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Language teaching in the post-fordist era
System. Vol. 23. No. 4. p p
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491-501. 1995 Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0346-251X/'95 $9.50 + 0.00
Pergamon 0346-251X(95)00035-6
LANGUAGE
TEACHING
IN THE POST-FORDIST
ERA
RICHARDTUFFS lnstitut des Langues Vivantes et de Phondtique, Universitd Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium This article focuses on the relationship between new methods of work organisation and their relevance to language teaching. The article argues that Fordist methods, typified by the assembly line, provide a useful analogy for the way that language teaching has been organised in the past. One of the main outcomes of the Fordist approach has been the progressive deskilling of the teacher. Fordist methods of working are gradually being replaced by what are termed post-Fordist methods with more emphasis on customer satisfaction and quality control. Post-Fordism provides a new analogy for the development of language teaching and can help focus attention on relevant changes that should direct methodological research over the next few years. For example, instead of becoming progressively deskilled, teachers in the post-Fordist era need to develop a range of new skills based on a better knowledge of the language learning process, coupled with an increased awareness of the issues of learner autonomy and learner strategies.
INTRODUCTION There can be few people in any organisation who have not witnessed or who are not witnessing dramatic changes in the way their organisation functions. The changes that have affected industrial production are perhaps the most marked and the most visible and it is these changes that have led observers to introduce the idea that we are moving into a new era of working practices. This movement is best represented by a move from a Fordist production system involving large-scale investment in factories with assembly lines producing mass consumption products to what has been termed a post-Fordist system. The post-Fordist concept has not as yet been systematically defined and should be seen as a movement away from Fordism rather than a movement towards any defined production system. However, the changes are often accompanied by a set of new business buzzwords such as "total quality" and "empowermenf' and more recently "re-engineering". These changes have not only modified both management and working practices but have also stimulated much comment and analysis on the nature of the present and the future working environment. The move to a post-Fordist production system has a direct relevance for teaching/training in the business English field for two reasons. Firstly, the fact that these changes will affect future managers means that language teachers/trainers (from now on the word teachers should be seen to include trainers) should be aware of these changes in order that they have an understanding of the management environment in which future language skills will be put to work. Secondly, and 491
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this will be the focus of this article, it will be argued that on closer inspection many of the past ideas and practices of teaching have been based on a Fordist conception of teaching and that the post-Fordist model may have direct relevance to possible changes of emphasis in language teaching in the next few years. The article starts with an overview of Fordism as a method of industrial production and management structure. Following this brief introduction to Fordism, the article argues that Fordism can be seen as a framework for understanding developments in language teaching or in a stronger perspective as a direct influence on the organisation of language teaching. Having established a link between Fordism and language teaching processes, the article briefly introduces ideas, concepts and processes that have gone into making up a post-Fordist approach to industrial production and management. Finally, it suggests how some of the features of post-Fordism may be a useful starting point for a debate on future developments and policies within language teaching in a post-Fordist era. FORDISM The concept of Fordism (named after Henry Ford) originates in the revolutionary changes in car production which were later followed by other types of manufacturing that started in the USA at the beginning of the century. Table 1 illustrates Fordism at its most basic. These easily-visible changes also brought with them more profound changes at a wider societal level illustrated in Table 2. Table I. Fordism: visible changes at factory level
I. 2. 3. 4.
Movingassemblylines Specialisedmachinery High wages (in return lor mind-numbingwork) Low-cost,standardised products Table 2. Fordism: wider influences
1. 2. 3. 4.
Labourprocess Growthsectorof economy Model Modeof regulation
Command and control type of management characterised by deskilling and discrete tasks Manufacturing seen as engine of growth Typical organisation for other sectors to copy including language teaching Standardisation, mass consumption and accepted way of organising production
Such a brief introduction of Fordist production methods ignores the incredible influence of two key men in the twentieth century on changing production methods, namely, Henry Ford, who of course gave his name to Fordism, and Frederick Taylor, who promoted the idea of scientific management. The introduction of the assembly line at the beginning of the century was greeted with acclaim that approached adulation and the man responsible was seen as a miracle maker. The Ford motor company was formed in 1903 when Ford was 40 and he was to continue to dominate the affairs of the company for the next 40 yr. The following figures illustrate the amazing results that Fordism produced. In 1903, just over 1700 cars were produced; 10 yr later, annual production figures reached the 200 000 mark. In 1915, halfa million cars were produced and by 1919 a million cars were being produced, a figure which soared to over 2 million in 1923. From an initial capital investment of $28 000, the company earned 55 million dollars in its first 10 yr. By 1916, the company's assets stood at $300 000 000. This stupendous growth can be attributed in great part to the introduction of the moving assembly line in 1913.
