Post-colonial Curriculum Practices in South Asia : Building Confidence to Speak English

Post-colonial Curriculum Practices in South Asia gives a conceptual framework for curriculum design for English Language Teaching, taking into account context specific features in the teaching–learning settings of post-colonial South Asia. It reveals how the attitudes prevalent in post-colonial South Asian societies towards English negatively influence English language learning. The book provides a comprehensive analysis to design a course for English language teaching that aims at building learner confidence to speak English.Based on original research, the study covers Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The book focuses on the context-specific nature of learners and considers a curriculum design that binds teaching materials and teaching methods together with an aligned assessment. Chapters discuss language attitudes, learner characteristics and English in the context of native languages, and introduce a special type of anxiety that stems from existing language attitudes in a society, referred to as Language Attitude Anxiety. The book will appeal to doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in English language education, students and researchers of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics as well as curriculum designers of ELT and language policy makers. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of figures 12 List of tables 14 Foreword 16 A word from the author 18 1 Introduction 22 The post-colonial South Asian element in ELT 22 The objectives 23 Limitations of the study 28 2 Background 29 Introduction 29 English in Sri Lanka and other post-colonial South Asian countries 29 The failures of English teaching in post-colonial South Asia 39 The colonial legacy and attitudes towards the English language 43 The desire to speak English and the lack of confidence 45 Demand vs. supply 46 Conclusion 47 3 The study 51 Introduction 51 The sample 51 Tools 58 Data analysis and methods 60 Method 60 Analysis 61 Discussion 64 Conclusion 70 4 Language attitude anxiety 72 Introduction 72 Prologue 72 Language attitudes 73 Language attitudes and the lack of confidence to speak English 74 Foreign Language (Classroom) Anxiety and its limitations 79 The social dimension of language anxiety 85 Gardener’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery and its limitations 86 Language Attitude Anxiety 88 LAA as a bridge between causes and consequences 91 Components of Language Attitude Anxiety 92 Conclusion 98 5 Understanding the English language learner 102 Introduction 102 A ‘love–hate’ relationship 102 Social and mental constructs 104 Language acquisition stages of the English language learner 109 Understanding power relations 114 Language Attitude Anxiety as a projected element 118 Conclusion 120 6 Fight fire with fire 123 Introduction 123 The remedy 123 The need to build confidence 124 Fight fire with fire: using the fear factor to eliminate fear 126 The psychology of the approach 126 Conclusion 130 7 Experimental course design and material 132 Introduction 132 The overarching theory and the sub-divisions of BICS, CUP and CALPS 132 The Building Confidence to Speak English course 135 Conclusion 149 8 Teaching methodology and the role of the teacher 151 Introduction 151 The psychology of the post-colonial South Asian language learner 151 Cooperative Language Learning 152 Grouping and groups 156 The safe zone 157 Potential challenges for teachers 174 The process-oriented nature of the approach 176 The necessity of teacher training and its components 180 Conclusion 183 9 Assessment 185 Introduction 185 Group assessment – stage plays 185 The silence is broken 187 The criteria for assessment 188 Conclusion 188 10 Course evaluation 190 Introduction 190 Course evaluation stages 190 Questionnaires 192 Sample questionnaire 194 Interviews 197 Journals and records 197 Teacher observation by the course coordinator/designer 198 Logistics 198 Conclusion 199 11 Developing language attitudes as an academic discourse 200 Introduction 200 Need for developing language attitudes as an independent academic discipline 200 Examining language attitudes 201 The analysis of language attitudes 203 Language attitudes and their effects 209 Effects (Penalties) and their magnitude 212 Remedial measures 213 Significance 218 Conclusion 219 12 Conclusions 221 Introduction 221 The study and its findings 221 Upon reflection 225 Conclusion 227 Appendix A 228 Appendix B 231 Appendix C 233 Appendix D 235 Index 238 Post-colonial Curriculum Practices in South Asia gives a conceptual framework for curriculum design for English Language Teaching, taking into account context specific features in the teaching-learning settings of post-colonial South Asia. It reveals how the attitudes prevalent in post-colonial South Asian societies towards English negatively influence English language learning. The book provides a comprehensive analysis to design a course for English language teaching that aims at building learner confidence to speak English. Based on original research, the study covers Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The book focuses on the context-specific nature of learners and considers a curriculum design that binds teaching materials and teaching methods together with an aligned assessment. Chapters discuss language attitudes, learner characteristics and English in the context of native languages, and introduce a special type of anxiety that stems from existing language attitudes in a society, referred to as Language Attitude Anxiety. The book will appeal to doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in English language education, students and researchers of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics as well as curriculum designers of ELT and language policy makers "Post-colonial Curriculum Practices in South Asia gives a conceptual framework for curriculum design for English Language Teaching, taking into account context specific features in the teaching-learning settings of post-colonial South Asia. It reveals how the attitudes prevalent in post-colonial South Asian societies towards English negatively influence English language learning. The book provides a comprehensive analysis to design a course for English language teaching that aims at building learner confidence to speak English"-- Provided by publisher