Reflecting on western TESOL training and communicative language teaching bangladeshi teachers voices

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232995425 Reflecting on Western TESOL training and communicative language teaching: Bangladeshi teachers' voices Article in Asia Pacific Journal of Education · September 2008 DOI: 10.1080/02188790802236006 CITATIONS READS 20 101 2 authors: Raqib Chowdhury PHAN LE HA 25 PUBLICATIONS 55 CITATIONS 40 PUBLICATIONS 284 CITATIONS Monash University (Australia) SEE PROFILE University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: International Teachers and Intercultural Interactions in broader Asia View project Book - Engaging in Educational Praxis: Connecting Policy and Practice in Bangladesh (Springer) View project All content following this page was uploaded by PHAN LE HA on 24 September 2014 The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately This article was downloaded by: [Monash University] On: October 2008 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 778575837] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Asia Pacific Journal of Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713724324 Reflecting on Western TESOL training and communicative language teaching: Bangladeshi teachers' voices Raqib Chowdhury a; Phan Le Ha a Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia a Online Publication Date: 01 September 2008 To cite this Article Chowdhury, Raqib and Le Ha, Phan(2008)'Reflecting on Western TESOL training and communicative language teaching: Bangladeshi teachers' voices',Asia Pacific Journal of Education,28:3,305 — 316 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/02188790802236006 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188790802236006 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material Asia Pacific Journal of Education Vol 28, No 3, September 2008, 305–316 Reflecting on Western TESOL training and communicative language teaching: Bangladeshi teachers’ voices Raqib Chowdhury and Phan Le Ha* Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 ( Received November 2007; final version received 29 January 2008 ) The increasing demand for competent users of English in the era of globalisation has had a significant impact on English Language Teaching (ELT) in Bangladesh Among a number of changes to improve the quality of ELT, teachers of English have been encouraged, even required, to adopt a communicative language teaching (CLT) approach To facilitate the successful implementation of these changes, besides introducing local training programmes to familiarise teachers with CLT, teachers of English from Bangladesh have also been sent overseas, especially to the English-speaking West, for further training Drawing on a qualitative research study, this paper discusses the pedagogical concerns of Bangladeshi English teachers, including those who are Western-trained, in relation to their teaching of English It also investigates their perceptions of the politics of the Western Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) industry associated with problems of pedagogical ethics and appropriacy Based on the findings and discussions, recommendations are offered for enhancing the quality of ELT in Bangladesh and strategically responding to the commercialised hegemonic but necessary “evil” of TESOL training Keywords: TESOL; ELT; communicative language teaching; teacher training Introduction The increasing demand for competent users of English in the era of globalisation has had a significant impact on English Language Teaching (ELT) in Bangladesh Among a number of changes aimed at improving the quality of ELT, teachers of English have been encouraged, even required to adopt a communicative language teaching (CLT) approach At the risk of over-generalising, it may be said that CLT has become the dominant theoretical model in ELT all over the world since the 1980s In practical terms, the approach involves providing teachers with communicative activities as part of their repertoire of teaching skills and giving learners ample opportunity to practise their language skills in class Even though CLT claims to create a democratic classroom that is responsive to students’ needs, it is often inappropriate and incompatible, neither sophisticated nor responsive enough for the complex educational needs and cultures of students in certain settings This paper examines the various facets of the application of CLT in Bangladesh and the politicisation processes that are inextricably linked to its implementation in settings where a more teacher-centred approach is the culturally sanctioned norm To facilitate the implementation of CLT in Bangladesh, along with the introduction of local training programmes, teachers of English have also been sent overseas – almost exclusively *Corresponding author Email: ha.phan@education.monash.edu.au ISSN 0218-8791 print/ISSN 1742-6855 online q 2008 National Institute of Education, Singapore DOI: 10.1080/02188790802236006 http://www.informaworld.com 306 R Chowdhury and Phan L.H to the English-speaking West – for further training This paper specifically discusses the perceptions that Bangladeshi Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teachers, including