What is This Thing Called ELT?– It all depends on how you look at it.

Martha C. Pennington

ENTERPRISE

Broad meaning:

an activity, undertaking, or project

 

Specific meaning:

a business or company

FRAMING OF ELT AND THE ELCFrames of ELT/ELC Work

Instruction

Academic Discipline

Profession

Business

Service

 ELT/ELC Context Frames

Global

Local

Sociocultural

INSTRUCTION FRAME

Content orientation

Skill orientation

Specialised “microfields”

Syllabus type

INSTRUCTION AS TYPE OF SYLLABUS

(Syllabus Type Focus

Formal Forms, system, and rules

Functional Language use in social functions

Task-based Communicative, specific-purposes, metacommunicative tasks

Process Meanings derived and created through negotiated decision-making

[adapted fr. Breen, M. P. (2001). Syllabus design. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Ch. 2, pp. 151-159). Cambridge University Press. p. 155.]

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AS FOCUS FOR PRACTICAL RESEARCH

[T]eachers [like their students] must become border-

crossers and practice a pedagogy that negotiates

competing discourses and cultures…[and] to be

researchers (at least in informal ways) to learn from

their students and constantly rethink their

pedagogical practice. Such undertakings as teacher-

led classroom research and classroom ethnography

play a useful function in developing such a practice.

[Canagarajah A. S. (1999). Resisting linguistic imperialism in

English teaching. Oxford University Press. p. 194.]

ACADEMIC DISCOURSE FRAME

“Big brother/sister” discipline of ELT: applied linguistics

Disciplinary heritage: linguistics, psychology, education

ELC site to develop disciplinary knowledge

ELT a “second-class” discipline

ELT a potentially powerful discipline via EIL

ELT: A CYNICAL SUPPLY-AND-DEMAND VIEW

As in the case of other commodities, scarcity or

inaccessibility of information to the average consumer

drives up its value and, by projection, the value of

anyone who possesses it…. Unfortunately, English

language teaching is generally perceived as entirely

transparent and ordinary in the extreme, as a type of

work that nearly any native speaker can perform or claim

to perform.

[Pennington, M. C., (1992). Second class or economy? The status of the English language teaching profession in tertiary education. Prospect, 7(3), 7-19.]

The English language is …

(1) the primary lingua franca and so the basis for effective communication within and across cultures, and thus critical to education, politics, and international business and exchange;

(2) the primary medium within which much of the specialised knowledge which humans possess is transmitted and comprehended.

PROFESSION FRAME

Specialised knowledge and skill

Ability to handle problems arising

Peer-developed standards and accreditation

ELC as a site for developing professional expertise

BUSINESS FRAME

Education run on a business model

“Bottom-line” orientation

ELT as commodified service or product

Huge market for English language instruction

Potential conflicts with other framings of ELT/ELC

SERVICE FRAME

ELT as language support

ELC as service unit

Teachers and administrators as helpers

ELC provides support for larger unit

Service and business goals often complementary

Potential conflicts with instruction, discipline, profession

GLOBAL FRAME

Ethnoscape the landscape and movement of people around the world

Technoscape the global configuration and movement of technology

Financescape the disposition of capital around the world

Mediascape the dissemination of information and images by media

Ideoscape the dominant ideologies and counterideologies

[adapted fr. Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 51-3]

Its global orientation gives ELT and the ELC a cutting-edge position in terms of leading in:

• Instruction with diversity of instructors and perspectives from different cultures;

• Outreach to the largest possible audience of students, drawn from the world over;

• Creation of disciplinary knowledge on a broad scale and with broad relevance, incorporating strong intercultural and international components;

• Service to larger educational and community contexts to assist in dealing with students and teachers from other cultures and their outreach to other countries;

• Positioning the ELC and larger academic unit strategically for growing business and economy in a global marketplace.

LOCAL FRAME

Competing globalism and nationalism

ELC as responsive to local scapes

ELC as responsive to immediate context

Institutional position of ELC

ELC DISTANT FROM LOCAL CONTEXT

[Language centres] are often both a part of and

apart from the educational contexts in which

they operate…. Even though an [ELC] exists

within the culture of the university at large, the

[ELC] culture contrasts sharply with the

institution of higher education, and as a

university entity it is often misunderstood.

[adapted fr. Henry, A. R. (1997). The decision maker and negotiator. In M. A. Christison and F. Stoller (eds.), A handbook for language program administrators (pp. 77-90). Alta Book Center. p. 77]

SOCIOCULTURAL FRAME

Characteristics of teachers and students

High proportion of female / L2 teachers

Diverse instructor / student populations and strong female base – assets to counter tradition and evolve critically aware communities of practice

Egalitarian, liberal orientation – not power players or big money makers but humanists and pragmatists

ORIENTATION OF ELT PRACTICE

Humanistic

•Focus on relationships;

•Focus on satisfaction of needs;

•Idealistic, even altruistic, view of people;

•Facilitative and supportive to students and staff;

•Cooperative, interactive in decision-making and power-sharing.

•Pragmatic

•Bottom-line view of language centre operation;

•Highly achievement-oriented instruction;

•High responsiveness and willingness to change as needed to satisfy customer and market demands and remain viable.

[adapted fr. Pennington, M. C. & Hoekje, B. J. (2010). Language program leadership in a changing world: An ecological model. Emerald/Brill. p. 52]

Questions on ELC as

Instruction

• Is there sufficient innovation in instruction to keep pace with global trends in the linguascape, ethnoscape, mediascape, technoscape, and ideoscape?

• Is the centre director facilitating adaptation of instructional innovations to the local context and connecting these to the build-up of disciplinary knowledge and academic prestige?

Questions on ELC as Profession

• What is the centre director’s performance and the record of the program in securing or raising the status of teaching and administrative staff, and in ensuring good employment conditions?

• How are the ELC director and teachers connecting to professional bodies and using them to develop themselves and the centre?

Questions on ELC as Academic Discipline

• Are the ELC director and teachers maintaining or pursuing productive linkages with academic departments for academic advancement?

• Is the centre director and its teachers fostering quality and high-level achievement in development of the ELC and its academic reputation?

Questions on ELC as Business

• How well does the ELC function as a business in terms of bringing in revenues and operating on a balanced budget, and how has this functioning been enhanced in program development?

• Is ELC revenue being spent wisely and productively to ensure ongoing development and improvement?

Questions on ELC as Service

• Is the ELC doing enough to achieve high service and satisfaction, even to exceed expectations?

• Are the ELC director and teachers contributing to the various communities connected to the program, in ways that enhance relationships and local and global connections?

Questions on ELC Context Frames

• Is attention to local context taking away needed attention to global factors, or vice versa, in program development?

• Is the specific sociocultural context of the centre being considered in terms of its positive or negative effects on instruction or other quality issues?

• What potentials are not being developed and what opportunities are being missed in relation to the centre’s contextual frames?