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E LT and the global recession

Richard S. Pinner

This is a feature in which individuals are invited to express their personal, andsometimes controversial, views on professional issues. These views are notnecessarily those of the Editor, the Editorial Panel, or the Publisher. Reaction toComment features is especially welcome in the form of a letter to the Editor.

How the globaleconomy producedEnglish as a linguafranca

The demand for English as a lingua franca (EL F) around the world isinextricably linked to the global economy and the so-called global village.International communication is more than just big business; it is aneconomic, political, and social necessity. This larger world economy is itselfa product of the availability of cheap fossil fuel which has led to thereplacementof small, local tradingnetworks withmuchlarger internationalcorporations where things are produced in all corners of the globe cheaplythrough economies of scale. For example, many of the books we use in ourclassrooms might have been flown in from other countries where it ischeaper to print them. The necessity of having one common language that

people across the globe can use for international business is the reason wehave now, for the first time in recorded history, a language with more L2than L1 speakers.

However, every industry is being hit by the global financial crisis. Manypeople are fearful of a deep world recession which could even lead to aninternational depression. Some pessimists predict the current crisis willbe worse than the great depression of the 1930s, because this one hasglobal implications. It would be nave to imagine that ELT will not bedeeply affected by these changes, especially when we consider that bothtravel and the cost of living are becoming more and more expensive. The

booming EFL market may lose some of its robustness as the effects of highoil prices and financial problems take deeper root. In addition, the need tocommunicate in another language may be replaced by more pressingconcerns in the new economic climate, such as finding work and paying fordaily living.

What does this meanforE LT?

In the long term, students wishing to pursue an education in an English-speaking country will inevitably find that they cannot afford to travel acrossthe world and survive abroad where living costs may be twice as high as theirown countries. Of course, this is unpredictable, as we have seen in the UK;

the falling pound has meant that it is cheaper than ever for students to studythere. However, prospective students may find the necessity of speakingEnglish lower down in their immediate priorities.

390 ELT Journal Volume 63/4 October 2009; doi:10.1093/elt/ccp061 The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.Advance Access publication August 3, 2009

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As we have already heard in the world media, many people are expectingunemployment to rise and both wealthy and poorer countries will be hitbadly, with developing nations taking much of the brunt. Local networkswill have to come back into place, because large-scale industries will haveproblems with their economies of scale when it no longer remainseconomically viable to ship their products from across the globe.

In 2007 we saw the collapse ofNOVA, the largest private English languageschool in Japan. This led to a mass exodus of teachers from overseas back totheir native countries. In Asia, especially in the private sector, there is stilla great deal of over-emphasis on native English-speaking instructors ratherthan qualified teachers for whom English may be an L2. This emphasis maychange for the better under the new financial climate. However, if privatelanguage schools are hit by the crisis, that would surely mean more peoplehave to rely on their high school English education, which is rarely sufficientfor business communication in an international context. Perhaps this couldlead to versions which more accurately reflect the way L2 speakers use thelanguage. Another benefit may be the greater acceptance of world Englishes.

Also, the number of overseas students on university courses and EAPplacement schemes could diminish over time, which would mean the wayuniversities in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia arefunded by foreign students tuition fees would have to change dramaticallyand quickly.

So what is the future for EFL? The slowdown is a fact for most largeindustries, and as such EFL is already being affected. The view I am takinghere is very much a long-term one. David Crystal agrees that people have tostart thinking in the longer-term (personal communication, 2008).

Perhaps in the meantime we should use productively our ability to educatepeople around the world from multiple cultures. As part of the education weprovide into language use, should we also be instilling a sense of ethical andenvironmental responsibility? Textbooks and materials writers might wantto profile businesses that promote sustainability and give precedence totopics which could allow people to better understand some of the widerissues involved in sustaining the planet.

More importantly, we maysee textbooks that move English away from theL1model of communication and start to accept the world Englishes that areactually in the majority already. There are still relatively few textbooks and

exams that are doing this, despite the fact that many of us involved inteaching English are L2 speakers.

There could be dire consequences in terms of employment and fallingdemandontheonehand,butontheotherwemightsee ELTand assessmentseparate from the anchor of native English speaker models and grammarstructures. There is a lot of scope for an exciting shake-up, and we havemany new EL F corpora to help shape a more accurate view of real-worldEnglishes. This will enable us to understand more about how English isused and spoken around the world.

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The author

Richard Pinneris an MA Applied Linguistics and ELT student at Kings CollegeLondon.Email: richard.pinner@kcl.ac.uk

392 Richard S. Pinner

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