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THE PROBLEMS WITH FORDISM Fordism was successful as long as there was an unrelenting demand for goods and services which was certainly the case after the depression of the 1930s and then after the Second World War. Increases in output could be achieved relatively easily by increasing the size of the organisation, thereby achieving economies of scale. This worked until, as Hammer and Champy (1993) point out in their influential book on "re-engineering the corporation", customers began to demand better products and with these more individual demands, global competition and continuous change became everyday reality for most companies. A second problem on a more human level was that while the success of Fordism in terms of improved productivity and improved standards of living for workers within the Fordist system cannot be disputed, there were also human problems involved in the system. These problems were best illustrated by Chaplin's satire "Modern Times" which he made after hearing "a harrowing story of big industry luring healthy young men off the farms, who after 4 or 5 yr at the belt system, became nervous wrecks" (Chaplin, 1966: p. 415). The "nervous wrecks" referred to by Chaplin were one of the hidden costs of Fordism. The massive deskilling that accompanied Fordism led to a total lack of motivation from the workforce. Beynon cites workers from the Ford car plant at Liverpool: It's (the job) got no interest. You couldn't take the job home. There's nothing to take. You just forget it. I don't want promotionat all. I've not got that approachto the job. l'm like a lot of people here. They're all workinghere but they're just hanging around waiting for something to turn up... we're numbers. (Beynon, 1973: p. 121) You don't achieve anything here. A robot could do it. The line here is made for morons. It doesn't need any t h o u g h t . . . (ibid: p. 114)
The problems cited above are now challenging the Fordist system of organisation but for much of this century Fordism was a model of organisation for many other industries which copied the techniques and especially the hierarchical management structures which are often termed control and command structures. Thus many other sectors were influenced by Fordist practice and it might be argued that language teaching was no exception. FORDISM AND L A N G U A G E T E A C H I N G Table 3 illustrates that at its most visible level Fordism can be used as a useful framework for examining the development of language teaching. The main parallels between Fordism and language teaching would seem to be the idea of what might be termed a "bolt-on" approach to syllabus design and course materials. White (1988) argues that two broad approaches to language Table 3. Fordism and language teaching I. Moving assembly lines 2. Specialised machinery 3. Low-cost standardised products
Incremental syllabus design Language labs, videos, computer assisted language learning (CALL) Low-cost methods available on the market relying on cheap labour
syllabus design can be identified: "what is to be learnt?" and "how is it to be learnt?" The first has many features of the Fordist model such as the learner has no say in either content or form and whether it be structures or functions, it is the teacher or course director who decides the amount
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and the order and the process of how these items will be incorporated into the syllabus and learnt by the learner. This syllabus might be constructed around specialised machinery such as language laboratories, tape recorders, videos and more recently computers. The underlying concept being that the better the syllabus, the better the techniques available, the more efficient the process of learning and the better the product. Thus the cost of providing competent second language speakers can be standardised (audio-lingual approach) and therefore reduced (much of the research on different teaching methodologies was sponsored by the military authorities in the USA attempting to train personnel as quickly as possible in second languages, see Howatt (1984), Richards and Rodgers (1986)). However, at a wider level we can see that Fordism has many more implications for language teachers and chief among these implications is the tendency for Fordist systems to deskill the labour force. Table 4 outlines these wider concerns. In many teaching situations there is a clear analogy Table 4. Fordism and language teaching: wider influences 1. Labour process
2. Growthsectorof economy 3. Model 4. Modeof regulation
Little training, little scopefor initiative, unable to control productionprocess(method, textbook, etc.) deskilling Remarkablegrowth of the languageteaching industry The way that languages are taught has centralisedaround school system,classroom Mass consumption,standardisation of product, as English developsinto a world languagewe see the developmentof learningpackageseasilyadaptablefor a globalmarket
between the language teacher and the assembly line worker. As the language teaching "industry" has attempted to improve its product by the use of a variety of Fordist measures so in many cases the deskilling of teachers has been one of the outcomes of the policy. Thus we see the introduction of newer and better "assembly lines"--syllabus design, improving the machinery on the line; text books, language laboratories, tape recorders, videos, CALL, etc., and continuing the car analogy we see the development of luxury markets providing LSP (language for specific purposes) options grafted on to standard models. As each part of the language teaching organisation changes, higher productivity and improved production are expected and value for money becomes an increasingly heard rallying cry for all education. However, the one actor left out of the debate seems to be the teacher, the person on the line, the front end manager who is progressively being deskilled. This deskilling has not only happened to language teachers who have seen their status decline, Trow argues that university teachers, in the past motivated by internal motivation, are now being forced by govemment to subordinate this motivation to external incentives linked to teaching assessment which will lead to: •.. the deprofessionalisation of the academic workforce, its translbrmation into middle managers or skilled craftsmen, interested in promotions and better pay as rewards for better performance as determined by external assessors against yardsticks supplied by government agencies... (Trow, 1993: p. 21)
It can thus be argued that the power of the Fordist model has influenced language teaching to direct more research into syllabuses, methods and technologies and has paid less attention to the development of the teacher. This is not to say that Fordist techniques have been a failure; the opposite can easily be argued. The expansion of English as a world language with the concurrent activities of materials production and teacher education and training has been a major growth industry. The copying of Fordist techniques has succeeded in bringing second language learning to millions of people just at the Model T Ford opened the gates to car ownership. However, changes in the
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industrial environment and the inherent problems of Fordism suggest that it may be time to adapt the Fordist system to a different environment. POST-FORDISM There can be no doubt that over the last decade we have witnessed a profound change in the way that industrial production is organised and managed (see Stewart, 1993). These changes and the new systems that are being introduced can no longer be explained in terms of the concepts available within a Fordist description and thus tend to be accepted as some kind of post-Fordist movement. Dichter has pointed out that: Any recent survey of the contemporary organisational thinking would reveal such terms as the borderless, networked, inverted, empowered, and non-hierarchical organization. (Dichter, 1991: p. 145)
In almost all types of organisation employees of all levels are focused on increasing value and satisfaction to customers and realising that the Fordist model of production--also known as a command and control type of managing--is an inadequate response to the demands of today's environment: The command and control (C&C) organization, at its peak, was a highly refined system predicated on stability and forged by a particular set of technological, market and demographic forces. Single purpose machinery, stable mass markets, and a semi-skilled workforce were all mutually supporting. Together they shaped a predominant strategy of standardized, high-volume production and a C&C organization. (Dichter, 1991: p. 146)
