Resumen de Tesol and the question of learners' cultural identity: towards a critical approach
Over the past few years, there has been a growing awareness on the part of TESOL professionals all over the world -people, that is, in volved in one way or another, in the mammoth worldwide enterprise called 'the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages'- of the ideological implications of their own work. Phillipson (1992), Pennycook (1994, 1998) and several others have drawn our attention to the profoundly disturbing discovery that English language teaching (ELT) has traditionally been and, in many contexts, still is conducted as part of a gigantic effort to advance an imperialistic agenda. This is especially true, they say, of the teaching of English as foreign language (EFL). Along with the language, it is alleged, the unsuspecting learners are taught values that often enter into direct conflict with local creeds and customs, ultimately paving the way for disintegratin or, at the very least, the deformation of host cultures.
