Teaching English in Chile

ANGLO-AMERIKANISCHE STUDIEN
ANGLO-AMERICAN STUDIES
Herausgegeben von
Rüdiger Ahrens, Maria Eisenmann und Laurenz Volkmann

Band 45
 Katharina Glas

Teaching English in Chile

A Study of Teacher Perceptions
of their Professional Identity,
Student Motivation and
Pertinent Learning Contents
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Zugl.: Jena, Univ., Diss., 2012

27
ISSN 0177-6959
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DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-03076-1
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 “Estar no mundo sem fazer história, sem por ela ser feito, sem fazer cultura,
sem “tratar” sua própria presença no mundo, sem sonhar, sem cantar, sem musicar,
sem pintar, sem cuidar da terra, das águas, sem usar as mãos, sem esculpir,
sem filosofar, sem pontos de vista sobre o mundo, sem fazer ciências, ou teologia,
sem assombro em face do mistério, sem aprender, sem ensinar,
sem ideáis de formação, sem politizar não é possível.”

“To be in the world without making history, without being made by it, without
creating culture, without attending to one’s own presence in the world, without
dreaming, without singing, without playing music, without painting, without caring
for the earth, for the water, without using one’s hands, without sculpturing, without
philosophising, without any points of view about the world, without doing science or
theology, without awe in the face of mystery, without learning, without teaching,
without ideas on education, without being political,
is not possible.”
Paulo Freire, Pedagogia da autonomia (1996: 65)
[Translation into English by Katharina Glas]
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I offer my deepest gratitude to the nineteen English teachers
who gave up precious time to share their experiences and ideas with me and thus
provided the corpus for the empirical part of this research study.
I would like to thank Laurenz Volkmann for his motivating comments, his
useful advice and for believing in my capacities to bring this research investi-
gation to an end. I am also most grateful to Natalie Usher and Kacy Richmond
for their careful reading of the manuscript and their thoughtful comments, and to
other friendly helpers who provided technical support, especially Verónica
Cordero, Karina García, Juan Pablo Lira and Ana María Trevia. Thanks also to
my colleagues and students at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso,
who in discussions in and outside the classroom, have provided comments for
the development of new ideas. I owe special thanks to Jannett Fonseca for mak-
ing me aware of the existence of some very useful bibliographical material and
to Araceli de Tezanos and Terry Lamb, whose workshops at PUCV in 2010 and
2011 renewed my energies to continue focusing my work on the overlap be-
tween Critical Pedagogies and English Language Teaching.
Last, not least, danke an meine Eltern, Maria und Toni Glas und an
Veronika Wild für die großzügige moralische und finanzielle Unterstützung. Mi-
llones de gracias a mi amado esposo, Claudio Llanos, por su amor, su pacien-
cia, sus ideas y conocimientos, y su infaltable apoyo a través de todos estos
años. Gracias a mi suegra Rosa Reyes y a Rosa Rojas por dejarme entregarles
el cuidado de mis hijas con confianza, mientras me dediqué a leer y a escribir.
Und danke an meine Kleinen Fernanda und Luciana, für ihr Verständnis und
ihre Geduld.

7
Contents
Acknowledgements … .......................................................................................... 7

1. Introduction ................... .................................................................................13

PART I: The Context ............... ..........................................................................17

2. The Presence of English in Latin America and Chile ........... .........................19
2.1 The Learning and Teaching of English as a Global Phenomenon .. ….19
2.2 The Historical Relationship between Latin America and English-
Speaking Countries ………………………………… ...... …………..25
2.3 Review of Recent Research: World Englishes in Latin America .. …..30
2.4 Chilean Cultural Identity and the Presence of English in Chile .. ……35

3. English in the Chilean Educational System ……………………………... …45

3.1 The Structure the Chilean Educational System ………………… ……45
3.2 English in Chilean Schools ………………………………… . ……….50
3.3 Conclusion …………………………………………………… . ……..55

PART II: Learning Contents and Goals .................................................. ...........57

4. Approaches to the Teaching of Language and Culture ........................ ..........59
4.1 Where from? Pedagogical Implications for the Choice of Cultural
Contents when Teaching English as a Global Language ……………59
4.2 What Kind of Culture? What for? How? Approaches towards
Culture Learning ……………………………………… ... ………….69
4.3 Conclusion ……………………………………………… .. ………….80

9
5. Concepts of Culture and Language in the Chilean National Curricular
Framework for Foreign Languages / English .................................................... 83
5.1 The Government’s Vision of Society in the Cross-Curricular
Objectives (2009) ............................................................................... 84
5.2 The Government’s Vision of English in Chile in the Introductions
to the Curricular Frameworks of 2005 and 2009 ............................... 86
5.3 General Learning Objectives and Minimum Contents for English ..... 90
5.4 The Intercultural Paradigm in Chile: Education for the
Indigenous Population ........................................................................ 97
5.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 99

6. Cultural Content Analysis of Some of the Most Commonly Used

Textbooks in English Teaching in Chile .......................................................... 103
6.1 The Leading Questions for the Analysis ............................................ 103
6.2 Going Global 1 / 2 (years 9 and 10), 2007-2008 ............................... 105
6.3 Global English (year 11), 2007 .......................................................... 112
6.4 Go for Chile 1 / 2, 2002 – 2003 ......................................................... 117
6.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 125

PART III: The Teachers’ Views ...................................................................... 129

7. Framework: Researching Teachers’ Subjective Knowledge - Teacher
Cognition & Teacher Identity .......................................................................... 131
7.1 Rationale: The Choice of a Research Approach ................................ 131
7.2 Research Review: Teacher Cognition and Identity ........................... 133
7.3 Research Review: Motivation and Attitudes ..................................... 139
7.4 Analytical Framework: Critical Discourse Analysis ......................... 146

8. The Research Process ................................................................................... 149

8.1 Contact with Teachers and Sample Criteria ....................................... 149
8.2 Interview and Questionnaire Design .................................................. 152
8.3 Data Analysis ..................................................................................... 156

10
9. Summarising Analysis of the Teachers’ Responses .................................... 159
9.1 Global Language, Local Challenges: the Teachers’ Interpretation
of their Professional Situation .......................................................... 160
9.2 Student Motivation and Attitudes: the Teachers’ View ..................... 198
9.3 Learning Contents .............................................................................. 226

10. The Teachers’ Sense of Agency as Part of their Professional Identity ...... 271
10.1 Introduction: The Teachers’ Sense of Agency ................................. 271
10.2 Teacher Talk and Other Motivational Strategies in the Classroom . 273
10.3 Technology and English Teaching: an Extra Challenge or an
Opportunity? .................................................................................... 290
10.4 Motivational and Empowering Contents ......................................... 306

PART IV: Conclusions ..................................................................................... 325

11. 21st Century Proposals for Motivation and Empowerment in the
Teaching and Learning of English in Latin America ....................................... 327
11.1 Proposals for Further Research ........................................................ 327
11.2 Proposals for Educational and Curricular Policies .......................... 328
11.3 Proposals for the Development of Teaching and Learning
Materials ........................................................................................... 329
11.4 Proposals for Teacher Training ........................................................ 330
11.5 Outlook ........................................................................................... 333

Appendix: Questionnaire for the English Teachers ......................................... 335

Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 337

11
1. Introduction
When I started teaching English in Further and Higher Education in Chile in
2005, I began to become aware of the nature of the particular challenges of be-
ing an English teacher here. My new students brought to class several years of
English learning at school, but very little actual previous knowledge of the lan-
guage, and it was not long before I identified, at least within my own teaching
situation, two problematic areas.
First I realised that there was an enormous difference in motivation for
learning English between students in the European context (which is my person-
al experience) and those in the Chilean context. In Europe, having foreign lan-
guage skills, often in more than one language, is becoming the norm, yet in the
Chilean context, many of my students did not seem to perceive English to be a
priority. Many were very reluctant to prepare for tests, do their homework, or to
participate actively in class. My first idea, preliminarily confirmed in a few in-
formal conversations, was that it was an attitude problem at the level of context,
the society as a whole: English still seems to be considered “the (second) lan-
guage of the posh, upper-class” (“los cuicos”) by many; English-speaking coun-
tries are far away; all neighbouring countries are Spanish-speaking, too; and
many young people have few or no opportunities to travel any further than Bra-
zil – where tourists get by with Spanish, anyway.
Second, teaching within the constraints of a set coursebook, I became aware
of how few meaningful texts were being offered to students in English classes (if
any were offered at all). The repeated complaint that I heard in conversations
with friends and students was that in their school experience, they had never re-
ally read anything interesting in English classes. What they remembered most
were loose vocabulary items, for example, “pen”, “window”; “these conversa-
tions” and the verb “to be”. I began searching for ways to include new, diverse
cultural information in my classes, especially in order to avoid reiterating the
stereotypical image of everyday (U.S. American) culture that is presented in
Hollywood movies and TV series.
Accordingly, I began to develop an interest in the relationship between stu-
dent demotivation and the lack of stimulating, meaningful teaching material,
especially in the form of reading texts. My initial research idea was also inspired
by studies on attitudes and motivation in second language learning, such as the
ones carried out in Canada (e.g. Gardner & Lambert 1972), as I had the suspi-
cion that many Chileans’ held negative attitudes towards the English language
and English-speaking cultures (especially the USA), which created barriers that
prevented them from truly engaging with English.

13
 However, it was not long before I discovered that the situation had already
started to change: the government had taken action in favour of more effective
English teaching in schools, by designing and implementing a programme called
English Opens Doors. This included the distribution of English textbooks to all
public and state-subsidised private schools, and increased resources for initial
and in-service English teacher training, among others. Also, my initial impres-
sion that the Chileans held negative attitudes towards the English language was
challenged in more conversations. Without coming to the conclusion that all
Chileans were desperate to learn English, I realised that the issue was far more
complex than I had initially thought.
Thus, my research design started taking shape: first of all, I needed to get a
more precise idea of the context, especially of the public image – policies, dis-
courses, and counter-discourses - of English teaching and learning in Chile (cf.
Pennycook 1995/ 2001, Wodak & Meyer 2001). It soon became clear to me that
the situation was – and is – a representative example of several issues related to
globalisation that are the subject of intense discussion both nationally and inter-
nationally, in various disciplinary research circles, not only of English Language
Teaching, but also Cultural Studies, sociology, pedagogy, etc. (e.g. Beck 1998,
2002, Larraín 2001, 2005, Leal Hurtado 2005, Volkmann 2010). One of these
issues is related to the world-wide growing demand for English language skills
in the labour market, as part of the overwhelmingly rapid processes of modernis-
ing progress and internationalisation. Another concern is the ongoing search for
cultural identity in a globalised world, where the often-quoted “McDonaldisa-
tion” is readily embraced by some, while being contested by others, sometimes
violently so. Also, educational reforms that aim at adapting the curriculum to
new challenges posed by a neoliberal market economy form part of these prob-
lems (cf. Cox 2003, Magendzo 2004, Pinto 2008). Part I is an attempt to provide
a comprehensive overview of the most significant discussions and developments
in this area, mainly in relation to Chile, but also to the wider Latin American and
even global context.
A next step was to examine the textbooks that were distributed to the
schools in the past few years, especially their cultural contents. Thus, my main
question for Part II was to what extent the textbooks reflect the personally and
socially meaningful – and motivating - learning objectives that (national and in-
ternational) academic research has proposed for English language teaching in a
“glocalised” world, especially in relation to intercultural learning objectives and
learner empowerment (e.g. Bredella & Delanoy 1999, Bredella et al. 2000,
Byram, 2000, 2005, Farías 2005). In order to provide a richer context for this
analysis, I have also included an analysis of the governmental curricular frame-

14
works that establish minimum learning objectives and contents to be covered in
all public and state-subsidised private schools in Chile.
Then, I had to find a way of obtaining empirical data to confirm – or discon-
firm – my hypotheses:
1) The students’ lack of motivation to learn English as a cause for their low pro-
ficiency levels.
2) Negative attitudes towards the language and English-speaking cultures, plus
the lack of meaningful, interesting learning material as a cause for their low
motivation levels.
I especially needed rich data that would mitigate my outsider status as a foreign-
er in Chile, with no local experience in secondary teaching. Therefore, I decided
to base the research investigation on semi-structured problem-centred interviews
with English teachers working in Chilean secondary schools. The questions cen-
tre on the teachers’ perception of their own profession, and its specific challeng-
es and rewards; on their conception of students’ motivation and its perceived
roots, and of the (cultural) contents to which the teachers give preference in their
day-to-day teaching. As the teachers’ personal, cultural, and professional identi-
ties are, to some extent, the “mediators” between the way in which they interpret
their contexts and students’ motivations to learn, and the curricular decisions
that they take, I will give special attention to these concepts of identity (cf. Bei-
jaard et al. 2000, 2004, Coldron & Smith 1999, Duff & Uchida 1997). The re-
search design and analysis of these interviews is presented in part III.
The writing of a research report like this is very much a circular process,
with reading informing the analysis, and analytical problems leading to more
reading. More importantly, however, it cannot be detached from the life experi-
ences that happen in “parallel” to the research work itself. In my case, I had the
good fortune to become involved in initial English teacher training in Chile in
the second year of my research project. My experience with these young Chile-
ans – motivated English learners, and, what is more, highly motivated future
language pedagogues with high hopes to improve school education – has not
only helped me to gain more insight into the complexity of English teaching and
learning in this country, but also to value the real relevance of this piece of re-
search. In times of a prevailing “instrumental rationality” in educational man-
agement, which focuses its attention on the production of quick, measurable re-
sults, while students in schools are becoming increasingly disaffected, there is
an urgent call to re-think the significance of our teaching contents and of our
pedagogical goals and practices as a whole. Based on the findings of this re-
search investigation, and in line with the principles of Critical Pedagogy I sub-
scribe to (e.g. Freire 1970/2008, 1996/2004, Klafki 1991/2007, Pinto 2008, Prie-

15
to 2001, Norton & Toohey 2004), part IV proposes some specific measures for
initial and in-service teacher training, material design, and governmental poli-
cies concerning English teaching in Chile.

16
PART I: The Context

The aim of this first part is to provide a comprehensive contextualisation of this

research study. Therefore, in Chapter 2, socio-linguistic, sociological, and his-
torical information will be brought together to set the cultural background in
which English is taught and learned world-wide, in Latin America and particu-
larly in Chile, at the beginning of the 21st century. Modernity, linguistic imperi-
alism and globalisation are key words within this framework.
Then, a description of the Chilean educational system will be given in Chap-
ter 3, first in general terms and then with a more specific focus on English as a
school subject. Important areas for discussion are the structural inequities of the
educational system and the current situation of English language teaching, espe-
cially in the publically funded sectors within the primary and secondary educa-
tion system.

17
2. The Presence of English in Latin America
and Chile
As a considerable portion of the empirical part of this study deals with attitudes
towards the English language, and in particular with regard to cultural identities,
it is necessary, first of all, to establish the socio-cultural context in which the
learning and teaching of English takes place. This context can be visualised, in
general terms, as on global, regional and national levels. The subdivisions of this
chapter follow this logic: in 2.1, I will briefly examine the way in which the
global spread of English, its connection with imperialism and globalisation, and
its perceived implications, has been discussed in recent years, mainly on a
world-wide level, including, of course, Chile and Latin America. Then, in 2.2,
the historical relationship between Latin America and major English-speaking
countries will be taken under scrutiny. This – complex - relationship is clearly
made up of a combination of political, economic, and cultural forces. In 2.3, this
Latin-American dimension will be developed further, by reviewing some im-
portant publications in the areas of applied linguistics and socio-linguistics,
which give evidence of the current status of English in Latin America. Finally,
in 2.4, the Chilean national context will be examined, including some observa-
tions about Chilean national identity, Chile’s relationship with its immediate
neighbours, and the latest developments in terms of the status of English in soci-
ety.

2.1 The Learning and Teaching of English as a

Global Phenomenon
2.1.1 The Global Spread of English
Linguistically speaking, the global spread of English is probably one of the most
important phenomena of the past 50 years. Of course, even though the end of
World War II, with the consolidation of the USA’s status as a political and eco-
nomic superpower, is often taken as a historical referent, the origins of this ex-
pansion can be dated back far earlier: the English spoken in the USA is one of
the primary consequences of British colonialism. 1607 is a commonly quoted
date, as it marks the arrival of an expedition to Chesapeake Bay, leading to the
first permanent British settlement on the American East Coast (cf. Crystal
2003:31, McArthur 2003:165). In the following centuries, in a continuous pro-
cess of colonisation, English reached more and more parts of the world, estab-

19
lishing itself as the mother tongue for most inhabitants of North America, Aus-
tralia and New Zealand, and as the most important additional language of large
populations in Africa and Asia. The fact that English is nowadays taught as a
compulsory subject in most Chilean (and Latin American) schools, however, has
effectively more to do with the most recent global growth of English, which
started in the years after 1945, and which has received an extra boost from the
digital and technological revolutions of the past twenty years, in particular from
widespread access to the Internet and cable and satellite TV.
A very useful model of the phenomenon “Global English” has been provid-
ed by Kachru (e.g. 1992, also quoted in Crystal 2003). According to him, the
spread of English can be visualised as three concentric circles:
The “Inner Circle” Countries are those where English has long been estab-
lished as the dominant native language: apart from the obvious “cradle” of Eng-
lish, Britain, this circle includes the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Here, English is basically used by the whole population, for all the functions that
a language can take in the life of a society.
The “Outer Circle” Countries are those where English arrived primarily
through the British Empire, and where it has retained an important status even
after these countries gained independence. Here, English operates as one – often
the most privileged - among several languages in a multilingual setting, is usual-
ly acquired as a second language by large sectors of the educated population,
and holds important functions in intra-national public life. Important examples
are India, Singapore, and Nigeria, to name just a few.
Finally, the “Expanding Circle” Countries are those that do not have an Eng-
lish-speaking colonial past, but where English is increasingly learned as a for-
eign language, and where its uses, though in steady rise, are restricted to the
contact with members of other extra-national linguistic communities, often as a
Lingua Franca (i.e. none, or only a minority, of the participants of a communi-
cative situation speaks English as a first language). Crystal (op.cit.: 60) remarks
that 20 years after Kachru presented the model in the 1980s, this circle could
already be called “expanded circle”, as nowadays English has literally reached
the last corners of the world. Even Latin America, which according to McAr-
thur’s sources (McArthur 2003: 244) in the early 1990s still remained largely
“outside the net” of English, presents a fairly different picture nowadays. On the
other hand, as I will show for the case of Chile (which clearly belongs to this
circle), the expansion process is still going on, for example in sense that the
number of people who currently have full functional command of the language
is still comparatively low, but steadily increasing.

20
2.1.2 Linguistic and Cultural Imperialism?
Clearly, the growing importance of English has not been received in an entirely
enthusiastic manner. The British linguist Crystal, who is a native bilingual in
Welsh and English, definitely celebrates the advantages of having one global
language at everybody’s disposal. On the other hand, he does not fail to point
out the dangers of a global language, summarising three important concerns in
the keywords linguistic power, linguistic complacency, and linguistic death. The
questions he asks are:
• “Will those who speak a global language as a mother tongue automatically be
in a position of power compared with those who have to learn it as an official
or foreign language?” (op.cit.: 16)
• “Will a global language eliminate the motivation for adults to learn other lan-
guages?” (ibid.: 17)
• “Will the emergence of a global language hasten the disappearance of mi-
nority languages and cause widespread language death?” (ibid.: 20)
Crystal defends the benefits of the global language, but those aspects that Crys-
tal points out as “real risks” are criticised far more harshly by those who estab-
lish a closer link between the spread of English and what they call Cultural and /
or Linguistic Imperialism. The “power question” plays an important role here,
and is applied, not only to individuals (as suggested by Crystal’s question), but
to societies as a whole.
Phillipson (1992), who coined the term Linguistic Imperialism in order to
describe the dominance of English in today’s world, establishes a close connec-
tion to the more usual economic and political descriptions of imperialism. His
definition of linguistic imperialism points directly at the unfair distribution of
power, resources and opportunities, here, based on language:
“A working definition of English linguistic imperialism is that the dominance of
English is asserted and maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitu-
tion of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages.
Here structural refers broadly to material properties (for example, institutions, finan-
cial allocations) and cultural to immaterial or ideological properties (for example, at-
titudes, pedagogical principles).” (47)
In this sense, Phillipson exposes the direct and indirect policies that have, even
after the fall of the British Empire, continuously helped English to become or
remain a dominant language in certain Third-World settings, especially through
the world-wide presence and acting of the British Council. According to his re-
search, this organisation’s aims are to support foreign policy, overseas trade and
investment, but at the same time it conveniently manages to control, for exam-

21
ple, the language teaching market through the export of pedagogical expertise,
EFL textbooks, etc. (cf. 145ff.) Later on, Canagarajah (1999) continued devel-
oping research in this area, combining the linguistic perspective with critical
pedagogy, in order to look at the way in which linguistic imperialism is resisted
in Sri Lankan English language classrooms.
The term “Cultural Imperialism” is far more widely used than “Linguistic
Imperialism”, with different authors putting emphasis on a variety of aspects.
Tomlinson (1991) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the
different ways in which the term “Cultural Imperialism” has been used. He es-
tablishes four major categories in which the term is brought into play in order to
criticise the dominant position of some cultures over others in todays’ world:
first, in the context of the media (e.g. Disney comics, TV series, cinema; twenty
years later one must now add the Internet, of course); next, in counter-
imperialist nationalist discourse (which Tomlinson criticises for its essentialist
way of treating nation and culture as near-synonyms); then, as a critique of the
culture of capitalism, with its world-wide homogenising tendencies and spread
of consumerism; and finally, as part of the critical discourse of modernity itself.
One area to which Tomlinson does not give great importance, but which other
authors emphasise, is the idea that cultural imperialism is exerted (more or less
purposefully) through the manipulation of different national educational sys-
tems, e.g. through textbook donations, teacher training, university reforms, etc.
(e.g. Austin 2006).
When talking about Cultural Imperialism, the main difficulty that arises
could be viewed as the typical “chicken and egg” problem: what comes first? Is
“culture” (here, mainly in terms of cultural products, such as movies, music, TV
series…) really used to intentionally propagate world views and lifestyles that
will help the US (and British?) consumer industry to grow, or, conversely, is it a
vast world-wide population that happily embraces “modernity” in the form of
everything that sounds “American” (or British, for the more sophisticated) and
constantly asks for more? Is there really a purposeful meddling with other cul-
tures, or is it hegemonic forces – a widespread notion that these “guests” are
pleasant, “good for us”, maybe even necessary - that “naturally” invite Coca-
Cola, Adam Sandler, and Cambridge University Press in? (cf. Said 1978/
2003:7, Voigt-Virchow 2005: 54ff., Williams 1983:144ff.)
Tomlinson argues that even though Western imperialism and colonialism
did use coercion in order to gain a dominant position, nowadays the situation has
changed: “What dogs the critique of cultural imperialism is the problem of ex-
plaining how a cultural practice can be imposed in a context which is no longer
actually coercive.” (173) He chooses to view cultural imperialism as the “spread
of modernity”. This is, rather than cultural imposition, a process of “cultural

22
loss”, and sounds reminiscent of Crystal’s warnings of linguistic complacency,
and linguistic death.
Even though they are not the only ones that have historically been involved
in it, it is clear that it is English-speaking cultures that are normally accused of
being cultural imperialists (Said 1993); Latin American intellectuals and politi-
cians, primarily involved with social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and
inspired by the Cuban revolution, have been among those who criticise it most
harshly (e.g. Dorfman & Mattelart 1971, Fernández Retamar 1998). On the oth-
er hand, as will be shown later on, the homogenising tendencies that are con-
demned in the world-wide discussion are also critically exposed when remnants
of (Spanish) colonial mechanisms are analysed on a national level, as it is the
case with the invisibilisation of indigenous populations in Spanish-speaking
Chile (Marimán et al. 2006, Rubio 2009).

2.1.3 Modernising Processes and Globalisation

Although not everybody will agree with using the concepts related to imperial-
ism, which are laden with ideology, there is no doubt that the world-wide spread
of English is inextricably linked with modernity and globalisation. These two
terms have been interpreted both in positive and negative ways, with some au-
thors opting for highlighting their paradoxical nature (e.g. Beck 1997, 2002). In
order to understand the way in which the presence of English is viewed and in-
terpreted in contemporary Chile, it is necessary to be clear about what these
concepts imply, both in general terms and specifically for the national and re-
gional context. A review of some of the writings by Jorge Larraín (2001, 2005),
a leading Chilean sociologist, will be helpful for gaining greater clarity.
First of all, it is important to know what the different components of moder-
nity are, and which of them have taken root here in Chile: with its origin in the
Western European philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, it implies an aban-
donment of metaphysics, superstition, and eventually religion, and a turn to-
wards the key ideas of liberty, tolerance, science, progress, and reason. From the
beginning of the nationalist independence movements in the early 19 th century,
Latin American thinkers, politicians, and economists, have always looked to-
wards Europe and the USA as referents and inspirations on their own way to-
wards modernity. Hegemony might be at work here, but it should not be forgot-
ten that the literate elite in Latin America – however liberal they might have
been - emerged from the ruling classes of the colonial regime, which had its
roots in Europe, and saw themselves in sharp opposition to the indigenous and

23
mestiza majorities. Bringing “civilisation” into a “barbarous world” was their
declared aim (Rössner 1995: 178ff.).
Larraín (2005) highlights the existence of two different and potentially inde-
pendent strands of modernity: one is related to autonomy, which could be under-
stood as individual autonomy, but also as collective autonomy, and revolves
around the key ideas liberty and tolerance. The concepts science, progress and
reason relate more closely to the other strand of modernity, which refers to the
control over nature and things. The author quotes Touraine, who has criticised
unilateral interpretations of modernity, e.g. by neoliberal thinkers and econo-
mists: these over-emphasise instrumental rationality, science and technology,
while subordinating the ideas of subjectivity, liberty and creativity (24). This is
an important distinction, to which I shall come back later, in 2.2.4, and also in
the interpretation of the interview data (9.3).
Globalisation is viewed by some as the culmination of world-wide techno-
logical, economic and cultural modernisation. Its critics argue that the term
“globalisation” is only used in order to disguise US-American imperialism, or
capitalist domination. However, Tomlinson points out that directed imperialism
has been overcome and that era has, since the 1960s, been replaced by globalisa-
tion:
“Globalisation may be distinguished from imperialism in that it is a far less coherent
or culturally directed process. For all that it is ambiguous between economic and po-
litical senses, the idea of imperialism contains, at least, the notion of a purposeful
project: the intended spread of a social system from one centre of power across the
globe. The idea of ‘globalisation’ suggests interconnection and interdependency of
all global areas which happens in a far less purposeful way.” (1991:175)
Larraín also discusses the term in relation to culture and emphasises that - alt-
hough it is true that there is a new global culture that is dominated by US-
American media, and the English language – there is also a new appreciation of
local cultures. Also, the manifold ways in which the globally broadcasted cultu-
re is appropriated locally is of fundamental importance in order to fully com-
prehend the real nature of globalisation (2005: 111f., cf. also Beck 1997: 88ff.).
In those terms, Larraín makes a fairly positive evaluation of globalisation. He
mentions, for example, the Internet and the opportunities that it has opened to
international environmentalist and human rights groups to carry out local and
global campaigns in order to progress. On the other hand, he contends that two
things should be avoided: one is the outright rejection of globalisation, including
the effort to save “pure” or “original” national identities, which according to him
are artificial constructs; in contrast, an uncritical reception of European and
North American models of modernisation would be just as unwise (ibid.: 132).

24
2.2 The Historical Relationship between Latin
America and English-Speaking Countries
As this is a study that concerns itself, partly, with the motivations and attitudes
of Chilean English learners towards the learning of English, it is necessary to
examine, though very briefly, the historical relationship between Latin America
and English-speaking countries, as this might have some impact on the way in
which English is perceived in today’s classrooms. The learning of foreign lan-
guages, by bringing us into contact with other cultures, unquestionably brings
into play questions about one’s own identity, and about the way in which we see
“significant others” – those who speak English as a native language, for exam-
ple.

2.2.1 Latin American Identity: Ariel or Caliban?

Since the beginning of the newly founded nation states in Latin America, which
won their independence from the Spanish Crown in the first half of the 19 th cen-
tury, writers and intellectuals have been caught up in the quest for a Latin Amer-
ican identity (e.g. Sarmiento 1845/1988, Martí 1891/2005, Rodó 1900/1991, Ga-
leano 1971/1996, Fernández Retamar 1971/1997; cf. also Rössner op.cit.). The
presence of the original indigenous people - some of who have, up to the present
day, been able to preserve part of their cultural heritage and languages -, along-
side that of a large population of African descent - brought to America as slaves
-, and a dominant white elite of European descent, constitute a challenge for
those looking for a “unified” identity. Cultural and biological mestizaje, or mix-
ing of heritages, also play an important part.
Even though there have been many – especially from the political left - who
have evoked, up until now, the idea of Latin America as one large entity, in
which the brotherhood of a common colonial past, the call for greater social jus-
tice, and the cultural contribution of the indigenous and African peoples are val-
ued, this view – based, for example, on the ideas of the Cuban thinker and activ-
ist José Martí (1853-1895) - has never become a reality. In truth, Latin America
presents many frictions. For reasons of space, I will only mention the two most
obvious ones, and in a very simplified manner:
On the one hand, the social and racial class divisions of colonial times are
still noticeable in present times. These divisions largely have their origins in a
feudalistic system brought by the Spanish to the colonies, and were reinforced
by racist immigration politics in the 19 th century, which invited “civilised” Eu-
ropeans to colonise areas with a high percentage of indigenous populations

25
(Blakemore 2000: 167, Huatay & Jiménez 2011: 127ff.).1 In our times, Chile’s
distribution of wealth is one of the most unequal in the world, the worst among
all OECD countries; in other words, it displays one of the greatest divides be-
tween rich and poor (OECD 2011).
On the other hand, the leaders of the independent republics that were formed
from around 1810 onwards, based on former administrative units of the Spanish
Empire, soon engaged in discursive and educational campaigns to turn these
former colonies into “cohesive” imagined communities, into the new nations to
which the very thin educated, French- and English-speaking elite belonged as
much as illiterate miners, servants, indigenous peasants, etc. (Anderson 2006:
47ff.) Later on, conflictive situations between different Latin American states,
such as the Pacific War between Chile, Peru and Bolivia in 1879-1883, were
ideologically linked to these campaigns, which still bear on even now2 (cf.
Huatay & Jiménez op.cit.: 125f.).
For the processes of identity constitution, “significant others” are always
necessary, both for identification and for distinction. In those terms, even though
it is difficult to view Latin America as a homogenous entity, English-speaking
countries, especially the USA, have played an essential role as “the other” in the
various discourses and writings on Latin American identity. One series of essays
that might be particularly interesting in this context is that which refers to key
characters in the Shakespeare play The Tempest, (1611), not only one of the
most important literary works of Western tradition, but also, from the very early
years of British overseas colonisation. Who do The Tempest’s Prospero, Ariel,
and Caliban represent? These have been central questions in post-colonial re-
readings of the play in the past decades. However, it was as early as 1900, when
Uruguayan José Enrique Rodó published his influential essay Ariel. Here, he
identifies with Ariel his ideal of an aesthetic-artistic and moral Latin America
with Ariel, very much based, in fact, on a European tradition. In opposition, for

1 Surnames are still a common indicator of social status: those of French, English, or
German origin are worth “more” on the social ladder than a Spanish-sounding
“López”or “González”, whereas a Mapuche indigenous surname can still be a serious
obstacle for a Chilean trying to obtain, for example, a better-paid position on the job
market.
2 For example, May 21st is celebrated with Navy Parades in Chile, commemorating the
Sea Battle of Iquique between Chilean and Peruvian vessels. Even children in pre-
school are taught about the “heroic deeds” of Captain Arturo Prat, who gave his life for
Chile’s victory on that occasion. The fact that Chile extended its borders far into then
Peruvian and Bolivian territory, meaning that, among other things, Bolivia lost access to
the Pacific Ocean, is still nowadays on the political agenda of these neighbouring coun-
tries, and used as a national unifier in times of interior political tensions.

26
him Caliban represents US American utilitarianism (Rodó 1900/1991). 71 years
later, the Cuban author Roberto Fernández Retamar made an effort to correct
Rodó’s erroneous identifications with his publication of the essay Caliban.
Drawing heavily on José Martí’s Nuestra América (1891/2005), he explains how
it is Latin America – its indigenous and black subordinated majorities – that is
really symbolised by Caliban. However, the opposed other, the USA, remains
(Fernández Retamar 1971/1998).
Is it only in intellectual writings where Latin American identity is estab-
lished in opposition to its Northern neighbour? Larraín (2001) contends that
there is also a “real”, sociological base for a Latin American identity, which is
expressed, for example, in the “mutual” consumption of TV series, support for
each other’s football teams in international competitions, and in the popular mu-
sic that Latin Americans listen to and dance to across the continent. Apart from
the boleros and cumbias that Larraín mentions, I would add the critical folk
Nueva Canción song movement. Although its reach has, since its peak during
the 1970s and 1980s, been somewhat reduced to an “alternative culture”, its lyr-
ics have been the expression of a resistant, popular power, in opposition to a
world that is economically and culturally dominated by the USA, and are still
used in powerful slogans, for example in the student protest movements that
gain strength and momentum in cycles of about every 5 years.
In the following section, I will briefly outline the specific ways in which
English-speaking countries have interacted with Latin America and especially
Chile in the past 200 years, influencing the way in which they are perceived in
these countries.

2.2.2 19th Century British “Informal Imperialism”

What is known as “the Age of Empire” in British history, in the late 19 th century
and early 20th, has also left its mark on Latin American societies. Although most
Latin American states never became British political colonies like, for example,
India, many of the natural resources present in American soils started to be ex-
ploited by British companies, to feed Britain’s industries. However, it was not
the British alone who invested money into the exploitation of raw materials in
Latin America. In Chile, for example, there were numerous mining companies
owned by Chileans, who sold these resources to British buyers. Thus, the Chile-
an elite greatly benefitted from the trade with the British. British companies also
played an essential role in the development of infrastructure, like the railway
system, electricity, street lighting, etc., and controlled part of the financial sys-
tem (cf. Blakemore op.cit.: 164 ff.). As the British government did, for the most

27
part, not get directly involved with the politics of these countries, this part of
Britain’s imperial power is called “informal imperialism” (cf. Llanos 2007).
Britain’s monetary power during those years, and the advances of British
technology, also had its impact on the local cultures, in various ways. For exam-
ple, the port of Valparaíso in Chile was an important place for this British elite:
here, part of the city’s architecture is a reminder of the British presence. In addi-
tion, English-language schools were founded for the children of British mer-
chants, engineers and workers; later, these schools opened their doors to the sons
and daughters of wealthy Chileans, and nowadays, they are considered an attrac-
tive educational option for those who can (and want to) afford this exclusive ed-
ucation for their children.3 The Anglican Church also played a pivotal role in the
development of some of these schools.
It can be seen that English as a “social distinguisher” has had a fairly long
tradition in the Chilean educational system, and that it was the British (not nec-
essarily US Americans) who have played an important role in this development.

2.2.3 20th Century US Interventions and Domination

During the first half of the 20th century, British power and influence gradually
started dwindling, giving way to US dominance world-wide, with a special mis-
sion in Latin America. In comparison to the relative neutral political stance of
the British Imperial government, the US government defended its economic and
political interests through some more or less overt military interventions, espe-
cially during the times of the Cold War: this time is known as the 20 th century
US-American imperialism or neo-colonialism (Chomsky 1999, Young 2001).
Whereas the Latin American elites continued looking for trade partners and
technological and military expertise in the USA and Europe, the exploited work-
ing classes of Latin America started gaining consciousness and more power, and
particular self-confidence after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
Culturally speaking, this led to important developments from the 1960s on-
wards, such as the Latin American literary boom, important representatives of
which include Gabriel García Márquez and Pablo Neruda, and the above-
mentioned song movement, la Nueva Canción. The artists of that generation
created a conscious “Latino” counter-point against the already expanding US

3 For example, the Mackay School in Valparaíso / Viña was founded in 1857; Santiago
College in 1880; Saint Peter’s School (Viña del Mar), in 1918; Saint Margaret’s School
for Girls (Viña del Mar), in 1941. For a longer list of British schools in Chile, see:
www.asch.cl.

28
cultural industry, with its rock’n’roll, Walt Disney comics and Hollywood mov-
ies.
In Chile, with Allende’s electoral victory in 1970, socialist politics and cul-
tural creation went hand-in-hand. Accusing the English language of its complici-
ty with the “Empire” was part of this new programme, as in this 1970 song by
Luis Advis and Julio Rojas of the folk band Inti-Illimani:
“Echaremos fuera al yanqui y su lenguaje siniestro / con la Unidad Popular ahora
somos Gobierno. / Porque esta vez no se trata de cambiar al presidente / será el pue-
blo quien construya un Chile bien diferente.”4 (“Canción del poder popular”, ¡Viva
Chile!)

2.2.4 21st Century Neo-liberalism and Globalisation

This venture of a new society was abruptly ended by the military coup in 1973 –
one of many of the kind in Latin America. Apart from its obvious political con-
sequences – democracy interrupted for nearly two decades - this event had seri-
ous and long-lasting consequences for economic, cultural and social life in Chile
(cf. Collier & Sater 1998: 307ff.). According to Larraín, it impacted greatly on
Chile’s project of modernity (see above, 2.1.3): nowadays, the principle of au-
tonomy is absent or very weak, especially among the working classes, while the
notion of control over nature and things has basically “monopolised” the idea of
modernity (2005: 53ff.).
This can be explained by the fact that the theories of neo-liberal economists
were applied “by force” during the authoritarian military government (1973-
1989), a period in which trade unions and a political opposition were not only
forbidden, but their members and proponents persecuted, exiled, imprisoned,
tortured, assassinated - silenced. At the same time, the concept of Chile’s mo-
dernity as a collective project of autonomy building an egalitarian society, as
pursued during the Allende years (1970-1973), was suppressed. It was replaced
by an individualistic, de-politicised and consumerist model of autonomy. This
individualism is inherent in the US-style modernity whereas the collective view
of autonomy is more closely related to a European model of modernity, with
comparatively strong trade unions and a relatively autonomous civil society. The
leading neoliberal economists who played their part in transforming Chile’s so-
ciety during Pinochet’s dictatorship had all received their training in the USA
(they are also commonly referred to as the “Chicago Boys”). Finally, the demo-

4 “We’ll throw out the yankee and his sinister language, with the Unidad Popular we are
now the government. Because this time it’s not about changing a president, it is the
people who will build a really different Chile.”

29
cratic State to which Chile returned in 1990 is built on the basis of the neoliberal
economic system installed during the Pinochet years.
These past twenty years have also been characterised by the world-wide
process of globalisation, which has left its mark on Chile, too; technological
progress, widespread Internet access, and the expansion of English teaching are
all part of this process. Whereas Larraín depicts neo-liberalism as highly prob-
lematic, as it undermines active citizenship and minimises the State’s power in
regulating the negative consequences of free market capitalism (such as growing
social inequalities, unemployment, etc.), he is quite positive about globalisation.
Further along, I will show his views about cultural identity and globalisation in
more detail (see 2.4.1).

2.3 Review of Recent Research: World Englishes in

Latin America
In his 2003 Oxford Guide to World English, Tom McArthur dedicates just one
and a half pages to Latin America (243f.): this might be due to the relative
scarceness of academic publications until very recently. On the other hand, as
some of the quotations he uses point out, English has only very recently started
to gain a greater “real” presence in Latin American societies; its command is
still largely restricted to the middle and upper middle classes. Indeed, Spanish –
alongside Chinese – might be able to bring World English’s dominance into
contention. McArthur also calls attention to the paradoxical situation where
Spanish is gaining more ground in the United States, while English is starting to
expand more seriously in Latin America. In contrast to the scarce coverage in
McArthur (2003), the 2009 Handbook of World Englishes, edited by Kachru et
al., contains an entire chapter on “South American Englishes” (Rajagopalan
2009), explaining the current status of English on the continent. After reviewing
historical developments, current functions of English and English Language
Teaching practices in South America, he comes to the following, accurate con-
clusion:
“English is today securely established as the continent’s number one foreign lan-
guage. It is in many ways much more than a language; indeed, one might say, it is a
commodity around which a powerful fetish is building up. As of now, it is also a
powerful divider between the rich minority that has access to education and the vast
majority of the peoples who toil under severe conditions of underemployment or
downright unemployment.” (153)

30
In order to enrich and illustrate this fairly general observation, I will summarise
some important articles published on the present status of English in different
Latin American states in the following pages. Here, I will follow Rajagopalan’s
division between the economically weaker countries like Ecuador and Peru,
“where the presence of English is still considerably restricted, although, as in the
rest of the continent, expanding rapidly”, and those countries with a stronger
(world-wide) economic presence like Brazil, Argentina and Chile, where “the
presence of English is noticeable practically everywhere, from newspaper adver-
tisements to billboards and shop windows” (2009: 151).

2.3.1 Peru and Ecuador: Two “Andean” Countries

Peru and Ecuador, two neighbouring countries with a relatively high percentage
of Quechua-speaking indigenous populations (Spanish, however, being the dom-
inant language in both countries) and the Andes as a major geographical refer-
ence, are the objects of study in two articles published in the journal World Eng-
lishes in 2003.
Ovesdotter Alm’s investigation of “English in the Ecuadorian commercial
context” (2003) explores the use of English in advertising, through surveys, in-
terviews and the analysis of shop names and magazine ads. Her analysis gives
account of a noticeably more frequent use of English in the advertising that is
targeted at the upper and upper middle classes. In her opinion, this reflects an
inferiority complex of the wealthier social strata, who tend to compare them-
selves more with developed countries (especially the USA); it also leads her to
wonder whether English might be an “attitudinal device for the educated and
richer higher classes to ‘flee away’ from social responsibilities” (155). On the
other hand, socioeconomically disadvantaged and uneducated Ecuadorians seem
commonly to be more secure in their Latin-American, Ecuadorian and Spanish-
speaking identity. The conclusion of this article points out the problematic situa-
tion of English functioning as a “segmentizer and a gatekeeper on the Ecuadori-
an market” (143). Although the article is not primarily concerned with English
teaching or language pedagogy, Ovesdotter Alm asks for “active intervention,
especially in the educational sector”, in order to ensure that English, rather than
further separating the elite from the poor majorities, can work as an “instrument
of empowerment for all” (157).
Social stratification also plays an important role in the article “’English is
like the dollar’: hard currency ideology and the status of English in Peru” (Niño-
Murcia 2003). Based on survey data, the article describes how English is a cov-
eted commodity across all social strata, from urban professionals of European

31
descent in Lima paying for exclusive bilingual schooling for their children, to
peasant communities with little access to effective English teaching. Drawing on
Bourdieu’s theories about language and currency as part of someone’s “cultural
capital” (cf. Bourdieu 2005), the author develops an interesting analysis that
equates knowledge of the English language with the possession of “hard curren-
cy” dollars that are useful both for important intra- and international transac-
tions, whereas local languages, especially the indigenous ones, have the limited
reach of the national currency, the sol. Special emphasis is given to the bilin-
gualism between Quechua (or sometimes Aymara) and Spanish, which is com-
monly perceived as a social disadvantage, and the hugely coveted Spanish-
English bilingualism. Moreover, the findings suggest that learning English is
closely associated to the dream of emigrating to the United States in order to
find a better job. Negative “nationalist” attitudes towards English have not been
found to be widespread in this study, whereas unrealistic beliefs about language
learning processes and US immigration options seem to abound.

2.3.2 Argentina and Brazil: Major MERCOSUR Players

Two large countries with long coasts along the Atlantic Ocean, with different
native languages (Spanish in Argentina, Portuguese in Brazil), and different eth-
nic heritages (a strong European, especially Italian, influence in Argentina, and a
widespread mixed European, native American and African heritage in Brazil),
still have enough features in common to be mentioned together here: both are
the major players of MERCOSUR; they are also described as the two countries
that, in terms of socio-economic development, are most similar to Chile (cf. Ra-
jagopalan 2009).
Patricia Friedrich is a US-based socio-linguist who has researched (and
taught) English in both Argentina and Brazil. In spite of her clear stance in fa-
vour of pluralist World Englishes (cf. below, chapter 4.1.1) at the service of
peace and empowerment, in her questionnaire studies about attitudes to English
she focused only on adult students in a private language school in Brazil (2000),
and on MBA students in Argentina (2003). In terms of attitudes and motivation,
these students can hardly be representative of the large majorities of the popula-
tions of these countries: on the one hand, they must be in a fairly favourable fi-
nancial situation in order to enrol in one of these courses. On the other hand, as
adults who have chosen to pursue these studies, they must be relatively self-
motivated, and cannot be compared to teenagers who have to study English be-
cause it is a compulsory school subject. In spite of the advantageous position
which Friedrich’s informants hold within Latin American societies, what is in-

32
teresting in her studies is the conclusion that the teaching of English should
place greater emphasis on culturally empowering contents, on a broader view of
the large number of existing native and non-native varieties of English (beyond
the typical dichotomy British “vs.” American English), and more realistic learn-
ing goals for students, aiming at a functional knowledge of English, rather than a
native-like proficiency.
Maersk Nielsen (2003) describes the socio-linguistic profile of English in
Argentina, placing special emphasis on the historical presence that British com-
panies have had in Argentina from the end of the 19 th century onwards. The
English language enjoyed special prestige among other minority languages (es-
pecially Italian and Portuguese): English-language newspapers, theatre, and, last
but not least, British-model schools for the children of the workers of British
companies started to be established. Nowadays, apart from the exclusive rem-
nants of former British expatriate grandeur, the presence and uses of English are
perceivable in English-speaking channels on cable TV, new private language
schools and institutes, and in the official state curriculum for education, where
English has been introduced as part of a compulsory foreign language education.
The situation seems to be fairly comparable to Chile, while taking into account
Argentina’s larger population. What is surprising is that, even though he points
out that “[l]earning English is perceived as a must, but not necessarily enjoyed”
(208), Maersk Nielsen seems very optimistic when he highlights the fact that
simply by rolling out English across the public educational system, Argenti-
neans of all social classes will soon be able to use the language:
“Since the implementation of the Federal Law of Education, English is available to
all socio-economic classes, as even the poorest schools in the country have to com-
ply by including a foreign language in their curriculum. Consequently as of the year
2004 there will be greater numbers of English and, more significantly, these users –
all trying to ascend the social ladder – will come from different socioeconomic clas-
ses.” (208)
The articles by Rajagopalan (2003) and Cox and Assis Peterson (2008) about
English in Brazil show the other side of the coin as being substantially more
complex. Rajagopalan discusses the implications of a law that is to restrict the
use of English in Brazil to a minimum, drawing attention to the ambivalent atti-
tude of many Brazilian towards the English language – “an object at once liked
and loathed” (98). From a more educational perspective, Cox and Assis Peterson
describe a rather sombre scenario of the teaching of English in publically funded
schools in Brazil: a vicious circle of poorly trained teachers lacking English pro-
ficiency, low salaries and difficult working conditions, resulting in a lack of ac-
cess to good English teaching in those social sectors that depend on a publically
funded education; in opposition to greater job opportunities in the socially more

33
exclusive private sector for those English teaching graduates who have a better
command of the language, leading to a consolidation of the social divide
through – respectively good or poor - English instruction.

2.3.3 Chile
Chile’s comparatively strong economy within Latin America, and the great em-
phasis that the government has placed on expanding English teaching in all pub-
lically funded schools, has attracted several international ELT researchers’ atten-
tion to this country. Thus, Sandra Lee McKay uses Chile as a prominent exam-
ple in her handbook Teaching English as an International Language (2002),
when analysing teachers’ attitudes towards diverse origins of cultural contents
for world-wide English teaching. Another larger study was carried out by Julia
Menard-Warwick (2008, 2009), also focusing on the selection of cultural con-
tents for English Teaching in Chile. Both authors’ contributions will receive
special consideration in later chapters of this thesis (4.1.2 and 9.2.3, respective-
ly); therefore, they are only briefly mentioned at this stage.
There are some other publications on the presence of English in Chile,
though only with a national or regional scope: Sáez Godoy (2005) focuses on
Anglicisms in Chilean Spanish; Glas (2008) analyses public discourse on Eng-
lish Language Teaching. They will be presented with more detail in 2.4.

2.3.4 Conclusion
The presence of English in Latin America has been studied in various areas: ad-
vertising, language attitudes, teaching and teacher training, teaching materials,
etc. However, there are some common, unifying referents in most of these stud-
ies. For example, the global status of English and a call for a pluralist stance to-
wards its different varieties, including non-native ones, is common to both atti-
tude studies and those concerned with the appropriateness of teaching materials
and contents. Another important referent are Bourdieu’s theories on cultural
capital (Bourdieu 2005), evoked when the social stratification of the access to
and use of English is examined: in the target audiences of advertising, on the
one hand, and in the unequal distribution of effective English teaching in the
publically funded education sectors and exclusive private schooling, on the oth-
er. The association of English with globalisation, modernity and social status,
and upward social mobility are also important topics in these articles. Resistance

34
against English, or against cultural imperialism, though not altogether absent,
constitutes only a minor issue addressed by this research branch.

2.4 Chilean Cultural Identity and the Presence of

English in Chile
As will be shown in the chapters on the empirical part of this study (especially
chapters 9 and 10), the general situation of English in Latin America described
above is largely paralleled in Chile, despite the oftentimes invoked “exceptional-
ity” of this country (Larraín 2005: 175). In order to firmly establish the national
context here, I will now refer to a few societal and attitudinal aspects that stand
in close, though indirect, relationship to the study of a foreign language: the
Chileans’ own cultural identity (or identities?) and their relationship to their
immediate neighbours, and some more general aspects of the presence of Eng-
lish in Chile. Chapter 3 will then focus more closely on the presence of English
in the Chilean educational system.

2.4.1 Chilean Cultural Identity in the 21st Century

Although talking of a “unified” national identity is highly problematic in any
context, it is still useful to refer to it here, not least because “el cuidado y el
reforzamiento de la identidad nacional” (“the care and reinforcement of national
identity”) is a cross-curricular objective established in the curricular framework
for publically funded education (MINEDUC 2009: 23), and especially invoked
in the curriculum for English (ibid.: 87, cf. also chapter 5).
Larraín (2001, 2005) warns his readers not to visualise identities as being
static, and summarises the most important “versions” of Chilean identity, as es-
tablished through public and academic discourses. Apart from those points for
identification that the Chileans share with other Latin American nations (as out-
lined above), he focuses on three aspects or versions that are currently present
and valid, though with different emphases in different sectors of society, and
with different dynamics (2001: 144ff.). One is the military-racial version of
Chilean identity, which was officially propagated during the military dictator-
ship (1973-1989). Its content focuses on warfare and the related bravery and
heroism, evoking partly the Guerra de Arauco during colonial times in the
South of Chile, between the “brave” resistant Mapuche (who are here seen as the
basis for the Chilean “race”) and the “colonial Spaniards”, and partly the Guerra
del Pacífico against Peru and Bolivia in the late 19th century. Although this ver-

35
sion – with all its male and ethnic chauvinism - is still present in some sectors, it
is now largely discredited by the human rights violations that occurred during
the time in which this was the official version of Chilean identity, celebrated and
taught in history lessons in schools.
Another version of contemporary Chilean identity is, according to Larraín,
religious-Catholic. Although in its origins it goes back much further in time, it
has partly to do with the forced de-politicisation of Chilean society during the
dictatorship, when the Church became a source of mutual support for many
Chileans. Replacing some grass-roots political movements then, it has now ex-
tended to the mushrooming evangelical churches (many of which are of Anglo-
Saxon origin, such as the Mormon, Pentecostal, Methodist, or Adventist church-
es), which have penetrated lower and middle-class sectors of Chilean society.
Although these are clearly important points of identification for many Chileans,
it is not clear how they related to a simultaneous national identity, as both Ca-
tholicism and Evangelism are phenomena that cross national borders.
A third, and in this context, maybe the most important version of Chilean
identity, is what Larraín calls the “new postmodern entrepreneurial” version of
Chilean identity. It is highly relevant due to its dynamism and to its proximity to
the ideals of modernity, development and globalisation – all closely related to
the current status of the English language. Emerging as a new public discourse
and new values from the 1990s onwards, it is based on the neoliberal politics
inherited from the military government - basically without any visible alterna-
tives – and “sells” the image of a modern Chile that is different - a “winner”
(ibid.: 163). Some of its facets are successful businesses and business people,
growing individualism and consumerism, and the idea that Chile is soon to be-
come a developed country through sustained economic growth (which is, in fact,
based to a great extent on the exportation of raw materials, especially copper).
Larraín criticises its over-emphasis on the economic and technological side of
modernity, which has meant it has left out a strong and convincing cultural pro-
ject. On the other hand, as a postmodern version of identity, it places a new trust
in pluralism – the “old” fear of heterogeneity has been overcome (ibid.: 168).
This last and most “modern” version of Chilean identity is also related to a
long-standing tradition, belonging in particular to the Chilean elites, which Lar-
raín calls a fascination with the foreign. France and England are the two main
historical referents for this fascination, although the USA can be included later.
This “fascination with the foreign” was cemented by the neoliberal period start-
ing in the 1990s: nowadays, there is a nearly unrestricted openness towards in-
ternational markets. For example, shopping malls and supermarkets are full of
products from other countries, with a preference for those of European and US
origins. On the other hand, the entrepreneurial version of Chilean identity im-

36
plies the idea that Chile is different to other Latin American countries: it is more
European, open to the world (2005:166).
The downside of this “new Chileanness” is that in spite of economic pro-
gress, Chile perceives itself as an increasingly selfish, individualistic, aggressive
and morally insane society (2005: 180f.). Stress has become a major epidemic;
also, many Chileans feel excluded from the national development. Larraín con-
cludes that in fact, there is no such thing as a Chilean “imagined community”.
The mistakes and eventual failure of Allende’s government, and the following
years of brutal oppression, the invisibilisation of political opposition, human
rights violations and assassinations under the military government, have pro-
duced a fractured national identity (ibid.: 166ff.).

2.4.2 “Los Ingleses de América Latina”: Chile and its Im-

mediate Neighbours
As already observed above, social identity constitutes itself through the contact
and comparison with “significant others”. In this multiethnic and multiracial
continent, the “other” is, first of all, the one who is different within one’s own
society but does not have access to dominant discourses (cf. Fairclough 2001);
whose voice is silenced or subdued in the “noise” of national and global TV,
radio, the press, advertising, official educational textbooks, political speeches,
etc. In an increasingly visual world, this includes, of course, the use of images.
As in many other Latin American countries, the connotations “white” (especial-
ly blond and blue-eyed), “beautiful”, “European”, “civilised”, “modern”, “effi-
cient” are often directly or indirectly opposed to “black” (negro), “Indian” (in-
dio), “ugly”, “backwards”, “lazy”, etc., which are inherited from colonial times
and reinforced through European waves of immigration during the 19 th and 20th
centuries: Italians, Spaniards, Germans and Croats arrived and established them-
selves as a potent merchant and artisan middle-class in many Chilean cities,
apart from the already mentioned British (who, however, often left once they
had accomplished their their professional and commercial assignments) (cf. Es-
trada 2011). Larraín highlights the close connection between Chilean class con-
sciousness and racism when noting that “[s]ocial stratification, even if it is capi-
talist in nature, has always been accompanied by a racial element: in Chile, gen-
erally speaking, the darker the skin, the lower the social class” (2001: 232; my
translation).
Although mestizo Chileans with their mixed Spanish and indigenous herit-
age continue as the great majority in the country, the hegemonic ideas of Euro-
pean “superiority” are common preconceptions that permeate the whole society

37
and are only seriously challenged by a few left-wing intellectuals, even if they
imply a comparatively negative self-image. Of course in official discourse, now-
adays there is a generalised political correctness in not making the negative con-
notations of “non-Europeanness” too explicit; however, there is no stigma at-
tached to openly celebrating the positive connotations that go along with Euro-
pean origins. The values of punctuality, efficiency and order are, at least in theo-
ry, often placed higher on the ethical scale than the (partially competing) ideals
of cordiality, spontaneity and relaxedness, which are often considered “back-
wards” (cf. Larraín 2001).
The relatively strong European influence on dominant Chilean public life
has led to the tongue-in-cheek saying that the Chileans are “los ingleses de
América Latina” (Latin America’s Englishmen, cf. Blakemore 2000: 158). Ac-
cording to this idea, the Chileans are more orderly, reserved, serious and struc-
tured than the rest of a loud, chaotic, impulsive continent that spends more time
dancing and singing than working – which is sometimes lamented as an insipid
and uninteresting, but still, all in all, a beneficial fact. It also testifies to the great
importance that the British have had as a point of reference for the Chilean elite
(Larraín 2001: 263).
Beyond the merely anecdotal, this supposed greater modernity and therefore
“superiority” as opposed to “other” ethnicities that are present in and around
Chile implies a more or less tacit racism that has to be taken seriously, as it leads
to and illegitimately justifies discrimination and aggressions against people of
different origin, physical appearance, or surname.5
The first and most obvious significant “others” are members of the border-
ing countries, especially Peru and Bolivia. They are important as, on one hand,
there are still repeated diplomatic tensions because of the results of the Pacific
War in the 19th century, which has left Bolivia without access to the Pacific
Ocean, and both countries with considerably smaller territories, favouring Chile.
On the other hand, both Bolivia and Peru are countries with far weaker econo-
mies, which has pushed many young Bolivians and especially Peruvians to emi-
grate from their countries to neighbouring Chile, looking for better job opportu-
nities (cf. Huatay & Jiménez 2011). The higher percentage of indigenous popu-
lations in these countries, who have often retained their languages (mainly
Quechua and Aymara), reinforces the idea of supposed Chilean superiority. It is
only in the realm of Spanish pronunciation that Chileans self-critically admit
that Peruvians speak “more clearly” than themselves.

5 In 2011, the University of Concepción got a bad press because they had called “Cauca-
sian”students to participate in advertising photographs (“Cuestionan a U. de Concep-
ción”, 2011).

38
 Then, of course, there are the indigenous peoples living on Chilean national
territory, mainly the Mapuche, who seem to be the most politically organised
ethnic minority in Chile, with claims over parts of the South of Chile (cf.
Marimán et al. 2006). Other indigenous peoples include the Aymara, Rapa Nui,
Likan Antai, Diaguita, Quechua, Colla, Kawashkar, and Yamana. The negative
stereotypes that have been propagated against the Mapuche over the centuries,
such as laziness, alcoholism and an incapacity for progress, are condemned and
contradicted by Chileans (Larraín 2001: 264) and Mapuches alike (Marimán
2006: 55f.). In dominant discourse, their “bravery” seems to be invoked only as
part of “Chilean blood” when it suits the interest of powerful groups (cf. Suber-
caseaux 1999).
On the other hand, it is important to remember that even if certain thought
patterns and stereotypes dominate in Chilean society, there are always alterna-
tive and resistant discourses and actions that challenge the status quo of racial
and classist discrimination. Thus, for example, the Human Rights violations
against the Mapuche who are fighting for the recuperation of their territories in
the South of Chile have caused non-Mapuche (winka) Chileans to organise soli-
darity campaigns for Mapuche activists on hunger strike. 6

2.4.3 English in Chile

The presence of English in Chile can be characterised in various ways: first, it
can be described in terms of a more or less involuntary exposure to English – on
TV, in the radio, in Anglicisms that have been integrated into the Spanish lan-
guage. This could be viewed in contrast to the real number of speakers who have
made a conscious effort to attain certain levels of proficiency, perceiving real
uses for English in society. Then, it is important to look at the language planning
that occurs on a governmental level, which transcends the mere educational poli-
tics and aims at improving the English skills of large proportions of Chile’s
workforce. Any aspects related to English in the Chilean educational system (up
to secondary education) will be examined in great detail in chapter 3. Here, I
will only refer to the importance of the English language in Chilean society in
general.
As in many other countries, a considerable proportion of the music broad-
cast on national and local radio is in the English language. Taking into account
that each radio station will have its own preferences, in total English- and Span-

6 See, for example, the facebook group “En apoyo a los presos políticos mapuches en
huelga de hambre” with more than 700 members (November 2011).

