Culture and Context: Challenges to the Implementation of English Language Curricula in Asia

Abstract

In the 1990s, the cultural appropriacy of the communicative approach in English as a Foreign and Second Language (EFL / ESL) instruction in Asia was being questioned (Ellis, 1996). Even then, researchers were discussing the cultural conflict which could possibly occur in the language learning environment between western native-speaking English instructors, who naturally brought with them their preconceptions of an educational context based on their cultural experiences, and their students, who had studied within and been influenced by different cultural traditions. This discussion continues, but while the focus in the past was on the duality of western teachers working with Asian learners, today the landscape of English language instruction in Asia is far more complex, representing a myriad of stakeholders, motivational underpinnings, and national education policies (Chen, Warden, & Chang, 2005; Kam, 2002; Littlewood, 2007; Tan, 2005; Warden & Lin, 2000).