Neoliberalism , celebrity and ‘ aspirational content’ in ELT textbooks for the global market

1. Neoliberalism, celebrity and ‘aspirational content’ in ELT textbooks for the global market University of Warwick October 19th 2011 John Gray j.gray@uel.ac.uk

2. Overview • Researching textbooks • Celebrity – what is and how has it been theorised • Neoliberal ideology • The case of textbooks • Discussion

3. Researching textbooks • Cultural artefact vs curriculum artefact • Textbooks are core commodities in the ELT industry • ELT research is about inter-disciplinary ‘boundary work’ • Textbook analysis vs Textbook evaluation

4. Gräf, G. & S. Hoffmann (1968) English for You/2. Volkseigener Verlag: Berlin

5. Gräf, G. & S. Hoffmann (1968) English for You/2. VolkseigenerVerlag: Berlin Question tags and negative questions: A: Before 1933 Marx House was a workers’ club, wasn’t it? B: I think so. Hadn’t it been a school before? A: That’s right. Make up similar dialogues with: 1) Lenin printed the paper “Iskra” in Marx House – a British socialist had given him a corner of his office.

6. English for Islamic purposes

7. Soars, L. & J. Soars (2005). New Headway/Upper-Intermediate. Oxford: OUP A I don’t know how you can afford to buy all those fabulous clothes! B Still/Hopefully, I’m going to get a bonus this month. I should do. My boss promised it to me. After all/Presumably, I did earn the company over £100,000 last year. Basically/Actually, it was nearer £150,000. I do deserve it, don’t you think. B Of course/In fact, you do.

8. O’Neill, R. (1970). English in Situations. Oxford: OUP.

9. Soars, J.& L. Soars (2002) New Headway Pre-Intermediate. Oxford: OUP

10. Textbook sample (1) Hartley, B. & P. Viney. (1979) Streamline Connections. Oxford: OUP. Abbs, B. & I. Freebairn. (1984) Building Strategies. Harlow: Longman. Swan, M. & C. Walter. (1990) The New Cambridge English Course 2. Cambridge: CUP. Soars, J. & L. Soars. (2003) The new Edition New Headway/Intermediate. Oxford: OUP.

11. Textbook sample (2) • Headway Intermediate (Soars and Soars, 1986); New Headway Intermediate (Soars and Soars,1996; 2003; 2009); New Headway Upper-Intermediate (Soars and Soars 1998); New Headway Elementary (Soars and Soars 2000a; 2011); New Headway Pre-Intermediate (Soars and Soars 2000b); New Headway Advanced (Soars and Soars 2003b); New Headway Upper-Intermediate (Soars and Soars 2005); New Cutting Edge Intermediate (Cunningham and Moor 2005a); New Cutting Edge Upper-Intermediate (Cunningham and Moor 2005b).

12. What is celebrity? • Celebrity = ‘the attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual’ (Rojek 2001: 10) • Celebrity = ‘impact on public consciousness’ (ibid: 10) • Celebrity = ‘people who are objects of pronounced media attention over which they may have only a limited amount of control’ (Biressi & Nunn 2008: 159).

13. Gray, J. (2012) ‘Neoliberalism, celebrity and ‘aspirational content’ in English language teaching textbooks for the global market’ in Block, D., J. Gray and M. HolborowNeoliberalism and Applied Linguistics, London: Routledge • a contemporary celebrity is understood as someone who is well-known (in the sense of being publicly recognisable) as a result of pronounced media attention which is largely commercially motivated and whose impact on public consciousness is as a result of their capacity to embody and generate affect.

