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ENGLISH FOR SALE Ben Goldstein

ENGLISH FOR SALE Ben Goldstein. 1 Cultural content of ELT materials - Approaches / icons / texts / role models - Stereotyping / aspirational values, etc. 2 The marketing of English - Language schools, courses, etc. 3 Dominance / Ownership of English

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ENGLISH FOR SALE Ben Goldstein

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  1. ENGLISH FOR SALE Ben Goldstein

  2. 1 Cultural content of ELT materials - Approaches / icons / texts / role models - Stereotyping / aspirational values, etc. 2 The marketing of English - Language schools, courses, etc. 3 Dominance / Ownership of English - The ‘native speaker package’ ‘A Third Space’

  3. 1 Cultural content of ELT materials

  4. Students increasingly wanted to learn the language in an international, business or social context, rather than with reference to British culture: "There's much less interest in the red telephone boxes and black London taxis in text books, or in English learning that has a close relationship with the UK," the report said. D. Lepkowska “UK Under Threat as English Teaching Goes Global”, Guardian, 12/2006

  5. Dominant paradigm “Surface” / essentialist target culture in background Sts as skills acquirers (pragmatic/semantic slant) Native speaker model: setting an unattainable target Aspirational role models/ celebrities take centre stage Proposed alternative “Deeper” / glocal cultural content foregrounded Sts as apprentice ethnographers (aesthetic/ sociological slant) Intercultural speaker model: asserting “right to sound foreign” Models brought in line with students’ own lives / experience

  6. 2 The Marketing of English

  7. Marketing techniques Embarrassment (at lack of knowledge / “sounding foreign”, getting it wrong ) Sense of Guilt (for speaking L1) Status (adapting to a superior model, not allowing for personal response) Associations of culture & language (often negative stereotypes / ‘weak’ English) Emphasis on the semantic and pragmatic

  8. 3 Dominance / Ownership of English

  9. “Every learner has a distinct story to tell, and teaching culture is about constructing and hearing these stories” Moran, 2001

  10. A Third Space “Learners seek out a personal space where two worlds exist simultaneously, … (here) they will make their own meanings and relevances, often challenging the established educational canons of both native and target cultures”. Kramsch, p.238

  11. A way forward… 1 Promote a flexible model of English open to student appropriation and emergent forms. 2 Allow learners space to bring out their own culture and fashion their own voice. 3 Encourage a context-sensitive and culture-specific approach to language teaching (e.g. determine ‘cultural content’ according to local needs).

  12. A way forward… 4 Incorporate a cultural studies perspective into teacher training and teacher education. 5 Reassess the native speaker model and its dominant culture as prototype in marketing of English. 6 Develop critical awareness and reflection in terms of presentation of culture. Challenge the ‘familiar’.

  13. bengoldstein@wanadoo.es

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