39
ish-speaking music have probably equal shares, with a small fraction going to
French and Italian music, and minimal inclusion of music in other (minority)
languages. The music genres that can be heard in English range from popular
classics (e.g. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles) to newer developments
like Britpop, rock, hip hop, etc. Sometimes there are translated versions of fa-
mous songs: “Dust in the wind” becomes “Polvo en el viento”, etc. Even though
not everybody understands all the lyrics, there is awareness of the various social
and political orientations of English-speaking popular music, at least among
young people (e.g. Pink Floyd as a band whose lyrics challenge authoritarian-
ism, etc.). It is important to remember here that Spanish is also a world language
and that Spanish-speaking music (both from Spain and Spanish America) also
enjoys world-wide popularity, with all age groups. Thus, there are few Chilean
bands that would opt to sing in English, even though some of them use English
names (e.g. Los Bunkers). Finally, although anti-imperialist or - on the other side
of the political spectrum - nationalistic stances sometimes go hand-in-hand with
the type of Chilean music that people prefer and listen to, this seldom means that
the same people would refuse to listen to English-speaking music altogether; it
is rather an indication of the type of English-speaking music to which they
would give preference.
As far as television is concerned, although the most basic national coverage
provides only Spanish-speaking programmes - with dubbed foreign movies and
series - many Chileans have access to cable TV (though some using “pirate”
connections). This medium provides many foreign TV channels (in their majori-
ty of US origin, though there are also some British- and Australian-owned, and a
few from other Latin American countries), broadcasting a great variety of Eng-
lish-speaking movies and TV series with Spanish subtitles (or in some cases,
with a double audio option) 24 hours a day. This provides a lot of exposure to
English; however, it does not necessarily translate into English proficiency. Al-
so, it is clear that not everybody watches English-language TV all the time;
however, the cultural weight that comes along with this influx is not to be un-
derestimated, not to mention the stifling of a sophisticated cultural industry of
one’s own that is implied in this powerful presence of foreign TV. 7

7 As an example, it is not uncommon in Chilean families to allow their children to watch

the 24-hour cartoon channel Discovery Kids for several hours a day, as they can rely on
this channel to show only programmes and advertising that are suitable for all audienc-
es. Without ignoring the negative health consequences of excessive television exposure
in general, I would like to focus here on the cultural implications. Although there is an
audio language selection option, with many people opting for Spanish, the contents,
scripts, and images are obviously based on children’s experiences, customs, discourses,
from English-speaking cultures. This is not to imply that all of these programmes are

40
 Another aspect in which the presence of English is very noticeable, like in
most languages in the world, is the growing number of Anglicisms that Chilean
Spanish has adopted in the past decades. In comparison to the case of Spain,
many Latin American varieties of Spanish (including the Chilean one) are even
more open towards these English words and also try to conserve their original
pronunciation. For example, the word surf – as in the sport – is pronounced
/surf/ in Spain, but /sɜʳf/ in Chile; in Spain, it is common to hear the word or-
denador for what in Chile is computador (computer). Sáez Godoy (2005) points
out how this influx of foreign words is linked to the “American Way of Life”
being seen as a desirable model for many young Chileans. Apart from the new
words that are related to technology, such as pen drive, CD, DVD (pronounced
/si:di:/ and /dividi:/, as opposed to the Iberian Spanish pronunciation, which
adapts the letters to the Spanish alphabet), Sáez Godoy draws attention to the
way in which language change (in the form of new lexical items) parallels a cul-
tural change. He quotes examples such as multiplex cinemas in shopping malls,
Halloween celebrations, park cemeteries, donuts and jeans, and places great em-
phasis on the different music styles of English-speaking origin, such as Hip Hop,
Rock, Grunge and Funk (175). An interesting observation is that – although
English is generally strongly associated with the commercial and technological
side of modernity (see above) – there are also instances where the use of English
words implies a more tolerant or liberal view of society, for example gay to refer
to homosexuals (177).
In certain Chilean business and academic circles, there is a tendency towards
an increasing intra-national use of English. For example, Larraín draws attention
to the use of English titles for academic conferences, especially in Economics
and Business Studies: “It seems that people believe that the title in English vali-
dates the contents or it gives them a scientific aura that they would not have,
were it otherwise” (2001: 264; my translation). After pointing out that in Eco-
nomics at university level, the USA is the leading influence, Larraín goes so far
as to state that “the language of business and economy in Chile is English”
(ibid.). However, Economics is not the only branch where English is of prime
importance: in Psychology, for example, words like Coaching are used in the
English original, and there is an abundance of loan translations like resiliencia,
agenciamiento (for agency), empoderamiento (for empowerment), etc.
Sáez Godoy mentions socio-economic divisions in the use of Anglicisms,
stating that they are more widely used in upper-class circles. For some Chileans,

educationally worthless, or – much less - that contact with another culture is in any way
negative in itself; the problem is that there are ‘culturally closer’ experiences and reali-
ties that children do not get to know through the powerful medium of television.

41
an overuse of English words might even be viewed as siutiquería (affected
snobbery). On the other hand, at some point most of these new lexical items
reach all Chileans by ways of a massive transmission through the press and es-
pecially TV. Paradoxically, this greater use of Anglicisms in higher social strata
contrasts with the fact that bearing an English-sounding first name (Sáez Godoy
uses the examples of popular first names such as Johnny, Washington, Elizabeth,
Jenny, Scarlet, and Richard) is usually a sign of belonging to a lower social
class (175).8
All of this points at a generally friendly attitude towards English:
“[In Chile t]here is no generalized resentment against the US, nor does any possibly
lingering distrust translate into a rejection of the English language. Quite on the con-
trary, the overall attitude to English amongst Chileans has been described as ‘posi-
tive’.” (Rajagopalan 2009:150)
In spite of all this exposure to English, and the - by and large - positive attitude
both towards the language and towards the cultural influence from English-
speaking countries, the Chileans’ level of English has been found to be upset-
tingly low (cf., for example, the newspaper articles quoted in Glas 2008). This is
interpreted as having, first of all, a negative impact on Chile’s global economic
competitiveness. Other domains of public life are also affected, however: after
the 2010 earthquake and tsunami, the devastating consequences of lacking Eng-
lish skills were made visible to the public eye, as apparently the tsunami warn-
ing was not given because the person in charge of receiving information from
the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) could not read English well
enough to deduce that the coasts had to be evacuated (cf. Brzovic et al. 2010).
Consequently, both in Business and Politics, there is a wide-spread opinion
that English is a necessity for technological and scientific development, and in
particular, for the Chilean economy to prosper (cf. Glas op.cit.). This is why the
Chilean government, especially through the Economic Development Organisa-
tion CORFO, has taken various measures to help Chilean professionals to im-
prove their English. In this three-step programme, the TOEIC test (given by the
US-based testing agency ETS) plays a major role: job-seekers can enrol for free
in English courses; with or without previously having taken these English cours-
es, they can sit the TOEIC test; consequently, test results are collected in a
CORFO-funded databank, to which companies looking for English-speaking

8 There are even cases of very expensive and exclusive private schools (with a large pro-
portion of quality English teaching on their timetables, which is an important part of
their marketing campaigns) that ask for the Christian names of all family members dur-
ing the admission process and clearly discriminate against children whose non-“Greco-
Latin” names give evidence of a “low-class culture”.

42
candidates have access (ETS no year a). For example, in 2007, more than 21,000
Chileans were certified to have at least an intermediate level of English. (The
more advanced levels are described as: basic work level, advanced work level
and general professional level). According to the test results, more than a 37%
of these voluntary test takers did not reach a “basic work level” and a 10% not
even an intermediate level of English. The courses continue to be offered.
In those terms, it is important to recognise that the government pursues an
overt policy to make English skills available to large sections of the Chilean
population – beyond the traditional educational system. The driving factor be-
hind this is the wish to increase competitiveness in a global economy.

2.4.4 Conclusion
To sum up, it seems that the English language plays, at least, a supporting role in
the recent dynamics in Chilean society: a move towards an increasingly individ-
ualistic and success-oriented society, where many people wish to participate in
economic prosperity and technological advancement. As stated above, this
greater material modernity is not accompanied by the consolidation of an inde-
pendent, autonomous civil society, in which “other” modern values, such as tol-
erance and liberty are fostered.
Looking at it from a regional-cultural perspective, Chile in these newer de-
velopments seems to have become estranged from a shared Latin American pro-
ject of “collective autonomy”, feeling, instead, closer to Europe and the USA. In
free trade agreements, the latter are also Chile’s real partners, as opposed, for
example, to the MERCOSUR, where Chile does not participate (cf. Larraín
2005: 175). In sociological terms, for this globalisation project, Larraín warns
Chile not to engage in an uncritical reception of a North American or European
model of modernisation, advocating instead a regional integration process, in
order to mutually value cultural contributions from Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and
Chile (cf. 2001: 273).
All this is important to take into account when, in later chapters (especially
4-6, 9.3 and 10.4), the cultural contents of English language classes for Chile
will be scrutinised: how can they challenge this one-sided model of modernity,
which focuses on technological progress and “control over nature and things”
and to some extent, consumerist individualism? And on the contrary, how can
English teaching in Chile contribute to greater tolerance and respect for “other-
ness”, especially in view to the close, often marginalised and looked-down-upon
“others”: indigenous peoples, immigrants and citizens from neighbouring coun-
tries?

43
3. English in the Chilean Educational System
After presenting some background about the presence of the English language in
an increasingly globalised Latin America, and its implications for national and
regional identities and language attitudes, I will now complete the contextualisa-
tion for this study by providing information about the Chilean educational sys-
tem and about the role that English as a school subject plays within it.

3.1 The Structure of the Chilean Educational System

3.1.1 The Organisation of the School System
The Chilean school system is structured in two ways. Firstly, it is structured into
common levels of study and subject specialisation which guide the organisation
of the great majority of schools throughout the country, regardless of the way
they are funded. Secondly, schools are categorised according to the type of ad-
ministration and funding.
In table 1, I have summarised the most important levels into which Chilean
primary and secondary education is divided. This study concentrates on Second-
ary Education (students’ age: 14 to 18; Year groups 9 to 12), without specifical-
ly focussing on any of the specialised Humanities, Sciences or Vocational-
Technical Secondary Education pathways (cf. MINEDUC 2005, 2009). In order
to provide a consistent terminology across this study, and to make it as interna-
tionally comprehensible as possible, I have added information about students’
ages and pre-primary education, and “translated” the Secondary Year Groups
Primero to Cuarto Medio into a continuous number sequence that starts from
Year 1 (primary school) onwards.
The administration and funding of schools in Chile is a complex and contro-
versial issue (Belleï 2007, Gallego & Sapelli 2007, García-Huidobro 2007).
Three types of funding are currently in practice, of which the two first share the
common feature of receiving state funding:
• Publically funded education (educación municipalizada): schools belong to
and are managed by the Local Authorities (town and city councils) and re-
ceive monthly state subsidies according to the number of students attending
lessons. Up until the 1980s, these schools were state schools and managed
centrally by the Ministry of Education.

45
Table 1: The Organisation of the Chilean School System
Students’ Level Year Group Recommended minimum
Age (attempted “in- number of hours of weekly
ternational” English instruction (accord-
translation) ing to National Curricular
Framework 2009 )
Pre-Primary Education
4-5 Pre-kinder
5-6 Kinder (usually compul-
sory, complete coverage
across all types of fund-
ing)
Primary Education –
Primer Ciclo Básico
6-7 1º - Primero Básico Year 1
7-8 2º - Segundo Básico Year 2
8-9 3º - Tercero Básico Year 3
9-10 4º - Cuarto Básico Year 4
Primary Education –
Segundo Ciclo Básico
10-11 5º - Quinto Básico Year 5 3
11-12 6º - Sexto Básico Year 6 3
12-13 7º - Séptimo Básico Year 7 3
13-14 8º - Octavo Básico Year 8 3
Secondary Education
- Enseñanza Media
14-15 1º - Primero Medio Year 9 4
15-16 2º- Segundo Medio Year 10 4
Specialised Secondary Humanities Vocational-
Education /Sciences Technical
branch branch
16-17 3º- Tercero Medio Year 11 4 2
17-18 4º - Cuarto Medio Year 12 3 2

• State-subsidised private education (educación particular subvencionada):

schools are owned and managed by private institutions. Traditionally and
primarily, these have been (Catholic) religious orders and some Evangelical
Christian congregations; since the 1980s, there is also an increasing number

46
 of schools that have been set up by private initiatives or stakeholders, often in
newly built neighbourhoods. Like the publically funded schools, they receive
monthly state subsidies according to the number of students attending les-
sons. In addition, these schools are allowed to charge parents tuition fees to
complement the state subsidies. In recent years, this practice called “shared
financing” (financiamiento compartido) has grown significantly, as well as
the average amount charged to parents in tuition fees (cf. García-Huidobro
op.cit.). It has turned into one of the most criticised points during the 2011
student movement (cf. “Bases para un acuerdo social por la educación chile-
na” 2011).
• Private education (educación particular pagada): schools are owned and
managed by private stakeholders. They are exclusively financed by tuition
fees paid by parents. Typically, the most traditional and prestigious private
schools were founded either by some Catholic religious orders or by British,
French, German, Italian, Arabic, etc. expatriate communities. Even though
nowadays the latter are open to all students whose parents can afford to pay,
and very few of the traditional expatriate families are still fully bilingual, the-
se schools play a predominant role in quality foreign language education.

Table 2: Types of administration and funding in the Chilean educational system. Figures
are taken from García-Huidobro (op.cit.: 74)
Type of admin- Publically funded (Local au- State-subsidised Private
istration thorities plus a minority of private
state-funded, privately man-
aged type of voca-tional-
technical secondary schools)
Percentage of all 46,6% 45% 6,8%
Chilean primary
(+1,6%)
and secondary
students enrolled
in 2006

As can be seen in table 2, less than seven per cent of Chilean students attend
private schools: only those whose parents can afford it. State-subsidised private
education has grown substantially in the past years, alongside a continuous
“dismantling” of the exclusively public school sector (Riesco 2007, Colegio de
Profesores 2011). Publically funded schools nowadays often have the reputation
of serving those students who were not accepted by or excluded from state-
subsidised private schools due to low academic achievement or for repeatedly
breaking behaviour rules. Being the most affordable option on the “educational

47
market place”, these schools also serve the most economically, socially and cul-
turally disadvantaged children.
Marked by decentralisation and increasing privatisation from the 1980s on-
wards, this system has contributed to growing social segmentation and stratifica-
tion, largely inhibiting social mixing and thus creating “education in ghettos”
(García-Huidobro op.cit.: 73). This means that most students attend schools in
which they will only mingle with students who belong to the same social class
as themselves; in addition, other (practised, if officially not permitted) selection
processes, especially those related to academic achievement and religion further
consolidate the cultural homogenisation of students within their schools. García-
Huidobro emphasises that this is counter-productive in various ways: for exam-
ple, because of the missed opportunity that the peer group effect could have on
academic achievement (stronger students ‘pushing’ lower-achieving students
up). Another missed opportunity is related to Civic Education and the social
construction of a democratic society: in Chile, there are very few (if any)
schools where students from significantly differing sectors of society share a
common space during the important years of secondary socialisation (op.cit.:
82). As we shall see below from the results of national and international
achievement tests, this social stratification has disastrous effects on the provi-
sion of equal educational opportunities for students from different socio-
economic backgrounds.

3.1.2 Reform in the 1990s

It is necessary to highlight that the decentralised and increasingly privatised
school system outlined here is the result of educational laws passed during Pino-
chet’s military dictatorship (Riesco op.cit.). The democratic centre-left govern-
ment ruling Chile from 1990 to 2010 did not address the division of schools into
state-subsidised private and publically-funded, nor did it return the management
of the publically funded schools from the Local Authorities to the central gov-
ernment. The latter issue is often regarded as the single most important step to-
wards safeguarding quality and an equal distribution of resources, by, for exam-
ple, the teachers’ association Colegio de Profesores and the student protest
movements (Colegio de Profesores op.cit., Petitorio de Secundarios 2011).
However, one of the first significant actions taken by the government after
the return to democracy was to start a comprehensive school reform of the exist-
ing system. One of its most important moves has been the progressive introduc-
tion of the Jornada Escolar Completa (expansion of the school day from 5 hours
to 7-8 hours per day), which has now reached most publically funded schools in

48
Chile (Cox 2003a). At the same time, the National Curriculum was completely
re-written and then continuously updated over the past fifteen years (see chapter
5). Teachers received in-service training to use more group work and learner-
centred teaching forms (Gysling 2003).
Another achievement of the past twenty years is that compulsory schooling
for all up to Year 12 has provided nearly full educational coverage for all sectors
of society (Cox 2003). However, as will be shown below, there is still a lot to
do: the fact that most Chilean children and teenagers nowadays spend a consid-
erable deal of their time at school has not yet brought the expected results.

3.1.3 PISA 2009: Low Reading Results, Social Class Divi-

sions Evidenced
In order to gain deeper insight into the outcomes that the above-outlined educa-
tional system produces, I will briefly summarise Chile’s most important results
in the 2009 international PISA assessment (OECD & MINEDUC 2010). Alt-
hough this OECD-sponsored comparative study also evaluates student compe-
tences in mathematics and sciences, I will concentrate only on reading (here, in
the national language Spanish). Chile has participated in these assessments since
2000. In the last assessment in 2009, out of the 65 participating countries, it
achieved rank 44 in reading, which is considerably below the OECD average.
31% of all participating students were assessed as reading at Level 1 or below,
which means that about third of all 15-year-olds do not have the necessary read-
ing competences to be able to participate effectively and productively in society.
Only 10% of Chilean teenagers reached the highest Levels 4, 5 or 6, in compari-
son to the OECD average of 28%. However, among the participating Latin
American countries (which were, apart from Chile: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia,
Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay), Chile still achieved the highest reading
scores.
Apart from the low overall performance in reading, another point of concern
is the fact that Chile, notoriously, is one of the group of countries in which the
impact of the students’ socio-economic background on their reading perfor-
mance is among the highest: 52% of the lowest income group read at level 1 or
below, while only 9% of the highest income group reach such a poor result. On
the other end of the spectrum, only 2% of the lowest income group reach Level
4 or above, whereas 29% of the highest income group can read at this level or
above. Given the high social stratification of the school system, this observation
does not really come as a surprise. Results according to the type of school ad-
ministration provide further evidence for the inequities that this school system

49
produces: as against the 493-point reading average in all OECD countries, stu-
dents from publically funded schools scored 421, from state-subsidised private
schools 458, and from private schools 540 points on average.
The good news is that since the first participation in a PISA assessment in
2000, reading scores have improved substantially, across all socio-economic
levels. In that year, nearly half of all the assessed students were reading at level
1 or below.

3.2 English in Chilean Schools

3.2.1 Foreign Language Teaching Across the Segmented
School System
As mentioned above, the private school sector has traditionally played a key role
in foreign language teaching in Chile, led by those schools that were designed
for the children of European – British, German, French and Italian – descent.
With the exception of the British schools, these schools are also basically the
only ones with a real commitment to pluri-lingual education, offering more than
one foreign language in their curricula. Due to the importance of English as a
global language, basically all private schools - bilingual or not - have now
turned English into a priority. Many of them offer English from pre-school lev-
els onwards. Some of them – generally the traditional British schools – also of-
fer content-and-language-integrated learning (CLIL) programmes, where school
subjects other than English are taught in English. For parents who are looking
for education with a “difference” for their children and who are able to afford it,
the amount of English on the curriculum is often the decisive factor.
This is also increasingly the case for state-subsidised private schools, where
English lessons are also frequently offered to students in young year groups
from pre-school onwards, much earlier than what is required by the National
Curriculum. The “marketing factor English” in a system that is marked by pa-
rental selection is also visible in many of the newer schools’ names: for exam-
ple, 17 of the 133 schools in Viña del Mar have English names, ending in
school, high school or college (MINEDUC no year c). They all belong to the
privatised (state-subsidised or parent-financed) sector.
Although all schools in Chile are allowed to design their own programmes
of study (in the sense of planes de estudio, i.e. assigning different year groups a
certain number of weekly hours of instruction in different school subjects) as
long as they respect the statutory minimum requirements, it is primarily in the

50
publically financed sector where English lessons are still restricted to the mini-
mum (MINEDUC no year, no year a). As outlined in table 1 (above, in 3.1.1),
since 2009 English has been a compulsory school subject from Year 5 onwards.
In order for schools to provide sufficient regular language exposure, the Minis-
try of Education recommends three pedagogical hours (of 45 minutes each) per
week at primary level, divided into three 45-minute sessions (MINEDUC, no
year b). At secondary level, students should have four hours a week in Years 9
and 10, and can then, according to the curriculum area in which the school spe-
cialises, go back to two hours a week or continue with a greater number of hours
up to Year 12. The reason for not introducing English in earlier primary school
years or for a greater number of hours per week is mainly due to limited human
resources, as the number of teachers even with very basic English competences
is only gradually rising. On the other hand, the increasing importance of English
has resulted in the disappearance of other foreign languages, especially French
and German, from most programmes of study (Jaque 2005).

3.2.2 English Test Results

One of the first changes in educational policy to be brought in by the newly
elected right-wing government in 2010 was the expansion of the SIMCE test to
include a greater number of school subjects, including English (MINEDUC
2010 a). This test stands for the National System for the Measurement of Educa-
tional Quality and since the 1990s has been administered in Reading, Mathemat-
ics, and Comprehension of the Social and Cultural Environment, in Years 4, 8
and 10. In 2010, the test was taken in English from Year 11 students for the first
time. Although the empirical part of this study, the teacher interviews, was com-
pleted much before this date (between July 2007 and January 2009), these test
results are the most complete data about Chilean school students’ English skills
that are available at the moment, making their inclusion here imperative.
The instrument used was the TOEIC Bridge test, developed by the US-based
Educational Testing Service (ETS). This test only measures listening and read-
ing comprehension and works at a more basic level than the general TOEIC test,
which is used to certify English skills up to the level of full professional profi-
ciency.
Out of a maximum score of 90 points for each listening and reading in this
test, the assessed Chilean teenagers reached an average of 48 points in listening,
and 51 in reading (MINEDUC 2011, 2011a). For reference, in order to achieve
level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
(waystage / elementary level), test-takers should score a minimum of 64 points

51
in listening and 70 in reading. Therefore, only 11% of Chilean teenagers reached
level A2 according to this national test.

Table 3: Test scores of the SIMCE Inglés / TOEIC Bridge test 2010, applied to Year 11
students (based on MINEDUC 2011, 2011a).
Maximum Minimum National Average of Average of
possible to reach Chilean highest lowest
score level A2 average socio- socio-
economic economic
group group
Listening 90 64 48 74 38
Reading 90 70 51 73 43

This result is alarming, given that according to the 2009 revised version of
the National Curriculum (ideally, all) students in Year 8 (i.e. three years below
the cohort assessed on this occasion) should reach level A2 (MINEDUC 2009:
86). Even though this version of the curriculum is only being implemented gra-
dually and this requirement will not need to be met before 2012, it is questiona-
ble if improvements can be made at the necessary rate. What is more, once
again, the difference between the average scores of the highest and the lowest
socio-economic groups highlights the unacceptable levels of social and educa-
tional inequity in the country. On the other hand, this result is not surprising, as
English has traditionally been a social status marker and high quality English
instruction was, for a long time, something the exclusive private schools had a
“monopoly” on. However, public policymakers have started taking affirmative
action for English in publically funded schools, as will be outlined below.

3.2.3 The 2004 Government Programme “English Opens

Doors”
In 2004, the Ministry of Education, with Sergio Bitar as a leader, decreed that
English in schools had to be strengthened, and created the “Inglés Abre Puertas
– English Opens Doors” programme (MINEDUC 2004: Decreto 81). The pro-
gramme is targeted at the whole of the state-subsidised education sector, aiming
to foster English language learning in primary and secondary education. The
measures included in this programme were, to begin with, a nation-wide round
of diagnostic tests, followed by in-service language and methodology training
for Chilean English teachers both in Chile and overseas, the design of new

52
standards and curricula (see chapter 5), and a commitment to ongoing distribu-
tion of free textbooks to all state-subsidised schools.
In the mentioned decree, which justifies the necessity to spend public funds
on English language instruction, the reasons given for launching the programme
were firstly that new competences, such as learning a foreign language, were the
key to improving the cultural, social and working life of this younger generation.
Secondly, “basic and instrumental” English skills would open up better job op-
portunities, higher rates of pay, access to information on the internet, success at
university, access to scholarships, and potential to start an exportation business,
among others. Beyond the advantages mentioned for the individual lives of to-
day’s school learners, the decree refers to the government’s essential commit-
ment to social and economic development and to global economic and trade
agreements with countries and regions such as the USA, the EU and Korea.
When the programme was launched, the Minister of Education, Sergio Bitar,
made some confident statements in interviews asserting that Chile would soon
become “bilingual” (Bañados 2005). The implementation of these measures, to-
gether with Bitar’s pronounced forecast for English in Chile, caused quite a lot
of “noise” in the media – both positive and negative. Some of these reactions
will be summarised below, in the following sub-chapter.
The teachers’ perception of the impact of this government programme was
of great interest for this research project. Therefore, more information based on
the interviews with Chilean English teachers will be provided in chapter 9.1.

3.2.4 Public and Academic Discourse on English in Chile

In an earlier article of mine, I carried out a critical analysis of the discourses sur-
rounding this government programme (“El inglés abre puertas – ¿a qué?” –
“English opens doors – to what?”, Glas 2008). On that occasion, I analysed 36
texts, mainly from newspapers (e.g. Rojas 2004, Hald 2004, Bañados 2005,
Frenzel 2005, Jaque 2005). Following Fairclough’s (2001) distinction between
dominant and resistant discourses, I extracted the following themes from domi-
nant discourses:
1) The importance of English as a global language.
2) The concern about the low English level of Chilean students and their teach-
ers.
3) The need to improve the Chilean population’s level of English in order to
guarantee the economic development of the country. This idea includes the
objective of improving the English skills of all students.

53
4) As a means to meet this goal, the need to revise and improve English teach-
ing methods in schools. New technologies and help from international ex-
perts should support this process.
The two themes that I analysed in greater depth were the reference to economic
development and the Chileans’ level of English. In relation to the former, there
were two main lines of argument: one was concerned with the development of
the country as a whole, where governmental measures for publically funded ed-
ucation had to react to the new needs imposed by economic progress and global-
isation. This argument could be seen in contrast to the possibility of a democrat-
ic country’s government to construct an educational agenda in which the whole
society participates, not primarily the business sectors (cf. Magendzo 2004). The
other line of argument, to which some articles belonged that “informed” readers
about (or rather, advertised) what was on offer at private language schools, em-
phasised the individualistic side of economic progress: English skills provided a
competitive advantage over other employees and job applicants, for example.
This individualistic representation of development was opposed to the alterna-
tive idea of collective struggle (e.g. in trade unions, etc.) achieving the im-
provement of work and life conditions for whole groups of the population (cf.
Larraín 2005:53 and above, chapter 2). Concerning the English level of Chilean
students and teachers, the tenor of the discussions was mainly blame directed at
English teachers for not teaching English through English and using outdated
methodologies. The teachers’ voices expressing their version of the difficulties
they faced when teaching English were conspicuously absent in the debate.
The second part of the article focused on themes that were, in my view,
treated only marginally and in little detail, or even entirely omitted:
1) Concern about the low level of Spanish mother-tongue proficiency (as a
counter-argument against the destination of large sums of public resources to
English, rather than to Spanish).
2) Non-economic motivations for learning English (such as cultural and general
educational ones).
3) The contents of English lessons at school as against an over-emphasis on
functional language.
4) The loss of the teaching-learning of other foreign languages in Chile, such as
French.
In sum, the analysis of these texts provided strong evidence for the idea that
English in Chile is mainly associated with economic progress and individual
success, whereas other, alternative discourses, especially those challenging these
notions, have become increasingly marginalised or even silenced (cf. Pennycook

54
2001). It is clear that the public discourse surrounding English in Chile is also
strongly associated with the “entrepreneurial version” of Chilean identity de-
scribed in chapter 2.4.1 (Larraín 2001). The conclusions that I drew at the end of
the article partly served as a basis for the design of the present research study.

3.3 Conclusion
Chile’s ailing educational system, with its blatant inequities, increasing privati-
sation and what appears to many a lack of commitment from the government to
really safeguard minimum quality standards, has repeatedly become the central
topic in social protest movements in past years, the most recent one (2011) gain-
ing even international media coverage.9 Of course, these problems are also wide-
ly discussed by sociologists and educationalists (e.g. García-Huidobro op.cit.,
Riesco op.cit.). The need for a deeper reform is clear, especially one that ad-
dresses the profound social class divisions in the organisation of the school sys-
tem. I hope that the empirical part of this study serves as additional evidence of
the unacceptable nature of the current system, by describing some of the con-
straints under which the teachers, especially of the publically funded system, are
working. The suggestions made in the final part point to areas that could be im-
proved within the current system, as it is; however, this does not mean that what
is there should not be challenged and changed.

9 E.g. the article on student leader Camila Vallejos in UK’s Observer (Franklin 2011), cf.
also “Bases para un acuerdo social por la educación chilena”, “Petitorio de Secunda-
rios”, Colegio de Profesores de Chile (all 2011). Previous large-scale protest move-
ments over the past few years include the “Penguin Revolution” of 2006 (la revolución
de los pingüinos), which took the grey-and-white colours of the school uniforms as its
symbol, and a teacher strike of months-long duration in publically funded schools in
2009. The former pressured the government into changing the Education Law that was
still in force from the Pinochet era, eliminating for example the (individual) schools’
right to select students during the primary level admission process. However, in struc-
tural terms not much has changed up so far (cf. Riesco op.cit.).

55
PART II: Learning Contents and Goals

One of the aims of this investigation is to obtain greater clarity about which of
the various options for culture teaching in EFL are currently practiced or consid-
ered relevant or necessary in Chilean EFL classrooms. In this part, which com-
prises Chapters 4, 5 and 6, I will focus on the learning contents and goals, espe-
cially in terms of culture learning, that are currently discussed, prescribed, and
presented, for English learning and teaching, both world-wide and in Chile. In
Chapter 4, to begin with, a more general overview of various approaches to the
teaching of culture in the English classroom will be given. It is intended to be a
theoretical and analytical framework, not only for chapters 5 and 6, but also for
Chapters 9.3 and 10.4, in which the interviewed teachers’ views on these issues
will be analysed. In Chapter 5, the national curricular frameworks (marcos cur-
riculares) that regulate English as a school subject in all Chilean state-
subsidised schools will be examined. As there has been an important reformula-
tion of these frameworks since this research project started, I will be able to
show in what aspects the cultural learning goals have evolved in recent years.
Chapter 6, finally, presents an analysis of some of the textbooks that the Minis-
try of Education has distributed to public and state-subsidised private schools, in
order to establish how the cultural learning goals are expressed in the materials
that most Chilean English teachers are recommended to use for their lessons.
From there, I will move on to the empirical part of this research investigation
(part III).

57
4. Approaches to the Teaching of Language and
Culture
As demonstrated in Part I, the importance of English in the countries of the Ex-
panding Circle – including Chile - is linked to global economy, and the use of
and views about the English language have become increasingly detached from
the language’s geographical and cultural origins. This has had an important im-
pact on the world-wide discussion of how English should be taught; among var-
ious other aspects, it is the cultural focus of the teaching materials that has been
questioned. In this chapter, I will review some of the approaches that have been
presented in this context, first, in terms of English language teaching in general,
then, more specifically, in relation to the teaching of culture as part of the lan-
guage learning process.

4.1 Where from? Pedagogical implications for the

choice of cultural contents when teaching English
as a global language
4.1.1 English as a Lingua Franca, English as an Interna-
tional Language, and World Englishes: a clarification
of different concepts
For the phenomenon “Global Language English”, a great variety of different
terms are used by socio-linguists, applied linguists and language pedagogues:
World English or World Englishes, Global English, English as a lingua franca,
English as an International Language, to name the most common ones. In this
section, I am going to present a selection of three of them, together with a short
discussion of the possible socio-linguistic and socio-political implications of
their uses. They are important here as they can all be considered alternatives to
British or American English as the two sole acceptable language standards and
cultural referents for English teaching.
The term Lingua Franca is usually defined as a “language variety used be-
tween people who speak different first languages and for none of whom it is the
mother tongue” (Jenkins 2004: 63). In relation to English, the non-purist use of
the term allows for the occasional inclusion of native speakers of English in ELF
(English as a Lingua Franca) interactions. However, at the core of it, and in dis-
tinction from EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Se-

59
cond Language), ELF points to the fact that the language is primarily used and
learned for interactions with other non-native speakers of English. This includes
the idea that there are some common features to most oral non-native speaker
varieties, both on the phonological and on the lexico-grammatical levels, e.g. the
substitution of ‘th’ sounds by /d/, /t/ or /s/, the omission of the 3 rd person singu-
lar –s in the present simple, or the avoidance of native speaker idioms.
The main difference between English as a Lingua Franca and English as an
International Language is that in the latter, the inclusion of native speakers in
linguistic interactions is more commonly accepted, although not necessary.
However, and in distinction from a more common EFL [= English as a Foreign
Language] approach, “native speakers also need to make an effort in interna-
tional situations” (McArthur 2004: 8), in order to linguistically and culturally
accommodate their interaction partners. Also, in comparison to English as a
Lingua Franca, it seems to aspire more to an international standard:
“It is what millions of non-native parents specifically want for their children, espe-
cially as provided by international schools in locations like Hong Kong and reflect-
ed in the internationally acceptable English that Singaporeans have as their collec-
tive goal.” (ibid.: 9)
Even though some scholars use the term English as an International Language
on very similar foundations as the ones just outlined under the heading Lingua
Franca (e.g. McKay 2002), some ELF-scholars prefer the latter term, as they
feel that the promotion of a single world standard carried out under the Interna-
tional Language paradigm leads to an “English as a Native Language in dis-
guise”: “Scholars who appear on the surface to support the concept of
NNS[=non-native speakers]-led developments in the Expanding Circle are in
reality in favour, it seems, of a monolithic English largely based on Standard
American or Standard British English.” (Jenkins 2004: 66)
The plural term World Englishes highlights the great number of co-existent
varieties of English in our times. It is also associated with Kachru’s three con-
centric circles of countries (cf. chapter 2.1) and with his pluralistic, inclusive
and counter-imperialist stance (McArthur 2004). By emphasising the multiplici-
ty of contexts in which English is used (both in geographical and in social
terms), as well as the diversity of English users, those who prefer this term to
others try to break with the traditional distinction between native and non-native
speakers: “The concept of English in its inner, outer, and expanding circles is
only superficially equivalent to native, ESL, and EFL. In thinking of a country as
an ESL country or of a person as an ESL speaker, for example, we perpetuate
the dichotomy of native versus non-native, ‘us versus them.’” (Kachru / Nelson
2001:14) Rather, the use of English in a certain country is described in terms of

60
its range and depth - the former referring to the “contexts or domains in which
English functions”, the latter to “the extent of use of English in the various lev-
els of society” (15). Last but not least, the term World Englishes emphasises
creativity over standardisation and has also been used to propagate the inclusion
of literary works from outer and expanding circle countries into the established
canon of English-speaking literatures.

4.1.2 Pedagogical Implications

The different conceptualisations of English as a Global Language have not only
created a vast body of descriptive socio-linguistic research10; they also contrib-
ute greatly to the debate about their implications for the world-wide undertaking
of teaching English. There are several aspects that are discussed under all of the
mentioned headings; some of them are more practical, some of them have a
more pronounced ideological component.
One aspect is the question of a standard to choose from for teaching.
Whereas the native varieties of British and American English have hitherto
served as the most widely used and accepted varieties of English, especially for
the formal written register, and will probably continue to do so for some time, it
is mainly the spoken register that is becoming increasingly problematic for the
teaching of English for international communication. One of the reasons for this
is the fact that even native speakers from different Inner Circle countries or re-
gions may find it difficult to understand each other’s spoken English at times.
What is more, in research on the mutual intelligibility of different English varie-
ties, it is often the native speakers who cause the most difficulties (Kachru / Nel-
son 2001, Jenkins 2004). Thus, the native speaker (= inner circle?) model is in-
creasingly questioned. A cautious but probably widely acceptable approach, at
least for both teachers and learners, is the one proposed by Crystal (2001): he
calls for distinction between the teaching of productive skills, for which he
thinks it is reasonable to “conservatively” keep propagating a standard variety,
and the teaching of receptive skills, especially listening comprehension, where –
more innovatively - examples of non-native and native varieties should be used
alongside each other: “[T]eachers need to prepare their students for a world of
staggering linguistic diversity.” (60) Crystal himself is one of those scholars

10 For example, English Lingua Franca corpora (Jenkins 2004, Allan 2006) and socio-
linguistic profiles of the uses of and attitudes towards English in Expanding Circle
countries, such as the ones published in the journal World Englishes (e.g. Ovesdotter
Alm 2003, Maersk Nielsen 2003, Friedrich 2000, 2002, 2003, Niño-Murcia 2003, Ra-
jagopalan 2009).

61
who visualises a future “World Standard Spoken English”, “a regionally neutral
international spoken standard” (58), or a “dialect” that will be spoken by English
speakers across the world for international communication, in addition to their
local varieties (2003: 186 ff).11 This approach is viewed by some as more vi-
sionary than empirical (Gnutzmann 2000: 28). Also, in Lingua Franca research
circles, in spite of their search for a non-native linguistic core that might be
common to all ELF-users, an aspiration towards the teaching of a new standard-
ised variety of English seems to be considered counter-productive to the real
goals of a pedagogical lingua franca proposal, which emphasise a non-
monolithic (= non-standardised?), non-conformist perspective on language use
and pedagogy. In practical terms, this might mean that English teachers’ atti-
tudes towards minor grammatical “errors” (such as the omission of –s in the
third person singular) and a L1 accent could become more accepting, as long as
mutual intelligibility is safeguarded. Whether “international”, inner-circle based
exam boards will take steps in a similar direction remains to be seen (Jenkins
2004).
On a more ideological level, the “standard question” is at the centre of a
world-wide discussion that involves many different, often paradoxical stances
and views. However, we could highlight that, at one extreme end, there is the
(unconscious?) defence of linguistic and cultural imperialism (Phillipson 1992),
an abstract concept that at a practical level includes the global sale of English
teaching textbooks from a handful of UK/USA-based publishing companies and
expensive exam fees paid by non-native speakers of English in order to obtain
internationally recognised certifications of their level of “standard” English (a
powerful example of institutionalised cultural capital, cf. Bourdieu 2005: 61ff.).
At the other end, there is an increasingly louder voice that stands for the non-
native speakers’ right to appropriate the English language for the expression of
their own identity: “EIL [=English as an International Language] belongs to its
users, there is no reason why some speakers should provide standards for oth-
ers.” (McKay 2002: 126) For teaching purposes, this obviously causes conflicts.
Widdowson (1994) reminds us that for learning, cognitive, affective and person-
al engagement with the language is necessary:

11 He relates an anecdote about mutual incomprehension from an international seminar at

a European University, when native speakers could not understand baseball and cricket
idioms that other native speakers from different English-speaking countries were using:
“What was immediately noticeable was that the native speakers seemed to become
much less colloquial. In particular, I did not sense any further use of national idioms.
Indeed, the speakers seemed to be going out of their way to avoid them.” (187)

62
 “If natural language learning depends on asserting some ownership over the lan-
guage, this cannot be promoted by means of language which is authentic only be-
cause it belongs to somebody else and expresses somebody else’s identity.” (387)
Canagarajah (1999), who also argues in favour of “appropriating discourses”,
tries to find a conciliatory approach:
“Any pedagogy designed for [periphery students in ELT] will have to take account
of their desire to master the language, their fears of ideological / linguistic hegemo-
ny, and suggest a way of acquiring English with a satisfactory reconciliation of the
conflicts posed. What is demanded is a ‘third way’ that avoids the traditional ex-
tremes of rejecting English outright for its linguistic imperialism or accepting it
wholesale for its benefits.” (174)
The “standard question” might remain largely unanswered – or at least, without
much likelihood of it being completely resolved – as long as we live in a world
in which the call for a more democratic handling of linguistic issues is second-
ary to real hegemonic power structures that still marginalise users of non-
standard varieties, and in which the mastery of a standard variety is key to be
able to climb a steep and – towards the top - increasingly narrow social ladder.
However, we can at least make a few conclusive remarks about the meanings
that a liberating, “appropriating” lingua franca-English could promote: table 4
shows a possible way of differentiating between two alternatives, or maybe two
extreme positions: a critical, non-conformist approach to the use of English as a
global language (labelled lingua franca) and a mainstream, pro-imperialist
viewpoint (which is called English as an international language here)12.

4.1.3 Culture and Contents in English as a Lingua Franca

As can be seen, the global status of the English language has opened up the pos-
sibility of detaching the teaching of it from the standards imposed by its original
speech communities. Now, when it comes to the cultural component, which has
traditionally been part of the teaching and learning of any foreign language,
what implications are there for the teaching of English in the 21st century? The
question of how to treat cultural issues in this context has caused a heated debate
among EFL researchers and teachers. I shall briefly outline the chief approaches
in this discussion.

12 In spite of her choice of the term ‘international language’ rather than lingua franca,
McKay (2002) is an example of the fact that not all authors use the terms with the same
differentiation of connotations; she has certainly not intended to adhere to the right side
of the table.

63
Table 4: English as a Lingua Franca ‘versus’ English as an International Language
(from: Gnutzmann 2000: 29, based on Alexander 1999)
Liberation: lingua franca Trap: English as an international language
• articulation in English allows political • being compelled to buy into Anglo-Saxon
expression imperial ideology

• it contributes to a more ‘open society’ • the ‘Washington consensus’

• economic actions extended • ‘forced to communicate in a foreign lan-
• freeing up societies. cf. Eastern European guage’
‘opening’ to the world since 1989/1993 • ‘swimming in a raincoat’
• being locked into specific social practices

• educational opportunities • narrowing of choice

• MBAs • consumerism
• university education abroad • McDonaldization

• personal growth • funnelled into a specific socio-cultural

• ‘empowerment’ framework (neo-colonialist)
• occupational choices broadened • personal restriction

• Earthwatch • Bay Watch

• expanding of cultural potential and • belittling of a person’s native language.

growth through the lingua franca medium • Pacific Rim experience (indigenous lan-
guages ‘crowded out’, ‘killed’)
• acquisition of explicit values additional • undermining indigenous native tongues
to one’s own society/culture is possible and cultures through dissemination of
implicit values

First of all, sometimes the question is asked if it is at all possible to teach

English without a culture (e.g. Meyer 1993, Byram 2000). Some have argued
that this might be practicable in some teaching contexts where English is exclu-
sively learnt for special purposes, such as the kind of English needed for reading
a technical manual (cf. McKay 2002: 84 for proponents of this view). However,
most scholars have answered the question negatively, the weakest reason being
linguistic: the “inseparability of language and culture argument” has lost a great
deal of its weight in recent years, as, on the one hand, the importance that had
been claimed, for example, for the use of conversational gambits, has been
shown to be largely absent in lingua franca use; on the other, the global lan-
guage English, especially in outer circle countries, is nowadays used to express
cultural values other than those associated with “Anglo-Saxon” cultures:
“There is no necessary relationship between English and the cultures of one or more
social groups living in Britain, the United States, Australia etc. English can be used
to express another culture.” (Byram 2000: 8)

64
The strongest reasons in favour of including cultural contents in English teach-
ing continue to be pedagogical: Byram suggests that language teaching should
have an educational purpose beyond the merely functional acquisition of foreign
communicative patterns; those aspects that can foster cross-cultural understand-
ing should form part of a foreign language curriculum. Arguably, cross-cultural
skills and knowledge acquired in a language course might be the part of foreign
language learning that will have a life-long significance for students, given the
case that some of them will never use the language for communication after
leaving school. Student motivation is another argument for the inclusion of cul-
tural contents; however, the question of which cultural contents are considered
most effective in motivating English learners is part of the discussion (McKay
2002, Prodromou 1988 and 1992; see also below, chapters 6 and 9.3).
In spite of these reasons, the reality of many language classrooms world-
wide shows that there is a focus on language function learning; consequently,
cultural learning goals, even if they are present in a curriculum, and cultural
contents, even if they feature more or less explicitly in a textbook, are in prac-
tice often neglected and might never become an important feature in class. In
Byram’s view, this is due to the fact that the conceptual development of com-
municative language teaching (and therefore, the respective teacher training)
was more influenced by linguistic paradigms, mainly taken from discourse anal-
ysis and speech act theory, and less by socio-cultural theories (cf. Byram
2000:2). On the other hand, it would be short-sighted to claim that the (world-
wide) tendency to emphasise the functional aspects in language education is on-
ly the linguists’ “fault”: as Volkmann (2010: 29) outlines, there is a tendency in
education at all levels (including Higher Education in Germany) to over-
emphasise a pragmatic-utilitarian orientation similar to the one that is necessary
for running a business: whatever is taught and learned should be immediately
measurable according to specific competence models, and useful for a future
professional career. As we have seen in chapter 3, this tendency operates in just
the same – and maybe in an even more “effective” way - here in Chile.13 Pro-
posals for culture learning in EFL are definitely subject to the same pressures
that, in our times, operate against all educational goals that aim towards the ho-
listic growth of the human being (such as the development of emotional, aesthet-
ic, creative and critical capacities; cf. Volkmann 2010: 29, Pinto 2008, Klafki
1991/2007).14

13 This “new” tendency is only one side of the coin: previous practices have often had a
“decontextualized, explicit grammar oriented approach” (Farías 2005: 218).
14 One might add “anything that reaches beyond the preparation of a well-functioning op-
erator of machines and uncritical consumer”.

65
 If culture should be included in ELF teaching, then what culture should that
be? McKay (2002, based on Cortazzi and Jin 1999), following a view of culture
that is very much synonymous with national culture, presents a threefold dis-
tinction of possibilities for teaching English as an international language: target
culture contents, referring to a country (or countries?) where English is spoken
as a first language; source culture contents, referring to the students’ own cul-
ture; and international target culture contents, where a variety of different coun-
tries (both English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries) figure. McKay
appropriately identifies student motivation and interest, the teachers’ ability to
relate to and explain the topics, and the potential to establish a ‘sphere of inter-
culturality’ (a term taken from Kramsch 1993) as the main factors for deciding
which general approach is to be taken: “What cultural content to include is only
part of the issue. Equally important is how to deal with this content in a particu-
lar context.” (88) One of McKay’s tenets is that one primary aim of learning
English as an international language is to use English to explain one’s own cul-
ture to others (95). Therefore, she has argued, in various contexts, including for
Chile, in favour of including source culture contents (McKay 2003). Obviously
the advantage is that students and non-native teachers of English are more likely
to be able to relate to these contents. A possible danger of this approach is, as
Byram points out, that English might be used as a code for the learners’ own
language (Byram 2000: 9). Moreover, it is imperative that source culture con-
tents are compared and related to other cultural material to be able to identify
what kind of information is relevant for international communication: “The def-
inition of a group (national or racial or any other) makes no sense unless there
are other groups around.” (Tajfel 1978:88, quoted in Byram 2000:14). Although
McKay mentions the pitfalls of culturally inappropriate material and repeatedly
stresses that a “sphere of interculturality” in lessons and an awareness of diversi-
ty within all cultures are of greatest importance whichever content material is
used, she does not differentiate any further between, for example, “essentialist”
source culture contents and “interculturally dynamic” source culture contents, or
in fact give examples of what kind of subcultures or aspects might invite stu-
dents to deeper reflection and intercultural learning (something we shall look at
in greater detail in chapter 4.2). The same applies to her treatment of target cul-
ture contents and international target culture contents. In the latter, it is even
more necessary to distinguish between different options, as “international” can
indeed refer to all countries in the world, and to politically and socially very di-
verse, even contrary implications.
For the teaching of English as a Lingua Franca, we can visualise the wish to
“bypass” target culture contents, the main reasons for this being, first of all, the
geographical and cultural remoteness of the USA and/or the British Isles from

66
the learners’ own culture, and, second, cultural imperialism through English
Teaching, the perpetuation of which does make some textbook writers and
teachers uneasy. In this sense, a combination of global and local contents is fa-
voured by several authors (Gray 2002, Baumgardner/ Brown 2003). Whereas the
local perspective is often interpreted as simply being able to talk about one’s
own culture in English (see above), other authors emphasise the potential for
intercultural learning when one’s own culture is viewed in contrast to a target
culture, or even through the eyes of a foreigner (e.g. Volkmann 2002, 2010).
Global contents can include the topic of globalisation itself, studying both its
economic and cultural aspects and also other issues that affect people world-
wide, such as the environment or diseases like AIDS. Migration as a personal
experience and the “internationalisation” of certain foods are other aspects that
have been considered by textbook writers (e.g. Volkmann 2005, in Viewfinder
Topics: The Global Village – Progress or Disaster?).15
In addition, socio-linguistic concerns are also often suggested as ideal topics
for English language teaching. Farías (2005) proposes Critical Language
Awareness, in coalition with Critical Pedagogy, as a content focus for English
language education in Chile, to include topics and projects that examine the po-
litical and social dimensions of language use, and within this context, issues of
gender, power, social justice and race:
“From this alliance or coalition three major principles emerge: first, that teaching is
emancipatory; second, that teaching is oriented towards the recognition of differ-
ence; and third, an engagement with teaching as an oppositional practice in which all
participants are continuously thinking towards the prospects for empowerment, par-
ticularly of sectors that have been disempowered or excluded in the past.” (216)
Within the World Englishes paradigm, awareness-raising for world-wide varie-
ties of English is put forward as a pedagogical aim:
“The spread of English provides a language teacher with an abundance of data for
relating second language issues to pedagogical concerns. This can be done in several
ways: through the study of variation, the pragmatics of variation, varieties and cul-
ture, and varieties and creativity.” (Kachru / Nelson 2001: 22)
Consequently, some authors emphasise the potential of (especially) World Eng-
lishes teaching to contribute to education for international understanding
(Matsuda 2002) and peace education, if topics and approaches are selected ac-
cordingly:

15 The German educational publishing company Langenscheidt seems to be more tolerant

in that it accepts some of the more controversial topics, such as AIDS, or anti-
globalisation protests, in contrast to the “taboo” topics that Gray (2002) quotes from
lists given out to prospective textbook writers in English-speaking countries.

67
 “Linguistic Peace Education comes as a specialized form of Peace Education (and
Peace Linguistics), one that focuses primarily on conflict resolution through lan-
guage, the dissemination of linguistic rights, sensitivity to linguistic cross-cultural
differences, and the teaching of awareness-raising practices to help individuals use
language responsibly. (…) Linguistic Peace Education aims to positively impact
human relations through awareness and engagement.” (Friedrich 2007: 79)
Especially for the combined teaching of receptive and productive language
skills, an important perspective is the idea that English as an international lan-
guage is used to bring together people from different countries but with common
“glocal” interests and thus form “international discourse communities” around
certain topics (McKay 2002, drawing on Swales 1990). In practice, this can be
supported by active on-line participation in internet forums and the like, where
teenage students can themselves comment on a variety of topics, such as the
content and quality of (music) videos on youtube, the protection of animal
rights in their home towns, etc.
In spite of the possibility of concentrating on a mix of global and local con-
tents, a complete exclusion of target culture contents in ELT does not seem con-
vincingly appropriate, even for those who have been researching the internation-
alisation of English for several years. Even though this quotation looks at Eng-
lish learners from a European perspective, it might as well be applicable to at
least a portion of students in South America – maybe putting USA and Australia
before Great Britain and Ireland:
“It would be short-sighted to restrict pupils learning English at school to the use of
English as a Lingua Franca. If English was only taught as a ‘cultureless’ language it
would probably deprive many of our pupils of cultural encounters they were hoping
to have through the medium of English. (…) For young people, Great Britain and
Ireland, and also the U.S.A. and Australia, are popular destinations, not least be-
cause of their language and culture. For this reason it seems highly appropriate that
pupils also learn and get to know English as a Foreign Language, i.e. a language that
explicitly refers to the native English-speaking territories and societies. There is no
doubt that under the influence of the globalisation, the topics and learning targets of
English teaching will change in the direction of fewer Anglo-American and more
global topics. However, detaching communication in an international context entire-
ly from the standard variety of English and its associated cultures seems problemat-
ic, for linguistic and pedagogical reasons, as well as political ones.” (Gnutzmann
2005: 117)
The discomfort that this defence of “inner circle country” culture teaching might
cause to those who fear their students’ cultural alienation and shrink away from
blind reverence to cultural imperialism can, in my opinion, be solved via two
different approaches: first, the history of inner circle countries can be taught in

68
combination with a more prominent cultural exploration of outer circle coun-
tries:
“[A]n English curriculum that promotes international understanding must address
the colonial past – and possibly present – of the English language somewhere along
the line.” (Matsuda 2002: 438-9)
Thus, the cultural focus can be put on countries whose colonial legacy includes a
special status for the English language, such as the Caribbean, India or South
Africa, or on individuals and social groups who have a personal history of mi-
gration from one of those countries to inner circle countries. This post-colonial
perspective has the potential to expose unequal power relations, the unfair dis-
tribution of resources or access to opportunities in a globalised world – arguably
with a greater possibility for learners in other post-colonial countries (like Latin
America) to identify with the living conditions portrayed.16 The second possibil-
ity is to exploit inner circle culture within a Cultural Studies paradigm. This will
be discussed in more detail in the following chapter.

4.2 What Kind of Culture? What for? How?

Approaches towards Culture Learning
4.2.1 Definitions: The Operationalisation of Culture for
Language Learning and Teaching
We will all agree that culture is a fuzzy concept, and indeed we could quote
hundreds of definitions of the word here. However, as we need to conceptualise
culture in the context of foreign language learning and teaching, I will try to
bring a few of those culture models together that have been elaborated or used
for this particular purpose. In coming chapters, they will help us to categorise
cultural issues presented in textbooks (chapter 6) or mentioned in the teacher
interviews (chapters 9.3 and 10.4).
I will start with a model that is useful for two reasons: it relates back to the
previous chapter in that it refers to cultural spaces, not only dimensions; and it is
based on an empirical study of language teachers’ definitions of culture: Byram
(2000) plots various possibilities of viewing culture along two different axes,
which could be considered as spaces (vertical axis) and dimensions (horizontal

16 Clearly without the “aspirational” component that upper middle-class Western contents
could have and that are often propagated by textbook publishing companies (Gray
2002).

69
axis). Vertically, the culture dealt with in foreign language teaching can refer to
(1) an international or cross-national phenomenon, e.g. international relations
between countries or a “global civilisation”; (2) a national culture; (3) groups
below the national level, e.g. ethnic groups, social classes, or regional differ-
ences; (4) someone’s individual personal development; (5) a “neutral” space that
analyses society in general. Horizontally, culture can refer to (a) a people’s way
of life or traditions: habits, life style, experience, communication; (b) the objec-
tive structures people live in, e.g. the social, political and economic institutions,
living conditions, history, or landscape; (c) the norms and values characterising
people’s lives: This can include religion, attitudes, ways of thinking, behaviour,
mentality etc.; (d) a people’s valued artistic products, such as literature, music,
and art (which could possibly refer to elite culture mainly).
Subdivisions of culture made by other authors concentrate on the different
dimensions of culture. Volkmann (2005: 279, 2010: 41), based on Posner
(1991), presents a three-dimensional model of a semiotic conceptualisation of
culture, i.e. one that perceives culture as a system of signs that carry specific
meanings according to the human groups that use them:

Social dimension Material dimension (“texts”)

(users of signs) � Paintings
� Individuals � Architecture
� Institutions � Legal texts
� Society � Literary texts

Mental dimension (Codes)

� Mentalities
� Self-images
� Norms and values

Figure 1: Three-dimensional model of a semiotic conceptualisation of culture (based on

Posner 1991)

Similarly, Moran (2001: 24) divides culture into five different dimensions,
and defines it as follows: “Culture is the evolving way of life of a group of per-
sons [1], consisting of a shared set of practices [2] associated with a shared set
of products [3], based upon a shared set of perspectives [4] on the world, and set
within specific social contexts” (communities) [5]. (The numbers in brackets and
emphases are mine.)

70
 This definition also emphasises, as most authors agree, that we need to visu-
alise culture as dynamic and heterogeneous. Even though in practice, culture is
still sometimes represented as something static, monolithic (or “stereotypical”),
those who have helped language teachers and learners to reflect more deeply on
the issue would emphasise the fact that we should see culture dynamically, as a
verb, rather than as a noun (Roberts 2001: 18).
In order to make the complexity of culture didactically accessible, it is
sometimes presented with the help of metaphors, the most common being the
iceberg and the onion: the iceberg represents, at its tip, the explicit, tangible or
visible part of culture: Moran associates the dimensions of communities, prod-
ucts, practices and persons with it (28). Underneath the surface, below the water,
it represents the tacit or invisible perspectives (“communication style, beliefs,
attitudes, values, perceptions” - Volkmann 2005a: 58). The onion, on the other
hand, “has many layers, which we need to peel away to understand the individu-
al at the centre. When we talk about communication with people from different
cultures, we usually think of communication with different countries. But coun-
tries form simply the outside layer of the culture onion. (…) At the centre we
find individuals who have their own ‘culture’, usually called personality or iden-
tity.” (Volkmann 2005a: 57)
There are various possibilities for making the complexity of culture accessi-
ble in the classroom, particularly in the context of cultural products and practic-
es. One widespread distinction is that made between Culture with a “Capital C”
and culture with a “small c”, which has emerged in the second half of the 20th
century from the (originally British) school of thought of Cultural Studies (see
below for more on the methodical implications of Cultural Studies). An elitist
view of Culture (with a capital C), which reduces the study of cultural produc-
tion to a “high” literary canon, classical music and the fine arts, is largely reject-
ed in Cultural Studies, in favour of a positive evaluation of everyday experience,
especially that of the working classes, and popular culture (including film, mu-
sic, TV programmes, and even sports events or clothing habits: culture with a
small “c”) (e.g. Skinner 2009, Delanoy/Volkmann 2006).
Finally, the heterogeneity of today’s pluralistic, globalised societies, particu-
larly the increased contact between cultures through world-wide migration (es-
pecially from former colonised countries to the metropolis), but also internation-
al trade and tourism, has led to more and more individuals and communities liv-
ing a more or less “mixed” lifestyle. From there, we can observe a growing cul-
tural production that combines cultural traditions from different origins, giving
rise to new, cross-cultural perspectives. These have been described in various
theories of transculturality and cultural hybridity. As we will see in the coming

71
section, they acquire particular importance for language learning (e.g. Delanoy
2006, Volkmann 2010).

