Culture in Language Teacher Education: A South Asian Perspective

Abstract

English language teacher education in the EFL contexts reveals its culture-based paradox. The trainee teachers are inculcated with the nuances of social and cultural values of the BANA (Britain, Australasia and North America) countries: that pair/group work is a panacea for all communicative ills, and that the teachers should minimize their talks, are taken for granted. The training hall discourse establishes that the Western assumption of teacher learning is universal. Interestingly, at the same time, these teachers are encouraged to plan the lessons to fit their local context. The literature on culture and language learning establishes that local culture plays a significant role in learner engagement. Although there has been sporadic research on the place of local culture and teacher learning, language teacher education programmes are still BANA-centric. The above issue is very pertinent in the South Asian context that has a rich tradition of education with its own theories of pedagogy that cannot be ignored when it comes to language teacher education. Based on language teacher educator interviews and teacher education curricula analysis, this chapter presents the South Asian perspective on the place of culture in language teacher education programmes.KeywordsCultureLanguage teacher educationSouth Asia