Western-trained ones, have in relation to the politics of the Western TESOL industry, which is associated with problems of pedagogical ethics and appropriacy (Holliday, 2005; Pennycook, 1994, 1998) Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 An overview of English and ELT in Bangladesh Bangladesh does not enjoy the ethnolinguistic diversity that other countries in the region have (Chowdhury & Farooqui, in press), with 98% of its population speaking Bangla or Bengali (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2007) A foreign (rather than second) language in Bangladesh, English is taught as a compulsory core subject from Years – 12 Though few people use it in their personal lives, the country depends on it for both internal and international business, and there is no doubt about its importance in job markets, business, industry and government, with workers increasingly expected to develop skills in English Proficiency in English is widely seen as a precondition leading to economic, social and educational opportunities, and providing access to material resources Because of the importance accorded to English and the consistently escalating demands for English proficiency, in 2000, the government introduced major changes to the curriculum, text and teacher training (see Chowdhury & Farooqui, in press, for details) In spite of these changes, classroom teaching seems to have returned to the old “chalk-and-talk drill method” (Pandian, 2004, as cited in Littlewood, 2007, p 246) At all levels of education, the grammar-translation method is still the norm of ELT in Bangladesh and considerable friction between policy-level expectations and actual practice can be felt by practitioners, such as the English teachers who took part in this study Such practice involves a heavy emphasis on grammatical rules, vocabulary memorisation and translation of (mostly decontextualised) sentences English lessons are conducted solely in Bangla or Bengali, with little use of English Until recently, the secondary English textbook was mainly a collection of “prose” and “poetry”, with a supplementary grammar book in which grammar items were presented structurally with almost no interactive exercises The only activities involved writing paragraphs, essays, personal letters and job applications As Hasan (2004) reports, the emphasis was on grammar, encouraging students to learn the language but not how to use it in a given context While examinations assessed grammatical knowledge, along with writing skills, speaking and listening skills were neither a focus of classroom teaching, nor were they tested in the exam Reform movements In the face of the long-felt inadequacy of English courses, which failed to improve the learners’ skills, reform in ELT started taking place from the late 1990s Imam reports that the government made it clear that “being nationally competent in English is one necessary condition if Bangladesh is to move up the long curve of economic growth from its low starting point” (Imam, 2005, as cited in Farooqui, 2006) The government, through a number of overseas development projects, sought to introduce major changes in English language education in the secondary education sector In 2000, the English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP), for example, co-funded by the Bangladeshi government and by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), introduced communicative textbooks up to the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) level Chowdhury and Farooqui (in press) discuss how the ELTIP, which was jointly run by the British Council Dhaka and the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, attempted to improve the quality of ELT in secondary and higher secondary education Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Education 307 across the country The new curriculum was a conspicuous departure from previous teaching methods, with a marked transfer of focus from a teacher-centred to a more student-centred approach This method was explicitly aimed at the teaching and learning of English, facilitating students’ acquisition of communicative competence in English through interaction and practice of skills in the classroom Textbooks included, for the first time, material that was not only locally produced but also culturally familiar The conceptualisation, creation and production of materials were all done by local teachers Along with these changes, the ELTIP also conducted teacher training throughout the country, redesigned the curriculum for secondary schools, and produced teaching materials Teachers were now expected to foster communicative competence in students Although these reforms took place in secondary education, its effects were soon to be felt in the university, with the emergence of new courses such as the University of Dhaka’s Foundation Course (FC) in English The participants of this study were all teachers in this course (For an elaboration of this study, please refer to Chowdhury & Farooqui, in press.) The cultural politics of the TESOL industry The continued global demand for English language courses has seen the enterprise of TESOL grow into a successful global industry (Pennycook, 1994, 1998; Phillipson, 1992) Auerbach claims that