Keywords = English language teaching
Intercultural Communication Dialectics in English Language Teaching
Hamza R'boul
Conceptualizations of intercultural communication in English language teaching have largely been constructed on westerncentric and essentialist representations of interculturality. The failure to take into account power imbalances among Anglophone and Southern spaces may perpetuate the inequalities that ... Read More Conceptualizations of intercultural communication in English language teaching have largely been constructed on westerncentric and essentialist representations of interculturality. The failure to take into account power imbalances among Anglophone and Southern spaces may perpetuate the inequalities that have long-existed. Questioning singularity of approaches in the intercultural language education is required to account for the complexity of intercultural interactions, especially in terms of power imbalances. The dialectic perspective, with its inclusiveness of varying discursive reasonings, can offer a discerning treatment of interculturality through reconciling the opposing dialectics in intercultural communication scholarship. This article (a) makes a case for the usefulness of incorporating multiple epistemological stances in order to develop more comprehensive insights about interculturality, (b) argues that, by developing pluriversal perspectives, we can simultaneously consider the multiplicity of individuals' ontologies, identities, and cultures. This is realized by first advancing an inter-paradigmatic discussion of culture-communication research dialectics and then considering its theoretical relevance and practical applications in English language teaching.
Educational Values and the English Language Curriculum in Hong Kong Secondary Schools Since 1975
Annie Siu-yin Tong; Bob Adamson
English is an important language in Hong Kong, an international city located on the southern coast of the People's Republic of China that, for over 150 years to 1997, was a British colony. This paper describes and analyses changes in teaching methodologies in the English language curriculum formally ... Read More English is an important language in Hong Kong, an international city located on the southern coast of the People's Republic of China that, for over 150 years to 1997, was a British colony. This paper describes and analyses changes in teaching methodologies in the English language curriculum formally proposed for Hong Kong junior secondary schools from 1975 to the present day, to study how the curriculum developments reflect interrelated social, political, economic, and cultural factors of the period and the ideology in educational circles that was pre-eminent at the time. It finds that, while the rhetoric of the curriculum has changed in accordance with shifts in socio-economic conditions, the curriculum content and pedagogical approaches implemented in the classrooms have proved more constant across time. The paper suggests some explanations for the resultant curricula tensions.