The organisation of the 1990s has to deal with different challenges. End-use markets are fragmenting, requiring faster and more targeted responses while advances in information gathering and transmission make it possible to distribute decision making without losing control. Competitive strength is derived from the skills, specialisations and service levels provided to customers. Although there can be no one description of post-Fordism, several authors have put forward their own characteristics of post-Fordist organisation. These can be summarised under: (1) customer focus (2) continuous performance improvement with focus on quality, speed, flexibility and learning (3) fiat, flexible structures enhancing speed of decision and problem solving, continuous renewal and redesign and regularly adapting structures to changing customer needs (4) empowerment the need for everyone in the organisation to look for opportunities to improve performance and to take action without relying on procedures or orders from above to act (5) vision and value-driven leadership Several authors are now calling for nothing less than the overthrow of the Fordist system. Hammer and Champy (1993) argue that business has entered a new age in which task-focused divisions of labour and their supervisory hierarchies have now become chains that bind companies to uncompetitive performance: it is no longer necessary or desirable for companies to organize their work around Adam Smith's division of labor. Task-oriented jobs in today's world of customers, competition, and change are obsolete. Instead, companies must organize around process. (Hammer and Champy, 1993: pp. 27 28)
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What is needed is re-engineering where companies start over again and re-invent themselves around the idea of core business processes--the activities involved in delivering a particular task, such as the development of a new product. POST-FORDIST IDEAS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING The above ideas are currently being discussed and being put into practice in almost every corporation in the western world. How far these ideas can be or should be adapted and introduced within language teaching requires more discussion than space in this article allows. What is certain, however, is that more than ever there is an increasing link between the demands of industry in terms of the importance of educated (rather than trained) employees (see Hammer and Champy, 1993) and the need for a corporation to work as a learning environment (see Lessem, 1991) because of the increasing pressure of change that all organisations are facing within a post-Fordist environment. This article will concentrate on three issues much discussed within industry which seem to connect with current debates in language teaching and may serve as guidelines to future directions for methodological development within language teaching. The first of these issues is that of quality. It seems clear that education in general has not been able or wished to escape the quality debate and thus the search for improvement in quality might be seen as a reasonable objective in all teaching institutions. A second area of discussion that will be examined here is the concept of empowerment. On the one hand, it is of relevance to teachers and the institutions in which they work; and on the other, the future relationships between teachers and learners promises to be one of greater distance which may lead to a more autonomous learning situation. Finally, more attention must be paid to the customer and within education this means paying more attention to the learners' needs and in particular to the development of effective learning strategies. These three areas will be discussed in more depth in the following section. THE QUALITY DEBATE There is much discussion within education on the concept of quality and this article is certainly not ambitious enough to attempt to clarify this discussion. It can be argued that quality within education is so difficult to define and the time span of assessment so varied that insurmountable difficulties exist in its definition and measurement. The concept of quality must to a certain extent be linked to the environment that any particular organisation finds itself in. Any move towards quality has to take place within a social, cultural, economic and management context. Asking education organisations to respond to the customer would require different moves according to the sector. Private language schools and training institutions must be customer oriented to survive but it could be argued that the customers of universities are not only the current intake of students but also society at large, where universities have a wider social dimension providing the skills needed for the society to survive in the future. Whatever the debate regarding the concept of quality, successful quality management systems must develop with the support of the entire organisation. This support, whether by quality circles or by the management involving all staff in the debate, is essential for quality to be achieved (see Munro-Faure et al., 1993: p.a.A A,5).This movement towards improving quality within language
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teaching is to a certain extent mirrored by the recent interest in classroom research both in general terms of understanding (Allwright and B ailey, 1991) or with the aim of isolating variables leading to academic achievement (Chaudron, 1988). Linked very closely to classroom research we find that more and more attention is being given to action research. ACTION RESEARCH Action research has only recently entered the EFL world. Although the term can be defined in many ways, there is a general implication that teachers will be involved in research activity and that the research conducted should emerge from a teacher's own immediate concerns and problems (see van Lier, 1988: pp. 67-68, Allwright and Bailey, 1991: pp. 38 44, Woodward, 1991: pp. 224-236). The main differences between action research and what might be termed traditional research is in the scale, the participants in the research and the speed and the practical usefulness of the results. Woodward (1991 ) contrasts mainstream educational research with action research and suggests that while the former is bureaucratic and authoritarian the latter is democratic and participatory. Crookes (1993) argues that within current action research two trends have emerged. The first is an older, relatively conservative line which sees action research as research done by a teacher-researcher and the second is a newer, more progressive line where the term in used to refer to aspects of critical education practice which can be defined as "education and educational research which is committed to emancipating individuals from the domination of unexamined assumptions embodied in the status quo" (Crookes, 1993: p. 131). Simply identifying a problem and solving it is not enough and some authors (see Cart and Kemmis, 1986) argue that action research should develop into a cyclical programme of reform involving an ever-widening circle of self-reflective communities. Crookes concludes that: Tile conducting of action research as a means of critical reflection on teaching and on the sociopolitical context in which teachers find themselves has the potential to be a major component in the continuing struggle to improve SL teaching. (Crookes, 1993: p. 137)
Action research might be one policy that could help to bridge the perceived gap between applied linguistics and rank and file language teachers who all too often see little utility for linguistic theory in the classroom (see O'Driscoll, 1993). This particularly applies to those involved within the branch of second language acquisition (see Gass, 1993) where the relationship between: • . . SLA and language teaching is an interesting one, yet not as facile as we generally believe. Research in SLA, along with research in other disciplines, must form the basis for pedagogy. But how this is done is often in a less than satisfactory manner. (Gass, 1993: p. 109)
Nunan notes that one of the features of action research is the idea of change (Nunan, 1992: p. 17) and if action research is to develop as a means of opening up the quality debate within the teaching environment then this action research has to be conducted in a management structure that emphasises empowerment. EMPOWERMENT Recent changes within the business environment have led to two important changes. Firstly, the division of labour into a skilled core and a lower-skilled periphery and secondly new management practices designed to deal with the rapidly changing environment (see O'Reilly, 1994 for a
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discussion of how these changes are also going on in the business schools conscious of their role of providing the managers of the future). The first process has led to more flexibility in the labour market and the second has led to a variety of workplace reforms, many of which are centred around the concept of empowerment (see B yham and Cox, 1991; Scott and Jaffe, 1992): For the 1990s the major source of competitive advantage will lie not in new technology but in the dedication, the quality of the commitmentand the competenceof your workforce.The results of employeeenergy and creativity-human capital--is the company's most important resource. Empowerment is the new fuel for the growing workplace. (Scott and Jaffe, 1992: p. 9) Scott and Jaffe go on to list seven characteristics of empowerment: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