4.2.2 Attitudes and Behaviours: Intercultural Competence

as a Learning Objective
In European societies, which in past decades have seen a multi-cultural chal-
lenge due to both immigration (notably from Islamic countries) and the integra-
tion of the European Union, English teaching in schools has gradually taken on
the aim of developing intercultural competence in students, complementing (or
replacing?) the more traditional approach of teaching about the culture of Eng-
lish-speaking countries (Landeskunde, civilisation; see 4.2.3). Theories and con-
cepts developed for the teaching of – or training in - intercultural competence
have developed in two main contexts. On the one hand, in the area of interna-
tional business communication, it is often interpreted as fairly easy-to-teach
“dos and don’ts” that will guarantee success for smooth global negotiations and
transactions (e.g. Gibson 2000). On the other hand, the pedagogical objective of
intercultural competence has evolved as a daily necessity for peaceful, tolerant
coexistence in those societies where several cultural or ethnic groups live to-
gether (e.g. Vollmer 1995, Hu 1999). In spite of the differing motivations for the
proposal of this learning objective, some of the approaches and methods that are
used to attain intercultural competence are fairly similar. It is important to note
the origins of the concept, as the relevance of intercultural competence as a
learning goal for school students in Chile is not always evident. However, as the
concept has gained such prominence in discussions about cultural learning in
foreign language teaching, it must be treated here with a view to its possible vi-
ability in the given context. On the other hand, I am not unaware of the fact that
suggesting a “foreign” concept or learning objective to a society with different
realities and needs is highly problematic (cf. Chilean educationalist Peralta Es-
pinosa 1996 on the “impertinencia” of educational curricula, where she exploits
the double meaning of the term, in the sense of “not belonging here”, but also
“insolence”). Therefore, I will also refer to the way in which intercultural learn-
ing is usually interpreted and applied in the pedagogical discussion in Chile.
In the same manner as other complex areas of human learning, the develop-
ment of intercultural competence has a cognitive, an affective, and a behavioural
component (e.g. Volkmann 2010, Byram 1995). This means that learners need
to know about certain cultural dimensions, especially practices and perspectives
(see above) (savoir in Byram’s words); they need to develop acceptance of cul-
tural differences, empathy and tolerance (savoir être according to Byram); and

72
they must learn to act appropriately in culturally different contexts (savoir faire,
as Byram puts it). Byram suggests a fourth competence area, savoir apprendre,
which refers to the process of acquisition itself, the interpretative means of ex-
ploring the new cultural phenomena and situations. In the area of EFL, it is im-
portant to emphasise that this requires, first of all, sufficient English proficiency.
The more specific term (or learning objective) intercultural communicative
competence reflects this connection to foreign language skills.
One important area of intercultural learning – often the first step in the de-
velopment of learners’ cultural awareness - is the analysis and – up to a certain
point – “deconstruction” of cultural (ethnic or national) stereotypes. A good
dictionary definition of the term stereotype can be found in the OALD: “image,
idea, character, etc that has become fixed or standardized in a conventional form
without individuality (and is therefore perhaps false)”. The references to stand-
ard and convention make it clear that the stereotypes that peoples have about
other peoples are part of their own cultural perspectives, or intra-culturally
shared “knowledge” base, which help to construct their own group identity (of
an “imagined community” – Anderson 1983/2006) by establishing boundaries
between “us” and “them” (a mechanism that has been called othering, especially
in post-colonial studies, cf. Said 1978/2003, Volkmann 2010:138f.). On the oth-
er hand, the reference to the lack of individuality and possible falseness reveals
the intrinsic danger of these constructions. For approaching stereotypes in class,
Volkmann (2010: 84ff.) provides a very useful framework, which highlights –
on the one hand – the cognitive necessity of the human brain to digest and there-
fore generalise specific information about “characteristic traits” of diverse hu-
man groups. Stereotypes, in this sense, are not only conceived as potentially
both negative and positive, but as simply inevitable. On the other hand,
Volkmann reminds us that a critical pedagogy obviously demands an active
stance against “mental laziness” and asks teachers and students alike to shed
light on the dangers of overgeneralisations, which do not leave space for indi-
vidual, sub-group specific or situational differences of cultural practices or per-
spectives. Therefore, it is necessary, first of all, that students understand what
stereotypes are and what they do: they generally select just one aspect of reality
that is over-dimensioned and applied to all members of a group. Also, it is im-
portant to bear in mind that stereotypes can be constructed about another group
(hetero-stereotypes), but also about one’s own group (auto-stereotypes) (ibid.:
86). In this sense, it is suggested that students be confronted with auto- and het-
ero-stereotypes of their own and foreign cultures, including in their most hu-
morous forms, such as caricatures and satires; then, these should be discussed
and criticised; finally, students should be asked to reflect upon the origins, func-
tions, limits and dangers of stereotypes; this can be done repeatedly and applied

73
in various contexts (ibid.: 94ff.). Volkmann also gives helpful recommendations
for avoiding the perpetuation of stereotypes in class: for example, the presenta-
tion of the target cultures should encourage the possibility of viewing members
of the other groups as individuals with whom students can identify or empathise.
Literary texts and (auto-) biographies in particular could provide these opportu-
nities. Then, common aspects that are shared by the home and the foreign cul-
ture should be emphasised, as well as aspects that cross cultural boundaries in
“transnational groups”, e.g. in fan-clubs of famous actors or singers, in envi-
ronmental interest groups, etc. Also, teachers should focus on global topics that
highlight the common challenges to all humans on earth. Finally, the foreign
culture should be presented as something “normal”, rather than calling attention
to the exoticism or strangeness of certain features. Sensitising students in order
that they accept other perspectives is part of this process (ibid.: 93).
In terms of the methodological proposals for teaching intercultural compe-
tence, we can roughly distinguish between two approaches: the first one is more
pragmatically oriented and more extensively used in intercultural training work-
shops, where professionals are prepared for face-to-face interactions with for-
eign clients or business partners. Its cognitive component aims towards knowing
about behavioural rules in the foreign culture, especially in the area of polite-
ness, attitudes towards time and punctuality, space and proximity, non-verbal
communication etc. Apart from acquiring verbal routines for carrying out lin-
guistic functions successfully, and learning about specific dos and don’ts (ex-
pected behaviour and taboos in communicative situations), learners are often
asked to analyse and reflect upon critical incidents (short reading or audio/video
passages that highlight clashes in practices and perspectives between the learn-
ers’ home culture and target cultures). Role-play activities are also widely used.
In this way, students are expected to understand foreign practices better, develop
awareness for critical areas of intercultural communication, and acquire “soft
skills” in order to tackle intercultural encounters with respect, tact, empathy and
tolerance (e.g. Gibson 2000, Volkmann 2002, Schubert 2006, Lenz 2006).
The other approach is targeted at reflective-affective processes and is more
widely used in educational contexts; there are numerous strategies proposed for
from primary up to higher education. The reading of literary texts (especially
narrative genres like short stories and novels; dramas and movies; but also po-
ems and song lyrics) is at the centre of this approach, as they are considered to
have promising potential to help learners to identify with the foreign fictional
characters and thus bring about the necessary change of perspectives that can
lead to empathy and tolerance. “Transcultural” literature that deals with identity
issues in multicultural societies has been used in particular, e.g. short stories
and/or movies by the British-Pakistani writer Hanif Kureishi or poems and es-

74
says by the Chicana poet Gloria Anzaldúa (e.g. Delanoy 2006). In this approach,
with close connections to critical and action-oriented language pedagogies,
learners are asked to enter a dialogic and reflective process with the literary
works, their characters and perspectives, often by means of creative responses
that involve personal reactions to the texts, rather than applying rigid cognitive-
analytical frameworks for dealing with them. The aim is to learn to live, and
deal constructively, with paradoxical and potentially conflictive situations, espe-
cially in the daily challenges of living in a multi-cultural society (e.g. Stier-
storfer 2002, Nünning / Surkamp 2009)
Both approaches, if used wisely according to contextual necessities and
conditions, have great potential to trigger the reflective processes that are re-
quired for the development of intercultural competence. However, it is important
to remember that all intercultural learning has to be considered a life-long pro-
cess. It starts with a gradual evolvement of awareness about one’s own cultural
conditioning and cultural differences, moving on to a tolerant stance towards
foreign perspectives and practices, curiosity to find out more and willingness to
understand the foreign culture even better. This process never really ends: when
put to the test by the complexities and paradoxes of real life in intercultural
space it may be challenged over and over again. Educational or training contexts
can at best help learners to begin their journey towards the ideal aim of becom-
ing the “cultural mediator” who is able to intercede in interculturally complex
situations. Personal life experiences will be indispensable in reaching this target.
Within Chile, the word “intercultural” has specific connotations in relation
to the indigenous peoples living on Chilean national territory. To name just a
few, the most numerous population is Mapuche, concentrated in the rural areas
of the centre-South of the country, but with a high level of emigration towards
the capital, Santiago, and other cities in the centre of the country. In the North,
the Aymara people is spread out over a territory that crosses the national borders
to Bolivia and Peru. Finally, Rapa Nui is the indigenous population of Easter
Island, culturally connected to other Polynesian peoples like the Maoris in New
Zealand or the Hawaiians. A search on the Latin American online academic li-
brary Scielo shows us that academic articles published in Chile and containing
the key word intercultural refer almost exclusively to Chile’s indigenous peo-
ples (e.g. García Barrera 2009, Forno et al. 2009, Carrasco Muñoz 2005, Donoso
Romo et al. 2006), with very few publications referring to other topics, such as
migration (e.g. exile and immigration in Chilean literature, Carrasco 2005). The
contents of English Language Teaching do not seem to play a special role in this
discussion.
Specifically, there is a government programme designed for the indigenous
peoples, the Programa de Educación Intercultural Bilingüe (PEIB), which,

75
since the 1990s, has aimed to grant mother-tongue instruction to those children
belonging to indigenous communities. This educational programme started out
with rural and fairly homogeneous communities in mind. It then expanded to the
cities, especially Santiago. Donoso Romo et al. (2006) criticise the fact that the
contents of the programme concentrate on an essentialist, rural, folkloric view of
indigenous culture and do not really account for dynamic, urban indigenous
identities. What is more, workshops are mainly destined for students with indig-
enous backgrounds, in schools that serve the most marginalised sectors of socie-
ty; therefore, their impact on the Chilean society as a whole is minimal.
At this time, intercultural competence as a learning objective is not postulat-
ed for Chilean education in general, in spite of increasing contact with other cul-
tures through commerce and tourism, and especially migration from other Latin
American and also Asian countries. The latter will, sooner or later, contribute to
challenging the traditional view of a “homogenous” Chilean ethnic identity, es-
pecially in urban spaces. In the context of English Language Teaching, intercul-
tural competence still remains a marginal field both in education and research,
even in language programmes at universities. However, the reception of inter-
cultural competence theories such as Byram’s in postgraduate courses has led
some authors to propose that the development of intercultural competence be
included in general teacher training (Rubio 2009). According to Rubio, teachers
in training should be made aware of the pernicious effects that an oppressive,
“whitening” and culturally homogenising tradition in schooling has had on cul-
tural diversity and social justice in Chile, and suggests an ethnographic approach
that exploits the diversity of subcultures that are present in the country, includ-
ing the reading of (polyphonic) literature and the analysis of critical incidents, in
order to raise the levels of intercultural competence in the country’s future
teachers. Other authors suggest a slightly different focus, e.g. “facilitating pluri-
cultural encounters” in education (Peralta 1996), with a strong emphasis on lo-
cal, mainly indigenous cultures, and a revitalisation of a Latin American cultural
identity, which crosses national borders and highlights the common colonial her-
itage of all Latin American countries.
It is important to be clear about the Chilean use of the concept, as this has
important implications for the way Chilean English teachers visualise intercul-
tural communicative competence within their own field.

76
4.2.3 Knowledge and Analytical Tools: Cultural Studies
and Ethnography as Approaches towards Culture
Learning
In recent years, at least in academic discussion, two related approaches have
largely replaced the more traditional ways in which culture was taught in foreign
language classes. Instead of a facts-and-figures-based instructional programme
of area studies of specific countries, which would represent the foreign culture
as fairly static or monolithic, Cultural Studies and ethnography are now often
propagated as the most suitable approaches to apply when it comes to accessing
foreign cultures in the classroom, not least because of their compatibility with
commonly accepted constructivist views of learning, and the practical opportu-
nities they present to integrate learning goals related to media and internet com-
petences at the same time (cf. Volkmann 2010). As ethnography is mostly rele-
vant for those learners who have easy access to spending some time in the coun-
try in which the language is spoken as a mother tongue by most people, I will
focus here mainly on Cultural Studies. This multi-disciplinary movement, which
started in England after World War II, was led by the academics Raymond Wil-
liams, Richard Hoggart and E.P. Thompson. Their understanding of culture is
interesting in that it is close to critical pedagogical proposals developed at about
the same time in Latin America (especially Pablo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Op-
pressed, first published in Portuguese in 1968), with a socialist perspective of
society: “This concept of Cultural Studies aimed at developing a counter-
hegemonic perspective which would benefit working class people in the interest
of a more equitable society” (Delanoy/Volkmann 2006: 11). In this sense, a Cul-
tural Studies approach brings new perspectives both into the content of culture
learning, in that it looks more closely at popular culture and practices of every-
day life (as a reaction against cultural elitism), and into the methods used to ac-
cess this cultural content.
The methodical procedures of Cultural Studies are qualitative rather than
quantitative, as they start from the individual’s experience which is then set into
context, considering the wider societal background: “Cultural studies (…) use
individual case studies in order to analyse the complexity of current (and past)
cultures and the individual’s position in it. Cultural formations as well as indi-
vidual actions are seen as part of a larger context, in which personal, group, lo-
cal, or national meaning is negotiated” (Teske 2006: 25). The advantages in rela-
tion to the learning process are seen in the activation of emotional / affective
processes within the learner - which is important here, as it relates to our quest
to find out about the motivational potential of certain contents:

77
 “(…) factual cultural information is often collected and reduced to teachable and
memorisable chunks, which are mostly taught in an abstract way focusing on cogni-
tion. (…) Thus, the pupils have little chance to apply or transfer the information re-
ceived, or to consolidate and integrate their knowledge through habitual or emotion-
al processes. (…) New strategies therefore need to be developed, by which pupils
can connect the factual information with personal experience, and learn to apply and
extend cultural knowledge, identify cultural difference, infer and foresee cultural
problems, and finally cope with misunderstanding and communication breakdown”
(Teske 2006: 26f.).
In a process similar to inductive (vs. deductive) grammar learning, the student
moves from the study of individual cases (or “examples”) towards more factual
information about the target culture. For example, the reading of a short story
told from the perspective of a Pakistani girl living in Britain might lead on to a
review of background information on multicultural Britain: percentages of dif-
ferent ethnic groups in the main cities; geographical information about the coun-
tries of origin; and especially from a Cultural Studies Perspective, an analysis of
power relations and resistance to them (cf. Roberts 2001: 28).
One of the important new developments in approaching culture in the class-
room is that cultural topics are also used to create some kind of “cultural meta-
awareness” in students. Among the aims of Cultural Studies and ethnographic
approaches is to develop “in students the habit of constantly interrogating the
source of their knowledge and so questioning their own assumptions about how
they construct meanings, values and attitudes. This, in turn, leads to developing
the habit of relativising, of seeing one’s own and others’ worlds as socially con-
structed and not natural, normative or universal” (Roberts op.cit.:42). Part of this
process is also the understanding that there are different ways of conceptualising
culture, which can be related to the interests of certain societal groups. For ex-
ample, Moran (2001: 84ff.) presents three different points of view on culture:
The functionalist view shows culture as an integrated, harmonious (national)
whole. This view is fairly static, and (national) institutions play an important
role here in that they claim to work in the name of all, for the common good.
Critics would say that this view often represents an élite middle-class culture
that is imposed on everybody else, and needs, therefore, to be questioned. One
possible solution is to work with an interpretive view, where culture is defined
by distinct communities and members. It is more similar to a bottom-up process,
in which the insider’s view of their own cultural identity matters the most; mul-
tiple perspectives are accepted; in the end, “all culture is local”. However, to
some this is still not critical enough: the conflict view perceives culture as sepa-
rate communities in conflict. This is the most dynamic view, as it focuses on
struggles for influence, power, control: it sees the core culture in opposition to

78
micro-cultures, co-cultures or subcultures. Moran’s threefold distinction is paral-
leled by Roberts’ (op.cit.: 50 ff.), though from a more psychological standpoint,
which differentiates between, first, a cognitive view of culture, which refers
mainly to knowledge and learned behaviour, and the mental organisation of real-
ity (models for perceiving, reacting to, and interpreting material phenomena, e.g.
family relations). Second, a symbolic view, where culture is a system of public
meanings (shared and acted out publicly); here, behaviour is seen as a symbolic
action (e.g. attitudes and behaviours towards eating and food). Third, a critical
view: culture is dynamic; questions are asked about power and social change;
this view challenges essentialist notions and asks for resistance against dominant
values and social relationships. In this sense, a Cultural Studies approach can
help students to understand that all constructions of culture serve specific pur-
poses. It can also be applied to both the learner’s own culture, with a questioning
attitude towards static, monolithic views of it, and to available representations of
other cultures.
In order to allow students to access a variety of texts on certain cultural top-
ics, Volkmann (2010: 224f.) provides very useful help in guiding teachers
through the process of selecting materials: first, of course, the material should be
appropriate to the age, experience, and language level of the students; second, it
should consist of authentic and possibly “provocative” texts that have the poten-
tial to trigger emotional responses from the students; third, texts or text sequenc-
es should juxtapose various different, possibly conflicting, facets of cultural
identities. In this sense, texts that show multiple perspectives that represent vari-
ous groups of society (such as Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island) could be par-
ticularly suitable; at the same time, the selected “voices” should lead to the con-
struction of a multidimensional, but representative image of the target society.
Of course, these “texts” should include, apart from shorter or more extensive
prose, poems, pop songs, music videos, movies, interactive websites, pictures,
amongst others.
As pointed out before, of prime interest to foreign language and culture
learning are the issues of cultural hybridity and transculturality, especially in
multicultural societies, as they present a curious affinity to the language learn-
er’s condition of moving between two (or more) languages and cultures. Under a
Cultural Studies perspective, we can get to know the experiences of people who
live between two or more different cultures (migrants, members of indigenous
minorities, etc.) and who experience this mix of traditions, customs, or view-
points in a way that potentially subverts political ideologies like nationalism or
cultural chauvinism. Their viewpoint could serve as a model for developing a
new consciousness in terms of anti-racist and peace education (on a very inter-
esting classroom approach to transculturality, see Delanoy 2006: 233ff.). The

79
“state of perpetual transition” (ibid.: 235) which is described in transcultural
texts can also be exploited, in the classroom context, as a cultural parallel to the
language learner’s “interlanguage” (Selinker 1972; cf. Meyer 1993) located in
some place between the learner’s native language and native-like proficiency of
the target language.17
Culture teaching that aims towards representativeness and complexity can-
not leave out a look at the official, institutional image of national culture(s), or
up to a certain point “canonised” texts: “all interaction will make some reference
to national identity and cultural beliefs and practices, even if the people involved
are not part of the élite social group which has imposed them on the nation.”
(Byram 2000: 14) However, a Cultural Studies approach, by giving priority to
popular culture, should prove favourable for developing students’ integrative
motivation, as learners will find it easier to identify with the observed and stud-
ied cultures. Especially for ELT, when English-speaking “pop” entertainment is
present everywhere, this approach is easily compatible with the didactic princi-
ple that new information should be presented to students once it has been con-
textualised with examples that the students are already familiar with.

4.3 Conclusion
Whenever a proposal is made for the inclusion of certain learning contents, we
need to come back to our view of the role of education in society, and of what
the eventual learning outcomes of schooling should be. I can only repeat here
that I subscribe to a critical, empowering view of education that should help
young people to be able to understand the society in which they live, and bestow
upon them both competences and the necessary sense of agency to contribute to
its positive transformation towards more equity, social justice and humanity.
Without aiming to provide a conclusive list of learning objectives, the develop-

17 Claire Kramsch, in her influential monograph Context and Culture in Language Teach-
ing (1993) coined the term ‘third place’ to refer to a similar idea of the Meyer’s ‘inter-
language’ – ‘interculture’ parallel, which also includes the notion of “transculturality as
a tool for (…) cultural empowerment” (Delanoy: 237). The third place is a space in
which the language learner - whose linguistically constrained situation is marked by
“uncommon subordination and powerlessness” (Kramsch 1993:238) – explores the
“clash between the familiar meanings of the target culture and the unexpected meanings
of the target culture” as an opportunity for personal and societal development. “The per-
sonal pleasures they can derive from producing these meanings come from their power
to produce them” (ibid.).

80
ments in the discussion of cultural contents in EFL circles allow us to propose
that:
1) English learners should enjoy learning English and in this way develop a
sense of ownership of the language early on (Widdowson 1994, Norton
1997). The idea that English is a Lingua Franca that belongs to all (e.g. Jen-
kins 2006) will help them in this process; however, the necessity of reaching
certain standards of accuracy cannot be neglected, as they grant not only mu-
tual intelligibility but also respect from interlocutors.
2) English learners should be able to experience the English language as an in-
strument to access human experiences in the whole world that might be both
similar and dissimilar to their own. In this sense, they should have opportuni-
ties to identify or develop empathy with others who belong to different na-
tional or ethnic groups, and understand that there are many different ways of
facing the human condition on earth, some of which might be eye-openers
and help them understand and confront their own situation.
3) English learners should have plenty of opportunities to appreciate cultural
products of varying origins, have analytical tools to understand their meaning
for themselves and the society in which they live, and be able to detect and
criticise cultural manifestations that might impact negatively on their own or
others’ physical, mental, emotional or cultural integrity (e.g. Voigts-Virchow
2005).
4) English learners should be helped to develop clarity about the existence of
national and ethnic stereotypes and be aware of the pernicious effects that
prejudices can have when meeting people from other cultural entities. In this
sense, they should be able to reflect on these stereotypes constructively in or-
der to avoid them (Volkmann 2010).
5) English learners should be able to develop sensitivity for situations in which
differing cultural perspectives and practices might lead to misunderstandings
and possibly a breakdown of communication unless they are detected, ana-
lysed and dealt with at the right time.
6) English learners should be aware of the opportunities that they have in order
to take part in the global discourse on issues that concern them, and that have
global as well as local manifestations.
7) English learners should become familiar with the historical reasons of Eng-
lish being today’s Lingua Franca. This should include a notion of the pro-
cesses of colonisation, imperialism and globalisation, and the role that Eng-
lish-speaking countries have played in them (Farías 2005, Matsuda 2002).
8) Last but not least, English learners should have the opportunity to experience
other additional languages in conjunction with their cultures, especially those

81
 that are autochthonous to their country’s territory, and value their cultural
significance (Peralta Espinosa 1996, Phillipson & Skutnabb-Kangas 1996,
Marimán et al. 2006).

82
5. Concepts of Culture and Language in the
Chilean National Curricular Framework for
Foreign Languages / English
As outlined in Chapter 3, English as a school subject has undergone significant
changes in the past few years. I am now going to examine the governmental
guidelines for English in the publically financed part of the educational system,
especially in relation to the role of thematic topics and cultural contents within
these guidelines. In order to provide sufficient background for the teacher inter-
views, which were carried out between July 2007 and January 2009, I am going
to consider the first “reformed” version of the National Curriculum of 1998
(which was reprinted in 2004) and the update that was issued for secondary edu-
cation in 2005. Then, the latest developments will also be taken into account: the
new Curricular Framework that was issued in 2009, with important changes for
English and other subjects.
The National Curriculum (in all of the above-mentioned versions) is divided
into several sections: first of all, there are Objetivos Fundamentales Transver-
sales (abbreviated as OFTs: Cross-Curricular Objectives); then, there are Ob-
jetivos Fundamentales y Contenidos Mínimos Obligatorios (abbreviated as OF-
CMO: Fundamental Objectives and Minimum Compulsory Contents) for each of
the school subjects. The Ministry of Education, in addition, publishes study
plans to inform schools about the number of hours that each school subject
should be assigned in each year of schooling, and programmes for each subject
and each level, which are mainly intended to be supplementary material to help
teachers plan their courses and lessons, and used more or less flexibly in the dif-
ferent institutions. Also, based on the OF-CMO, publically financed schools are
allowed to write their own programmes, which have to be sent to the Ministry of
Education for approval. In those terms, the organisation of curricular decision-
making at a systemic level is semi-centralised: there is a fairly slim statutory
curricular framework, which is complemented with the option, for schools, to
use either the government programmes (with more specific learning objectives
and suggestions for activities and resources), or to present their own syllabus
(Gysling 2003, 2007). The textbooks that the Ministry of Education distributes
to the schools complement these governmental guidelines with specific, unified
material. In 9.3, I will examine in more detail the teachers’ perception of this
division of curricular decision-making, of which the de facto implementation
can vary from school to school.

83
 One of the important changes in the past few years has been the extension of
English teaching into the earlier years of primary school (from Year 7 to Year
5), with increasing curricular regulation. Although my focus is mainly on sec-
ondary education, I will briefly consider the objectives and contents for these
levels, too, according to the latest version of the curriculum (2009). Finally, as a
point of contrast concerning (inter)cultural contents, the curricular framework
for the teaching of indigenous languages in Chile will also be taken into consid-
eration.

5.1 The Government’s Vision of Society in the Cross-

Curricular Objectives (2009)
As governmental documents issued on cross-curricular objectives give valuable
insight into the kind of society that schooling is meant to produce, I would like
to briefly refer to the cross-curricular objectives outlined in the 2009 version of
the curriculum, concentrating therefore on the latest developments only. My
main interest is, of course, related to the references to culture – home culture(s)
and foreign cultures – and attitudes that are to be fostered towards both of them.
There are five areas for which cross-curricular objectives have been formu-
lated. These are: (1) personal growth and self-assertion; (2) development of
thinking; (3) ethical education; (4) the person and her/his environment; (5) In-
formation and Communication Technologies.
In the introduction, there is a reference to national identity and social inte-
gration which is then repeated several times in this document:
“Los Objetivos Fundamentales Transversales tienen por propósito profundizar la
formación de valores fundamentales, desarrollar habilidades para manejar el “mundo
digital”, para desenvolverse en él en forma competente y desarrollar en alumnas y
alumnos una actitud reflexiva y crítica, que les permita comprender y participar ac-
tivamente, como ciudadanos, en el cuidado y reforzamiento de la identidad nacional
y la integración social y en la solución de los múltiples problemas que enfrenta la
sociedad moderna.”18 (MINEDUC 2009: 23; the emphases in all quotes of this chap-
ter are mine.)

18 “The aims of the Cross-Curricular Objectives are to further the development of funda-
mental values, to develop skills to handle the “digital world”, in order to be able to deal
with it competently, and to develop students’ reflective and critical attitude, which
should allow them to understand and participate actively as citizens, in the care and fur-
ther development of national identity and of social integration, and in the solution of the
multiple problems that our modern society faces.”

84
 Under the heading “Ethical Education” several references to the concept of
otherness can be found, and also guidelines about the ways in which students are
to be taught to deal with it:
“En el plano de la formación ética se busca que alumnos y alumnas desarrollen y
afiancen la voluntad para autorregular su conducta y autonomía en función de una
conciencia éticamente formada en el sentido de su trascendencia, su vocación por la
verdad, la justicia, la belleza, el bien común, el espíritu de servicio y el respeto por
el otro.
En el ámbito de la formación ética, en Educación Básica y Media, se deben
promover los siguientes aprendizajes:
• conocer, comprender y actuar en concordancia con el principio ético que re-
conoce que todos los ‘seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos
y, dotados de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los
otros’ (Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, Artículo 1º). En consecuencia,
conocer, respetar y defender la igualdad de derechos esenciales de todas las perso-
nas, sin distinción de sexo, edad, condición física, etnia, religión o situación econó-
mica;
• valorar el carácter único de cada persona y, por lo tanto, la diversidad de mo-
dos de ser; (…)
• respetar y valorar las ideas y creencias distintas de las propias, en los espa-
cios escolares, familiares y comunitarios, con sus profesores, familia y pares, reco-
nociendo el diálogo como fuente permanente de humanización, de superación de di-
ferencias y de acercamiento a la verdad.”19 (24)
In the section on the person and her/his environment, mention is made of issues
such as gender and sexual relations, family, work ethics and team spirit, the en-
vironment and, last but not least, national identity:

19 “On the level of ethical development, students are to develop and consolidate the will to
self-regulate their behaviour and autonomy according to an ethically developed con-
science in the sense of its transcendence, its call for truth, justice, beauty, the common
good, spirit to serve, and the respect for others. In the area of ethical education, in pri-
mary and secondary education, the following learning process is to be promoted: to get
to know, understand, and act in accordance with the ethical principle that recognises
that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brother-
hood.’ (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1). In consequence, to know,
respect and defend the equality of essential rights of all people, without discrimination
of sex, age, physical condition, ethnic or economic background; to value the unique
character of each person, and, therefore, the diversity of ways of being; (…); to respect
and value ideas and beliefs different from one’s own, at school, in the families and
communities, with teachers, family and peers, recognising dialogue as a permanent
source of humanisation, of overcoming differences and progressing towards the truth.”

85
 “En relación con la persona y su entorno, los objetivos se refieren al mejoramiento
de la interacción personal, familiar, laboral, social y cívica, contextos en los que de-
ben regir valores de respeto mutuo, ciudadanía activa, identidad nacional y con-
vivencia democrática.
(…) se deben afianzar los siguientes aprendizajes: (…) conocer y valorar los ac-
tores, la historia, las tradiciones, los símbolos, el patrimonio territorial y cultural de
la nación, en el contexto de un mundo crecientemente globalizado e interdepen-
diente, comprendiendo la tensión y la complementariedad que existe entre ambos
planos.”20 (25)
It is important to note that the objectives mentioned above figure in the cross-
curricular section of the framework, and not specifically in the sub-curricular
area of history, for example. Thus, while fostering ideas and values related to
tolerance (with reference to different ethnicities and socio-economic back-
grounds), cultural diversity takes a secondary stance after the consolidation of a
national identity, as expressed in the knowledge and valuing of agents, history,
traditions, symbols etc. Globalisation is presented as a challenge in this context,
as it is perceived as creating tensions; migration, multiculturalism, or the indige-
nous peoples on Chilean territory are not mentioned specifically.

5.2 The Government’s Vision of English in Chile in

the Introductions to the Curricular Frameworks
of 2005 and 2009
An important source of information on the government’s conception of the
learning and teaching of English in the country are the introductions to the cur-
ricular frameworks for the curricular sub-area Foreign Language / English. Here,
I will only briefly consider the introductions to the 2005 and 2009 frameworks,
as they are the ones where the latest developments can be observed in sufficient
contrast. To begin with, the introduction to the curricular framework for Foreign
Language of 2005 will be examined. Note that in that year, there was not a spe-
cific framework for English yet!

20 “In relation to the person and his/her environment, the learning objectives refer to the
improvement of personal interaction, in family, work, social and civic contexts, in
which values of mutual respect, active citizenship, national identity, and democratic co-
existence should reign. (…) The following learning should be consolidated (…): to ac-
quire knowledge about and value the key figures, history, traditions, symbols, territorial
and cultural heritage of the nation, in the context of an increasingly globalised and in-
terdependent world, understanding the tension and the complementarity that exists on
both levels.”

86
 “Las demandas que la sociedad actual impone a los egresados de la Enseñanza Me-
dia son variadas y múltiples. Se requiere de su participación activa en el mundo la-
boral o en la educación superior. En este contexto, el propósito del subsector de
idioma extranjero en la Educación Media es entregar a los estudiantes una herra-
mienta que les permita acceder a información, conocimiento y tecnologías, así como
apreciar otros estilos de vida, tradiciones y maneras de pensar. Tiene por tanto pro-
pósitos de formación y enriquecimiento personal, así como instrumentales para fines
laborales, académicos o profesionales. Para alcanzarlos, se requiere de la renovación
y actualización de los contenidos y del desarrollo de habilidades lingüísticas dentro
de un marco de referencia acorde con nuestra realidad educacional, social, geográ-
fica y económica.”21 (MINEDUC 2005: 63)
In this first paragraph, it is possible to observe that the stated requirements start
from the necessities originating from societal demands, in terms of the world of
work and higher education. The intentions and aims of the school subject are
then stated in two sentences with a chiastic structure, “crossing” instrumental
and integrative reasons for learning languages: first, the foreign language is pre-
sented as a tool for accessing information, knowledge and technologies; then,
secondarily, the same tool can be used for appreciating other lifestyles, tradi-
tions and ways of thinking. The second sentence begins then with a reference to
the latter aim, by naming personal development and enrichment first, ending by
refining the former objective, referring again to instrumental (work-related, aca-
demic and professional) purposes. Finally, the paragraph ends with a list of ad-
jectives describing several features of today’s society: educational, social, geo-
graphic and economic. Culture is not mentioned literally in this first paragraph,
although the reference to lifestyles, traditions and ways of thinking clearly estab-
lishes a link to what is generally summarised as culture.
The slightly longer 2009 version repeats parts of this introductory paragraph
word-for-word. However, as the curriculum is now formulated exclusively for
English, there is greater emphasis on the characteristics of this specific lan-
guage, particularly its international status:

21 “Varied and multiple are the demands that today’s society makes on school-leavers. It is
required that they participate actively in the world of work or in Higher Education. In
this context, the purpose of the sub-curricular subject Foreign Language in Secondary
Education is to provide students with a tool that allows them to access information,
knowledge and technology, as well as to appreciate other lifestyles, traditions and ways
of thinking. It has therefore purposes of personal development and enrichment, as well
as instrumental ones with work-related, academic or professional aims. In order to
achieve them, it is necessary to renew and update the contents and the development of
linguistic skills within a framework of reference according to our educational, social,
geographic and economic reality.”

87
 “Las demandas que la sociedad actual impone a los egresados del sistema educacio-
nal son variadas y múltiples. Los cambios que ha experimentado el país como resul-
tado de su creciente inserción en el mundo globalizado exigen que alumnos y alum-
nas egresen con un manejo de un idioma extranjero que les permita enfrentar con
éxito diversas situaciones comunicativas y que, al mismo tiempo, favorezca su par-
ticipación activa en la educación superior o en el mundo laboral. En este contexto,
la enseñanza del idioma inglés resulta particularmente importante dado su amplio
uso a nivel internacional, en el ámbito de las comunicaciones en general y, en parti-
cular, en los ámbitos comercial, tecnológico y científico. El pro-pósito principal del
currículum de inglés es entregar a los y las estudiantes las habilidades necesarias pa-
ra utilizar el idioma como una herramienta que les permita acceder a la información,
así como resolver situaciones comunicativas simples de variada índole, en forma
oral y escrita. Es también un propósito importante pro-mover progresivamente el
desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas de orden superior y desarrollar la capacidad de
apreciar otros estilos de vida, tradiciones y maneras de pensar. El aprendizaje del
inglés como lengua extranjera tiene, por tanto, propósitos de formación y crecimien-
to personal, así como propósitos de orden instrumental para fines académicos, labo-
rales y otros propios del mundo juvenil.”22 (2009: 85)
The chiastic structure with instrumental and integrative motives has been re-
tained; however, there are other learning objectives that have appeared: higher-
order thinking skills, and communicative purposes in the context of the teenage
world, thus giving value to the developmental needs and wants of the students.
Further down, in the 2005 version, the instrumental aims are again described
in far more detail than those related to culture; the areas in which access to in-
formation communicated in the foreign language is useful are spelled out. On
the other hand, even though culture is mentioned twice here, there is no addi-

22 “Varied and multiple are the demands that today’s society makes on school-leavers. The
changes that the country has undergone as a result of its growing participation in the
globalised world demand that students leave school with foreign language skills that al-
low them to tackle a range of communicative situations successfully and which, at the
same time, favour their active participation in Higher Education or in the world of work.
In this context, the teaching of the English language acquires particular importance due
to its wide-ranging use on an international level, in the area of communication in gen-
eral and in particular in the areas of commerce, technology and science. The main aim
of the English curriculum is to provide students with the necessary skills to use the lan-
guage as a tool that allows them to access information, as well as resolving simple
communicative situations of various kinds, orally and in writing. Another important aim
is also to progressively promote higher-order cognitive skills and to develop the ability
to appreciate other lifestyles, traditions and ways of thinking. The learning of English
has, therefore, aims related to personal development and enrichment, as well as instru-
mental purposes with academic, work-related aims or others specifically related to the
teenage world.”

88
tional information with regard to what is understood by culture or cultural diver-
sity:
“El sub-sector idioma extranjero propone desarrollar en el estudiante de Educación
Media las habilidades necesarias para utilizar el segundo idioma como instrumento
de acceso a la información proveniente de diferentes fuentes, especialmente aquella
que se origina en los ámbitos académico, tecnológico y productivo, y como un me-
dio de comunicación y apertura a otras realidades y culturas. Se busca que los es-
tudiantes puedan comprender e interpretar discursos escritos y orales y resolver si-
tuaciones simples de comunicación oral y escrita, acordes con su nivel de desarrollo
lingüístico, psicológico y afectivo; se busca, asimismo, que a través del acceso a otra
lengua, aprecien la diversidad cultural.”23 (2005: 64)
In the new version, there are a few more hints regarding the aims of the cultural
objectives. Globalisation as a challenge for Chilean society is a pervasive idea,
leading to an emphasis on the instrumental aspects of language learning:
“Esta actualización de los Objetivos Fundamentales y Contenidos Mínimos Obliga-
torios para el aprendizaje del inglés como idioma extranjero, obedece a la necesidad
de responder a los requerimientos de la sociedad chilena de hoy, que demanda que
los y las estudiantes mejoren su nivel de inglés para enfrentar los desafíos del mun-
do global.”24 (2009: 86)
Then, after it is spelt out how students are to improve their level of English, es-
pecially their productive skills, in the second-to-last paragraph of this introduc-
tion there is another clue to understanding the “other aims” of learning English:
“Además de propósitos de orden instrumental, el aprendizaje de una lengua extran-
jera persigue fines de formación y crecimiento personal. Este fin se evidencia en los
Objetivos Fundamentales que apuntan a descubrir y conocer la presencia de otras
culturas y valorar la diversidad cultural, como asimismo, reconocer y valorar las
bases de la identidad nacional en un mundo cada vez más globalizado e inter-
dependiente. Este objetivo y otros Objetivos Fundamentales Transversales relacio-

23 “The sub-curricular area of Foreign Language proposes to develop those skills that are
necessary to the secondary student for using the second language as an instrument to
access information from different sources, especially those originating from academic,
technological and manufacturing areas, and as a means of communication and opening
up towards other realities and cultures. The goal is that students are able to understand
and interpret written and oral discourses and resolve simple oral and written communi-
cative situations, according to their level of linguistic, psychological and emotional de-
velopment. At the same time, through their access to another language, students should
come to appreciate cultural diversity.”
24 “This revised version of the General Objectives and Minimum Contents for the learning
of English as a foreign language responds to the need to meet the requirements of to-
day’s Chilean society, which demands that the students improve their level of English in
order to face the challenges of the global world.”

89
 nados con la formación ética, el desarrollo del pensamiento, la persona y su entorno,
y el crecimiento y la autoafirmación personal, tienen especial presencia y oportuni-
dad de desarrollo tanto en la selección y tratamiento de los temas como en la pro-
puesta metodológica para el desarrollo de cada una de las habilidades.” 25 (2009: 87)
There is a vague reference to “the presence of other cultures” and cultural diver-
sity. However, importantly, there is also a reference to (a homogenous?) national
identity in a globalised world. Finally, other learning goals are related to person-
al growth, without a direct link to knowledge about or attitudes towards any par-
ticular cultures.

5.3 General Learning Objectives and Minimum

Contents for English
5.3.1 The 1998/ 2004 Curriculum
In this version of the curriculum, the General Objectives and Minimum Contents
are still formulated for “Foreign Language”, not specifically for English. The
main other language that has been taught on the basis of these documents is
French.

General Objectives (Objetivos Fundamentales):

This document is very short: one page for the four years of study. Five objec-
tives are prescribed for each year; the first relates to reading comprehension; the
second to listening comprehension; the third to oral and written production26; the
fourth objective presents the number of words students should know by the end

25 “In addition to instrumental purposes, the learning of a foreign language pursues aims
of personal growth and development. This goal is reflected in the General Objectives
that aim towards discovering and becoming familiar with the presence of other cultures
and valuing cultural diversity, as well as recognising and valuing the bases of national
identity in a world that has become increasingly globalised and interdependent. This ob-
jective and other Cross-Curricular Objectives which are related to ethical education, the
development of thought, of the person and her or his environment, personal growth and
self-assertion, have special presence and opportunities for development both in the se-
lection and discussion of the topics and in the methodological proposal for the devel-
opment of each of the skills.”
26 An additional section of the programmes that are issued for each of the year groups,
concerning the expected learning outcomes (aprendizajes esperados), stipulates that an
80% of class time should be spent on the receptive skills, the remaining 20% for the de-
velopment of productive skills (MINEDUC 1998: 14f).

90
of each school year; the last is related to the personal attitudes to be developed
through learning the language. The way in which these objectives are formulated
makes it difficult to make a general observation about the way in which they
should progress over time, as there is a certain lack of consistency in the termi-
nology employed. For example, for reading comprehension, progress should be
seen in that the texts become increasingly longer and more authentic. Up to Year
11, students are explicitly “allowed” to give evidence of their comprehension in
Spanish, but in Year 12, there is no reference to the language that should be used
in student responses. In Year 10, the dictionary is mentioned as an aid for com-
prehension, but is not so noted for the other year groups. Most clearly marked is
the expected progress in the area of vocabulary: from 1000 words in Year 9 (tak-
ing into account the vocabulary acquired in primary school), to 1300 in Year 10,
1600 in Year 11, and 2000 words in Year 12. However, no distinction is made
between receptive or productive vocabulary. Concerning topics, in the first three
objectives there are some references to the world of work and education, but al-
so – interestingly - to the students’ own interests or purposes. Objective five,
which refers to attitudes, deserves to be quoted here in detail:
Year 9: “Comprender las ideas y respetar la diversidad de planteamientos, senti-
mientos y valores expresados en textos escritos y orales en la lengua extranjera.” 27
Year 10: “Desarrollar una actitud receptiva y analítica ante las distintas formas de
expresión de la lengua extranjera, valorando así la riqueza expresiva de la comuni-
cación lingüística y el conocimiento de su propia lengua.”28
Year 11: “Desarrollar una actitud positiva hacia la lectura, respeto por la diversidad
cultural e interés por la información entregada por los textos en idioma extranjero.”29
Year 12: “Apreciar la contribución del idioma extranjero a su formación integral y al
desarrollo de potencialidades aplicables en el futuro campo laboral y/o académico.” 30
(94)
Despite the observed lack of continuity in the phrasing of these objectives, we
can still discern certain key words that are repeated in some way: respect for di-

27 “To understand the ideas and respect the diversity of propositions, feelings and values
expressed in written and oral texts in the foreign language.”
28 “To develop a receptive and analytical attitude towards the various ways of expression
in the foreign language, thus valuing the expressive richness of linguistic communica-
tion and the knowledge of the students’ own language.”
29 “To develop a positive attitude towards reading, respect for cultural diversity and inter-
est in the information presented via the texts in the foreign language.”
30 “To appreciate the contribution of the foreign language to the students’ personal devel-
opment and the development of competences applicable in their future field of work
and/or academic studies.”

91
versity (twice); a positive attitude (which seems to be synonymous to receptive
and analytical here) towards different ways of expression; towards the students’
own language; towards reading; towards the contribution of the foreign language
to personal growth.

Minimum Contents (Contenidos Mínimos Obligatorios):

This document is slightly more detailed. It is spread out over nearly four pages.
The Minimum Contents are divided into three sections: Linguistic contents
(macro and micro functions, morpho-syntactic structures, vocabulary), text types
(for reading and listening comprehension) and skills (strategies and techniques
for reading, listening, speaking, and writing). Thematic contents are not explicit-
ly present here; there are very vague hints that are subsumed under the three
subtitles and mostly present in the section for text types / listening and reading
comprehension. In this sense, for example, the semantic fields for the vocabu-
lary to be acquired are governed by the discursive genres proposed in that sec-
tion. Thus, for Year 9, the proposed minimum contents for text types/ reading
comprehension reads as follows:
“Textos, auténticos o adaptados, de tipo instructivo, descriptivo, y narrativo, de lon-
gitud creciente, representativos de comunicaciones e intercambios del mundo estu-
diantil, laboral y académico; seleccionados según su extensión, complejidad, varie-
dad y proximidad a las experiencias e intereses de los estudiantes. Por ejemplo: titu-
lares, tiras cómicas, recetas, notas, cartas, invitaciones, anécdotas y cuentos cor-tos,
graffitti, bitácoras, itinerarios, listados, instrucciones, descripción de máquinas, ins-
trumentos, fenómenos, juegos u otros.” (96)31
Here is another example for listening comprehension (also year 9):
“Textos de longitud creciente, auténticos o adaptados, emitidos por personas o me-
dios audiovisuales (cassettes), emitidos por el profesor o grabados por hablantes na-
tivos, graduados de acuerdo a su extensión, complejidad, y proximidad a las expe-
riencias e intereses de los estudiantes, cautelando la variedad de los discursos y de
los medios de comunicación. Ej.: diálogos, poemas, rimas, instrucciones y adverten-
cias, canciones, etc.” (96)32

31 “Instructive, descriptive and narrative texts, authentic or adapted, of increasing length,

representative of the communication and exchanges found in the worlds of school, of
work or of academic study; selected according to their length, complexity, variety and
proximity to the students’ experiences and interests. For example: headlines, comic
strips, recipes, notices, letters, invitations, anecdotes and short stories, graffiti, diaries,
itineraries, lists, instructions, descriptions of machines, instruments, phenomena, games
or others.”
32 “Texts of increasing length, authentic or adapted, spoken live or on audiovisual media
(cassettes), spoken by the teacher or recorded by native speakers, graded according to

92
Year 10 adds a reference to “socio-cultural and leisure time activities” and as
some of the examples, biographies, travellers’ tales and stories about life experi-
ences. The selection criteria “text length, complexity and proximity to the stu-
dents’ experiences and interests” are maintained through the four levels. How-
ever, what is interesting is that whereas in years 9 and 10 fictional narrative and
poetic text types (short stories, poems, songs) are still explicitly mentioned, in
Years 11 and 12 the proposals become increasingly technically or academically
oriented, leaving aside the genres with a greater “affective” potential. Some ex-
amples are catalogues, brochures, business letters, manuals, faxes, scientific
texts, reviews of cultural activities, interviews, job applications, statistics, arti-
cles and videos.

5.3.2 The 2005 Curriculum

For “Foreign Language”, there are not many new developments in this version
of the curriculum. The general objectives and minimum contents remain the
same, with the only exception that for Years 11 and 12 there are additional ob-
jectives and minimum contents for specialist Humanities and Sciences second-
ary schools. They consider four optional specialisation modules, which can be
chosen in addition to the common framework (which are also aimed at vocation-
al-technical schools). The four modules are (1) scientific-technological; (2) vo-
cational; (3) social-communicative and (4) literary-cultural. Again, they should
be chosen according to the students’ needs and interests (MINEDUC 2005:
231). Another interesting proposal is the fourth general objective presented for
this curricular orientation, as it refers to the design of common interdisciplinary
projects (232).

5.3.3 The 2009 Curriculum

The 2009 Curriculum can be considered a real innovation. Apart from being
formulated now specifically for English (with no apparent equivalent for other
foreign languages)33, there are substantial improvements in terms of its coverage
(it embraces both primary and secondary education, ensuring therefore greater
continuity), depth (there is far more detail both in the general objectives and in

their length, complexity, and proximity to the students’ experiences and interests, pro-
viding a variety of discourses and means of communication. For example: dialogues,
poems, rhymes, instructions and warnings, songs, etc.”
33 There is, however, a (common) curriculum for Chile’s indigenous languages (see 5.4).

93
the minimum contents), structure and contents. In the elaboration of this docu-
ment, the students’ expected progress was aligned to international standards, i.e.
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Thus, in Year
8, students should reach level A2 (basic speaker: waystage / elementary); by
Year 12, students should reach level B1 (independent speaker: threshold / pre-
intermediate). Accordingly, all four language skills should now be given the
same attention (MINEDUC 2009a: 5).

General Objectives (Objetivos Fundamentales)

In this new version of the curriculum, there are now six general objectives for
each Year of study: (1) listening comprehension, (2) reading comprehension, (3)
speaking, (4) writing, (5) vocabulary and (6) personal growth and development.
There is greater consistency, detail and explicitness in all of the objectives. For
example, vocabulary should expand from 300 words in Year 5 to 1200 words in
Year 8 (primary levels), and then from 1500 words in year 9 to 3000 words in
Year 12 (secondary levels). It is explicitly stated that these numbers refer to re-
ceptive use and that students should be able to use part of it productively, ac-
cording to their needs and communicative purposes. The objectives for listening
and reading comprehension, in comparison to the previous version of the curric-
ulum, seem to be slimmer now and less ambitious, which is meant to work in
favour of a more integrated skills approach, giving greater emphasis to the pro-
ductive skills. In this sense, up to Year 12, students are only required to read
simple texts; however, from Year 9 onwards they are to develop skills for writ-
ing texts which are descriptive and narrative, if short and simple.
I would again like to quote the sixth general objective for each of the levels,
which is related to personal growth and attitudes. They gain special importance
as some of the topic contents are subordinated to them (see below):
Years 5 and 6: “Descubrir la presencia del idioma inglés en su entorno y acercarse a
su aprendizaje con una actitud de respeto que contribuya a su crecimiento personal,
y valoración de una sociedad pluralista.” (MINEDUC 2009: 92) 34
Years 7 and 8: “Desarrollar una actitud rigurosa, abierta, creativa y flexible frente al
aprendizaje del idioma inglés que le permita desarrollar el sentido de respeto y valo-
ración de la diversidad entre personas y culturas.” (100)35

34 “To discover the presence of the English language in their environment and approach
the learning of it with a respectful attitude, which should contribute to their personal
growth and the appreciation of a pluralistic society.”
35 “To develop a rigorous, open, creative and flexible attitude towards the learning of the
English language, which should allow them to develop a sense of respect and apprecia-
tion of the diversity among people and cultures.”

94
 Years 9 and 10: “Descubrir la riqueza expresiva del idioma inglés como medio de
comunicación mundial, a partir de la valoración de la riqueza expresiva de su propia
lengua, como reflejo tanto de su patrimonio cultural, como del carácter único de su
persona.” (108)36
Years 11 and 12: “Valorar la contribución del idioma extranjero a su formación in-
tegral, la confianza en sí mismo, el respeto a los demás, el sentido positivo frente a
la vida y al desarrollo de potencialidades aplicables en el futuro campo académico
y/o laboral.” (116)37
In comparison to the previous version of the curriculum, a few substantial im-
provements can be observed. On the one hand, there is greater consistency in
terms of the idea of personal growth and the students’ relationship with a diverse
world; it moves from the students’ own (pluralistic) world towards diverse cul-
tures and finally the awareness of English being a global language. In this sense,
completely new elements are the reference to a pluralistic society and to English
as a world-wide means of communication. Appreciation of the students’ own
language as a learning goal is maintained; however, now, it is progressing from
the students’ own linguistic experience here towards the English language, not
the other way round, as previously stated. It is also worth noting that references
to a more instrumental “applicability” of English skills are left for the end,
whereas a respectful and positive attitude towards “diversity” and cultural “rich-
ness” cuts across all of the levels.

Minimum Contents (Contenidos Mínimos Obligatorios):

For the new curriculum, the minimum contents were also organised from a new
perspective. They are now divided into five different sections, beginning with
Topics, and then covering the four skills (Listening Comprehension, Reading
Comprehension, Oral Expression and Written Expression). The functional-
notional / discourse approach that was over-emphasised in the previous version
has thus been widely overcome, and finally topics are given their deserved
prominence, at least in the primary levels (cf. Hutchinson & Waters 1987: 85ff.).
There is also a marked progression in terms of topics:

36 “To discover the expressive richness of the English language as a means of world-wide
communication, starting from the appreciation of the expressive richness of their own
language, as a reflection both of their cultural heritage, as well as the uniqueness of
themselves as a person.”
37 “To value the contribution of the foreign language to their personal development, their
self-esteem, respect for others, a positive sense towards life and the development of
competences applicable in their future field of academic studies and/or work.”

95
• Year 5: School and the classroom; home and family life; food and health; na-
ture / the immediate natural environment (flora and fauna).
• Year 6: Myself, my family and personal relationships; leisure time and social
activities; holidays and special events; the city and other places.
• Year 7: Friends; sports and sports events; the people, places, customs and
traditions of my country; the environment and its protection.
• Year 8: Famous people and places; addictions and self-care; life in other
countries and communities; traditions, popular music and literature of other
countries.
However, this approach is only partially followed through in the secondary lev-
els. Even though “topics” are still the first point in the document, now they are
stated – for the four levels, from Years 9 to 12 - as quoted:
“Las habilidades en este nivel se desarrollarán resguardando la incorporación del
sexto objetivo fundamental y en el contexto de temas que sean representativos de la
cultura juvenil y del mundo estudiantil, y seleccionados según criterios de familiari-
dad, relevancia y pertinencia.”38 (117)
The sections that refer to the development of the four skills are each divided into
two parts: the first part gives a description of the texts that are to be used or pro-
duced; the second part lists the strategies and techniques that should be used for
achieving comprehension or expression successfully. Even though for secondary
school the topics are not stated in greater detail, the descriptions of the texts in
these first parts still gives some clues as to the genres and consequently, the top-
ic areas that are to be given preference. In these parts, there is a fair amount of
continuity from the previous version of the curriculum. However, the problem
that was criticised before, i.e. that text types with a greater “affective” potential
were left behind from Year 11 onwards, seems to have been tackled, at least in
part: up to year 12, informative, descriptive and narrative text types are explicit-
ly mentioned. Even though, for reading, again, in year 11 the text types become
increasingly job- or study-oriented and include, as before, genres such as busi-
ness letters and scientific texts, for listening comprehension songs and poems
are present in all levels. In year 10, as in the previous version, stories and travel-
lers’ tales are still part of the curricular proposals. Finally, another development
is that of authenticity, one of the criteria of text selection from year 5 onwards
(adapted texts are “allowed” up to year 10), is no longer tied up with nativeness,

38 “The skills in this level should be developed safeguarding the incorporation of the sixth
general objective and in the context of topics representative of youth culture and the
students’ world, and selected according to criteria concerning familiarity, relevance and
pertinence.” (For the sixth general objective, see above.)

96
as recorded audio material can be spoken by both native and non-native speak-
ers.

5.4 The Intercultural Paradigm in Chile: Education

for the Indigenous Population
In order to establish some contrast with the situation presented for the curricu-
lum in general (in the Cross-Curricular Objectives) and for English specifically,
I would like to briefly refer to the Curricular Framework presented for Indige-
nous Languages, which forms part of the same document (MINEDUC 2009:
121-143). Chilean law recognises as Indigenous Peoples of Chile the Mapuche,
Aymara, Rapa Nui, Likan Antai, Diaguita, Quechua, Colla, Kawáshkar /
Alacalufe y Yámana / Yagán peoples, and establishes that in those territories
with a high density of indigenous population, schools must offer the respective
language in their curriculum. However, it is not compulsory for the students to
take the subject. In those parts of the country with a lower density of indigenous
population, schools can voluntarily offer the subject, with the aim of favouring
bilingualism and interculturality (122).
The country that is represented in this part of the document is quite different
to the one presented in the other parts. For example, it commences with the fo-
llowing introduction:
“Chile es un país multicultural y plurilingüe, en el cual convergen una diversidad de
culturas y sistemas lingüísticos, lo que impone el desafío de convertir la escuela en
un espacio educativo en el cual se asegure a niños y niñas de culturas y lenguas dife-
rentes, el acceso a oportunidades de aprendizaje de las lenguas indígenas, de modo
sistemático y pertinentes a su realidad.”39 (121)
Later on, it is affirmed that the indigenous peoples and their cultures are valued,
as they form part of the roots of the Chilean nation. Intercultural Bilingual Edu-
cation (which is the system that embraces the curricular framework for indige-
nous languages) aims at preparing indigenous students to cope adequately in
their original society as well as in global society (ibid.).

39 “Chile is a multicultural and multilingual country, where a diversity of cultures and lin-
guistic systems converge, which imposes the challenge to convert school into an educa-
tional space ensuring access, for children of different cultures and languages, to oppor-
tunities to learn the indigenous languages in a systematic manner which is pertinent to
their reality.”

97
 The conception of language and its close interconnection with culture that is
presented in this part of the document is greatly different to the way in which
English is described:
“La lengua es un conocimiento esencial en la comprensión y valoración de la cultu-
ra, por lo que este sector enfatiza el aprendizaje de la lengua y fomenta, a través de
la lengua, la aproximación a la cultura, ya que desde el aprendizaje del idioma se
pueden aprender aspectos fundamentales de una cultura, tales como la circularidad
del tiempo, la relación de parte a todo con la naturaleza, la posición y definición de
la persona en relación con el entorno, la armonía entre pares.”40 (121)
In terms of the General Objectives that are presented for this elective subject of
education, there is a marked presence of the idea of interculturality, which be-
comes, as the age of the students increases, more and more detached from the
immediate indigenous context, moving towards greater inclusiveness of cultural
diversity in general:
Year 5: “Comprender situaciones de relación intercultural y resolución de problemas
desde la perspectiva indígena.”41 (130)
Year 7: “Comprender y analizar situaciones interculturales en contexto indígena y
no indígena.”42 (136)
Year 8: “Comprender la riqueza de las distintas lenguas como expresión de las cul-
turas que simbolizan. (…) Valorar la existencia de la diversidad lingüística y cultu-
ral, que favorece la práctica de la interculturalidad.”43 (139)
As an example of the way in which these general objectives are developed in the
minimum contents, in the framework for Year 7, students are to analyse intercul-
tural relations in indigenous and non-indigenous tales, and to analyse and com-
ment on intercultural communicative situations in relation to interaction forms
and the use and value of the indigenous language (138).

40 “Language is essential knowledge in the comprehension and valuing of culture. For this
reason, this subject area emphasises the learning of the language and fosters, through
the language, the approach to the culture, given that from the learning of the language
fundamental aspects of a culture can be learned, such as the circularity of time, the rela-
tionship of part and oneness with nature, the position and definition of the person in re-
lation to his/her environment, the harmony between peers.”
41 “To understand situations to do with intercultural relations and the solution of problems
from an indigenous perspective.”
42 “To understand and analyse intercultural situations in indigenous and non-indigenous
contexts.”
43 “To understand the richness of different languages as an expression of the cultures
which they symbolise. To value the existence of linguistic and cultural diversity, which
favours the practice of interculturality.”

98
 In relation to other contents, in comparison to the English curriculum there
is also far greater detail in terms of the cultural dimensions and aspects to be
treated in class. For example, in year 5, students are familiarised with topics re-
lated to the conceptualisation of space and time according to an indigenous view
of the world (132); in year 6, local and territorial historical memory play a key
role in the curriculum; later, both traditional and topical texts about their own,
but also other indigenous realities and histories are analysed and produced.
Of course, the formal schooling in one’s own communities’ (endangered)
language and traditions must be treated differently from the acquisition of a for-
eign language which is used globally with a high emphasis on instrumental
transactions. It must be taken into account that the status of English is often per-
ceived as a challenge to cultural identities of non-English speaking communities
all over the world. However, in my view, the potential that the expansion of
English teaching in Chile has for including intercultural learning for all has not
been fully exploited yet, in spite of the awareness that exists in relation to the
indigenous languages and cultures.

5.5 Conclusion
Before summing up, I would like to emphasise that none of Chile’s recent gov-
ernments have shown a commitment to seriously challenge the status quo of the
distribution of power in Chile’s neoliberal society through its educational poli-
cies or a critical centralised curriculum, together with its complementary materi-
als and statutory requirements. Maybe it would also be naïve to expect this. In
this sense, at least in theory, the slimness of the curriculum has the advantage of
leaving a good deal of curricular decision-making to the schools and teachers
themselves. The teachers’ perception of the practical de facto situation will be
analysed in chapter 9.3.44
To conclude, I would like to make the following observations about the cur-
ricular framework for foreign language / English education in Chile:
1) Up until 2005, the curricula were formulated for Foreign Languages in gen-
eral. They had a marked prioritisation of the development of receptive skills,
which must have been based on the premise that in the given context, most of
foreign language interaction would be one-directional, the Chilean students
being exposed to foreign language materials without having to respond in the

44 Some of the difficulties related to the development of local curricula in a semi-

centralised curricular organisation are outlined in Gysling 2007: 346f.

99
 foreign language. This fact explains in part why intercultural communicative
competence (as for face-to-face interactions) is not a required learning objec-
tive. Also, without reference to a specific language, and consequently, to a
specific target culture, it was impossible to formulate any specific target cul-
tural contents. In terms of the selection of thematic topics, the students’ inter-
est and experience were always prioritised over strictly standardised govern-
mental guidelines.
2) With the renewed version of the curriculum of 2009, and the specification of
English as a school subject, the emphasis given to the teaching of the recep-
tive language skills was changed towards a more equalitarian integration of
the productive skills, thus giving credit to increased opportunities to interact
actively with other English speakers. Although topics are now prescribed for
the primary school years, they are, for the most part, fairly abstract and appli-
cable to different cultural contexts.
3) It is clear that the curricular framework for English subscribes to a Lingua
Franca conception of the language: there is explicit reference to English as a
global means of communication; audio material can be recorded by both na-
tive and non-native speakers; in addition, there is not one single instance in
which the English language is brought into the context of the Anglo-
American cultures, or any other specific culture or country. Rather, the guide-
lines refer to “other communities and countries” in general, allowing teachers
to make a definite selection at their own discretion, while taking into account
the students’ interests. The students are not asked to develop specific atti-
tudes towards or knowledge about English-speaking countries.
4) An effort is made to balance instrumental and integrative reasons for learning
English; the former are brought into context with the globalised world; the
latter are more closely linked to personal development and growth; none of
them is related to contact with any specific cultural group or nation or to a
particular aspect of (a) foreign culture. Learning objectives aiming for the
development of cultural awareness are extremely vague and without the de-
tail and richness that have been presented for the development of skills and
linguistic objectives.
5) The only national culture that is explicitly mentioned is Chile’s itself. Alt-
hough there is repeated reference to cultural diversity and, in the newest ver-
sion, mention of a pluralistic society, the whole of the curricular framework
seems to aim at a rather homogenous national identity, which is to be consol-
idated through all subjects, including English.
6) Globalisation is mentioned in the section on cross-curricular objectives, in
the English framework and in that on indigenous languages. In general terms
it is described as a challenge, even as a factor of tension against a supposedly

100
 homogeneous national identity. However, there is no reference to migration
(both into and from Chile) as an issue related to globalisation.
7) The only place in the curriculum in which Chile is described as a multicultur-
al society, and in which intercultural learning objectives are formulated, is
the framework for indigenous languages. However, it must be remembered
that this subject is not compulsory for any student in the country, and that
those schools that have only a minority of indigenous students in their catch-
ment area are not obliged to teach the subject. In this sense, it appears that the
government prioritises a homogenising agenda for the majority, while mar-
ginalising culturally diverse sectors. Intercultural education as a pedagogical
proposal remains as isolated as the communities that could be favoured by
such approach (cf. Rubio 2009).
8) There are no visible attempts to include cross-curricular or subject-specific
(English) objectives related to the development of intercultural awareness, let
alone, intercultural competence, for all students. However, as the inclusion of
a framework for indigenous languages shows, there seems to be certain
awareness that Chile does present degrees of multiculturalism. By the way
the curriculum is constructed, it appears that it is only the minority (indige-
nous) groups that need to be trained and prepared specifically for living in a
multicultural society, whereas the majority can rely on vague indications that
point towards respect of cultural diversity in very general terms.

It is clear that the expansion that English teaching in Chile has experienced in
the past few years poses an enormous challenge to schools and, in particular, to
English teachers. In the view of some teachers, the new curricular framework as
it is, with higher demands on the development of productive skills, is already
difficult to implement. Asking for the inclusion of intercultural learning objec-
tives might seem an even greater burden for many English teachers at this mo-
ment. However, in the context of this research, I believe it is necessary to detect
some of the weaknesses and potentials that the current curriculum presents. In
my opinion, in the future a greater effort could be made to join forces and to in-
clude some of the advances that have already been made in the area of intercul-
tural education for the indigenous peoples into the curricular frameworks of
English in order to promote intercultural learning in all sectors of society, aim-
ing at an anti-racist education that will actively promote a positive integration of
majority Chilean, indigenous and immigrant population sectors (cf. also Gysling
2007: 341 and the proposals contained in “Petitorio de Secundarios” 2011). In
this way, English as the intercultural school subject could gain cognitive, affec-
tive and social depth, and could benefit from the inclusion of motivating and

101
stimulating contents. This is probably more feasible and plausible than calling
for the teaching of indigenous languages to all, desirable as it may seem.
Apart from the curricular framework, other governmental documents are
progress maps and programmes for the different subjects and year groups. How-
ever, as they are not binding for all schools, but rather to be used as suggestions,
I prefer to focus on an analysis of the most widely used textbooks in Chile, in
the coming chapter.

