Liberalist or Alarmist: Iranian ELT Community's Attitude to Mainstream ELT vs. Critical ELT  

Oleh:

Samar, Reza Ghaffar ; Davari, Ira Hossein

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: TESOL Journal vol. 5 (Dec. 2011), page 63-91.
Topik: English language teaching; linguistic imperialism; globalization; Iranian context
Fulltext: Liberalist or Alarmist.pdf (422.29KB)

Isi artikel

In the era of globalization, the worldwide spread of English especially through English Language Teaching (ELT) is known as one of the most controversial issues in the field of applied linguistics. While in this era, the mainstream ELT or so-called the liberalist position publicizes the spread of Center-created methods and materials as well as linguistic and cultural norms and practices and introduces itself as a value-free trend, the emergence of an outstanding critical standpoint known as linguistic imperialism theory, so-called the alarmist position, introducing English spread and the mainstream ELT as inherently problematic phenomena, has led to forming some notable debates and controversies in this arena. Conceiving the importance of this conceptual shift in the field of applied linguistics, this research is an attempt to study the Iranian ELT professionals' and university teachers' attitudes on these two opposing positions to find out to which position the Iranian ELT community tends. To gain insights into this issue, a mixed-method including both qualitative and quantitative methods was designed and conducted. In the qualitative phase, a semi-structured interview was conducted with nine ELT professionals and applied linguists. A content analysis of the data gathered in this phase along with the available literature on the topic yielded a 10 item Likert-scale questionnaire seeking ELT professionals' and university teachers' attitudes about the hotly debated opposing beliefs and tenets around the topic. To check the Iranian ELT community's perspective at large, in the second phase a questionnaire survey was conducted on 158 participants. Presenting the findings obtained from both phases, this research attempts to discuss the findings both qualitatively and quantitatively under four categories including (a) methods: nature and function, (b) materials and curriculum development, (c) native vs. nonnative teachers, standards and variations, (d) English, ELT and cultures. The analyses of the data reveal that the Iranian ELT community tends mostly to this critical conceptual shift and linguistic imperialism standpoint carries special weight in Iranian ELT community's perspective.

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