The Quest for Equilibrium: Teaching English, Global Forces and Cultural and Linguistic Identities in the Gulf Region (March 2014)

Achieving or maintaining an equilibrium in matters of education within an increasingly competitive environment that has to answer to forces of globalization, economic vitality, models of effectiveness and market forces is a major challenge to all those involved in the designing of learning and teaching experiences. In a multicultural and multilingual context such as that of the United Arab Emirates, the call for equilibrium is even more pressing because of the strong socio-cultural, linguistic and historical factors that affect educational decision making and language policy in particular. 

This talk will address methodologies and strategies that those involved in the field of English language education can consider in order to reach a balance between the quest for standards and outcomes and the quality of the learning and teaching experiences. What is needed is a balance between educational models encouraging critical thinking, intellectual growth and passion for learning on one hand, and practices and strategies based on measurement and efficiency models on the other. The speaker will look at several areas he has identified as in urgent need of a balanced approach such as teacher education, teacher evaluation, classroom teaching, and language of instruction. In addition, the role of imagination and creativity in pedagogy should not be undermined because of the taken for granted positivistic approaches to classroom teaching and assessment. Perhaps a critical and postmodern approach to the status of English as language of instruction is highly needed if educators and policy makers are interested in more than just following trendy and fashionable approaches to language education emanating from global and business-like educational policies. The work of local researchers and authors in the Gulf region will be invoked throughout the talk.  

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