14. Rojek, C. (2001). Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books Ltd. Types of celebrity: • Ascribed e.g. member of an elite group such as a royal family or a political dynasty (e.g. Windsors, Kennedys, or Gandhis). • Achieved e.g. Rafael Nadal • Attributed e.g. Jade Goody celetoid and celeactor

15. Vicky Pollard

16. Theorising celebrity (1) • Celebrity culture and the celetoid are the direct result of the revolt against tyranny. The celeactor is a symptom of the decline of ascribed forms of power and a greater equality in the balance of power between social classes (Rojek 2001: 29)

17. Theorising celebrity (2) (Neo)Marxist perspective: The culture industry – a from of ‘mass deception’ (Adorno & Horkheimer 1944/1997) The cult of celebrities (film stars) has a built-in social mechanism to level down everyone who stands out in any way. The stars are simply a pattern round which the world-embracing garment is cut (ibid: 236).

18. Theorising celebrity (3) In the public sphere, a cluster of individuals are given greater presence and a wider scope of activity and agency than are those who make up the rest of the population. They are allowed to move on the public stage while the rest of us watch. They are allowed to express themselves quite individually and idiosyncratically while the rest of the members of the population are constructed as demographic aggregates [...] Celebrity status operates at the very centre of the culture as it resonates with conceptions of individuality that are the ideological ground of Western culture. Moreover, the celebrity as public individual who participates openly as a marketable commodity serves as powerful type of legitimation of the political economic model of exchange and value – the basis of capitalism – and extends that model to include the individual (Marshall 1997: x).

19. Neoliberalism • The privatization of state assets • Market deregulation • Unrestricted free trade • The creation of internal markets • The dismantling or scaling down of institutions associated with welfare statism • The marketization of areas of life which were previously outside the market or which were seen as the preserve of the state – such as health and education

20. Bourdieu, P. (1998) Utopia of Endless Exploitation: The Essence of Neoliberalism. Le Monde Diplomatique. Thus the absolute reign of flexibility is established, with employees […] on fixed-term contracts or on a temporary basis and repeated corporate restructurings and, within the firm itself, competition among autonomous divisions as well as among teams forced to perform multiple functions. Finally, this competition is extended to individuals themselves, through the individualisation of the wage relationship: establishment of individual performance objectives, individual performance evaluations, permanent evaluation, individual salary increases or granting of bonuses as a function of competence and of individual merit; individualised career paths; strategies of “delegating responsibility” tending to ensure the self-exploitation of staff who […] are at the same time held responsible for their sales, their products, their branch, their store, etc. as though they were independent contractors.

21. 1987 Interview for Woman’s Own available at the Margaret Thatcher websitehttp://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689 I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women ...

22. Corder, S. P. (1960)

23. O’Neill, R. (1970)

24. Hartley, B. & P. Viney (1979) Streamline Connections. Oxford: OUP • Miklos Nemeth; Alberto Juantorena; Bob Beamon; Annegret Richter; Rosemarie Ackermann; David Wilkie; VasilyAlexeev; Paul McCartney; James Hunt; UK Queen; J. F. Kennedy; Elvis Presley

25. Celebrities in Cunningham, S. & P. Moor (2005). New Cutting Edge/Upper Intermediate. Harlow: Pearson Longman Jackson 5; Osmonds; Bee Gees; Corrs; Oasis; Boom Kat; Britney Spears; Eminem; Ozzy Osborne; Kelly Osborne; Brian May; Freddie Mercury; Rowan Atkinson; Halle Berry; Paul McCartney; Ringo Star; Steve Redgrave; Ghandi; Martin Luther King; Evana Trump; Bill Gates; John Kennedy Jnr; Jade Jagger; Princess Diana; Liz Hurley; Oprah Winfrey; Tom Cruise; Robbie Williams; Woody Allen; Marilyn Munroe; Arnold Schwarzenegger; Alan Alda; Fred Allen; Harrison Ford; Brad Pitt; David Beckham; George Cluney; Jennifer Lopez; Tony Blair; Madonna; Nicole Kidman; Steven Spielberg; Ricky Martin; John Lennon; Jennifer Aniston; Ralph Fiennes; Hillary Clinton; Elvis Presley; KieraKnightley; ParmindaNagra; GurinderChadha; Roman Polanski; Nirvana

