English user has spread widely in terms of territory, reaching cities such as ours, but it has also imposed itself in an impressively large range of ages. This shows the power of the expansive wave that English has created, as well as it makes us notice the consequences of it that are visible near us. 

Finally, our token reveals a hierarchisation of languages, since English is more predominant whereas Catalan goes unnoticed. Certainly, English is the main language of its name and slogan, and the token’s design helps it stand out by means of colour and typography choices. We can observe how it uses childish drawings with appealing colours and some of its window displays have signs making reference to the Union Flag (see Figure 6 below), which are of aid to attract passers-by's attention and to highlight the importance of English.

Figure 6. Entrance to the token. Picture taken by the authors (11th March 2021)

The advertisements placed in its website reinforce the global image Kids&Us tries to convey, since they show kids from distinct backgrounds and ethnicities. Some instances are Figure 7 and Figure 8 (below), which correspond to two adverts published on 22nd and 25th February 2021 respectively. Whole the former features a black kid, the latter shows a white child, both of whom are making faces and having fun, thereby suggesting that Kids&Us is a globalised language school, suitable for engaging all children into the learning process of English, which is regarded as an asset to our globalised world. It is worth mentioning that even its advertisements place emphasis on English although they are aimed at the locals, which consequently ascertains that the token deems English the most important language.

Figure 7. Advertisement placed in the website (Kids&Us, 2021)

Figure 8. Advertisement placed in the website (Kids&Us, 2021)

On the other hand, the Catalan text ("Anglès a partir d'1 any) blurs with the window drawings, which seem to draw people’s attention and thus to downplay Catalan’s significance. Therefore, the token under analysis reinforces English as a lingua franca and relates to "the prestige and wealth" (Dimova, 2007: 24) associated with the language. Nevertheless, it appears to exclude locals who possess little or none knowledge on English. 

Concluding thoughts

In this investigation, the aim was to enhance student's awareness of the various elements that compound and create meaning within the society in the city of Lleida; to do so, the focus was placed on the different processes and practices by which English is incorporated in the landscape. Now, we are acknowledgeable that Lleida, as a field of research, offers a well-integrated linguistic diversity despite not being a cosmopolitan city compared to other towns such as Barcelona or Madrid.  

In the beginning, we did not consider all these facts, and contrary to expectations, it was not a difficult task to encounter multilingual LL tokens in our surroundings. After analysing our LL, we could say that Lleida is a city constantly growing and that there is more and more presence of other cultures. Indeed, this research has aided us to comprehend the place we live in and how it works, as Martín-Rojo (2012) claims “los paisajes lingüísticos son uno de los indicadores más claros de los cambio que se están produciendo”. As the target language of the research, we have to highlight the importance and influence of English. Due to the effects of globalisation, over the years, English has gained more relevance, and therefore, new social dimensions. This could explain why English was present in most of the tokens that we found. Our society sees English as a valuable tool, and hence, it is vastly used and regarded as a language of a higher prestige rather than the local languages. 

Moreover, as agents and knowledge generators living in a technological era, it is way easier to appreciate the englishnization processes and to capture them with technological tools, as we did with our project. Prego-Vázquez (2018) argues that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have as ultimate purpose to strengthen the interaction between students and the use of pedagogical resources such as TKA and TEP. The use of Technologies of Empowerment and Participation (TEP) has allowed us to conduct the creation of an interactive map and a blog, in which with the use of Technologies of Knowledge Acquisition (TKA), we have reflected about all the sociolinguistic aspects implied in our research and shed light to a new approach that goes far beyond of the educational field. From our point of view, we consider that this project has achieved its aim at enhancing student’s knowledge of the English language in context. This view is supported by Sayers (2010), who argues that doing a student-led linguistic landscape project has several benefits for students’ capability, allowing us to create links between the content taught and to conceive creative and analytical concepts about how language is used in society.

References

Act No. 1, of 7th January 1998, on linguistic policy. Ministry of the Presidency, Government of Catalonia. Barcelona, Spain.

Bitrià, I., & Camprubí, A. (2014). Barris i Crisi. Estudi de cas de Pardinyes, Lleida. Institut de Gobern i Polítiques Públiques. Retrieved from: https://barrisicrisi.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/informe-igop-pardinyes.pdf

Bongaerts, T., Planken, B., & Schils, E. (1995). Can late learners attain a native accent in a foreign language? A test of the critical period hypothesis. In D. Singleton & Z. Lengyel (Eds.), The age factor in second language (pp. 30–50). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Dimova, S. (2007). English shop signs in Macedonia. English Today, 23(3-4), 18-24. 

DOGC (9 May 2018). Llei 1/2018, del 8 de maig, de modificació de la Llei 2/2014, de mesures fiscals, administratives, financeres i del sector públic. DOGC 7615. Retrieved from: http://www.udl.cat/export/sites/universitat-lleida/ca/serveis/il/.galleries/docs/Llei_1-2018_moratoria_B2.pdf

Gifex (n.d.). Barrios de la ciudad de Lérida. Retrieved from: https://www.gifex.com/Europa/Espana/Cataluna/Lerida/Lerida/Politicos.html

Hummel, K. M. (2009). Aptitude, phonological memory, and second language proficiency in nonnovice adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30(2), 225.

Kids&Us (25 May 2018). Kids&Us: Centros. Kids&Us language school. Retrieved from: https://www.kidsandus.es/es/centros/

      Martín-Rojo, L., and C. Molina. 2012. Madrid Multilingüe: Lenguas pa la Citi. Madrid: UAM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBFxhXFVi50

Mooney, A., & Evans, B. (2018). Language, society and power: An introduction. Routledge.

        

            Orvepard (2017). Pardinyes – Història. In Orvepard.org, organització de Veïns de Pardinyes. Retrieved from: https://orvepard.org/veinspardinyes/historia/  

             Sayers, P. 2010. “Using the Linguistic Landscape as a Pedagogical Resource.” ELT Journal 64 (2): 143–154.