Rakesh Bhanot was born in Khatkar Kalan, Punjab, and has lived in the UK (and other EU countries) since 1961. He started teaching English to adults in Spain in 1972, and since then he has been involved in various aspects of ELT (trainer, examiner, inspector, editor, book reviewer et al). He studied at the University of Warwick (Philosophy & Literature) and served as President of the Warwick Graduate Association (WGA) in 2000. He is the Founder Editor/Advisory Board Member of Language Issues – the journal of the National Association for the Teaching of English and other Community Languages to Adults (NATECLA) in the UK. Rakesh has co-edited several books on education and also contributed to various publications including The Times Higher Education Supplement, TES, EL Gazette, English Teaching Professional, and ELTJ. To date, he has delivered workshops, seminars, conference papers as well as keynote/plenary talks in over 50 countries. In 2013, Rakesh was the winner of the first IATEFL Failure Fest.
Talk Abstract
Teaching More Than Just (sic.) English
When you teach students, they learn not ‘more-or-less’ what you teach them, but ‘more’ AND ‘less’. (Henry Widdowson) Language teachers are much more than mere purveyors of lexical items and the rules of grammar. For example, in addition to playing roles such as surrogate parents, social workers, administrators, walking encyclopaedias et al, they (wittingly or otherwise) help to shape the ideas and opinions of their students by either confirming or challenging their views. Moreover, (the English) language itself can be charged with being ‘prejudiced’; in other words, guilty of being racist, sexist, classist etc. (Cf. The English Language is my Enemy by Ossie Davis, 1967; Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, 2014; or, even, a simple sentence such as “she was poor but honest”.) Language teachers have to decide whether they actively address such issues in the classroom, or, somehow, pretend to be neutral, and dedicated followers of the PARSNIP principle, by ignoring taboo subjects in ELT. In this presentation, I would like to share a variety of activities that I have used in ELT classes over many years in order to address ‘sensitive’ issues in a non-threatening and pedagogically effective way. Language teaching is not (and can never be) neutral. Indeed, it is ‘not an innocent business’ (Harold Rosen, personal communication). Both through ‘o-mission’ and ‘co-mission’, language teachers can, and do, influence what happens in the classroom in order to bring about social justice, as well as to develop the much vaunted skill of ‘critical thinking’ in their students.
Rakesh Bhanot BA MA PGCE (TEFL)
Watch Rakesh Bhanot’s interview by British Council.