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Free language choice?
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Abstract:
Pretty much everyone I know wants to learn English or improve their English – with the exception of those who consider themselves native speakers, obviously. What is more, everyone I know knows that everyone else wants to learn English (the pretense of conservative politicians that they are combating an imaginary resistance movement to English notwithstanding). Additionally, most people think that choice is a good thing and so the fact that pretty much everyone on this globe wants to learn English becomes a good thing by implication. The fact that so many people clamor for English is particularly convenient for the TESOL industry because it allows us to collectively pretend that English teaching is not just a job or, heaven forbid, that we are actually little cogs serving the advancement of corporate imperialism. On the contrary, we like to think that TESOL is actually helping people to learn the language of their choice, and thus to achieve all the goodies that are supposed to come with it, be it democracy or development.
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Keyword:
200401 applied linguistics and educational linguistics; 200405 language in culture and society (sociolinguistics)
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1076985
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