English Language Teaching Pedagogy Research Articles

THE DAD IN THE CHE GUEVARA T-SHIRT: NARRATIVES OF CHILEAN ENGLISH TEACHERS

Building on previous critical research regarding student resistance to English Language Teaching (ELT), this paper illustrates Chilean high-school English teachers' use of narrative to make sense of ideological challenges from students. While the government of Chile is promoting English in connection with the nation's export-oriented economic policies, this promotion of English has been resisted by leftist movements unrepresented within the current neoliberal “consensus;” coping with political resistance is a perennial challenge for English teachers. Through an analysis of dialogic voicing in narratives audiotaped during life-history interviews, the paper illustrates how Chilean English teachers make sense of their positioning within ideological struggles over the connection between ELT and global capitalism. Thus, this paper is a case study of how individuals invested in English as an international language cope with resistance to globalization within local contexts; I conclude by discussing the implications of my findings for ELT pedagogy and globalization studies.

A Critical Examination of ELT in Thailand

With the increasingly significant role that English language teaching (ELT) is playing in Asian contexts, it is important to gain a better understanding of the use of English as a medium of intercultural communication in Asia. In doing so, ELT practices may be better able to adapt themselves to the intercultural communicative needs of local contexts. This paper argues that an essential element in fostering successful intercultural communication is developing cultural awareness as part of ELT pedagogy. To illustrate this, a case study of Thailand is presented examining English use, English teaching policy and practice, and local cultural attitudes towards ELT. This then leads to suggestions on how locally relevant intercultural communicative practices can form part of ELT classroom pedagogy in Thailand with the aim of developing learners' cultural awareness. It is argued that similar analyses may be applied to other Asian contexts, which may share features with the Thai context. This can lead to the development of teaching practices, which through engaging learners in intercultural reflection will result in English language users who are better able to manage intercultural communication through English.

Toward an appropriate EIL pedagogy: re‐examining common ELT assumptions

This article argues that the teaching of English as an international language (EIL) should be based on an entirely different set of assumptions than has typically informed English language teaching (ELT) pedagogy. To begin, several defining features of an international language are described. Because these features have altered the nature of English itself, the author maintains that the pedagogy for teaching English must also change. The author then describes how two developments – a dramatic increase in the number of second language speakers of English and a shift in the cultural basis of English – have significantly altered the nature of English. These changes challenge several common assumptions of ELT pedagogy, namely that: interest in learning of English is largely the result of linguistic imperialism; ELT research and pedagogy should be informed by native speaker models; the cultural content for ELT should be derived from the cultures of native English speakers; the culture of learning that informs communicative language teaching (CLT) provides the most productive method for ELT. The article ends by positing major assumptions that should inform a comprehensive theory of EIL pedagogy.

Critical Pedagogy in ELT: Images of Brazilian Teachers of English

Recently, some scholars inside the English language teaching (ELT) community have started to question the absence of a critical view in the teaching and role of English internationally. More specifically, they have attempted to encourage ESL/EFL teachers to address such sociopolitical issues as the alleged neutrality of English as an international language. They argue for a critical pedagogy that would encourage pedagogical practices aiming to empower teachers and learners, and consequently to change the nature of schooling and transform society. Considering that critical pedagogy has its roots in the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, we investigated what 40 Brazilian English teachers knew about and thought of critical pedagogy in ELT. Our findings showed that they were unaware of it. Attached to the strong appeal of a dominant integrative discourse, the English teachers saw themselves as agents of good in that they prepared students to be successful in the world. In view of the fact that Brazil's new National Curriculum Parameter is based on critical pedagogical assumptions, we wonder how such a pedagogy might operate in this particular context.