enhancing the content of work expanding the skills and tasks that make up the j o b liberating creativity and innovation greater control over decision about work completing a whole task rather than just a portion of it customer satisfaction market place orientation The empowered workplace stems from a new relationship between employees and a new relationship between people and the organisation... The employee is a decision maker, not a follower. Everyone feels that they are continually learning and developing new skills to meet new demands. (Scott and Jaffe, 1992: p. 15)
Reading through the above list it is not difficult to see why empowerment has a relevance for language teaching on two grounds. Firstly, it relates to the relationship between the teacher and the organisation for which he or she works. Secondly, by replacing the concept of "work" by "learning" or "classroom" we can immediately see the relevance of the concept of empowerment within the teaching/learning environment. One key area that has attracted much attention recently has been the increasing move towards learner centredness (see Tudor, 1992) and the individualisation and autonomy in language learning (see Brookes and Grundy, 1988). LEARNER AUTONOMY Crabbe argues that learner autonomy can be justified on three grounds: the ideological where the learner has the right to exercise his or her choice as far as it is practicable; from a psychological point of view, it is argued that we learn better and are more motivated when we are in charge of our own learning; and from an economic point of view, society no longer has the resources to provide the level of personal instruction needed by all its members in every area of learning (Crabbe, 1993: p. 443). Crabbe uses the constructs of private and public domains of learning. For example, the classroom is the public domain and the individual learner's personal learning activities take place in the private domain. For a teacher aiming to foster autonomy, the focus of attention is on both domains and the interface between them. Crabbe argues that it is: • . . probably a fault o f m a n y teacher education courses that they reinlorce a schema of a c l a s s r o o m as the place where all learning takes place, given the right conditions. This leads to a very low occurrence of advice or modelling to learners on w h a t they should do in the private d o m a i n o f learning. (Crabbe, 1993: p. 450)
The development of learner autonomy is no simple matter and the support necessary will differ
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according to local conditions. However, as the learner becomes progressively more autonomous, the role of the teacher will develop into a more counselling role, guiding and supporting the learner over a longer time period and thus classroom study will become just one of the learning activities in which the learner and the teacher may participate. CUSTOMER FOCUS One of the key impetuses for improved service and production that most firms and organisations are aiming for is the emphasis on providing products for a customer demanding higher standards of service and products. Citizens' charters in the UK for most public services and more intensive niche marketing in the private sector bear witness to this trend. The concept of customer focus has been around for many years in language teaching and is characterised by the development of LSP courses, one-to-one courses, detailed needs analyses based on the classic Munby model (Munby, 1978) and more recently language audits. One other area that has received an increasing amount of research input has been that of learner strategies. LEARNER STRATEGIES As the learner becomes more autonomous, this leads to a greater need on the part of the learner to use efficient learner strategies in the learning context. Although some books have recently been published with this aim (see Cohen, 1990; Farthing and Pulverness, 1993), most research has concentrated on identifying learner strategies and less attention has been paid to the communication of these strategies to the learner. O'Malley and Chamot note that: Probably the most important issue is developing in teachers the understanding and techniques for delivering effective learner strategy instruction to s t u d e n t s . . . Very little attention has been given to training in which teachers are familiarized with techniques for learning strategy instruction. (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: p. 154)
As learners become more autonomous, the use of effective learning strategies becomes imperative and the teacher should be able to help the learner by identifying ill-adapted strategies and suggesting better and more relevant strategies where possible (see Oxford, 1989). This means that teachers should become more aware of the different strategies and have a better understanding of the learning situation in order that they may more clearly advise the learner as to the best strategy to follow. THE TEACHER AS LEARNING CONSULTANT The above three areas of post-Fordist practice have a relevance to the ELT profession. If these areas identified as key areas of development are accepted then it assumes that teachers will have to develop more skills in the future. The role of the teacher will widen as he or she takes on a wider package of skills. These skills involve better awareness of relevant theory especially in the field of second language acquisition, more awareness of ways of helping students to become more autonomous and better understanding and communication of successful learner strategies. This means that the teacher will have to take on more skills without necessarily relinquishing any of the more traditional skills. As these new skills are developed, then we can see that the teacher will have some of the skills necessary for the post-Fordist era and will gradually move to a role more akin to a language consultant than a classroom teacher. This process, thus, involves upskilling
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inside a method of organisation that places more importance on the skills and abilities of the teacher. Unlike the deskilling, current under Fordism, post-Fordism should emphasise the professional development of the teacher. CONCLUSION
This article has attempted to use the analogy of Fordist and post-Fordist production and management processes as a way of shedding light on language learning particularly at the tertiary and LSP level. It has been argued that language teaching has been influenced by Fordist techniques which have helped develop language teaching into a major growth industry today. However, the emphasis on "production" techniques has led to the deskilling of the teacher. This has had consequences at both the professional and teaching level. Post-Fordist techniques emphasise the importance of quality revolving around customer service demanding more highly-skilled and empowered employees. Taking a post-Fordist analogy, it is argued that in the future, teachers should improve their management of learning skills, helping students to identify and improve their language learning strategies, helping students to become more autonomous as well as being more aware of relevant theoretical developments via a commitment to action research. Rather than becoming progressively deskilled, teachers need to develop new skills to meet the challenges of the post-Fordist era.
REFERENCES ALLWRIGHT, D. and BAILEY, K. M. (1991) Focus on the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. BEYNON, H. (1973) Working for Ford. Harmondsworth: Penguin. BROOKES, A. and GRUNDY, P. (eds) (1988) lndividualisation and Autonomy in Language Learning. London: Modem English Publications. BYHAM, W. C. and COX, J. (1991 ) Zapp! The Lightening of Empowerment. London: Business Books. CARR, W. and KEMMIS, S. (1986) Becoming Critical. London: The Falmer Press. CHAPLIN, C. (1966) My Autobiography. New York: Pocket Books Inc. CHAUDRON, C. (1988) Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. COHEN, A. D. (1990) Language Learning: Insights for Learners, Teachers and Researchers. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers. CRABBE, D. (1993) Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: the teacher's responsibility. System 21, 443-452. CROOKES, G. (1993) Action research for second language teachers: going beyond teacher research. Applied Linguistics 14, 130-144. DICHTER, S. F. (1991) The organization of the '90s. The McKinsey Quarterly 1, 145-155. FARTHING, M. and PULVERNESS, A. (1993) The MacMillan Short Course Programme: Reflections. London: MacMillan. GASS, S. (1993) Second language acquisition: past, present and future. Second Language Research 9, 99-117. HAMMER, M. and CHAMPY, J. (1993) Re-engineering the Corporation: a Manifesto for Business Revolution. London: Nicolas Brealey. HOWATT, A. P. R. (1984) A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. LESSEM, R. (1991) Total Quali~ Learning. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. MUNBY, J. (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MUNRO-FAURE, L., MUNRO-FAURE, M. and BONES, E. (1993) Achieving Quality Standards. London: Pitman Publishing.
