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Appropriate methodology and social context
156
Reviews REFERENCES
Chamot, A. U., & O'Malley, J. M. (1989). The CALLA handbook. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chitravelu, N. (1980). Strategies for reading. In The University of Malaya English for special purposes project (ELT Documents No. 107, pp. 17-37). London: British Council. Hanson, K. (1988). Rhetoric and epistemology in the social sciences: A contrast of two representative texts. In D. A. Joliffe (Ed.), Writing in academic disciplines: Advances in writing research. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learning centered approach. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. Johns, A. M., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1991). English for specific purposes: International in scope, specific in purpose. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 297-314. Williams, IL (1978). EST--Is it on the right track? In C. J. Kennedy (Ed.), "English for specific purposes" [Special issue[. MALS Journal (pp. 25--31), The University of Birmingham, U.K. Peggy J. Anderson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Wichita State University where she directs the TESOL programs. She is serving as Associate Chair for TESOL '97 in Orlando, FL.
APPROPRIATE METHODOLOGY AND SOCIAL CONTEXT. Adrian Holliday. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 237 pp.
Reviewed by Vai Ramanathan The context-based, cultural stance on methodology taken in this book has been a long time coming. While much work that has addressed teaching methods (Larsen-Freeman 1986; Richards & Rodgers 1986; Oller 1993) for ESL has attempted to keep the cultural backgrounds of students in mind, it has been largely oriented toward teaching in western contexts (Britain, Australia, and North America, or what HoUiday calls BANA). Little research has articulated the need to develop teaching materials that are suited to cultures in which English is a foreign language, and Holliday's book effectively bridges this gap in L2 methods scholarship. The author considers several levels of "culture", including the culture of classrooms that teachers operate in (chapters 1, 2 and 3), the social setting of classrooms (chapters 4 and 5), potential cultural conflicts between teachers' and students' backgrounds (chapter 9), and the larger cultural ideology informing the language learning environment (chapter 10). While these constitute the thicker strands of Holliday's tapestry, we also find interwoven finer ones that address issues such as the role of power and politics in state
Reviews
157
education (chapter 6), teachers' and students' lessons (chapter 9), and curriculum and project design. One of Holliday's primary concerns is cultural imperialism. In chapter 6 he cites Phillipson (1991) on the notion of linguicism, which the latter has defned as: ideological structures and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (material and immaterial) between groups which are defined on the basis of language. Hnguicism is affirmed in similar ways to racism, In linguicist discourse, the dominant language is glorified, dominated languages are stigmatized (cited in HoUiday, p. 99).
While Holliday acknowledges that Phillipson's point may be a bit extreme, he warns us that the danger is very real and is especially evident in languageteaching methodologies. Holliday suggests that many of us have, to varying degrees, bought into the communicative approach to language teaching-what Holliday refers to as the learning group ideal--and may not have fully considered implications of transferring it into nonwestern social contexts or of using it with students whose cultural backgrounds may be at odds with such methods. Process-oriented, task-based, inductive, collaborative teaching methods currently valued by many Anglo-North American teachers draw on shared cultural practices that mainstream students have been socialized into but that L2 students have not necessarily had access to (Atkinson & Ramanathan 1995; Atkinson 1997; Ramanathan & Kaplan 1996). While adoption of these communicatively oriented strategies is by no means necessarily linguicism, Holliday cautions teachers to be wary of possible mismatches occurring. He calls attention to Shamim's work (in process) in which she articulates how BANA-oriented teaching strategies are intrusive given particular norms in a non-western host culture. Likewise, drawing on his fieldnotes, Holliday also calls attention to how space is organized and negotiated in Egypt's national culture, and possible implications of this information for group work. Apart from such macro and micro cultural norms, he also makes us aware of the professional-academic culture that language teachers are socialized into (chapter 6), a culture or cultures that "transcend national cultural factors in significant ways" (p. 67). All of these factors--teaching methodologies, academic culture/s, larger host culture/s, the diverse backgrounds ESL students bring with them--should heighten our awareness of the cultural particularity of learning group ideals. Another way that cultural imperialism figures into the book is Holliday's discussion of potential conflicts between project-funding aid agencies and host cultures. He cites Morris (1991), who discusses ways in which aidagencies are motivated by "collective guilt induced by the legacy of our predecessors," and how they "delude themselves.., if they talk of fostering self reliance." Claiming that such warnings are "too vague to be helpful," Holliday suggests that it may be more effective if practitioners working for such agencies become sensitive to local cultures and work to "achieve the maximum benefit for local people" (p. 190).