26. Schematic knowledge/ludic function • Drive fast/James Hunt  Do you drive as fast as James Hunt? • Advise these people: I don’t know what to wear ... I’m going to have tea with the Queen, and I don’t know what to wear • Brutus Cray (boxer); Elton Kash (pop singer) (Hartley & Viney 1979)

27. Viney, P. & B. Hartley (1979) Streamline Connections. Oxford: OUP

28. Soars, J. & L. Soars. (2003). New Edition New Headway/Intermediate. Oxford: OUP.

29. Soars, L. & J. Soars (2003) New Headway/Advanced. Oxford: OUPThe inspiring tale of two Asian brothers who fled to Britain from East Africa and made a fortune Vijay and Bhikhu Patel

30. Cunningham, S. & P. Moor (2005). New Cutting Edge/Upper Intermediate. Harlow: Pearson Longman How to be a celebrity 7 Create your own formula for success If you want to make it really big, don’t take any established, familiar path to celebrity and don’t follow in anyone else’s footprints. Create your own unique route. Someone said that genius is the ability to invent one’s own occupation. People like Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of Talk Shows, or Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft have reshaped and redefined an occupation and even an industry in their own image. Their fame is assured.

31. Soars, L. & J. Soars (2003) New Headway Advanced. Oxford: OUP • Work in small groups. You have decided that it is your destiny in life to be famous. You want to get on the A list of celebrities who are invited to all the best parties, opening nights, balls and social events.

32. Soars, L. & J. Soars (2003) New Headway Advanced. Oxford: OUP Speaking How to become an A-list celebrity It is time to start your journey on the road to fame and fortune. You want to make it to the big time as quickly as possible. You have identified two routes that could find you a way to join the rich and famous.

33. Soars, L. & J. Soars (2003) New Headway Advanced. Oxford: OUP What do you think? Games such as these are used in management training to practice the qualities of good leadership. What are the qualities of a good leader?

34. Slovenian state school teacher • Celebrities are mainly individuals that our students see on TV, at the cinema or hear on the radio. So, often enough they tend to be people with whom our students can identify, people that they want to talk about because they idolize them and want to become them. I applaud celebrities in my teaching because it adds that spark needed for motivation to get the students talking, commenting. I recently used a text about John Lennon for Reading Comprehension as part of a test I had prepared for my group of 13 year olds. I usually collect the texts after the test, but they didn’t want to give this text back to me. They wanted to keep it, because it was someone they admired. So, I let them keep it. That’s the kind of impact I’m talking about.

35. British teacher in German university language centre • I have a number of difficulties with their use. Firstly, overuse of celebrities in the materials and often an erroneous assumption that they (celebrities) help in some way to engage interest or to be worthwhile topics of discussion or that we care about them. Secondly, they appear to legitimise or standardise the notion that we should be interested in this type of content. Thirdly, even if they are good materials, the transient nature of celebrity means the materials can date very quickly (good business model for the publisher’s second, third, fourth, etc edition, but not good for the pockets of learners, schools or colleges). Lastly and with regard to ELT materials, without fail 95+% are anglocentric celebrities, be it music, actors, business people, etc.. Where are all the other people in the world?

36. British ESOL teacher The vast majority of immigrants in the UK choose to learn English for study, employment and to make a decent living. The life of a celebrity is so far removed from reality and how most “ordinary” people live in the UK. It is a dishonest portrayal of life in the UK. It creates false dreams and aspirations in the minds of language learners. Instead, I would argue for use of more realistic characters, like the average Joe and what he has to go through in everyday life to feed his family. This is particularly relevant given the current economic situation in the UK and the fact that the country is run by a bunch of toffs and wanna be celebrities completely oblivious to the plight of ordinary people. The other problem with the use of celebrities in ELT materials is that they all seem to be monolingual and even if they are bilingual then this is never emphasised.