This article considers Intensive English Programs (IEPs) affiliated with higher education institutions of the Global North from the perspective of a decolonial option in which English is viewed as a ...tool of modernity used for colonization and the maintenance of unequal socioeconomic and power structures. Via nuanced description (Pennycook and Makoni 2020) of two colonizing practices typical to IEPs—namely, recruitment and advocacy—the article argues that the traits of resiliency, innovation, and genius commonly ascribed to IEPs are qualities that lend themselves to the refoundation, reconfiguration, and reconstruction (de Sousa Santos 2019) of alternative visions. In this way, IEPs have the opportunity to promote the liberatory visions of applied linguistics’ practitioners and to positively influence decolonialization of the field. Because of their historical involvement in English language teaching and the industry it has spawned, applied linguists have an obligation to foster these changes, which need not affect the ability of IEPs to conduct language pedagogy or to provide the field with opportunities for research, teacher training, and professional development.
Intensive English programs (IEPs) have traditionally been central actors in promoting teacher professional development, curricular innovations, and applied linguistics and second language acquisition ...research. Yet at the same time, the programs are also central actors in neoliberal linguistic commodification. This article demonstrates how neoliberalism influences the covert policy discourses of the decision-making processes of an IEP. Using an analytic autoethnographic approach to present an interwoven series of narratives and analyses, the article argues that IEP administrators, faculty, and staff are limited in how they can contest their complicity at propelling a neoliberal institution profiting from language education. The article also demonstrates how neoliberal positioning took precedence over pedagogical discourses in certain decision-making processes and impeded the experimentation and exercise of an innovative curriculum, and it suggests ways that the neoliberal orientation of IEPs currently impacts and eventually may alter the nature of MA TESOL. The issues presented here not only reflect the experiences and concerns of professionals in English language teaching, but they are also timely in that IEPs have been largely underrepresented in the expanding discussions of the relationship between applied linguistics, its subfields, and neoliberalism.
Abstract
Intensive English programmes (IEPs) are college and university units that provide international students with academic English instruction for the purpose of admission to the host ...institution. IEPs are colonial endeavours: they commodify and promote a language with a traceable colonial history that is reinforced through modern structures of knowledge distribution within higher education. Reliance on colonial architectures limits creativity and enforces hegemonic structures upon a field that tends to manifest more social justice orientations. This article argues that the position of IEPs allows them to contest their colonial nature through conscientious, incremental change. It considers the core activities of the IEP ecology (i.e. instruction, discipline, profession, business, and service), looking at how each facet may be utilized to enact a decolonial option. These interventions lend themselves to goals of decolonial projects by reducing bias and hegemony in how IEPs approach language and are positioned within the field and their host institution.
This article reports on part of a quantitative/ qualitative study investigating the attitudes of pre‐service English language teachers in the United States towards native/non‐native Englishes in ...interaction. The study is unique to language attitude research in that participants evaluate speech‐in‐action of multiple speakers rather than isolated speech samples. It is therefore relevant to linguistic approaches that emphasize communication, such as English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), which until now has been under‐represented in North American research. Results indicate a willingness among pre‐service teachers to use non‐native Englishes as pedagogical models for certain language skills and course types. Implications for English language teacher training are discussed.
Dieser Artikel beschreibt einen Teil einer quantativ‐qualitativen Untersuchung, die sich mit den Verhaltensweisen zukünftiger Englischlehrende in den Vereignigten Staaten gegenüber muttersprachlichen und nicht‐muttersprachlichen Varianten des Englischen in Gesprächen befasst. In der Sprachverhaltensforschung ist die Studie einzigartig, da die Forschungsteilnehmer und ‐teilnehmerinnen interaktive Gespräche anstelle von isolierten Sprachproben einschätzten. Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung erweisen sich dadurch als wichtig für linguistische Ansätze, die die Kommunikation in den Vordergrund stellen – wie zum Beispiel English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), ein Ansatz, der in der Nordamerikanischen Forschung bisher selten diskutiert wurde. Die Untersuchungsresultate lassen auch eine Bereitschaft zukünftiger Englischlehrende erkennen, nicht‐muttersprachliche Englischstile als pädigogische Modelle für bestimmte Sprachlernkonzepte und Kurstypen zu verwenden. Ausserdem werden praktische Ansätze zur Ausbildung von Englischlehrende diskutiert.
English has become the default language of global communication, and users around the world are adapting the traditional standards of grammar and interaction. It is imperative that teachers of ...English keep pace with these changing conceptualizations of the language as well as the changing expectations of its users so that they can best prepare language learners for the sociolinguistic realities they will encounter. Teacher training programs have a critical role to play in that they must keep pace with both the changing global linguistic landscape and how these changes influence pre-service teachers. It is therefore imperative to understand the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards the varieties of English that their students will encounter. This study considers the attitudes of pre-service TESOL teachers towards varieties of native and non-native English as used in naturalistic communicative situations. It considers personal factors that may play a role in how participants evaluate the interactive speech samples and whether TESOL training programs influence the development of attitudes towards language-in-use. To this end, a mixed methods design involving three primary components was used: an online survey of 70 respondents from 26 institutions, four focus group interviews, and a curriculum analysis of five teacher training programs. This study is unique in that participants evaluate speech-in-action that is representative of the types of language found in many English as a lingua franca (ELF) settings. Among other things, primary results suggest that (a) standard language ideology influences many participant assessments of both native and non-native speech, (b) teacher training programs exert at least some influence on the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards varieties of spoken English in discourse, and (c) engagement with non-native speech in teacher preparation courses and language learning as a component of a curriculum can benefit pre-service teachers. Implications for applied linguistics, teacher training, and ELF are considered. INDEX WORDS: English as a lingua franca, ELF, Language variation, Grammar, Pronunciation, Attitude, Teacher training, TESOL
