English Language Teaching in its Social Context

Chapter 17Angel M. Y. LinDOING-ENGLISH-LESSONS IN THEREPRODUCTION OR TRANSFORMATION OFSOCIAL WORLDS?1 IntroductionHIS ARTICLE TELLS A STORY of four classrooms, situated in differentT socioeconomic backgrounds. Drawing on the theoretical notions of cultural capital,habitus, symbolic violence, and creative, discursive agency as analytic tools, the story unfoldswitnessing the classroom dilemmas in which students and teachers found themselves, aswell as the creative, discursive strategies which they used to cope with these dilemmas.Theimplications of their strategies are discussed with reference to the question of whether doingEnglish lessons contributes to the reproduction or in the transformation of the students’social worlds.Statements about the global spread of English and its increasing socioeconomicimportance in the world have almost become c1ichi.s. On colorful banners celebrating theTESOLAnnual Convention in Chicago streets in 1996 was written the eye-catching missionslogan, “Teaching English to the World”. Indeed, English seems to have become a preciouscommodity increasingly demanded by the world, andTESOL practitioners and researchersseem to be striving to meet the demand of the world market with all our professionalism.InTESOL journals and annual conventions, practitioners and researchers share their findingsabout methods, approachcs, material designs that are effective.However, apart from the technical concern of efficiency in teaching and learning, itseems that a far morc diverse range of questions needs to be addressed which includesquestions such as whether, and if yes, how, English is implicated in the reproduction of socialinequalities in different contexts in the world. As regards the global influence of English,Pennycook (1994) points out both the global dominant position of English and thesocioeconomic, cultural and political embeddedness of English in the world. Access (or lackof it) to English often affects the social mobility and life chances of many children and adultsnot spealung English as their first or second language. The classroom in many places in theworld is a key site for the reproduction of social identities and unequal relations of power(Martyn-Jones and Hcller, 1996). It is also likely that many students in the world hold anambivalent, want-hate relationship with English and the classroom becomes a site forstudents’ struggles and oppositional practices which, however, often lead students to