ELT and Colonialism

Abstract

There are several significant ways in which we need to understand the relationships between ELT and colonialism. The first and perhaps most obvious, is historical: If we wish to understand the development of ELT beyond the narrow confines of Europe and North America, we clearly have to engage with its history within the British and American Empires. The second is political and economic: There are many ways in which the current spread of English, teaching methods, and textbooks can be seen as a recapitulation, if not an intensification, of (neo-)colonial relations. And the third is cultural, by which I mean that the conjuncture between ELT and colonialism has had long-lasting effects on the theories, practices, and beliefs of ELT: From classroom practices to beliefs about the cultural makeup of our students, many aspects of ELT reproduce cultural constructs of colonialism. This chapter will give an overview of these concerns and will also discuss how postcolonial perspectives on ELT may provide a way out of these cycles.