Postmodernism and TEFL:

April 23, 2008, CREOLE, University of Bristol PostmodernismandTEFL: The future of language teaching? Dr. Andrew E. Finch Zeno’s arrow: Rene Magritte

Postmodern Architecture

Postmodern School Architecture The postmodern campus of the new High School for the Visual and Performing Arts (LAUSD Central High School #9) — is completely redefining a strip of Cesar Chavez at Grand Avenue with its eye-catching architecture. 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 6

A postmodern (self-reflexive, self-contradictory, self-undermining) joke … Q: What do you get when you cross a mafia Godfather with a postmodernist? A: “someone who will make you an offer you can’t understand.”(Claire O’Farrell, 1999) The murderer threatened: Rene Magritte

Contents The human condition: Rene Magritte • Introduction • Changing definitions • Changing sciences • Changing worlds • Changing educations • Changing Englishes • The way ahead? • Conclusion

Introduction We are faced with an entirely new situation in which the goal of education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning. The only person who is educated is the person who has learned how to learn; the person who has learned how to adapt and change. (Rogers, 1969, pp. 151-153)

Introduction Auf-der-suche-nach-dem-absoluten: Rene Magritte Education “is itself going through profound change in terms of purposes, content and methods” Education “is both a symptom of and a contributor to the socio-cultural condition of postmodernity” (Edwards & Usher, 1994, p. 3).

Introduction This presentation aims to identify postmodern features of ELT theory and to relate them to postmodern society. We can then examine implications for the future of language teaching and learning. Golconde: Rene Magritte 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 11

Changing Definitions La lunette d’approche: Rene Magritte • Postmodernism is a phenomenon whose mode is resolutely contradictory as well as unavoidably political. (Hutcheon, 1989, p. 1) • Postmodernism resists being conveniently summarized in easy ‘soundbites’ and refuses to lend itself to any single cut and dried definition (Ward, 2003, p. 1).

Changing Definitions The human condition: Rene Magritte The postmodern’s initial concern is to de-naturalize our way of life; to point out that those entities that we experience as ‘natural’ (capitalism, patriarchy, liberal humanism), are in fact ‘cultural’; made by us, not given to us. Even nature, postmodernism might point out, doesn’t grow on trees. (Hutcheon, 1989, pp. 1-2)

These developments have an impact on our understanding of matters like meaning, identity and even reality. Old styles of analysis are no longer useful. New approaches and new vocabularies need to be created in order to understand the present.(Ward, 2003, p. 6) Common themes of postmodernism • Society, culture and lifestyle are significantly different today from 100, 50 or even 30 years ago (10 years ago?). • There have been huge developments in mass media, the consumer society and information technology. La Victoire: Rene Magritte

Categories of postmodernism Crossing of borders (breaking down of barriers) De-colonization (diversification and regionalism) Decentralization (lateral decision-making) Deconstruction (questioning traditional assumptions) Eclecticism (borrowing from different systems and fields) Pastiche (imitating the works of others, often satirically) Relativism (time, space, truth and moral values are relative to the persons or groups holding them) Self-contradiction (doubleness; duplicity; the conscious making of self-undermining statements) Self-reference and self-reflexiveness (use of meta-language and self-constructing forms)

Changing sciences Where Euclid Walked: Rene Magritte Lyotard (1984), identified various ‘metanarratives’ of the ‘modern’ Age of Reason, which influenced all Western thought: • progress; • optimism; • rationality; • the search for absolute knowledge; • the idea that gaining knowledge of the true self was the only foundation for all other knowledge (Ward, 2003, p. 9).