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6. Cultural Content Analysis of Some of the
Most Commonly Used Textbooks in English
Teaching in Chile
In this chapter I will examine three textbooks or courses for English teaching in
Chilean secondary schools, which have been commissioned for and distributed
to publically funded schools by the central government in past years. The choice
of the analysed textbooks is partly based on the date of the research: Going
Global and Global English were compulsory during the years in which the
teacher interviews were carried out (2007-2009). I left out another book, In Con-
tact, which was also distributed to schools in 2007-2008, as nearly all the inter-
viewed teachers informed me that they were not using it due to its advanced lev-
el. Instead, I added Go for Chile!, a choice made on repeated recommendations
from the teachers in the interviews (cf. chapter 9.3). All the textbooks that are
analysed here are special editions (sometimes adapted from other editions)
commissioned by the Chilean Ministry of Education and distributed free of
charge to all public and state-subsidised private secondary schools in Chile; they
are not available for sale in bookshops.

6.1 The Leading Questions for the Analysis

One of the aims of this research is to establish what kinds of (cultural) contents
have potential to generate student motivation, especially through opportunities
for identification. Therefore, the analytical tools applied here are more directly
concerned with the topic contents presented in the coursebooks, rather than with
criteria related to language acquisition processes. Of course, this does not mean
that I do not recognise the importance of these in other research contexts. Addi-
tionally, as stated before, this investigation is strongly committed to a critical
and empowering view of education, and English learning and teaching (cf.
Chapter 4.3). In this sense, apart from considering the developments in Culture-
and-Language Teaching presented in Chapter 4, such as the status of English as
a Lingua Franca, models of intercultural learning, and analytical instruments
derived from Cultural Studies, the framework is based on Critical Discourse
Analysis and related proposals (Fairclough 2001, Volkmann 1999, 2010; cf. also
Kubanek-German 2005, Gray 2000, 2002, Farías 2005).
The leading questions for the analysis of the textbooks are therefore the fol-
lowing:

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1) Is there a tendency to teach English “without a culture”, focusing on suppos-
edly universal (occidental) topics stripped of their cultural particularities, or
does culture – in whichever form – play an essential role in the selection of
texts, topics, and pictures?
2) Beyond the development of English language skills, what are the stated or
implicit educational goals of the textbooks, and how are they translated into
topic contents and tasks? Is there an explicit or clearly marked link to some
of the outlined proposals, such as peace education, education for international
understanding, or world citizenship education (cf. chapter 4)? To the gov-
ernments’ aim to strengthen the students’ sense of national identity? Or to
some of the more critical pedagogue’s vision of a “Latin American educa-
tion” (e.g. Peralta 1996, Pinto 2008)?
3) How is the global status of the English language treated? Can it lead to the
development of “critical language awareness” (Farías 2005)?
4) Are global issues given centre stage? If so, which are they, and how are they
connected to the idea of English being a global language?
5) What (national) cultures are considered in the selection of coursebook con-
tents? If there is a variety of different cultures, what proportion of the content
is dedicated to the home culture (Chile), to target cultures / inner circle coun-
tries, and/or to international target cultures (outer and expanding circle coun-
tries) respectively (Cortazzi & Jin 1999)? Does the selection open up the pos-
sibility of developing a “deeper” understanding of (a) culture, or does the
presented range lead to a bland, superficial treatment of cultural aspects?
6) Which cultural aspects are presented, and how are they dealt with? Do the
texts in the textbooks point at a homogeneous, even stereotypical representa-
tion of the cultures or are they committed to presenting a heterogeneous pic-
ture, considering dominant (or mainstream), alternative, and oppositional (or
resistant) discourses (cf. Fairclough 2001:124)45, and thus giving students
opportunities both to identify with some aspects and to develop multiple,
possibly critical, perspectives on the culture(s) in question?
7) How does the coursebook aim at developing intercultural awareness? Is there
room for the discussion of differences and similarities in cultural practices,
and is there an emphasis on one or the other? In the way in which foreign cul-
ture(s) are presented, can students get a sense of the relative “normality” of
foreign practices, or is there a tendency to highlight the exoticism of cultural-
ly different aspects? Are there textual offers for students to change their eth-
nocentric perspective and see a foreign culture “from within”, using an emic
perspective (cf. Moran 2001)?

45 Pennycook (2001: 83) prefers the terms discourse and counter-discourse.

104
8) Finally, how does the textbook contribute to the students’ gaining “owner-
ship” of the English language (e.g. Widdowson 1994, Norton 1997, Canaga-
rajah 1999, Mackay 2002)? What potentials are there for identification with
fictional or non-fictional characters appearing in the textbooks – not only in
the written and spoken texts, but also in the pictures?
In order for the reader to gain a quick overview of some of the most important
textbook features, I will use tables to present summarised information on topics,
genres and perspectives, places featured (or mentioned) in the texts, names of
fictional and real people mentioned, and important characteristics of the pictures
illustrating the texts. The reason why I have decided to analyse the skin and hair
colour of the people that appear in drawings or photographs in the textbooks is
mainly related to the identification factor: the pictures obviously form part of the
discourse of the textbooks, and can reinforce - or reverse - the discourse of the
written texts. To the students, they are the most directly accessible part of the
book they are using. In these terms, the potential for identification with English
or English speakers might be influenced by the physical characteristics of the
people who represent ownership of the language in the textbooks.46
In the main text of this chapter, I will first summarise the most important in-
formation given in the introductions to the Teacher’s Books, as they outline the
authors’ perspectives and intentions behind the more “visible” student books.
Then, I will summarise the most important findings from the analyses, based on
the questions above. Whenever there are emblematic texts that are particularly
useful to illustrate the cultural tendency of the textbook, they will be analysed in
more detail.

6.2 Going Global 1 / 2 (Years 9 and 10), 2007-2008

Going Global, for Years 9 and 10 (authors: David Mower, Michael Harris, Anna
Sikorzynska), is a course that was written for the England-based publishing
company Pearson Education and then adapted for use in secondary education in

46 In images used in Chilean advertising, light-skinned, blue-eyed people are largely

overrepresented, making the dark-haired, dark-eyed and brown-skinned majority rela-
tively invisible (cf., for example, “Cuestionan a U. de Concepción”, 2011). On the other
hand, I am aware of the fact that adding an analytical category based on racial features
might constitute a racialist practice in itself. Just as with our place of birth, none of us
have chosen the skin or hair colour we were born with, or the language which we were
brought up to speak. We can only choose to be aware of discriminatory practices that
are based on racial features, and not to contribute to these practices ourselves.

105
various countries, especially in Eastern Europe and South America. The intro-
duction to the Teachers’ Book (Guía Didáctica para el Profesor) begins with a
section entitled “Key Features”, followed by nine subtitles referring to the most
important characteristics of the book. The first is “Topic-based modules” and
describes the way in which topic contents are organised in the book:
“The basic premise of the course is that secondary students learn English best when
they are dealing with interesting and meaningful content. Thematic input provides a
context for language and communication and supplies a series of cognitive ‘anchors’
for learning which are crucial in a monolingual learning environment.” (Muggle-
stone 2006: 8)
The description then continues to explain the organisation of the course in eight
topic-based modules, each with several sub-topics to provide both variety and
thematic depth at the same time. The topics aim to cover three kinds of content:
first, “topics related to the student’s own world”, relating to topics that are sup-
posedly of “universal” interest to teenagers and young adults, such as free time,
sports stars, parties, shopping, going out/travel, holidays, music and dance and
design (for Going Global 1) and extreme sports and expeditions, newspaper sto-
ries and films, clean means of transport, important issues, the price fame, life in
the future, schools, job possibilities and voluntary work (for Going Global 2);
second, “cross-curricular themes”, e.g. science and information technology, ma-
rine life, the arts, business – “dealing with money/awareness of consumerism
and the importance of moral values/advertising”, social studies – “serious social
issues such as homelessness (…), disability and racism”; third, “cultural input”:
“Some of this is about different cultures around the world (e.g. Indonesian wed-
dings/Indian festivals (…). However, most of the input in the book is on Eng-
lish-speaking cultures. (…) There is also a focus on English [sic] literature.
There are literary texts in the modules: Edgar Allan Poe (…) and Sandra Cisne-
ros” (ibid.). After this introduction to the thematic organisation of the course,
there are other “key features” related to objectives and outcomes; the structure
of modules, lessons and tasks; a process approach to skills; the development of
the four language skills (40% reading, 40% listening and 20% writing and
speaking, as stipulated by the then valid National Curriculum); the inductive ap-
proach to grammar; vocabulary learning in context; language recycling; learner
development towards independence; and “culture and OFTs”. I will quote the
latter:
“Input about English-speaking cultures appears frequently. The Culture Corner spots
supplement this in different lessons. Here students reflect on the differences between
the target cultures and their own. Information and activities are arranged so that stu-
dents can reflect upon differences and similarities while gaining insights and aware-
ness of their own culture in relation to others. Some spots also provide extra cultural

106
 input in the form of short listening tasks. (…) Quote… unquote spots, which appear
throughout the Student’s Book, provide interesting cultural insights and can be use-
ful tools for the development of students’ ethical and personal issues. (…) More cul-
tural input is provided in the Culture Corner spots (…). These consist of fact files
and magazine articles plus accompanying tasks. Each module contains suggestions
for the OFTs47, providing ample opportunities for students to: deal with ethics; de-
velop self-esteem and critical thinking skills; gain an appreciation for their role in
society as responsible and productive citizens.” (11-12)
In order to examine the way in which cultural contents are presented to the stu-
dents, I have analysed the first four (of eight) modules of Going Global 1; I
think this is sufficient to be able to gain an understanding of the structure of the
book. For the remaining four modules, I have summarised the most important
cultural features. Finally, all Culture Corners, including the ones of Going
Global 2, are given special consideration.
Cultural contents do play an important role throughout the textbook. What
might be surprising, up to a certain point, is the importance that Britain is given,
together with the effort to make a close connection to the local, Chilean identity.
References to British characters (e.g. “Brian Blakey from Birmingham”, p. 10),
places, institutions (e.g. the BBC) or symbols (e.g. a red Austin Mini in an illus-
tration) do not only appear as special features in main texts, but also in shorter
exercises, in the directions given at the bottom of an advertisement or when
prices of products are given in British pounds. After the UK, Chile is the second
most mentioned country; however, in numbers it only receives half the attention
of the UK, and only a third of special features. Other English-speaking countries
(especially the USA) appear about as much as Chile; other countries hardly ever
receive special attention; they may appear in lists of countries to which a Chile-
an sportsman has travelled (p. 28), or of the origins of many of the international
restaurants in Britain (p. 33).

47 Objetivos Fundamentales Transversales (Cross-curricular objectives), cf. chapter 5.1.

107
Table 5: Places in Going Global 1, modules 1-4 (numbers refer to times these places or
places within these countries or regions are mentioned in reading or listening
texts and exercises; bold numbers refer to “special features”)
Chile 24; of these, 3 17%; 15%
Latin America 6 4%
UK 48; of these, 9 34%; 47%
Other English-speaking / Inner Circle countries 23; of these, 4 16%; 21%
Other countries 39; of these, 3 27%; 15%

Also, especially for Britain, it seems that the approach towards national cul-
tures is fairly static, emphasising the positive sides of a country, and omitting
the internal cultural diversity of a place. Sometimes this leads to a tourist guide
approach, like in the Culture Corners on Scotland and London.
“Teresa is going to visit London. Use the brochure to answer as many of her ques-
tions as you can. / 1 What is there to do if it rains? / 2 Where can you go shopping? /
3 Where can you see a play? / 4 What royal buildings can you see?” (p. 117)
There is no reference to multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural London
which is probably what strikes the foreign visitor the most when first arriving in
this city. However, in the Culture Corner on “Eating in Britain” (p. 33), there is
a more dynamic approach, with more and different perspectives offered. It is
clear that the stereotype of terrible British food is broken. Here, after presenting
the way in which things have changed in the movement towards excellent, inter-
national food and increasing vegetarianism, there is also a reflection on “some
bad news” about “more and more fast food” and “our ready-made dinner”,
which “we” (= the British?) put “into the microwave before sitting down in front
of the TV”. This reflection is not related to “good and bad news about food
world-wide” or specifically Chile. The emphasis that British culture is given,
sometimes in a patent essentialist way (cf. Said 1978/2003), raises the question
about the cultural pertinence of the presented contents. This is especially true for
the unit on “Seasonal festivals” (p. 44), where two of the three short texts are
about ancient traditions in Cornwall. Only the third text, which talks about the
origin of Halloween, can reasonably be used for lessons in Chile, because of the
world-wide commercialisation of this festival. On the other hand, the opportuni-
ty to reflect upon its world-wide spread (critically or not) is missed.
The spread of English as a global language is not turned into a topic in its
own right. In spite of this, the approach taken here is to present different (inner
circle) English-speaking countries in various ways: the USA reappears in vari-
ous exercises and shorter texts. Scotland and New Zealand feature in two differ-
ent Culture Corners in Going Global 1, other inner circle countries are presented

108
in the Culture Corners in Going Global 2: Ireland and Wales again from a fairly
static and essentialist standpoint; however, the Culture Corners on Australia
(with special focus on the Aborigines) and Canada (with special focus on multi-
culturalism) try to show a more detailed and multi-perspective picture on just
one page. Outer circle countries are not mentioned as such. There is one unit on
weddings with a short text, adapted from an “expat” web site, about dos and
don’ts for (English-speaking) expatriates living in Indonesia and attending “eth-
nic weddings”, followed by a description of a traditional Chinese wedding.
Whereas in most of the texts about Britain, an “insider” (emic) perspective is
taken, often with a first person (singular or plural) speaker, here the “outsider”
(etic) perspective is taken to the extreme of describing a foreign wedding custom
as odd, as it differs from an occidental perspective: “One strange thing is that the
bride’s family sends [the presents] back if they don’t like them.” (p. 41)
On the other hand, there is a marked intention to lead students towards both
intra- and intercultural awareness, especially through a comparative approach.
For instance, the “Culture Corner” pages, which appear after every second mod-
ule, are immediately followed by pages guiding students to collect and present
information on a related topic from “My Culture” (e.g. on Chilean food after the
page on Food in Britain, p. 33/34). Also, after most of the reading and listening
comprehension tasks, there are thinking and discussion tasks with the title “Be-
fore you go on…” and a subtitle “How about you?”, which are often related to
the cross-curricular objectives and have the potential to help students to develop
their critical thinking about cultural issues, or about topics related to personal
health and care, for example. However, a few problems can be detected in the
way certain issues are dealt with, for example by looking at Module 1 (“Life-
styles”). One of the units under this heading of “Lifestyles” is about homeless
people. Is this sarcasm, or do the textbook writers really want to suggest that
living “underground” in New York is just another lifestyle option? Presenting
homelessness in one of the world’s most glamorous cities as a feature text is def-
initely a step towards deconstructing stereotypes about exclusively rich and suc-
cessful US-Americans; however, the reasons for which these people live in an
abandoned railway tunnel and not in apartments or houses are not given in the
text (p. 16).48 There is another short text on the 2006 earthquake in Northern
Chile on the opposite page; it also refers to the problem of people who are

48 The Chilean educationalist Pinto, in El currículo crítico (2008: 43), quotes his Brazilian
colleague Da Silva, pointing out that one of the rhetorical strategies used by neoliberal
currents in education is to depict misery and poverty as personal decisions. Going
Global is certainly a good example for this; if it was an indeliberate slip, it is just anoth-
er sign that this kind of neoliberal logic has become part of mainstream thinking and
discourse.

109
homeless because they lost their houses in this natural disaster. At the bottom of
the page, the “How about you?” task reads as follows: “Are there any homeless
people in your city? Why are they homeless? What can you suggest to solve
their problem? Discuss with your partner.” Ideas, or at least words and expres-
sions to accomplish this task in simple English (such as “expensive rents”) are
given neither in the texts nor in an additional box with key words.
The inclusion of topics such as “campaigners” (p. 26/27) proves that there is
also an aim to contribute to world citizenship education. Here, photos and short
listening extracts refer to the following people: Vaclav Havel, Mother Theresa,
Mary Robinson, Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King and Jane Goodall.
Including a range of different campaigners with varying origins and causes cer-
tainly makes sense. It is also a great opportunity to include some oppositional
discourses, even if they have turned into alternative discourses widely accepted
by the mainstream after so many years. The problem is that many Chilean 14
year-olds might find it difficult to relate to more than one or two of them; the
cause of a person like Vaclav Havel has no direct impact on their lives in Chile,
and it is unlikely that they will encounter his name soon again. As the textbook
was written for a variety of countries, including Eastern Europe, and was subse-
quently adapted for use in Chile, the question arises: why has no effort been
made to look for regionally and culturally more representative campaigners? It
is clear that the reference to some leaders of social movements in Latin America
could hurt political sensitivities; however, somebody like Guatemalan Rigoberta
Menchú could well have substituted the European campaigners here. Another
option could have been to simply leave them out, and only leave three or four of
the more famous people.
It is also worth mentioning that whereas Chilean national identity is certain-
ly reinforced through the inclusion of Chilean characters (e.g. the disabled tennis
player Robinson Méndez, p. 28) or events (as in the earthquake text mentioned
above), there is clearly no intention to expand this national identity towards a
regional Latin American one through noticeable and repeated references to other
Latin American countries or cultures. The only clear exceptions are a few loose
references to Brazilian football, a feature text on Latin American dance (a cliché
shown from a European perspective?, p. 94/95) and another one on indigenous
pottery in the last module (p. 108/109), which might not be considered by teach-
ers due to its length, complexity and location in the textbook.
How about opportunities for identification for the target audience? Probably
the most important efforts to reach this consist in the fictional names in exercis-
es, many of which are in Spanish, and some references to Chile in feature texts,
pre- and post-reading questions and exercises.

110
Table 6: Names in Going Global 1, modules 1-4
Fictional names in English 38 (mainly in reading or listening
texts)
Fictional names in Spanish 47 (mainly in exercises)
Fictional names of (possibly) other origins 4
Proper names of English-speaking people 36
Proper names of Spanish-speaking people 3
Proper names of people from other countries or origins 11

In this context, the visual illustrations gain special importance. Some pic-
tures feature Chilean or Latino people or institutions (e.g. a Chilean police
woman on p. 12). However, the great majority shows pictures of Northern or
Central European (light-skinned, often blonde) people. Only a few pictures point
towards the multi-ethnicity present in English-speaking countries, like the two
girls collecting money for Save the Animals on p. 51. However, together with
the lack of reference to English as a global language, it is implicitly suggested
that English, rather statically, belongs to Britain, with some concessions to other
inner circle countries. Opportunities to develop critical language awareness are
thus not exploited.
In the more narrative parts of the textbook, there is often an interior perspec-
tive given through the use of the 1st person singular. However, as not all stories
are always well contextualised, some opportunities for real identification are
missed. For example, for the extract from the novel The House on Mango Street
by Mexican American writer Sandra Cisneros there is only some background
information in the teacher’s book. This could have been an excellent opportunity
to build a bridge between Latinos in the USA, stories of emigrants (of which
there are many in Chilean families) and the Chilean reality here (cf., for exam-
ple, Delanoy 2006 on uses of Chicana literature in the EFL classroom; also Re-
bolledo & Rivero 1993).
To sum up, in cultural terms Going Global is definitely a problematic text-
book for Chile, in spite of its many efforts to foster cultural awareness, and de-
spite the great pains that have been taken to include texts and tasks with local
references. The greatest problem is its over-dimensioned focus on Britain, which
to many students here is a remote place with little relevance to their own lives,
especially as there is little chance that they will be able to visit it some day. Un-
less the teacher is excellent at relating these contents back to her or his students,
this probably causes alienation, rather than motivation. Other problems are relat-
ed to the static, one-dimensional and essentialist way in which some of the for-
eign cultures are presented. Opportunities to give English the global twist that is

111
referred to in the title of the book are scarce, and when they appear they are
blemished with an etic perspective (as in the Indonesian weddings), with cultur-
ally even more irrelevant references (such as Vaclav Havel), or with lacking
contextualisation. On the other hand, teachers with a developed sense of culture
might be able to use some parts successfully, building on the motivational po-
tential of colourful pictures and the humorous touch present in various texts.

6.3 Global English (Year 11), 2007

Global English, for Year 11, (author: Jolanta Polk Reyes) was published by the
Chilean educational publishing house Ediciones Cal y Canto Ltda. The introduc-
tion to the Teachers’ Book (Guía Didáctica para el Profesor) is divided into
three parts: a “Message from the Author” (p.4/5), “Book Characteristics” (p. 5-
9), and “The Internet and the Language Classroom” (p. 9-11). The message from
the author begins with a statement of the principles behind the textbook, high-
lighting the importance of attractive contents for learner motivation:
“Global English has been developed and written taking into account the patterns and
activities most relevant to the effective learning processes adequate for 11th grade
students. What was most taken into the author’s consideration was how to keep stu-
dents’ interest in the contents of the book, i.e. subjects and themes of special rele-
vance and attraction to young people of this age group. One of the reiterative criti-
cism aimed at our youngsters is their apparent lack of interest in contingent issues –
I firmly believe this is not so. There is a certain disenchantment with the frivolity of
the globalised world but time and time again the younger generation has shown that
they are interested in what goes on around them. That is why I have developed the
units in the book around the key issues that have proven of certain interest to our
students:
Unit 1: The media and their power.
Unit 2: How people grow up and develop not only physically but also emotionally.
Unit 3: Nature, natural disasters, prevention and emergency measures.
Unit 4: The professional future of the younger generation.
Unit 5: Food and healthy eating habits.
Unit 6: Inventions and technological innovation.
Unit 7: Science and unresolved mysteries.
Unit 8: Human and animal rights.” (p.4)
There is no mention of culture, cultural awareness or intercultural learning in
any part of the introduction. Cross-curricular objectives or OFTs are not men-
tioned as such in the introduction to the book, though each of the units has a de-
fined attitudinal learning objective. Likewise, there is no reference to the choice
of the title Global English of the book, apart from the critical allusion to “the

112
frivolity of the globalised world”. Instead, the introduction focuses on giving
useful advice on how to use the book, how to use additional information and
practice from the Internet, and on other important methodological issues such as
learner training, mixed ability teaching and classroom management.
Cultural objectives are not stated anywhere explicitly; however, it is clear
that this textbook, by its choice of texts and cultural references, has managed to
open a window to other cultures, while rooting learners firmly in their national
(Chilean) and regional (Latin American) identity. The title Global English is
done justice, too: a wide range of different countries are mentioned or featured
in exercises and texts, including African, European and Asian countries. There
also seems to be a logical development within the book: in the first unit, Chile
still seems to be the hub of all textual references; it then expands increasingly
towards other countries and continents. One feature that is especially interesting
about this textbook is the frequent inclusion of Latin American themes, which
are sometimes expanded to some kind of Pan-American view. For example, in
the unit on food (Unit 5), one listening section refers to Mexican and Chilean
ways to prepare beans; a longer feature (reading) text describes the history of
three “American” foods: chocolate, corn, and potatoes. Some of the references
include North America, but there is a clear focus on the indigenous traditions:
Aztecs and Mayas, Pueblo Indians, Mochia, Chimu, and Inca cultures are men-
tioned, as well as the modern states Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile.
Even though the UK is still the most frequently mentioned English-speaking
country, it is outnumbered by references to Latin America, including main fea-
tures. Outer circle countries, such as India, South Africa or Jamaica, are given
special attention in some feature texts. Unfortunately, there are no explicit refer-
ences or explanations of the status of English there. Global issues, such as hu-
man rights, natural disasters, and the use of technology to improve life condi-
tions in developing countries, play a central role in the texts, together with refer-
ences to international organisations, e.g. the UN, UNICEF, Amnesty Interna-
tional, or the Animal Rights League.

113
Table 7: Places in Global English, Modules 1, 2, 5, 8 (numbers refer to times these places
or places within these countries or regions are mentioned in reading or listening
texts and exercises; bold numbers refer to “special features”)
Chile 55; of these, 6 25%; 22%
Latin America 35; of these, 5 16%; 18 %
UK 22; of these, 3 10%; 11%
USA /Canada 16; of these, 3 16%; 11%
Other English-speaking / Inner Circle countries 3 1%
Outer circle countries 8; of these, 5 3%; 18 %
Other countries 81; of these, 5 36; 18 %

The global status of English is not discussed specifically; the development

of critical language awareness does not seem to be an objective of the book.
However, there are texts that can help to raise consciousness of the multiplicity
of languages in the world, such as the use of onomatopoeia (p. 152), with refer-
ences to Hindi, Japanese, and Latin, among others.
Cultural references to different countries are always made within the per-
spective of a specific topic, e.g. the emotional development of adolescents (an
interview with four British teenagers with Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, Egyptian
and German backgrounds, p. 34); childhood memories (Bosnia, Chile, USA, p.
37); children’s (Nepal, Bangladesh, USA, p. 150) and animal rights (UK, Chile,
Norway, Japan, USA); unusual professions (Chile, St. Vincent Island, p. 67);
technological advances; Christmas traditions (Britain, Poland, Germany, Jamai-
ca, Mexico, p. 90/91); etc. This gives learners the opportunity to compare and
contrast the different versions with each other and with their Chilean reality. As
the references to countries are subordinated to the respective themes, it is under-
stood that only one aspect of a (national) culture is presented; this helps to avoid
stereotypical, or tourist-guide-like, representations. Moreover, in most cases, a
dynamic and heterogeneous approach to culture has been chosen. For example,
Britain is shown as a multi-ethnic country from the first unit in which it is fea-
tured (p. 34). On several occasions, the modernising changes that Chile has un-
dergone in recent years are mentioned (e.g. p. 45). Diversity within one national
culture, even within one person’s life, is emphasised, e.g. in showing the same
person in two photos with two different hairstyles (p. 39/40). Nelson Mandela’s
biography tells the learner not only the story of a remarkable man of our times,
but also South Africa’s evolution from apartheid to democracy (p. 140/141).
Although there are many texts that aim at language learning through curiosity
and entertainment, and others that follow the dominant, politically “correct” dis-
courses, e.g. about human rights, there are some other instances where “re-

114
sistant” discourses are allowed into the pages of the book, for example Bob Mar-
ley’s song “Stand up for your rights” (p. 139). Students are also actively asked
to develop a critical stance on these topics with tasks such as “Read and discuss
the first two articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Are human
rights respected in Chile? Do you think your human rights are respected?”
(p.143)
Intercultural learning aims are not stated in any part of the book. Nonethe-
less, they are actively promoted in a variety of ways. On the one hand, there is
an implicit, natural, often personal presentation of cultural and ethnic diversity,
e.g. through oral and written life accounts told in the 1st person, or through pic-
tures of people from various origins. They are juxtaposed within the same the-
matic unit, so that contrasts and comparisons arise logically from the work with
the texts (see above). In some cases, students are explicitly asked to work out
similarities and differences between the presented cultures, for example in the
unit on natural disasters (water), pp. 54-57: The reading comprehension text re-
tells in four paragraphs the mythical explanations that four different cultures
(Inca, Apache, Greek, and Hindu) have given to floods, not without previously
preparing students with a cartoon of (the more familiar) Noah’s ark. Subsequent-
ly, students are asked to fill in a comparative table with different elements of the
legends, e.g. divine intervention, warning given, humans saved, etc. Thus, hu-
man “universals” are highlighted, whereas the texts themselves contain culture-
specific references that give each of them their respective identity (e.g. tepees
and buffaloes for the Apaches, llamas and high mountains for the Incas). In an-
other unit, after a listening section spoken by British teenagers of varying ethnic
backgrounds, students are given this task:
“Write a short paragraph about the similarities and differences between Chilean and
British teenagers. Include: a. parent-teen relationships e.g. communication, conflicts,
rules. b. peer relationships e.g. friends, peer problems, time spent together. c. inter-
ests e.g. music, sports, fashion. d. emotions, e.g. anger control, happiness, dreams
for the future.” (p. 35)
These tasks are constructed in a way that emphasis is given to similarities, rather
than differences, or else, that the observed differences can be understood as both
intra-cultural and inter-cultural.
On the other hand, there are some tasks that aim at the development of cog-
nitive mechanisms aiding in the development of intercultural sensitivity and the
avoidance of ethnocentrism: in unit 5, one of the stated “attitude” objectives is
the differentiation between fact and opinion. Here are some of the sentences that
are presented to practise this skill:

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 “Decide which statement is a fact and which is an opinion. (…) Chile is a country in
South America. Chile is the most beautiful country in the world.” (p. 92)
“Which statements are facts and which are opinions? (…) This Mexican bean soup
tastes awful. Mexican bean soup is usually served very hot.” (p. 99)
Another instance where similarities, rather than differences are stressed is the
selection of names for characters appearing in stories and exercises. Even
though there are some Spanish or common Chilean names like Esteban, Carlos,
Pablo, Lorena, or Paola, and some specifically English names like Anne, Joanna,
Sheila, Sharon, and Carrie, the author seems to have made a special effort to use
names that are acceptable or common in both languages, such as Martin, Jenny,
Susan, Karen, Vicky, Gloria, David, Edith, or Benjamin. In line with the “glob-
al” approach taken in the textbook, there are also some names that are not typi-
cal for either language, or of non-European origin, e.g. Johanna, Jamila, Khim,
or Fang Yin.
The author of the book seems to be very aware of the importance that own-
ership has for the learners. Apart from the opportunities that are offered for
identification with Chilean, Latin American, and “universal” topics, she states,
for example, in the introduction to the teachers’ book, that the “Just for fun!”
pages (part of every unit) should be “owned by the students”, which means they
should not be used for assessment, and the teachers should not exert pressure on
the students to complete the presented tasks. Also, many of the pictures that are
used for illustration depict people (many of them teenagers) who could very well
be Chileans, either of direct European descent, or looking like the mestizo ma-
jority. They can be identified not only by their facial features, but also by their
clothes, gestures or postures, and sometimes by the background of the pictures.
Indeed, the alienating effect through an overuse of British references, and
the presentation of foreign cultures as “strange”, as happens in the textbook ana-
lysed previously (Going Global), is successfully avoided through the approach
described here. There are other problems with this textbook, however, which
could still lead to learners becoming disaffected (and consequently, teachers
too): first, there are few texts with a poetic or narrative angle; the abundance of
informative text types can become somewhat repetitive and monotonous. Then,
there is definitely a problem with the level of difficulty of most texts: both text
length and complexity of vocabulary and structures require learners to have sol-
id previous knowledge and a very high degree of motivation, in order to be able
to enjoy the kind of challenge presented to them. For example, pre-reading or
listening vocabulary previews often focus on low-frequency, rather than high-
frequency vocabulary indispensable for text comprehension which is probably
unknown to many students. The listening comprehension texts are especially

116
hard to access, as they are often fairly long monologues, rather than shorter dia-
logues with different speakers taking turns, making them thus easier to follow
and suitable for imitation – key in raising motivation and the feeling of owner-
ship. By the same token, there is not much help with language chunks or func-
tions for the productive parts of the units; many of the necessary “stepping
stones” are missing.
To conclude, Global English is definitely a book that is, in cultural terms,
pointing in the right direction; the texts are carefully chosen and arranged in a
way to provide both cultural rooting, not only in Chile, but also in the Latin
American region, and a stimulating and thought-provoking view to the outside
world without giving in to the possibility of unnecessarily promoting cultural
imperialism or Eurocentrism. It considers the cultural and ethnic diversity of
Latin America by including text references to the indigenous world, while
stressing the similarities between different cultures. If this textbook were to be
given the opportunity for a new edition, it would be wise to repair some of the
methodological flaws, simplifying some parts or preparing them specifically for
differentiated use in multi-level classrooms. For the same reason, it might also
be more suitable for use in Year 12.

6.4 Go for Chile 1 / 2, 2002 - 2003

As a considerable number of teachers made positive reference to an earlier text-
book, Go for Chile, I will consider it here in order to show the kind of textbook
that – in the opinion of Chilean English teachers – has proven to be useful for
student motivation and for the kind of teaching that in their esteem is effective.
Go for Chile (authors: Steve Elseworth, Jim Rose) was published and printed in
Chile by Pearson Education, and was distributed in 2002 and 2003, to be used in
Years 9 and 10. In the introduction to the Teacher’s Book, apart from a presenta-
tion of the components of the course, the explanation of useful teaching tech-
niques and ideas for classroom management, there are several references to topic
contents. For example, part of the first section, in which the objectives of the
course are stated, reads as follows:
“The course aims to be relevant and interesting for Chilean secondary school stu-
dents, making use of motivating topics and activities and setting the learning in con-
texts familiar to Chilean students. It also aims to connect the learning of English
with more general educational aims in order to provide students with tools that will
give them access to knowledge about information technology, globalisation and sci-
entific and technological advances. The course draws on other subjects in the school
curriculum and encourages students to think for themselves and to develop imagina-

117
 tion and self-expression. International as well as Chilean contexts are included to ex-
tend students’ horizons.” (p. T3)
In the section “Principles of the course”, the issue of student motivation is in-
cluded in various ways: on the one hand, this is done by adding “variety and in-
terest”:
“The course features a group of lively students travelling around Chile. The story
shows the characters in situations that are relevant to the students’ own lives and ex-
periences. The characters have been chosen on account of their academic ability to
join an educational trip run by an organisation called South American Scene. They
learn new skills and responsibilities on the trip and they also learn about each other
as they work out how to get on together.
Topics, roleplays and projects stimulate students’ imagination and interest.
There are also specially written songs, rhythm raps, riddles and games.” (p. T3)
On the other hand, it is emphasised that students’ engagement depends on “a
sense of success and achievement” and “a sense of progress” (ibid.). Clarity and
simplicity in the progression and development of vocabulary (aiming to use
around 1000 words receptively and productively by the end of the first year /
Year 9) and language skills are given special importance. In accordance with the
curricular framework that was valid at that time, reading and listening skills are
given a higher priority than speaking and writing. However, the book also
stresses the need of language practice through specially designed activities for
the development of vocabulary, structures and communicative functions.
Section 7 of the introduction is exclusively dedicated to “themes and ap-
proaches” (p. T12). The educational themes that are given emphasis here are
civic studies (stressing “cooperative attitudes, moral behaviour and a sense of
shared responsibilities”), environmental education (“to help global conserva-
tion”), education for health, sex education (“both sexes are represented equally
and without discrimination”), road safety, education for equal opportunities
(“characters are portrayed in non-stereotyped ways”), and peace studies (“to de-
velop positive attitudes towards the English language and respect for and under-
standing of the societies where English is spoken”, mentioning Britain and the
USA, “their history and their celebrations”). Tolerance, respect and acceptance
of other people are also mentioned. The book, then, is based on a cross-
curricular approach, especially in the projects sections of each unit, and on a
cross-cultural perspective:
“Go for Chile! takes into account the need of students of a foreign language to have
a clear understanding of their own culture so that they can compare their culture
with the culture in which the foreign language is spoken. In this attempt to develop a
cross-cultural approach Go for Chile! contains subject matter drawn from the stu-
dents’ own lives, as well as from Anglo-American and international cultures. Lan-

118
 guage learning will only take place if students have something to say about the
world around them. Learning a foreign language is seen as part of the broader edu-
cational goal of learning: to live in the modern world in a global sense.” (p. T12-13)
An examination of the main part of the student’s book makes it clear that cul-
ture, mainly in the sense of “area studies”, indeed plays an important role
throughout the book; there are several chapters that focus exclusively on the
presentation of a country (the UK, p. 42/43; Australia, p. 44/45; Brazil, p. 60/61)
or a city (Santiago / Chile, p. 14; Valparaíso / Chile, p. 50; Curitiba / Brazil, p.
88). Other chapters feature cultural aspects in various ways: targeting home cul-
ture as in “Chile Pop and Rock” (p. 38/39); showing a cross-cultural angle (e.g.
the biographies of three Latin American writers -two of them are Chileans - , p.
56; celebrations, p. 82/83), or presenting “global culture” with often fairly un-
specific references to (Anglophone) geographical origins (e.g. cinema, p. 46/47;
special effects in movies, p. 48/49; TV series, p. 74). There are also some inter-
cultural references in chapters that focus on other topics, such as the computer:
the girl that uses the PC (which is “from the USA”) has a British passport, has
travelled to Russia, and her Chilean boyfriend, a journalist, is in France at the
moment (p. 32/33); thus, the topic is given a global, even cosmopolitan perspec-
tive.

Table 8: Places in Go for Chile 1, units 1-10 (excluding Extra Practice pages at the end
of the book; numbers refer to times these places or places within these countries
or regions are mentioned in reading or listening texts and exercises; bold num-
bers refer to “special features”).
Chile 58; 9 24%; 33%
Latin America 51; 8 (of which 4 for Latin or South America 21%; 30%
as a whole, 3 for Brazil, 1 for Mexico)
UK 38; 3 16%; 11%
Other English-speaking / 36; 2 (1 for Australia, 1 for USA) 15%; 7%
Inner Circle countries
Outer circle countries 3; 2 (without reference to status of English) 1%; 7%
Other countries 53; 3 22%; 11%

The most conspicuous educational goals behind the chosen approach are
certainly, first, the consolidation of a sense of national identity, accommodating
the students in their home culture while opening a window to other countries
and realities, but also, and not in a minor way, environmental education, through
the choice of specific topics distributed over various units. The English language
is also strongly associated with new computer technologies: the internet, e-mail,

119
instructions for the use of technological gadgets, etc., are repeated topics in the
textbook.
Although it is true that both Chile and Latin America (e.g. in units on Latin
American writers, p. 56, South American animals, p. 84/85) figure in Go for
Chile, the immediate neighbouring countries Peru, Bolivia and Argentina (with,
historically, most diplomatic tensions, and an increasing number of immigrants
living in Chile, especially from Peru) do not appear in feature texts; they are on-
ly mentioned in exercises. In this sense, the reference to peace studies in the in-
troduction is fairly void and with its allusion to English-speaking countries
could even be interpreted as an effort to consolidate the cultural hegemony of
Britain and the USA. “The” other Latin American country gaining centre stage
in the textbook, featured in three longer texts, is Brazil, maybe because it is the
largest non-Spanish-speaking country and therefore more plausible to use for the
teaching of a foreign language. The most obvious “intercultural” link (in the
Latin American sense, see chapter 5.4) is the one made to indigenous history in
one feature text on the Mapuche people (p. 70, see below).
The global status of the English language is not treated anywhere, nor does
critical language awareness seem to be an explicit or implicit aim of the text-
book. Global issues, such as ecology (e.g. wildlife, the environmental impact of
meat consumption) or human rights, are not brought into context with the func-
tions and uses of English as a global language (such as participating in interna-
tional e-mail or letter campaigns or finding out more information on the www).
The webpages shown in unit 3.3 (p. 30/31) are an example of the overwhelming
presence of English on the Internet, without, however, a note making this fact
explicit. Also, the references to the national cultures that appear in the textbook
(e.g. Chile, Brazil, UK, USA, South Africa, India, Haiti, Lesotho), whether they
belong to the inner, the outer, or the expanding circles of English, never turn the
status or use of the English language in the respective countries into an explicit
topic. The only exception in this sense is Australia, where the first pre-reading
question reads: “What do you know about Australia? – 1 What is the language?”
(p. 44), and a chart summarising facts about the country at the end of the text
states: “Language: English” (minority or endangered aboriginal languages are
not mentioned).
In terms of the way in which cultures are presented, there are some parts
which uncritically reproduce stereotypical aspects of certain countries. The unit
on the UK (p. 42/43) is a striking example of this: the pictures show Stonehenge,
tea, fish and chips and Prince William; to add some variety, “Nessie”, kilt and
bagpipes are included for Scotland, shamrock for Ireland, and the Millennium
Dome for “modern Britain”. Thus, cultural heterogeneity is represented through
touristic and stereotypical icons from different parts of the UK, though without

120
explaining much or turning this diversity into a central topic. With the conspicu-
ous absence of the British icon of multiculturalism, Chicken Tikka Masala, this
unit has a very dusty feel to it. Reading the unit with a critical Republican eye,
one would also like to ask why the only famous person pictured in the unit is
Prince William, whose main merit that makes him a British cultural icon is his
birth into the Royal Family. Wouldn’t creative song-writers like John Lennon
and Paul McCartney, a famous actress like Kate Winslet, or a writer and / or
their creations – dead or alive, canonised or popular, Shakespeare or Harry Pot-
ter - be more meaningful choices, and maybe even more widely recognised by
young people?
However, for the elementary level of the textbook, the text on Australia,
which shows mainly geography and wildlife, might represent a more appropriate
approach to combine linguistic learning objectives with the aim of broadening
students’ horizons and giving the “other” English-speaking countries centre-
stage. There are no people in the photos; Aborigines are mentioned in the text,
but there is no reference to other cultural groups or the history of Australia. The
text clearly calls for the inclusion of more information, at least at a later stage;
nevertheless, it does not seem to mislead students into an erroneous, stereotypi-
cal representation of the country.
As mentioned before, Brazil is another country featured in several occa-
sions. The first longer texts appear in the unit “My country”: an e-mail and a
letter from a Brazilian “pen pal” (p. 60/61; for reading comprehension and a
gap-fill exercise / writing frame respectively). They have some positive, but also
some problematic aspects to them: Brazil is described as a country with “many
different nationalities (…) – people originally from Germany, Italy, Poland and
Japan and, of course Portugal”. In this list, which mentions one Asian and four
European countries, no mention is made of the indigenous and African heritage
of many Brazilians. However, it is stated that the “official” language is Portu-
guese and that there are “many Indian languages”; note that here, the politically
more correct term would be indigenous for the native peoples of South America
- there is no obvious reason for not teaching it to the students. On the other hand,
this is an opportunity for making a comparative link to the Chilean situation and
possibly creating some critical language awareness. In the e-mail, the upper-
middle class family that is chosen as an example is doubly problematic, as it is
probably neither representative of the majority of Brazilians nor a point of iden-
tification for Chilean students (the sons and daughters of a doctor who travels to
the USA would probably not go to a public school in Chile and therefore use a
different textbook). Is the “whitening” presentation of this multi-ethnic country
an attempt to make Brazil look less exotic to Chilean teenagers? Or is it a

121
missed opportunity to create a positive attitude towards racial and cultural diver-
sity?
Another noticeable text is the one on the Mapuche People (p. 70). It is cer-
tainly representative of the idea to focus intercultural education on the historical
bravery of the most numerous indigenous group in Chile and thus pay lip service
to the strengths of an ethnic group that is largely marginalised, living in great
poverty in today’s Chile, and repeatedly victim of human rights violations 49.
There is also a strange mix of conveying a historical view while avoiding the
past tense, which at this stage has not been introduced to the students yet:
“When the Mapuche see a Spanish soldier on a horse, they think that he is a god:
but soon they learn, and become excellent horse riders.” The other short texts
bring simple versions of Mapuche beliefs to the reader (“The creation of the
world” and the “Mapuche view of the world”). The inclusion of a feature text on
the Mapuche is certainly a step in the right direction towards intercultural educa-
tion; also, students are given a research task at the end of the unit: “Project: The
Mapuche People – Find out about the Mapuche. Go to your local library or mu-
seum, and find out what you can.” (p. 71) However, the instructions, focusing on
demographic, geographical, and mythological information, clearly avoid leading
students into finding out politically controversial topical facts.
On the other hand, it would be wrong to state that Go for Chile lacks critical
or thought-provoking material. Immediately after the Mapuche text, there is a
unit on Human Rights (p. 72/73): it tells the stories of the hardships of a boy
from Lesotho and a girl from Haiti. Unlike the personal accounts of “happy
children” in Chile (p. 14) and Brazil (p. 60/61), which are told in the 1st person,
these texts are written in the 3rd person – is the idea to emphasise their “other-
ness”? Whereas Sengoara’s story from Lesotho, who doesn’t go to school be-
cause he has to look “after 700 sheep and 72 cows”, might be very different
from the average Chilean children’s experience, indeed, Fifi’s life in Haiti does
have things in common with that of some people here: “Her father buys and sells
things, and works 60 hours a week. Her mother works 55 hours a week.” Even

49 Bernardo Subercaseaux, in his essay “Chile o una loca historia” (1999), refers to the
way in which the Mapuche have reiteratively been treated, since the 19th century,
through public education and discourse, in a paradoxical combination of symbolic glori-
fication and real marginalisation: “Fueron levantados y ensalzados como mito pero vi-
tuperados en la realidad, se prestigiaba simbólicamente la epopeya mapuche en
desmedro del mapuche existente, al que se le usurpaban las tierras y se le despreciaba
como bárbaro y antiprogreso. Desde Andrés Bello, que publicaba artículos antiarauca-
nos en un periódico titulado paradojalmente El Araucano, hasta el «Arauco Shopping
Center», la estrategia –consciente o inconsciente- ha sido la misma.” (58f.) Cf. also
Marimán et al. (2006).

122
though child labour in Chile is not as common as in Haiti, in publically funded
schools there will be children who could well identify at least with some parts of
the life described there.50 What is interesting to see is that in all stories, whether
they are disturbing or pleasurable, factual information (e.g. the number of hours
that each of the family members work and the amount of money they earn) is
given more emphasis than the expression of personal opinions or feelings. Simi-
larly, the book contains very few texts with literary (and thus, more affectively
charged) characteristics. This might partly be due to the basic language level.
The text on food around the world (p. 86) gives the topic of meat consump-
tion a critical global angle: “In many countries, only rich people eat meat, be-
cause it’s expensive. In India, for example, an average person eats 1 kilogram of
meat a year; in Nigeria, 6 kilos, in the UK, 60 kilos, and in the USA, 100 kilos.”
The text that follows it, “Food for Thought” (p. 87), continues exposing the un-
fair distribution of food throughout the world – “In some countries, nearly eve-
ryone is hungry (…). People in the USA and Europe often eat large quantities of
food. 30% of all North Americans are overweight. 15% of all food in the USA is
thrown away.” It is possible that more details would make the text unacceptably
long. However, there is no reference to unequal income (and food?) distribution
within the USA, or mention of unequal eating habits leading to different health
conditions within the same country – a topic which is often used to exemplify
the social class stratification in Britain (with terms like muesli belt describing
white middle-class urban areas). Thus, there is a danger that simplified infor-
mation like this leaves negative stereotypes about a country as a whole, without
sensitising students to internal differences. Although the text is definitely
thought-provoking, by posing most “responsibility” on countries of the Northern
hemisphere it might not be powerful enough to stir students into action or con-
sciousness about their own, immediate realities. What is pleasant is that in exer-
cises, similar ideas are given a humorous touch: “The average Italian eats 130
kilometres of spaghetti a year.” Finally, this chapter is the penultimate one – the
question is if all school classes will be able to use the book up to the very last
page, or omit the final chapters at the end of the school year.
A very positive aspect of this textbook is that students will probably find it
relatively easy to gain a sense of ownership of the English language; the idea of
starting from the students’ culture with city profiles, famous people’s biog-

50 According to the 2003 survey carried out by the International Labour Organisation and
the Chilean government, 5.4 % of all Chilean children and teenagers work (5-17 years
old); 3% work under unacceptable conditions. (These are defined as: early age, long
working hours, incompatibility with schooling, the street as working place). See: Organ-
ización Internacional de Trabajo (no year).

123
raphies and many other recognisable references, is certainly related to this objec-
tive. Also, a group of fixed textbook characters, and repeatable dialogues, which
can be spoken and acted out by the students, certainly encourage this process,
together with a basic level from the beginning, continuous progression through
clearly staged exercises and plenty of support through a bilingual glossary etc.
In terms of the creation of intercultural awareness, however, it seems that
there are few opportunities for gaining a more complex understanding of what
culture means or is, whether the examples are taken from the home culture or of
foreign cultures; in general, there is no visible consistent approach, apart from
the idea to include a great deal of (national) “home culture”. Mostly, cultures are
presented in a static, sometimes essentialist or even stereotypical way. The book
could certainly benefit from regularly juxtaposing the “own” culture with “for-
eign” cultures, leading to a better intercultural understanding, and giving oppor-
tunities for students’ horizons to be broadened (to include, for example, Ma-
puche and other Amerindian cultures, e.g. in the USA or Canada). There are
some tasks that have the potential to challenge ideas of cultural homogeneity,
such as the final task in the unit on the UK: “What do you know about Chile? In
groups, make a list of famous places, typical food, drink and traditional clothes.
Compare your list with other groups – is it the same?” (p. 43) However, if
teachers are not instructed to turn the diversity of outcomes between different
teams into a topic of discussion, the real application in the classroom is largely
left to chance. One aspect that caught my attention (and which might be an in-
teresting option in the – hypothetical - case that the political situation of a coun-
try does not permit the teaching of cultural diversity in a positive, non-
stereotyped way) is the focus on biodiversity in wildlife (e.g. dolphins, p. 58;
wildlife, p. 84; nationalities / Wild Watchers, p. 34). In Go for Chile, the chosen
approach could definitely help students to develop a positive appraisal of biodi-
versity. For future research, it could be interesting to find out if in terms of the
cognitive and affective development of children and teenagers, there is an auto-
matic positive transfer from a certain attitude towards the diversity in nature to
cultural phenomena, and whether this can be made use of for connecting inter-
cultural education with environmental education.51
In sum, and in comparison to the textbooks analysed before, the strong, rec-
ommendable aspects of this textbook are mainly the accessibility of the lan-

51 There is some interdisciplinary research on the concept of biophilia, which relates to

“the inherent human inclination to affiliate with nature” (Kellert 2008: 462), combining
the points of view of developmental psychology and ecology. Cf. also Kahn (1997).
Another research strand is related to biocultural diversity, which also includes respect
for linguistic diversity (cf. Ross 2006). However, more details on this topic would clear-
ly go beyond the scope of this research.

124
guage level, and the way in which the language learning process is staged and
guided. Lively dialogues and short reading texts help students to gradually build
up language proficiency, and offer plenty of opportunities to take ownership of
the language. On the other hand, the basic language level cannot be an excuse
for presenting cultural information in an unnecessarily over-simplified and ste-
reotyped way, which is doubly problematic in the sense that opportunities for
identification (e.g. stories told in the 1st person) are often linked to white upper-
middle class “normality”. Also, the focus on Chile in Book 1 should, in my
opinion, give way to – at least - a Latin American perspective in Book 2 in order
to broaden the students’ horizons. However, this is not the case: Go for Chile 2
continues to give precedence to a mix of Chile and Britain, for the most part.

6.5 Conclusion
The analysis of the textbooks has shown that there are, evidently, multiple fac-
tors that come into play to make a textbook recommendable or usable in a given
context. On the one hand, there are the contents, in the form of textual and visual
discourses, which either offer opportunities for identification or, on the contrary,
might lead to alienation. On the other hand, the level of the language, pace of
progress, and the suggested methodology (especially the emphasis on receptive
or productive language use) will determine whether students can engage with
the material that they are offered and can finally take ownership of their learning
and the new language.
We have seen that the three presented books use varying foci on cultures
when teaching English. Even though all three contain a considerable share of
texts that feature or refer to both the UK and Chile, there are clear emphases on
either source culture contents (as in Go for Chile), target culture contents (the
UK, as in Going Global), or international target culture contents (as in Global
English, with a marked comparative approach). Within the textbooks, there is
also some variation in terms of the way in which these cultures are presented;
however, both in Going Global and in Go for Chile, problematic practices, such
as oversimplification, stereotyping, and essentialist or static representations of
cultures are more frequent than in Global English.
Concerning the cultural learning objectives presented in 4.3, there are some
points on which one of the three textbooks is clearly stronger than the other two;
in other points none of the textbooks seems to have a clear viewpoint or ap-
proach. For example, as we have seen, the accessible language progression and
the dialogic structure of many of the units presented in Go for Chile are likely to
help students gain (productive) ownership of English, although the humorous

125
tone in many texts of Going Global, and the “Just for Fun” pages in Global Eng-
lish can also provide enjoyment in the learning process. In terms of accessing
other – similar and dissimilar - human experiences, and opportunities for identi-
fication and empathy with others, I think Global English definitely offers the
richest and most well-thought-out material. Prejudices and stereotypes are more
often perpetuated than countered in both Go for Chile and Going Global. Again,
Global English seems to have the most proactive stance towards intercultural
understanding, by providing contrastive reading material with exercises that fos-
ter reflective processes. A more pragmatic approach towards intercultural com-
munication, however, such as the analysis of critical incidents, is not promoted
by any of the textbooks. I have tried to demonstrate that the intercultural “Dos
and Don’ts” unit for “ethnic” weddings in Global English is extremely problem-
atic, hardly pertinent to local learners, and rather emphasises the otherness of
Asian cultures, instead of inviting students to compare and learn more about
different foreign customs. All textbooks include cultural products (or references
to them) of their own culture and foreign cultures (food, literature, movies, etc.),
and focus mainly on the positive appreciation of them. A more critical “Cultural
Studies” approach is rarely present; it can only occasionally be found, for exam-
ple, in the text on Food in Britain (Going Global). Even though all three books
refer to global issues in some way, and include tasks to reflect upon topics like,
for example, human rights, they do not directly encourage students to participate
publicly in global discourses. The role of English in globalisation, or a critical
view of it, is not included in any of the textbooks. In my opinion, Global English
comes closest to providing useful material for reaching the intercultural learning
objectives outlined above.
This leaves a doubt about the commissioning processes, especially those to
do with the textbooks originally designed and published in the UK, of which the
local adaptations were not always radical enough to take out units or texts that
are likely to be alienating for their intended audience, and to put emphasis on
locally appropriate and pertinent, culturally subtly differentiated and dynamic
contents. In this sense, Going Global – out of the three, the only textbook that
was written by a local writer and published by a Chilean publishing company –
also seems to have taken the Chilean teachers’ call for international target cul-
ture material most seriously.52 Up to a certain point, it is plausible to assume that

52 See McKay (2003: 143), presenting the results of a survey carried out among Chilean
English teachers on the local perspectives on ELT materials and methods. Answering
the question on the cultural contents of ELT materials, “[t]he majority of teachers pre-
ferred content that deals with the life and culture of various countries around the world,
although there was support for the inclusion of local Chilean places and people.”

126
a local textbook writer will know the context, and the local students’ needs and
interests best. On the other hand, it is clear that the effectiveness of published
teaching materials will depend very much on the classroom teachers’ expertise
and views, their trust in these materials and the way in which they negotiate the
tension between (hegemonic) prejudices related to the origin of the material (as
UK-published material is often considered “better” than material written in
Chile) and their own cultural identity.
In this sense, it is now time to find out more about the teachers’ perception
of their professional identity, their students’ motivation, and the contents that
they consider most relevant or useful for teaching English in Chile.

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Part III: The Teachers’ Views

After describing the context for English Teaching and Learning in Chile, in Part
I, and analysing curricular standards and textbooks in terms of their stances to-
wards cultural contents in Part II, Part III is dedicated to the empirical part of
this research: the analysis of the interviews carried out with nineteen English
teachers who currently work in various types of secondary schools in Chile. This
part is divided into four chapters. Chapter 7 provides the theoretical framework
of the research, by referring to the reasons why a qualitative study on the teach-
ers’ perceptions was preferred to other research approaches; by reviewing con-
cepts and other, similar studies on teacher cognition and identity, and on learner
motivation; and, finally, by explaining the most important aspects of the analyti-
cal approach applied to the teacher interviews. Chapter 8 is more technically
oriented and explains in detail the procedure of the research process in itself: the
way in which the teachers were chosen and contacted in order to participate in
the research; the design of the interview questions and the questionnaires; and
the transcription and analysis of the interview data. Chapter 9 presents and
summarises the most important general findings of the interviews and question-
naires on a general basis. It is subdivided into three longer sections, following
the key aspects of the interviews: teaching context and general challenges; per-
ceived student motivation; beliefs and experiences around the teaching of cul-
ture-and-language. Finally, chapter 10 aims at presenting a deeper analysis
based on only a few selected interview passages, taking up a few specific issues
that arise in the teacher interviews, namely: motivational strategies, technology
and motivational and empowering contents. The final conclusions and recom-
mendations will be presented in part IV.

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7. Researching Teachers’ Subjective Knowledge
– Teacher Cognition & Teacher Identity
7.1 Rationale: The Choice of a Research Approach
As mentioned in the introduction, this study was initially inspired by research on
the interrelationship between attitudes towards a language and its speech com-
munity, different types of motivation for learning a language and language
learning success. As one possible – maybe decisive - factor that influences atti-
tudes and motivation within the classroom, I identified the contents of the read-
ing (and possibly listening) materials, considering the ones that I was asked to
teach with as problematic.53 However, I needed to find an appropriate way of
testing my hypothesis, and of finding out which of the several possible ap-
proaches to teaching language-and-culture meaningfully were most applicable
from the Chilean point of view, taking into account local (or regional) pedagogi-
cal needs.
My research approach would have to take into consideration the following
aspects:
1) My own status of an “outsider” in Chilean society, with a different educa-
tional background and different opportunities in life (e.g. to live and work in
an English-speaking country for several years), both of which are considered
desirable by many Chileans;
2) My lack of immediate experience with English teaching in secondary educa-
tion in Chile, with its known pressures and challenges;
3) The lack of previous language-learning research in Chile, especially in the
mentioned areas;
4) And the constraints of the research process per se, in terms of time and mate-
rial resources.

53 The textbooks that I was working with at the time were not the ones analysed in chapter
6; they belonged to a textbook series published by the American branch of Cambridge
University Press, which is widely used in adult education (New Interchange). Its
strengths are the easy-to-teach communicative approach it uses, with a careful function-
al-structural progression, and also its humorous tone; however, in terms of meaningful,
thought-provoking contents, it leaves a lot to be desired. On the contrary, it is an excel-
lent example of bland, superficial contents for teaching “American English as an Inter-
national Language”.

131
Traditionally, research on motivation and attitudes in language learning general-
ly uses quantitative methods, especially questionnaire-based surveys (e.g. Gard-
ner & Lambert 1972, etc.; cf. also Riemer 2004, Ushioda 2011, for a contrast).
However, even though such a survey, applied to a large group of English learn-
ers, might be easy to use for simply proving or refuting a hypothesis (such as:
“The Chileans’ lack of English language skills is due to their lack of integrative
motivation.”), there are several reasons for not carrying out a quantitative study
at this stage: first, there is no previous local research on the matter in question,
and in order to develop the questions and multiple-choice answers for a ques-
tionnaire, it is necessary to be able to use data that have been collected locally to
find the most appropriate wording.54 Consequently, a questionnaire with given
answer options would impose my own paradigms, and thus aggravate the prob-
lematic cultural distance between me, the researcher, and the researched com-
munity. Finally, without a previous exploratory enquiry, a survey-based attitudi-
nal study is very unlikely to yield any data that could be a real step forward in
current investigation. On the one hand, this is because the correlation between
(at least some sort of) motivation and language learning success seems to have
been sufficiently proven in previous research (cf. Ushioda quoted in Dörnyei
2001: 240). On the other hand, a qualitative study at this stage might help to
prepare a larger (possibly quantitative) research project on the needs that arise
from the data collected here, around the issues of student motivation and appro-
priate materials for teaching English in Chile.
After settling on a qualitative approach for this study, it was necessary to
make a decision about which perspective to take – the students’, the teachers’,
policymakers’, or a combination of these? I decided to base the present investi-
gation on semi-structured problem-centred interviews with teachers, comple-
mented with brief questionnaires containing both open and closed questions.
This has various advantages: first, local teachers can give an account of their
real experiences and their opinions; their view is relatively rarely taken into ac-
count in the public debate on English learning, in recent research and theorising
on the matter in question (cf. Glas 2008); other studies are mainly based on
questionnaires (Farías 2000, McKay 2003). Second, it is the teachers who make
the ultimate decisions about what curricular policies are effectively carried out
(or are able to be carried out), or what contents can be used in their respective
teaching contexts. Special contextual factors, such as the progressive impact of
the programme “English Opens Doors”, can be considered in greater depth. Fi-
nally, even if the students’ perspective is only indirectly reflected through the

54 Cf. Riemer (2004) on the problem of the operationalisation of specific motivation varia-
bles in standardised surveys.

132
teachers’ eyes, the teachers are in daily contact with the learners and know the
students’ concerns and interests; due to their life experience, the teachers are
also informed about long-term developments in Chilean education and the socie-
ty as a whole, something that cannot be expected from most 16- or 17-year-old
students. Thus, the teachers’ perspective can lead to a deeper analysis of the var-
ious factors that influence motivation and attitudes in the given context. For ex-
ample, the complexity of Chilean post-dictatorship society, expressed in the dif-
ferent social backgrounds, different school settings, etc. can be targeted in a
more focused manner. At the same time, researching more than one participant
group would go beyond the scope of this study. Last but not least, a qualitative
study with semi-structured interviews also takes my special concern into ac-
count, as a Europe-born, Europe-bred researcher to listen to local people and
show their points of view before theorising upon them.55
To conclude, the advantages of a qualitative study are
1) the positive appraisal of the personal, subjective knowledge of acting sub-
jects, here the English teachers in Chile;
2) the opportunity to explore the research field in depth and without foregone
conclusions, taking the edge out of my own background; and
3) the possibility to use the obtained data for future initial and in-service teacher
training as well as subsequent research studies.

