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ELT in Images – the jungle

Sunday 19 July 2009

When I was talking to teachers as part of my research for the book Dealing with Difficulties this image came up again and again, especially at secondary level. “It’s a jungle in there,” people told me. It reminds me of the warnings new teachers get from the older, more cynical members of staff about difficult classes. One of the top stressors for teachers is classroom management and unruly behaviour, according to much of the research done in this area. And many say it is getting worse.

The image of the jungle is strong in Hollywood versions of life in the classroom. One of the most famous of these is The Blackboard Jungle, a 1955 movie starring Glen Ford and Sidney Poitier (see other image below). The themes of this film: inner-city school, dangerous students, anti-social behaviour and a teacher who needs to get tough have been repeated in many other movies. The Principal, Stand and Deliver, The Substitute and Class of 1999.

But the jungle can also be a beautiful, fascinating place too. Maybe it’s time to change this educational image of the jungle as a menacing place in need of a king to dominate it to something more appreciative of diversity and the beauty of complex systems.

3 responses to ELT in Images – the jungle

Leahn says:

July 19, 2009 at 4:28 pm

Hi Lindsay,

I love the JUNGLE metaphor. I think there is even a heavy meatal song with the line ‘Welcome to the Jungle!’.I know what you mean about the Hollywood version of the classroom as a jungle. I would go as far as to say that life is one big jungle. Do you remember Arnold Schwarznegger in the film ‘kindergarten Cop’ ?

After a spate in State Primary Schools in Spain I would say that every jungle needs a King! A jungle without a King is like a free for all! A killing field where survival of this fittest is the norm.

A jungle can be a thing of immense beauty but, if you go off willy nilly without provisions you are playing a dangerous game. Arm yourself with supplies before you set off!

I recommend good classroom management skills, plenty of enthusiasm, a positve attitude, motivation and a good guide book that you can rely on if all else fails!

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- Lindsay Clandfield says:
  
  July 21, 2009 at 7:24 am
  
  Thanks Leahn, for the comment. Sounds like a good survival list there at the end of the comment. Jungle survival skills… a new course for teachers? And yes, the Welcome to the Jungle song is by Guns n Roses… a favourite close to my heavy-metal heart.
  
  Reply
Scott says:

July 21, 2009 at 2:32 pm

The image of the jungle has also been used, to good effect, to represent the rich ecology of language “affordances” that confronts the learner of a language when situated in contexts of real language use. Leo van Lier argues that this ecological view assumes

“that knowledge of language for a human is like knowledge of the jungle for an animal. The animal does not ‘have’ the jungle; it knows how to use the jungle and to live in it. Perhaps we can say by analogy that we do not ‘have’ or ‘possess’ language, but that we learn to use it and ‘live in it’… We ‘learn’ language in the same way that an animal ‘learns’ the forest, or a plant ‘learns’ the soil.”

To me, this ecological view is very suggestive. At the very least, it suggests creating classroom environments that are linguistically fertile, socially-situated, interactive, and where language is available as a tool for making meaning.

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