Colonial Curriculum

 At the same time as "the knowledge curriculum" is promoting the study of authoritative voices, the "best" of great literature and "standard" English, there is also a conflicting movement to "decolonise" the curriculum. In our subject, this is deeply problematic. Not just from a social justice point of view. But because it is at the heart of why MFL is a dead end subject after GCSE, with no mainstream language learning options post 16.

For a start, if we were decolonising the curriculum, why would we be teaching the languages of faded colonial powers? 

There is a hierarchy in the English establishment, of the status of different languages. Highest status are Latin and Ancient Greek. The original languages of heroic superiority, empire and unproblematic slavery. The signs of an elite education, where languages are an intellectual and cultural pursuit. The study of Latin and Ancient Greek came in handy in portraying a small remote island as the inheritor of ancient civilisation through an era when we were colonising in India and Mesopotamia: Civilisations who could trace back their own written culture for thousands of years to a time when agriculture and urbanisation were barely getting started in Britain.

After Latin and Ancient Greek in the hierarchy, comes English. The power dynamic is that we expect others to learn our language. It is beneath us to learn theirs. As language teachers we come across this regularly in the attitudes shown by our learners. Of course, the practical predominance of English is not down to us. It hangs firstly on the cultural and economic protagonism of the United States in the Twentieth Century. And secondly on the fact that English no longer belongs to us. Just as we may claim to have invented football, but the rest of the world are quite capable of playing it without our say-so, so English for most speakers is not the language of England. Much as we may try to pin our cultural commercial properties such as Shakespeare or the Beatles to the global English language business.

But if we do learn a modern "foreign" language, which one would it be? It would be French, German or Spanish. The languages of European colonial powers we grudgingly accept could have similar (if lesser) status compared to English.

Languages spoken in the British Isles such as Welsh are not deemed worthy of study. Languages spoken in our former colonies or by communities living here in the UK are not deemed worthy of study. This hierarchy of languages is clearly linked to colonialism.

But so too is how we study languages and what the study of a language involves. Because as an academic subject, studying a language is learning what millions of ordinary "foreigners" can already do with no intellectual effort! So we bulk out our A Levels and degrees with essay writing (often in English, to maintain standards of intellectual rigour), literature, culture, history and politics.

Our attitude to how to learn a language swings with political changes. For the right wing, language learning is intellectual study of complex grammatical terms and systems. Preferably of ancient languages. For the left wing, language is communication and engagement with authentic materials.

So where to start with "decolonising" such a colonised subject?

Firstly, on a national level, we should be questioning why we offer, for example, Urdu or Portuguese GCSE to speakers of those languages, but we don't think that it would be a superb idea for us (as teachers) and our pupils to learn to speak the languages spoken by families in our own community. Or British Sign Language.

Secondly, we should be looking at why it is that our pathways for language learning fizzle out in the dead end of worthy intellectual academic study. A Level languages or a degree in Philology, with study of literature and grammar and essays. That should not be the main offer of language learning. It should be (and is) for a specialist academic few. There should be the pathway of doing a language course in any language or languages, studying the language for the pleasure of learning and communicating. One thing we know the human brain can do is learn a language. It takes time and requires regular exposure to the language, without forced models of progress and pass/fail. We need to make language-learning the norm for our young people.

And meanwhile, what should we do in the French, Spanish, German classroom? Widen horizons, yes. Learn that what we know is only a small part of humanity. Question stereotypes. Teach how people are the same? Or teach how people are all different?

Having lived in Mexico, I see some pretty horrific attempts at diversification of approaches in Spanish resources. Factual error, cultural appropriation, stereotypes. Europe-centric (ie colonial) labels such as "with a strong accent" or "dialect". In fact a majority of Spanish speakers live outside Spain. Just as the majority of French speakers do not live in France. Were I to teach about French-speaking countries other than France, would I be perpetuating the same ignorant takes? I certainly avoid pictures of mud huts and cheerful resilient poverty. I follow the Jeune Afrique newspaper on Twitter and try to get a sense of local perspectives and modern life.

I admit I do concentrate on France. But in our booklets we use French musicians such as Louane or Oli and Bigflo. For our pupils they are the representatives of France. But when we study them, we learn that their parents came from other countries. With songs like Bienvenue chez moi, we see that they are as French as any other French person.

We try to set up communication with French pupils, often with schools with diverse intake. And look at everyday life in France rather than just tourist sites and special celebrations. What I need to do as much as possible is let French-speaking culture speak for itself, with authentic resources.

We are living through a phase of right wing emphasis on grammar and vocabulary selected from a specific corpus. Of communication being delayed until later. Of reading being word-by-word parsing of sentences to practise known language. Of authentic materials being questioned as encouraging guessing and frustrating pupils. Of Latin being revived for high status intellectual study. Decolonisation does not sit well with the current political pressures. It means resisting or at least questioning what we are being asked to do. I would invite you to go back through this post and click on some of the links to other posts to see how the issues we are currently faced with all tie into the power of the colonial hierarchy currently seeking to dominate language teaching.