158
Reviews
In the final section of his book Holliday suggests practical ways teachers can be sensitive to the cultures and needs of their students. His suggestions include: (1) "being interpretive," which "involves being as non-prescriptive as possible, so as to allow meaning to emerge from the situation being studied" (9. 181), (2) encouraging a "reflective" approach to teacher education whereby "trainees reflect upon their classroom experience to help them find what are in effect appropriate methodologies" (9. 183), and (3) assessing student behavior in classroom activities that are both transactional and evaluative so as to effectively unlock "the text of the classroom" (9. 188). Overall, the book offers a succinct and much-needed argument for contextualizing all language teaching, and while this argument is not, in itself, a new one, Holliday's success in localizing it in multiple spheres--ranging from teacher-student interactions, to the culture of the classroom, to the larger culture---is. The prose is lucid, the generalizations are well-documented, and the argument for context-based language teaching is persuasive. This text is a must for those of us involved in training ESL teachers.
REFERENCES Atkinson, D., & Ramanathan, V. (1995). Cultures of writing: An ethnographic comparison of L1 and L2 university writing/language programs. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 539-568. Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31. To appear. Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and principles in language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press. Morris, T. (1991). The despairing developer: Diary of an aid worker in the Middle East. London: Tauris. Oller, J. Jr. (1993). Methods that work. Boston, MA= Heinle and Heinle. Phillipson, R. (1991). Linguistic imperialism. In Dunford Seminar Report: The social and economic impact of ELT in development (pp. 27-28). London: The British Council. Ramanathan, V., & Kaplan, R. B. (1996). Audience and voice in current L1 composition textbooks: Implications for L2 student-writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 5, 21-34. Ramanathan, V., & Kaplan, R. B. (In press). Some problematic channels in the teaching of critical thinking: Implications for L2 student-writers. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 23. Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shamim, F. (In process). Towards an understanding of learner resistance to innovation in classroom methodology. In H. Coleman (Ed.), Society and the classroom: Social explanation for behavior in the language class. Vai Ramanathan is assistant professor of English in the MA-TESOL program at the University of Alabama. Her research interests include L1 and L2 academic literacy and discourse analysis.
Reviews REFERENCES
Chamot, A. U., & O'Malley, J. M. (1989). The CALLA handbook. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Chitravelu, N. (1980). Strategies for reading. In The University of Malaya English for special purposes project (ELT Documents No. 107, pp. 17-37). London: British Council. Hanson, K. (1988). Rhetoric and epistemology in the social sciences: A contrast of two representative texts. In D. A. Joliffe (Ed.), Writing in academic disciplines: Advances in writing research. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learning centered approach. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. Johns, A. M., & Dudley-Evans, T. (1991). English for specific purposes: International in scope, specific in purpose. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 297-314. Williams, IL (1978). EST--Is it on the right track? In C. J. Kennedy (Ed.), "English for specific purposes" [Special issue[. MALS Journal (pp. 25--31), The University of Birmingham, U.K. Peggy J. Anderson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Wichita State University where she directs the TESOL programs. She is serving as Associate Chair for TESOL '97 in Orlando, FL.
APPROPRIATE METHODOLOGY AND SOCIAL CONTEXT. Adrian Holliday. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 237 pp.
Reviewed by Vai Ramanathan The context-based, cultural stance on methodology taken in this book has been a long time coming. While much work that has addressed teaching methods (Larsen-Freeman 1986; Richards & Rodgers 1986; Oller 1993) for ESL has attempted to keep the cultural backgrounds of students in mind, it has been largely oriented toward teaching in western contexts (Britain, Australia, and North America, or what HoUiday calls BANA). Little research has articulated the need to develop teaching materials that are suited to cultures in which English is a foreign language, and Holliday's book effectively bridges this gap in L2 methods scholarship. The author considers several levels of "culture", including the culture of classrooms that teachers operate in (chapters 1, 2 and 3), the social setting of classrooms (chapters 4 and 5), potential cultural conflicts between teachers' and students' backgrounds (chapter 9), and the larger cultural ideology informing the language learning environment (chapter 10). While these constitute the thicker strands of Holliday's tapestry, we also find interwoven finer ones that address issues such as the role of power and politics in state
Reviews
157
education (chapter 6), teachers' and students' lessons (chapter 9), and curriculum and project design. One of Holliday's primary concerns is cultural imperialism. In chapter 6 he cites Phillipson (1991) on the notion of linguicism, which the latter has defned as: ideological structures and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (material and immaterial) between groups which are defined on the basis of language. Hnguicism is affirmed in similar ways to racism, In linguicist discourse, the dominant language is glorified, dominated languages are stigmatized (cited in HoUiday, p. 99).