TESOL programmes are “often controlled not by the structure or objective of the program but by the specific and sometimes incidental interest of the faculty” (1995, p 86), while authors such as Walker (2001) have claimed that TESOL institutions, though inherently educational in character, are essentially “service operations” where commercial success may depend on the word-of-mouth recommendations of satisfied clients TESOL courses in North America, Britain and Australia (NABA) have also been criticised for their ethnocentrism Liu claims that these courses neglect the “needs of international TESOL students” (1998, p 3) Such neglect has been seen, for example, in “L2 acquisition theories and TESOL methodologies” (p 4), where there has been little consideration of other non-NABA contexts, which may result in “impractical or ineffective” (p 4) adaptations of teaching methodologies in non-NABA countries Likewise, Brown explores ELT teacher training and reveals some conflicts between contemporary ELT, “particularly but not exclusively in the ‘importing’ of new techniques associated with communicative language teaching”, and the reality of implementing such techniques in developing countries He argues that “cultural continuity” and gradual changes should be “respected, by not losing contact with current [local] practice” (2000, p 227) Lin, Wang, Akamatsu, and Riazi argue that the name TESOL itself “already assigns a fixed status to the English learner, positioning the learner in a life trajectory of forever being the ‘Other’, and continuing the colonial storyline of Friday – the ‘slave boy’ learning the ‘master’s language’” (2001, p 22) It is always the Other who has to work hard and adjust to meet the requirements set by the Self – the standard always belongs to the Self and the Other remains a second-class practitioner These colonial traits, as discussed by Pennycook (1998), can still be found in contemporary TESOL If Said’s position is that the strategic location of the Orientalist is locked up in the discourse he uses in his writing, and that his unacknowledged “positional superiority” (1978, p 7) becomes the prerequisite for his writing, then Kachru seems to assert the same notion by saying that when English is acquired by non-native speakers, they not only gain power but are enslaved by the knowledge that English brings with it (1986) This also means that, paradoxically, the learning of English is a silent and unacknowledged process of orientalisation for the non-native speaker This kind of education can result in the making of a group of learners indoctrinated in the discourse of the native speaker who, in turn, reflexively 308 R Chowdhury and Phan L.H contribute to the consolidation of the same discourse However, from the data collected as part of this study, it appears that teachers in Bangladesh were able to resist this hegemony through idiosyncratic ways of interpreting and translating the Western teaching methodology of CLT in practice Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 Where CLT falls short The literature is fraught with discussions on the relative merits and shortcomings of CLT, which has often been assumed to be “the best” and much more advanced and effective than other approaches, such as the grammar-translation method (see Phan Le Ha, 2007) Such assumptions about the superiority of CLT, on the other hand, have been challenged by many authors who argue that CLT, in reality, has caused difficulties, problems, frustration, dissatisfaction, tensions and confusion for many language teachers and learners around the world (Gupta, 2004; Hu, 2005; Le, 2001; Li, 1998; Liu, 1998; McKay, 2003; Rao, 2002) The application of CLT in many global contexts requires a revolution at all levels, from the superficial to the institutional, from the most fundamental to the most complex, such as the societal, political and cultural The shortcomings of CLT, focusing particularly on cultural, pedagogical and ideological issues, are discussed below CLT as a form of Western superiority The assumption that CLT is “the best” and “the way to teach” (Bax, 2003) has been associated with the cultural politics of English and ELT and the discourses of colonialism (Pennycook, 1994, 1998), the marketisation and commercialisation of TESOL and ELT worldwide (Anderson, 2005; Chowdhury, 2006; Pennycook, 1994), “Anglocentricity” (Phillipson, 1992), and the native speaker fallacy (Canagarajah, 1999) These are the very factors that promote CLT as a manifestation of Western superiority in every domain of the ELT industry More often than not, such impressions of CLT embedded in current TESOL are due to “‘methodological dogmatism’ fervently promoting ‘new’ NABA methodologies, particularly those entitled ‘communicative’, while condemning tried and tested ‘traditional’ methods still popular in many other parts of the world” (Liu, 1998, p 4) Translating CLT: cultural incompatibility and the conflict of values When CLT is applied in reality, its pedagogical values often conflict with a number of cultural, social and professional values embedded in the practice of teaching and learning in global contexts (Auerbach, 1995; Chowdhury, 2003; Edge, 1996; Liu, 1998; Pennycook, 1994; Phillipson, 1992) Ironically, as Furedi