ELT, Globalization, and Local Epistemology

Add 17 and 6, multiply the sum by 2, then subtract 6 from the result, and finally divide that by 2.

I hope your math went well, but if you ask me why I asked you to do that, and if I said that I have no reason except to ask you to do some math, would that be very nice? Certainly not. Let us compare that situation to our teaching of English language, where teaching language is the purpose of teaching language (tautology intended). So, you don't have to be too skeptical to say that teaching language, or anything, has to have more genuine purposes than that students will learn it, because true meaning and motivation of learning can only come from the learner knowing the social, intellectual, philosophical and such other larger purposes of learning whatever they learn. Just ask yourself why you teach English and don't just say "because I am a language teacher" or something like that and you will see the point in this issue. Give a moment to some critical thinking: If we are educators and language is a means of education, not end, are we being good educators by by teaching language for its own sake?

In this issue, you will find readings that go beyond simplistic answers about why we should be teaching our students a language for years and years and years, into issues of the larger purposes of education itself, into issues of how and why we must be using local knowledge as the material of education, and so on. In an age of global internetworking among knowledge societies, it is extremely important that we teach English not only as a mere tool of communication, not only as a means of learning about the world outside, but also in helping students explore and "sell" to the global knowledge community their own local resource of knowledge. Education must and can be a way to promote the knowledge of our own society, cultures, lives and challenges, and ideas.

Besides scholarly articles, anecdotes, and some humour, we are also sharing this time a sound file of a discussion that we had among ourselves on the topic of the month.** We look forward to more professional conversation that will make our efforts worth looking back ten or twenty years down the road with some satisfaction.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

1. Book Chapter: Ira Shor--"Education Is Politics: An Agenda for Empowerment" (with another article inside)
2. Teacher's Anecdote: Prithvi Shrestha--"My First English Lesson...: Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety"
3. Teaching Material/Ideas: Andy Bowdler-- "Using Tourist Brochure in EFL"
4. Teacher's Humor: Visual this time
5. Audio Project: "Putting Local Knowledge First"-- A Discussion on the month's theme** (Bal, Shyam, and Prem). This is a sound file you can play online with Real Player or similar programs.

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** This was a pilot project so we tested with ourselves as participants; we will bring in other scholars from Nepal and abroad in the future. Your suggestions on this column will be more than usually appreciated.

Also, if you have a few more moments, or if you are interested in more Nepal-based writings, please read our blogs at http://knowledgemaking.wordpress.com and leave comments right there.