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NUNAN, D. (1992) Research Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. O'DRISCOLL, J. (1993) A relationship on the rocks: the applied linguist and the language teacher. Review of Applied Linguistics, ITL Leuven November 1993, 107-131. O'MALLEY, J. M. and CHAMOT, A. U. (1990) Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. O'REILLY, B. (1994) Re-engineering the MBA. Fortune January 24, 32-36. OXFORD, R. L. (1989) Use of language learning strategies: a synthesis of studies with implications for strategy training. System 17, 235-247. RICHARDS, J. C. and RODGERS, T. S. (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. SCOTT, C. C. and JAFFE, D. T. (1992) Empowerment. London: Kogan Page Ltd. STEWART, T. A. (1993) Welcome to the revolution. Fortune December 13, 32-38. TUDOR, 1. (1992) Learner-centredness in language teaching: finding the right balance. System 20, 31-44. TROW, M. (1993) The business of learning. The Times Higher October 8, 20-21. van LIER, L. (1988) The Classroom and the Language Learner. London: Longman. WHITE, R. V. (1988) The E.L.T. Curriculum. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. WOODWARD, T. (I 991) Models and Metaphors in Language Teacher Training. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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LANGUAGE
TEACHING
IN THE POST-FORDIST
ERA
RICHARDTUFFS lnstitut des Langues Vivantes et de Phondtique, Universitd Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium This article focuses on the relationship between new methods of work organisation and their relevance to language teaching. The article argues that Fordist methods, typified by the assembly line, provide a useful analogy for the way that language teaching has been organised in the past. One of the main outcomes of the Fordist approach has been the progressive deskilling of the teacher. Fordist methods of working are gradually being replaced by what are termed post-Fordist methods with more emphasis on customer satisfaction and quality control. Post-Fordism provides a new analogy for the development of language teaching and can help focus attention on relevant changes that should direct methodological research over the next few years. For example, instead of becoming progressively deskilled, teachers in the post-Fordist era need to develop a range of new skills based on a better knowledge of the language learning process, coupled with an increased awareness of the issues of learner autonomy and learner strategies.
INTRODUCTION There can be few people in any organisation who have not witnessed or who are not witnessing dramatic changes in the way their organisation functions. The changes that have affected industrial production are perhaps the most marked and the most visible and it is these changes that have led observers to introduce the idea that we are moving into a new era of working practices. This movement is best represented by a move from a Fordist production system involving large-scale investment in factories with assembly lines producing mass consumption products to what has been termed a post-Fordist system. The post-Fordist concept has not as yet been systematically defined and should be seen as a movement away from Fordism rather than a movement towards any defined production system. However, the changes are often accompanied by a set of new business buzzwords such as "total quality" and "empowermenf' and more recently "re-engineering". These changes have not only modified both management and working practices but have also stimulated much comment and analysis on the nature of the present and the future working environment. The move to a post-Fordist production system has a direct relevance for teaching/training in the business English field for two reasons. Firstly, the fact that these changes will affect future managers means that language teachers/trainers (from now on the word teachers should be seen to include trainers) should be aware of these changes in order that they have an understanding of the management environment in which future language skills will be put to work. Secondly, and 491
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this will be the focus of this article, it will be argued that on closer inspection many of the past ideas and practices of teaching have been based on a Fordist conception of teaching and that the post-Fordist model may have direct relevance to possible changes of emphasis in language teaching in the next few years. The article starts with an overview of Fordism as a method of industrial production and management structure. Following this brief introduction to Fordism, the article argues that Fordism can be seen as a framework for understanding developments in language teaching or in a stronger perspective as a direct influence on the organisation of language teaching. Having established a link between Fordism and language teaching processes, the article briefly introduces ideas, concepts and processes that have gone into making up a post-Fordist approach to industrial production and management. Finally, it suggests how some of the features of post-Fordism may be a useful starting point for a debate on future developments and policies within language teaching in a post-Fordist era. FORDISM The concept of Fordism (named after Henry Ford) originates in the revolutionary changes in car production which were later followed by other types of manufacturing that started in the USA at the beginning of the century. Table 1 illustrates Fordism at its most basic. These easily-visible changes also brought with them more profound changes at a wider societal level illustrated in Table 2. Table I. Fordism: visible changes at factory level
I. 2. 3. 4.
Movingassemblylines Specialisedmachinery High wages (in return lor mind-numbingwork) Low-cost,standardised products Table 2. Fordism: wider influences
1. 2. 3. 4.
Labourprocess Growthsectorof economy Model Modeof regulation
Command and control type of management characterised by deskilling and discrete tasks Manufacturing seen as engine of growth Typical organisation for other sectors to copy including language teaching Standardisation, mass consumption and accepted way of organising production
Such a brief introduction of Fordist production methods ignores the incredible influence of two key men in the twentieth century on changing production methods, namely, Henry Ford, who of course gave his name to Fordism, and Frederick Taylor, who promoted the idea of scientific management. The introduction of the assembly line at the beginning of the century was greeted with acclaim that approached adulation and the man responsible was seen as a miracle maker. The Ford motor company was formed in 1903 when Ford was 40 and he was to continue to dominate the affairs of the company for the next 40 yr. The following figures illustrate the amazing results that Fordism produced. In 1903, just over 1700 cars were produced; 10 yr later, annual production figures reached the 200 000 mark. In 1915, halfa million cars were produced and by 1919 a million cars were being produced, a figure which soared to over 2 million in 1923. From an initial capital investment of $28 000, the company earned 55 million dollars in its first 10 yr. By 1916, the company's assets stood at $300 000 000. This stupendous growth can be attributed in great part to the introduction of the moving assembly line in 1913.