notes, TESOL education is promoted through pedagogic styles, such as CLT, designed to flatter students who are no longer expected to study but to learn; and since complex ideas are not learned but studied, the intellectual horizon of the learner is restricted to the assimilation of information and the acquisition of skills (Furedi, 2002, as cited in Anderson, 2005) According to Kubota (2001), one of the many ways in which institutionalised essentialism manifests itself is in the type of pedagogy that is promoted as the norm Oblivious to the culturally situated person, CLT offers learners advice and guidance about what constitutes a discipline and what kinds of outcomes are expected of their courses (Chowdhury, 2006) The academic is encouraged to play the role of facilitator rather than that of a generator of knowledge This contradicts the socially expected and felt image of the professional self of the teacher in many countries, such as in Vietnam (Phan Le Ha, 2008) The issue of “respect between teacher and student” is another source of conflict in implementing CLT In Bangladesh, hierarchy determines the nature of teacher–student Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Education 309 interactions, which is facilitated by mutual respect First names and physical proximity can result in mutual discomfort and misunderstanding The classroom may be paradoxically at odds with the world outside; Biggs (1997) refers to this as “the inside/outside rules” of class participation – “Student talk is ‘outside’ (inappropriate) when inside the classroom, but ‘inside’ when outside the classroom” (p 17) Primarily, these cultural constraints inhibit the communicative competence of students and limit the choices they could make outside the classroom Also, in CLT, the student with the best control of structures and vocabulary is not necessarily the best communicator Due to a heavy emphasis on the teaching of grammar at the pre-university level (Chowdhury, 2003), first-year university students in Bangladesh generally have a modest grasp of the structure and usage of the English language However, the demands of the CLT class, at which the ELT reform in Bangladesh was aimed, cannot be fulfilled with this knowledge Edge (1996) claims that by “deliberately moving away from a teacher-centred style of teaching”, the TESOL professional shows “a lack of proper respect for teachers and, by extension, for elders in general” (p 17) This is seen as threatening the respect associated with the status of teachers in many countries Tollefson similarly suggests that ELT practices “must be examined for their impact upon the relationship between students and teachers, and for their ideological assumptions about the roles of teachers and students in society” (1991, p 102) Holliday (1994) and Ellis (1996) demonstrate that the CLT principle of equal teacher–student status challenges the culturally endorsed hierarchical teacher– student relationship and the need to show respect to teachers in many countries, and thus faces resistance and unwelcome attitudes in those countries In addition to the issue of respect, CLT often faces resistance from teachers and learners due to the issue of “expectations”, as Phan Le Ha (2008) has noted For example, many native English teachers in Vietnam have noticed that their students tend to think that having fun with communicative activities in the language classroom means that they are not learning anything (Breach, 2005) According to Phan Le Ha, the cause for this mismatch of expectations is the difference between students’ concept of learning and teachers’ perception of teaching, in which students see learning as a serious process when solid knowledge is introduced by teachers, while many native English teachers think that communicative activities including fun and relaxing ones are best (p 92) The study This study was conducted with six Bangladeshi university teachers – five female and one male Four of these teachers had degrees from abroad (one with a PhD from the UK and a Master’s in TESOL from the US; one with a Master’s in TESOL from the US; one with a postgraduate diploma in ELT from the UK; and one with a Master’s degree in TESOL from Australia) The other two participants were locally trained (with Master’s degrees in English Literature and Linguistics and ELT) Their teaching experience ranged from three years to over 15 years The first group of teachers had been exposed to both Western culture and the Westernised models of CLT currently in practice The participants were given pseudonyms – Rina, Tania, Neelima, Bithi, Farzin, and Osman (the only male) A questionnaire, interviews, emails and online conversations were employed for data collection What are CLT principles that challenge teachers’ roles in the classroom and society? Student-centred teaching The participants expressed concern about what CLT expected them to be, and the conflicts of that expected role in relation to the traditional ways in which their students had perceived them 310 R Chowdhury and Phan L.H Neelima, for example, said that it was almost impossible to expect “student-centred teaching” in the Bangladeshi context: Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 I was actually thinking within our context and it is not possible for our classes to be totally studentcentred; because of the limitations that we have it is simply not possible and even their level is not to the standard where they could continue with simply student-centred learning There’s still got to be some kind of guide to instruct the students Student-centred teaching was a lot more than what we could do, like students would be the ones to select the texts, students would be the ones to correct the texts and teachers would just It is not possible to bring into action CLT in its true form in its original Neelima also mentioned that culture is an important factor in defining the nature of student–teacher interactions One of the reasons why students feel inhibited in student-centred interactions is that teachers not adequately encourage students to participate due to the culturally situated role of the teacher This view, albeit true, is also paradoxical because, as she mentioned earlier, students see the teacher as a “father figure” – nurturing and authoritative at the same time: Yeah our culture is [the reason] – it’s definitely there if you question it, because students are there to accept everything the teacher is saying Clearly defining the traditional approach to teaching as anything but communicative, another participant, Rina, expressed: I see myself as a teacher who tries to strike a balance between the traditional approach to teaching and the communicative one Somewhere in between but I try to be communicative A democratic classroom From the participants’ collective responses, it was also apparent that while they all wanted to “break the ice” between the students and the teachers, they were not entirely willing to give up their authoritative and somewhat distanced role of the traditional teacher The reason for this was elaborated by Osman who, echoing another participant, said that it was a matter of culture; he felt that it is better to allow students to pay the respect and maintain the distance they are comfortable with Asked if he thought it was possible to simultaneously maintain discipline and be communicative in the classroom, to strike a balance between the teacher as facilitator and friend against the more authoritative role, Osman argued: I don’t think CLT is undisciplined What we probably need is something in between communicative and our traditional way of teaching the students For example, we can’t or shouldn’t give them extreme freedom and at the same time we should not ask them to follow our “school-master” type way of doing it That means giving them the impression that you are the teacher guru and they should not say or anything that doesn’t fit in the scheme I’m saying we can’t be 100% communicative; that is, I should know what they should do, not them This last comment is very intriguing because it seems to deny students knowledge of the teacher’s orientation to teaching and its objectives While, on the one hand, it is a practical decision considering that students may not feel comfortable with the more learner-centred communicative approaches to language teaching, on the other hand, ignorance of lesson objectives could result in further enhancing the distance between student and teacher Commenting on the same matter, Osman continued, Invite your students to take the responsibility of their learning, and you’ll see the result They take it as a weakness on the part of the teacher How these teachers deal with issues of cultural appropriateness in teaching materials? Since all the participants invariably hinted at some degree of communicative effort in their classrooms, it was necessary to find out how they helped their students adjust to the cultural Asia Pacific Journal of Education 311 content They were asked to identify their most common strategy for dealing with culturally “inappropriate” material Options included “censorship”, “explanation”, “adaptation”, “avoidance”, and “other” Explanation appeared to be the most common strategy among all six participants Other answers included adaptation (Neelima, Osman) and avoidance (Osman) All the participants showed enthusiasm and concern about the often-felt but often-neglected daily pedagogical experience They all revealed the contradictions and paradoxes inherent in their pedagogy, based as it was on the values of different cultural traditions Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 Recasting: how teachers adapt rather than adopt From the data collected, it was clear that adaptation or reinterpretation is a natural part of the innovation process – “teachers mould innovations to their own abilities, beliefs and experiences; the immediate school context; and the wider sociocultural environment” (Carless, 2004, as cited in Littlewood, 2007, p 244) This is similar to Widdowson’s (1989) observation that “the influence of ideas does not depend on their being understood in their own [terms; usually], it depends on their being recast in different terms to suit other conditions of relevance” (as cited in Littlewood, 2007, p 246) These “essentially defensive strategies” (Littlewood, 2007, p 246) are counterbalanced by many reports, which echo Li’s (1998) advice for South Korea: not to reject, but to “adapt rather than adopt” (as cited in Chowdhury, 2003, p 296) As central agents of policy implementation, classroom teachers exercise a number of strategies when it comes to practice Explanation Neelima described it as a “kind of a cultural shock” for students to encounter unfamiliar cultural material She provided an anecdotal experience of how she was required to teach William Carlos Williams’ The Wheelbarrow, a supposedly “easy poem” The explanation of the poem was difficult from the very start, when she realised that the students were not familiar with “the meaning of the title word itself” She had to explain it by using the equivalent Bangla word thelagari Osman gave another example of what happened when a culturally unfamiliar concept was introduced in the class: at the start of one session, when he asked his students what they did on the “weekend”, the students were all silent Osman explained that this was not surprising since, unlike in the West, weekends in Bangladesh are not set aside for outings and partying Bithi, however, disagreed that the cultural content in the Foundation Course textbooks was incompatible She argued that though “cultural unfamiliarity becomes a major problem in teaching English literature”, she had not encountered the problem in ELT: I use explanation as a strategy for dealing with cultural difference, because often what they need to come to terms with their assigned reading material is a familiarity with literary and historical backgrounds, and the quickest way of dealing with is to fill them in This enables them to grasp the material better so that the acquisition of language skills is not hampered Neelima, on the other hand, felt that this cultural “gap” posed a significant problem in the course she taught and required a slow process of familiarisation: Since you are reading different texts of a different culture, you also have to understand and get acquainted with the other culture It’s easier if students get things that are familiar with their own culture, so that they can understand and connect themselves and get engaged with the text We could design materials using local texts, local articles and then insert components of the target culture into it Before introducing to them texts from England or America, it’s better if we introduce things from our part of the world in order to get students to better understand them 312 R Chowdhury and Phan L.H Adaptation Adaptation appeared to be another common strategy in dealing with culturally inappropriate material in texts Though this seemed to be practical and manageable enough for the teachers, the problem was that every teacher had their own way of adapting discussion topics As a result, students of different groups did not appear to have received equal or uniform treatment of the discussion topic Osman’s favourite strategy seemed to be contextchanging: Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 [Adaptation] is not always difficult because we are dealing with adult learners, after all I think these are very common strategies which language teachers frequently use in the EFL context Like many teachers, I try to explain any such matter first of all Sometimes I adapt it, which means I may change the context or something Avoidance Avoidance appeared to be another strategy that was practised Two participants mentioned avoidance as a way of dealing with cultural elements in texts While both teachers felt there were alternative ways of approaching the subject, they thought it was best to avoid it at times, considering the time that would need to be spent explaining or adapting I may avoid the whole issue if I feel that it’s not important at all or it does not have any pedagogical value Sometimes it is not worth the time (Farzin) Farzin gave an anecdotal example, where she avoided a time-consuming discussion of an unfamiliar topic: Like we had this chapter on this student driving a truck/bus to bear the expenses of their education This sort of thing is alien to them They are so used to their father’s paying the tuition fees in most cases and also to tutoring students at best, so they cannot think of driving a truck or bus and studying I actually dropped that chapter because of it being culturally irrelevant And also when we are teaching them about writing essays, when we are practising to write topic sentences where they choose from given ones There are a couple of things like, the conditions of working in an apple plant, consumer’s group etc which we don’t have in Bangladesh as yet Avoidance of culturally inappropriate material did not appear to be a common practice among these teachers, and those who used it were judicious about the situations in which they did so The politics of TESOL With regard to the political element of TESOL training in the West, the participants gave quite diverse opinions While four participants showed an awareness of a power relationship and a corresponding neglect of the real needs of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) countries in the international training of TESOL today, two of them were quite unsure about how to describe it It appeared that these two participants did feel an inadequacy, but it was more of a vague feeling rather than a critically felt conviction Some of the words that they used to describe this political play were “hidden agenda”, “brainwashing”, “prescriptive” (Osman), “sale of English” (Tania), and “at their mercy” (Farzin) Noteworthy, too, is the fact that the two participants who did not believe in the politicisation of TESOL (Neelima, Rina) were both trained in the West, while the two locally trained teachers (Bithi, Farzin) both sensed some sort of power play Noted Osman: What I mean is perhaps the Westerners are trying to be more descriptive than prescriptive That’s why they are showing interest to see what actually goes on in different classrooms and on the basis of these practical authentic data; they can suggest methods which could be more practical and applicable Asia Pacific Journal of Education 313 Farzin used the term “rich countries” and later, in her answer to another question, she talked of the socioeconomic factors that affect language learning This also gives rise to the consideration of the kind of Western training – whether it is tailored to suit the needs of international students, and the relevance of the type of courses offered A sense of naăve helplessness echoed from the words of Bithi (who was locally trained), who saw the political element as something we cannot away with: The BC [British Council] Dhaka does not offer a TESOL degree To an extent, I feel that local needs are ignored in TESOL degrees abroad, but at present there is no viable alternative in Bangladesh Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 Osman shared the same sense of helplessness: The real needs of the EFL countries are neglected in the process to a great extent because more often than not, the talks and proceedings are prescriptive, not descriptive Hopefully, these days there is a growing interest in the West in investing what actually goes on in the classroom but you can’t blame the West for that they are not going to talk about your real needs if it does not benefit them and we, the Eastern students, are yet to raise our voices Some comments appeared to be based on the participants’ own experiences in the West, coupled with their knowledge and interpretation of the extensive, even if sometimes confusing, literature Osman commented: I think any such training has some definite goals and motives which the proceedings try to achieve and these issues may reflect some hidden agendas which may be communicated to the participants There is some sort of brainwashing going on implicitly The ideas and issues that are raised and talked about in the training are usually Western, not Eastern or whatever The participants were also asked to comment on whether they thought that the real needs of the developing EFL countries were neglected in the process of this politicisation Osman, who was trained in Australia, said that it could be safely generalised that the training was “prescriptive, not descriptive” He went to the extent of saying that English had been taking the form of neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism: TESOL can also be considered an industry an international company The books that are written in the West have their markets in the developing nations Obviously the culture contained in those books is Western culture, which very often influences the readers or learners Any training in ELT or TESOL will try to infuse the hidden agendas of the West Farzin added: Definitely there is [a political element] because they, the West, will select the area they are interested in for me to pursue my higher studies, which may not be necessary for my teaching conditions here; on the other hand, the area which needs to be worked on here may be rejected by them simply because it cannot be applied to/used in other rich countries like theirs; so we are at their mercy, I would say The degree of this somewhat bitter realisation of the politicisation of TESOL training in the West, however, appeared to be balanced by a newer retrospective realisation of how people gradually get used to the thought processes through which Westernisation manifests itself Recalling his own experience in Australia, Osman mentioned that he had been “conservative” when he first went there; he had never seen an English movie prior to that These, along with other similar comments, were interesting in part because they appeared to view politics as imbued with conscious intentions of power imposition and as interactions determined by differences in values Rina did not see politics as an issue in Western TESOL training, though she acknowledged that the needs of developing countries were neglected She argued that the element of critical understanding is often neglected when the West is held responsible for it, and that the adoption of Western techniques is the key to successfully utilising Western knowledge: 314 R Chowdhury and Phan L.H The needs of the developing countries are not specifically catered However, there is awareness that what is taught is not absolute or final, and can be tailored to suit the needs of local contexts Course content and methods can be adjusted to apply what is feasible and appropriate for a particular situation The participants discussed power relationships embedded in English and TESOL training, showing their awareness of diverse opinions about this issue Interestingly, their words expressed their