Comments on: Imagined communities in English language textbooks

By: Pauline Mae Lim

Pauline Mae Lim — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 15:27:18 +0000

This is truly an interesting read, Awatif. It is certainly crucial to incorporate context in teaching language learners. After all, context plays a huge role in successful communication!

By: Awatif

Awatif — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 04:35:59 +0000

In reply to Paul Desailly.

Hi Paul
Sorry to say that your second reply doesn’t suit me as a Muslim woman. So, I suggest you to keep academic reply If you do not have sufficient information about other cultures.
Thank you

By: Samar

Samar — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 01:52:24 +0000

Thanks Awatif. Its an interesting overview.

Learning a new language outside of it sociocultural background would be an obstacle that can prevent learners from communicating effectively with native people.

Learning how the native people behave, dress, and live; can help learners to understand the right meanings of words and expressions within their social context.

By: Paul Desailly

Paul Desailly — Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:08:45 +0000

In reply to Awatif Alshammri.

‘Nek dankinde, nek kisinde, kara.’
Google Translate struggles with this saying, Awatif.
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+translate+-+english+to+esperanto&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU805AU805&oq=google+tr&aqs=chrome.5.0j69i60j69i57j69i60l2j35i39.13191j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
There’s no need to thank me my dear friend or to kiss me. It’s my pleasure.’

By: Miriam Faine

Miriam Faine — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:55:39 +0000

Congratulations Awatif! I really enjoyed reading this; it’s an important argument – and I wish you all the best for your next step!

By: Awatif Alshammri

Awatif Alshammri — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 03:50:06 +0000

In reply to Paul Desailly. Thanks Paul for your comment and sharing such interesting information.

By: Awatif Alshammri

Awatif Alshammri — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 03:48:01 +0000

In reply to Madiha. Thanks Madiha for your comment.

By: Awatif Alshammri

Awatif Alshammri — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 03:22:13 +0000

In reply to Alexandra. Thanks Alex for your comment and for sharing this quote. English enjoys an important status in Saudi education due to its importance as a global language. Saudi ministry of education do all its effort to provide Saudi learners with effective English teaching that help them to become perfectly proficient in English and to develop their linguistics confidence. However, the method used in the textbooks as a means to save students' identity from the effects of foreign ideologies which accompanied teaching English does not fulfill such aim. From my point of view, such method makes English more distant to Saudi learners.

By: Livia Gerber

Livia Gerber — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 04:36:28 +0000

In reply to Alexandra. I thoroughly enjoy reading and hearing about your research, Awatif. All the best for your presentation at ALS2018 in Adelaide today! Thank you for sharing this quote, Alex. I've been thinking about linguistic confidence a lot in relation to my research and how German working holidaymakers discursively construct their desire to improve their conversational English after many years of 'communication-oriented' English language learning at school.

By: Madiha

Madiha — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 06:44:50 +0000

Very interesting and well developed concept of what you refer to as the saudi-centric ideological perspective employed in the textbooks used in Saudi Arabia.
I somewhat feel that this ideological perspective is not just confined to Saudi Arabia, we see it in many states especially where the focus is on teaching the language than its culture as maybe not to cross the sociocultural constraints a society has defined for itself. However, how far does it effect the target language proficiency and competence of second language learners is an interesting area you have pointed out and needs to be explored further…
Thought provoking and much appreciated!

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 02:06:46 +0000

Great, concise overview of your recent research, Awatif!
Just reading Goh, Wee and Lim’s (2013) book “Politics of English : south asia, southeast asia and the asia pacific”. While it’s about Asia, there concluding chapter has comments on English language education that you may find useful as you expand this research into your PhD. Specifically, consider this criticism of English language education:
p308: “But developing interactional and negotiatory models requires that learners are also encouraged to develop linguistic confidence, if they are to assume ownership of the language. Needless to say, viewing English as a foreign language or language of the Western other is unhelpful to encouraging such confidence. But crucially, failure to do so will mean
that, in spite of the vast resources being pumped into English language education in countries such as Japan, South Korea and China, the majority of students that emerge will find themselves linguistically disadvantaged on the world stage.”
Do you think that the Saudi-centric approach to English language education encourages students to identify with English, or makes English seem more distant and more foreign to them?

By: Paul Desailly

Paul Desailly — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 22:31:15 +0000

This old former company director who acquired late in life the Cambridge Certificate so that I might masquerade as a teacher of languages in various Chinese universities for a decade fully endorses Awatif’s opening sentence re poor outcomes when English is foisted onto other cultures. Given the west’s dependency on Saudi oil it’s a no-brainer as to why English is the flavour of the month in Riyadh but it’s quite possible that the People’s Republic might soon buck that group-think folly now that Beijing is so rich, its leaders no fans of America’s president, and the outcomes for a zillion English majors so ludicrously abysmal. (That 99% of graduates in China pass with flying colours while hardly able to utter a couple of coherent sentences with a native speaker of English is of course a subject for another fine PhD paper.) It’s Awatif’s conclusion that high quality and representative text books are gonna make much impact vis-a-vis outcomes that I question. Japan had a love affair with things British from before the 1905 war with Russia until the 1930’s. Moreover, after 1945 Douglas MacArthur was considered divine once Hirohito spoke publicly and his ‘war criminal status’ started to become evident. The quality of English text books and the qualifications of English teachers in wealthy Japan have ever been and do remain outstanding. Nevertheless, consider striking up a conversation with any passers by, even on the Ginza, and you’ll apprehend what this amateur is trying to convey about outcomes notwithstanding that Japan has been enamoured of things English and American for a century. In China when Deng Xiaoping started really pushing English all text books and most teachers were indeed sub-optimal but that’s not been the case in the PRC for many a year now and yet the outcomes are still a joke. No, while Rome burns a couple of much bigger issues arise in order that the average foreign language student may succeed and not just the very few among them who are linguistically talented: the target language must be relatively easy to learn and to teach, and preferably devoid of colonial and imperial baggage for love is the key. That virtue merits another paper coz it’s hard to defend the notion at present that even the European mainlanders in their heart of hearts are anglophiles! The Arabs and the Chinese, to say nothing of the Africans and Indians, hardly love the task that’s been foisted on to them and the Muslims are entitled to question the west’s laissez faire free market and the excessive liberty of its ethics.