Countering hegemonic ELT materials in Asian EFL contexts
Countering hegemonic ELT materials in Asian EFL contexts
Keywords: ELT materials, hegemony, agency, social power, transformation, TESOL
Joseph Ernest Mambu
Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia
joseph.mambu@staff.uksw.edu
Bio
Joseph Ernest Mambu is a lecturer at the Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Applied Linguistics at Arizona State University, Tempe, the United States. His major areas of interest are spirituality and critical pedagogy in ELT.
Abstract
This paper seeks to engage in attempts to problematize hegemony associated with ELT materials, especially in EFL settings. Social transformative perspectives will shed light on the role of agency through collective actions of social power by English language teachers, teacher educators, and students in possibly 1) critiquing forms of hegemony (i.e., dominant use of standard [academic] English and avoidance to [controversial] themes related to social justice) in ELT materials, and 2) envisioning transformative strategies that may challenge the hegemony being critiqued. Transformative strategies on the part of social power represented by TESOL practitioners, as well as English learners, may or may not involve state/bourgeois power. More importantly, when these strategies are seriously implemented, though not necessarily in a massive scale, EFL instructors and students may defy socioeconomic, linguistic, cultural, and academic hegemony due to reliance on using many materials (e.g., textbooks) available in the market. Some attempts to produce locally published or customize materials are envisioned based on some current practices gleaned from the ELT-related literature and my observation as an EFL teacher educator in Indonesia.
See page: 4-25
Category: Monthly Editions
