Oxford Applied Linguistics: Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching [Paperback]

I am not entirely happy with the title of this book which might be read as meaning that the author depends on a simply opressor-opressed dichotomy. Far from that, C. provides a fascinating glimpse at how ELT works in the "periphery" that is in third world countries. He also elaborates the working conditions of scholars in theses countires, thereby providing much needed insights to first world readers.

C. not only sensibly describes the language ecology of Sri Lanka and the role of English within this system, he also shows how textbooks convey values from the west. Furthermore, he demonstrates how exactly these textbooks can be apprropriated by locals to reflect their own values.

This text utilizes as a springboard, two very incorrect assumptions.

First, the author assumes that it is the conscious intent of ESL curricula designers, that the culture of their native nations be subversively spread by the use of those materials in EFL situations abroad in minority "Periphery" areas which have differing ideologies.

Additionally, the author assumes that it is the responsibility of those same Western (or "Center") curricula designers to accommodate the needs of Periphery English as a Foreign Language learning communities when constructing their materials.

The author, an associate professor at Barruch College, City University of New York, and a Sri Lankan Tamil, utilizes as the basis for his histrionic text, an example classroom EFL experience in Jaffna, at the Northern tip of Sri Lanka. The example illustrates a Sri Lankan Tamil EFL teacher utilizing a text created in the West with the express purpose of being used as an ESL text. As such, the narrative of that text deals with Western experiences and values. Canagarajah posits that the material is inherently ideologically subversive, by suggesting that one of the students in the class, having been exposed to these values and ideas in his English classes, is now chasing a Western lifestyle. The author tells us that another student in the class is resisting those values as they clash with the war-torn agrarian reality of Northern Sri Lanka, and as a result he will fail his class, and leave behind his intent to acquire English. The author therefore calls for ESL/EFL materials to be carefully scoured of any ideological content, or that these materials be loaded with Periphery-relevant ideology and culture.

The problem is that the author has made the assumption that ESL curricula designers are clandestinely planning a cultural colonization of Periphery areas of the world. First, the inclusion of Western culture and ideology is not covert. The ESL texts in question are designed for English Language Learners who are currently residing in the Center nations.

The second incorrect assumption is that the designers of these materials expect them to be used in EFL situations at all. Had they intended the materials to be utilized globally, perhaps they would have been ideologically neutral, or the authors may have made some attempts at broader content.

It is the responsibility of the Periphery to create Periphery-relevant curricula and materials. The author blames the decadent West for the decision of the EFL teacher in the example, to use a culturally and ideologically loaded text. That teacher had the option of creating her own locally-specific text from scratch, or altering the existing text to suit the needs of Jaffna learners. She did not. It seems the author would prefer a wider variety of material (indeed a relevant text for every minority Periphery group on Earth) to be available, but more specifically, the author would like those materials to be created by the West, which is counter to his own notion of Western inadequacies in relating to the Periphery.

The first half of the text is devoted to making the above-examined two faulty assumptions seem to be fact. The remainder of the text hypothesizes about the effect such culturally loaded material has on Periphery learners, including the emotional impact of this imagined subversive colonization. It is only in the final chapter when the Author deals with strategies for coping with alien culture and ideology imbedded in English material. In spite of the rampant anti-Center dogma to be found in his book, the author has clearly learned through personal experience (as an associate professor at a U.S. university his salary would be considerably higher than if he were teaching in Sri Lanka, he chooses to live in the decadent West, his book was written in the language of his imagined ideological adversary, and it was published by Oxford University Press, the pinnacle of the "Ivory Tower of Academia") that it is often more productive to subvert the system from within, than to bang one's head against it, in frustration from without. It is this notion he discusses in the final chapter by suggesting cultural and ideological power by retaining one's own culture and ideology, but becoming conversant with the ideals of the Center for the sake of advantage.

Unfortunately, the author spends all of his time denouncing the efforts of others, and provides no suitable alternative, as is often the case with dissidents in any system. He would like to see ideologically neutral materials, but has not created any himself. He would like to see Periphery scholars take command of creating Periphery-relevant materials; but being a Periphery scholar himself, he offers nothing. His only contribution to the struggle for the periphery is to denounce the Center. Once the nauseating rhetoric, dogma, and hypocritical whining are stripped away from Canagarajah's text, all that remains is a suggestion for the need of more suitable second language acquisition materials for disenfranchised minority people in the "Periphery", and no recognizance of the blame for the lack of these materials resting squarely on the shoulders of that Periphery.

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