ABSTRACT
This is, again, good advice from Kubota, but a very tall order for anyone to complete successfully. Given the tremendous challenges of doing all of those things, and doing them well, this raises the possibility that it might be better to keep our religious beliefs out of the classroom altogether if we are not able to do all those things as well as teach English. Christopher Bradley’s chapter, on the spiritual lessons he has learned as a language teacher, focuses on the important differences between “spirituality” and “religion,” which is central to the notion of spiritual dilemmas in the English language (or any language) classroom, as the first challenge is to establish the nature of the dilemma, assuming one exists, and if so whether or not the dilemma is spiritual or religious. The online version of the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CALD) defines “spiritual” as “related to deep feelings and beliefs, especially religious beliefs,” and for “religious” it gives the following definition, “having a strong belief in god or gods.” As is often the case with languages, perhaps especially English, it is that last, little letter that makes all the difference. Apart from the use of the lower case “g,” it is the final plural marking “s” that is most important. Bradley makes much use of Parker Palmer’s work, including his 2003 article in the Journal of Teacher Education, in which Palmer defines spirituality as “the eternal human yearning to connect with something that is greater than our own egos” (p. 377). Bradley makes his position clear when he states categorically his “conviction that research into possible links between spirituality and ELT must never be used as a pretext for proselytizing” (p. 235). This comment of Bradley’s relates to the point made above regarding the importance of balancing strength of religious belief with self-awareness of how our beliefs are influencing our behaviors. These are key points at which our religious beliefs and teaching behavior intersect and influence each other in ways that can be difficult to identify and almost impossible to quantify, but which nonetheless can have a profound impact on the students in our classrooms.