While Holliday acknowledges that Phillipson's point may be a bit extreme, he warns us that the danger is very real and is especially evident in languageteaching methodologies. Holliday suggests that many of us have, to varying degrees, bought into the communicative approach to language teaching-what Holliday refers to as the learning group ideal--and may not have fully considered implications of transferring it into nonwestern social contexts or of using it with students whose cultural backgrounds may be at odds with such methods. Process-oriented, task-based, inductive, collaborative teaching methods currently valued by many Anglo-North American teachers draw on shared cultural practices that mainstream students have been socialized into but that L2 students have not necessarily had access to (Atkinson & Ramanathan 1995; Atkinson 1997; Ramanathan & Kaplan 1996). While adoption of these communicatively oriented strategies is by no means necessarily linguicism, Holliday cautions teachers to be wary of possible mismatches occurring. He calls attention to Shamim's work (in process) in which she articulates how BANA-oriented teaching strategies are intrusive given particular norms in a non-western host culture. Likewise, drawing on his fieldnotes, Holliday also calls attention to how space is organized and negotiated in Egypt's national culture, and possible implications of this information for group work. Apart from such macro and micro cultural norms, he also makes us aware of the professional-academic culture that language teachers are socialized into (chapter 6), a culture or cultures that "transcend national cultural factors in significant ways" (p. 67). All of these factors--teaching methodologies, academic culture/s, larger host culture/s, the diverse backgrounds ESL students bring with them--should heighten our awareness of the cultural particularity of learning group ideals. Another way that cultural imperialism figures into the book is Holliday's discussion of potential conflicts between project-funding aid agencies and host cultures. He cites Morris (1991), who discusses ways in which aidagencies are motivated by "collective guilt induced by the legacy of our predecessors," and how they "delude themselves.., if they talk of fostering self reliance." Claiming that such warnings are "too vague to be helpful," Holliday suggests that it may be more effective if practitioners working for such agencies become sensitive to local cultures and work to "achieve the maximum benefit for local people" (p. 190).
158
Reviews
In the final section of his book Holliday suggests practical ways teachers can be sensitive to the cultures and needs of their students. His suggestions include: (1) "being interpretive," which "involves being as non-prescriptive as possible, so as to allow meaning to emerge from the situation being studied" (9. 181), (2) encouraging a "reflective" approach to teacher education whereby "trainees reflect upon their classroom experience to help them find what are in effect appropriate methodologies" (9. 183), and (3) assessing student behavior in classroom activities that are both transactional and evaluative so as to effectively unlock "the text of the classroom" (9. 188). Overall, the book offers a succinct and much-needed argument for contextualizing all language teaching, and while this argument is not, in itself, a new one, Holliday's success in localizing it in multiple spheres--ranging from teacher-student interactions, to the culture of the classroom, to the larger culture---is. The prose is lucid, the generalizations are well-documented, and the argument for context-based language teaching is persuasive. This text is a must for those of us involved in training ESL teachers.
REFERENCES Atkinson, D., & Ramanathan, V. (1995). Cultures of writing: An ethnographic comparison of L1 and L2 university writing/language programs. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 539-568. Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31. To appear. Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and principles in language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press. Morris, T. (1991). The despairing developer: Diary of an aid worker in the Middle East. London: Tauris. Oller, J. Jr. (1993). Methods that work. Boston, MA= Heinle and Heinle. Phillipson, R. (1991). Linguistic imperialism. In Dunford Seminar Report: The social and economic impact of ELT in development (pp. 27-28). London: The British Council. Ramanathan, V., & Kaplan, R. B. (1996). Audience and voice in current L1 composition textbooks: Implications for L2 student-writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 5, 21-34. Ramanathan, V., & Kaplan, R. B. (In press). Some problematic channels in the teaching of critical thinking: Implications for L2 student-writers. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 23. Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shamim, F. (In process). Towards an understanding of learner resistance to innovation in classroom methodology. In H. Coleman (Ed.), Society and the classroom: Social explanation for behavior in the language class. Vai Ramanathan is assistant professor of English in the MA-TESOL program at the University of Alabama. Her research interests include L1 and L2 academic literacy and discourse analysis.