Page 16 - ELG2307 Jul Issue 485

SPECIAL FEATURE .

Melanie Butler, in conversation with

British Council’s Mark Walker

e are really asking questions,” says Mark Walker about the
British Council’s new report on the “Future of English.”
It is not – the British Council’s Director of English and
WExams explains – a report like the previous iterations
by the late David Graddol, which tried to predict the future. It is a
collection of the themes that emerged from round table meetings of
professionals from different sectors across the world.
The report is valuable for education departments and researchers.
But what does it have to say to the business end, language schools in the
UK and abroad, exam boards, or even publishers and agents?
In Mark’s view, we need to rethink everything.
“What does native speaker even mean?” he says. “What is the role of
the teacher in an era of AI? What form of English should we be teaching
and testing?”
“Why ban L1 in the classroom?” I say. It is a question I have been
asking for over 40 years.
L1 can be very useful, he admits. But “it depends on the context.”
What works in a primary school, in Spain, for example, may not work
in a multilingual class in Bournemouth or Brisbane.
Context is important in testing too. The feedback from the round
table meetings held around the world found a demand for tests in
regional variants, for example Singaporean English (Singlish).
To really succeed in Singapore, Mark argues, you need to get to grips
with Singlish.
He should know; he lived
there for five years when he
How can teachers, was the British Council’s
who have never Director for East Asia. Prior
to that he was Director of
successfully learnt Examinations, a sector he
a foreign language, clearly understands well.
There is a demand for English,
possibly understand he tells me, for Language tests
in a wide range of professional
the process their domains: medicine, air traffic
control, the military.
students are going “Are we seeing a return to
through? ESP?” I ask. It is a sector that
was previously a money-maker
for private language schools. Council has come down against primary age children being taught
“Maybe.” academic subjects in English.
But above all there is a demand for tests of productive skills; speaking “Our view is that learning a language as a specific skill is not a bad
and writing. But using human markers means they cost too much in thing,” he says carefully. But the position that basic education should be
many countries. Could AI solve that problem? This focus on the taught in L1 especially in the early years, remains strong.
practicalities of the bottom line is unsurprising. Walker was called back But what about the many hundreds of British-style international
from Asia when Covid hit, and the British Council faced bankruptcy schools across the world now enrolling the children of wealthy local
– his focus on cost effectiveness is as strong as his clear fascination for parents? What about the bilingual nurseries which the British Council
academic theory and technological developments and their impact in run in Singapore and Hong Kong?
the classroom and the exam room. “Those are very specific contexts,” he counters.
One area where the policy of the British Council is perhaps Because English is a community language there?
counterintuitive is its support for multilingualism. They recently “Yes.”
advised a North African government not to swap French for English but “And what about the courses you run in English and Coding?”
to teach them both, bringing in English at Middle school. But then, in “It is teaching the language for a very specific context.”
Britain, the British Council works for the UK government monitoring CLIL is not, in the British Council’s view, about teaching the subject,
the teaching of foreign languages in England’s schools. which will come as a surprise to the bilingual state schools in Spain.
Isn’t the real problem in EFL, I ask, not just nativespeakerism, but When they teach, say, geography in English, they expect the kids to
the monolingual mindset of native speakers of English? How can learn the subject too.
teachers, who have never successfully learnt a foreign language, possibly With the demand from middle class parents across the world for
understand the process their students are going through? EME, isn’t it just too late to turn the tide?
“In Britain we have been weak in that area,” he admits, “but there are Meanwhile, in the US, bilingual primary education is equally popular
signs of improvement.” with English speaking parents as it is with migrants. So, when foreign
It is the approach to English Medium Education laid out in the governments want advice on how to do it, they won’t be asking the
“Future of English” which is likely to cause the most furore. The British British Council.
16 July 2023