1st Edition
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.
1. Introduction
1) Introduction
2) Objectives
3) Limitations
4) Reference
2. Background
1) English in Sri Lanka and Other Post-colonial South Asian Countries
2) The Failures of English Teaching in Post-colonial South Asia
3) The Colonial Legacy and Attitudes towards the English Language
4) The Desire to Speak English and the Lack of Confidence
5) Demand vs Supply
6) Conclusion
7) Reference
3. The Study
1) Introduction
2) The Sample
3) Tools
4) Data Analysis
5) Discussion
6) Conclusion
7) Reference
4. Language Attitude Anxiety
1) Introduction
2) Prologue
3) Language Attitudes
4) Language Attitudes and the Lack of Confidence to Speak English
5) Foreign Language (Classroom) Anxiety (FLCA) and Its Limitations
6) The Social Dimension of Language Anxiety
7) Gardener’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) and Its Limitations
8) Language Attitude Anxiety (LAA)
9) Components of Language Attitude Anxiety
10) Conclusion
11) Reference
5. Understanding the English Language Learner
1) Introduction
2) A Love-hate Relationship
3) Social and mental constructs
4) Language Acquisition Stages of the English Language Learner
5) Understanding Power Relations
6) Language Attitude Anxiety (LAA) as a Projected Element
7) Conclusion
8) Reference
6. Fighting Fire with Fire
1) Introduction
2) The Remedy
3) The Need to Build Confidence
4) Fight fire with fire: using the fear factor to eliminate fear
5) The Psychology of the Approach
6) Conclusion
7) Reference
7. Experimental Course Design and Material
1) Introduction
2) The Overarching Theory and the Sub-divisions of BICS, CUP and CALPS
3) The Building Confidence to Speak English Course
4) Conclusions
5) Reference
8. Teaching Methodology and the Role of the Teacher
1) Introduction
2) The Psychology of the Post-colonial South Asian Language Learner
3) Cooperative Language Learning (CLL)
4) Grouping and Groups
5) The Safe Zone
6) Potential Challenges for Teachers
7) The Process-oriented Nature of the Approach
8) The Necessity of Teacher Training and its Components
9) Conclusion
10) Reference
9. Assessment
1) Introduction
2) Group Assessment – Stage Plays
3) The Silence is Broken
4) The Criteria for Assessment
5) Conclusion
6) Reference
10. Course Evaluation
1) Introduction
2) Course Evaluation Stages
3) Sample Questionnaire
4) Interviews
5) Journals and Records
6) Logistics
7) Conclusion
8) Reference
11. Language Attitudes as An Academic Discourse
1) Introduction
2) Need for Developing Language Attitudes as an Independent Academic Discipline
3) Examining Language Attitudes
4) The Analysis of Language Attitudes
5) Language Attitudes and Their Effects
6) Remedial Measures
7) Significance
8) Conclusion
9) Reference
12. Conclusions
1) Introduction
2) The Study and Its Findings
3) Upon Reflection
4) Conclusion
5) Reference
Biography
Asantha U. Attanayake is a Senior Lecturer in University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
This book documenting the effects of societal attitudes on the learning of English in four post-colonial South Asian countries represents an important and insightful addition to the research literature on language learning.The findings have informed the design of a university course that shows considerable promise in helping learners overcome their anxiety and build confidence to speak English.
James Cummins, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto.
"Scholars in postcolonial communities have observed that people are uncomfortable speaking English with each other. This is partly because English is associated with colonization and creates inequalities between local people. Though scholars in linguistics have observed this phenomenon in passing, this is the first book length treatment of this issue, leading to constructive pedagogical recommendations."
Suresh Canagarajah, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor, Departments of Applied Linguistics and English, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