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THE PROBLEMS WITH FORDISM Fordism was successful as long as there was an unrelenting demand for goods and services which was certainly the case after the depression of the 1930s and then after the Second World War. Increases in output could be achieved relatively easily by increasing the size of the organisation, thereby achieving economies of scale. This worked until, as Hammer and Champy (1993) point out in their influential book on "re-engineering the corporation", customers began to demand better products and with these more individual demands, global competition and continuous change became everyday reality for most companies. A second problem on a more human level was that while the success of Fordism in terms of improved productivity and improved standards of living for workers within the Fordist system cannot be disputed, there were also human problems involved in the system. These problems were best illustrated by Chaplin's satire "Modern Times" which he made after hearing "a harrowing story of big industry luring healthy young men off the farms, who after 4 or 5 yr at the belt system, became nervous wrecks" (Chaplin, 1966: p. 415). The "nervous wrecks" referred to by Chaplin were one of the hidden costs of Fordism. The massive deskilling that accompanied Fordism led to a total lack of motivation from the workforce. Beynon cites workers from the Ford car plant at Liverpool: It's (the job) got no interest. You couldn't take the job home. There's nothing to take. You just forget it. I don't want promotionat all. I've not got that approachto the job. l'm like a lot of people here. They're all workinghere but they're just hanging around waiting for something to turn up... we're numbers. (Beynon, 1973: p. 121) You don't achieve anything here. A robot could do it. The line here is made for morons. It doesn't need any t h o u g h t . . . (ibid: p. 114)
The problems cited above are now challenging the Fordist system of organisation but for much of this century Fordism was a model of organisation for many other industries which copied the techniques and especially the hierarchical management structures which are often termed control and command structures. Thus many other sectors were influenced by Fordist practice and it might be argued that language teaching was no exception. FORDISM AND L A N G U A G E T E A C H I N G Table 3 illustrates that at its most visible level Fordism can be used as a useful framework for examining the development of language teaching. The main parallels between Fordism and language teaching would seem to be the idea of what might be termed a "bolt-on" approach to syllabus design and course materials. White (1988) argues that two broad approaches to language Table 3. Fordism and language teaching I. Moving assembly lines 2. Specialised machinery 3. Low-cost standardised products
Incremental syllabus design Language labs, videos, computer assisted language learning (CALL) Low-cost methods available on the market relying on cheap labour
syllabus design can be identified: "what is to be learnt?" and "how is it to be learnt?" The first has many features of the Fordist model such as the learner has no say in either content or form and whether it be structures or functions, it is the teacher or course director who decides the amount
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and the order and the process of how these items will be incorporated into the syllabus and learnt by the learner. This syllabus might be constructed around specialised machinery such as language laboratories, tape recorders, videos and more recently computers. The underlying concept being that the better the syllabus, the better the techniques available, the more efficient the process of learning and the better the product. Thus the cost of providing competent second language speakers can be standardised (audio-lingual approach) and therefore reduced (much of the research on different teaching methodologies was sponsored by the military authorities in the USA attempting to train personnel as quickly as possible in second languages, see Howatt (1984), Richards and Rodgers (1986)). However, at a wider level we can see that Fordism has many more implications for language teachers and chief among these implications is the tendency for Fordist systems to deskill the labour force. Table 4 outlines these wider concerns. In many teaching situations there is a clear analogy Table 4. Fordism and language teaching: wider influences 1. Labour process
2. Growthsectorof economy 3. Model 4. Modeof regulation
Little training, little scopefor initiative, unable to control productionprocess(method, textbook, etc.) deskilling Remarkablegrowth of the languageteaching industry The way that languages are taught has centralisedaround school system,classroom Mass consumption,standardisation of product, as English developsinto a world languagewe see the developmentof learningpackageseasilyadaptablefor a globalmarket
between the language teacher and the assembly line worker. As the language teaching "industry" has attempted to improve its product by the use of a variety of Fordist measures so in many cases the deskilling of teachers has been one of the outcomes of the policy. Thus we see the introduction of newer and better "assembly lines"--syllabus design, improving the machinery on the line; text books, language laboratories, tape recorders, videos, CALL, etc., and continuing the car analogy we see the development of luxury markets providing LSP (language for specific purposes) options grafted on to standard models. As each part of the language teaching organisation changes, higher productivity and improved production are expected and value for money becomes an increasingly heard rallying cry for all education. However, the one actor left out of the debate seems to be the teacher, the person on the line, the front end manager who is progressively being deskilled. This deskilling has not only happened to language teachers who have seen their status decline, Trow argues that university teachers, in the past motivated by internal motivation, are now being forced by govemment to subordinate this motivation to external incentives linked to teaching assessment which will lead to: •.. the deprofessionalisation of the academic workforce, its translbrmation into middle managers or skilled craftsmen, interested in promotions and better pay as rewards for better performance as determined by external assessors against yardsticks supplied by government agencies... (Trow, 1993: p. 21)
It can thus be argued that the power of the Fordist model has influenced language teaching to direct more research into syllabuses, methods and technologies and has paid less attention to the development of the teacher. This is not to say that Fordist techniques have been a failure; the opposite can easily be argued. The expansion of English as a world language with the concurrent activities of materials production and teacher education and training has been a major growth industry. The copying of Fordist techniques has succeeded in bringing second language learning to millions of people just at the Model T Ford opened the gates to car ownership. However, changes in the
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industrial environment and the inherent problems of Fordism suggest that it may be time to adapt the Fordist system to a different environment. POST-FORDISM There can be no doubt that over the last decade we have witnessed a profound change in the way that industrial production is organised and managed (see Stewart, 1993). These changes and the new systems that are being introduced can no longer be explained in terms of the concepts available within a Fordist description and thus tend to be accepted as some kind of post-Fordist movement. Dichter has pointed out that: Any recent survey of the contemporary organisational thinking would reveal such terms as the borderless, networked, inverted, empowered, and non-hierarchical organization. (Dichter, 1991: p. 145)
In almost all types of organisation employees of all levels are focused on increasing value and satisfaction to customers and realising that the Fordist model of production--also known as a command and control type of managing--is an inadequate response to the demands of today's environment: The command and control (C&C) organization, at its peak, was a highly refined system predicated on stability and forged by a particular set of technological, market and demographic forces. Single purpose machinery, stable mass markets, and a semi-skilled workforce were all mutually supporting. Together they shaped a predominant strategy of standardized, high-volume production and a C&C organization. (Dichter, 1991: p. 146)
