Politics of ELT Pedagogy in the Global South

Abstract

The very word ‘politics’ is entangled with English studies in the global south. There has been a deliberate attempt by ‘the centre’ to perpetuate political, cultural and ideological hegemony in the ‘periphery countries’ or countries that teach and learn English as second, foreign, intra and international language. The pedagogy of English studies followed in the global south is shaped by the very prescriptive approach and hence they are top-down in nature. It is associated with an act of submission to western methodological imperialism. However, this paper is expected to develop a critical understanding of the political, ideological, socio-cultural dimensions associated with ELT (English Language Teaching) pedagogy. It argues that instead of blindly imitating Anglo-American models and importing wholesale western pedagogy, a bottom-up, critical, resistant, home-grown ELT pedagogy should be promoted which would prove location-specific, context-and-culture sensitive; and therefore, would prove appropriate for Bangladesh, or in broader sense, for the global south.