The narrowing of English language education curriculum in many contexts has negatively impacted classroom teaching and learning. High-stakes standardized testing, scripted curricula, and the commodification of English have converged to challenge socially meaningful classroom literacy instruction that promotes holistic development. Although in different ways, these factors have shaped the teaching of English as both first and second language. How can English educators respond? This book argues that the first step is to take account of the broader policy, political and cultural landscape and to identify the key constraints affecting teachers, students and parents. These will set the broad parameters for developing local pedagogic approaches, while still recognizing the constraints that actively push against them. Using Singapore English language teaching as a case study, this book illustrates how this process can unfold, and how media literacy principles were vernacularized to design English classroom pedagogies that stretched the bounds of what is acceptable and possible in the local context.

This book examines the role textbooks play in the teaching of dominant and non-dominant (first and foreign) languages in a range of cultural contexts worldwide. Each chapter addresses important issues related to what constitutes "legitimate knowledge", the politics of learning materials, global cultural awareness, competing ideologies, and the development of multilingual literacies. Language, Ideology and Education: The Politics of Textbooks in Language Education comprehensively surveys theoretical perspectives and methodological issues in the critical examination of language textbooks. In particular, it looks at: The Cultural Politics of Language Textbooks in the Era of Globalization The Politics of Instructional Materials for English for Young Learners Ideological Tensions and Contradictions in Lower Primary English Teaching Materials in Singapore Creating a Multilingual/multicultural Space in Japanese EFL: A Critical Analysis of Discursive Practices within a New Language Education Policy The book is primarily addressed to those who teach and research in the areas of Foreign Language Education, TESOL, Applied Linguistics, Language Policy, Critical Pedagogy, and Textual Cultures. Although the book is focused on textbook and materials analysis, rather than evaluation, most chapters discuss implications for curriculum design and materials development and therefore will be relevant to scholars working in those fields.

The narrowing of English language education curriculum in many contexts has negatively impacted classroom teaching and learning. High-stakes standardized testing, scripted curricula, and the commodification of English have converged to challenge socially meaningful classroom literacy instruction that promotes holistic development. Although in different ways, these factors have shaped the teaching of English as both first and second language. How can English educators respond? This book argues that the first step is to take account of the broader policy, political and cultural landscape and to identify the key constraints affecting teachers, students and parents. These will set the broad parameters for developing local pedagogic approaches, while still recognizing the constraints that actively push against them. Using Singapore English language teaching as a case study, this book illustrates how this process can unfold, and how media literacy principles were vernacularized to design English classroom pedagogies that stretched the bounds of what is acceptable and possible in the local context.

This book examines the role textbooks play in the teaching of dominant and non-dominant (first and foreign) languages in a range of cultural contexts worldwide. Each chapter addresses important issues related to what constitutes "legitimate knowledge", the politics of learning materials, global cultural awareness, competing ideologies, and the development of multilingual literacies. Language, Ideology and Education: The Politics of Textbooks in Language Education comprehensively surveys theoretical perspectives and methodological issues in the critical examination of language textbooks. In particular, it looks at: The Cultural Politics of Language Textbooks in the Era of Globalization The Politics of Instructional Materials for English for Young Learners Ideological Tensions and Contradictions in Lower Primary English Teaching Materials in Singapore Creating a Multilingual/multicultural Space in Japanese EFL: A Critical Analysis of Discursive Practices within a New Language Education Policy The book is primarily addressed to those who teach and research in the areas of Foreign Language Education, TESOL, Applied Linguistics, Language Policy, Critical Pedagogy, and Textual Cultures. Although the book is focused on textbook and materials analysis, rather than evaluation, most chapters discuss implications for curriculum design and materials development and therefore will be relevant to scholars working in those fields.