The organisation of the 1990s has to deal with different challenges. End-use markets are fragmenting, requiring faster and more targeted responses while advances in information gathering and transmission make it possible to distribute decision making without losing control. Competitive strength is derived from the skills, specialisations and service levels provided to customers. Although there can be no one description of post-Fordism, several authors have put forward their own characteristics of post-Fordist organisation. These can be summarised under: (1) customer focus (2) continuous performance improvement with focus on quality, speed, flexibility and learning (3) fiat, flexible structures enhancing speed of decision and problem solving, continuous renewal and redesign and regularly adapting structures to changing customer needs (4) empowerment the need for everyone in the organisation to look for opportunities to improve performance and to take action without relying on procedures or orders from above to act (5) vision and value-driven leadership Several authors are now calling for nothing less than the overthrow of the Fordist system. Hammer and Champy (1993) argue that business has entered a new age in which task-focused divisions of labour and their supervisory hierarchies have now become chains that bind companies to uncompetitive performance: it is no longer necessary or desirable for companies to organize their work around Adam Smith's division of labor. Task-oriented jobs in today's world of customers, competition, and change are obsolete. Instead, companies must organize around process. (Hammer and Champy, 1993: pp. 27 28)
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What is needed is re-engineering where companies start over again and re-invent themselves around the idea of core business processes--the activities involved in delivering a particular task, such as the development of a new product. POST-FORDIST IDEAS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING The above ideas are currently being discussed and being put into practice in almost every corporation in the western world. How far these ideas can be or should be adapted and introduced within language teaching requires more discussion than space in this article allows. What is certain, however, is that more than ever there is an increasing link between the demands of industry in terms of the importance of educated (rather than trained) employees (see Hammer and Champy, 1993) and the need for a corporation to work as a learning environment (see Lessem, 1991) because of the increasing pressure of change that all organisations are facing within a post-Fordist environment. This article will concentrate on three issues much discussed within industry which seem to connect with current debates in language teaching and may serve as guidelines to future directions for methodological development within language teaching. The first of these issues is that of quality. It seems clear that education in general has not been able or wished to escape the quality debate and thus the search for improvement in quality might be seen as a reasonable objective in all teaching institutions. A second area of discussion that will be examined here is the concept of empowerment. On the one hand, it is of relevance to teachers and the institutions in which they work; and on the other, the future relationships between teachers and learners promises to be one of greater distance which may lead to a more autonomous learning situation. Finally, more attention must be paid to the customer and within education this means paying more attention to the learners' needs and in particular to the development of effective learning strategies. These three areas will be discussed in more depth in the following section. THE QUALITY DEBATE There is much discussion within education on the concept of quality and this article is certainly not ambitious enough to attempt to clarify this discussion. It can be argued that quality within education is so difficult to define and the time span of assessment so varied that insurmountable difficulties exist in its definition and measurement. The concept of quality must to a certain extent be linked to the environment that any particular organisation finds itself in. Any move towards quality has to take place within a social, cultural, economic and management context. Asking education organisations to respond to the customer would require different moves according to the sector. Private language schools and training institutions must be customer oriented to survive but it could be argued that the customers of universities are not only the current intake of students but also society at large, where universities have a wider social dimension providing the skills needed for the society to survive in the future. Whatever the debate regarding the concept of quality, successful quality management systems must develop with the support of the entire organisation. This support, whether by quality circles or by the management involving all staff in the debate, is essential for quality to be achieved (see Munro-Faure et al., 1993: p.a.A A,5).This movement towards improving quality within language
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teaching is to a certain extent mirrored by the recent interest in classroom research both in general terms of understanding (Allwright and B ailey, 1991) or with the aim of isolating variables leading to academic achievement (Chaudron, 1988). Linked very closely to classroom research we find that more and more attention is being given to action research. ACTION RESEARCH Action research has only recently entered the EFL world. Although the term can be defined in many ways, there is a general implication that teachers will be involved in research activity and that the research conducted should emerge from a teacher's own immediate concerns and problems (see van Lier, 1988: pp. 67-68, Allwright and Bailey, 1991: pp. 38 44, Woodward, 1991: pp. 224-236). The main differences between action research and what might be termed traditional research is in the scale, the participants in the research and the speed and the practical usefulness of the results. Woodward (1991 ) contrasts mainstream educational research with action research and suggests that while the former is bureaucratic and authoritarian the latter is democratic and participatory. Crookes (1993) argues that within current action research two trends have emerged. The first is an older, relatively conservative line which sees action research as research done by a teacher-researcher and the second is a newer, more progressive line where the term in used to refer to aspects of critical education practice which can be defined as "education and educational research which is committed to emancipating individuals from the domination of unexamined assumptions embodied in the status quo" (Crookes, 1993: p. 131). Simply identifying a problem and solving it is not enough and some authors (see Cart and Kemmis, 1986) argue that action research should develop into a cyclical programme of reform involving an ever-widening circle of self-reflective communities. Crookes concludes that: Tile conducting of action research as a means of critical reflection on teaching and on the sociopolitical context in which teachers find themselves has the potential to be a major component in the continuing struggle to improve SL teaching. (Crookes, 1993: p. 137)
Action research might be one policy that could help to bridge the perceived gap between applied linguistics and rank and file language teachers who all too often see little utility for linguistic theory in the classroom (see O'Driscoll, 1993). This particularly applies to those involved within the branch of second language acquisition (see Gass, 1993) where the relationship between: • . . SLA and language teaching is an interesting one, yet not as facile as we generally believe. Research in SLA, along with research in other disciplines, must form the basis for pedagogy. But how this is done is often in a less than satisfactory manner. (Gass, 1993: p. 109)
Nunan notes that one of the features of action research is the idea of change (Nunan, 1992: p. 17) and if action research is to develop as a means of opening up the quality debate within the teaching environment then this action research has to be conducted in a management structure that emphasises empowerment. EMPOWERMENT Recent changes within the business environment have led to two important changes. Firstly, the division of labour into a skilled core and a lower-skilled periphery and secondly new management practices designed to deal with the rapidly changing environment (see O'Reilly, 1994 for a