Changing sciences • Einstein developed a cosmos of relativity. • Gödel showed that every mathematical and scientific system is incomplete and contains its own contradictions. • However: • Heisenberg proposed his “uncertainty principle” and quantum mechanics. • The French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, showed that there is no system, no theory, and no science or political system which rests on entirely rational foundations. La Chateau des Pyrenees: Rene Magritte

Changing sciences The idea of benign, philanthropic scientific enquiry was found to a myth, for a number of reasons: • the contribution of science to ecological disasters; • the commercialization of science; • the loss of faith in the ability to measure reality; • the division of science into a mass of specialisms. Les valeurs personnelles: Rene Magritte

Changing worlds erosion of conventional distinctions between high and low culture; definitions of human identity are changing, or ought to change. (Ward, 2003, p. 11). ‘non-spaces’ of postmodern geography (Soja, 1989) fascination with how our lives seem increasingly dominated by visual media; questioning of ideas about meaning, communication, and about how signs refer to the world; Le sens propre II: Rene Magritte

Changing educations Le domaine d'Arnheim: Renee Magritte “The project of liberal mass schooling and higher education in the late twentieth century is built around the intellectual authority inherited from the Enlightenment.” (Peters, 1995, p. xxx) “Postmodernism’s emphasis on the inscribed, decentred subject constructed by language, discourses, desire and the unconscious, seems to contradict the very purpose of education and the basis of educational activity.”(Edwards & Usher, 1994, p. 2)

Changing Attitudes Les Amants: Rene Magritte “The strict application of nurturing and protective attitudes toward children has created a paradoxical situation in which protection has come to mean excluding the young from meaningful involvement in their own communities.” (Postman, 1995, p. 102) 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 21

Changing Englishes Le model rouge: Rene Magritte “Teaching a language is not a value-free, or transparent, activity. What we do in the classroom is affected by who we are, the views we hold, and the societies we are part of.” (Harrison, 1990, p. 1) “Social scientists … have hardly recognized the importance of theories and descriptions of society and culture for language teaching.”(Stern, 1983, p. 282)

Changing Englishes The educational context, with the classroom at its center, is viewed as a complex system. Events do not occur in linear causal fashion. A multitude of forces interact in complex, self-organizing ways, and create changes and patterns that are part predictable, part unpredictable.(Van Lier, 1996, p. 148) The art of conversation: Rene Magritte

Deconstruction: Questioning traditional assumptions • the death of the ‘native speaker’; • the death of structuralism; • the death of imperialism; • the death of the ‘teacher’; • the death of method; • The death of EFL. La reproduction interdite: Rene Magritte

Re-construction: Starting anew New births: “If education can be a machine for social conformity, it can also be a machine for the investigation of new horizons and new possibilities.” New births: “The proliferation of ‘difference’ and uncertainty in the postmodern world, far from being a problem, is a constant invitation to imagine the unimaginable.”(O’Farrell, 1999, p. 17) Time transfixed: Rene Magritte

Re-construction: Starting anew L'entree en scene:Rene Magritte • These deaths take us to a new place in language teaching and learning. • Here are some broad topics that might well be important in the near future: • Content-based language teaching (CLIL); • Immersion programs; • Bilingual/Multilingual/Pluri-lingual programs; • Network-based learning (without schools); • Venture-learning (assisted by companies) • Internet-based universities • Community learning 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 30

A postmodern approach to ELT/EIL/EGL/ELF/ 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 31

The Future • The British Council is investigating how English language teaching and learning is already changing due to economic pressures, movement of population, globalization, etc. • http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-englishnext.htm • http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf • http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-futureofenglish.htm • http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-future.pdf 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 34

The Future 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 35

The Future Some commentators say we are on the verge of a learning revolution: • Instant information and interactive technology are forcing a complete rethink of everything we've ever believed about education, • New interlocking networks are creating dramatic new models for learning • New teaching methods are revolutionizing schooling in pockets around the world • http://www.thelearningweb.net/ 10/22/2014 7:06 PM Slide number 38

This is not a teacher “… through an awareness of how we use language, how language uses us, and what measures are available to clarify our knowledge of the world we make.”(Postman, 1995, p. 87). The Schoolmaster: Rene Magritte Le bouquet tout fait: Rene Magritte

Thank you for your time! • Andrew Finch can be contacted at A.E.Finch@bristol.ac.uk • His teaching resources are at www.finchpark.com/courses • His teaching books can be seen at www.finchpark.com/books/ • This presentation (and the handout) can be viewed at: www.finchpark.com/ppp/ L’act de foi: Rene Magritte

Postmodernism and TEFL: