Capital, Commodity, and English Language Teaching

233 Pages·2022·14.015 MB·

by  William Simpson

Capital, Commodity, and English
Language Teaching
Capital, Commodity, and English Language Teaching illustrates how the
drive for profit in commercial ELT affects the manner in which language is
taught. The book looks at education as a form of production, and asks how
lessons are produced, and how the production of profit in addition to the
production of the lesson affects the operation of educational institutions and
their stakeholders.
Simpson delivers a theoretically rigorous conception of capital and builds
from this an investigation into how the circulation of capital for profit
interrelates with the teaching of language. Simpson discusses ELT at both
a global level, in discussion of the ELT industry in the UK, the US, Ireland,
Canada, Japan, Spain, and transnationally online, as well as at a more local
level, where finer detailed descriptions of the work- lives of those within
the Japanese eikaiwa ELT industry are given. Drawing on a synthesis of
Marxist and Bourdieusian theory, the book outlines a dialectical approach
to understanding capital, and to understanding how the drive for profit
and language education interrelate with one another. Simpson concludes by
showing how such an approach might open up areas for further research in
a number of contexts across the globe, as well as in light of the Covid-1 9
pandemic.
Providing a model for addressing global issues of ELT, this book is of
interest to advanced students, scholars and professionals within applied lin-
guistics, TESOL, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology, language eco-
nomics and related areas.
William Simpson is Junior Associate Professor of the Liberal Arts
Department of Tokyo University of Science, Japan. He has published work
on language education, ideology, and political economy, in the Journal
of Sociolinguistics, as well as in special issues of Language Sciences, and
Language and Intercultural Communication.
LANGUAGE, SOCIETY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
Series editor: David Block, ICREA & Universitat Pompeu i Fabra
This series aims to publish broadly accessible monographs which specific-
ally address how theoretical frameworks in political economy can directly
inform the critical analysis and discussion of language in society issues.
Contributions to the series include extensive theoretical background, dealing
with an aspect or area of political economy, before moving to an applica-
tion of this theoretical discussion to a particular language in society issue.
The series takes up the challenge of interdisciplinarity, linking scholarship
in the social sciences in general (and political economy in particular) with
the kinds of issues which language in society researchers have traditionally
focused on. The series also aims to publish books by authors whose ideas fall
outside the mainstream of language in society scholarship and by authors in
parts of the world which have traditionally been underrepresented in rele-
vant international journals and book series.
Titles in the series:
Language and Neoliberal Governmentality
Edited by Luisa Martín Rojo and Alfonso Del Percio
The Commodification of Language
Conceptual Concerns and Empirical Manifestations
Edited by John E. Petrovic and Bedrettin Yazan
Global English and Political Economy
John P. O’Regan
Capital, Commodity, and English Language Teaching
William Simpson
For more information on any of these and other titles, or to order, please
go to www.routledge.com/ Language- Society- and- Political- Economy/ book-
series/ LSPE
Additional resources for Language and Communication are available
on the Routledge Language and Communication Portal: www.
routledgetextbooks.com/ textbooks/ languageandcommunication/
Capital, Commodity, and
English Language Teaching
William Simpson
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 William Simpson
The right of William Simpson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Simpson, William, 1985– author.
Title: Capital, commodity, and English language teaching / William Simpson.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Language, society and political economy |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022002228 |
ISBN 9780367764579 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367764609 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003167006 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: English language–Study and teaching. |
English language–Globalization–Economic aspects. |
Education–Economic aspects. | Commercialism in schools. |
Capitalism and education.
Classification: LCC PE1065 .S54 2022 |
DDC 428.0071–dc23/eng/20220411
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002228
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 76457- 9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 76460- 9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 16700- 6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003167006
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 Working in Commercial ELT 1
1.1 Working in Commercial ELT: An Autobiographical Account 3
1.2 The Global ELT Industry 5
1.3 The Commercial ELT Industry in Applied Linguistics 8
1.4 Aims of the Book 13
1.5 Outline of the Book 14
2 Commodity and Capital 18
2.1 Political Economy and Language 19
2.2 The Commodification of Language: Literal and
Metaphorical 20
2.3 Commodification All the Way Down? 23
2.4 From the Commodity to Capital – The Production
of Capital 25
2.5 Class: The Labour ̶ Capital Social Relation within
the Production of Capital 29
2.6 Defining Capital 32
2.7 Capital: Bourdieu and Marx 34
2.8 Identifying the Commodity 38
2.9 Disruptions in the Flow of Capital 42
3 A Dialectical Approach to Contradiction in
Language Work 52
3.1 Thinking Dialectically: Contradictory Identities 52
3.2 Dialectical Relations 55
3.3 Dialectical Contradictions 56
3.4 A Dialectical View of Language Work in the New Economy 57
3.5 The Relations of Production 61