views of power as both positive and negative, reflecting the cultural politics as well as the linguistic power attributed to English and ELT Said Neelima: Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 It is a power relationship, definitely It initially started with a political idea at the very beginning of our history – when English was introduced, it was not to educate the Indian people but to colonise them But with globalisation, and with English being a more international language now, it’s I wouldn’t consider it as that much a political thing, but more of a necessity When we are taught in the West to be English teachers, there is also the underlying understanding that we would accept their way of doing things, learning things; but there is also on the other hand this idea that we are not really accepting everything that they are offering from their culture They’re also giving us our own understanding of what we of our situation and our problems We are learning English from English-speaking people, but nevertheless, being non-native speakers, we are also providing our own experiences to the teaching context So ELT or TESOL is not just the teaching of English and English culture, but also the teaching of English within other cultures within other communities So this exists today throughout the world – not just within English communities English in our society is a foreign language, but still it is a necessity, it has its global values Without English, we really can’t make it with the other world Rina also noted: I am not sure about the political element, but maybe there is some truth and it is reinforced when you read authors like Pennycook and Phillipson I think serious attention is not paid to the specific ELT needs of the developing countries Tania added: I never really thought about the political element in the international training of TESOL professionals Definitely it promotes the “Sale of English” but under the existing political situation of the Third World countries Can it be changed? As long as USA, UK, Canada will continue to give us aid, the scenario can’t be changed If you talk about the real needs of EFL countries, then they themselves should identify their needs and act accordingly, instead of relying on others The participants’ concern about the politics and power underlying their TESOL training supports the arguments about English and TESOL being used as commodities, spreading Western values through aids programmes, neglecting the needs of developing countries, and carrying on colonial missions in new forms (Liu, 1998; Pennycook, 1994, 1998; Phillipson, 1992) Their comments point to the importance of having access to Western TESOL and English However, they also reveal the linguistic hegemony of English; it “can be understood as referring to the explicit and implicit values, beliefs, purposes, and activities which characterise the ELT profession and which contribute to the maintenance of English as a dominant language” (Phillipson, 1992, p 73) This “consciousness of the ELT profession”, as Phillipson (p 73) puts it, is confirmed by these Bangladeshi teachers’ perceptions As “English provides linguistic power” (Kachru, 1986, p 1), these teachers seemed to have appropriated it pedagogically and linguistically to serve themselves and their students Conclusion and recommendations The paper has discussed Bangladeshi teachers’ perceptions of pedagogical appropriacy, power, and the politics associated with CLT and Western TESOL training In light of their perceptions, this paper offers the following recommendations with regard to enhancing ELT in Bangladesh and strategically responding to the commercialised hegemonic but necessary “evil” of TESOL training Downloaded By: [Monash University] At: 07:07 October 2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Education 315 First, adaptation courses for Western-trained teachers of English on their return to Bangladesh need to be conducted to help them clarify and readjust their professional goals and identify students’ and their own expectations in a local context, which is also changing while these teachers are overseas These courses can also provide opportunities for these Westerntrained English teachers to acknowledge and legitimise the knowledge and skills of students and other teachers, and to explicitly negotiate what they perceive as meaningful and appropriate pedagogy with students and other authorities Second, regular professional development courses, not necessarily led by native English speakers, can be conducted for teachers of English in Bangladesh In these courses, teachers are introduced to new trends in English language teaching They may also be asked to showcase practices that are effective in their teaching contexts and are encouraged to express their concerns about their teaching and exchange ideas and suggest solutions to better their teaching These courses need to be supported by the authorities to empower teachers to carry out changes where necessary Very importantly, 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Journal of Education Vol 28, No 3, September 2008, 305–316 Reflecting on Western TESOL training and communicative language teaching: Bangladeshi teachers’ voices Raqib Chowdhury and Phan Le Ha*