by Lindsey Jackson
It’s not uncommon nowadays to hear of instructors incorporating TED Talks into their lesson plans. TED Talks present interesting topics for discussion, and they also have subtitles and transcripts available for listeners who may require a little more scaffolding. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” (2009), has become one of the most vital supplements to my instruction in my non-native composition course.
Adichie, a novelist originally from Nigeria who has lived a number of years in the United States, discusses the danger of living a narrow-minded life. Incorporating anecdotes of her own experiences as well as relying on the wisdom of others, Adichie argues that not taking the time to learn about all sides of a story “robs people of dignity.”
For international students, Adichie’s topic is certainly a relatable one. Whether we mean to or not, instructors oftentimes rely on international students in the classroom to be ambassadors for their entire home country. When we ask questions like, “What do people in your country believe about this?”, we fail to recognize that, like in our own country, people don’t have one collective opinion and that, just like us, our students can only fully explain one perception: their own. To stereotype, or to insist on a single story, Adichie argues, is to steal opportunities to find commonalities with people whose upbringings were different than ours.
As they listen, students smile knowingly at Adichie’s comments about being stereotyped, and they laugh every semester at Adichie’s college roommate’s shock that Adichie’s “tribal music” was actually just a Mariah Carey cassette tape. By using stories like this, Adichie approaches a serious subject with a light and playful tone, and it helps drive her point home.
What Adichie really does through her talk, though, is offer a framework for critical thinking. A component that, in my classroom at least, is as important as—if not more than—the writing process itself. I use her speech to introduce the concept of arguments and counterarguments in writing, but it accomplishes far more than that. Adichie teaches her listeners not what to think but how to think, and she does so in such a powerful way that my students, unprompted, reference her talk in class discussions, assignments, or conversations with me for the rest of the semester.
I can’t ask more from a TED Talk than that. Adichie’s story opens a door for critical thinking. Adichie encourages my students to conduct more thorough research, to not only talk to but listen to people who are different than them, and to share their own stories. And somehow, in the midst of it all, she also makes them laugh. “The Danger of a Single Story” is effective in every way, and I highly recommend its use in advanced-proficiency ESOL classes.
References
Adichie, C. (2009, July). The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en#t-182663
Lindsey Jackson will be graduating with a Master’s in English-TESOL from Missouri State University in May. She has an undergraduate degree in English Education from Evangel University and currently teaches English composition for non-native English speakers at Missouri State.
