Page 29 - ELG1805 May Issue 457

COMMENT . FEATURES & COMMENT

OF THE
Point OUT

of View BOX

Paul
Walsh Let’s push the

balance back
Life towards CLT

through Students’ needs have taken a back seat to

those of the industry itself

a new lens Most ELT professionals outcomes also shifts the focus

would locate their practice
away from the language and
beneath the broad umbrella
express the ideas they want to
of Communicative Language skills that learners need to
Teaching (CLT). express, prioritising instead the
And given the nature of
Paul Walsh asks what is preventing English learning needs in the language required to do well in
the exam.
an open discussion of stagnant or world today – for everyday life, If we consider the profits
declining working conditions work and study – an approach generated by publishing
that prioritises meaning
companies, examining
and communication seems bodies and other for-profit
appropriate to language learning. organisations and how their
n John Carpenter’s 1988 sci-fi film They kinder light. Let’s start with the existing lens: I’ve encountered I often hear: ‘Don’t worry colleagues, to learners and to a profession – not However, if we consider
Live, a man finds a pair of sunglasses. He market justice. In Buying Time: The Delayed about it. You can go into materials design, just mere obligations to an industry. how CLT has evolved since The actual
puts them on, gazes up, and takes a deep Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, German or coaching, or teacher training.’ You see? In 2016 I attended the ‘Power to the its inception in the 1970s, the
I breath, unable to believe what he sees. The economist Wolfgang Streeck describes it as one Through a market justice lens, the market teacher’ conference in Barcelona. In the last actual communicative needs of communicative
advertising billboards in front of him display a of two ‘competing principles’ driving Western waves its magic wand – and a solution appears. session, workers and employers were brought learners appear to have been
series of morbid commands: 'Obey', 'Consume' democracies after the second world war, and Yet the statistics say otherwise. According to together to discuss solutions. Teachers spoke of usurped by the need to serve the needs of learners
and a dollar bill reads: 'This is your God'. It’s a the principle behind much of our economic IMF figures, the labour share (money paid to declining working conditions, a lack of respect, interests of other stakeholders in
conspiracy! thinking today. workers as a percentage of GDP) has declined of not feeling valued. One of the employers the industry entirely. appear to have
Isn’t it a bit like that in ELT? We teachers Market justice is appealing because it offers since the 1980s even though productivity has replied, ‘I’m sorry. I just don’t recognise your For a start, why is there such been usurped
rarely rock the boat; we obey a bit more than a simple, believable, model. The basic idea? increased. reality.’ a global demand for English? Is
we should. We consume coursebooks, print We’re all individuals, making economic choices The reasons? Globalisation, flexible labour And that’s the problem. Many ELT it because people want to learn by the need
handouts, pump photocopiers till they groan according to our preferences under conditions markets (including the use of zero-hours teachers live lives of quiet immiseration, with English, or because various
and die. And in terms of religion, gurus are our contracts and freelancing), the monopoly circumstances (transnational to serve the
pedagogical gods. Many ELT teachers power of large corporations and declining trade We teachers rarely migration, corporate
It’s a conspiracy! union membership have all contributed. globalisation, etc.) have created interests of other
I’m joking. But there’s a grain of truth live lives of quiet And therefore moving sectors, or moving rock the boat; we obey a an environment where they
here. Let me explain: last month I spoke at immiseration, with little jobs – while possibly a short-term fix – won’t bit more than have to learn English? stakeholders
an event on working conditions organised by change the underlying problem. Sure, English opens doors to
my teacher’s association in Berlin, where one chance of improving their The simple truth is that market justice no we should success, but the fact that these
comment floored me: ‘The problem is that longer provides adequate solutions. As a 2013 doors are closed to non-English- practices impact on classroom
teachers just don’t ask for more money.’ conditions as isolated article in The Economist puts it, ‘All around speakers raises complex issues. practice, it is difficult to
This comment led me to broader questions the world, labour is losing out to capital.’ And little chance of improving their conditions We could explore these issues see learners as the main
than why we don’t have better pay. It made individuals losing fast. as isolated individuals. Yet before we can in the classroom and provide beneficiaries of English language
me ask what it is about the way that people think So what’s the alternative? Wolfgang Sreeck collectively tackle these issues we have to input to allow our learners to teaching.
that prevents an open discussion of stagnant or of market equality. Within such a model, suggests the opposing principle: social justice. see them; the first step towards remedy must express their views in English – CLT has been co-opted
declining working conditions. market justice sorts out winners and losers in He writes that social justice is not grounded be recognition. So I call on the wider ELT that would be CLT. and adapted to suit corporate
I mean, it may be true that teachers don’t an objective manner – if you lose in such a in a simplistic model but in ‘collective ideas of community to look at these problems through But, instead, we tend to interests. We need to think
ask for more money. It may also be true system then it’s down to your own individual fairness, correctness and reciprocity’. a new lens, a social justice lens, and in a kinder rely on global coursebooks – about how to push the balance
(though I doubt it) that some teachers don’t failings. This principle accepts there are problems light. which wilfully avoid topics back.
want more money. But I’m more interested Within such thinking, it’s down to the that markets cannot solve: deeper, thornier It’s not a conspiracy. Just open your eyes. And that publishers regard as
in the frameworks we think with – the lenses individual to adapt to the changing whims of problems of distribution and equity, problems see the teachers standing right in front of you. ‘problematic’ – as our main n ELT blogger Steve Brown has
we see through. Perhaps they determine the the market, a dynamic market that continually that must be argued out, fought for and won source of content. worked in ELT since 1993 and is
current situation more than we think. provides new chances for entrepreneurial (just ask the Suffragettes). n Paul Walsh is a teacher, writer and precarious Internationally recognised currently curriculum and quality
As well as this, I wonder whether there makers – rather than unadventurous ‘takers’. And to return to ELT, social justice worker. He is the founder of TaWSIG, a special qualifications also feature leader for languages at West College
might be a new framework, a new lens that This means that when I talk to teachers reminds us that alongside market choices and interest group dedicated to improving working heavily in ELT. Using these as Scotland.
might help us see these problems in a newer, about the bad pay or working conditions preferences, we have moral responsibilities – to conditions for language teachers. @josipa74
28 May 2018 editorial@elgazette.com 29