7.2 Research Review: Teacher Cognition and

Identity
Although the focus of this investigation is not the teachers’ subjective
knowledge in itself, but rather the teachers’ perspective on motivational teaching
and learning contents, it can still be related to a branch of qualitative research in
language teaching that investigates teachers’ cognitions. Adopting a suitable
terminology for this study is complicated: this area of research is marked by a
vast, sometimes even confusing, diversity in the use of terminology – teacher
beliefs, personal practical knowledge, or subjective theories are just a few ex-
amples. However, as Borg (2003) points out in his review article “Teacher cog-
nition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers
think, know, believe, and do”,

55 The difficulty of re-constructing reality in social research even without being a cultural
outsider is conceptualised in the idea of first- and second-degree constructions (cf.
Schütz 1971: 68, quoted in Kallenbach 1996: 54).

133
 “[t]he superficial diversity created by the terms […] should not mask the considera-
ble overlap which exists among them. Collectively, they highlight the personal na-
ture of teacher cognition, the role of experience in the development of these cogni-
tions, and the way in which instructional practice and cognition are mutually inform-
ing.” (83).
One of the (earliest) studies in this area, Woods’ Teacher Cognition in Lan-
guage Teaching (1996), summarises the three concepts beliefs, assumptions and
knowledge to create a new term/acronym BAK, as research suggests that “the
terms ‘knowledge’, ‘assumptions’ and ‘beliefs’ do not refer to distinct concepts,
but rather to points to a spectrum of meaning” (195). Woods defines
“knowledge” as “things we know – conventionally accepted facts. (…) It gener-
ally means that is has been demonstrated or is demonstrable”. Then, “[t]he term
‘assumption’ normally refers to the (temporary) acceptance of a ‘fact’ (…)
which we cannot say we know, and which has not been demonstrated, but which
we are taking as true for the time being.” Finally, “[b]eliefs refer to an ac-
ceptance of a proposition for which there is no conventional knowledge, one that
is not demonstrable, and for which there is accepted disagreement”. Woods con-
cludes from his own research that “it was difficult in the data to distinguish be-
tween the teachers referring to beliefs and knowledge as they discussed their
decisions in the interviews. Their ‘use’ of knowledge in their decision-making
process did not seem to be qualitatively different from their ‘use’ of beliefs.”
(ibid.)
In language teacher (and learner) research in Germany, a very commonly
used concept is subjective theories (e.g. De Florio-Hansen 1998; Caspari 2001;
on the learners’ perspective Kallenbach 1996). This includes not only a more
complex construct of teachers’ cognitions, but also a specific research method.
The term refers to subjective knowledge as similar to scientific knowledge in
three aspects (cf. Kallenbach 1996: 34ff.): it refers to a certain topic with its var-
ious elements regarding content; this content is structured, i.e. it has lines of ar-
gumentation (e.g. cause-effect); finally, both subjective and scientific theories
have the functions of explaining and predicting. However, the difference be-
tween subjective and scientific theories is that subjective theories are implicit
and need to be made explicit, usually in an interview. They are vague and can
even be incoherent or contradictory in parts. As they are based on emotions, per-
sonal experience, and specific situations, they lack evidence, but tend to be sta-
ble. For everyday life, they have the advantage of being flexible and economi-
cal. Finally, it is important to mention that the focus on the subjectivity of these
theories does not exclude the social or intersubjective component in the devel-
opment of these cognitive representations. Even the knowledge about scientific
theories is often combined with experiential knowledge to form a subjective

134
theory. Groeben et al. (1988) and Groeben and Scheele (1988), in their research
project on subjective theories, developed a specific method for eliciting and val-
idating subjective theories in the interview situation. However, not all studies
that use the term follow their method in all aspects (e.g. Finkbeiner 2005).
Without losing sight of the difficulty to truly separate beliefs from
knowledge, Golombek’s (1998) conceptualisation of teachers’ personal practi-
cal knowledge seems very useful for the present study: she establishes four cate-
gories for the content of teachers’ personal practical knowledge: knowledge of
self, knowledge of subject matter, knowledge of instruction, and knowledge of
context. In particular, the first and last categories seem of primordial importance
for this study. “Knowledge of self can be described in terms of the identities to
which the teachers referred when they reconstructed their experience, for exam-
ple, language learner, teacher, and spouse”, whereas “[k]nowledge of contexts
includes the institutional and sociopolitical setting along with the time, place,
and actors within the setting.” (451) Golombek also describes how tensions are
created between the different categories, which “obstruct teachers' abilities to
develop practice that is compatible with their intentions.” (452) The relation to
others and the educational context acquire an important role: “[T]eachers'
knowledge is bound up in how they place themselves in relation to others and
how their actions affect themselves as well as others. Thus, as L2 teachers use
their knowledge in response to a particular context, they are influenced by not
only instructional but also personal concerns.” (458)
Similarly, the German researcher Appel (2000) investigated language teach-
ers’ experiential knowledge in relation to foreign language didactics. In his
chapter “Erfahrungswissen” (= experiential knowledge) he refers to three di-
mensions of the interviewed teachers’ experience and points out how they are all
directly related to an investigative approach: The teachers’ procedural, implicit
competence (or “knowing how”) in the classroom stands in relation to cognitive
approaches; their personal, biographical experience as language teachers can be
researched through biographically oriented interviews; finally, their collective
experience as a professional group, needs to be analysed from a “social” per-
spective.
Appel’s personal and collective dimensions, and Golombek’s categories
“knowledge of self” and “knowledge of context” place these studies near the
recent research carried out on another specific aspect of teacher cognition, which
is teacher identity (e.g. Duff/Uchida 1997; Tsui 2007; Menard-Warwick 2008b;
and the reviewed studies in Varghese et al. 2005). As with teacher cognition,
there is some confusion with the use of the term and its definitions. Even though
there are, again, substantial overlaps, it is also necessary to distinguish between
research on teachers’ professional identity in general and language teacher iden-

135
tity, as in the latter socio-cultural, socio-linguistic and ethnic considerations take
centre stage (Varghese et al. 2005).
“In general, the concept of identity has different meanings in the literature. What
these various meanings have in common is the idea that identity is not a fixed attrib-
ute of a person, but a relational phenomenon. Identity development occurs in an in-
tersubjective field and can be best characterized as an ongoing process, a process of
interpreting oneself as a certain kind of person and being recognized as such in a
given context.” (Beijaard et al. 2004:108)
After reviewing 25 articles on teacher identity (not specifically language teach-
ers), Beijaard et al. conclude that there are four essential features of professional
identity: 1. “Professional identity is an ongoing process of interpretation and re-
interpretation of experiences”, which highlights its dynamic and experiential
character. 2. “Professional identity implies both person and context.” 3. “A
teacher’s professional identity consists of sub-identities that more or less harmo-
nize. The notion of sub-identities relates to teachers’ different contexts and rela-
tionships.” Some of these sub-identities are more central than others. 4. “Agency
is an important element of professional identity, meaning that teachers have to
be active in the process of professional development.” (Beijaard et al. op. cit:
122; emphases are in the original.)
Similarly, Varghese et al. (2005) reviewed three different studies on lan-
guage teacher identity, paying special attention to the different theoretical ap-
proaches taken. They summarise the most important issues in identity research
as the following three:
“1. Identity as multiple, shifting, and in conflict;
2. Identity as crucially related to social, cultural, and political context; and
3. Identity being constructed, maintained, and negotiated primarily through dis-
course.” (35)
One study from this area that is often quoted (e.g. in Tudor 2001) is Duff and
Uchida’s in-depth investigation of four English teachers in a private language
academy in Japan (1997). Even though the cultural and institutional context is
very different from my study, it is enlightening in that it also researches the
teachers’ negotiation of the curriculum in terms of its cultural content (453).
What is also interesting, in terms of the use of research terminology, is that the
title of the study refers to sociocultural identities and practices; in the study,
however, they also explore beliefs and cultural values or ideologies. Often, the
terms “identities and beliefs” are used in combination (452). Again, the different
concepts seem to be intrinsically related – identities as part of teacher cogni-
tions, or teacher cognitions and beliefs as part of teacher identities.

136
 There are some other studies and closely related concepts that are logical
continuations of the ideas presented here, and that have found entry into the
analysis of the teacher interviews: one is a study published by Menard-Warwick
which centres around teacher identity and decision-making in relation to cultural
contents in Chile; it will be dealt with in detail in chapter 9.2.3. Then, the idea of
teacher agency as part of their identity, which is mentioned above, is linked up
to the concept of teacher autonomy and will be a central topic in chapter 10.
What is the contribution that the present study can make to the field of re-
search? Concluding from Borg’s review article (2003), in which he diagnoses
some deficiencies in the field of research, the present study can contribute in the
following ways:
1) It pays “attention to the social and institutional contexts” in which the Eng-
lish teachers work (98).
2) It is “globally speaking […] more representative of language classrooms”: It
primarily researches a state school setting “where languages are taught by
nonnative teachers to large classes of learners who, particularly in the case of
English, may not be studying the language voluntarily” (105).
3) By placing the centre of attention on cultural contents, it focuses on a specific
curricular aspect of language teaching; at the same time, the intercultural el-
ement also contributes to the question to what extent “language teachers, be-
cause of their subject matter, are similar or different to teachers of other sub-
jects” (106).
To summarise, I will make an attempt to conceptualise language teacher identi-
ty, which includes both subjective teacher cognitions and the social and cultural
aspects of identity. In order to do so, I take identity theories developed in social
psychology as a basis, in which identity is seen as having two components, a
personal and a social one. Social identity is based on an individual’s member-
ship in social groups (Liebkind 1999: 141). Thus, language teachers’ personal
identity is based on their personal biography, interests, likes / dislikes and
knowledge – including beliefs, subjective theories and personal practical
knowledge – whereas their social identity is defined through multiple member-
ships: their membership in the collectivity of teachers – the teachers of their
school, of their school type, and of English teachers in general; their member-
ship in a certain social class, with restricted access to power, a certain income
group and an educational level; and their membership in a cultural or national
entity, for example, a language and a common history (Norton 1997: 420). All
of these “in-group” memberships can be contrasted with other “out-groups” that
may also be shifting or blurry: for example, a teacher might identify strongly
with a disadvantaged school community which he or she might be part of and

137
which also includes the headteacher, the students and the parents, and see him-
or herself in opposition to language teachers who work at an expensive private
school; on the other hand, on a different level, the teacher might include him- or
herself in the collectivity of all language teachers of a nation, as opposed to gov-
ernmental policy-makers or “the students” in general.

Social identity:
-educated Chilean middle class
- vs. teachers who work at a
Personal different school type
identity -vs. students who belong to a
different social class
Individual /
personal identity: Ethnic / cultural
-biography identity:
-interests -Chilean national
Collective identity
-knowledge identities
-beliefs -vs. English-
-subjective theories speaking world
-vs. other English -vs. non-English
teachers speaking Chileans

Group professional identity:

-Chilean English teachers
-Chilean secondary school teachers
-vs. other educational stakeholders:
students, parents, policy-makers,
researchers

Figure 2: Chilean English teacher identity

138
7.3 Research Review: Motivation and Attitudes
As one of the central concerns of this study is related to learner motivation, it is
necessary to refer to some of the most notable research in this field. This field is
fascinating and ever-renewing in educational psychology and, more specifically,
in applied linguistics and the area of second language acquisition. It would be
impossible to summarise in just a few pages the vast amount of publications that
have appeared in either of these two areas in recent years. In order to provide a
background for the “motivation and attitudes” part of this investigation, I will
try to give a brief summary of those concepts and schools of thought that have
directly influenced the initial design of the project, the elaboration of the inter-
view questions and the analysis of the interviews.
First of all, a clear definition of motivation is needed. The Nottingham-
based Hungarian scholar Zoltán Dörnyei, one of the current leading researchers
in the area of L2 motivation, defines it as follows:
“Motivation is responsible for why people decide to do something, how long they are
willing to sustain the activity, how hard they are going to pursue it.” (Dörnyei
2001b: 8)
Obviously, when talking about a compulsory school subject as it is the case in
this investigation, this definition would have to be re-formulated. I would like to
do this by drawing on Crookes and Schmidt’s theory (1991), which distin-
guishes between different levels on which motivation for language learning can
be observed: Students may display their motivation by paying attention to the
subject matter (micro level and syllabus/curriculum level), by participating in
classroom activities (classroom level), and by dedicating time and effort to
learning outside class (outside the classroom/long-term learning). For Crookes
and Schmidt, motivation consists of four components: interest (related to intrin-
sic motivation), relevance (connected to instrumentality: personal needs, values,
or goals), expectancy (in relation to perceived likelihood of success, self-
confidence and self-efficacy) and satisfaction (related to the outcome of an ac-
tivity).
As can be seen in the definitions above, the contemporary literature on mo-
tivation is mostly cognitively oriented and emphasises the importance of the in-
dividual’s capacity to consciously choose, to decide to invest time and effort in-
to a certain activity (Brown 2000; Williams/Burden 1997). There are two ques-
tions that to me are of special interest in this context.
First of all, if learning (a language) is a cognitive activity, and motivation to
learn is also led by cognition – conscious decisions -, what then is the im-
portance of the affective domain? In other words, how can the relationship be-

139
tween emotions and cognitive processes be described? Second, if we are talking
about an individual’s decision to engage with and invest time and effort into
learning a language, what is the role of the external context (society, family,
school or the English teacher) in the decision to do so?
To begin with, the relationship between emotion (or affect) and cognition
will be examined. The fundamental question to consider is what impact emo-
tions have on learning motivation, and by extension, success (or failure) in the
learning process. In recent years, neurobiological research has proven that emo-
tion and cognition cannot be described as two separate processes. For example,
Schumann, who researches psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of affect in
language, states: “Second language acquisition is primarily emotionally driven
and emotion underlies most, if not all, cognition” (1998: 10).56 What influences
these emotions? According to Schumann’s stimulus appraisal model, there are
five dimensions of a stimulus that are evaluated by the human brain. These are:
its (1) novelty, (2) pleasantness, (3) goal/need significance, (4) coping potential
and (5) its compatibility with the person’s self and social image. By drawing on
autobiographical data on successful language learners, Schumann demonstrates
that not necessarily all five factors are appraised as positive at all times during
(successful) language learning; however, he recommends:
“Four things teachers might want to avoid in order not to diminish their students’
motivation: Teachers should not do things which the students would appraise as un-
pleasant; they should not do things that interfere with the students’ goals in language
learning; they should not do things that are beyond or below the students’ coping
ability, and they should not do things that would diminish the students’ self and so-
cial image.” (1999: 38)
Even though Schumann is very vague in stating that teachers simply should “not
do [certain] things”, it seems reasonable to postulate that apart from choosing
certain activities or methodological approaches, teachers should also incorporate
contents and materials that the students’ appraisal systems might categorise as
positive - that is, novel, pleasant, relevant, comprehensible and with potential for
identification.
Besides the relationship between cognition and affect, another factor to con-
sider within a cognitive perspective of motivation is the influence of the external
context. The social constructivist approach taken in Williams and Burden’s Psy-

56 In similar terms, the German neuroscientist Joachim Bauer explains: “Jede Situation
wird über die fünf Sinne aufgenommen, in neuronalen Netzwerken repräsentiert und
scheint damit in unserem Bewusstsein auf. Außerdem wird jede äußere Situation,
während sie für uns intellektuell wahrnehmbar wird, simultan emotional bewertet, auch
wenn wir dies manchmal gar nicht bemerken (für das Gehirn gibt es keine "rein
sachlichen" Situationen).” (2008: 161)

140
chology for Language Teachers (1997) is very enlightening in this sense. Parting
from the constructivist idea that each individual is motivated differently, the au-
thors move on to explain the underlying principles of social constructivism,
which specifically takes into account social and contextual influences (culture;
context; social situation; significant other people; the individual’s interactions
with these people):
“[M]otivation occurs as a result of a combination of different influences. Some of
these are internal, that is, they come from inside the learner, such as an interest in
the activity or a wish to succeed. Others are external, for example, the influence of
other people. […] However, it would be a mistake to consider motivation simplisti-
cally as something which is either internal or external to the individual as these can-
not be easily separated. What we need to know is what external influences are more
likely to arouse people’s thoughts and emotions, and how they make their own sense
of these, or internalise them, in ways that lead them to decide to achieve certain
goals.” (120f.)57
Williams and Burden mention nine different internal factors that influence mo-
tivation: intrinsic interest in an activity; the perceived value of an activity; a
sense of agency; mastery (e.g. feelings of competence); self-concept (e.g. realis-
tic awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses in skills required, personal
definitions and judgements of success and failure); attitudes (toward language
learning in general, toward the target language and toward the target language
community and culture); other affective states (such as confidence, anxiety and
fear); developmental age and stage; and gender. In addition to these, they outline
four external factors that interact dynamically both with the internal factors and
with each other, to influence motivation: significant others (parents, teachers and
peers); the nature of interaction with significant others (such as mediated learn-
ing experiences, feedback, rewards and sanctions); the learning environment
(such as size of class and school, or class and school ethos); and the broader
context (wider family networks, the local education system, conflicting interests,
cultural norms, and societal expectations and attitudes; 138ff.). As this book was
written for language teachers, the concept of mediation is given special im-
portance, in that a teacher should help learners see both value and purpose be-
yond the here and now in a particular learning activity.
Dörnyei (2001b) distinguishes between micro and macro contextual influ-
ences and emphasises that research on L2 learning motivation started by consid-
ering mainly the macro-perspective (i.e. a focus on broad societal processes and

57 Neurobiological findings on the so-called mirror neurons (neurons that fire both when a
person acts and when the person observes somebody else performing the same action)
provide valuable insight into how these external and internal influences might interact.
Cf. Bauer (2006).

141
contexts), whereas research interest in the micro-perspective (i.e. the immediate
learning situation, the classroom and school context) is more recent. This study
tries to combine both micro and macro aspects. Although by design it focuses on
external influences, internal influences also gain significance in the analysis of
the teachers’ responses, especially in relation to students’ interests and attitudes.
Concerning the macro-context, it is impossible to talk about L2 motivation
without reference to the groundbreaking work done by Gardner and associates,
which started more than 30 years ago in Canada and is largely based on social
psychological and ethno-linguistic theories. These theories clearly have special
relevance in a bilingual and bicultural country like Canada. Gardner’s dichoto-
my of integrative and instrumental orientations in the motivation to learn a for-
eign language is often regarded as the one distinctive feature about language
learning motivation (not just in bilingual countries; cf. Brown 2000), whereas
most other motivational models (e.g. the extrinsic – intrinsic dichotomy) are also
widely applied to learning in other school subjects and human activities. The
underlying perspective is that the process of learning a foreign language is un-
like any other school subject, as the acquisition and use of a different linguistic
(cultural, behavioural) system has direct implications on the social and ethno-
linguistic identity of the learners, especially upon reaching a more advanced lev-
el. In this model, an integratively oriented student shows an interest in identify-
ing with the target language community, maybe even in becoming a member of
it; an instrumentally oriented student is only interested in the pragmatic, practi-
cal reasons of mastering another language, such as getting a better job or a high-
er salary, without showing any interest in getting closer (socially) to the lan-
guage community (cf. for example Masgoret / Gardner 2003). Given the sup-
posed superiority of the integrative orientation over the instrumental one, anoth-
er aspect of Gardner’s work is the construct of the integrative motive, a “motiva-
tion to learn a second language because of positive feelings toward the commu-
nity that speaks that language” (Gardner 1985; quoted in Dörnyei 2001:50). It
includes integrativeness (including integrative orientation, interest in foreign
languages, and attitudes towards the L2 community), attitudes towards the
learning situation (in particular the language teacher and the L2 course) and mo-
tivation (effort, desire, and attitude towards learning).
Although the first studies carried out by Gardner and Lambert (1972)
seemed to suggest that students displaying an integrative orientation towards
learning a language were more successful at it, subsequent research showed that
in fact there are no clear results on whether an instrumental or an integrative ori-
entation leads to more successful language learning. Based on these contradicto-
ry (and maybe counterintuitive) results, in addition to the special status of Eng-
lish as a Lingua Franca, the dichotomy has become increasingly questioned (cf.

142
Brown 2000, Coetzee-van Rooy 2006, Ushioda 2006). Even though I have been
able to use it for categorising some of the teachers’ interview answers, I have
also found its application problematic. The fact that English has become a global
language, which is spoken far beyond specific cultural entities (and, moreover,
both information about and attitudes towards certain countries, especially the
USA and Great Britain, are widely differing, at least here in Chile), has raised
the question: into which target culture might a learner want to integrate? In
terms of upward social mobility, English might also be seen as the social and
cultural capital necessary to integrate into the higher strata of one’s own society;
under this perspective, the boundaries between integrative and instrumental ori-
entations become increasingly blurry58.
As mentioned above, another important aspect of Gardner’s work is the fo-
cus on attitudes – mostly towards the foreign language and the foreign culture,
but also towards learning or the learning situation itself. Even though Williams
and Burden include attitudes in their list of internal factors (see above), they can
also be considered as an external influencing factor on motivation, as they form
part of the sociocultural views that tend to be shared by a whole cultural com-
munity (or subgroup), implying stereotypes and generalisations. They could be
considered to work at the intersection between macro-context (society, culture)
and micro-context (parents and peer influence) and start playing an important
role when two languages and two cultures meet, in this case, in the language
classroom:
“Attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human be-
ings, develop early in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’ attitudes, of
contact with people who are ‘different’ in any number of ways, and of interacting af-
fective factors in the human experience. These attitudes form a part of one’s percep-
tion of self, of others, and of the culture in which one is living.” (Brown 2000: 180)
In the interview design, my questions on the perception that teachers have of the
students’ attitudes towards English and English-speaking countries, as a possible
influencing factor on student motivation, were inspired by these theories and
investigations. Thus, an important question in the analysis of the interviews is
whether the significance that Gardner and associates give to cultural attitudes in
the motivational framework is applicable to the Chilean context. Also, Dörnyei
describes the importance of considering parallel multiplicity in motivation re-
search, which refers to the fact that factors cannot be neatly isolated in real life
in the way that they are often presented in research (2001b: 14, cf. also Ushioda
2011). For example, even though there are motivation theories that are related to

58 Brown (op.cit.: 163) mentions Kachru’s (1977, 1992) view on Indian English, following
a similar line.

143
the specificity of language learning, in real school settings both teachers and
students might perceive motivation and attitudes as aspects that stand in relation
to all areas of learning alike, or that are more related to contextual or interper-
sonal factors than to the subject “English” itself.
On the micro-contextual level, as this study is based on teachers’ percep-
tions, it seems natural to give special consideration to the teachers’ motivational
influence. In relation to this, Dörnyei (2001: 35ff.) summarises four interrelated
dimensions that seem to play an important role in student motivation:
1) Personal characteristics of the teacher and, in relation to that, the affiliative
motive: do students display effort in order to please the teacher?
2) Teacher immediacy: the perceived physical and/or psychological closeness
between teachers and students;
3) Active motivational socialising behaviour: how do teachers present tasks,
give feedback to the students, etc?
4) Classroom management: the teacher’s type of authority and the setting and
maintaining of group norms.
Ideally, research on these factors should include some classroom observation;
however, as will be shown in the analysis of the interviews, various teachers are
very much aware of these factors and refer to them when talking about their
teaching experience.
Another factor that is considered as having a possible impact on learning
motivation in this study are the learning contents, especially in terms of the top-
ics that are selected for the lessons. In this sense, it is important here to refer to
the concept of interest: how can this factor be defined, both in relation to the
teachers, for selecting certain topics for teaching, and in relation to the students,
for engaging with the topics that are presented to them? Interest, as a construct,
is closely connected to motivation theories; as has been shown above, Crookes
and Schmidt define it as one of the four components of motivation. Finkbeiner
(2005: 46ff.), in her study on interests and strategies in foreign-language read-
ing, draws on the interest theories outlined in two different pedagogical psy-
chology schools in Germany:
According to the Munich Interest Theory (important researchers are Schie-
fele, Krapp, and Prenzel), interest can be defined on two different levels: on the
one hand, it can be defined as situational: it is the “interestingness” of a specific
situation. This is clearly not very stable and can be influenced, for example,
through attractive visuals. Finkbeiner, in this context, warns that situational in-
terest can only be maintained if flashy pictures are supported by contents or top-
ics which the learners can relate to personally. Thus, on the other hand, interest
can be defined as the personal characteristic of a learner (or a teacher), who dis-

144
plays a relatively stable preference for a school subject or a topic. In this con-
text, the person’s biography and values play an important role. Concepts related
to personal interest are flow and intrinsic motivation: The latter refers to the fact
that external “obligations” (e.g. homework tasks, the completion of a reading
comprehension test, etc.) are not perceived as such, as they are congruent with
personal goals. The former – flow – is a term coined by the positive psychologist
Csikszentmihalyi (in several publications, from 1975 onwards, e.g. 1990), and
widely quoted in literature on motivation, describing a state of optimal intrinsic
motivation, when a person becomes completely absorbed by the enjoyment of an
activity (cf. also Dörnyei 2001b, Tardy & Snyder 2004).
According to the Kiel Interest Theory, it is very important to take into ac-
count that the (teachers’) contextualisations with which learning tasks are pre-
sented to the students need to highlight the relevance that these tasks have for
the students’ own lives; this will have an immediate impact on the interest that
students show in accomplishing these tasks. Also, in the genesis of interest, it
has been found that actions have a significant influence; thus, in language learn-
ing, communicative actions play a special role.59
Finally, some of the educational and L2 research on motivation has focused
on the opposite topic of student demotivation, which Dörnyei defines as “specif-
ic external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioural
intention or an ongoing action” (143). Demotivation should be seen as different
from amotivation (which is related to the perceived inability to cope with a
learning task). Dörnyei quotes three studies that conclude that the teachers’ rela-
tionship with the students, the teachers’ attitude, and also student attitude-related
problems (especially towards the language) can have an important impact on
student demotivation.
In sum, this study concentrates on the following aspects of motivation to
learn English: the macro-context, especially in the form of the cultural attitudes
that students bring to a lesson, but also in terms of the Chilean school system
and the role that English plays within it; the micro-context that is included in the
teachers’ descriptions of their classrooms, schools and the students; and the in-
teraction between the students and the learning contents that they are faced with
in the lessons. However, as this study is qualitative in its design, it accounts for
the multiplicity of factors that are perceived by the teachers to influence student
motivation, even if these factors were not considered in this initial outline.

59 According to Finkbeiner’s 1995 empirical study, an action oriented (handlungsorien-

tierte) teaching and learning methodology can have a very positive impact on students’
interest and attitude towards studying a foreign language.

145
7.4 Analytical Framework: Critical Discourse
Analysis
In order to analyse the content of the interviews, it is necessary to apply analyti-
cal tools that dedicate special attention to the social and political context to
which the teachers refer in the interviews. Generally speaking, the methodology
developed and presented by critical discourse analysts like Teun van Dijk, Nor-
man Fairclough and Ruth Wodak (2001), which has also been used for the anal-
ysis of the textbooks, offers a perspective which helps to examine the influence
that factors such as power relations and the social order in a neo-liberal econo-
my have on discourse structures, and vice versa - how discourse is used to sus-
tain or to challenge a certain social order. It is important to take into account that
the interviewed teachers do not belong to a powerful group within society, and
that the interviews as a genre are not aimed at a large audience; however, the
teachers in their daily jobs do have access to a constant audience that is soon
going to be part of the country’s workforce and the voting population. While
some parts of the interviews can be regarded as resistant or alternative discours-
es that challenge the status quo of a society with blatant social, economic and
cultural inequities, there are also parts where the political concept of hegemony
can help to highlight the fact that there is some “legitimizing common sense
which sustains relations of domination” (Fairclough 2001: 124), i.e. where
teachers, maybe inadvertently, incorporate dominant discourse into their own
ways of explaining aspects of their profession. A useful concept for this mecha-
nism is colonisation of discourse: as Fairclough points out, “managerial genres,
discourses and styles are rapidly colonizing government and public sector do-
mains such as education” (128). That this is true for the public discourse on the
teaching and learning of English in Chile has already been shown in my 2008
article (Glas 2008, see chapter 3.2.4).
One approach that is especially useful for exploring the ways in which vari-
ous discourses and voices meet and mingle in each interview, and which has al-
so been used successfully in studies similar to mine (Menard-Warwick 2008a) is
the analytical framework that the Russian literary critic Bakhtin proposed in or-
der to better understand the multitude of voices that make up a novel specifical-
ly, or any piece of discourse in general (Bakhtin 1981). He demonstrates how
the utterances of one single character in a novel may represent the discourse of a
whole social group, and how the author of a novel thus composes a polyphonic
piece of art in which the voices of others form the background for his own voice
(278). Going beyond the analysis of literary art, Bakhtin also examines the
workings of language in a heterogeneous society in general:

146
 “Actual social life and historical becoming create within an abstractly unitary na-
tional language a multitude of concrete worlds, a multitude of bounded verbal-
ideological and social belief systems.” (288)
He highlights the way in which all discourse eventually becomes alienated from
others and appropriated for one’s own intentions:
“[T]here are no neutral words and forms – words and forms that can belong to ‘no
one’ (…) Each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its so-
cially charged life; all words and forms are populated by intentions. (…) The word
in language is half someone else’s. It becomes ‘one’s own’ only when the speaker
populates it with his own intention, his own accent, when he appropriates the word,
adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention.” (293)
This approach seems relevant in several ways: first, when analysing the total of
the interviews in a kind of synopsis, it is enlightening to “hear” the different
voices of teachers as in an orchestra, where some themes might be repeated by
different teachers, while in other parts they contribute with new ideas in each
interview. Next, the voices of other educational and social actors are present in
the teachers’ utterances, in various ways: sometimes it is just a faint echo of
some ministerial speech or other “dominant discourses”, such as news media;
sometimes the teachers act out the students’ voice in “imaginary dialogues” that
form part of the interviews; in other instances, teachers simply use certain ex-
pressions, words or ideas that either belong to their cultural heritage or other-
wise to somebody else, but they are firmly incorporated in their own beliefs and
thus form part of their own identity.
Thus, when teachers show the learners’ opinions through their own drama-
tisations and accounts, access (though admittedly indirect) to that group of edu-
cational participants can be gained, which is one of the main concerns of the
study. This acquires value when the fact is taken into account that it is the teach-
ers’ interpretations of their students’ interests, likes and dislikes that finally in-
fluence the teachers’ decision-making processes concerning contents or teaching
approaches – not the “real” students’ interests, likes and dislikes. Also, as has
been shown before, the issue of identity is also a relational phenomenon that is
played out through discourse(s); when the degree of appropriation of other dis-
courses in the interviews is examined, light can be shed on the teachers’ affilia-
tions to and distancing from various social groups.
Therefore, the method of analysis applied to the interviews focuses on the
following aspects: first, the use of keywords and phrases, especially if they are
taken from dominant or other public discourses; second, the use of personal pro-
nouns to discover issues of identification and agency; third, hesitations, vague
expressions and omissions that might point at aspects that are peripheral or irrel-
evant to the teachers’ identities.

147
8. The Research Process: Samples, Interviews,
Analysis
After having presented the most important theoretical approaches to the research
investigation into the teachers’ perspective, I will now explain the research pro-
cess of the present study. One of my main concerns was to explore the teachers’
perspective on the specific challenges they faced in their particular professional
settings, student motivation and (cultural) contents without imposing my own
(pre-)conceptions of these issues. Therefore, as Flick (2005:323) states, the va-
lidity of qualitative research consists mainly of asking the right questions, and
seeing / presenting principles or causal relationships where they really are. For
example, I needed to find out if my hypothesis, i.e. that student demotivation is
linked to negative student attitudes towards the English-speaking world, was
intersubjectively true, and shared by the teachers interviewed. In order to do so,
I needed to: 1. interview a sufficient number of teachers. 2. base at least part of
the interview on open questions, in which teachers could develop their own the-
ories. 3. use inductive instruments in the analysis of the gained data, i.e. use a
bottom-up approach.
Another way of validating a qualitative study is to describe the research pro-
cess in detail, with the greatest transparency possible (procedural validity, cf.
op.cit. 327ff.), including possible pitfalls and specific difficulties. In the follow-
ing paragraphs, I will first refer to the way contact was established with the
teachers; then, present and justify the questions asked in the interviews and
questionnaires. Finally, I will explain the way the data obtained were analysed.

8.1 Contact with Teachers and Sample Criteria

Most of the above mentioned studies on teacher cognition and teacher identities
are in-depth investigations with very small samples of participating teachers –
sometimes even only one teacher, as in Tsui 2007. They generally use an ethno-
graphic research design, combining face-to-face interviews with classroom ob-
servations and sometimes reflective journals or other instruments to investigate
the subjective component of the teachers’ perspective. However, especially in
the larger German studies on specific aspects of language teaching (e.g. reading
interests) that also include subjective theories, a mixture of quantitative and
qualitative methods is applied. This means that the number of participants is
larger; sometimes both questionnaires and interviews are used to collect data;

149
the collected data are analysed quantitatively and only a selection of them quali-
tatively (e.g. Finkbeiner 2005; Kallenbach 1996).
For my study, I interviewed 19 teachers – a number small enough to analyse
the interview transcripts in depth, but also large enough to make some very ten-
tative and cautious generalisations. As one of my concerns was to achieve a
comprehensive perspective of Chilean society (or at least of the Chilean educa-
tional system) I needed to interview enough teachers to cover all school types.
Therefore, I tried to have a near-representative proportion of teachers working at
the different school types, as within the common patterns there is still consider-
able diversity among, for example, public secondary schools. Thus, of the inter-
viewed teachers, three work at private parent-financed schools, eight teachers
work at state-subsidised private schools and ten teachers work at publically
funded schools (some teachers work in more than one school, therefore the total
number here exceeds the number of teachers interviewed). I also covered a
range of different, though not proportionally representative, geographical set-
tings: three teachers from the capital, three teachers from a smaller town
(130,000 inhabitants), and thirteen teachers from a larger urban but provincial
area (about 600,000 inhabitants). I would have liked to have interviewed at least
one teacher from a rural school, but unfortunately this was not possible.
About half of the contacts with the teachers were made through previous
personal relationships, for example, colleagues of teacher friends or acquaint-
ances of mine. The other contacts were made at my workplace: the university at
which I work offers intensive refresher summer courses for in-service school
teachers; these courses combine language practice and methodological aspects;
other teachers are involved in supervising student teachers’ school experiences.
However, there is only one teacher in the study whom I knew personally before
the interviews. The advantage of using personal contacts to find study partici-
pants is that it is less time-consuming. Also, the interviewed teachers, having
confirmed through their personal contacts the academic nature of my inquiry,
might have felt less threatened about being asked about their professional expe-
riences. Of course, basing the choice of teachers upon personal contacts might
have slightly restricted the possibility of achieving a really “representative”
sample. Furthermore, the teachers who were contacted through the summer
course at the university might even be slightly less representative, as participa-
tion in these courses is voluntary, and those participating might be more moti-
vated than other teachers in the system. They might also be biased in terms of
giving certain methodological questions more importance if those particular
methods had just been mentioned in their course.

150
Table 9: Overview of the teachers, with a summary of some questionnaire data; Numbers
refer to the order in which they were interviewed; Letters refer to school type:
M = municipalizado (publically financed school); S = particular subvencionado
(state-subsidised private school); P = particular pagado (private school);
A = adult school (state-subsidised private secondary education for students aged
18 and above)

Personal con-

speaking cul-

erence for…
Travel pref-
Pseudonym

Location

tact with
Years of

English-
Number

Contact
Service
Gender

tures
1M Soledad capital F 25 England personal
2M n/n city F 31 Two weeks in Florida England; USA personal
3M Christian city M ≈5 Childhood stay in n/n personal
USA
4M Viviana city F 10 England or personal
Canada
5M Hortensia city F 32 Two months in USA Scotland, Ire- personal
land, Wales,
Australia / New
Zealand
6S n/n capital F 4 With exchange stu- Australia / New personal
dents at her school Zealand
7P John capital M 4 Native speaker n/n personal
(USA)
8P Carolina city F 12 Ex-student of a Brit- British Isles personal
ish school; with
friends
9S Janet city F 10 With US-American Australia / New university
friends Zealand
10S Emilia city F 9 England university
11S Gabriela city F 8 Two months in Eng- England personal
land; with relatives
in Australia
12M Tania town F 9 With English speak- England, Aus- university
ers living in Chile tralia / New
Zealand
13M n/n town F 28 With native speakers USA / Canada university
14M Pamela city F 2 With US-American Any English- university
friends speaking coun-
try

151
 15S Cecilia city F ≈ 25 With relatives in USA university
USA; trip to USA
planned
16P/S Paola city F 8 USA university
17S/A Verónica town F 1 10 years in Canada England university
18M Carmen city F 18 England university
19M Anita city F 20 England university

8.2 Interview and Questionnaire Design

For data collection, I decided to combine two instruments (cf. Flick 2005:
330ff.): first, semi-structured problem-centred interviews with a length of ap-
proximately 45 minutes; second, a two-page questionnaire to obtain some bio-
graphical data and “spontaneous associations” on cultural attitudes from the
teachers.

8.2.1 Interview Design

When working on the design of the interview questions, I aimed for the teachers
to come up with the topic “student motivation” spontaneously, without prompt-
ing from myself. Therefore, I started with a few very open questions, to continue
with increasingly closed questions on the following topics: student motivation,
textbook contents and cultural aspects of EFL teaching. Rather than a hard and
fast script, the questions were meant to be a checklist. Thus, in the individual
interview situations, I omitted those questions that had already been answered
through previous questions, and changed the order of the questions when teach-
ers spontaneously mentioned topics in a different order. Some of the sub-
questions were meant to be prompts in case teachers did not expand on the main
questions by themselves. In the following paragraphs, the interview questions
will be presented and justified in three thematic sections.

A: Global language, local issues

1) What does it mean to be an English teacher in Chile?
2) What special challenges do you perceive?
a. in relation to other countries (e.g. in Europe).
b. in relation to other school subjects.
c. in relation to the desired learning outcomes.

152
12) Is there a message that would you like to leave for teachers trainers and
policy makers?
These rather open questions were posited to elicit information on the teachers’
self-image or identity and their teaching context. With the reference to Chile
they were meant to open the teachers’ thought to a “global context”. Thus, the
cultural distance between the participants and the researcher would hopefully
help, rather than hinder the exchange by establishing the interviewed teachers’
viewpoint and relating it to one of the concerns of this study, which is the inter-
national perspective on the teaching of English. By including these two first
questions, I also hoped to obtain references to the wider socio-cultural context in
which English is taught in Chile, as well as activate reflections on the teachers’
self-image in relation to her or his taught subject. I hoped that the concept “chal-
lenge” would already arise spontaneously in the first answer; the comparative
aspects other countries, other school subjects, desired outcomes (which could be
compared to the real outcomes) were intended to provide further prompts in case
it were necessary to stimulate the conversation. The last question, number 12,
was included to close the interviews and to give teachers a chance to add any
special concern to their previous statements. Even if the final question is sepa-
rated chronologically from questions 1 and 2, thematically they belong together,
therefore they were also analysed together.

B: Motivational aspects
3) What motivated you to become an English teacher?
a. Do you think your own motivation is reflected in your students’ motiva-
tion?
4) Generally, how motivated do you think your students are?
5) What motivates them?
a. outside the classroom, in a wider context
b. inside the classroom
c. What role do parents / the social context play in your students’ motiva-
tion?
d. What role does the general cultural context in Chile play?
e. What role does the labour market play?
6) What causes demotivation?
a. outside the classroom, in a wider context
b. inside the classroom
c. What role do parents / the social context play in your students’ motiva-
tion?

153
 d. What role does the general cultural context in Chile play?
e. What role does the labour market play?
7) How do you perceive the general students’ attitude towards …
a. the English language.
b. English-speaking cultures.
8) Since the beginning of the programme “English Opens Doors”, has any-
thing changed in your students’ motivation or attitudes?
a. What impact have the textbooks had?
Question 3 was designed to elicit biographical information from the teachers.
Asking about their personal (initial) motivation to teach English could point to a
deeper connection between the teachers’ personal experience and the perceived
motivation on the part of the students (cf. Dörnyei 2001: 175 ff. on the relation-
ship between teacher motivation and student motivation), and therefore result in
data with a higher emotional charge.
Through questions 4, 5 and 6, I intended to collect data on the teachers’ per-
ceptions of student motivation and attitudes. The questioning included some of
the aspects of motivation that are generally mentioned in motivation research,
without referring explicitly to them, so that the teachers were able to elaborate
their own theories. More external than internal factors60 are considered here, as
the former are more relevant when describing a whole group of students, rather
than individuals. These external factors include “significant others”, “the learn-
ing environment”, and “the broader context” (cf. Dörnyei 2001: 20). Again, the
idea was to ask the sub-questions only if the teachers did not spontaneously refer
to those aspects. Attitudinal aspects (question 7) can be associated with both ex-
ternal and internal factors. The question tried to separate linguistic from cultural
aspects, as this could lead to a reflection upon the value of English as a lingua
franca, which is not tied to any specific community of native speakers.
Finally, question 8 should put motivation in the context of the government’s
programme to promote English teaching and learning in Chile, and lead on to
the questions on contents.

C: Contents
9) How much do you use the textbook?
a. In your perception, which parts of the textbook can the students relate to
best? Why?

60 The distinction between external and internal factors here follows the framework of-
fered by Williams and Burden (1997); see also Dörnyei (2001: 19f.).

154
 b. Generally speaking, what is your experience with texts and reading activi-
ties in class?
c. What are your criteria for the selection of certain texts from the book?
d. How much do you use the “culture pages” in the text book?
10) What is your experience with these culture pages or other cultural material
in class?
a. in relation to the students’ reaction.
b. in relation to your own interest in teaching them.
c. What other texts or cultural information do you use in class?
d. How do you make your decisions on which texts to use?
e. In your experience, is there one country or one aspect of culture that your
students are particularly interested in?
f. How do you meet that interest?
11) Do you consider “teaching culture” or “intercultural elements” relevant to
your role as an English teacher? If so,
a. what aspects of culture?
b. which countries?
These questions are of a narrower nature and were designed to elicit data on the
specific topic of contents, without relating them explicitly to the motivational
aspect. It was only indirectly that teachers would ideally relate back to motiva-
tion and attitudes, first through the order of the interview questions, second,
through the references to students’ reactions and interests (including the teach-
ers’ interests). In asking specifically about the textbook, I hoped the answers to
these questions would yield complementary data to the analysis of the textbooks.
The last question leads back to the very first one, mentioning again the role of
the English teacher and leaving the wide concept of culture to the teachers’ own
interpretation.

8.2.2 Questionnaire design

The questionnaire (see appendix) consisted of two parts: the first part was to ob-
tain biographical information from the teachers: their gender; the university in
which they were trained to become English teachers and the year in which they
finished their studies; current and previous workplaces, including information on
experience in different school types and levels (primary - secondary or adult ed-
ucation); the textbooks that they used in the four different year groups of sec-
ondary education, and justification in case they were not using the government
textbooks. The second part contained questions about cultural experiences and
attitudes: stays abroad or other opportunities to practice English; preferences for

155
different English-speaking countries; spontaneous associations with the English
language, with the United States and Great Britain. To finish, the last question
referred to the conditions under which the teachers would choose the same pro-
fession again. The questionnaire was mainly meant to complement the data from
the interviews, in case some biographical data would not be mentioned in the
interviews, and to gain a more complete picture of teacher attitudes on cultural
issues. The questionnaires were given to the teachers after the interview, so they
would not be biased on the “culture” question in their answers.

8.3 Data Analysis

For the analysis of the collected data, I decided to use a twofold approach: first,
a horizontal structuring and summarising analysis of all the interviews, includ-
ing the data obtained through the questionnaires. The results of this part of the
analysis will be presented in chapter 9. Second, this first breakdown was com-
plemented with an in-depth content analysis of some selected interviews, in or-
der to explore some issues that arose more or less spontaneously during the in-
terviews, and also to be able to map out some especially valuable examples of
motivating content selection (presented in chapter 10.4). The triangulation of
data and analytical methods is thus a way of both validating the study and en-
riching the perspectives, resulting in a broader and deeper view of the findings
(cf. Flick 2005: 330ff.).

8.3.1 Recording and transcription

All the interviews were digitally recorded and subsequently transcribed. After
the interviews, I quickly wrote up a brief description of the interview situation –
the place, time of the day, my general impression of the teachers’ personalities,
and other topics that the teachers and I discussed in the “small talk” before and
after the interview. In some instances, recording this would have been a valuable
complement to the interviews, as some teachers went on to elaborate some of the
ideas they had mentioned before. In order to improve my questioning technique,
especially after the first interviews, I also wrote a few lines about mistakes that I
thought I had made, e.g. not insisting enough on an interesting point or letting
teachers go off the point for too long. I usually started with the transcription as
soon as possible in order to fill in inaudible or interrupted passages (e.g. through
traffic or construction noise, students in school corridors etc.) from memory;
however, as I needed to make the most of the possibility to interview many

156
teachers during the summer course, I did not always have time to transcribe the
interviews immediately. For some of these, I also asked for help from friends,
who kindly did a first “quick” transcript for me. I then listened to all the inter-
views at least three times to correct and re-correct the transcripts. However,
there were some parts of a few interviews where the sound quality was so poor,
or the teachers talked so quietly that I needed to mark those parts in the tran-
scripts to indicate that my transcription might be flawed.

Transcription key:61
.. short pause (short breath intake)
… 0.5-second pause
…. 1-second pause etc.
: lengthened sound (extra colons indicate greater lengthening)
xxx inaudible
[laughs] comments added in brackets
In order to validate the interviews, the transcripts were sent back to the teachers
for their approval. Some of them added comments to reinforce some of the
points made in the interviews. None of them questioned the content or the tran-
script.

8.3.2 Horizontal analysis

After all the interviews had been transcribed, the data were analysed for recur-
rent themes (cf. Mayring 2003). Due to the semi-structured nature of the inter-
views, the establishment of categories turned out to be a mixture between my
initial questions and concerns and the teachers’ own focus on certain aspects of
their professional realities. For the first, I basically used a top-down approach,
guided by the topics that I had proposed by the questions, with a focus on stu-
dent motivation and learning contents, especially cultural contents. For those
parts where the teachers could answer more freely, especially those that belong
to theme A, inductive categories were established. However, as will be seen lat-
er, for some of the more structured parts of the interviews, it was also necessary
to add further inductive categories, based on the themes proposed in the teach-
ers’ answers. These inductive categories were marked as “added categories” to
highlight the fact that they arose more or less spontaneously in the course of the
interviews, and are therefore less guided by my own questions. Issues that were

61 Cf. Kramsch 1993: 110f.

157
repeatedly raised by the teachers, such as the increased importance of technolo-
gy in Chilean life today and its connection to learning, particularly learning Eng-
lish, now receive special attention in the analysis (10.3), even though they had
not initially been considered in my conception of this research investigation.
The next step in the analysis was to structure and summarise the data: the
transcribed answers (most of them in Spanish) to each of the twelve questions
that guided the interviews were drawn together in tables and summarised in a
different column. This approach made it possible to analyse the data compara-
tively, from which cautious quantitative conclusions can be drawn (with all the
restrictions that are implied by such a small sample), while leaving enough con-
text to be able to analyse the content qualitatively, too.
More indications about the way in which this information was organised in
order to present it in this report can be found at the beginning of the respective
chapters.

8.3.3 Translation and Presentation of Quotations

Most of the interviews were carried out in Spanish. One teacher, a native speak-
er, naturally spoke to me in English. There was one other teacher who also opted
for this language. For the presentation of the interviews in chapters 9 and 10, I
decided to leave the quotes in the main text in the original, including translations
to English in the footnotes. For the presentation of the original quotes, for rea-
sons of space and greater readability, I eliminated most of my interjections and
active listening markers, and sometimes a false start, if it would interrupt the
flow too much. However, in general terms, for the sake of authenticity, I at-
tempted to leave the quotes as natural as possible. In the translations, I decided
to shorten the quotes to more readable texts, eliminating most false starts and re-
phrasings of the original oral register, but, when in doubt, opted for more literal
(and maybe less idiomatic) translations in order to keep the original ideas as
truthful as possible.
All teacher quotations (TQs) are numbered so that finding them in the report
is made easy. References to the quotes contain the number of the interview, in-
cluding the code for the school type (see above, in the key for table 9), and the
page number of the interview transcript.

158
9. Summarising Analysis of the Teachers’
Responses
In this chapter, I will analyse the teachers’ responses globally, in order to gain
an overview of the teachers’ perspective on their profession in Chile, their opin-
ions on student motivation and on cultural contents. The sub-chapters roughly
follow the same logic as the subdivisions of the interviews: the main concern of
9.1 will be the Chilean English teachers’ identity in the local teaching context.
Sub-chapter 9.2 is based on the teachers’ responses to the questions on student
motivation and attitudes. Finally, in 9.3, I will explore the teachers’ attitudes and
interests, their personal and ethnic identity, in relation to their views on the
teaching of cultural content.
By applying both quantitative and qualitative analytical tools, I aim to pre-
sent the results of this study in both maximum breadth and depth. Therefore,
these sub-chapters are organised in the following way: first, a brief account will
be given of the way in which thematic categories were formed on the basis of
the interview data, whether these categories were anticipated by the initial inter-
view questions or whether they arose spontaneously or unexpectedly from the
obtained data. The second sub-sections consist in a summary of all of the teach-
ers’ answers from the respective thematic section of the interviews. In the third
section of each sub-chapter, the data presented will be analysed, by referring
back to the framework on teacher identity and relating the obtained data to other
research and theories in the respective areas of interest. All sub-chapters will
culminate in a conclusion, in which the interview data will be contrasted and
compared with my hypothesis, which I presented at the beginning of the study
(chapter 1).

159
9.1 Global Language, Local Challenges: The
Teachers’ Interpretation of their Professional
Situation

9.1.1 Pre-analysis
This chapter is based on the following interview questions:
1) What does it mean to be an English teacher in Chile?
2) What are specific challenges that the teachers perceive in their profession-
al reality?
8) What do teachers have to say about the government programme “English
opens doors”?
12) What additional comments would teachers like to make for policy makers
and teacher trainers?
To complement this last question, the teachers’ responses to the last item on the
questionnaire: “I would choose my profession again if…” have also been con-
sidered.
With the exception of question 8, all of these questions were deliberately
asked as open questions, so that teachers were encouraged to develop their
points of view on their self-image and their teaching context as freely as possi-
ble. Question 8 was initially meant to be a transition from the topic of motiva-
tion to talking about textbooks, as the distribution of textbooks was part of the
government programme. However, in the interviews many teachers turned out to
have fairly complex opinions about the government initiative as a whole. The-
matically, these answers belong to this set of questions, as they give detailed in-
formation on the teaching context, and the way in which it has developed in the
past few years. Therefore, for presentational purposes, I have re-formulated the
question here as an open question.
As my hypothesis already anticipated the idea of challenge, and as a special
challenge student motivation, during the interviews I tried to guide the teachers’
answers to those issues, but would then pick up on their own comments and ask
them to further develop them if their answers allowed me to do so. In the analy-
sis, all those teacher comments that referred to these questions in some way
were considered and categorised, even if they did not follow my question imme-
diately and arose at some other point in the interview.

160
 From question 1, I divided answers up into two sub-categories, according to
different interpretations of being an English teacher and of teaching English,
respectively.
In question 2, I had pre-established three points of reference for the teachers
to guide their interpretation of challenges: a) in comparison to other countries, b)
in comparison to other school subjects, and c) in comparison to expected out-
comes. During the interviews, I did not always raise all of them, or insist on
them if teachers did not make reference to them – generally I only did so if I
considered it was necessary in order to prompt the teachers’ answers. Instead, I
preferred for the teachers to develop their own views on their professional chal-
lenges, and this is why I had to add further categories in my analysis, or modify
these points of reference: first of all, most teachers found it very difficult to
compare their context to that of other countries; however, many of them estab-
lished comparisons between the different school types in Chile (cf. chapter 3.1),
situating the schools where they work on a scale from private, state-subsidised
private to publically funded schools. Thus, the point of reference “other coun-
tries” was complemented by “other school types in Chile”. Then, three catego-
ries were established that subsume the main challenges that teachers mentioned
and added to the other points of reference / categories: d) lack of resources, e)
lack of motivation and f) lack of study habits.
As mentioned before, question 8 was initially conceived as a follow-up to
the questions on student motivation and attitudes – therefore, the main ques-
tion/category (a) here was: Did the government programme have any impact on
student motivation? During the analysis, two more categories took form: b) the
interrelation between the government initiative and a general change in society;
c) the possible impact of the government initiative on the attention that English
receives as a school subject.
Question 12 was conceived to close the interviews and to leave a completely
open space for the teachers to give their views on their worries and concerns,
without any prompts of mine. This turned out to be very useful, as they com-
plemented the more structured questions of the interviews on professional chal-
lenges. This is why this final question is analysed in this sub-chapter, too.

9.1.2 Summary of the Teachers’ Answers

Question 1: What does it mean to be an English teacher in Chile?
The opening question was meant to elicit the teachers’ subjective interpretations
of their professional reality. Even if the question was not asked again during the

161
interviews, other, additional questions, for example questions on the teachers’
initial motivation to become English teachers, brought up supplementary ideas
that equally fitted as answers to this question, and the quest to interpret their
professional context indeed permeated the whole interview. Therefore, these
ideas are considered in this summary, even if they turned up in other stages of
the interview.
In the analysis, it was possible to establish different categories based on the
teachers’ answers. Some teachers answered the question on being an English
teacher fairly generally, referring to the social context, the requirements, limita-
tions and opportunities that they perceive in their profession. Other teachers in-
terpreted this question as “what does it mean to teach English in Chile?” Those
answers had a slightly different focus to them, as they refer more specifically to
the classroom activities that English teachers consider essential in their daily
tasks.
So, I will first examine the more general question: What does it mean to be
an English teacher in Chile?
Many teachers refer to their profession in fairly negative terms: The idea
that being an English teacher in Chile is a challenge (“un desafío”) , complicated
(“complicado”) or difficult (“difícil”) appears in at least ten interviews (cf. inter-
views 1M, 3M, 4M, 5M, 6S, 10S, 11S, 14M, 15S, 18M, 19M). Although it is the
case that most of these teachers work at publically funded schools, and none of
them at private schools, it is interesting that this description applies even to
some teachers whose professional situations seem comparatively favourable.
However, a more detailed description of the challenges and difficulties will be
given below, when question 2 is analysed.
Conversely, four teachers refer to their profession in extremely positive
terms: “I enjoy it quite a bit” (7P, 2); “aquí en Chile es como:: un lujo .. para
mí::.. es e:: un lujito: … que me di yo misma”62 (12M, 1). The main reason that
is given for this optimistic view is the changed status of English in Chile, in the
times of globalisation, as the following quote illustrates:
TQ1: “ser profesora de inglés en Chile hoy:: en el dos mil nueve es realmente un
privilegio.. la verdad es que nosotros tenemos ahora digamos.. el gran poder la gran
influencia::: de poder a los alum a los alumnos abrirles el mundo … de que no sola-
mente estamos acá en Chile que somos el último lugar del mundo sino que podemos
interactuar… que en el fondo pueden conocer otras culturas pueden abrir sus posibi-
lidades laborales y académicas también y no sólo eso sino que también.. todo lo que
les gusta la música:: la computación que ahora está tan de moda los chicos ahora se

62 “Here in Chile it is like luxury .. for me.. it is a little treat that I gave to myself”.

162
 manejan más que yo en en los programas.. entonces para mí es un honor un privile-
gio.” (16P/S, 1)63
The teachers perceive increased opportunities not only for their students but also
for themselves:
TQ2: “a ver.. de un tiempo a esta parte ser profesora de inglés:: cierto:: e::: ha tenido
un::: un énfasis.. creciente e:: yo creo que... hace unos diez años atrás... mucho énfa-
sis con esto de la globalización::n cierto.. el énfasis en manejar un segundo idioma
como instrumento e:: de.. en este caso de movilización social… e::: es.. una buena
oportunidad .. ser profesora de inglés .. está dentro de la pedagogía yo creo que es la
que te abre más puertas... y la que tiene más posibilidades laborales .. es ser profeso-
ra de inglés.” (18M, 1)64
Within this context, the changed status of English in Chilean society in the past
years appears in at least six interviews. This is for many teachers both an oppor-
tunity and a challenge. The answers to question 2 will shed more light on this
issue.
TQ3: “working as an English teacher for me means dealing with one of the most
important challenges for us (…) because (…) the Chilean government wants (…) the
country to becom:::e … bilingual” (3M, 2).
Opportunities for teachers are mentioned in various interviews – apart from the
possibilities for teaching English, some teachers consider it an advantage to have
the option to do other things with the language, beyond teaching it. In this aspect
of English teacher identity, the linguistic factor takes on special importance:
TQ4: “te podí ir a otro país… hay como hartas cosas para hacer en inglés.” (12M,
1)65
At the same time, the fact that English has multiple applications can also be in-
terpreted more negatively – being an English teacher is dissatisfying, owing to

63 “Being an English teacher in Chile today in 2009 is really a privilege. In fact, we now
have, let’s say, the great power, the great influence of being able to open the world to
the students, being able to not just be here in Chile where we are the last place in the
world, but we are able to interact… that ultimately they can get to know other cultures,
they can also widen their professional and academic possibilities and not just that, but
also.. everything they like, music, computers which is so fashionable nowadays, the kids
now know how to handle the programmes better than I do… so for me it is an honour, a
privilege.”
64 “For some time now being an English teacher has had an increasing emphasis put on
it… I think for about ten years, with this globalisation… the emphasis on knowing a se-
cond language as a tool of social mobility in this case… It is a great opportunity to be
an English teacher. Among all teaching jobs it is the one that opens the most doors to
you, and which has the most professional possibilities.”
65 “You can go to another country… there are like a lot of things to do in English.”

163
the profession’s restricted opportunities to actually use the language, and limited
earning potential, compared to other jobs in Chile involving the English lan-
guage:
TQ5: “yo... hablo un poquito de inglés.. como no voy a poder entrar en otra cosa que
sea más.. satisfacto..no.. no tanto en plata sino en:: usar el idioma que yo aprendí”
(4M, 4)66
Many teachers also describe what they consider to be the requirements for being
a good English teacher, especially one who motivates students (some of those
views appear in the context of student motivation). In their statements, the
teachers generally mix various factors together: some have to do with language
skills, some with up-to-date cultural or methodological knowledge (e.g. 9S,
16P/S, 18M), and some with personality factors that also could apply to all
teachers, not just English teachers – creativity (11S), being a sociable, caring
person (e.g. 11S, 8P). In order to gain a more qualitatively valid understanding
of teachers’ beliefs on this matter, I think it is useful to have a look at these
quotes to examine the order in which the teachers mention the different factors
and how they describe them (my emphases are added in the translation of the
quotes):
TQ6: “es muy importante la parte inglés .. muy importante los conocimientos lin-
güísticos ... el saber un poco quién fue Shakespeare .. quién fue este otro caballero..
pero también el formar un profesional un poco más global .. (…) ... entonces yo creo
que:: la universidad en ese sentido (…) es entregar una formación más completa...
las tics .. también ..” (16 P/S, 7)67
TQ7: “hay cariño .. hay no sé po ellos me resp... me respetan y me quieren entonces
es eso y que estén participando ... que uno llegue y estén de buen ánimo de buen ta-
lante... qué escuchen... y por supuesto que que que consideran que yo sé..” (8P, 4)68
Being up-to-date culturally does not necessarily mean that teachers have trav-
elled to or lived in an English-speaking country – something that for many of
them is simply beyond their reach financially. This quote is an interesting illus-
tration of this belief:

66 “I speak a bit of English… surely I will be able to get into something different that of-
fers more satisfaction … not just in terms of money but in using the language that I
learnt.”
67 “The English part, the linguistic knowledge is very important; to know a bit about who
was Shakespeare and this or that other man; but also to train professionals to be a bit
more global; so I think the university should offer more complete training … ICT …
too.”
68 “There is affection.. they respect and like me and so they participate… it is important
that one arrives in a good mood … so they listen… and of course that they consider that
I know [English]”.

164
 TQ8: “yo nunca he salido de Chile... (...) hay poetas cubanos que nunca salieron de
Cuba... y hablaban de todo el mundo” (8P, 9)69
Some teachers identify strongly with the pedagogical aspect of being a teacher
in general (rather than an English teacher specifically). Sometimes they refer to
this when asked about their initial motivation to become English teachers (cf.
chapter 9.3), others describe the process vice-versa, as these quotes illustrate:
TQ9: “me gusta el inglés pero después estando adentro me fasciné más con el.. pro-
ceso.. de lo que es ser profesora..” (9S, 2)70
TQ10: “when I started teaching I was like really focused that I teach English.. that’s
what I do and I had that tunnel vision… and I realise now that I do a lot more than
that now…. I teach about life, too” (7P, 2)
This “teaching about life” takes different forms of expression in the different
interviews: for example, one teacher says it is teaching students to respect them-
selves and others (8P), another one says it is teaching values (13M). Even
though these aspects could apply to any of the other school subjects, two teach-
ers spontaneously bring the pedagogical aspect of being a teacher in context
with teaching English language and culture (the second quote will appear further
down, when analysing learning objectives, see TQ20):
TQ11: “ser profesora (...) es .. la la oportunidad de estar e:: siempre en contacto con
gente joven de poder (…) ayudarles a crecer a desarrollarse con un modelo que.... de
persona.. que se equivoca que::: que tiene que pedir perdón... y que: trato de primero
prepararlos a poder enfrentar la vida (...) y dentro de:::: eso es tal vez el medio que
tengo es el inglés... es mi herramienta.... entonces siento que estoy enseñando a tra-
vés de de:: l.. la lengua inglesa … una cultura…” (8P, 1)71
Similarly, the relationship with students is a recurrent theme in the interviews. It
is surprising, however, that English as a subject can be seen both as an obstacle
and as a help in establishing a positive rapport with the students. Probably the
use of the target language in class, and topic choices play a role here. Note the
contrast between these two quotes:

69 “I have never traveled outside of Chile… there are Cuban poets who never left Cuba…
and talked about the whole world”.
70 “I like English but then, being in it, I became fascinated with the process of what it is to
be a teacher.”
71 “Being a teacher is the opportunity to be always in contact with young people, to be
able to help them to develop with the model of a person who gets things wrong, who
has to apologise… I first try to prepare them to be able to face life, and within this, En-
glish is maybe the means that I have … it is my tool… so I feel that what I am teaching
through the English language is a culture.”

165
 TQ12: “con los años muchas veces pensé que me habría .. encantado ser profesora...
de otra cosa.. por ejemplo de historia... para tener más proximidad con los alumnos”
(5M, 2)72.
TQ13: “el inglés o la enseñanza del inglés te da a ti tantas posibilidades.. en térmi-
nos metodológicos te da un montón de posibilidades.. si no es por un lado es por el
otro o por el otro… entonces al final siempre uno va a tener como alguna llegada
con los alumnos” (19M, 9)73
So, whether it helps or hinders to get on well with the students, what is it that is
understood by teaching this subject English, more specifically? This question
leads on to the analysis of the answers that referred more closely to the tasks of
the English teacher:
Eight teachers referred to linguistic learning objectives in relation to the four
skills and the level that students should acquire. In accordance with the govern-
ment guidelines, the receptive skills are given special priority. Reading and lis-
tening comprehension as main goals are recurrent themes (3M, 11S, 17S/A,
19M; no private school teachers mentioned this focus on specific skills). As one
teacher puts it, there is no time for developing the speaking skill (6S). In terms
of the level that students should reach, there is some variation, which is certainly
influenced by the specific challenges that teachers face in their respective con-
text: one teacher who works in a school with many social and disciplinary is-
sues, contents herself with “bringing students closer to the language”; she uses
the metaphor of a “varnish” to highlight the superficiality of the knowledge she
can pass on to her students (1M); other teachers also describe the level as
“basic” (e.g. 17S/A). In other schools, especially those that are known to prepare
students more specifically to go on to study at Higher Education institutions,
teachers describe more ambitious aims, such as certain learner autonomy:
TQ14: “que ellos entiendan lo que leen... que ellos entiendan lo que escuchan ... (…)
y de ahí .... ellos pueden aprender a ser más independientes en ese sentido” (11S, 2) 74
Six teachers also related their answers to specific linguistic or methodological
aspects. A very recurrent theme in this context is grammar teaching, which in
the past few years has been slightly discredited in teacher training programmes

72 “As the years passed I often thought that I would have loved to be a teacher of so-
mething different… for example history… so as to have a closer relationship with the
students”
73 “English or English teaching gives you so many possibilities.. in methodological terms
it gives you a lot of possibilities … if it is not this way it is that way or that way… so in
the end one is always somehow going to get on well with the students”.
74 “[I want them] to understand what they read … to understand what they hear … and
then they can learn to be more independent in this sense”.

166
in Chile and mostly replaced by a task-based approach. This has led to some
confusion, especially for the more mature teachers who have to use textbooks
with a methodological approach in which they have not received any training
(cf. chapter 9.3, 5M, 7/8). Some teachers refer to grammar teaching in a very
personal way whereas some others express their opinions by using impersonal
structures to vocalise government guidelines or the “public discourse” on it: For
example, one teacher explains that she talks about the topics of the texts, often in
Spanish, “ahora como no se puede pasar así gramática” (1M, 6) 75 There was no
common pattern that would point to a direct relationship between a certain atti-
tude towards grammar teaching and the teachers’ age – one of the younger
teachers had embraced the task-based methodology that is commonly advocated
in Chile and talked about grammar in fairly negative terms, but still rather im-
personally:
TQ15: “ahora es abrir el libro y empezar a hacer las actividades y relacionarlo.
Además que como ahora la gramática ha desaparecido ya no es tan:::: a:: la huevada
latera el verbo to be .. los verbos regulares y los irregulares.. sino que... es leer un
texto y relacionarlo o escuchar un texto y relacionarlo con actividades relaciona-
das..” (6S, 6)76
The youngest of the interviewed teachers – also the one with the least teaching
experience – says she resorts to grammar teaching as a way to overcome the stu-
dents’ frustration due to their lack of comprehension77:
TQ16: “se sienten como:: decepcionados cuando no entienden y cuando uno les ha-
bla en inglés (…) entonces la única forma es cómo seguir con lo tradicional.. ex-
plicándoles el verbo to be is are am y todo” (14M,6)78
Two teachers who appear to have found their own, individual approach to teach-
ing English (and also claim success in terms of student motivation and achieve-
ment) describe their relationship to grammar teaching fairly positively, stressing
the importance that they personally give it:

75 “As now one cannot teach grammar like that”.

76 “Now it is opening the book and starting to do the activities and relate them. Moreover,
as now grammar has disappeared it is not the boring stuff the verb to be.. regular and
irregular verbs .. but rather reading a text and relating it or listening to a text and rela-
ting it to related activities.”
77 In teacher training research, this has been found to be a common pattern: even if teach-
ers have been trained to use a different methodological approach, they resort to the ap-
proach they learned with when facing difficulties (Borg 2003).
78 “They feel like disappointed when they don’t understand and when one talks to them in
English… so the only way is to continue with the traditional [approach]… explaining
the verb to be is are am and all that.”

167
 TQ17: “aprendí con el el el la metodología de gramática po.... pero lo he dejado.. fí-
jate.... (KG: ¿y y tú podrías describir cuál es como la cosa que te rige .... así para
motivar a los alumnos?) generalmente la temática.... (…) la temática y ahí voy mez-
clando... me me me..... igual enseño gramática .. no la dejo de lado porque para mí...
es como bien importante y me ha costado dejarla de lado.. pero.. creo que ahora e: ..
priorizo más la comunicación....” (11S, 8)79
TQ18: “me gusta... aunque te digan que no tienes que enseñar gramática.. como que
me apasiono y de repente como que me pillo en eso.. porque veo como algo rico así
como de que asirse.. e:: eso me gusta del.. del idioma.. ahora.. el hecho de que ahora
tienes muchos más medios… toda la cosa del internet y todo.. y de poder acceder
cierto.. e:: culturalmente.. eso me.. me llama la atención también…. y de poder en-
tregar a los chiquillos algunas herramientas mínimas para.. que ellos puedan.. eso
me gusta digamos del.. del… del enseñar ingles” (18M, 3)80
To move on to a different point, as the topics culture teaching and motivation
will be dealt with exhaustively in the following chapters, I will only quote those
interviews where these topics were mentioned in direct response to my first
question. Basically, the answers in these contexts all have in common that the
teachers give an idea of what the students should learn English for, or what their
perceived main learning objective is. Only three teachers referred to culture or
to intercultural learning objectives directly at the beginning – it is to be noted
that the first one of them has never travelled to an English-speaking country,
whereas the second one lived in Canada for ten years:
TQ19: “entonces siento que estoy enseñando a través de de:: l.. la lengua inglesa …
una cultura…(...) y a través de eso el respeto por la diversidad.. por los valores de
una cultura distinta a la nuestra... e:::m tratar de que ellos puedan tomar las cosas
buenas”(8P,1)81

79 “I learned with the grammar method, but I have left it, mind you… (KG: and could you
describe what guides you to motivate students?) generally the topic and I mix… I teach
grammar anyway … I don’t leave it aside because for me it is fairly important and I
have found it difficult to leave it aside… but I think now I prioritise communication
more…”
80 “I like it… even if they tell you that you don’t have to teach grammar, it’s like I get
passionate about it and sometimes I catch myself out in it… because I find it something
beautiful, something to rely on… I like that about the language … now… the fact that
now you have many more resources… the whole Internet thing and everything… being
able to culturally access… that also calls my attention… to be able to give the students
some minimum tools so they can … that’s what I like about teaching English.”
81 “So I feel that I am teaching through the English language a culture and through that the
respect for diversity, through values of a culture that is different from ours… to try to
help them take the good things”.

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 TQ20: “me da la oportunidad de::.... a: enseñar el idioma..... de compartirlo ..de
compartir la cultura que tienen ..los países que hablan en inglés.... a: de crecer... de
que los niños crezcan un poco y que abran un poco más su mentalidad .. conocer
otras cosas que aquí en Chile no tenemos:: (…) que tengan lo la capacidad de poder
leer algo que les amplíe un poco más.. la la:: percepción que tienen de lo los diferen-
tes países”(17S/A,1)82
In contrast, five teachers referred to instrumental motives for learning English,
highlighting its importance and usefulness in the socio-economic context, espe-
cially the world of work – only one of them talks about culture first, mentioning
the “useful” side of English as an “extra”:
TQ21: “poder a los alum a los alumnos abrirles el mundo… (…) podemos interac-
tuar… que en el fondo pueden conocer otras culturas pueden abrir sus posibilidades
laborales y académicas también” (16P/S,1)83
Two teachers use the very common metaphor of the “tool”:
TQ22a: “entregar una herramien:ta:::: lingüística.. que le sirva a::: nuestros estudian-
tes para: .. mejor manejarse en el mundo actual” (2M,1) 84 / TQ22b: “eso para mí..
eso es enseñar inglés ... darles e::: un:: una herramienta más para que ellos se desen-
vuelvan en el futuro” (6S,2)85
Finally, two teachers view their task to motivate the students as essential:
TQ23: “hacerles ver que es importante” (14M,2)86
TQ24: “ser profesora de inglés para mí es como.. como:: e::: ser una ayudante de los
alumnos (…) que les guste el inglés... (…) que se proyecten mediante....no es cierto
este::: .. este:::: idioma...porque es un idioma realmente útil e::: y..universal”
(13M,1)87

82 “It gives me the opportunity to teach the language… to share it… to share the culture
that the English-speaking countries have… to grow… that the kids grow up a bit and
open their mentalities a bit more… to get to know things that here in Chile we don’t ha-
ve… so they have the capacity to be able to read something that widens for them a bit
more… the perception they have of the different countries.”
83 “To be able to open the world to the students … we can interact … that in the end they
can get to know other cultures, they can open their possibilities in work and study, too.”
84 “To pass on a linguistic tool that serves our students to get on better in today’s world.”
85 “That is teaching English for me… to give them another tool so they can cope in the
future”.
86 “Make them see that it is important.”
87 “Being an English teacher for me is like being the students’ helper so that they like En-
glish… that they project themselves through this language because it is a language that
is really useful and universal.”

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As mentioned above, many teachers described their professional context as chal-
lenging. Thus, I am now going to show in detail what aspects of their jobs they
consider to be difficult.

Question 2: What are specific challenges that the teachers perceive in

their professional situation?
The first prompt that I gave to teachers to develop their answers was to compare
their particular situation to that of other countries. A few teachers picked up on
this prompt, two of them referring to the fact that all neighbouring countries
speak Spanish. The following quote echoes the voices of the students, claiming a
Hispanic identity (which is contradicted by some parts of other interviews,
where Chilean racism against Peruvians is emphasised; cf. chapter 9.3):
TQ25: “porque algunas se quejan ‘ay, por qué estudiamos inglés si total estamos en
Chile, qué sé yo:::, si aquí nosotros, así como::: nuestros vecinos.. todos somos his-
panos... y todos nos podemos entender’ ...” (2M,4)88
Other perceptions are that in comparison to Europe, students do not really have
travel opportunities, and that there are fewer people who speak a foreign lan-
guage and who could act as a role model (4M, 2). However, as one teacher puts
it:
TQ26: “yo.. no conozco otras realidades... nunca he salido del país... por lo tanto...
lo que te pueda decir.. tiene que ver con lo::: la enseñanza en Chile..” (6S, 2)89
Therefore, after analysing the interviews, I decided to include in this category all
those answers that compared the teachers’ own school reality to that of other
socio-economic levels and thus, other school types (in particular private schools)
in Chile. I had not foreseen this as an answer, but it was indeed a very common
theme that arose spontaneously in at least fourteen interviews. Without describ-
ing their situation as challenging, even the teachers who work at private schools
mentioned these differences, placing themselves at the “favourable” end of the
spectrum, though (7P, 8P). To include an internal comparison proved very effec-
tive, as it gave an impressive picture of social differences within the country and
showed how they find expression at various levels. The main issues that were
mentioned here as differentiating factors were: student characteristics, especially
in terms of their future perspectives and parental support (1M, 5M, 6S, 8P, 9S,

88 “Because some [students] complain “oh, why do we study English if we are in Chile
anyway, whatever… if here, like our neighbours, we are all Hispanics and we can all
understand each other.”
89 “I don’t know any other realities… I have never left the country... so what I can tell you
has to do with education in Chile.”

170
12M, 16P/S, 17A/S; in contrast to 7P); the general teaching conditions, re-
sources and equipment (1M, 5M, 10S, 13M, 17A/S, 18M; in contrast to 7P, 8P);
early versus late start of English as a school subject (e.g. preschool in the private
sector versus 5th grade in public schools – 1M, 2M, 18M); and some more spe-
cific issues of English teaching, such as specific language skills, the level of
English, or the use of the target language for classroom management (1M, 9S,
14M, 18M). To illustrate the difficulties and differences that teachers describe, I
will quote one teacher who works in a publically funded school, one who works
both in a state-subsidised private and a private school, and one who works in a
private school.
Here, a teacher of a publically funded school describes differences in terms
of the students’ social and cultural levels, their future expectations and motiva-
tion to learn English:
TQ27: “en un colegio de ahí arriba que es pagado.. y que los niños vienen con un
inglés desde primero básico y es que ellos como que tienen expectativas al futuro en
que sí saben que el inglés les va a servir.. lo van a ocupar y un montón de cosas….
en cambio los chiquillos ni siquiera se imaginan para qué les pueda servir.. que ojalá
con suerte que salgan de cuarto medio.. que hay algunos que quedan en el camino….
entonces por eso que para ellos es difícil motivarse y el hogar de ellos.. el medio so-
cioeconómico en el que yo estoy también es muy bajo…. padres ausentes que traba-
jan todo el día.. en las casas no hay libros no hay revistas no hay un lugar adecuado
para trabajar entonces todo eso les desmotiva a ellos… si no están en el colegio es-
tán en la calle.” (1M, 4)90
The following quotes describe how the social level has an impact on the teach-
ers’ perspective of topic contents, taking an empathetic perspective of the more
complicated social backgrounds:
TQ28: “como tienen la posibilidad también saben que pueden viajar saben que pue-
den conocer ... entonces los sistemas el sistema de trabajo les llama la atención que
en Europa por ejemplo se pueden tomar años sabáticos o en Estados Unidos que
pueden viajar y::: y y conocer el mundo y después vuelven a sus propios trabajos
que hay una rotación laboral que y que eso es normal ... em... bueno... eso les atrae
porque es cercano a lo mejor si yo les muestro eso a niños en la Pintana (…) o les

90 “In a school up there where parents pay fees, and the kids learn English from Year 1
primary school onwards and they have future expectations in which they do know that
English is going to be useful for them, they will use it and a lot of things… whereas the
kids [in my school] can’t even imagine what this is going to be good for. Hopefully and
with any luck they will finish secondary education because there are some who drop out
before. So for these reasons it is difficult to get motivated and their homes… the socio-
economic background where I am is very low too… absent parents who work all day…
in their homes there are no books there are no magazines there is no adequate space to
work so all that demotivates them… if they aren’t at school they are in the streets.”

171
 hago una envidia tremenda una frustración xxxx porque no va a poder jamás en la
vida o a lo mejor le despierto el interés de superarse ....pero::: (…) mientras que acá
sí porque es factible”(8P, 8/9)91
TQ29: “entonces es complicado y a mí es: eso a pesar de todo me gusta del liceo que
es como que te da distintas realidades en un particular como que:: igual hay proble-
mas ... pero los de acá son como más humanos es como un cable a tierra.. y que
chu::ta... verdad ... tengo que considerar este tema de repente tocar un tema por
ejemplo no sé po ... el de una familia sú:per. feli:z ... y que el papá hace esto y de re-
pente tienes alumnas que tienen una tremenda tragedia en su casa ... entonce::s dosi-
ficar eso también e:::s es difícil ... y más encima tratar de enseñarles inglés ...”
(16P/S, 12)92
Other comparative challenges according to school type, such as working condi-
tions, will be described in the respective paragraphs below.
The next prompt that I gave to the teachers to describe the specific challeng-
es that they face as English teachers was the comparison to other school sub-
jects. Out of the eighteen teachers who made a clear statement on this point, ten
thought that teaching English was more difficult than other school subjects: the
main reasons that they mentioned in this context were, on the one hand, that stu-
dents did not give English sufficient attention as it was not tested in the universi-
ty entrance exam (8M, 11S, 15S, 16 P/S, 18M) and, on the other hand, compre-
hension problems due to the use of the target language, which caused subse-
quent difficulties, for example, that students cannot study autonomously (14M)
or that their parents cannot help them (4M). Conversely, five teachers thought
that teaching English was not more difficult than teaching other subjects, as all
of them had their specific challenges (3M, 5M, 11S, 15S); one teacher even

91 “Since it is within their reach they also know that they can travel, they know they can
get to know… so the systems, the work system calls their attention, that for example in
Europe they can take gap years or in the United States they can travel and get to know
the world, and then they come back to their own jobs and there is a work rotation and
that is normal… well.. that attracts them because it’s close [to their reality]. Maybe if I
show this to kids in La Pintana [a very poor community in Santiago] either I cause them
to feel tremendously envious, frustrated because they will never in their lives [have such
possibilities] or maybe I wake in them the interest to overcome but… (…) whereas here
yes, because it’s possible.”
92 “So it is complicated and well, in spite of everything I like the [state-subsidised private]
school because it gives you different realities (…)… anyway, there are problems, but
the ones here are like more human, it is like an earth wire and, [it’s] true, I have to con-
sider this because sometimes there is a topic for example (…) of a super happy family
and dad does this and suddenly you have students who have a tremendous tragedy in
their homes… so proportioning this is difficult, too… and apart from that trying to teach
them English…”

172
thought that teaching English was easier than teaching other subjects, as expec-
tations were usually lower, which gave room for quite a great deal of flexibility
(1M); on the other hand, outcomes were not satisfying, either. Finally, three
teachers explained in length how English in schools had evolved in the past
years from a low-profile subject to one with increasing importance, expecta-
tions, student motivation and outcomes (6S, 9S, 16P/S):
TQ30: “dentro de lo que era el sistema educacional… donde a todos las asi.. los sub-
sectores.. las asignaturas les llegaban libros.. a nosotros no nos llegaban libros… en-
tonces éramos como el pariente pobre:: yo me sentía así…(…) .. además que.. no
había mucha repercusión de lo que uno hacía en la casa:: iba todo a depender del…
del ambiente donde se moviera el niño (…) pero esto ha ido cambiando con el tiem-
po” (9S, 1)93
Another prompt that I gave teachers were challenges related to expected learn-
ing outcomes. Not all of them responded in great length to the prompt, but there
was general agreement that the standards proposed by the government (cf. chap-
ter 3.2.2) were by and large too demanding, but flexible enough so that teachers
could handle the challenges according to the realities presented in their own
classrooms (1M, 3M, 6S, 18M):
TQ31: “we have to deal with (…) poor English .. (…) in my case, I am teaching at
this elementary or high school…… with basic levels of English .. so if I have that
great expectation about teaching English … inside this .. Chilean… programme
“English Opens Doors” and….. you have to take care of … achieving this .. levels of
English .. these skills .. coming from their students .. but.. (…) on the other hand
you have to.. think about that maybe you are asking too much …you expect too
much from your students because most of them ..are not so fluent in English.. they
don’t speak English .. they just speak a few words” (3M, 2).
In those terms, learning outcomes become the individual teachers’ challenge:
TQ32: “para mí es un desafío personal ... (…) sí... porque.. e::: se puede esperar que
no sé.. que los chiquillos salgan desde cuarto medio hablando en inglés... pero en el
fondo uno conoce la realidad... uno conoce el colegio donde está...... la realidad del
lugar..” (6S, 2/3)94

93 “Within what used to be the educational system… where all school subjects received
books… we did not receive any books… so we were like the poor relative… I felt like
that (…) apart from the fact that there was not much impact of what one did [as a
teacher] at [the kids’] home[s].. everything was going to depend on the kid’s back-
ground (…) but that has changed with time.”
94 “For me it’s a personal challenge (…) because you might expect that the kids leave se-
condary school speaking English, but in the end one knows the reality. One knows the
school where one is, the reality of the place”.

173
Even though most teachers seem to be grateful for being in command of the lev-
el of their teaching, there is a general apprehension that with the increased gov-
ernment interest in and attention to English as a school subject, expected stand-
ards will be continuously rising, with a greater control over the teachers’ work:
TQ33: “por lo menos ya.. aparece en los discursos presidenciales [laughs] claro.. por
la asignatura de inglés.. entonces uno dice.. ah ya no somos los parientes pobres.. se
siente.. claro que a su vez eso nos hace a nosotros… wow.. esta cosa se viene en se-
rio y de repente nos vienen a evaluar.. como:: se evalúa el SIMCE.. y ahí viene otro
cuento… ahí viene.. uno a replantearse qué estamos haciendo.. cómo lo estamos ha-
ciendo.. el qué.. el cómo es lo que ahora hay que replantearse como profesor… hasta
el momento habíamos estado bien como… se dice.. ‘piolita’ haciendo nuestras
cla:ses.. nadie nos puede cuestionar na:da.. pero ahora no.. ahora no:: ahora se espe-
ran mayores resultados..” (9S, 8)95
Whereas most teachers responded to the question about expected learning out-
comes as individuals, there were also two teachers who apparently identify
strongly with the raising standards and talked about this issue as a collective ef-
fort of which their own personal work formed part:
TQ34: “hoy en día el el inglés está como..... se le está dando como mucha importan-
cia... (...) por lo tanto para mí hoy en día es un desafío enseñar inglés (…) es como
un granito de arena para ir mejorando cada vez más la enseñanza:: del inglés en en
Chile... ahora yo sé que es imposible que todo el mundo espera que Chile sea bilin-
güe ...aa:: eso:: ee:: a años luz.... pero sí::: e:: yo siento que cada vez.. en estos cuatro
años que llevo haciendo clases en la enseñanza media.. se ha ido mejorando la::: e::
la perspectiva que se tiene del inglés...”(6S,2) 96
TQ35: “es más o menos complicado porque la enseñanza en inglés acá… cierto.. de
repente pasa por una crisis.. los resultados no son muy buenos… por lo tanto yo creo
que:: es una responsabilidad enorme.. buscar siempre:: herramientas nuevas.. capaci-
tarse para ver digamos cómo:: cómo mejorar de repente así como un mapa.. es com-
plicado... así que.. te podría decir que:: tiene dos caras.. (...) buenos términos labora-

95 “At least it now appears in the presidential addresses [laughs] of course … for the sub-
ject English… so one says .. oh yes we aren’t the poor relatives any more… you can
feel it… of course in turn it makes us … wow … this thing is seriously coming and now
they are coming to evaluate us … like they evaluate in the SIMCE… and there’s another
story coming… here it comes… so we have to reassess what we are doing … how we
are doing it…the what and the how is what we have to reassess as teachers now… up to
now we had been like … as we say… doing our lessons with nobody paying attention to
us … nobody can question anything… but not now… now they expect better results.”
96 “It’s like a drop in the bucket to gradually improve the teaching of English in Chile…
now I know that it’s impossible that everybody expects Chile to become bilingual…
that’s light years away… but I feel that in those four years that I have been teaching in
secondary education the vision that people hold of English has gradually improved”.

174
 les .. pero de harta responsabilidad así para mejorar los estándares sobre todo… en la
educación pública que.. es el problema que tenemos…. cierto.. en términos de nive-
les de idioma.. hay muchas diferencias….. eso en términos .. generales..” (18M, 1)97
All in all, achieving certain standards is not a challenge in itself – the challenge
is to achieve better results within a system that presents many obstacles. This
seems to be true both for state-subsidised private schools where “officially” a lot
of emphasis is put on English, and for publically funded schools. The following
quotes also anticipate a few of the recurrent challenges that will be presented
below.
TQ36: “bueno.. de parte del colegio sí.. hay apoyo…. pero.. no el apoyo que se exi-
ge.. el mínimo que se exige.. que es lo que nosotros le hemos estado pidiendo a las
Hermanas.. e::: porque son religiosas.. y e:: tienen muchas expectativas puestas en el
inglés.. porque lo están impartiendo desde kínder.. partiendo desde kínder a cuarto
medio.. o sea ellas poco menos que piensan de que las chicas en cuarto van a salir
hablando… entonces nosotros decimos que no es siempre así.. porque pasa por.. te-
nemos dos horas a la semana.. y dos horas pedagógicas.. o sea estamos hablando de
cuarenta y cinco minutos cada hora.. o sea que hacemos en cuarenta y cinco minu-
tos.. entonces es muy poco la hora de clase.. o sea en ese sentido yo creo que falta ..
falta darse cuenta” (9S, 5)98
TQ37: “para que un poco se nivele la diferencia que hay entre los colegios.. paga-
dos.. cierto.. los colegios subvencionados.. entonces esa es es es la gran problemáti-
ca que tenemos los profesores de inglés... y además.. hay otra dificultad.. en los co-
legios públicos.. tú tienes un número de horas inferior a los colegios privados.. o sea
en un colegio privado tú puedes tener seis horas a la semana de inglés.. en un cole-
gio público que se rige por la norma del Ministerio tú tienes de primero y segundo
medio cuatro horas.. tercero y cuarto medio tres horas a la semana.. con tres horas a
la semana .. en períodos de cuarenta y cinco minutos.. o sea .. es muy poco lo que
puedes hacer.. para desarrollar las cuatro habilidades que nos piden ahora.. (KG: cla-
ro..) entonces.. las competencias van a ser muy diferentes entre un niño que egresa

97 “It’s fairly complicated because English teaching here is … maybe going through a cri-
sis… the results aren’t very good… so I think it is a huge responsibility to always look
for new tools … to get trained to see how we can improve the landscape… it’s compli-
cated … so I could say it has two sides: good work conditions but a lot of responsibility
to improve the standards especially in public education because that is the problem that
we have: in terms of the language levels there are many differences… in general terms”.
98 “Well… from the school yes, there is support, but not the support that is asked for, the
minimum that we have asked the Sisters for, because they are nuns. They have put
many expectations on English because they are teaching it from nursery school on-
wards, from nursery to the last year of secondary school. That is, they practically think
that the girls will leave secondary school speaking English. So we say that it is not
always like that because we have two 45-minute periods a week, so the teaching time is
very short, so I think in that sense they still have to become aware.”

175
 de un colegio.. te fijas.. se mantienen las dificultades.. pero en términos de exigen-
cia.. a nosotros como profesores se nos exige lo mismo.. pero a los profes de e:: de
los colegios públicos somos los que son evaluados en términos ministeriales.. y so-
mos evaluados con cánones.. con estándares internacionales.. pero que no responden
a lo que nosotros.. al nivel de alumnos que tenemos.. la cantidad de alumnos que te-
nemos… por.. te fijas.. o sea hay como una incon-gruencia.. (…) .. se nos pide mu-
cho.. pero digamos tenemos muchas cosas en contra ... (…).. entonces si tú e:: es po-
co lo que tú.. los programas son muy exigentes.. el número de horas muy pocas..
cierto.. y.. digamos los aprendizajes heterogéneos de los chiquillos.. son muy hete-
rogéneos.. cuesta..” (18M, 2)99
After using these three parameters of comparison (other countries or school
types, other school subjects, expected outcomes) I classified the teachers’ an-
swers according to the particular challenges that they mentioned: the teaching
conditions, specifically the lack of resources or time; the students’ lack of previ-
ous knowledge of English; the students’ lack of motivation; and the students’
lack of study habits, discipline or (cultural) background knowledge.
As shown in the quotes above, the teaching conditions often play against the
achievement of expected learning outcomes. One difficulty that many teachers
mentioned is the lack of teaching time (1M, 3M, 5M, 8P, 9S, 10S, 11S, 13M,
18M). This seems to be a special problem in vocational schools, with only two
45-minute periods per week in the last two years of secondary school. Even a
private school teacher referred to the little respect that school administrations
seem to have for English when scheduling it:
TQ38: “e::: no sé por ejemplo cuesta mucho:: que:::: las horas ... queden distribuidas
... bien .. que los cursos por ejemplo ... que no queden todas las horas de inglés en el
último bloque en la mañana donde hay mucho desorden donde vienen tan cansados
... entonces .. tiran.. cursos .. ‘ya las últimas horas son todas de inglés .. o los niños
más chicos no necesitan concentración’ ... entonces.... no ponen atención en esas co-

99
“So that the difference between the paid [private], state-subsidised private [and public]
schools is levelled out a bit, that is the difficulty in the publically funded schools: you
have fewer teaching hours than the private schools; in a private school you can have 6
periods of English per week; in a publically funded school that is ruled by ministerial
standards you have four periods in Years 9 and 10, in Years 11 and 12 three periods, 45-
minute periods. There is not much you can do to develop the four skills that they are as-
king for now. So the competences of a kid that leaves a [private] school will be very dif-
ferent. You see, the difficulties remain the same, but the demands – they ask the same
from us teachers. But the teachers in the publically funded schools, those who are asses-
sed in ministerial terms: we are assessed by international standards, but they don’t co-
rrespond to our students’ levels, the number of students that we have, so there is an in-
congruity. They ask a lot from us, but we have a lot of things working against us: the
programmes are demanding, there is little teaching time and the students’ achievements
are very heterogeneous. It’s difficult.”

176
 sas donde sí las ponen en matemáticas... las matemáticas suelen ser las primeras ho-
ras en las mañanas ... o que tenga una sólo no más en la tarde... o historia lo mismo...
e::: si hay que quitar horas ‘quitemos horas al inglés y le ponemos horas....’ entonc-
es... (…) en ese sentido:::.... no se respeta tanto ...” (8P,6)100
Another difficulty that several teachers mentioned are large classes with high
student numbers – forty to forty-five students is not unusual in many schools
(1M, 3M, 12M, 18M). This is seen as a special problem when it comes to devel-
oping speaking skills:
TQ39: “speaking.. it’s hard because we have an average of forty students and some-
times we have forty-five students inside the classroom, so there is no time to .. su-
pervise them individually” (3M, 3).
Then, many teachers refer to a lack of adequate resources or equipment, a prob-
lem that does not only affect English. Sometimes they lament the non-existence
of infrastructure as elaborate as language laboratories (1M) or other technologi-
cal equipment (14M, 15S); others talk about more basic things, for example
money for photocopies and textbooks apart from those sent by central govern-
ment (16P/S) or the inadequacy of the teaching rooms (12M). The lack of re-
sources also affects the development of extracurricular or cross-curricular pro-
jects, as teachers are not paid for them (5M, 19M). Clearly, the contrast between
publically funded and private schools again points to the social inequalities in
the system; here, this issue is seen from the point of view of a private school
teacher:
TQ40: “las ediciones de los exámenes FCE o de PET o de KET ... (…) es un lujo
que otros colegios no los tienen” (8P,8)101
Another issue that is already starting to be solved through modifications in the
system is the heterogeneity in the students’ levels of English or the lack of pre-
vious knowledge in the transition from primary to secondary school (1M, 2M,
5M, 10S, 14M, 18M). This is especially problematic in the publically funded
school system, where primary and secondary schools are usually separate estab-

100 “I don’t know for example it is difficult to have well distributed teaching periods, so
that not all the English hours are in the last block of the morning when there is a lot of
unruliness, when they [the students] are so tired… so ‘okay, the last hours are all for
English’ or ‘the younger children don’t need to concentrate’, so they don’t pay attention
to those things, but they do in maths – maths is usually in the first morning periods, or
they only have one in the afternoon. Or history is the same. If they need to cut hours
‘let’s cut English hours and we’ll give hours to…’ So in this sense they don’t respect us
that much.”
101 “The editions [of past papers] of the FCE or PET or KET exams are a luxury that other
schools don’t have”.

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lishments, whereas the students of private schools usually remain in the same
institution from pre-school until they finish secondary education:
TQ41: “es difícil porque se está haciendo inglés en básica (…) pero no necesaria-
mente tienen un profesor de inglés o de alguien que sepa inglés entonces nosotros
recibimos a los alumnos en primero medio acá y tenemos alumnos que tuvieron pon-
te tú un profesor de básica con mención en biología y que tuvo que enseñarles inglés
a la fuerza y le enseña tres cuatro palabras locas durante el año y no sabe nada...
otros llegan mucho más avanzados ... entonces se aburren en las clases iniciales por-
que:: nosotros partimos en primero medio como de cero para poder unificarlos de
alguna manera y poder.. lograr algún avance” (5M,3)102
Lacking student motivation is an issue which all but two teachers described as a
challenge. As there will be a complete chapter dedicated to student motivation, I
will keep the analysis very brief at this point and only refer to a few very general
and more or less quantitative aspects. No less than ten teachers referred to stu-
dent motivation spontaneously, either as an answer to the very first question, or
when asked to talk about specific challenges (1M, 2M, 3M, 4M, 5M, 10S, 12M,
14M, 17A/S, 19M – note the high proportion of publically funded schools here).
One teacher who generally described her students as fairly motivated also came
to speak about (generalised) student demotivation spontaneously when she gave
an answer to the last question and made a comment on the type of students who
are now leaving secondary school and moving on into higher education (8P). In
six interviews, I had to directly ask teachers on their estimation of student moti-
vation; they described varying levels of demotivation, but all of them agreed that
nowadays motivation was an issue that needed to be addressed (6S, 7P, 9S,
13M, 15S, 18M). Two teachers gave an overall picture of very motivated stu-
dents – one of these interviews will play a special role in chapter 10 (11S). As
will be seen later on, student motivation is generally not considered to be an
English-specific problem, although there might be specific reasons for students
not to be motivated to learn English. Neither is there consensus on whether stu-
dents are more or less motivated to learn English than any other school subjects,
even if overall motivation is low.
In close connection to the lack of motivation, the analysis of the interviews
revealed another set of challenges that could be summed up as three distinct but

102 “It’s difficult because they teach English in primary school but they don’t necessarily
have an English teacher or someone who speaks English so we receive the students here
in Year 9 and we have students who had for example a primary teacher with special
training in biology and who was forced to teach English and who taught them maybe
three or four words in a year and doesn’t know anything… others arrive a lot more ad-
vanced… so they are bored in the first lessons because we have to start from scratch in
the first year in order to unify them in some way and achieve something”.

178
related problems: the students’ lack of study habits, discipline or (cultural)
background knowledge. None of these issues had been part of my question cata-
logue: all of them appeared spontaneously in the interviews, so this category
was established inductively. As will be demonstrated below, both the number of
teachers who mentioned these specific challenges and the way in which they
were described was important. Therefore, I will dedicate special attention to this
issue in chapter 10.3, in the context of the use of technology, and for the mo-
ment summarise some more general and quantitative aspects.
The lack of study habits was mentioned by thirteen teachers (1M, 2M, 3M,
4M, 5M, 6S, 8P, 9S, 12M, 13M, 15S, 16P/S, 19M) – this exceeds the number of
interviews in which student demotivation appeared spontaneously as a chal-
lenge. In some cases, teachers equated study habits with reading habits; insuffi-
cient native language skills are another related problem (1M, 5M). Although
these challenges were described by teachers of all school types, there seems to
be a qualitative difference between the problems faced by teachers in those pri-
vate schools where selection is part of the admission process and teachers who
work at non-selective publically funded schools. A comparison of the following
quotes illustrates this – first a teacher who works at a publically funded school,
then a private school teacher:
TQ42: “y y y y es que el desafío más grande es ese que a los chiquillos les cuesta el
castellano .. (…) les es difícil de repente para ellos de ... de redactar en castellano,
los verbos en castellano” (1M, 3)103
TQ43: “de repente he pedido trabajos.. mini ensayos mini argumentos y tú te das
cuenta de que los sacan que está perfecto pero está sacado de Internet... y es por eso
por que todavía los chiquillos igual:: .... el tiempo también es poco.. los chicos salen
a las cuatro y media cinco de la tarde ... llegan a las seis a sus casas ... entre tomar
once ... de repente conversar hacer las tareas otras cosas ... el tiempo es poquito la
verdad es que eso juega un poquito en contra (KG: claro) pero a pesar de eso tampo-
co los chicos aprovechan mucho el tiempo en clase” (16P/S, 4)104
Here, a teacher who works at a state-subsidised private school describes similar
problems. This quote also shows how the lacking study habits are general, not
just English-specific, and related to demotivation:

103 “And the biggest challenge is that the kids find Spanish difficult.. for example, for them
it is difficult to write in Spanish, the verbs in Spanish”
104 “On some occasions I have asked them to do mini-essays or mini-statements and you
realise that it’s perfect but that they got it from the Internet… and that’s because… well,
time is short, they leave school at 4:30 or 5pm, get home, have tea, chat, do homework,
do other things, there is little time, that really plays against them, but in spite of that the
kids don’t make much use of the time in class”.

179
 TQ44: “hoy día estuvimos en un consejo de evaluación y era el tema era .. la desmo-
tivación por la lectura... o sea.... los libros de lenguaje... bajan los resúmenes de In-
ternet... no leen los libros... para las matemáticas igual... o sea, si tienen que hacer
ejercicios no los hacen ... o sea no están ni ahí con sacarse un uno... sobre todo a fin
de año... o sea... como... chao... entonces es en general.. no sólo porque no les guste
el inglés...” (6S, 4)105
Seven teachers talked about discipline problems (1M, 3M, 5M, 7P, 9S, 15S,
17A/S) – some of them at length, and with considerable concern about the youth
of today in general. What is interesting is that those teachers with teaching expe-
rience both in the private and the publically funded sector describe very similar
problems; that not all schools are affected by this is shown in the second of the
following quotes:
TQ45: “that’s why for example that’s why I have got a chance to make a.. a.. a..
good comparison between the other school I’m teaching at … and this one. (KG:
Where (…) is the other school...?) I’m teaching at a private school. (…).. the stu-
dents belong to the middle class.. but.. they’re much more exposed maybe because
some of their relatives have already traveled abroad. and their ..parents have much
more money to buy I don’t know maybe books or they’ve got much.. they go to the
cinema sometimes.. so they’re much more exposed to the language. Some of them
have more knowledge about the foreign culture. (KG: And do you think that their at-
titude towards English is like better and more positive than..) in a way….. but be-
cause if I make a … a cut like it was a bread …a loaf of bread I have the same in-
gredients.. nowadays there’s a lack of respect towards the teacher. They don’t have..
they don’t follow rules. (KG: and that’s here and there.) yes.. besides.. besides the
background… some of them are reluctant and some of them they are much more..
they got a pos.. a positive attitude towards the language… but the problem is that
they don’t .. they are not….. they don’t follow the rules, they don’t want to work”
(3M,10)
TQ46: “en el cuento del respeto hacia el otro .... esa cosa que los lolos de repente..
así.. cero respeto… problemas disciplinarios terribles.. ahí en la [name of a private
school] lo pasé.. pé:simo.. pésimo.. pésimo.. es una experiencia que no se la doy a
nadie.. o sea ... una es profesora.. no es nana de los chicos…entonces .. yo de repen-
te no tengo nada en contra de las nanas pero yo no soy la nana.. entonces.. ahí no..
no fui::: .. duré un año porque la verdad que no me agradó… y.. por otro lado están
los otros colegios como de [name of a poor urban neighbourhood] donde los niños la
mayoría de los papás estaban presos.. entonces eran chiquillos igual de agresivos..
pero era otra realidad.. (…) o sea tenía los dos polos opuestos en la mañana en la

105 “Today we had a meeting on assessment and the topic was demotivation with regard to
reading. (…) They download the summaries from the internet, they don’t read the
books, the same for maths. I mean, when they have to do exercises they don’t, they
aren’t even bothered when they get the lowest grade, especially at the end of the school
year. So it’s in general, not just because they don’t like English”.

180
 [name of private school] y en la tarde en [name of poor neighbourhood].. entonces
era como... me desconcertaban de repente las mismas situaciones ... pero desde dos
realidades completamente diferentes.. (…) súper loco.. al final.. conclusión.. aquí
hay un problema de carencia afectiva.. problemas de familia ... unos por tener mu-
cho y otros por no tener nada.. o sea ahí están los polos.. polarizados.. de la proble-
mática juvenil.. y por otro lado yo estoy trabajando ... en otro colegio que es el ideal
te digo yo porque todavía hay apoderados comprometidos.. es un colegio religioso ..
[name of a state-subsidised private school].. son cuarenta y dos alumnas… cuarenta..
en promedio .. cuarenta y do::s alumnas por curso pero fíjate que tú puedes hacer
tranquilamente la clase.. sin necesidad de enojarte.. molestarte” (9S,4)106
Whereas discipline problems certainly occur across all subject areas, one issue
that might have a greater impact on the teaching of English is the lack of cultural
background knowledge that one teacher refers to. She gives an anecdote about a
lesson in which she used a reading comprehension passage about Nelson Man-
dela from the textbook – his picture was meant to prompt a pre-reading activity:
TQ47: “y en un solo curso de los siete dijeron Nelson Mandela .. ya empezó a ..
‘a::::’ me dijo ‘este caballero fue un presidente africano’.. eso fue lo más que logré..
estamos hablando en cientos de alumnos... xxxx porque como no tienen cultura gen-
eral... no ven.. telediario... ni siquiera ven... televisión... si lo único que les interesa
es chatear, chatear, chatear... entonces.. puedes imaginarte que si no hay cultura
general…” (5M, 9)107

106 “Regarding respect for other people, what teens sometimes … (…) zero respect, terrible
discipline problems. There at [name of a private school] I had a horrible horrible horri-
ble time. I wouldn’t wish an experience like that on anyone. I mean, one is a teacher,
one is not the kids’ nanny. So, I don’t have anything against nannies but I am not the
nanny. So… there (…) I lasted a year because I really didn’t like it… and on the other
hand there are other schools like at [name of a poor urban neighbourhood] where most
of the kids’ parents were in jail… so they were kids who were just as aggressive… but it
was another reality… I mean I had the two polar opposites in the morning in [name of
private school] and in the afternoon [name of poor neighbourhood]… so (…) the same
situations were disconcerting for me, but from two completely different realities. So in
the end, to conclude, there is a problem of emotional deprivation … family problems…
some because they have a lot and others because they have nothing… I mean there are
the poles (…) of the youth problem. And on the other hand I am working in another
school [now] which is ideal because there are still committed parents… it’s a religious
school .. [name of a state-subsidised private school] .. there are forty-two students on
average per class but I tell you, you can teach your lessons in peace… without the need
to get angry or annoyed.”
107 “And in only one of seven [parallel] courses they said Nelson Mandela (…) ‘ah’, he
said, ‘this gentleman was an African president’ that was the most that I got… we are
talking about hundreds of students … because as they don’t have general knowledge…
they don’t watch the news… they don’t even watch TV… the only thing that interests

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In chapter 10.3, some of these challenges will be examined again in greater de-
tail.

Question 8: What do teachers have to say about the government pro-

gramme English opens doors?
Not all teachers gave a clear answer to my initial question: “Has the government
programme English opens doors had any impact on student motivation?” How-
ever, there seemed to be agreement that the programme, if any, did not have a
direct effect probably because students were not sufficiently aware of it – on the
other hand, the general changes in Chilean society which have increasingly giv-
en English more importance cannot be completely separated from this educa-
tional policy; it could rather be seen as one factor among various that have
helped English to gain a certain status, not just as a school subject, but first and
foremost as a powerful cultural capital (using Bourdieu’s term, cf. Bourdieu
2005). This quote follows a lengthy account of the teachers’ experience with the
programme:
TQ48: “(KG: pero ¿tú crees que (…) también se ha visto como un impacto so.. sobre
los alumnos (…) quizás en su actitud o o su motivación para aprender más?) e::: sí ..
bueno .. en general los los chiquillo::s e: sienten que lo necesitan cada día más ...
siento que:: porque:: si tú te pones a ver la por ejemplo la la lo lo… e: los currículum
de las carreras en general tanto en institutos como en la universidades .... en todo le
piden inglés en todo o sea eso le decimos a los chiquillos .. sobre todo en cuarto me-
dio ... ‘chiquillos ... mira ... aprovechen de de estudiar de.. de qué sé yo poner aten-
ción en clases porque e: la carrera que estudien en instituto o donde sea ... van a te-
ner inglés’ entonces es bueno que lleven una buena base ...” (15S,8)108
Still, in general terms, English Opens Doors seems to have had a positive effect
on the English teaching profession and on the status of English as a school sub-
ject, especially in publically funded and state-subsidised private schools. Many
of the interviewed teachers assessed the programme well, with certain reserva-
tions, though.

them is to chat, chat, chat… so… you can imagine that if there is no general knowled-
ge…”
108 “(KG: but do you think that there also has been an impact on the students’ attitude or
motivation to learn more?) yes, in general the kids feel that they need it more every day
… I feel that because if you start looking at the study programmes of undergraduate
courses, both in professional institutes and in universities, everywhere English is a re-
quirement, everywhere, I mean, we tell the kids, especially in [year 12] ‘look guys, ma-
ke the most of studying, paying attention in class because whatever you study in an ins-
titute or wherever, you will have English’ so it is good for them to have a good base” -
emphasis in the translation is mine.

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 One teacher, who refers to the programme spontaneously at the beginning of
the interview, describes how the changes in educational policies have gradually
changed the image of her profession and expresses pride in being an English
teacher – the emphases in the translation are mine:
TQ49: “realmente.. y eso es ahora bueno gracias a que:: igual:: yo diría que unos
diez años atrás hubo un ministro.. que el abrió todo lo que fue la parte inglés que le
dio más importancia porque antes ser profe de inglé::s .. yo cuando estudié.. yo entré
el año noventa y tres.. a la universidad.. entonces qué pasaba.. ‘ah vas a estudiar in-
glés pobreci::ta vas a tener que estar por lo menos en cinco colegios para tener un
sueldo decente’.. entonces qué pasaba no había tanta no se había dado la importancia
que hay ahora.. y que en realidad es una el inglés es más que un gusto es una herra-
mienta y es una necesidad… junto con la computación.. por eso yo me siento y yo
digo ‘profe de inglés y en el corazón.. bien arriba’” (16P/S, 1)109
Later in the interview, similar to one of the other teachers’ comments (cf.
TQ33), she refers to the initial concerns that teachers had when the programme
was first launched:
TQ50: “mira cuando esto partió como te comentaba yo estaba::: la reforma .. estaba
saliendo de la universidad ... entonces el primer año yo me acuerdo que trabajé yo
empecé a trabajar en cuarto año ... en el año mil novecientos noventa y siete y de a
poquitito empezó la verdad es que hubo bastante temor entre los profesores de inglés
porque qué venía ... o sea ... ¿significa que tengo que estudiar otra vez? ...¿tengo que
volver a la universidad? tengo que... porque se hablaba de evaluación de ciertos es-
tándares ... entonces el temor ... es como o:: ¿qué viene ahora? o sea tengo que tra-
baja::r.. ver mi casa y más encima estudiar... no puedo ...” (16P/S,6)110

109 “Really and this is now thanks to… about ten years ago there was a minister who ope-
ned all the English part and gave it more importance because before being an English
teacher - when I was studying – I started studying at the university in 93 – what happe-
ned was ‘oh you’re going to study English, poor you, you will have to work in at least
five schools to earn a decent salary’ so what happened was that it had not been given the
importance that it has now; and actually English, more than just a pleasure, is a tool, a
necessity – together with ICT – that’s why I feel and I say ‘English teacher and in my
heart with my head held high!’”
110 “Look, when this reform started as I told you before I was just leaving university; so the
first year that I was working- I started working when I was in fourth year [of my stu-
dies] in 1997 and it started little by little – there was a lot of anxiety among the English
teachers because what was coming? I mean – Does this mean that I have to study again?
Do I have to go back to university? Do I have to…? Because they were talking about
evaluating certain standards. So the anxiety: What’s coming now? I mean, will I have to
work, look after my home and on top of that study? I can’t!”

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Subsequently, she gives a concise summary of the various components of the
programme and compares it with the “typical” English teaching that had taken
place in earlier times:
TQ51: “este ministro (…) se habían trabajado cositas antes ... pero yo creo que él
fue como:: para mí.. cuando empieza el rostro visible de las becas… de los cur…sos
de perfeccionamiento ... el subir las horas de inglés y valorar un poco más al profe
de inglés que es lo mismo que te decía... que no es solamente this is the door.. this is
the window ..good bye .. see you next week .... o sea hasta ahí llegaba…” (16P/S,
7)111
One aspect of the programme that is received very well by the teachers is the in-
service teacher training courses, which aim to refresh and improve the teachers’
language skills, but also contain a methodological component. Of course it must
be said here that nine of the 19 participating teachers were contacted for the in-
terviews through the university, where they were attending or had attended these
courses, which might slightly distort the real proportion of teachers who are
aware of the opportunities that this programme holds for them. On the other
hand, one of the teachers who I got to know elsewhere had also completed the
course, and another teacher – a native speaker of English – had been involved in
the organisation of those courses, which I only found out during the interview
(see TQ 53). What I find particularly remarkable in this context is that these
courses apparently contribute to the formation or reinforcement of a collective
English teacher identity:
TQ52: “el curso este que estamos haciendo el ALTE.. es una excelente oportunidad
que tenemos los profesores de .. de poder e: compartir con colegas de (…) otras rea-
lida:des dentro (…) de la misma ciudad pero que e::: compartimos muchas cosas
que::: realmente son digamos e::: las mismas o sea:: realidades .. que son simila:::res
y que... e::: bueno .. de hecho .. ha sido pero:: excelente desde el punto de vista co-
mo:: para poder actualizar nuestros.. nuestros conocimientos .. (…) compartir expe-
rie:::ncias... y::: claro ahí uno se da cuenta que que en realidad hay mejor y peor lo
que está viviendo uno... entonces .... a veces uno dice ‘uy qué terrible:: el director
del colegio’ y a veces hay directores peores o sea… o::: ambientes de trabajo tre-
me:::ndos ... o sea.. mira.. realmente.. e: creo que:: e:: en general digamos e::: el in-
glés abre puertas ha sido muy muy beneficioso para.. para los profesores en gene-ral
..” (15S, 8)112

111 “This minister.. (…) some little things had been done before… but I think it was him
like… for me… when the visible face of the scholarships started… the in-service trai-
ning courses… raising the teaching number of hours of English teaching and valuing the
English teacher a bit more which is what I told you before… that it isn’t only this is the
door.. this is the window ..good bye .. see you next week … that’s as far as it went”.
112 “This course that we are doing, the ALTE, is an excellent opportunity that we teachers
have to spend time with colleagues from other realities in the same city. We have a lot

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 TQ53: “when I was at English Summer Town113 I actually met two people … two
English teachers who couldn’t speak English.. and those are the people that English
opens doors has found.. is helping .. it’s letting them know that they’re part of the
community that they’re not alone.. there’s resources available to them.. to help
them…. and uh.. if you ask them they’ll say it’s making a two hundred three hun-
dred a million per cent impact on them … and I think the value of of two teachers
like that being in an environment where there is teachers.. colleagues around them…
all talking about teaching English and how they like it and what their classes are like
making new friendships and like beginning to look for new ways to connect with
each other.. it’s very valuable…. to them…” (7P,6)
The components of the programme that directly involve the students, especially
the debate tournaments, are also discussed by some teachers. The response is
generally positive:
TQ54: “los alumnos que realmente están motivados y que les gusta el inglés están
fascinados porque hay un programa... (…) los debates en inglés .. interescolares...”
(2M, 5)114
However, as only selected students are participating, it seems that the impact of
these debates is fairly limited, at least in terms of the student numbers; of course
this criticism might have been produced by my way of asking about student mo-
tivation in general:
TQ55: “ahora estamos por participar en unos debates que las niñitas de acá por
ejemplo .. que son como.. tienen más habilidad más interés .. etcétera.. participan en
eso y les va regio estupendo ... pero no no es que se muestra lo mejor siempre se
muestra lo mejor de cada colegio.. pero no es como todas ... no es que es el universo
es así.. son ellas que a ellas les gusta el inglés po, ¿me entiendes?”(4M, 3)115

of things in common which are really the same, I mean realities that are similar. It has
been excellent from the point of view of updating our knowledge, sharing experiences
… and of course there you realise that there are better or worse [conditions] than what
one is living… so… sometimes you ‘oh how terrible is the headteacher of the school’
and sometimes there are headteachers who are worse I mean… or appalling working
atmospheres… I mean, look, really I think that in general let’s say that English opens
doors has been very very beneficial for the teachers in general”.
113 English Summer Town, part of the programme English opens doors is a yearly one-
week immersion encounter aimed at the professional development of English teachers.
It is organised by the Ministry of Education and offers activities such as debate tourna-
ments and cultural presentations.
114 “The students who are really motivated and who like English are fascinated because
there is a programme … inter-school debates in English”.
115 “We are now about to participate in debates that the girls from here for example… those
who are more able, more interested, etc. participate in and they do really well … but …
they always show the best of each school.. but it’s not like all of them… the universe is
not like that… it’s those of them who like English you see”

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 TQ56: “tiran muchas cosas muchos programas mucha actividad.. mucha cuestión de
esa.. pero.... resultado..(…) ... no se notan mucho.. porque las mismas personas que
les interesaba están a ellas les interesa ahora..” (4M, 8)116
Apart from that, teachers’ responses contain a series of criticisms. To start with,
some teachers feel that there is gap between central policies and local implemen-
tation. The following quotes are, first, from a teacher who works at an urban
public school in a province; the second one from a teacher who works at a state-
subsidised private school:
TQ57: “hicieron un programa el inglés abre puertas.. han hecho miles de cosas pero
a.. a la escuela no llegan los recursos.. ¿dónde están?.. (…) entonces no sé si en el
camino se perdieron ... o.. o están en Santiago no tengo idea.....” (14M, 8)117
TQ58: “y actualmente que la presidenta digamos ha hecho ... hartos esfuerzos para
que los (…) niños puedan… motivarse o:: aprender más inglés .... e::: sí ... se ve
como también como que hay un una una tendencia a que el asunto mejore… (…)…
yo lo veo (…) positivamente o sea como que va a mejorar o sea .... pienso que ...
(…) tendrán que tomar conciencia los directores de.. de los colegios que que:: real-
mente los.. los niños necesitan el inglés y… y… bueno e::: tendrán que darnos los ..
los medios e:: para poder actualizarnos más…” (15S, 8)118
The following quote is very interesting: it shows how one of the opportunities
that have been created by English Opens Doors, i.e. the local networks for Eng-
lish teachers, can turn into a space where the programme is criticised for its (ac-
cording to the teacher) exaggerated standardisation. The teacher’s perception of
the national - international context is also significant:
TQ59: “yo pertenezco a un.. a un.. una agrupación .. una red de profesores de inglés
de acá en todos lados hay en todos los ramos también .. y nosotros concordamos en
hartas cosas.. yo siento que.. que.. el .. el gobierno con sus diferentes programas del
ministerio y específicamente.. trata de hacer un montón de cosas en el.. en el.. cuen-
to del idioma inglés.. por muchas razones.. por.. porque también es importante según
lo que sepan las personas.. y si si Chile va a estar catalogado como .. tú sabes.. que
van subiendo categorías que según .. según la educación de la gente y todo eso.. y a

116 “They launch a lot of things, many programmes, many activities, many things like that
but results… you don’t notice them much because the same people [students] who were
interested before are interested now.”
117 “They made a programme, English Opens Doors, they have done thousands of things,
but the resources don’t arrive at the schools. Where are they? So I don’t know if they
got lost on the way or if they are in Santiago, I have no idea.”
118 “And now the President has made great efforts so that the kids can get motivated or
learn more English… uh yes, one can see that there is a tendency for the matter to im-
prove, I see it positively, (…)… of course… the headteachers of the schools will have to
become aware that the kids really need English and, well, they will have to give us the
means so we can get more updated.”

186
 parte que me imagino que es importante porque es un idioma universal y todo ese
cuento es importante....e::::::m ...yo siento que es un gran esfuerzo .. pero: los
p:arámetros que tiene.. o sea.. no los parámetros sino ...como se empieza como a
universalizar la cosa.. cuando hacen libros entregan cosas xxx para los diferentes...
la realidad no es la misma para todos entonces es como super difícil.. estandarizar-
los.. o sea, yo.. yo tengo un inglés muy diferente.. o mis niños .. hablan.. o no hablan
en realidad mucho pero... lo que saben es muy diferente a lo que saben [name of an
expensive private school]..a lo que sabe un:.. no sé un colegio de de rural que a lo
mejor nunca han tenido inglés .. o ha tenido un año.. entonces estandarizarlos tanto
yo creo que ... que esa parte no se ha logrado...” (4M, 3)119
Another teacher feels that there is not enough continuity:
TQ60: “falta mucho por hacer .. (…) por ejemplo el ministerio... empieza un curso
se da un año dos años y después ... ahí queda ... y vienen otros cambios ... y vienen
otros cambios entonces tampoco: tenemos como un norte: qué es lo que queremos”
(16P/S,7)120
Especially as far as the earlier start of English in school is concerned (year 5,
primary school), several teachers agree that the government initiative is still in-
sufficient, as also the number of weekly teaching hours is limited:
TQ61: “falta darse cuenta… yo creo que el ministerio también.. porque e::: te exigen
inglés desde quinto.. a partir desde quinto.. lo que es muy tarde… y son dos horas a
la semana o hasta octavo.. y de ahí parten con tres horas en la media.. cuando el
fuerte debería ser la básica.. porque ahí esa es la edad donde los niños adquieren los
conceptos.. las estructuras..” (9S, 5)121

119 “I belong to an English teachers’ network, they are everywhere, in all subjects, too. And
we agree on many things. I feel that the government with its different ministerial pro-
grammes, and specifically, tries to do a lot of things for the English language, for many
reasons. Because it is also important that according to what people know, Chile is going
to be categorised as – you know they rise in categories according to people’s education
and all that… and apart from that I imagine that it is important because it’s a universal
language (…) I feel it’s a great effort but (…) the way in which it starts to be universali-
sed.. when they make the books and hand out things for the different… the reality is not
the same for all so it is like super difficult to standardise them… I mean, my English is
very different – or my kids – speak, or in fact they don’t speak much… but what the
[name of an expensive private school] know compared to what, I don’t know, a rural
school knows who maybe has never had English lessons… or has had a year… so I
think standardising them so much I believe that this part has not been successful.”
120 “There is still a lot to do… for example, the state department… starts one course, they
teach it for a year or two and then… that was it… and there are other changes, so we
don’t have a direction either – what do we want?”
121 “They still haven’t realised… I think in the Ministry too.. because they legislated for
English from Year 5 onwards, which is very late. And it’s two hours per week until
Year 8 and then three hours from [Year 9]…whereas the main focus should be in pri-

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This problem contributes to another of the teachers’ worries: that the gap be-
tween state-subsidised and private education is still unbridgeable. This view is
shared by teachers of publically funded, state-subsidised private and of private
schools alike, as the following quotes (TQ62, TQ63) illustrate:
TQ62: “ahora.. hay una preocupación .. cierto.. yo te diría el año pasado.. en capaci-
tar a profesores de básica… e:: en términos metodológicos.. con el ALTE.. cierto..
para que haya una sola línea y.. se vea digamos e:: una continuidad en términos de la
enseñanza para que nos pongamos de acuerdo.. y para que un poco se nivele la dife-
rencia que hay entre los colegios.. pagados.. cierto.. los colegios subvencionados..”
(18M, 2)122
Here, a teacher who works at a private school describes inequity from his point
of view when talking about a study trip to Ireland that is organised every year
for the students at his school, referring also to the summer camps that English
Opens Doors offers to students of the state-subsidised education sector. He, too,
makes use of Bourdieu’s term cultural capital (Bourdieu 2005) to point out the
difficulty of trying to make opportunities for the young people in the country
more equal:
TQ63: “[At the language institute that students attend in Ireland] they have students
coming from all over the world …it’s really international…. and uh…in addition to
their excursions they’re visiting other countries too they’re actually going to Eng-
land.. they go to Paris.. they go to France… they go to Germany… so it’s… (KG:
All in one…. ) It’s…. cultural capital… I I think that if they ever decide to make
English a prerequisite for PSU [the university entrance test] … the test that they
have to do… they will see the effect of it they will see the public school students
with the grades like this … this summer I think was the first year that they did an
English summer camp for public school students … for students who were in pri-
mero medio to cuarto medio [Year 9 to Year 12]… they had an average of 5.5 [a
“good” grade] in English they could be accepted for summer camp and I thought to
myself… yeah…that’s a step in the right direction (… ) but still all the differences
you’re in summer camp playing Island or Lost or maybe having classes in the morn-
ing while these other kids are doing history and culture and all of this…. and it will
show up in any test …that’s for sure…… equity…. or inequity…”(7P, 11).

mary school… because that’s the age when the children acquire the concepts and the
structures.”
122 “Now there has been a concern - I would say since last year – to train primary school
teachers in methodological terms with the ALTE course, so that there is one single line
and there is continuity in terms of the teaching, so we all come to an agreement … and
so that the difference between the [fee-charging private] schools and the subsidised
schools is levelled out.”) The teacher continues to explain the differences between the
hours allocated to English in a state-subsidised and a private school (cf. TQ37).

188
Another aspect of the governmental initiative that was criticised by many teach-
ers is the textbooks. However, this issue will be explored in depth in chapter 9.3.
To conclude the section on question 8, it appears that the heightened status
of English (including the positive development of student motivation) is influ-
enced by many factors, not just the government programme English Opens
Doors. This includes, for example, a reformed methodology (19M), especially
the use of technology (cf. 12M), and the presence of English in society in gen-
eral (e.g. 9S, 18M), particularly in higher education programmes (15S).
Before ending this part with the responses to question 12, I will summarise
the teachers’ responses to the last item on the questionnaire “I would choose my
profession again if…”: The question is mostly answered with reference to better
working conditions including better salaries (7 teachers), more resources and
better equipment for language teaching in schools (3 teachers), more support in
questions concerning student motivation and/or discipline (3 teachers), more
time for lesson planning and administrative tasks or a better initial teacher train-
ing that prepares for the real needs in the educative system. One teacher asks for
the publically (council)-funded education to go back to centralised state control
(cf. Colegio de Profesores 2011). Two teachers say that would be teachers again
anyway, because they like their profession.

Question 12: Concluding words in the interviews and additional

comments for policy makers and teacher trainers
This question was interpreted slightly differently by different teachers. Some of
the answers were more addressed to policymakers, some more to teacher train-
ers, and some more to researchers in the field of education and language learn-
ing. One group of teachers, rather than asking for things to be done by other ed-
ucational actors, gave recommendations that were drawn from their own experi-
ence as teachers, as if addressing young teachers and giving them advice.
Also, some teachers made suggestions for improvement of certain issues at
other points in the interviews, so these observations will be considered here, too.
They can be included in the comments directed at policymakers. All the issues
that were mentioned in this context referred to various aspects of the general,
“external” teaching conditions that could be remedied through legislation or par-
ticular governmental measures. Some of them apply to changes in the educa-
tional system in general; some are more subject-specific. For example, four
teachers suggested that English teaching at schools should be introduced to
younger year groups, similar to the way it is done in some private schools (1M,
2M, 9S, 11S). One teacher stressed that this must also mean better teachers for
primary children (2M), and another one asked for increased teaching time for

189
English in general (11S). Other petitions included better textbooks and resources
or equipment in general and fewer students per class (1M), the introduction of
English in the university entrance test (PSU – 11S) and re-introduction of selec-
tive measures in publically funded secondary schools (1M). Finally, one teacher
thought it was urgent to do something about behavioural issues (5M), and sever-
al others stressed the importance of having some kind of support to increase stu-
dent motivation in general (1M, 2M, 6S).
Those who directed their remarks to teacher trainers gave special considera-
tion to methodological issues – some of them more generally (6S, 13M, 15S),
some of them with more specific concerns, such as the correct use of the target
language in the classroom and memorisation techniques (9S) or the use of ICT
and methodology for primary age groups (16P/S). This also included the request
to offer continuous in-service training, both in terms of language and methodol-
ogy. Again, some ideas were relevant to pedagogy in general. For example, one
recurrent issue was the preparation of teachers for the administrative area of
their jobs, including knowledge of their rights and responsibilities (15S, 16P/S,
17S/A). One teacher asked for voice training for teachers (15S), and another one
for better preparation in terms of behaviour management (14M). Finally, one
teacher, who also supervises student teachers, thought it was necessary to estab-
lish a closer link between the actual educational context and the teacher training
carried out at universities (18M).
Three teachers vaguely directed their message to researchers in general and
asked for the gap between theory and practice, or policymakers and teachers, to
be closed. They felt that often there was little empathy with teachers, or that
there were even false expectations when teachers were working in difficult con-
ditions (4M, 12M, 18M):
TQ64: “hay cosas que hacen los profesores de la universidad y de instituciones que
son súper buenas.. pero como que resultan ahí y uno trata de llevarlas a la práctica
pero ya no resultan tanto .. entonces yo creo que falta que conozcan un poco más el
sistema pero::: que estén insertos a lo mejor que trabajen .. es bueno que:. que nunca
dejen de trabajar en un colegio a lo mejor.. (…) para que sepan también como va
como es la realidad que nosotros enfrentamos todos los días.. (…) controlar la disci-
plina ya.. te lleva harto tiempo y después empezar hacer la clase es otro cuento.. (…)
yo creo que eso.. más que nada es como la en realidad es un poco la típica porque..
de arriba como dices tú.. dicen ‘ay los profesores son aquí.. los profesores son flo-
jos.. los profesores no trabajan.. los profesores son todos malos’” (12M, 12)123

123 “There are things that the teachers at universities and institutions do that are really good
but they work there and one tries to put them into practice but they don’t work that
much… so I think it is necessary for them to know the system better but that they are
inserted, maybe that they work, they never stop working in a school maybe, so they

190
Finally, one last group of teachers summed their interviews up by stressing the
importance of being an empathic and motivational teacher who is close to the
students (3M, 10S, 11S, 19M). Although the ideas were all along the same lines,
giving recommendations to other teachers rather than policymakers or teacher
trainers, I will pick out the following quote here because I think that the teach-
ers’ perception of being a mediator between his subject and the students’ reality
links back to the first question - what it means to be an English teacher in the
context of today’s Chile:
TQ65: “I would like to share a an experience that let me …understood [sic] my stu-
dents’ problems that are coming from their homes…. if you don’t know your stu-
dents it’s gonna be… very hard for you to… to feel them closer to you, to your
world…. that’s why you have to be a mediator between your subject.. the subject
you have to teach.. and your students’ underworld…. it’s so hard because em::: if
you don’t know them well.. they’re not gonna have a good attitude towards you and
towards the subject…. that’s why I would like to say that the key is to.. trying to
make a … a recipe.. for example ..being sometimes strict with them …while some-
times closer…. you can not choose one… one profile … as a teacher… . try to com-
bine them. try to be sometimes.. nice with them.. don’t forget you are the teacher,
but try to… ask what do they think.. what do they like.. but don’t forget you have to
achieve some academic goals” (3M, 10)

9.1.3 Analysis
Before going on, in chapters 9.2 and 9.3, to focus on the two central issues of
this investigation, student motivation and cultural contents, it is important to
evaluate the teachers’ views on their work in context, in two respects.
First, as the public attention on English in Chile is relatively recent, there is
a tendency to “technologise” the effort to improve the teaching that is going on
in the classrooms. To clarify the use of this term, I would like to quote Tudor
(2001), who uses the term “technology of language teaching” to refer to “the
theoretical perspectives and practical options which are available to language
educators for designing and implementing learning programmes”, or “a varied
and well-developed set of resources to choose from in terms of investigative and
course design procedures, teaching materials, and learning aids”; “an impressive
array of methodological ideas as a source of inspiration” (7). Thus, for example,

know what this reality is like that we face every day. Controlling behaviour already ta-
kes a lot of time and then starting a lesson is another issue. I think that more than
anything because it’s really a bit typical because from the top as you are saying they say
‘oh, the teachers are this, the teachers are lazy, the teachers don’t work, the teachers are
all bad.’”

191
the methodology courses for teachers that are offered as part of the government
initiative English Opens Doors tend to over-emphasise the idea that there are
hard-and-fast rules about how to teach (and how not to teach) English; the ap-
proaches that are taught there come, in their majority, from the communicative
language teaching tradition developed in Anglo-Saxon countries for the teaching
of EFL and ESL (cf. also Vera 2009). This includes, for example, the taboo of
using translation (or in general, the native language) as a learning technique.
However, in recent years, the idea that there is a fixed set of methods that
“solves all problems” of English language teaching has been increasingly ques-
tioned – in part, by the academic tradition that has challenged the sociocultural
and political implications of English as a global language, especially the expor-
tation business of the communicative language teaching approach (e.g. Phillip-
son 1992, Pennycook 1994, Canagarajah 2003); and in part, by a classroom-
based research strand that emphasises local practices as opposed to “centralised”
methodological recommendations (cf. Varghese et al. 2005). Among the con-
cepts that have emerged from the latter investigative approach is “an ecological
perspective on language teaching”:
“The technology of language teaching as seen in approach, methodology, materials,
and learning aids provides language educators with options from which they can
choose in setting-up a course or planning a class. The ecological perspective, on the
other hand, focuses attention on the human and pragmatic factors which influence
the use and likely effectiveness of this technology. (…) Practising teachers (…) are
in (and part of) one small ecosystem which is the classroom, and it is much more
difficult for them to ignore the ‘rules’ or inner logic of this system and simply to
‘apply the technology’ according to the instruction manual. The teacher’s reality is
an ecological one which is shaped by the attitudes and expectations of students, of
parents, of school administrators, of materials writers, and of many others including,
of course, each teacher as an individual in his or her own right.” (Tudor 2001: 10).
Accordingly, it is vitally important to understand the context in which the teach-
ers view themselves before analysing their perspectives on student attitudes and
motivation and cultural contents, and more so, before giving recommendations
on how to motivate students or what cultural contents to use. The interview pas-
sages that I have examined in this first part of the analysis help to do just that: to
conceptualise the teachers’ work in an ecosystem in which many other educa-
tional and social actors and factors participate and have influence, a complex
system in which there are no easy solutions that are going to produce predictable
results.
Second, the way in which the teachers describe their professional tasks in
the social context in which they are inserted helps to shed light on the character-
istics of English teacher identity in a socially, economically and culturally divid-

192
ed society. For this, I find it useful to refer to the framework on identity and cap-
ital that Vogt (2000) proposes, based mainly on Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of
capital (e.g. in Bourdieu 2005). There, (social) identity is defined as a product of
the interaction and communication of an individual with her or his environment,
which answers such questions as: Who am I? How am I different from others,
and what do I have in common with them? What do others expect from me, and
what do I expect from them? What is my position in social space, who is above
me and who is below me? What group do I belong to, who are the “others” out-
side that group? All of these questions are in some way referred to in the teach-
ers’ answers. In her article, Vogt stresses that the process of identity formation
occurs within a structural frame: institutional contexts and social structures im-
pose or restrict possibilities of interaction and the formation of identities. These
social structures are inserted in a capitalist society; however, according to Bour-
dieu, it is not just economic capital that plays a role here, but also cultural, social
and symbolic capital (op.cit.: 53ff.).
To come back to the conceptualisation of Chilean English teacher identity
proposed in chapter 7.2 and in figure 2, in this analysis I will focus on two of the
four domains of identity - collective professional identity and social identity.
First of all, in terms of a collective professional identity of Chilean English
teachers, it has been shown that in the past few years, the English teaching pro-
fession has gained importance and prestige. This has had an impact on the sym-
bolic, social, cultural and economic capital that teachers have at their disposal.
All of these are mutually interrelated: symbolic capital can also be described as
the social recognition and prestige that English teachers enjoy here; teachers re-
fer to the increasing attention that English as a school subject has received in the
past years. Consequently, their economic capital, especially in the form of teach-
ing time and teaching resources (textbooks), has increased; teachers can focus
their teaching time on just one or two schools, which grants them greater profes-
sional stability. Unemployment is very rare for English teachers. Another aspect
is social capital, in the form of networks that are established: the number of op-
portunities for English teachers to meet up and exchange experiences, especially
in in-service teacher courses, has risen in the past few years, too, giving teachers
more opportunities to connect and thus potentially to gain more power and in-
fluence upon government decisions that concern their profession, although these
possibilities of political power do not seem to be perceived much yet. Last but
not least, the same training courses have of course helped the teachers to gain
more cultural capital, in terms of the knowledge of English and methodology
that they have acquired there.
The idea of a collectivity of English teachers whose “capital” has increased
in recent years seems particularly valid when comparing them to teachers of

193
other subjects: as one teacher put it, the “poor relative” among the teachers is
not that poor any more – only teachers of subjects that are tested in the universi-
ty-entrance test still seem to be ahead of them, albeit with more responsibilities,
too. On the other hand, collectively speaking, teachers (of all school subjects),
within the educational “ecosystem”, consider their position to be relatively pow-
erless, as other stakeholders take decisions that affect them, without consulting
them or regarding their opinions (cf. Prieto 2001, for the curricular area Pinto
2008). In my investigation, this became clear in the comments that teachers
made about the increased power that students have to defend themselves and to
prevent expulsion from their schools for misbehaviour or low grades, for exam-
ple (cf. 3M, 4M, 5M, and 7P in an anecdote that another teacher told him). The
teachers’ statements on the way in which the Ministry of Education selects, dis-
tributes and discontinues textbooks without taking into account the teachers’
opinions is another example of their weak influence (cf. 4M, 9S, 16P/S, see also
9.3.2). Also, the decisions that headteachers take regarding the timetabling Eng-
lish lessons or equipping schools with certain technological elements are beyond
the teachers’ area of influence. On the other hand, at least some teachers seem to
enjoy a fair amount of autonomy inside the classroom, with few instances of di-
rect control over their work, so that they can, up to a certain point, choose to ig-
nore the contents of the government textbooks, for example.
Before going on to analyse the teachers’ social identity, i.e. the teachers’
perceptions of their position in society as a whole, I would like to stress that the
different areas of teacher identity cannot be completely separated, as there are
substantial overlaps between, for example, collective teacher identity and the
social identity of the individual teachers. Some of the teachers, for instance, talk
about the image that they think that society holds of them. For instance, in inter-
view 12M, the teacher says that the reality of the teachers’ work is often mis-
judged, leading to the teachers having to take the blame for students’ low re-
sults, and people tend to say that “the teachers are all lazy and the teachers are
all bad”, simply because the critics cannot really evaluate the difficult context in
which they are working (12M, 12). Similarly, the survey that the pedagogical
research centre CIDE carried out in 2010, shows that, in teachers’ perception,
their economic capital has risen in the past years through slightly improved sala-
ries124, whereas their relative cultural capital seems to have decreased, as nowa-

124 This view is relative, too: in 2009, there was a fair amount of upheaval going on in the
public education sector, as teachers went on strike for several weeks, first, to demand
the payment of a bonus that had not been paid by many local authorities throughout the
country, and then, to demand the payment of a “historical debt” that the government
owes them, as teachers never received compensation when school education was munic-
ipalised between 1980 and 1989. In those years, the teachers were dismissed from their

194
days there is a higher percentage of professionals in the country, and more peo-
ple have access to knowledge than before, so that teachers have lost a great deal
of their status as educated, informed people (CIDE 2010: 64ff.). In my 2008 ar-
ticle, I also observed that the public image of English teachers seems to be fairly
poor, and that it is mainly the teachers’ lacking linguistic and methodological
knowledge that is held responsible for the Chileans’ low results in standardised
English tests (Glas 2008), while other structural and contextual factors, such as
large classes, a low number of English lessons per week or lacking student mo-
tivation are ignored.
Social identity has to do with the way in which the English teachers view
themselves in the context of society as a whole. I believe that in this domain of
identity, more than in collective teacher identity, the English language plays a
key role as a cultural capital (cf., for example, Pennycook 2001, Niño-Murcia
2003). For example, the teachers refer to their social identity when comparing
themselves, in retrospection, to their peers at university, especially when those
came from private schools and the interviewed teachers saw themselves in dis-
advantage in terms of their language skills and travel opportunities (cf. 19M,
TQ148).125
Beyond personal background, however, social identity plays a special role
when teachers talk about the social distance that separates them from their stu-
dents: very disadvantaged, marginalised students in some of the publically fund-
ed schools (especially 1M, 3M, 12M, 14M, 17S/A); students from very wealthy
and influential families in some of the private schools (e.g. 7P). The social
background of their students certainly has an impact on the teachers’ practices
and the way they decide, for example, on teaching materials; it also marks how
teachers perceive themselves and their tasks and roles as English teachers.
Thus, in the view of teachers who work at the most deprived schools, the
economic, cultural and social disadvantages of their students devalue the sym-
bolic cultural capital of English: students come hungry to school (17S/A), they
cannot do their homework as their parents send them to work (12M), there are
issues of drug abuse and violence at home (3M, 12M, 14M); students even have
literacy issues in their mother tongue, Spanish (1M, 5M); they lack the general
cultural knowledge that is expected by textbook writers (5M); in their future
prospects, white-collar jobs are totally out of their reach (14M). Within this pan-

services as state teachers and re-employed by the local authorities, which meant the loss
of their civil servant status and the respective benefits that they had enjoyed as such (cf.
Serván Núñez 2007).
125 Conversely, other teachers refer to the fact that their knowing English might make them “stand
out” in their social context – their family and friends; however, they do not want to
“show off” their language skills (e.g. 13M, 11S).

195
orama, where many material and cultural needs are not satisfied, and learning
English seems irrelevant to the students, the teachers re-define their roles as
English teachers in various ways. This ranges from various degrees of frustra-
tion and resignation - the wish to be able to do something more fulfilling with
the English language (keeping in mind the cultural capital of English – 3M,
4M/TQ5), regret about not having studied to teach a different school subject that
would make greater closeness to the students possible (5M/TQ12), acceptance
of only being able to pass on to give students a very superficial level of
knowledge of the language (1M) – to more creative ways of dealing with the
task of being a teacher in difficult circumstances – for example, English teachers
who take their students to local museums so they get to know their own cultural
heritage before being faced with foreign cultures and traditions (11S/TQ168; see
also 10.4).
At the other extreme, there are those teachers who work at (more or less)
exclusive private schools (7P, 8P, 16P/S). All of them come to speak about so-
cial inequities – either within the teacher’s own school (8P/TQ103), comparing
the two schools in which the teacher works (16P/S) or comparing the teacher’s
working reality to other perceived realities within the country (7P). At those
schools, the teachers do not seem to have great problems with their students’
study habits, as the future expectations of their students form part of the cultural
capital on which they can build as teachers. What also becomes apparent here is
the existence of institutionalised cultural capital, such as the application of inter-
national standardised tests of English (e.g. the Cambridge Exams), which seems
to play an important role in the teaching at the private schools. All of these fac-
tors come together to build the prestige of these schools, which eventually opens
doors to important jobs and influential positions for the alumni within the coun-
try. For the teachers, on the other hand, it is their English language skills that
make up their own central cultural capital, granting them the respect of their stu-
dents (8P). Where they need to be creative is in convincing their students that
other aspects, such as the experience of having travelled abroad, is not necessary
for the teachers to be credible (cf. the “Cuban poets” quote, 8P/TQ8). Both 7P
and 8P relate that some of their students have travelled far more than they have,
even to remote places such as Kenya and New Zealand. 7P also refers to the stu-
dents’ social connections: when once invited to a students’ home, he saw a pho-
tograph of his student’s father, shaking hands with a former US president.
Without trying to over-generalise, it is in those schools that are attended by
middle-class students where the cultural capital of English seems to be a coveted
novelty that promises upward social mobility (cf. Niño-Murcia 2003, Ra-
jagopalan 2009). There, teachers have observed a rise in student motivation,
specifically for learning English, in the few past years (6S, 9S, 16P/S, 18M,

196
19M). The teachers seem to enjoy their jobs and feel that they are making a real
contribution to their students’ futures through teaching them the language.
Unsurprisingly, most teachers seem to have a strong awareness of the exist-
ing inequalities in the country, so that many of them define their roles through
the contexts in which they work. However, what is interesting is that regardless
of their students’ capital in its various expressions, many teachers also see the
affective part of their jobs as crucial, sensing that there is some kind of emotion-
al need that is common to all social classes (e.g. 8P, 9S, 14M).
In conclusion, the Chilean English teachers’ work functions in a complex
ecosystem (cf. Tudor 2001) where their experiences, beliefs and decisions are
influenced by many factors: developments on the whole-society level in the
form of globalisation and technology, and generally a greater presence of Eng-
lish in the media and everyday life; other educational stakeholders, such as poli-
cymakers and headteachers; the social and cultural background of their students;
and, last but not least, their own biographies.
The interviews themselves are made up of the voices of many different par-
ticipants of this ecosystem: through the teachers’ accounts, we can hear the stu-
dents, politicians and journalists, parents and other teachers who were not inter-
viewed (cf. Bakhtin 1981). Analysing them has been helpful in filtering the
teachers’ own voices and their message. Thus, in the coming chapters, I will be
able to refer back to this interpretation of the context in which English is taught
in Chile.

9.1.4 Conclusion and Outlook

In this first sub-chapter, in which the open, contextual interview questions were
analysed horizontally, I showed that there were some recurrent themes that
many of the teachers mentioned independently and spontaneously. Some of the-
se themes were expected, and confirmed part of my hypothesis, such as the de-
scription of their job as a challenge, and the problem of generalised student de-
motivation. In 9.2, I will outline the reasons that the teachers believe are behind
student demotivation and how this stands in relation to my initial hypotheses.
The topic “culture” played only a very small role in the open questions.
Even though some of the teachers see the teaching of culture as an essential part
of their teacher identity, these teachers seem to be exceptions: for example, Ve-
rónica (17S/A) lived in an English-speaking country for many years; Carolina
(8P) works in an exclusive private school. In the last question, where I asked the
teachers to give a “last open message” for teacher trainers and policymakers,
nobody referred to a perceived lack in intercultural training or similar issues. As

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these points were starting to be given a great deal of emphasis during my own
teacher training, maybe I expected at least a few teachers to show interest in the-
se areas.
There was another set of topics that arose fairly unexpectedly. As they de-
serve special attention, I decided to analyse them in depth below, in the third
part of chapter 10, where more qualitative aspects will be taken up. However, as
they complement the contextual perspective of the teachers’ profession, it is
necessary to make a cross-reference here and mention these topics: one of them
is the presence of technology in society and its uses as a motivational methodo-
logical tool in classrooms. This topic is closely related to the next, which is the
presence of English in the media. Finally, many teachers made a connection be-
tween these topics and the perceived lack of study habits in students. These
themes also establish a link between the different parts of the interviews, com-
bining contextual matters, questions about student motivation and choice of con-
tent. This is why it seems pertinent to analyse them in a separate chapter, after
presenting a complete summary of all the main interview questions.
With the description of the teachers’ challenging work context in mind –
high student numbers per class, a small amount of English teaching time, rising
expectations in terms of standards - I will now proceed to analyse the next set of
interview questions: all those issues that have to do with student motivation and
attitudes.

9.2 Student Motivation and Attitudes: the Teachers’

View
After establishing, in the previous chapter, the context in which the teachers find
themselves, I will now turn to one of the specific challenges that many English
teachers in Chile face: student demotivation. Clearly, in this chapter a few of the
issues that were already laid out in 9.1 will appear again: socio-economic differ-
ences between the various school types, influencing on the teaching conditions,
the students’ attitude towards study in general, standards, etc. However, having
this background in mind, the focus of this chapter will now move to the specific
topics of student motivation and attitudes.

9.2.1 Pre-analysis
This chapter is based on the following interview questions:

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• Generally, how motivated do Chilean secondary school teachers think their
students are to learn English? (question 4)
• What motivates students? (question 5)
• What causes demotivation? (question 6)
• How do teachers perceive the general students’ attitude towards the English
language and English-speaking cultures? (question 7)
These questions were asked specifically to obtain data about the teachers’ per-
ceptions of student motivation and attitudes. During the interviews, it was some-
times necessary to follow up these more general questions with more detailed
sub-questions, even though the idea was still to let the teachers elaborate their
own hypotheses on the reasons of student motivation and demotivation, without
guiding them too much. The additional prompts were based on literature on mo-
tivation research (Dörnyei 2001, Williams / Burden 1997), focusing on factors
that are external to the students’ mind, while distinguishing between motivating
activities, contents or dynamics in the classroom (micro-contextual factors) and
social or cultural influences (families, social background, general cultural con-
text, labour market) outside the immediate school environment (the macro con-
text). My usual way of asking about this was: “How do you explain student mo-
tivation / demotivation if we assume that it starts outside the classroom?” On the
other hand, a typical question to obtain data about motivating classroom activi-
ties was “Can you remember a lesson or a lesson sequence that worked really
well in terms of student motivation?”, eliciting anecdotal or narrative experien-
tial knowledge from the teachers; partly, this question was also asked to find out
if teachers would spontaneously refer to motivating contents (rather than teach-
ing techniques or methods); those answers that did relate to contents will be ex-
plored in more detail in 9.3 and 10.4, however. Sometimes the teachers would
also extensively describe the cultural and social context that contributes to stu-
dent motivation or demotivation at the beginning of the interview, before I start-
ed asking about these topics more specifically. In those cases I would only brief-
ly refer back to these questions if I needed some more details.
After analysing the teachers’ answers I established categories that were by
and large based on the sub-questions that I had already prepared for the inter-
views. However, as before, there were some unexpected but recurrent themes, so
that I had to add some further categories.
For the presentation of this analysis, rather than separating motivation from
demotivation, I find it useful to use the categories as a skeleton and exploit both
alternatives - motivation and demotivation - within them. It is important to note
here, too, that in the area of student motivation the teachers’ answers were often
more complex, more elaborate and theory-like than the answers about challeng-

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es dealt with in chapter 9.1. This certainly has to do with the fact that teachers
are presented with educational motivation theories in their training; however, it
is important to see how the teachers back these theories up with examples from
their own experience.
Thus, the analysis of the teachers’ answers to these questions will be struc-
tured in the following way:
First, a general account of the teachers’ perception of student motivation and
demotivation will be given. Then, the different possible influences on these fac-
tors will be analysed: a) the general cultural context; this will also include the
answers on student attitudes towards the English language and English-speaking
countries (question 7); b) the students’ family background; c) future job perspec-
tives; d) classroom activities, contents and dynamics. I had only planned for
eliciting information about these external influences on motivation; many teach-
ers, however, referred to internal motivational factors that are more directly
linked to the students’ individual psychological states (cf. Burden / Williams
1997). Thus, category e) individual psychological factors, was added after the
analysis.

9.2.2 Summary of the Teachers’ Answers

Question 4: Student motivation and demotivation in general
As has already been shown in chapter 9.1, lacking student motivation is per-
ceived to be one of the greatest challenges facing an English teacher in Chile
nowadays. Sixteen of the nineteen teachers interviewed referred to problems in
this area, either spontaneously or when asked directly about it. Only four teach-
ers found that their students were by and large motivated to learn English (11S,
16P/S, 18M, 19M). Two teachers (4M and 9S) had the impression that students
were either extremely motivated or extremely demotivated to learn English, that
there was nothing in between. Five teachers (2M, 5M, 6S, 10S, 15S) referred to
mere minorities of students being motivated.
What is very important to recognise - and maybe that was one of the find-
ings that up to a certain point surprised me when I started carrying out the inter-
views - is that the problem of demotivated students is not usually English-
specific. There were several teachers (1M, 3M, 6S, 13M, 14M, 15S) who insist-
ed that students generally lacked the will to work (which is common to all
school subjects), while no teachers claimed that this was a challenge that is ex-
clusive to the teaching of English. Thus, my hypothesis that the difficulty of
teaching and learning of English in Chile was related to a negative attitude to-

200
wards the language or the culture was not confirmed, though with a small num-
ber of exceptions. Among the few teachers who thought that English had a
greater motivation problem than other school subjects, there was only one who
put this directly down to negative attitudes towards English-speaking cultures
(17S/A). The others mentioned other extrinsic and intrinsic disincentives, such
as the fact that English was not tested in the university-entrance exam (e.g.
18M) or that students found English difficult to understand or to pronounce (e.g.
10S).
Before continuing with a more detailed description of the factors that teach-
ers found to have an influence on student motivation and attitudes, I will briefly
refer to the way in which the teachers described the motivated students, or how
they detected student motivation, even if that only applied to a handful of stu-
dents in each class or school: First of all, several teachers referred to the stu-
dents’ knowledge, especially of vocabulary, and the autonomy with which they
acquired the language, largely outside the classroom by watching movies and
listening to music (2M, 5M, 6S, 9S, 18M). In some cases, maybe paradoxically,
this learner autonomy was perceived as pernicious to student motivation to par-
ticipate in the classroom activities (9S, 18M). In other cases, students had ex-
pressed their interest in becoming English teachers themselves (10S, 13M, 18M,
19M). Other teachers simply referred to the fact that the students seemed to en-
joy their English lessons, were engaged in the activities offered to them (11S) or
were not “bothered” by the fact that the school day started with an English les-
son (16P/S).

Questions 5, 6 and 7: The general cultural context - students’ attitudes

to the English language and English-speaking cultures
As attitudes towards foreign cultures and their languages form part of the cultur-
al heritage of every ethnic community, usually in the form of (over)simplified
generalisations and stereotypes (Brown 2000:179), I include the answers to the
question on attitudes here in the section on the general cultural context and the
way in which this is perceived to influence student motivation and demotivation.
This makes sense as the formation or acquisition of attitudes usually is primarily
an unconscious learning process and is influenced, for example, by the media
and parents’ attitudes. In a pluralistic and heterogeneous society marked by a
deep divide between rich and poor, it is no surprise that there are differing atti-
tudes in various societal sub-groups, especially concerning the attitudes towards
English, the global language. Along these lines, the “general cultural context”
stated in the title should really read “cultural contexts”, depending on the social
classes that are present in the individual schools where the teachers work.

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 Contrary to my expectations, the teachers’ perception of the role of the gen-
eral cultural context and general attitudes towards the English language was
slightly more positive than negative. Very few teachers would spontaneously
use attitudes (at the level of society) as an explanation for student demotivation.
In opposition to this, there were several teachers who saw a correlation between
positive developments in the way the language is nowadays generally evaluated
and student motivation.
In 9.1, it was already mentioned that globalisation and the improved status
of English as its direct consequence have contributed, in the past few years, to a
more positive image of English as a school subject, too. Therefore, many teach-
ers stated – against the background of low student motivation in general, and a
negative attitude towards study in general – that this mostly positive public atti-
tude towards English was helpful in the task of motivating students, even if only
marginally (cf. 6S, 10S, 15S, 18M, 19M). Again, the main reasons that are stat-
ed here are related to the area of entertainment media and technology (cf. chap-
ter 10.3):
TQ66: “uno cada vez se encuentra:: .. incluso en aquellos colegios donde se piensa
que no vas a encontrar ningún niño como muy motivado con el inglés... siempre hay
alguien que está ahí motivado porque.. hoy hay más acceso a la información… o sea
ya el hecho que:: tengamos televisión satelital.… que los chiquillos de repente pue-
dan ver.. ya no ir al cine a escuchar el inglés… sino que en la casa en la televisión ya
lo pueden claro directamente… lo mismo:: con el internet.. todo eso.. hace que los
chiquillos tengan más acceso.. a lo que::: incluso en mi generación no lo tuvimos…
ver televisión en internet era imposible… eran cuatro canales que teníamos en Chile
y se acabó… (…) .. en cambio hoy te diría que tiene una diversidad.. incluso hay…
un sistema de cable donde los chicos.. pueden cambiar el idioma incluso…. entonces
en ese sentido yo creo que:: e:: la tecnología:: los avances nos han ayudado para que
los chicos .. se den cuenta de la importancia de hablar inglés..” (9S, 1/2)126
In similar terms, another teacher also reports on the immediate relevance that
English has gained for many students:

126 “One can find more and more – even in those schools where people think that you are
not going to find any kid that is like very motivated to learn English – there is always
somebody who is motivated because today there is more access to information… I mean
just the fact that we have satellite TV … that the kids can see for example… they don’t
need to go to the cinema any more to listen to English… but they can directly at home
on TV… same for the Internet, all that means that the kids have more access to what
even in my generation we didn’t use to have. Watching TV on the Internet was impos-
sible; there were four TV channels that we had in Chile; that was it. (…) Whereas now I
would say that there is diversity. There is even a cable TV system where the kids can
change the language. So in that sense I think that technology, progress have helped us
so the kids can become conscious of the importance of speaking English.”

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 TQ67: “el saber que el inglés no es solamente una asignatura más que hay que
aprender aprobar y:: pucha .. ojalá pasarle luego al colegio sino que es algo que.. en
el momento les ayuda (KG: ya) para sus intereses .. para las cosas que ellos necesi-
ta::n .. de repente me dicen ‘mire miss .. y esta caja:: y lo leí en inglés y supe al tiro
como funcionaba mi mp3:: o mi Play station’ y todo eso es súper rico incluso ellos
ocupan las palabras..” (16P/S, 3)127
It is important to stress the immediacy and the integrativeness of the students’
motives here: even those teachers who reported very low motivation levels from
their students referred to music, movies and entertainment technology as the
“only” things that their students were interested in, in relation to English (e.g.
1M, 2M, 4M, 5M, 6S, 14M, 17S/A): these areas, which are just one aspect of the
“global language English” (cf. Crystal 2003), are the ones that are most closely
connected to the teenagers’ world and realities.
However, this positive development in the society’s attitude towards English
seems to be rather recent, and seems not to have reached the most disadvantaged
sections of society. Thus, there was one sub-set of answers in which several
teachers referred to geographical reasons for students to display little motivation
to learn English: in spite of the increasing contact that Chilean people have with
foreign cultures in the course of globalising tendencies (not just in the form of
information technology or the media, but also through international commerce
and tourism), there is still some kind of “island mentality” present in many
minds, according to which the learning of a foreign language is discarded as
something unnecessary. The question “¿para qué aprendemos inglés si total es-
tamos en Chile?”128 was repeated nearly word-for-word in six interviews and
labelled as a “typical” student quote (cf. 2M, 5M, 12M, 13M, 14M, 17S/A). The
way in which different, but notably only publically-funded-school129 teachers
came up with these (nearly) identical quotes points to the fact that this idea is
still present in many (lower class?) Chilean minds and is stored mentally as part
of the regional cultural heritage. 130

127 “To know that English is not just another school subject that you have to study, pass and
hopefully get over and done with soon at school, but that it is something that in the mo-
ment helps them for their interests… for the things that they need… sometimes they tell
me, ‘look, Miss, this box – and I read it in English and I knew at once how my mp3
player worked, or my Play station’ and all that is wonderful, they even use the words…”
(My emphasis).
128 “What should we learn English for if in the end we are here in Chile?”
129 17S/A works at a state-subsidised private school, but which is aimed at young adults
who have dropped out of regular education during secondary school years, i.e. again a
disadvantaged school community.
130 On the other hand, interestingly, another teacher who also works at a publically funded
school uses the same quote to show that this mentality has changed over the past years,

203
 The still widespread perceived pointlessness of learning a foreign language
can be seen in connection to other parts of the interviews, in which some teach-
ers reported an unspecified dislike of English (be it as a language or as a school
subject). However, again, according to a number of teachers, this might be more
closely related to a poor attitude towards school or study in general than towards
the language in itself (cf. 2M, 3M, 4M, 13M)131. Another factor that accounts
towards a negative attitude towards the English language is that in several cases,
students apparently find English difficult and / or boring to learn (cf. also 4M,
5M):
TQ68: “entonces hay una gran mayoría diría yo que no percibe lo importante que es
aprender el inglés. ... entonces ‘no::: a:::que es una lata qué se yo::… que es muy di-
fícil’” (2M, 2).132
In one interview, the teacher mentions some students’ “nationalism”, which they
use as an argument against studying English; however, she sees it as an excuse
to divert away from the fact that they simply find it difficult to learn the lan-
guage:
TQ69: “tenía un alumno hace tiempo:: que me decía que no quería aprender inglés
porque él era nacionalista (… ) pero era un caso aparte ( … ) y hay otros que lo co-
mentan como mo::da:: decir ah.. yo no aprendo inglés porque soy chileno y estoy
orgulloso de:: pero yo creo que es como para: para no.. porque les cue::sta no sé”
(12M, 6).133
When it comes to attitudes towards English-speaking cultures, the “positive de-
velopment” is not as clear as in the attitude towards the language; in many cases,

and that at her school students do not display this attitude any more: “eso lo ven ellos
inmediatamente… ah.. claro.. es parte de nuestro mundo por lo tanto no le ven .. e::: una
cosa determinada.. no.. que ‘por qué si nosotros estamos en Chile.. no tenemos que
aprender inglés..’ por ejemplo.. o sea no lo ven así.. definitivamente lo ven ya como al-
go como parte de:: de la cultura en general…” (19M, 8: “They see that immediately: oh,
of course, it is part of our world so they do not perceive it as (…) ‘why, if we are in
Chile we don’t have to learn English’ for example… I mean, they do not perceive it like
that… they definitely see it already as part of (…) general culture.” – The emphasis in
the translation is mine.)
131 Cf. also chapter 10.3 on the perceived negative impact of technological media on study
attitudes.
132 “So there is a great majority - I would say - that does not perceive how important it is to
learn English. So ‘no, oh this is boring, (…) this is too difficult’”.
133 “I had a student some time ago who told me that he didn’t want to learn English because
he was a nationalist (…) but he was an exception (…) and there are others who say it in
the way of a fashion, say ‘I don’t learn English because I am Chilean and I am proud
of…’ but I think that is so as to not… because they find it difficult, I don’t know.”

204
the teachers largely report little interest, indifference and / or ignorance as de-
termining factors (cf. 1M, 3M, 4M, 6S, 9S, 11S, 13M):
TQ70: “(KG: (…) se nota en la sala de clase la actitud que tienen las niñas frente a
las culturas... digamos que son ... originariamente de habla inglesa?. Estados Uni-
dos.....? Inglaterra?) no… no… la verdad es que (…) nunca he escuchado algún
comentario... especial.. (…)... ni ni positivo ni negativo de.... (…) o sea si por ejem-
plo alguien interesante para ellas... o un personaje importante por ejemplo ... da lo
mismo que sea chino gringo o boliviano o sea.. eso no es lo importante... lo impor-
tante es lo conocido o o lo poco conocido que sea.. eso.... (…) la verdad es que no es
un... un tema para ellas” (4M, 5)134.
Several teachers referred to negative attitudes towards the United States, in vary-
ing degrees of severity (3M, 8P, 9S, 11S, 16P/S, 17S/A, 18M). However, the
teachers usually insisted that these were isolated, if notable cases; the most ex-
treme examples could be found in schools whose students belong to the most
disadvantaged sectors of society:
TQ72: “we’re very careful about choosing everything about United States because
there are many people that are not.. so fond of.. they are no fans of.. North American
culture.. (KG: in.. in this school?) Yes. (KG: how do you notice that?) because I re-
alized when I was.. but not this year.. I’m talking about the last two years.. that when
I used to carry some.. flags from Anglo-Saxon countries.. and I always placed a
North-American flag on my desk.. and some students complained about that,
‘please, I don’t want to see’.. ‘why don’t they burn it?’ (…) Yes.. there were .. there
were other .. other flags.. Canadian and…..British.. but they pay much more atten-
tion to the.. North American one” (3M, 7)
Another teacher brings the idea of personal identity into play, moving from a
social-contextual explanation on to a more personal-psychological one. What is
worrying about the following quote is that Anti-Americanism is brought in con-
text with extreme right-wing political groups (cf. “20 grupos neonazis…”, 2005;
“Neonazis en Chile. Preocupa…”, no year):135

134 “(KG: Do you notice, in the classroom, the attitude that the girls have towards the cul-
tures, let’s say, that are originally English-speaking? The USA? England?) No. No. In
fact, I have never heard any special comment, neither positive nor negative about… I
mean, if for example somebody is interesting for them, or an important person for ex-
ample, there is no difference if he or she is Chinese, ‘Gringo’, Bolivian, I mean, that’s
not important… what is important is how well-known or how little known somebody
is… in fact, it is not a topic for them.”
135 The racism that is mentioned here is not exclusive to these neo-Nazi groups; nor is the
USA the main target. Rather, there seems to be a fairly widespread racism against the
immediate neighbouring countries, which is perceived to be a serious issue by several
teachers: “(KG: ¿tienen también alguna::: no sé algún::.. alguna actitud muy clara frente
a lo que son las personas de otros países... que te haya llamado la atención?) sí pero

205
 TQ73: “muchos problemas sociales ... entonces:: (…) digamos que la educación que
tienen ellos es muy poca.. es muy pobre .. porque no quieren .. porque ..... son rebel-
des en fin:: entonces (…) se forman grupos:: ... por ejemplo como los neo nazi .... o::
o gente que simplemente es más racista que otra:: (…) que por ejemplo e:: a .. en el
caso de los americanos que son los ‘yanquis’.. por lo tanto ellos no aprenden o no
quieren aprender muchas cosas:: a.. esos son desafíos grandes porque tú tienes que a
ellos ens... e:: abrirles la mente y y y explicarles ciertas cosas que.. dentro de la fa-
milia:: .. ellos desarrollaron de forma negativa:: .. en contra del idioma .. (…) de re-
pente estos alumnos agarran muchas cosas que son muy negativas y las hacen suyas
... porque pierden la identidad de persona .. entonces necesitan agarrarse de algo... y
algunos lo hacen mal y otros simplemente tienen esa en contra de::: .. de lo que sig-
nifica el inglés..” (17S/A, 2)136
On the other hand, the increased perceived necessity or usefulness of English
has dissipated some former negative attitudes towards English-speaking coun-
tries, which according to some teachers (16P/S, 10S) belong to the past or older
generations. The following quote could sustain such an argument:
TQ74: “(KG: ¿tú crees que en general aquí en (…) Chile ha cambiado la.. la actitud
de repente de la gente (…)?)137 de la gente joven sí .... de los jóvenes yo diría hasta

no::: de habla inglesa... (KG: ya) sino que por ejemplo típico que hay:: el niño que tiene
o que viene de Perú:: o de Bolivia.. e::: son súper pesados con ellos.. los tratan ma::l ..
‘oye boliviano’ así como en forma despectiva (KG: ya) les ponen no:mbres.. eso me he
dado cuenta que son súper e::: agresivos con la gente como de Bolivia Perú” (14M, 11:
“(KG: Do they have any clear attitude towards people from other countries… that you
might have noticed?) Yes, but not from English-speaking [countries] but for example
the typical example is that there is a kid who (…) comes from Peru or from Bolivia –
they are super unpleasant to them. They treat them badly. ‘Hey, Bolivian’ like with con-
tempt; they call them names, so I have noticed that they are super aggressive towards
people like from Bolivia, Peru.” - Cf. also 17S/A, 18M; Huatay & Jiménez 2011; Lar-
raín 2001: 232).
136 “[…] many social problems… so (…) let’s say that their education is very limited, very
poor… because they don’t want to, because they are simply rebellious, and then they
form groups, for example the neo Nazis, or people who are simply more racist than oth-
ers. For example in the case of the Americans [sic] who are the ‘Yankees’ so they don’t
learn or they don’t want to learn many things… so these are the great challenges be-
cause you have to t[each] them… open their minds and explain certain things to them
that in their families they developed in a negative way, against the language… some-
times these students pick up many things that are very negative and make them theirs,
because they lose their personal identity, so they need to hold on to something. And
some do it badly and others simply have [something] against whatever the English lan-
guage means.”
137 My question picks up on the topic “changes” that the teacher had been talking about in
great detail before (mainly in terms of educational policies), introducing the topic “peo-
ple’s attitudes” at this stage.

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 unos treinta treinta y dos años... ha cambiado bastante ... qué pasa que lamentable-
mente::: .. por c::osas políticas ... por cosas que han pasado sobre todo con los ame-
ricanos ‘a: no inglés no’... Bush es como.. inglés igual Bush.. no... y eso pasa incluso
de repente por eso dicen que prefieren a los británicos por que supuestamente los
británicos como están más blanqueados en cuanto a::: cosas que han ocurrido en la
sociedad (…) entonces yo creo que habido ese cambio.. la gente mayor la verdad es
que todavía lo ven como algo lo asocian mucho::: a lo que es trabajo::: a la tecnolo-
gía y la verdad es que ... la opinión de ellos... es como se aprende más no más ... pe-
ro no es algo determinante ... en cambio hay gente que los jóvenes hasta uno treinta
y dos.. treinta y cinco años creo que tiene bastante claro ... que es una necesidad ....”
(16P/S, 5)138
It also seems that the fact that many students view English as “the global lan-
guage”, rather than a language that is intrinsically linked to certain countries,
contributes to student motivation and keeps criticism, especially against the
USA, at bay:
TQ75: “yo creo que hoy día lo ven como algo global ... porque e::: [laughs] e::: uno
pudiese pensar no es cierto .. que de repente el inglés en algunos alumnos podría…
producir algunos anticuerpos.. no es cierto .. (KG: ¿sí?) por lo que yo te decía.. pon-
te tú.. el [name of a public school] es un liceo así... e::: en ese sentido muy crítico…
o sea no todos.. pero hay alumnos muy críticos… entonces ellos podrían decir.. ya..
‘pucha el inglés está relacionado con Estados Unidos’.. por poner algún ejemplo…
ya.. por lo tanto no.. ‘no nosotros nada que ver con Estados Unidos’… pero no.. yo
creo que… no va en ese sentido… sino que lo ven como algo súper e:: global…”
(19M, 7)139.

138 “(KG: Do you think that in general here in Chile the people’s attitude has changed
(…)?) In young people, yes… I would say in young people up to the age of about thirty,
thirty-two years... it has changed quite a lot… what happens is that unfortunately be-
cause of political things, because of things that have happened mainly with the Ameri-
cans [sic] ‘oh no, English, no’… Bush is like – English equals Bush… no. And that
happens even sometimes – that’s why they say they prefer the British because suppos-
edly the British are like more whitewashed as to things that have happened in society
(…) so I think that given this change – older people in fact still see it as.. they associate
it a lot with work, technology and in fact their opinion is like they simply learn more…
but it is not something determining… whereas young people up to about thirty-two,
thirty-five years are quite clear that it is a necessity”.
139 “I think that nowadays they see it as something global… because [laughs] one could
think that maybe English could produce some antibodies in some students, right? (KG:
really?) because of what I told you… I mean… the [name of a public school] is a school
like that… in that sense very critical… I mean not all of them, but there are very critical
students… so they could say… ‘English is related to the United States’, just to give you
an example, right… so ‘no, we don’t want to have anything to do with the United
States’ but no, I think that it doesn’t go in that direction… but they see it something su-
per global.”

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Other teachers even paint quite a different picture: rather than presenting Chile
as a xenophobic or racist nation, here it is portrayed as a country that “deifies”
other cultures (cf. Larraín 2001: 252) – still, with certain reservations. The idea
that music acts as a “cultural messenger” is also repeated in several interviews
(cf. 9S, 12M, 16P/S, 17S/A):
TQ76: “yo creo que la música es un gancho fenomenal para el inglés.. porque la
primera motivación para los jóvenes es acceder o conocer.. aprender inglés para en-
tender cierto.. muchas cosas de la cultura que ellos admiran porque Chile es un país
que admira las culturas.. no sé si te has dado cuenta [laughs] que de repente endio-
samos a las culturas anglosajonas y todo... entonces ellos.. su primera motivación es
aprender para acceder.. pero tiene un porcentaje de jóvenes también que .. están en
contra de ese tipo de cultura .. y que ven el idioma como parte de esa cultura.. por lo
tanto la rechazan.. (KG: ¿de veras?..) sí.. yo te diría que hay un porcentaje mínimo..
‘no que no.. que los yanquis’.. toda esa cosa…” (18M, 4)140
Thus, the attitude in Chilean society towards English-speaking countries is in no
way clear-cut. The idea that I could extract from the teacher interviews is that
there is a small, but significant minority that displays some Anti-Americanism
for various political reasons (basically, either an extreme right-wing nationalism
or a more or less historically informed left-wing nonconformity); however, the
large majority holds a rather positive opinion of English-speaking countries,
which in the eyes of the (more critical?) teachers may sometimes even seem ex-
aggerated. This goes along with the fact that usually students have far greater
(and maybe slightly more realistic) knowledge about the US than about other
English-speaking countries. Also, the “American Dream” seems to be present in
many Chilean minds (cf. 4M, 10S, 13M, 16P/S). I will close this section with
two somewhat longer quotes from Paola’s interview (16P/S), in which she
talked about this topic in a lot of detail. Clearly, even though some other teach-
ers referred to similar ideas (e.g. 18M, 19M), her nuanced opinion is not neces-
sarily representative of the whole society; however, it serves for contrast with
the other quotes that emphasise Anti-American attitudes in their students:
TQ77: “entonces yo creo que en eso hemos cambiado bastante... (…).. incluso yo te
diría que es hasta::: .... tragicómico... porque qué pasa.. de que todo lo que sea cul-

140 “I think that music is a phenomenal bait for English… because the first motivation for
the youngsters is to access or to get to know, to learn English to understand, right. Many
things of the culture that they admire – because Chile is a country that admires cultures
– I don’t know if you have realized [laughs] that we sometimes deify Anglo-Saxon cul-
tures and all that… so they – their first motivation is to learn to access… But there is a
percentage of youngsters too who are against this type of culture, and who see the lan-
guage as part of that culture. So they reject it. (KG: Really?) Yes. So I would say there
is a minimal percentage ‘no… no… the Yankees’ all of that.”

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 tura inglesa por ejemplo australianos.. ingleses .. americanos .. neozelandeses o los
europeos de habla hispana o: los portugueses .. el italiano ... pero no pasa así con
nuestros hermanos latinoamericanos o sea si hablamos de los peruanos .. los bolivi-
anos .. los ecuatorianos en este caso el rechazo es de piel:: .. se podría decir ... cuan-
do debiera ser porque estamos al lado ... pero tal vez porque somos copiones tam-
bién los chilenos o sea nosotros copiamos mucho el estilo:: de lo que es americano
en los sistemas de comida.. de trabajo las palabras que ocupamos la.. moda entonces
.. eso también nos influyó bastante porque todavía como que no hemos definido
nuestro perfil .... (…) pero lo que es la parte de cultura inglesa para mí que está bien
.. es como lo top” (16P/S, 5)141
TQ78: “[los estudiantes] te piden más que nada como te decía Estados Unidos.. los
gringos.. incluso muchos piensan.. p..por el famoso American Drea:::m ... ‘miss e..
es eso y es verdad que por ejemplo si yo voy allá hay trabajo y a los dos meses tengo
un auto y::’ .. etcétera y les gusta mucho eso porque en el fondo: ... e: ... lo comparan
(…) .. como que es el gran.. el gran sueño llega::r porque piensan ‘que yo llego a Es-
tados Unidos.. trabajo dos meses.. tengo plata.. y vuelvo a Chile’.. es como un Far-
kas... por así decirlo.. (KG: [laughs]) (…) allá por ejemplo como que es sú::per
fá::cil.. tener pape::les ... como que es súper fácil.. trabaja::r.. y que ‘si yo trabajo
sin desmerecer:: e.. limpiando las casas gano ene.. plata.. y mantengo a mi familia..
(…) es como que tienen esa parte de que es todo muy fácil y muy inmediato... (KG:
ya) y por eso les interesa... a parte que .. acá en Chile generalmente ... casi todas las
personas que: .. digamos han tenido éxito y que han estudiado fuera .. ha sido en Es-
tados Unidos ... entonces se asocia mucho éxito .. igual mucho dinero... (KG: ya) es
como asegurar inmediatamente el futuro profesional.. (…) .. ellos lo asocian mucho
a esa parte:: porque siempre:: .. los avances tecnológicos la ..la información siempre
llega primero a Estados Unidos... como te decía.. los otros países anglos incluso ..
bueno .. lo que es Europa ... está también pero como los chiquillos están tan concien-
tizados con mirar.. hacia América... no lo ven mucho más allá porque asocian .. es
como que como Europa yo hablo de ello y es como cultura.. renacimie::nto.. no sé
primera segunda guerra mundia::l e:.. qué sé yo:: Napoleó:n.. etcétera.. lo ven como
algo .. más histórico (…) … ellos dicen no .. el continente viejo no no no .. Estados

141 “So I think that in that we have changed quite a lot (…) I would even say that it’s even
tragicomical… because what happens is that all that is English culture, for example,
Australian, English, American, New Zealand, or the Europeans who speak Spanish or
the Portuguese, Italian… but it doesn’t happen with our Latin American brothers [and
sisters] I mean if we talk about the Peruvians, the Bolivians, the Ecuadorians, in that
case it’s rejection at first sight… (…) when it should be [different] because we’re right
next to them… But maybe because we Chileans are also copycats I mean, we often
copy the style of what is American in the food system, work, the words we use, fashion,
so… that also influenced us quite a lot because we still haven’t like defined our pro-
file… but what is English culture for me it’s okay… it’s like the best.”

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 Unidos .. allá está el carrete .. está el éxito .. y es increíble como la.. juventud ahora
chilena esta súper exitista o sea..” (16P/S, 11)142
To conclude, the interviews show that in Chilean society, there are some clearly
felt attitudes towards the English language and English-speaking countries. As
cultures are dynamic entities, and probably especially dynamic in times of radi-
cal socio-economic change, it is not surprising that these attitudes can, at this
stage, differ and even contradict each other, not just at a societal level, but also
in individuals.143 Most importantly, there is the paradox between economic ad-
miration and political contempt for the USA. In relation to the language itself,
instrumental motives and technological relevance are opposed to a perceived
difficulty to learn the language and the fact that in many cases, there is still no
immediate need for the language skills. Music and movies seem to be the only
“untouched” areas that indisputably help youngsters to find access to the English
language.144

142 “They [=the students] mainly ask [for information] about the United States, the ‘Grin-
gos’. Even many think about the famous American Dream ‘Miss, is it true that for ex-
ample if I go there there’s work and two months later I have a car and…’ etcetera and
they like that a lot because in the end they compare it (…) like it’s the great dream to
get there because they think ‘I get to the United States, I work for two months, I have
money, and I come back to Chile’ … it’s like a Farkas [Leonardo Farkas is a popular
Chilean multi-millionaire and businessman, who is well-known for his philanthropic at-
titude and huge donations to charities] … (…) for example, there it is like super easy to
get documents, like it is super easy to work, that ‘if I work – with respect – cleaning
houses I earn a lot of money and can feed my family’ (…) like they have this [opinion]
that it is all very easy and immediate and that’s why it interests them. Apart from the
fact that in Chile generally, almost all the people who, let’s say, have been successful
and have studied abroad were in the United States, so it is associated a lot with success,
which equals a lot of money. It’s like you immediately assure your professional future.
They associate a lot that bit because the technological progress, information always ar-
rives first in the United States, as I said. Even the other English-speaking countries,
well, Europe, it’s also there, but the kids are just so aware of looking towards America.
They don’t look much further than that because they associate – like as if Europe, when
I talk about it, it’s like culture, Renaissance, I don’t know, World War I and II, Napole-
on, and so on, they see it as something more historical. They say ‘no, the old continent,
no no no, the United States, that’s where the music plays, that’s where success is.’ It’s
incredible how success-oriented the Chilean youth is nowadays.”
143 Outside the context of this study, one of my students at the university, who is studying
to become an English teacher, told me about her feelings about the English-speaking
world: “I feel this great contradiction inside me.”
144 In the recent past, the importance of film and music in ELT has been recognised by
many methodologists and materials writers around the world (e.g. Leitzke-Ungerer
2009, Voigts-Virchow 2006, Stempleski & Tomalin 2001).

210
Other external factors
Another external, but probably more immediate factor to which the teachers in-
terviewed attributed an important role in affecting learner motivation is the stu-
dents’ family background. The analysis of the interviews shows that in quantita-
tive terms, twelve teachers declared the parents’ lack of support or lack of Eng-
lish skills as an important cause for student demotivation (1M, 2M, 3M, 4M,
5M, 6S, 9S, 10S, 12M, 13M, 16P/S, 17S/A), without any direct prompting from
me. Six of these teachers talked about the way in which they have seen either
positive or negative influence from parents affect children’s motivation to learn.
Only two teachers made exclusively positive observations about the way in
which parents’ attitudes had a positive impact on student motivation for learning
English; notably, both of them are private school teachers (7P, 8P). Again, it is
clearly necessary to carefully distinguish between the motivation to learn in
general, i.e. to succeed at school regardless of the subject in question, and moti-
vation to learn the English language.
As mentioned above, problematic home backgrounds are among the chal-
lenges that many teachers face, making the task of educating the students in-
creasingly difficult. However, the negative impact on student motivation cannot
only be felt in the very disadvantaged sectors of society; absent parents, regard-
less of their socio-economic level, are considered to be partly responsible for the
students’ apathy and lacking motivation to study, as the following quote indi-
cates:
TQ79: “son alumnos de clase media clase media alta pero de mucho esfuerzo de los
papás... o sea.. e:::: hay muy pocos papás profesionales... o sea, los que han estudia-
do en la universidad son muy pocos... o sea.. son más los papás esforzados.. que a
través del tiempo han .. han.. logrado recursos... y que les están dando todo a los chi-
quillos por .. por lo que ellos no tuvieron... pero claro.. o sea.. hay algunos que no
ven a los papás durante el día.. entonces lo único que hacen es estar en la cama po
acostados.. con el computador.. porque no hay un control de los papás... entonces
claro que tiene que ver con.. con los papás también... o sea ... son papás muy permi-
sivos.. que les permiten muchas cosas... que los dejan solos... porque tienen que tra-
bajar... casi todas las mamás trabajan... por lo tanto los chiquillos quedan solos... y...
y no hay una motivación por parte de los papás... o sea, además de retarlos tienes
que estudiar tienes que estudiar tienes que estudiar.. pero nada más po o sea se que-
dan ahí.” (6S, 5)145

145 “They are middle-class students, upper middle-class students, but with a lot of effort on
the parents’ part. I mean, very few of the parents are professionals. There are very few
who have studied at the university. The parents are hard-working and over the years
they have achieved some wealth. And they are giving everything to the kids because

211
For the specific motivation or demotivation to learn English, however, the fami-
lies’ social class might play a more important role. Here, for example, a teacher
expresses concern about parents prioritising the support for other subjects:
TQ80: “si la familia apoya yo creo que tienes el ochenta por ciento entre comillas
ganado ... porque qué pasa que la familia por ejemplo en el liceo en el que yo trabajo
... hay niñas de clase media alta clase media baja y la verdad es que las niñas que
son de un contexto económico digamos más.. precario la verdad es que la familia
poco interés tiene de que aprenda inglés .. o sea con que esté el cuatro punto cero
bien.. lo que interesa aquí es lenguaje matemática historia porque es la que da la po-
sibilidad de la beca pa la psu un buen puntaje ... ‘pero inglés inglés miss’ me dicen...
‘mi hija no se va a estudiar inglés... no se va ir a trabajar a LAN Chile no va a via-
jar.. sino que es aquí donde tiene que trabajar’... y qué pasa muchas de estas niñas
también no pueden optar a la educación superior sino que salen de cuarto medio ... e
inmediatamente al mundo laboral ... entonces ellos no ven la importancia o tal vez el
plus que pudiera darles el inglés..” (16P/S, 4)146
As the section on attitudes has shown, the “importance” of mastering English
does not seem to be appreciated so much by the lower socio-economic classes.
Conversely to the previous quote, this private school teacher mentions the same
ideas – travel, study opportunities – to demonstrate how his students are encour-
aged to learn English by their parents:
TQ81: “I think I understand that you’re saying that some students come to that Eng-
lish class with the desire to learn … they really want to learn it.. maybe.. they’re tak-
ing up their desire at home from parents who are telling them that English is im-

they didn’t have it. But of course, there are some who never see their parents during the
day. So the only thing they do is lie in bed, with the computer, because there is no par-
ent control. Of course this has to do with the parents, too. They are very permissive,
they allow them to do many things, they leave them alone because they have to work,
nearly all the mums work. So the kids stay alone and there is no motivation on the par-
ents’ part. I mean, apart from telling them off ‘you have to study, you have to study, you
have to study’, but nothing else, that’s it.”
146 “If the family supports [the educational process] I think you could say that you have
won an eighty per cent of the battle. Because for example in the school where I work
there are upper middle class and lower middle class girls and in fact, the girls who are
from a more precarious economic background, their families have little interest in them
learning English. I mean, with [the lowest pass grade] it’s okay. What is important here
is Spanish, Maths, History because those [subjects] gain them the possibility of a schol-
arship, a good result in the university-entrance test. ‘But English, Miss’, they tell me.
‘My daughter is not going to study English, she is not going to work for LAN Chile [the
principal Chilean airline]. She is not going to travel; it’s here where she has to work’.
And many of these girls cannot opt for Higher Education either, they finish secondary
school, and immediately [go on] to the world of work. So they [the parents] don’t see
the importance or maybe the plus that English could give them.”

