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Title: English and the Discourses of Colonialism (Politics of Language) by Alastair Pennycook ISBN: 0-415-17848-7 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: The Problem with Pennycook
Comment: If you're looking for a detailed study of the ways in which colonialism currently manifests itself in specific ELT methodology and in local contexts, this book will sorely disappoint. If, however, you seek a historical overview of colonialism's impact of the general field of ELT, this book will be of some use. In my own case, I referred to it for the literature review section of my dissertation not because I concur with most of his contentions but because he articulates the viewpoint of a small number of postmodern/colonialist critics of ELT theory and practice. For this reason, I give his book two stars--and perhaps because even academics who should know better need to be rewarded for their earnestness, if not their zealotry. What you will soon note about this book (as with all of Pennycook's major writings) is the degree to which he is willing to use anecdotal evidence and out-of-context quotations to prop up his criticism of the whole ELT enterprise. As one who is clearly enamored with postmodernism, Pennycook's selective application of evidence shouldn't surprise the reader. However, his willingness to ignore any evidence that clearly contradicts his claims is indefensible. Case in point: his relentless verbal assault on Mark Salzman, the author of "Iron and Silk." I was so amazed by Pennycook's commentary that I began to wonder if the book I'd read fifteen years ago was really as empathetic and endearing as I imagined. So I went back and reread it, sharing passages with Chinese friends, including one who made the author's acquaintance during the subsequent filming of his book. Pennycook would have the reader believe that Salzman is a hypocritical, callous-eyed colonialist when even a cursory (but open-minded) reading of his book indicates otherwise. I corresponded with Pennycook about my concerns and he was dismissive, saying that he had moved beyond that critique and had more important matters at hand. That may be, but one is still accountable for what one has published, especially in academic circles and especially considering that Salzman's book is one of the few that offers a genuine counter-discourse of colonialism in ELT. If you are planning to teach or conduct research into the phenomenon of ELT in China, you're better off packing "Iron and Silk" than this morose work.
Rating: 1
Summary: Armchair Radicalism
Comment: This book seeks to expand upon themes first touched on in the author's previous book (The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language.1994), namely, the complex role played by the English language in British colonialism and the part played by that colonialism in the formation of the discourse of ELT. He also wishes to show that 'The practice of colonialism produced ways of thinking, saying and doing that permeated back into the cultures and discourses of the colonial nations' (p.2). In general terms this is all to the good. Citizens of nations that once had large overseas colonies cannot be reminded often enough of the degree to which their present economic and cultural circumstances have been formed by their colonial past. It is also true that there is a certain strand of inward looking technicism present in applied linguistics and ELT, and any attempt to make practitioners - in the latter area in particular - think of their activities in broader terms than the promotion of effective second language acquisition must be welcome. However, in spite of the many telling points that are made, the credibility of Pennycook's central arguments is fatally undermined by his reliance on a totalising Foucauldian critique, the epistemological basis of which contradicts its own performance. It is to a brief exposition of this contradiction that I will now turn.
It is only a small exaggeration to say that for Pennycook discourse is all. Discourse here is not to be understood in the usual applied linguistics sense of language used at the suprasentential level. It refers rather to organisations of knowledge that define and limit how we look at and understand the world. The word "knowledge" in the previous sentence does not refer to any objective or independent phenomenon. As discourses shift and change over time what is taken to be knowledge does likewise. As there is no Archimedean point from which to view the world, all knowledge, all notions of truth, are held to be of strictly local validity and relevance.
Examples abound in this book of Pennycook's continued adherence to a strong form of this idea:
...there is no reality outside the discourses that construct our realities, only the possibility of critically analysing the truth effects of these discourses. (p.164)
This relativistic view which sees knowledge as rooted solely in the situation and condition from which it springs and denies it any degree of universality cannot be advanced without a performative self-contradiction. If it is impossible to step outside local and particular circumstances to make statements of universal validity, then it must be impossible for Pennycook too, even if that is exactly the point he wishes to make. In effect, he is saying to his readers that all claims to universal validity are groundless with the exception of his own: while everyone else is stuck in the quagmire of particularity, he jumps up to make his claim for universality. The viewpoint of Olympian detachment implicitly claimed by the statement quoted above cannot, by its own account, exist.
Some serious consequences flow from this contradiction. It is not possible to simultaneously be concerned with the state of the world and to believe that an objective description of that state (however tentative) is impossible. The whole thrust of this book indicates that he does believe that an objective description of the world is possible. If that is not so, then it is difficult to understand - to take one example from many possible - his deployment of household income statistics to support his argument that colonial education policy has helped to foster economic inequality in Hong Kong (p.197). While he explicitly rejects facts and reason as part of the enslaving discourse of the Enlightenment, he repeatedly resorts to a combination of them to convince his readers of the veracity of his argument.
There is another - perhaps deeper - problem with Pennycook's brand of epistemological relativism. If the notion of truth is wholly relativised to particular discourses or social practices, then it must be open to very grave doubt whether any notion of justice or injustice is tenable. The consequences of this for Pennycook's critique are not difficult to see. To take one example, he makes a convincing attack on the privileges enjoyed by foreign educational staff in Hong Kong. However, if we are to take him at his epistemological word, the authors of that system of privilege would have a ready response to his criticisms. They would only have to claim that within their discourse of education and development the privileges enjoyed by overseas staff are entirely justified. It is difficult to see how he could respond to such a retort. If he held to his stated beliefs, then he would be obliged to accept an equally valid perception of the situation - merely an alternative "truth effect" to his own - and fall silent. The only other option for him would be to offer a rejoinder based on some universally valid notion of truth and knowledge complete with a supporting array of facts and reasons.
To conclude, this book - appearances to the contrary notwithstanding - tends to support, rather than undermine, existing power relations in societies, and is more likely to encourage the despised and excluded to be content with their lot rather than seek to change it.
Rating: 3
Summary: Disturbing
Comment: This is a very interesting book in many ways. However, it is extremely disturbing that Professor Pennycook claims not to be interested in objective reality.
It is one thing to point out that EFL is not a one-way street and that many of the EFL teaching methods have been created in response to a variety of forces at work in the countries where English is taught as a foreign language. But how can you then dismiss the need to reach a critical understanding of reality in those countries? If western teachers are merely critical of their own colonialist tendencies in an abstract way, and not actually trying to understand what is really going on in the countries in which they teach, how can they be expected to to make a contribution?
This is particularly worrying in Japan, where there are thousands of western teaching assistants and widespread breakdown of discipline in the classroom. Young westerners who just spend their time wringing their hands about their colonialist baggage while ignoring the many problems that exist in reality will probably not be able to understand what is happening and help to solve those problems. I am afraid that if too many assistant language teachers take Professor Pennycook's ideas too seriously, then the Japanese government will certainly be wasting money we can ill-afford to waste given the present economic climate.
I know it is difficult to reach a critical understanding of reality, but that is why we need professional academics to help us. It is no good if they just tell us there is no point in trying.
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Title: Linguistic Imperialism (Oxford Applied Linguistics S.) by Robert Phillipson ISBN: 0194371468 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1992 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction by Alastair Pennycook, Alastair Pennycock ISBN: 0805837922 Publisher: Lea Pub. Date: 01 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures (English in the Global Context) by Braj B. Kachru ISBN: 0252062000 Publisher: University of Illinois Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: English As a Global Language by David Crystal ISBN: 0521530326 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching (Oxford Applied Linguistics) by Suresh Canagarajah, A. Suresh Canagarajah ISBN: 0194421546 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 21 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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