Foreign Language Teaching to Adults: Implicit and explicit political education

Abstract

Political education may occur within skills-based subjects such as foreign languages. However, this may be problematic in that learners wish to develop linguistic rather than political skills, and teachers are unprepared political educators. A language course is also about the cultures of the peoples who speak the language, including political institutions. Politics has a logical place within a language course but the word culture does not inevitably evoke political institutions. Within Europe, language education is part of the political project of creating a more integrated market and transnational political entity. Political education is an implicit part of the study of a foreign language. This article examines some of the materials provided to adult, part-time students of the British Open University's language courses. It highlights some elements of the courses that are quite explicitly political education. It also draws on interviews with some of those involved in making the courses to explore the debates and decisions concerning the cultural content and particularly the representations of the target culture. It attempts to make explicit some of the implicit assumptions behind the making of a language course.