Meeting the Other in Literature and ELT through the Critical Analysis of a Short Story

Abstract

This paper reflects about the role of English, Literature and teachers’ beliefs in English language teaching (ELT), addressing notions of native speakerism and Otherness in the critical analysis of James Kirkup’s (1994) short story “The Teacher of American Business English”. The methodology is qualitative and based on Content/Discourse Analysis linking the themes addressed in the story to the literature review that includes the role of English, the contact of languages and cultures, the development of beliefs and identities, and the socio-historical context of such occurrences. The critical analysis shows evidence of prejudiced practices and discourses about the varieties and differences of cultures and languages by the main character in the short story. The study concludes that the views found in the story may be representative of many hegemonic, prejudice views of cultures and languages found in pedagogical practices around the world and as such contributes to the critical reflection on the role of English, Literature and teacher’s beliefs as well as the power of critical analysis based on Literature to aid intercultural encounters/meeting the Other.

Global English: Neither a “Hydra” nor a “Tyrannosaurus Rex” or a “Red Herring” but an Ecology of Approaches Towards Social Justice

“…As part of the program for that course, we read/discuss texts related to critical aspects of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Brazil. In a particular semester we were discussing issues related to the identity of Brazilian teachers of English (Archanjo, Barahona, & Finardi, 2019) and the myth of the native speaker as being the norm and model to be followed in terms of accent (Simoneli & Finardi, 2020). I had commented with my students that it was OK to have a 'Brazilian English' (Finardi, 2014) to which a student, Diogo, replied: "of course it is OK for you to have a 'Brazilian English', teacher.…”

Critical Race and Decolonial Theory Intersections to Understand the Context of ELT in the Global South

“…Some of the conclusions drawn appeal to see that English has continued colonisation by submitting subjects through the desire for progress and global competition. Findings also reveal footprints of coloniality/ racism in relation to teacher education and identity (Archanjo et al, 2019), the view of native versus non-native speakers (Simoneli & Finardi, 2020) and English as a lingua franca, a medium of education and language policy (Sifakis, 2019, De Mejía, 2019.…”

“…Education, as one of those spheres, has received from crt research elements to understand institutionalised racism and its impact in social practices (Delgado & Stefancic, 2000). English language teaching (elt) has started late this inquiry, since usually race and English teaching often appear not to be associated (Kubota & Lin, 2006) despite efforts to decolonize elt by questioning issues linked to the identity of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (efl) teachers (Archanjo et al, 2019) and students (Simoneli & Finardi, 2020), to principles and challenges of English as a lingua franca in elt (Sifakis, 2019), and to the introduction of English in primary education in Colombia (De Mejía, 2019), as well as to global citizenship education (Piccin & Finardi, 2019), agency in language policy planning , the role of English in the Global South in internationalisation programs (Chiappa & Finardi, 2021), discourses (Piccin & Finardi, 2021), and in the revelation of the locus of enunciation (Diniz de Figueiredo & Martinez, 2021).…”