Dreams and Realities: Developing Countries and the English Language

The increasing global ubiquity of English and its often contentious (albeit often desired) role—particularly in developing contexts—has been a key issue in our profession for the past 25 years. It has also been, and particularly since the publication of Phillipson’s (1992)Linguistic Imperialism, the cause of much debate and soul-searching in the English language teaching world and beyond. For those of us working on ELT projects in developing contexts, a necessary but uncomfortable question is never far from our minds: ‘In promoting English in a particular context, am I contributing to a greater good, or participating in something with potentially long-lasting harmful effects?’ Certainly, as Martin Wedell points out in his chapter, success stories of large-scale ELT projects in developing countries are rare, but this may be because of the way success is measured and the unrealistic discourse around the effects that English may bring (see also Seargeant and Erling’s chapter). The issues raised in the 16 varied but interconnected chapters in this excellent volume, all drawn from direct experiences of English language policy and projects in developing contexts, while giving no specific answers to the inherent dilemmas, provide thought-provoking observations and recommendations that produce just the book some of us have been waiting for.