Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

L2 learning as social change
The goals seen so far in a sense accept the world as it is rather than trying to change
it; the student as an individual is expected to conform to their society. But educa-
tion and L2 teaching can also be seen as a vehicle of social change. According to
Paolo Freire (1972), the way out of the perpetual conflict between oppressor and
oppressed is through problem-posing dialogues between teachers and students
which make both more aware of the important issues in their lives and their solu-
tions. Language teaching on a Freireian model accepts that ‘authentic education is
not carried out by A for B or by A about B but rather by A with B mediated by the
world, giving rise to views or opinions about it’. Language teaching can go beyond
accepting the values of the existing world to making it better (Wallerstein, 1983).
While the Freireian approach is included here under individual goals because of its
liberating effect on the individual, it may well deserve a category all of its own of
goals for changing society: language teaching as political action.
The goals of language teaching
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Much of what has been said here about the goals of language teaching seems
quite obvious. Yet it is surprising how rarely it is mentioned. Most discussions of
language teaching take it for granted that everyone knows why they are teaching
the second language. ‘LP [language pedagogy] is concerned with the ability to 
use language in communicative situations’ (Ellis, 1996: 74). But the reasons for
language teaching in a particular situation depend on factors that cannot be
summed up adequately just as ‘communication’, or as ‘foreign’ versus ‘second’
language teaching. Even if teachers themselves are powerless to change such rea-
sons, an understanding of the varying roles for language teaching in different
societies and for different individuals is an important aid to teaching. A well-bal-
anced set of language teaching goals is seen in the English curriculum for Israel
(English – Curriculum for all Grades, 2002), summarized in Box 11.3.
The goals of language teaching 211