This book examines the contexts , challenges and possibilities of English language teaching (ELT) in a range of developing countries . The different chapters engage with a number of difficulties including large classes ; lack of teaching resources; lack of exposure to English language outside the classroom; low student engagement and (teacher) proficiency; lack of knowledge about, and access to, teacher education and professional development opportunities; as well as challenges faced by practitioners working in contexts of conflict , confinement and special education needs. The common thread running through the chapters in this book is that (a) English language teaching and learning in the developing world is generally challenging, (b) teacher educators, teachers and learners face issues on a daily basis which are inconceivable to their counterparts in more privileged contexts and (c) these challenges offer opportunities for enriching our understanding of the complex terrain of English language education as well as for the development of alternative practices which can potentially enrich current theories in ELT.
The aim of this introductory chapter is to present an overview of the theoretical discussions underpinning the different chapters in this book. The chapter therefore discusses the socio-political and economic forces rendering teaching and learning circumstances difficult in developing world contexts as well as the diverse and complex nature of the challenges teacher educators, teachers and learners of English language in these less-privileged contexts face on a day-to-day basis. Then it revisits the key debates around the transfer of Northern-generated methodological principles and procedures to less-privileged Southern contexts and highlights the need for the development of contextually responsive pedagogic practices . Drawing from current literature on the subject of ELT in difficult circumstances, the chapter shows how language pedagogy has developed in recent years in response to the different contextual challenges imposed on learners, teachers and teacher educators in such contexts.
Defining Difficult Circumstances in English Language Education
The term difficult or unfavourable circumstances in relation to ELT was first used by Michael West in his book Teaching English in Difficult Circumstances, to describe ‘a class consisting of over 30 pupils (more usually 40 or even 50), congested on benches… accommodated in an unsuitably shaped room, ill-graded, with a teacher who perhaps does not speak English very well or very fluently’ (West 1960: 1). Nearly 60 years after the publication of West’s book, very similar circumstances can still be found throughout the developing world. In addition to the characteristics identified by West, Maley (2001) suggests that there are also wider issues beyond the classroom which make learning/teaching difficult. He describes a classroom of 60 students who have walked for at least 5 miles to school after doing their morning chores and who find themselves crammed in a dirty classroom meant for 30 students with a pitted and grey blackboard and no chalk at times. These students are taught by a poorly paid teacher with rudimentary competence in English language and who uses a course book that represents characters from an unfamiliar luxurious culture. More recently a number of authors (e.g., Bertoncino et al. 2002; Copland et al. 2014; UNESCO-UIS 2016; Verspoor 2008) have drawn attention to a range of challenges faced by educational systems in developing world countries, which affect both the quality of education more broadly and English language education in particular . Shamim and Kuchah (2016) have examined these existing studies on difficult circumstances and conclude that:
Difficult circumstances include, but may not be limited to insufficient and/or outdated textbooks, crowded classrooms with limited space, and lack of adequate resources and facilities for teaching-learning, including ICT . These difficult circumstances are compounded, particularly in resource poor environments, if teachers do not have adequate English language and/or pedagogical skills. (Shamim and Kuchah 2016: 528)
The list of challenges above is mainly limited to micro-level constraints (language classrooms) and does not take into account other macro and meso constraints that characterise ELT particularly in developing world contexts where ELT ideas are mostly imported (Smith 2011). This book extends the current conceptualisation of difficult circumstances in ELT to include the broader policy issues that might affect English language teaching and learning in mainstream educational settings in low- to mid-income countries as well as the challenges faced by practitioners and learners in contexts of confinement , conflict and special education needs.
Although there is considerable agreement in the literature cited above that certain contextual realities generally impede language education, some researchers have questioned the rationale for labelling some educational contexts as ‘difficult’. Smith (2015) holds that such a label might limit us to ‘pathologising’ a context instead of helping us to acknowledge the real diversity of classroom situations as well as to notice what might be positive about such contexts particularly in developing countries . In the same light, Ekembe (2016:121) has argued that the conceptualisation of some ELT contexts as ‘under-resourced’ derives from the conception of what is believed to be ‘standard’ rather than what may be considered adequate and sufficient by stakeholders within the specific context. He suggests that perceived lack of resources might be a result of the difficulty in applying North-driven or North-derived methodologies in such contexts that are only different and not actually under-resourced per se. Because teachers and learners in such contexts share the same social, cultural, economic and political ecologies, in and out of the school environment, describing the contexts as they present themselves reduces the possibilities of becoming idealistic and directs our focus on what is realistic. Ekembe further draws attention to the centrality of so-called under-resourced contexts in innovating ELT methodologies by examining evidence from data from an ongoing teacher association research project in Cameroon (see Smith and Kuchah 2016). The data, consisting of accounts of, and reflections on, successful English language lessons by members of the Cameroon English Language and Literature Teachers’ Association (CAMELTA) suggest that ‘there seems to be an unconscious emancipation [by teachers in so called ‘difficult’ circumstances] from imported methodologies.’ (Ekembe op.cit.: 135).
As with most labelling, comparisons and contradictions are inevitable; this is even more the case with ELT where the variety of contexts within which practitioners around the world work makes a definition of difficulty elusive. In fact it is likely that the circumstances which a practitioner might consider difficult in one context might be perceived as a favourable opportunity by another practitioner within the same, or in another, context (Kuchah 2016a). The literature does indeed suggest that even insiders, that is, English language practitioners in developing world contexts (see, e.g., Khadka 2015; Kuchah and Smith 2011; Shamim et al. 2007), perceive their circumstances as difficult although the nature and extent of these difficulties might be different from those which an outsider to the context perceives. Bearing this in mind, and while acknowledging the complexity of using blanket labels in ELT , the use of ‘difficult circumstances’ in this book is not meant to convey a reductioni...