3.6 Commodification and Freedom 63
vi Contents
3.7 The Alienation of Labour 64
3.8 Use- Value and Exchange- Value in Linguistic
Commodification 68
3.9 Summary: A Dialectical Approach to Language Work 69
4 Dialectically Defining Eikaiwa 73
4.1 Defining Eikaiwa 74
4.2 Approaching Eikaiwa as a Contradictory Identity 76
4.3 Eikaiwa and the Formal/ Non- formal Unity 76
4.4 The Student– Teacher Relation 84
4.5 Native and Non- native English- speaking Teachers
in Eikaiwa 88
4.6 Summary: A Dialectical View of Eikaiwa 91
5 Work in Commercial Eikaiwa 96
5.1 Eikaiwa in Neoliberal Japan 96
5.2 Work in Commercial Eikaiwa 97
5.3 Skills, Precarity, Casualisation, and Taylorism
in Eikaiwa 104
5.4 Context: Three Large Corporate Eikaiwa: Berlitz,
NOVA, and Gaba 109
5.5 The Scope of Eikaiwa as Context and its Interrelations 110
6 Asking Questions of Value 114
6.1 A Political Economy of Language Teaching 114
6.2 Abduction and Triangulation of Data 116
6.3 A Focus on Contradiction in Interviews 120
6.4 Dialectical Analysis and Method of Presentation 124
6.5 Summary: Asking Questions of Value 125
7 The Production of the Eikaiwa Lesson 130
7.1 Freelance and Corporate Eikaiwa Teaching:
Two Vignettes 130
7.2 Vignette 1: Dominic – Freelance Eikaiwa Teaching 132
7.3 Vignette 2: Frank – Corporate Eikaiwa Teacher 134
7.4 Taylorised Lesson Production in Eikaiwa 135
7.5 Flexible Lesson Production: Meeting the Demands of
Students as Customers 140
7.6 The Dialectical Unity of Production and Consumption:
Lesson- Object and Student- Subject 145
7.7 Contradiction between Taylorised and Flexible Forms of
Lesson Production 147
7.8 Customer Satisfaction: Student Evaluations of Teachers 152
7.9 Struggles over the Use- value – Exchange- value Relation in
Production 157
Contents vii
7.10 Summary: Taylorised and Flexible Forms of Lesson
Production 160
8 The Distribution of Value within Eikaiwa 162
8.1 Disjuncture Between the Realisation and Production
of the Lesson Commodity: The Non- Production and
Non- Consumption of the Lesson-Commodity 163
8.2 The Teacher Market and the Distribution of Value within
Eikaiwa 167
8.3 Value in Production and Distribution: The ‘Crude’ Rate
of Surplus Value Production 176
8.4 Summary: Contradictions and Struggles in the
Flow of Value 180
9 ‘Good Money for Someone, Not Teachers’: Class and
the Fetishisation of Capital 183
9.1 The Commodity Consciousness: Labour Living out the
Contradictions of the Commodity 184
9.2 Fetishism and the Labour- Capital Class Relation 186
9.3 Fetishism in Class Relations: The Social Horizon 188
9.4 The Construction of Class Relations in Eikaiwa: Working
‘For’ and Working ‘With’ 191
9.5 Class Fetishism and Ethno- National Identity 194
9.6 Fetishising Capital Outside of Social Relations 199
10 Towards a Political Economy of ELT Globally, and
through the Covid- 19 Pandemic 203
10.1 Language Teaching and Profit 204
10.2 The Valuation of Language Teachers 205
10.3 The Global ELT Industry: Implications for Research 207
10.4 Covid and Commercial ELT 211
10.5 Further Research: Universal Alienation and Language
Teaching 213
Appendix 1: Transcription Conventions 218
Index 219
Acknowledgements
It is no exaggeration to say that starting, let alone completing this book,
would not have been possible without the support of a great many people.
Though there are too many to name, there are some who I would like to
acknowledge as playing a particularly important role in this work, and
indeed in my life. I would like to thank my family for their love and support
over the years. In particular, I want to thank my parents for always doing
their utmost to support me in any and every way possible. I’d also like to
thank my wife Yoko for her unwavering love and support, and for her limit-
less patience with me in dedicating so much time and energy to this project.
I’d also like to thank Toshihiko, Shoko, and Paul Asari for welcoming me
so warmly into their family. I must also thank Janey Zhao for all the years
of friendship we have enjoyed, and for her kindness, without which none
of this would have been possible. A special thanks too to Kio Iwai, whose
friendship I would be utterly lost without, who has helped me in innu-
merable ways, and who has never let me go hungry, lonely, or in any need
while in Japan. I must also thank Shizuka Ito, Shoko Sakuma, and Shingo
Kawakami for their help during my first few years in Japan, and for helping
me feel at home here. I would like to thank Yuta Mogi, Ryo Mizukura, Rob
Lowe, Takako Yoshida, Luke Lawrence, Xinqi He, Joy Chia- wei Hsu, Keiko
Yuyama, Misako Tajima, Daniel Hooper, Michael Hollenback, and Kyoko
Motobayashi, for their feedback on this work, and for them all making aca-
demic life in Tokyo a joy and a privilege to be a part of.
I also want to thank Gunter Kress, who sadly passed away during this
project, for his thoughts, comments, and good humour in discussion of the
proposal for the PhD thesis upon which much of this book is based. I would
also like to thank Christian Chun, Miguel Pérez-M ilans, Alfonso Del Percio,
Marnie Holborow, Alberto Bruzos Moro, Lin Pan, Katy Highet, and John
Petrovic, for their exchanges with me, and for their advice and comments as
this work developed. I must also acknowledge the support of my colleagues
and students at both Meikai University and Tokyo University of Science, who
have helped me to strike a balance between my teaching duties and research.
My thanks too to Eleni Steck at Routledge for her guidance throughout the
process of writing and publishing this book. My sincerest thanks also to the
newgenprepdf
Acknowledgements ix
series editor David Block, who has been a great source of encouragement
over the past few years.
Finally, a very special thanks to John O’Regan and John Gray, without
whom I would never have been able to undertake a work of this scale. The
two of them continue to be a source of inspiration, and an affirmation of
the kind of academic I would like to be, the kind of person I would like to
become, and the kind of world I would like to live in.