Problematizing the Linguistic Goal in English Language Curricula

Abstract

The Springer International Handbooks of Education series aims to provide easily accessible, practical, yet scholarly, sources of information about a broad range of topics and issues in education. Each Handbook follows the same pattern of examining in depth a field of educational theory, practice and applied scholarship, its scale and scope for its substantive contribution to our understanding of education and, in so doing, indicating the direction of future developments. The volumes in this series form a coherent whole due to an insistence on the synthesis of theory and good practice. The accessible style and the consistent illumination of theory by practice make the series very valuable to a broad spectrum of users. The volume editors represent the world's leading educationalists. Their task has been to identify the key areas in their field that are internationally generalizable and, in times of rapid change, of permanent interest to the scholar and practitioner.

Essentialist characterizations of language are an obstacle to accuracy, progress, and justice in science

“…In the language learning classroom and beyond, instructors and students may use NATIVE-LIKE as an aspirational benchmark for success [42][43][44] , while downplaying the emerging or existing multicompetencies of language learners 45,46 . When labels designed for written language forms are applied to spoken forms, as with "Chinese," determining what NATIVE or NATIVE-LIKE means becomes problematic in a different way, as individuals are then expected to demonstrate proficiency across modalities and language varieties.…”