Skills Training or Education
Firstly, there is the issue of whether language teaching is mainly about coaching a skill, or whether it should strive after broader objectives. I would argue that there are many groups around the world (business people, diplomats, international students, secondary school pupils studying it as a foreign language), whose main interest in learning English is instrumental, for whom its cultural baggage and ideological embedding is largely irrelevant. They are concerned to develop an adequate proficiency as efficiently as possible, and will look favourably on any activities which facilitate this. Here, of course, questions of syllabus and materials design and teaching methodology become important. Akbari is quite right to lament the anodyne nature of Breitling Replica Watches most commercially produced textbooks, although he acknowledges that this is largely the result of publishing companies trying to meet very widespread demand without giving offence. He is equally right to question methods which exclude the learner’s native tongue, though he recognizes that outsiders might have problems if they are not familiar with local languages. One might add too that the emphasis on communicative methodology is also often misplaced, and that greater respect needs to be paid to local pedagogical traditions.
So I believe that Akbari’s objections on these matters are justified. His arguments, however, can be applied within the established notions of learner-centredness and authenticity; they do not need to be subsumed under the heading of CP. Clearly, if learners are involved in activities and with topics with which they can identify, they are likely to be more motivated and the English they acquire is likely to be more obviously relevant. Akbari does not give many concrete examples of classroom exercises, but such can be found in articles by Cots (2006) and Morgan (2004). They are well designed and should prove engaging, so enabling learners to develop their language skills, though this will occur as a result of good lesson planning rather than CP per se. In fact, as a distinct approach, CP has little to say about the process of language learning itself: it does not promise that learners will increase their mastery of English, only that their learning will somehow be more socially and politically relevant. As suggested above, that might not be a priority for some groups. Timmis (2002) too indicates that learners do not always exhibit the priorities expected of them. They might feel that what they require from a language teacher is language; they can make the value judgements for themselves.
Beyond this there is also the matter of knowledge. How qualified are most English language teachers to pronounce on Replica Breitling political or social matters? Phillipson (1992:195) is concerned that the drive to export English in the 19703 and 19805 led to a plethora of under-qualified language teachers wandering the world doing damage in the classroom. How much more pernicious might be the effect of aspiring sociologists, political scientists, and cultural experts let loose in similar contexts. The possible problems arising from such a scenario are illustrated by Alistair Pennycook’s account of his experiences whilst teaching in China (1994: 313). He refers to a situation in which some of his fellow-teachers were American Christian missionaries, whose work served as a vehicle to disguise their real purposes. He felt obliged to give classes in which he drew the students’ attention to the fact that these colleagues were ‘fundamentalists’ and could be said to support the ‘right-wing’ policies of the US government. It is clear from the text that the terms ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘right-wing’ have negative connotations for the writer.
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