Critical English for academic purposes : theory, politics, and practice

176 Pages·2001·1.394 MB·English

by  Sarah Benesch

Critical English for
Academic Purposes:
Theory, Politics, and Practice

Critical English for
Academic Purposes:
Theory, Politics, and Practice

Sarah Benesch

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS
Mahwah, New Jersey London
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.

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Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
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Cover design by Robert Attansio

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Benesch, Sarah.
Critical English for academic purposes: theory, politics, and
practice/Sarah Benesch.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3433-8 (cloth: alk. Paper)
ISBN 0-8058-3434-6 (pbk.: alk. Paper)
1. English language—Study and teaching—Foreign
speakers. 2. English language—Rhetoric—Study and
teaching. 3. Critical thinking—Study and teaching. 4. Ac-
ademic writing— Study and teaching. I. Title.
PE1128.A2 B457 2001
428’.0071—dc21 00–060981
ISBN 1-4106-0180-3 Master e-book ISBN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Tony Dudley-Evans ix
Preface xiv
Background xv
Theoretical Underpinnings xvi
Complexities of Practice xvii
Structure and Contents of the Book xviii
Acknowledgments xix
PART I: THEORY AND POLITICS
1. A History of English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
Theoretical Influences 4
Historical Trends 4
Summary 21
2. Political and Economic Roots of EAP
Political and Economic Roots of ESP/EAP 23
Summary 33
3. Debating EAP Issues: Pedagogy and Ideology
L2 Compositionists’ Critique 34
Responses to L2 Compositionists Critique 37
Critical Theorists’ Critique 38

Responses to Critical Theorists 43
Summary 45
4. Critical EAP: Theoretical Influences
Freire: Hope and Dialogue 46
Foucault: Power Relations 50
Feminist Pedagogy 53
v
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Freire, Foucault, and Feminist Critics:
Influences on Critical EAP 56
Needs Analysis and Rights Analysis: Relating Traditional
and Critical EAP 57
Reflexivity: Problematizing Critical Theory and Practice 59
Summary 60
PART II: PRACTICE
5. Topic Choice in Critical EAP: Revisiting Anorexia
Instructional Context 64
Critique of Critical EAP and Critical Thinking 65
Topic Choice in Critical and Writing Process Approaches 66
Topic Choice in Traditional EAP 68
Teacher Imposition and Student Resistance 69
Teacher Imposition and Responses of Female Students 72
StudentsStudent-Selected Topics in Critical EAP 76
Alternatives to Anorexia 78
Summary 78
6. Building Community With Diversity:
A Linked EAP/Anthropology Course
Background: What is an ESL Student? 82
Research on Tracking 83
Community and a Pedagogy of Difference 84
Setting: A Linked EAP Writing/Anthropology Course 85
Community Formation in the EAP Class 87

The Delegation 93
The Museum Visit: Miranda’s Questions 94
Access and Community 97
Summary 98
7. Rights Analysis in a Paired EAP/Psychology Lecture Class
Needs Analysis 100
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
Problematizing Needs 101
Rights Analysis 102
Problematizing Rights 103
The Target as a Site of Struggle 103
Coverage as Control 108
Needs and Rights Analyses in the Linked Course 110
Questions: Conflict Between Coverage and
Comprehension 111
The Role of a Critical EAP Teacher 113
Summary 114
8. A Negotiated Assignment: Possibilities and Challenges
The Context 116
What Confuses you About U.S. Society?
A Negotiated Assignment 118
Dissent in an EAP Writing Class 122
Relating Teaching and Learning 125
Preparation for What? 126
Summary 128
9. What is and What Might Be: Implications for EAP,
Content, and Critical Teaching
Toward an Ethics of EAP 130
Implications for EAP Teachers 133
Implications for Content Teachers 134
Implications for Critical Teachers 134
References 136

Author Index 146

FOREWORD
English for specific purposes (ESP) has tended to be a practical affair, most
interested in investigating needs, preparing teaching materials, and devising
appropriate teaching methodologies. Perhaps because of the early British
influences on its development, it has avoided broad questions of theory, and, as
Swales (1994) suggests in his final editorial in ESP’s flagship journal, English
for Specific Purposes, articles published in that journal are “strikingly
unengaged” (p. 201) by controversial issues of ideology.
ESP practice has thus remained essentially pragmatic; practitioners have
interpreted their role as attempting to provide the maximum possible support in
the limited time available. Although the worldwide role of English may be
recognised at one level, at the day-to-day level, ESP teachers often find
themselves in situations where they have to compete for timetable slots and
students’ attention. In these circumstances, priority has been given to
discovering the expectations of the academic or professional community of
which the students of the ESP class aspire to become full members and then
reducing that information to teachable units taught over a specified and often
limited time period.
This tendency to pragmatism was also considerably justified in the early days
of the ESP movement by the need to justify its approach to those sceptical of its
focus on selected specific features of the language. ESP defended its approach
through the claim that it was more efficient and cost-effective than more
traditional teaching approaches based on a general coverage of the language
system. ESP has not, however, been unwilling to consider more ideological
issues: The role of English in international publications has been much
discussed (and criticised) in recent years and the burgeoning influence of social
constructionism on ESP has raised important questions about its approaches to
genre analysis. Indeed, the very pragmatic nature of ESP has, I believe, led to a
readiness to draw on new ideas, and review its practices where necessary.

The rise of critical theory and critical approaches to discourse and to
pedagogy has raised much more fundamental questions about ESP practice.
Issues such as the role of English in publication and social constructionism are
important but do not interrogate the fundamental tenets of ESP. These critical
approaches, on the other hand, question the assumptions of traditional needs
analysis and pragmatism that underpin the whole of ESP activity. ESP and, in
particular, English for academic purposes (EAP) are criticised for adopting an
unquestioning stance toward the departments and disciplinary practices that
students encounter. The traditional mainstream EAP approach has been
described as “accommodationist” (Benesch, 1993, p. 714) and it has been
ix