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discussion of how these changes are also going on in the business schools conscious of their role of providing the managers of the future). The first process has led to more flexibility in the labour market and the second has led to a variety of workplace reforms, many of which are centred around the concept of empowerment (see B yham and Cox, 1991; Scott and Jaffe, 1992): For the 1990s the major source of competitive advantage will lie not in new technology but in the dedication, the quality of the commitmentand the competenceof your workforce.The results of employeeenergy and creativity-human capital--is the company's most important resource. Empowerment is the new fuel for the growing workplace. (Scott and Jaffe, 1992: p. 9) Scott and Jaffe go on to list seven characteristics of empowerment: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
enhancing the content of work expanding the skills and tasks that make up the j o b liberating creativity and innovation greater control over decision about work completing a whole task rather than just a portion of it customer satisfaction market place orientation The empowered workplace stems from a new relationship between employees and a new relationship between people and the organisation... The employee is a decision maker, not a follower. Everyone feels that they are continually learning and developing new skills to meet new demands. (Scott and Jaffe, 1992: p. 15)
Reading through the above list it is not difficult to see why empowerment has a relevance for language teaching on two grounds. Firstly, it relates to the relationship between the teacher and the organisation for which he or she works. Secondly, by replacing the concept of "work" by "learning" or "classroom" we can immediately see the relevance of the concept of empowerment within the teaching/learning environment. One key area that has attracted much attention recently has been the increasing move towards learner centredness (see Tudor, 1992) and the individualisation and autonomy in language learning (see Brookes and Grundy, 1988). LEARNER AUTONOMY Crabbe argues that learner autonomy can be justified on three grounds: the ideological where the learner has the right to exercise his or her choice as far as it is practicable; from a psychological point of view, it is argued that we learn better and are more motivated when we are in charge of our own learning; and from an economic point of view, society no longer has the resources to provide the level of personal instruction needed by all its members in every area of learning (Crabbe, 1993: p. 443). Crabbe uses the constructs of private and public domains of learning. For example, the classroom is the public domain and the individual learner's personal learning activities take place in the private domain. For a teacher aiming to foster autonomy, the focus of attention is on both domains and the interface between them. Crabbe argues that it is: • . . probably a fault o f m a n y teacher education courses that they reinlorce a schema of a c l a s s r o o m as the place where all learning takes place, given the right conditions. This leads to a very low occurrence of advice or modelling to learners on w h a t they should do in the private d o m a i n o f learning. (Crabbe, 1993: p. 450)
The development of learner autonomy is no simple matter and the support necessary will differ
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according to local conditions. However, as the learner becomes progressively more autonomous, the role of the teacher will develop into a more counselling role, guiding and supporting the learner over a longer time period and thus classroom study will become just one of the learning activities in which the learner and the teacher may participate. CUSTOMER FOCUS One of the key impetuses for improved service and production that most firms and organisations are aiming for is the emphasis on providing products for a customer demanding higher standards of service and products. Citizens' charters in the UK for most public services and more intensive niche marketing in the private sector bear witness to this trend. The concept of customer focus has been around for many years in language teaching and is characterised by the development of LSP courses, one-to-one courses, detailed needs analyses based on the classic Munby model (Munby, 1978) and more recently language audits. One other area that has received an increasing amount of research input has been that of learner strategies. LEARNER STRATEGIES As the learner becomes more autonomous, this leads to a greater need on the part of the learner to use efficient learner strategies in the learning context. Although some books have recently been published with this aim (see Cohen, 1990; Farthing and Pulverness, 1993), most research has concentrated on identifying learner strategies and less attention has been paid to the communication of these strategies to the learner. O'Malley and Chamot note that: Probably the most important issue is developing in teachers the understanding and techniques for delivering effective learner strategy instruction to s t u d e n t s . . . Very little attention has been given to training in which teachers are familiarized with techniques for learning strategy instruction. (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: p. 154)
As learners become more autonomous, the use of effective learning strategies becomes imperative and the teacher should be able to help the learner by identifying ill-adapted strategies and suggesting better and more relevant strategies where possible (see Oxford, 1989). This means that teachers should become more aware of the different strategies and have a better understanding of the learning situation in order that they may more clearly advise the learner as to the best strategy to follow. THE TEACHER AS LEARNING CONSULTANT The above three areas of post-Fordist practice have a relevance to the ELT profession. If these areas identified as key areas of development are accepted then it assumes that teachers will have to develop more skills in the future. The role of the teacher will widen as he or she takes on a wider package of skills. These skills involve better awareness of relevant theory especially in the field of second language acquisition, more awareness of ways of helping students to become more autonomous and better understanding and communication of successful learner strategies. This means that the teacher will have to take on more skills without necessarily relinquishing any of the more traditional skills. As these new skills are developed, then we can see that the teacher will have some of the skills necessary for the post-Fordist era and will gradually move to a role more akin to a language consultant than a classroom teacher. This process, thus, involves upskilling
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inside a method of organisation that places more importance on the skills and abilities of the teacher. Unlike the deskilling, current under Fordism, post-Fordism should emphasise the professional development of the teacher. CONCLUSION
This article has attempted to use the analogy of Fordist and post-Fordist production and management processes as a way of shedding light on language learning particularly at the tertiary and LSP level. It has been argued that language teaching has been influenced by Fordist techniques which have helped develop language teaching into a major growth industry today. However, the emphasis on "production" techniques has led to the deskilling of the teacher. This has had consequences at both the professional and teaching level. Post-Fordist techniques emphasise the importance of quality revolving around customer service demanding more highly-skilled and empowered employees. Taking a post-Fordist analogy, it is argued that in the future, teachers should improve their management of learning skills, helping students to identify and improve their language learning strategies, helping students to become more autonomous as well as being more aware of relevant theoretical developments via a commitment to action research. Rather than becoming progressively deskilled, teachers need to develop new skills to meet the challenges of the post-Fordist era.
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