212
 portant because.. you can study…because you can travel because you have greater
…. opportunities available to you ..if you are …uh… able to use another language
uh properly….and maybe because your parents … your mother are telling them this
…(…) and I would say that there are others who believe in themselves…. that they
can learn… (…) but the ones who are coming wanting to learn it’s at home more
than anything I don’t think you’re gonna hear of anything else… I think it’s in the
home where the motivation begins with the students who want to learn… I don’t
think I would probably … my guess…. would be very rare to find a student who’s
motivated to learn English where the motivation was picked up somewhere else…
so… that’s my guess…” (7P, 4/5)
However, not only the social class influences on these attitudes; also the parents’
occupations are central. The following quote is from a teacher who works at a
school with a high proportion of children whose parents are part of the Chilean
Navy:
TQ82: “por otro lado está el .. el cuento de que en la casa algunos tienen apoyo por-
que los papás están motivados también.. porque hay muchos papás que están estudi-
ando inglés… (KG: ah ¿de veras?) porque su trabajo se lo exige… tenemos muchos
hijos de marinos.. entonces muchos viajan.. los mandan… entonces después ellos
vienen con todo ese background que traen de afuera… eso motiva a las niñas..” (9S,
5)147
In sum, the students’ home backgrounds play a pivotal role in the teachers’ be-
liefs about the origin of student motivation or demotivation to learn the English
language (or to take education seriously as a whole). This is also important for
teacher identity concerning their own sense of agency, or control, over their
work (see below, chapter 10).
As can be seen, in some teachers’ perception, there is a close connection be-
tween the families’ capacity to generate expectations for the future in their chil-
dren and the students’ interest in learning English. However, I found it necessary
to analyse the teachers’ answers that were directly related to these “future per-
spectives” separately. I had anticipated this point and also prepared a prompt
that referred to the perceived need for English in the labour market and its pos-
sible effect on student motivation, having Gardner’s instrumental orientation in
mind (e.g. Masgoret & Gardner 2003). However, in many interviews the teach-
ers came up with this factor spontaneously and did not need this prompt, wheth-
er they referred to a perceived lack of future perspectives in their students (13

147 “On the other hand there is the story that at home some of them have support because
their parents are motivated too, because there are many parents who are studying Eng-
lish (…) because their jobs demand it. We have many children of navy marines. So
many of them travel, they are sent [to places]. So then they come with that background
they bring from abroad. That motivates the girls.”

213
teachers) or to the future usefulness that students assigned to school success
and/or to English language skills (14 teachers)148. As before, not all teachers saw
this instrumental motivation as something exclusive to English, but rather as a
“proyecto de vida” (2M, 3) – a “life project” that encourages students to give
their best at school and that might be more based on the idea of getting good
grades and achieving in general, rather than specifically wanting to learn the
English language.
The fact that English does not figure in the university-entrance test seems to
diminish the importance of acquiring the English language due to more immedi-
ate priorities in the students’ lives (8P, 11S, 15S, 16 P/S, 18M). Thus, in this
context, long-term versus short-term goals play against the motivation to learn
English, while the other motives might be just as instrumental or extrinsic.
Another issue that several teachers (4M, 7P, 8P, 15S, 16P/S) considered im-
portant in this context is the students’ immaturity, something that gradually
changes over the four years of secondary education, but contributes to low in-
strumental student motivation in the first two years [Years 9 and 10], as for them
the “future” is still more remote than for those who are about to leave school.
But what exactly gives English “future value”, according to the teachers’
perceptions? In the interviews, six teachers referred to the job market (4M, 5M,
7P, 13M, 18M, 19M). There were eight teachers who mentioned the importance
of English in the academic world, at Higher and Further Education institutions
(5M, 6S, 7P, 8P, 9S, 10S, 15S, 19M). At least at those schools that see it as a
priority to prepare their students for further studies, the students seem to be more
aware of the use of English in those areas, probably because that is the more
immediate next step in their future careers. Other considerations, such as the
possibilities to travel or study abroad were mentioned, too (4M, 5M, 9S, 10S,
12M).
As the following quote illustrates, the students’ motives to be interested in
learning English are unlikely to be related to one area exclusively; rather, in-
strumental and integrative motives might very well co-exist in the students’ con-
sciousness, and are here interpreted by the teachers’ own perception of priori-
ties:
TQ83: “los alumnos que son buenos alu:::mnos que están más preocupados..que tie-
nen interés.. entonces yo de repente en los recreos.. se acercan y te conversan o .. di-
cen ‘mire..tengo este libro profesora .. cree usted que me sirve para aprender inglés’
o .. ‘mi mamá me quiere matricular.. qué instituto me recomienda’.. no sé y por ahí

148 Some of the teachers described the ‘exceptional’ students in their schools at length,
highlighting their interest in future professional success as their distinctive feature; that
is why overlaps between positive and negative evaluations are included in this count.

214
 surge que se acercan otros y uno termina teniendo una interacción.. y va más allá de
la pregunta.. de la mera pregunta que te hicieron..porque veo interés en ellos... en-
tonces... yo ahí me.. ‘claro pregúntame todo lo que quieras’ entonces de repente me
dicen.. ‘¿usted ha viajado?’... o: ‘y ¿dónde?.. y me encantaría’ y todo y yo les cuento
y les digo..es bueno.. con esos alumnos... con otros podría aparecer que yo estoy ....
ostentando .. pero con ellos sí porque siento que es una motivación.. que ellos dicen..
‘sí.. yo quiero trabajar.. quiero ganar más plata.. quiero viajar... quiero aprender’ ...
entonces eso es.... me gusta eso que tienen.. ganas de aprender más....de abrir sus ho-
rizontes... me encanta.....porque eso es lo que yo siento que les va a abrir las puertas
en el futuro......... nuestro colegio es comercial .. ellos van a ir a empresas.....” (5M,
11).149
On the whole, however, “future perspectives” as a motivator does not seem to
work with the majority of the students, especially with the younger ones. One of
the reasons for this might be the competing discourses between the teachers’
opinion (which goes along with the developments on the job market, the gov-
ernment initiative etc.) - that English could be a plus in the students’ futures -
and some, especially working-class parents, who consider English (or studies in
general) as something unimportant in their children’s lives. On the other hand,
as educationalists have observed on numerous occasions (e.g. Dewey
1938/1998, Gudjons 1997), the learning experience at school cannot rely exclu-
sively on the anticipation of “future reward” or “future usefulness”. Certainly,
those teachers who know how to exploit the immediate relevance of English in
the students’ lives fare better than those who try to motivate students only by
referring to its applicability yet to come (cf. chapter 10.2 on motivational strate-
gies).

149 “Those students who are good students who care more, who show interest (…) some-
times at break-time they come up to me and talk to me and say ‘Look, I have this book,
Miss. Do you think it will help me to learn English?’ Or: ‘My mum wants to enrol me
[in a private language institute]. What institute do you recommend?’ (…) And then oth-
er students join in and one ends up having an interaction that goes beyond the first ques-
tion that they asked because I see they are interested. So I say ‘Ask whatever you like’
and sometimes they ask ‘Have you travelled? And where? I would love to.’ And all that,
and I tell them. It’s good with those students. With others it might seem that I am boast-
ing. But with them it’s possible because I feel that it is a motivation [for them]. Because
they say ‘yes, I want to work. I want to earn more money. I want to travel. I want to
learn.’ So I like it that they want to learn more, open their horizons, I love it. Because
that is what I feel is going to open the doors to them in the future. Our school is a voca-
tional business school. They are going to go to companies.”

215
Classroom activities, contents and dynamics
After analysing the influences on the students’ motivation that are external to the
classroom and therefore outside the teachers’ control, I will now turn to those
issues that in the teachers’ experience have an impact on the students’ motiva-
tion inside the classroom. My main concern here was to elicit spontaneous
comments about motivating contents (cf. chapter 9.3). Thus, I always started
with an open question about anything the teachers had noted worked for student
motivation in the classroom, so as to be able to see what priority contents took in
the teachers’ belief system, in contrast to other possible elements, e.g. types of
activities or teaching techniques.
In the data analysis I then distinguished, first of all, between those elements
that were mentioned spontaneously as an immediate answer to this question and
those that were mentioned in other parts of the interview. In the most immediate
answers, eight teachers (4M, 11S, 12M, 14M, 15S, 17S/A, 18M, 19M) men-
tioned motivating contents or topics; seven teachers (1M, 6S, 10S, 13M, 15S,
17S/A, 18M) referred to songs or music; six teachers (1M, 5M, 8P, 9S, 16P/S,
19M) talked about teaching techniques or types of activities; one teacher re-
ferred to his own “fun” personality (7P).
In the overall count of specific motivating elements that were mentioned in
any part of the interviews, the two most commonly named motivators are music
and the study of song lyrics, interactive tasks and oral work. Another motivating
factor that was referred to by many teachers is the teacher her- or himself. Of
course, this is more difficult to pinpoint, partly because one interview question
was directly asking about the impact of teacher enthusiasm on the students’ mo-
tivation, so this factor did not arise spontaneously in all interviews. Also, some
teachers referred to specific aspects of their personality as potentially motivat-
ing, such as being approachable (6S), or sharing the students’ experiences (4M),
but this might not necessarily reflect directly in the students’ motivation to
achieve success in English. On the other hand, two teachers (18M, 19M) told me
about the high percentage of their students going on to train as English teachers
at the university, but were too modest to take the credits for this success. Some
of these ideas will be considered in more detail in chapter 10, when the teachers’
sense of agency is to be discussed.
Before moving on to the comments about motivating contents, I will briefly
summarise the teachers’ answers about motivating teaching techniques or types
of activities. As my research design had not anticipated answers in this area, all
the comments that teachers – ten altogether - made in that respect arose sponta-
neously during the interviews. They included games, fun and humour (6S, 5M,
8P, 13M, 16P/S), the use of technology or the internet (10S, 11S, 14M, 16P/S),

216
short, snappy activities or starters (5M, 6S), student-centred lessons or pairwork
(9S, 16P/S), stimulating visuals (12M, 14M), task-based learning (6S), no
grammar (6S) or contextualised grammar (9S), easy traditional copying tasks
(12M), drama and creative tasks (12M), and excursions in the city (11S). It is
possible that methodological issues have been over-emphasised by the “domi-
nant discourse” (government, teacher training institutions and English teacher
associations) in recent years, maybe at the expense of a deep-reaching discus-
sion about contents (cf. Vera 2009:11). However, it must be said that in the in-
terviews there was a certain balance between methods and contents as influenc-
ing factors on student motivation.
Finally, I asked the teachers more specifically about motivating contents, as
this was one of the central concerns of this study. While I will come back to
contents in detail in chapter 9.3, here the teachers’ comments will be summa-
rised in a few words. All the teachers agreed to some extent that the topics that
were presented in the English lessons needed to be related to the teenagers’
world in order to motivate the students. The most common ones were famous
people – singers, actors or actresses or sportspeople (2M, 4M, 5M, 9S, 10S,
13M, 19M), movies (2M, 5M, 6S, 10S, 16P/S, 18M), and fashion, diet and / or
food (5M, 9S, 10S,11S, 15S). Then, sports (2M, 6S, 7P, 9S), and topics related
to the vocational area that some students were studying (English for Specific
Purposes), the world of work or Higher Education (12M, 13M, 18M) were other
repeated thematic areas with three teachers each mentioning them. The follow-
ing topics were brought up by only two teachers each: culture and the teachers’
experience abroad (11S, 17S/A), swearwords and informal language (13M,
18M), recognising famous things (people, quotes, buildings, etc.) (12M, 14M),
technology (as a topic - 6S, 18M) and narrative (“easy readers” – 8P, 10S). Fi-
nally, there were some themes that were only mentioned by one teacher each:
the Simpsons (14M), love stories (8P), “English is all around us” (16P/S) and
themes that could be classified as “current issues”, such as the Olympic Games
(11S). Of course it is important to remember that these topics were not elicited
nor were teachers given a list of them; whatever they said at this stage of the in-
terview arose spontaneously following my question about motivating contents.
In opposition to those factors that can make English lessons more motivat-
ing, there were also some teachers who put the students’ lack of motivation
down to what was happening in their own classrooms, rather than looking for
external reasons. The following quote is very illuminating in the way the teacher
mixes self-criticism (while using an inclusive first person plural) with blame for
the government textbooks for using boring, demotivating topics:
TQ84: “yo trabajo en una realidad… relativamente ideal.. ya… es un colegio parti-
cular subvencionado… de puras niñas… e:::: con un nivel académico bastante bue-

217
 no.. yo diría.. en la asignatura.. me pasa algo bien curioso.. de repente nosotros mis-
mos.. [laughs].. nuestras metodologías muchas veces hacen que los chicos… se des-
motiven. (…) de verdad.. porque e:: yo me fui dando cuenta de repente que.. nos lle-
gan unos textos de estudio medios fomeques.. la verdad.. con temas… tópicos que a
los chiquillos de catorce.. quince años.. les falta mucho mundo por recorrer para en-
tender ese tema.. ya.. o sea ... por mucho que uno ya.. estamos hablando del… del
“global warming”.. del.. de la cosa contaminación.. y que el.. el oxígeno y todo.. pe-
ro a esa edad las chiquillas hay que agarrar tal vez ese mismo tema pero de otra ma-
nera.. enfocado de otra manera… entonces.. yo me daba cuenta de que de repente
mis alumnas en clases.. sí… participaban.. se manejaban bien con el inglés y des-
pués me daba cuenta de que en la sala de computación ellas estaban chateando en in-
glés.. sacan canciones en inglés.. o sea ... entonces hay mucha motivación... (…) pe-
ro que nosotros por la metodología.. (…) no nos alcanzamos a dar cuenta…ya.. aho-
ra estamos hablando de cuarenta y dos alumnas dentro de la sala también.. o sea..
e::: es como difícil percatarte… [surprised tone] ‘uh… tú hablas.. o sea.. a ti te gusta
el inglés tanto así que.. que sacas canciones.. ves películas en inglés’ y todo pero en
la clase.. frente a la metodología que uno empleaba.. no prestaba mucha atención la
alumna.. me entiendes.. entonces… yo.. yo de lo que alcanzo a ver yo diría que lo
que yo misma… en realidad yo diría.. si tú lo pones en una escala podría decirte que
en un… yo veo de motivación dentro de la sala en un… cuarenta por ciento……
ahora en la realidad.. en la práctica yo creo que es más.. pero por eso te hago el al-
cance.. es porque.. no es el inglés.. muchas veces es nuestra metodología… ya.. la
que.. espanta a nuestras alumnas de… digamos del entusiasmo hacia la asignatura..
ellas se entusiasman sí pero frente.. a la música… a todo eso.. pero no:: (…) no sé si
me entiendes la idea.. ya ahora en inglés en inglés hay más motivación que a noso-
tros muchas veces no nos alcanzamos a dar cuenta.. porque.. no estamos metidos en
el mundo de la música de ellos muchas veces.. y por ahí la música.. las películas.. el
Internet .. chatear con gente extranjeras .. a ellos les motiva como herramienta ... el
inglés…. pero no la clase..” (9S, 3)150

150 “The reality in which I work is relatively ideal. It’s a state-subsidised private school,
only girls, the academic level is quite good, I would say. In my subject there is some-
thing really curious happening. Sometimes we, ourselves [laughs], our methodologies
make the kids lose motivation. (…) Because I started noticing that – we get textbooks
that are quite boring, that’s the truth, with topics that for the kids who are fourteen, fif-
teen years old – they need a lot more life experience to understand that topic. I mean,
we are talking about global warming, about pollution, oxygen and all that. But at that
age the girls need that maybe the same topic is focused in a different way. So I noticed
that sometimes my students in class, okay, they did participate, they were comfortable
with English and then I realised that in the computer room they were chatting in Eng-
lish, look[ing] for songs in English, I mean – so there is a lot of motivation (…) But we
because of the methodology (…) we don’t even realise. So now we are talking about 42
students in the room, too. I mean, it’s like difficult to find out – [surprised tone] ‘oh,
you speak, I mean, you like English so much that you look for songs, watch movies in
English’ and all that, but in class, facing the methods that one was using, the student did

218
There were several teachers who said that generally it was difficult to motivate
students to practise reading comprehension (4M, 5M, 13M, 15S); grammar ex-
ercises were another motivation “killer” (10S, 13M). The topics in the textbooks
were recurrently qualified as offering little to motivate students (1M, 9S, 13M,
14M, 15S, 18M); however, this will be discussed in more detail in chapter 9.3.

Individual psychological factors

My research design was deliberately devised to focus on the external, contextual
factors working against student motivation, such as the cultural or family back-
ground, or classroom-related issues, especially the topics presented in the text-
books. However, in nine – nearly half of all - interviews, the teachers started
elaborating their theories about student motivation and demotivation, based very
much on an individual, psychological view of the students’ determination and
perseverance in learning English. It is difficult to say whether the teachers were
influenced by the motivation theories that they might have learned about when
studying educational psychology at the university, in their teacher training
courses, or whether they are “exclusively” based on their own experience and
observations. In any case, these comments were numerous and detailed enough
to dedicate a complete inductive category and sub-section to them.
The main problem that teachers saw in psychological terms is that students
find English difficult, if not impossible to understand, and therefore “shut
down” against English (cf. 1M, 2M, 5M, 6S, 7P, 13M, 14M, 18M):
TQ85: “el comentario más recurrente es... ‘no cacho inglés...no sé nada’.. así.. ‘no
entiendo..’ pero así como comentarios que ‘me cargue el inglés’ no.... un cinco por
ciento.. por llevar los porcentajes.. pero en realidad... e:: son muy pocos los alumnos
los que dicen ‘me carga el inglés’... que generalmente dicen ‘no entiendo... no en-
tiendo nada.. nada... es como que me hable en chino’... no entienden.. y por eso se
bloquean... y les va mal... y::: el rechazo... pero que no les guste... son muy pocos los
alumnos... por lo menos que yo he sabido...”(6S, 5)151.

not pay much attention, you see. So from what I can see I would say that (…) on a scale
in the classroom there is a forty per cent motivation; but in reality, in practice, I think it
is more. That’s why I’m pointing this out to you. It’s because – it’s not English. Many
times it’s our methodology that scares our students off; let’s say the enthusiasm towards
the subject. Yes, they are enthusiastic, but about the music, all that, but not – I don’t
know if you understand my idea… Now in English there is more motivation than we of-
ten even get to realise because we often aren’t inserted in the world of music of theirs
… and music, movies, internet, chat with foreign people… English motivates them as a
tool, but not the lesson.”
151 “The most recurrent comment is ‘I don’t get English, I don’t know anything’, (…) ‘I
don’t understand’. But comments like ‘I hate English’, no – five per cent, to calculate

219
Underlying reasons for these comprehension problems are to be found in previ-
ous learning experiences (e.g. with former teachers), low grades, or (also) in the
symptomatic heterogeneity of students’ levels in many secondary schools (cf.
chapter 9.1.2):
TQ86: “hay un porcentaje.. diría que grande de niños que.. se sienten matados con el
inglés.. o sea que ellos se auto convencieron que no tienen la habilidad y las compe-
tencias.. que son malos.. que nunca aprendieron y eso es.. cuesta manejar también..
que tiene que ser un gran porcentaje de cada curso.. ahora sería en términos ideales
decirte que todos los cursos están motivados.. serían los cursos ideales.. pero un gran
porcentaje de los chiquillos les cuesta… porque piensan que son malos.. porque tie-
nen mala base… esa es la complicación mayor que tienen….. ahora todos ven en tér-
minos .. de utilidad que les va a servir.. pero esta cosa comunicacional que te he di-
cho de un tiempo a esta parte se le ha dado énfasis.. ya.. que eso.. eso es un plus para
nosotros.. pero::: lo que no es un plus.. yo te diría que es en contra .. es que como
tienen diferentes niveles de inglés algunos ya se auto convencieron.. que son malos
y que no van a aprender y que pasan con el mínimo de los requerimientos..” (18M,
4)152.
Another problem that many teachers perceive is the students’ age, especially
when it comes to carrying out speaking activities, as students find these activi-
ties embarrassing – even if they ask for them (cf. also 1M, 4M, 6S, 9S, 10S):
TQ87: “dicen ‘pero que queremos hablar inglés’.. pero cuando tú les das las instan-
cias aquí.. ‘hablen’ a pesar de que son frases cortitas.. les da vergüenza porque están
en pleno período de adolescencia...les da vergüenza que no se rían los de al lado en-

percentages, but really, there are very few students who say ‘I hate English’. Generally
they say, ‘I don’t understand, I don’t understand anything, nothing. It’s as if you were
talking to me in Chinese.’ They don’t understand, and that’s why they shut down, and
they do badly, and – the rejection. But that they don’t like it, there are very few stu-
dents, at least that I know of.”
152 “There is a percentage, I would say, a large percentage, of children who feel over-
whelmed by English. I mean, they have convinced themselves that they don’t have the
ability and the competences, that they are bad at it, that they have never learned it and
that’s it. It is difficult to handle, because it must be a large percentage in every class.
Now ideally I could tell you that all the classes are motivated. They would be the ideal
classes. But a great percentage of the kids find it difficult because they think they are
bad at it, because they have a bad basis, that’s the greatest complication that they have.
Now they all see that in terms of usefulness it is going to help them. But this communi-
cational thing that I have told you, that has been given emphasis some time ago, that’s a
plus for us. But what is not a plus, I would say, what works against us, is that as they
have different levels in English they have already convinced themselves that they are
bad at it and that they won’t learn it and they will pass with the minimum require-
ments.”

220
 tonces pasa un minuto y están ‘e:: e::’ miran.. y se dan vuelta.. con el cuaderno
y..esquivan responder” (5M, 3).153
There were various other psychological problems that teachers found to play
against student motivation; one is the fact that there is only one English lesson a
week, which makes retention more difficult, stopping students from developing
a feeling of progress:
TQ88: “tú puedes entender que así nadie se motiva porque de una semana a otra..ya
ni se acuerda de lo que vimos.. es muy poco el contacto que tenemos con los alum-
nos..todo eso influye en contra..es negativo..” (5M, 4).154
Another teacher referred to the detrimental effect of extrinsic motivation:
TQ89: “the main motivation that I see sometimes is the marks.. the grades …. a lot
of people only care about what’s on the test” (7P, 3).155
To conclude, for many teachers it is a mixture of obstacles and failure in the
learning process itself that causes students to lose motivation. Thus, the teach-
ers’ subjective theories could be situated close to those motivation theories that
are subsumed as expectancy-value theories: in these frameworks, special con-
sideration is given to the learners’ past experiences, their judgement of their own
abilities and competences, and the expectancy of success in the learning process
(cf. Dörnyei 2001: 20ff.).

9.2.3 Analysis
After presenting the teachers’ views on their students’ motivation to learn Eng-
lish, and before moving on, in the coming chapter, to examine the teachers’ per-
spectives on motivating (cultural) contents for English teaching in Chile, I
would like to discuss my findings by comparing them to a similar study carried
out by Julia Menard-Warwick in the North of Chile (Menard-Warwick 2008). In
her article “The Dad in the Che Guevara T-Shirt: Narratives of Chilean English
Teachers”, without directly referring to the concept of student motivation, she

153 “They say ‘but we want to speak English’ but when you give them the opportunity (…)
even if it’s short sentences, they feel embarrassed because they are in the middle of ado-
lescence. They feel embarrassed, they don’t want those next to them to laugh, so a mi-
nute goes by and they say ‘eh, eh’, they look around, and turn around, with their exer-
cise books and avoid answering.”
154 “You can understand that like this nobody is motivated because from one week to the
next nobody remembers what we did. There is very little contact with the students. All
that influences against it, it’s negative.”
155 Other teachers state that “not even grades, not even extrinsic motivation” work with
their students (cf. 1M, 14M).

221
focuses on instances of political student resistance against English learning, nar-
rated and commented on in two teacher interviews that form part of the data col-
lected for a larger research project on teacher identities (including interviews
with 18 Chilean teachers). This study, which was published while I was in the
process of carrying out my teacher interviews, obviously did not influence my
initial research project. However, the proximity of the research questions makes
a comparison between the two studies necessary and very enlightening.
Menard-Warwick’s larger research project studied the relationship between
teacher identities and approaches to cultural themes in English classrooms,
comparing teachers working in California and in Chile; my research design fo-
cuses on the relationship between learner motivation and cultural contents in the
perspective of Chilean English teachers, with teacher beliefs and identity as
“mediators” between these factors. In this sense, there are many overlaps in the
questions guiding both studies. Also, the research methodology used and the
sample size of teacher interviews are very similar.
Even though I never went as far as postulating the existence of political stu-
dent resistance against learning English, the idea (and to a certain degree, my
experience) that possibly English teachers in Chile had to face resistance against
linguistic and cultural imperialism as part of their teaching mission (cf. Canaga-
rajah 1999, Phillipson 1992), had a direct impact on my initial hypothesis of low
integrative motivation to learn English, which must be tackled by offering moti-
vating – maybe also more critical - cultural course contents to the students.
However, in my research approach I tried to be as open and unbiased as possi-
ble, in order to obtain a more real picture of the challenges that the teachers face.
Thus, while in Menard-Warwick’s study “[p]olitical resistance emerged as a
key issue during thematic coding of data” (258), the data that I collected cannot
confirm this “key issue” or some of Menard-Warwick’s strong generalising con-
clusions. One point in which I differ from her is that her study links political re-
sistance exclusively to “leftist” movements, or to sympathisers of the communist
party. In my study, the teachers who referred to political resistance against Eng-
lish learning mentioned a greater variety of political affiliations. There seem to
be “nationalist” or even “neo-nazi” alignments in individual students (12M,
17S/A). Communism was not mentioned explicitly in any of the interviews.
However, some of the teachers’ comments on their students’ critical attitude
against the USA allow to conclude that there is a left-wing stance behind it: sev-
eral teachers refer to the equation Anti-Americanism with Anti-Bushism (8P,
11S, 16P/S); another teacher mentions anarchism (18M, cf. also 19M).
Next, another issue which I think is not dealt with in enough detail in
Menard-Warwick’s study is the relationship between political resistance against
(US) imperialism (in its economic, political, cultural or linguistic expressions),

222
and (lacking) student motivation, especially for learning English. It is clear that
Menard-Warwick did not consider student motivation in her research design.
However, the critical incidents that the teachers describe in her interviews refer
to the teacher actions (selection of teaching and learning material, for example)
to motivate students to participate in the lessons and to learn more English (cf.
the narrative about the Rage against the Machine song lyrics, 255 ff.). Also, the
monograph that influenced both her and my research, Canagarajah’s Resisting
Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching (1999), gives an accurate description
of the complex and even paradoxical relationship between a “remarkably high
motivation towards ESL” and student opposition against cultural and linguistic
imperialism in the study that he carried out in Sri Lanka (94f.)156. In my opinion,
for a clearer understanding of this issue, it is necessary to look at student moti-
vation and political resistance separately. This view is clearly supported by the
interview data that I collected (cf. above, 9.2.2).
In this sense, how can the following statements by Menard-Warwick be an-
swered? “Coping with political resistance is a perennial challenge for English
teachers” (244); “[r]esistance to English is a significant issue for Chilean Eng-
lish teachers in public high schools, and in many cases this resistance is not
vaguely oppositional (…) but explicitly ideological” (258). The data that I col-
lected suggest that the “perennial challenge” that nearly all teachers (of all sub-
ject areas) have to cope with in Chile is student demotivation. In some excep-
tional cases, this demotivation is English-specific and/or related to a negative
attitude against US imperialism157. However, in the perspective of those teachers
that I interviewed, political arguments against learning English are usually no
more than an excuse for a negative attitude towards study in general (cf. 11S,
12M, 17S/A); in addition, those students whose political-ideological profile

156 It is important to acknowledge that Sri Lanka’s socio-linguistic situation is vastly dif-
ferent from Chile’s, Sri Lanka belonging to the Outer Circle (“ESL”) and Chile to the
Expanding Circle (“EFL”) Countries (in Kachru’s model of the spread of English
around the world, cf. chapter 2 and Crystal 2003). According to Canagarajah, the stu-
dents who participated in his study were motivated in ways that cannot be grasped by
the instrumental-integrative dichotomy: “The functions they envision are different from
those addressed by the periphery and center institutions. However, while their language
needs are more pragmatically rooted in their immediate rural contexts, they
acknowledge the value of English to empower them personally and socially, which is
why they do not share the extreme forms of linguistic nationalism sometimes present in
local community politics. (…) This unwaning interest in learning English suggests that
their opposition is not generated by the language per se but by the encounter with the
curriculum, teaching materials, and the discourses embodied in them.” (op. cit.: 95).
157 Menard-Warwick also quotes one of the teachers saying that these are “extreme cases”
(254). However, this does not stop her from making the quoted generalisations anyway.

223
would suggest a negative attitude against learning English are, paradoxically,
fairly motivated to learn English (cf. 18M, 19M).
The data collected for this study make it impossible to claim that the motiva-
tion challenge for English teachers in Chile has socio-linguistic or political-
ideological origins: the teachers describe a society in which there are no wide-
spread negative attitudes towards English, or towards English-speaking coun-
tries; on the contrary, the public image of English has vastly improved in the
past few years. Some teachers report that students are even more motivated in
English than in other school subjects and that many students are able to see the
“usefulness” of knowing how to speak English. This is explained, on the one
hand, by the prevalence and popularity of music and movies in English, and, on
the other, by the fact that English is often regarded to be a “global language”
rather than a language associated with a particular country. As a consequence,
my interpretation of the teacher interviews strongly suggests that the motivation
challenge must be tackled in pedagogical terms. Rather than political resistance
against English learning, there is a perceived pointlessness in education in gen-
eral, especially in the lower socio-economic sectors. The teachers that I inter-
viewed and who work in publically funded secondary schools report that the
lack of motivation is general to all subject areas, just like the lack of positive
attitudes towards study and the lack of future perspectives.
In terms of the paradigm of teacher identity, it is necessary to highlight, first,
that due to the fact that Menard-Warwick’s study is binational (US/California
and Chile), it emphasises the teachers’ group professional identity as global
TESOL professionals (cf. 249), rather than Chilean secondary school teachers.
This seems to have been done deductively, by highlighting the researcher’s own
positioning in the global promotion of English. In my study, by asking the
teachers about their own initial motivation to become English teachers, I could
easily (and inductively) extract the idea that many of them cast themselves as
teachers in the first place, and only then, as English teachers. The global com-
ponent of their professional identity seems to be fairly minor compared to the
national and local challenges that they share with their colleagues from other
subject areas. In relation to the issue of student motivation / resistance, Menard-
Warwick’s perspective on teacher identities is more similar to mine: in her com-
parison of two individual teacher identities, she focuses not only on the ideolog-
ical or political component of teacher identity (“apolitical, pragmatic”), but also
on the “agentive” and “creative” (in one teacher) versus the “overwhelmed” (in
another teacher) side of it (259). These aspects will be explored in greater detail
in Chapter 10.
What might the reasons be for the different findings in these two studies? I
have already discarded one first suspicion – that in the place of her data collec-

224
tion, i.e. the North of Chile, the political left has a greater presence than in the
Centre, where I interviewed the teachers: the figures in the past elections are too
similar to point to a real “political connection”. However, there might be two
other reasons:
First, one might be related to the time of data collection: Menard-Warwick
interviewed her teachers between 2004 and 2006, which was shortly after the
official declaration of the War against Iraq and probably just in those times
when Anti-Bushism was at its very peak158. My own data collection was carried
out between 2007 and 2009; the last interviews were taken after Obama had al-
ready been elected. Thus, while a more or less pronounced Anti-Americanism
might be a constant in the political extreme left and right in Chile 159, specific
global and national events and media coverage probably have an influence on
the way in which this attitude takes more or less centre-stage in the less politi-
cally oriented minds of the majority. Second, it is possible that Menard-
Warwick was taken by surprise about the teachers’ references to student (and
parent) resistance against English study in Chile, which led her to over-
emphasise and over-generalise those interview passages in which these issues
were mentioned. My own previous teaching experience in Chile had already
made me aware of the existence of these; in a way, one of my unpronounced
questions in the interviews was if this resistance was real or imagined, or to
what extent it was an actual challenge for English teachers here. In this sense,
even if my own study is still qualitative, not quantitative in its design, I hope to
have been able to present a more objective picture of the genuine reasons of stu-
dent demotivation, without over-emphasising any one aspect of it.

9.2.4 Conclusion
Even though, as observed in 9.1.4, I was probably right to assume that there
were serious motivation problems in many Chilean classrooms, one part of my
initial hypothesis is clearly disconfirmed. The motivation challenge that English
teachers face in Chilean schools is more easily associated with general pedagog-
ical causes than with a socio-linguistic attitude issue: students are often demoti-
vated when it comes to learning in general, regardless of the subject involved;
they are sometimes even more motivated in English than for other school sub-
jects, according to the teachers’ perceptions. The teachers’ beliefs and theories
also point towards assumptions other than putting demotivation down to a hos-

158 2004 was also the year in which George W. Bush visited Chile.
159 Anti-Americanism arose as an (exceptional) issue in my earlier and later interviews
alike.

225
tile attitude towards English-speaking countries: they label it as an “excuse” to
conceal the students’ lack of effort or work-will.
On the other hand, the importance that I attributed to meaningful content in
motivating students to participate and learn in English lessons was confirmed by
the teachers’ answers. This will be my main focus in the coming chapter. There,
I will also come back to the teachers’ identity, especially with regards to the
ethnic and personal parts of it.

9.3 Learning Contents

In the previous chapter it was shown that an important motivator for in-class
participation is the selection of appropriate learning contents for the students.
Thus, in this chapter, I am going to examine the Chilean teachers’ perspective
on the contents in English teaching and learning. As these teacher experiences
and opinions need to be related to their biographical data, to their conceptions of
language and their own interests for cultural issues, this chapter is split into two:
Part 1 (9.3.1) will provide all the teachers’ attitudinal and experiential back-
ground information; Part 2 (9.3.2) will concentrate more directly on the teach-
ers’ decision-making processes as to cultural contents in the classroom.

9.3.1 Background: The Teachers’ Perspectives on Culture

9.3.1.1 Pre-analysis
This chapter is based on the following interview questions and questionnaire
items:
• What were the teachers’ initial motivations to become English teachers
(question 3)?
• What are the teachers’ spontaneous associations with the English language
(questionnaire, part 2)?
• What are the teachers’ experiences abroad and travel interests (questionnaire,
part 2)?
• What are the teachers’ spontaneous associations with the United States and
with Great Britain (questionnaire, part 2)?
• How much do the teachers consider teaching culture or intercultural ele-
ments relevant to their role as an English teacher (question 11)?

226
In this first part I will summarise all those data that provide a background for the
teachers’ perspectives on (cultural) learning contents. This includes the teachers’
initial motivation to become English teachers (question 3). Even though this
question is also related to chapter 9.2 on student motivation, and was initially
meant to be a bridge between the teachers’ self-image as teachers (as presented
in 9.1) and student motivation, in the final analysis of the responses obtained it
seemed to be more convenient to combine these data with the teachers’ content
preferences, and therefore to include them in this chapter. To back up the teach-
ers’ responses to this question, I will integrate here all those data that are to do
with the teachers’ conception of the English language: on the one hand, the
questionnaire responses about the teachers’ spontaneous associations with the
English language, on the other hand, the responses from an inductive category
established from the interview transcripts, which refers to any comments that the
teachers made about their conception of the English language (“what is Eng-
lish?”). Then, I will give a summary of those data that are related to the teach-
ers’ perspectives on English-speaking cultures: from the questionnaires, I in-
clude the responses about stays abroad and travel interests, as well as the spon-
taneous associations with the US and Great Britain. Finally, I will give a synop-
sis of the manifold responses to question 11; even though I asked question 11
after questions 9 and 10 in the interviews, I think that in presenting the teachers’
points of view earlier, in part 9.3.2 (where questions 9 and 10 will be discussed)
it will be easier to understand some of the issues that teachers report to have had
with cultural material, and the students’ reactions to them in class. Here, too, I
established various inductive categories: a) the teachers’ interpretations or defi-
nitions of the concept culture; this category will be complemented with an addi-
tional related and equally inductively established category: b) the teachers’ per-
ceptions of their own – the Chilean – culture; c) the teachers’ views on intercul-
tural education. In the analysis of the interviews, it was not always easy to sepa-
rate the answers given to questions 10 and 11, as they often mingled in a fluent
conversation. Therefore, all those responses that relate to more specific aspects
of culture or to cultural features of specific countries will be summarised in
chapter 9.3.2.

9.3.1.2 Summary of the teachers’ answers

In The Dynamics of the Language Classroom, Ian Tudor (2001) highlights the
fact that the choices that teachers make and the priorities that they establish in
their teaching are highly dependent on the vision of language that they bring to

227
the classroom (49).160 Likewise, for exploring the teachers’ relation to cultural
topics, their vision of culture and of the English-speaking cultures is crucial.
Since in the following sub-chapter, the decision-making processes to which the
teachers refer in the interviews will be dealt with, in relation to the course con-
tents and materials, it will be useful to set the context by first examining the bio-
graphical and value-related data that can be found in the interviews.

Teachers’ initial motivations to become English teachers

I must admit that I am not entirely convinced about the quality of most respons-
es that I received to the question about the teachers’ initial motivations; this is
partly due to the fact that I often wanted to move on fast to the following inter-
view questions, and therefore did not take the time to ask more directed follow-
up questions. Thus, a large number of teachers (14 altogether) basically an-
swered by saying “me gustaba el inglés” (“I liked English” – six teachers: 1M,
2M, 11S, 12M, 13M, 16P/S) or “me gustaban los idiomas” (“I liked languages”
– eight teachers: 4M, 5M, 9S, 10S, 15S, 17S/A, 18M, 19M) and did not always
specify what exactly they liked about English or about languages. Nine teachers
(1M, 3M, 4M, 5M, 6S, 8P, 10S, 13M, 19M) mentioned their own perceived
ability for learning the language / languages in general, three of them (3M, 4M,
8P) emphasised the fact that they had had good English teachers at school them-
selves. Six teachers (3M, 10S, 11S, 12M, 13M, 15S) mentioned role models in
their families; this included other English speakers (some of them family mem-
bers who had emigrated) or other English teachers. An important number of
teachers - ten altogether (3M, 4M, 5M, 6S, 7P, 8P, 9S, 12M, 15S, 19M) – re-
ferred to the positive job perspectives that being an English teacher provided.
However, less than half of the teachers (2M, 3M, 4M, 5M, 8P, 12M, 17S/A,
18M) talked explicitly about cultural factors (meeting people from other cul-
tures, understanding movies, music or literature) and only four (3M, 12M, 13M,
14M) referred to the advantages of speaking English for travelling. On the other
hand, a large number (14) highlighted the importance of the pedagogical side of
their jobs and often even considered this more important than the linguistic side
of it (1M, 2M, 4M, 5M, 6S, 7P, 8P, 9S, 11S, 13M, 14M, 15S, 16P/S, 18M).
Some of them started their studies with education in mind from the beginning,
English being a “minor” decision; others took up English studies for linguistic
reasons and only later developed a taste for education, usually during school
practices.

160 Tudor differentiates between language as a linguistic system, language from a function-
al perspective, language as self-expression and language as culture and ideology. (50)

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 In order to remedy the fact that I had not followed up the “I liked English/
languages” responses with a question like “What exactly about English / lan-
guages did you like?”, I searched the complete interviews for hints as to what
the English language was in the teachers’ view, and added this as a further cate-
gory to my analysis. Here, the most common comment was that English (to
them, to their students or to society in general) was a key to success at work or
social success in general (seven teachers: 2M, 3M, 5M, 6S, 7P, 17S/A, 18M).
On a similar line, three teachers directly or indirectly referred to English as a
prestige symbol (11S, 13M, 19M), one as a marketing strategy (16P/S) and one
as a fashion (19M). Five teachers see English as a key to personal pleasure (5M,
7P, 12M, 16P/S, 18M) and three as a tool for communication (11S, 12M,
16P/S). In addition, seven teachers emphasised the idea that English was the
universal language and/ or the language of globalisation (2M, 4M, 5M, 12M,
13M, 18M, 19M).

Teachers’ spontaneous associations with the English language

These interview passages can be complemented by the questionnaires, where in
one item teachers were asked to write down their spontaneous associations with
the English language (English is…). Here, eight teachers wrote the words her-
ramienta or instrumento (tool or instrument) to refer to English, some of them
expanding into other contexts, like communication, job, entertainment, teaching,
personal and professional development. Three teachers used the word puerta
(door), and explained that English opens doors to the rest of the world, or to
meet people from other cultures. Four teachers wrote the word cultura (culture),
specifying, either, that English is an expression of a culture, or a means to get to
know other cultures. Two teachers said that English was a medio de comuni-
cación (means of communication), in order to get to know people from other
countries or as part of the teacher’s professional and personal experience. Two
teachers simply labeled English as ‘the most important and interesting thing’, or
as a fascinating language.
To conclude, it seems that most of the teachers interviewed see English from
an instrumental perspective: English is mainly considered to be a skill that
serves a career, or economic and social success (cf. Masgoret & Gardner 1993).
Clearly, those who perceive English in a strong relation with certain cultures or
who consider teaching English as culture teaching are a minority.161

161 I would like to add that in terms of the teaching that prevails in many classrooms, it is
also often simply seen as a linguistic system, with a strong emphasis on the teaching of
grammatical structures. This observation is based on some of the teachers’ comments in

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Teachers’ experiences abroad and travel interests
This vision of the English language is probably related to the restricted opportu-
nities that Chilean English teachers have had to travel abroad. The question-
naires tell us that thirteen of the seventeen teachers who filled in the question-
naires (all of them Chilean nationals) had never been to an English-speaking
country at the time of responding (cf. also table 9 in chapter 8). Of the remaining
four teachers, two have been to the U.S. (one for two months, the other one for
two weeks), another teacher has been to England for two months. One teacher
lived in the English-speaking part of Canada for ten years.162 What is more, only
five of those teachers who have not been to English-speaking countries state
having had other opportunities for practicing their English: three have had pri-
vate contacts with native speakers, two mention the in-service training at the
university as an opportunity to practice speaking. One was about to travel to the
U.S. for a month at the time of the interview.
However, the result of the next questionnaire item says that if the teachers
had the opportunity to travel this year, ten of the teachers would travel to Eng-
land. One of them would additionally like to get to know Australia or New Zea-
land, one Canada and one Scotland, Ireland or Wales. As the reason for their
choice, six of the teachers mention history and/or culture. Four of them give var-
ious reasons, connected with personal and/or professional interests. Only three
of the teachers would travel to the U.S., one of them to Canada in addition. One
of them mentions the closeness to Chilean culture as a reason, another one the
personal goal of wanting to get to know the educational reality in the U.S., and
the last one would simply like to practice oral English with native speakers.
Three other teachers would travel to Australia or New Zealand, one of them ad-
ditionally to Scotland, Ireland or Wales. Only one of them gave a reason, which
is related to culture and language practice. One of the teachers ticked all of the
given travel destinations without giving a reason. None of the teachers ticked the
box for “no English-speaking country”. However, this might be due to the con-
text of the interviews and the way the questionnaire is constructed, as this item
was the last one, and was the only one that was phrased negatively (cf. Albert &
Koster 2002: 37ff.).163

the interviews (see chapter 9.1.2) and on my direct contact with schools in the supervi-
sion of student teachers (cf. Tudor 2001: 49ff.).
162 There are two teachers who never filled in the questionnaires; one of them is a native
speaker from the U.S. The other teacher traveled to the U.S. for a month as a child.
163 Due to the small scale of this qualitative study, the questionnaires were not piloted be-
fore. If I was to carry out a similar study, for example with students, I would mix Eng-

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Teachers’ spontaneous associations with the US and Great Britain
The reasons for this preference for England might be inferred from the other
questionnaire items, which asked for spontaneous associations with the US and
Great Britain: when asked to complete the sentence beginning “The United
States is…”, only three teachers expressed clearly favourable opinions about the
U.S.: two of them stated that they would like or love to get to know the country.
One of them stated that the U.S. is a country which offers opportunities to those
who wish to opt for new life experiences and achievements. Seven teachers
made very vague or general comments about the U.S., like “an interesting coun-
try in some respects”, “an important country”, “a good way to learn English but
not essential”, “a country in North America”, “very big and it would take me a
long time to get to know it”, “several states”, “a big country which I don’t find
particularly interesting”. Six teachers made critical comments about the U.S.,
some more openly or specifically than others, like “the symbol of capitalism”,
“those who lay down the agenda for Latin America”, “a country with cultural
diversity, which has learned to live in harmony with its errors”, “an insecure,
racist, aggressive and dominant country which believes itself to be owner of the
truth”, “culturally not attractive at all”, “a country which to me has already lost
its magic”. One teacher left the space blank.
However, the teachers’ spontaneous associations with Great Britain were
mostly positive or neutral. There are only two teachers who referred to more or
less negative ideas or stereotypes about Great Britain, one of them “very cold.
And everything correct” (where the second part may be classified as positive,
too), the other one “apparently a place with very reserved people, but” (continu-
ing with a positive comment). Some of the more neutral comments were “a part
of Europe”, “another important country and the basis of English”, and twice “the
cradle of English”. Five teachers referred to Great Britain as a place that one
should visit and / or that they would love to get to know. One of them wants to
work there. Others mentioned visits to important places (without specifying
which they are). One of them stated that it is more difficult to get there (proba-
bly than to the U.S.). Six teachers mentioned “culture” in their comment on
Great Britain, some of them in combination with history, art or traditions. One
of them said that that is what she talks about in class, another one wrote that “we
know very little of it”. Among these comments there are some very positive re-
marks, such as “a great nation”, “very rich in cultural terms” or “attractive”
(twice). Finally, one teacher just describes Great Britain as a “very organised
country”. With this background in mind, I will examine the following question.

lish-speaking countries with other explicitly stated possible travel destinations and vary
the order in different questionnaires so as to avoid a sequence-based bias.

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Question 11: How much do the teachers consider teaching culture or intercul-
tural elements relevant to their role as an English teacher?
First of all, it is necessary to consider the teachers’ interpretations or definitions
of the concept culture; these definitions could be found scattered over the inter-
views: not all of them were given as a direct response to my “culture” question.
Also, not all teachers made any kind of specification of their use of the word
beyond explaining the aspects of culture that they would select for their teaching
(see chapter 9.3.2). Nonetheless, the definitions that some of them gave are very
enlightening as they show the way in which the Spanish word “cultura” can be
used in common, everyday language, and how the teachers relate this concept to
their reality and their roles as Chilean secondary school teachers. Thus, the word
“cultura” was used, for example, to refer to general knowledge about the world
(3M, 5M), to study-aiding cognitive structures, or generally a certain attitude
towards study (5M, 13M). These ideas were often associated with a deficit that
the teachers had detected in their students (or in society in general):
TQ90: “there is a lack of good.. e.. of culture.. in general terms.. some of them..
know in advance something about the culture they’re reading.. for example the capi-
tal the capital of the country.. but.. just a few of them…” (3M, 7/8)
TQ91: “sí.. insisto mucho en la parte cultural.. a modo de::: educación o sea de::
formación del alumno... que les abra la mente... incluso se ríen conmigo en el depar-
tamento porque cuando estamos buscando.. algunos tipos de ejercitación... o prepa-
rando.. (…) ... y yo digo.. este ejercicio por qué porque les aclara la mente...y se
ríen... por ejemplo... había xxxx unas oraciones... (…) que los alumnos tienen que::
diferenciar.. de qué tipo de oración es.. (…) .. e:::: si la oración está entregando in-
formation.. description.. suggestion.. opinion ..y lo hice... y te digo que para ellos era
todo lo mismo... o sea lo mismo dar una opinión ..que una advertencia.. que una su-
gerencia ...y me costó muchísimo explicarles la diferencia” (5M, 9)164
Culture is also sometimes defined as correct behaviour or good manners
(5M,19M):
TQ92: “yo quiero mucho a [a Chilean city] pero uno siente que es una ciudad que..
que le hace falta algo.. y que pasa un poco por un tema de… mm.. cultural.. (…) o

164 “Yes, I do insist a lot on the cultural part, so that education, I mean, the student’s
schooling, opens their minds… They even have a laugh about me in our department be-
cause when we are looking for some types of exercises, or preparing [our lessons], I tell
them: ‘This exercise: why? - Because it puts their minds in order, and they laugh. For
examples, there were some sentences where the students have to differentiate what kind
of sentence it is: if the sentence is giving information, description, suggestion, or opin-
ion. And I did it. And I tell you that for them, it was all the same. I mean, it was the
same to give an opinion, as a warning, as a suggestion. And I found it very difficult to
explain the difference to them.”

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 sea.. son cuestiones tan básicas.. de que te ponen basureros por ejemplo.. y te duran
un día.. (…) y eso es un tema.. o sea de .. de cultu:ra.. de educación.. y son nuestros
jóvenes.. o sea.. es lo mismo que yo estoy educando.. (…) es esa gente la que .. en
definitiva destruye y todo lo demás ..y es la gente que yo estoy educando..” (19M,
2)165
Other interpretations, equally in relation to perceived lacks or a negative view of
culture, were culture as experience of the world (3M, 13M), and culture as life-
style (3M, 19M):
TQ93: “They .. they … just live in a small world.. that’s a big problem… Or some
of them don’t know … they haven’t gone to Santiago for example. or a few times…
or some other part of the country (…) ....they have a small culture.” (3M, 9)
In some of the interviews, this view that “culture” is deficient in many students
is linked to the teachers’ visions of their own – Chilean – culture, in contrast to
the English-speaking cultures that they are teaching (or maybe in contrast to
their view of European culture, me being the interlocutor in these interviews).
There were six teachers altogether who made some kind of comment on Chilean
culture; all of these remarks arose spontaneously during the interviews. In some
of these cases, Chile (or Spanish-speaking countries in general) are presented in
fairly negative terms, in comparison with the more “orderly, structured, hard-
working, polite and well-behaved” cultures that are apparently associated with
the English language:
TQ94: “por lo tanto yo les digo ‘ustedes no sacan nada si saben hablar inglés hasta
con los codos ... si no tienen idea .. como es esa cultura... (…) por qué se usan más
algunas palabras que otras .. en el inglés es fundamental.. dos palabras que no tene-
mos en castellano ... please and thank you’ ... con frecuencia... a cada rato.. please..
thank you.. please ... nosotros aquí damos todo por hecho.. nos tienen que hacer las
cosas... con suerte encontramos a alguien que de repente diga.. gracias.. o que un
alumno te pegue un empujón que te zampe lejos y te diga.. disculpe... se ve repoco...
que digan.. excuse me.. I´m sorry .. y ‘si quieren aprender inglés.. apréndanse bien
esas dos palabritas y después hablamos.’” (5M, 10)166

165 “I like [a Chilean city] a lot, but one can feel that it’s a city that … lacks something, and
it has a bit to do with a… cultural issue. I mean, these are so basic things, for example,
they [the authorities] put litter bins [in the streets] and they last for a day. And that’s an
issue that is - cultural, educational. And those are our kids, I mean, they are the same
ones as the ones that I am educating, it’s those people who definitely destroy and all
that… and it’s the people that I am educating.”
166 “That’s why I tell them ‘it’s no use if you can talk English really fast if you have no
idea what this culture is like. Why some words are used more than others. In English
this is fundamental. There are two words that we don’t have in Spanish: please and
thank you’, often, all the time: please, thank you, please. Here we take everything for
granted. They have to do things for us. If we are lucky we find someone who says ‘gra-

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Whereas in the quote above, the direct derogatory, possibly harmful, generalis-
ing comparison could have a more estranging than motivating effect on students
learning English, other teachers use a reflective, self-critical and constructive
tone. Sometimes only very specific aspects are criticised, such as the attitude
towards errors in the school context in the following quote. However, the use of
the adjective “primitive” still produces an awkward resonance of early colonial
cultural relationships:
TQ95: “el contenido [of a movie, after watching it in class] se discute pero fíjate que
e:: ahí la discusión a veces es en español… en español porque:: muchas veces me
daba cuenta de que:: las niñas.. algunas se atrevían.. pero.. por la:: barrera idiomática
ahí quedaban… con ganas de decir algo pero no se atrevían porque…. ese es el otro
problema que tenemos.. el ‘no me atrevo::: el que me da vergüenza.. que el error..
que el equivocarme’…y yo creo.. y yo creo que pasa porque nosotros tenemos una
cultura muy.. primitiva::: de repente frente al error.. (…) …e::: nos.. nos ha costa-
do… darnos cuenta que:: por el error se aprende… no.. tenemos que no equi-
vocarnos… tú no te puedes equivocar.. entonces esa cosa como primiti:va frente al
error… y eso de alguna manera se lo transmitimos a las generaciones y era pésimo
para el aprendizaje porque… por el miedo al error muchas veces se::: se evitan.. las
niñas prefieren no habla:r por el miedo al ridí::culo y todo el cuento…”(9S, 10)167
Other issues that are criticised about Chilean society, probably with more found-
ed arguments, are racism and discrimination (8P, 13M, 14M, 16P/S). Verónica,
the teacher who lived in Canada, also makes a critical comment about Chile,
with its class-consciousness that is often based on the judgement of appearances,
comparing her experience in Canada with her life in Chile:
TQ96: “aquí este país es muy clasista.. e:: en Toronto por ejemplo yo... y les digo a
mis alumnos o sea el hecho de que tú andes informal ... con un calcetín amarillo y
uno verde .. ya.. una polera azul ... con un I don’t know con una cosa negra por

cias’ now and then. Or a student who bumps into you and hurls you far and says ‘dis-
culpe’, that’s very rare, that they say ‘Excuse me. I´m sorry’. ‘And if you want to learn
English, learn these two little words well and then we can talk on.’”
167 “We discuss the content [of a movie, after watching it in class] but, look, there the dis-
cussion is sometimes in Spanish, because – often I noticed that the girls, some dared,
but due to the linguistic barrier they got stuck there, wanting to say something but they
did not dare because the other problem that we have, the ‘I don’t dare, how embarrass-
ing, a mistake, I might get it wrong’, and I think that happens because we have a very
primitive culture towards errors. So we have found it difficult to realise that by making
mistakes you learn. ‘No! We mustn’t make a mistake. You mustn’t make mistake!’ So
this like, primitive thing in the face of mistakes, that’s something we have been passing
on over the generations and it was extremely bad for learning because of the fear of the
error; often they avoid… the girls prefer not to speak as they are afraid they are going to
make a fool of themselves and all that.”

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 aquí::: la cartera que fue roja... a nadie le importa ... y eso a mí me encantó.... porque
aquí ... lamentablemente... y lo digo bien de corazón .. se fijan en. como andas tú
vestida como te peinaste hoy día... si te maquillaste o no ... yo todo el tiempo que
vivía en Chile o sea en Canadá jamás me puse .... eye liner por ejemplo..... y algo
para los labios porque... ¿a quién le importaba mi cara::? ¿me entiendes tú? o sea...
todos éramos tratado ... de alguna manera si yo iba al banco me trataban igual ... en
cambio acá no .. te miran y.. y.. hacen una diferencia ... entonces eso yo les digo .. a
mis alumnos que todos deberíamos tratarnos igual .. no importa como uno ande ves-
tido.. no importa que.... de que país yo vengo.. who cares?” (17S/A,11)168
Not all of the teachers are only critical or negative about Chilean society, how-
ever. To introduce the teachers’ views on intercultural education, I would again
like to quote a few passages from the interview with Paola (16P/S). I think it is
worth having a closer look at her interview because she describes herself as
“más chilena.. que los porotos” (11)169 but is also a great fan of the USA; thus,
her motto is to try to motivate students to value “lo de afuera pero sin olvidar lo
nuestro” (6: “what comes from abroad but without forgetting our own [heritage /
identity]”). In the following quote, she criticises the Chileans for their tendency
to copy lifestyles and fashions from other countries, and even sees a danger in it
for Chilean identity:
TQ97: “siempre como que estamos copiando y eso hay que decirlo yo le digo lo
mismo a los alumnos ... de que sale un cantante qué sé yo Vanilla Ice con el gorrito
de tal color ... al otro día to:dos los jóvenes también... y no imitan el modelo chileno
o sea no digo que sea bueno o malo imitar ... pero creo que también la la parte nues-
tra en ese sentido se ha perdido mucho ... el festival de Viña... lo mismo sale folclor..
y es la pifia pero general ... y todo porque supuestamente todo lo de afuera es mejor
y eso también en desmedro de nuestra cultura también es .. es otra cosita que hay
que arreglar ...” (16P/S, 5)170

168 “This country here is very class-conscious. In Toronto, for example – and I tell my stu-
dents - the fact that you wear casual clothes, with one yellow and one green sock, and a
blue T-shirt and I don’t know, a black thing here and a red handbag: nobody cares. And
I loved that. Because here, unfortunately, and this is my heart-felt opinion, people treat
you differently according to your clothes or to your hair-style, your make-up. All the
time that I lived in Canada I never wore eye liner for example, or lipstick because who
cared about my face, you see? I mean, we were all treated in some way, when I went to
the bank I was treated in the same way. But here, no, they look at you and make a dif-
ference. So that’s what I tell my students that we should all treat us equally, no matter
how someone is dressed, no matter what country I am from… who cares?”
169 “More Chilean than the beans”: a typical phrase that is used to refer to a strongly felt
identity with the country.
170 “We are always copying and I tell my students the same thing. For example, the singer
of Vanilla Ice uses a cap in a certain colour and the next day all the teenagers also [wear
the same cap]. And they don’t copy the Chilean model – I mean, I’m not saying that it’s

235
Later, she repeats what she “always says” (to the students), providing construc-
tive and optimistic ways in which to deal with cultural comparisons, without su-
perficial avoidance strategies. To her, the cultural North-South hegemony that is
manifested in those interviews quoted above does not appear to be valid; the
possibility to learn through the contact with other cultures seems to be fairly
equal and mutual. On the other hand, it is important to recognise that the reason
for which, according to her, Chileans are well thought of abroad is due to their
being “orderly”, which in itself is another “Northern” value, and is sometimes
used to “positively distinguish” Chileans from other Latin American peoples:
TQ98: “yo les enseño algo pero también nosotros podemos enseñarles mucho o sea
aquí vienen gringos a estudiar también ... eso da hay luces de que algo está pasando
.. (…) nos respetan bastante yo siempre hablo de la mujer chilena la mujer chilena
está su:::per bien catalogada los chicos también entonces porque somos ordenados
qué sé yo tenemos ciertas características .... pero así también hay cosas que tenemos
que mejorar .... yo siempre digo yo amo mi país a mi Chile lindo pero hay cosas
que.. que me molestan así como hay cosas que me gustan mucho de los anglosajones
y otras que también me molestan ... entonces yo digo es cosa de comparar ... de tener
una mente abierta pero a la vez también de saber juzgar ... qué es lo bueno.. qué es
para mí y para los demás también” (16P/S,6)171
However, like the other teachers she also thinks that Chileans can learn from
other cultures:
TQ99: “por ejemplo .. la puntualidad .. que acá en Chile tú sabes que no somo:::s
[laughs] muy a las nueve significa a las diez y media corrido pa las doce y cuando tú
eres puntual ... eres ata::cada eres neuró::tica ... ‘ay no pero como ta:nto’ porque son
cositas que imagínate siempre acá en Chile supuestamente .. somos los que más tra-
bajamos pero qué pasa con las horas que tú estás sentada en tu escritorio.. haciendo
tu pega... que tú produces ... yo siempre digo a los chiquillos ‘es que miss estudié

good or bad to imitate, but I also think in that sense that our own part has got lost to a
great deal… When at the Viña festival [a yearly international song festival, held in the
coastal city of Viña del Mar] there are folk groups on stage, they are just booed at… and
all that because supposedly whatever comes from abroad is better, and that’s disparag-
ing our culture… that’s something else that we have to get fixed.”
171 “I teach them [i.e. the students] something but we can also teach them [i.e. foreigners] a
lot, I mean, there are gringos who come to study here too, and that means that some-
thing is happening; they respect us quite a lot, I always talk about the Chilean woman,
she is very well classified, the guys too so because we are orderly, we have certain
characteristics. But there are still things that need improving. I always say I love my
country, my beautiful Chile, but there are things that get on my nerves, just as there are
things that I like a lot about the Anglo-Saxons and others that also get on my nerves. So
I say what we need to do is to compare, to have an open mind but at the same time be
able to make a judgement: what is good, for me and for other people, too.”

236
 como cuatro horas pa la prueba y me saqué un cuatro’ pero ‘una cosa estuviste cua-
tro horas con el cuaderno en frente tuyo concentra:::da... haciendo los ejerci:::cios
..consultando fuentes o estuviste mirando que el telé…fono que allá’ ‘a:: es verdad’
... entonces esa parte como que nos falta un poquito ... de realmente aprovechar el
tiempo... y no estar ‘ay como... ya’” (16P/S, 6)172
Paola’s views on intercultural education are among the most elaborate in the in-
terview sample. To continue with this topic, not all teachers consider it im-
portant to talk about identity issues or to make cultural comparisons in their les-
sons; during some of the interviews, I had the impression that I needed to speci-
fy what I understood by intercultural education. This might be better understood
when taking into consideration, on the one hand, the association of intercultural-
ity with the indigenous peoples, common in South America (see chapters 4.2.2
and 5.4), and on the other hand, the most common methodological approaches:
either the teaching of isolated grammatical structures and vocabulary (an ap-
proach that is considered out of fashion nowadays, but still in practice in some
schools), or a task-based approach based on the receptive skills (mainly reading,
but also listening). Also, few students are expected to be travelling abroad, just
as few teachers have spent time in an English-speaking or another non-Spanish-
speaking country. Thus, some of the teachers interpreted my question about how
to prepare students for intercultural encounters as mere functional practice in
using English orally, such as giving directions (12M), ordering food (6S, 12M)
or asking for information at an airport (6S), without an explicit intercultural el-
ement. Four teachers (1M, 2M, 4M, 5M) state that they hardly ever talk about
culture in their lessons. The reasons they give for this are that it is difficult
(mainly because of the students’ lack of discipline, interest or attention), that
there is not enough time for it, or because they are not particularly interested in
teaching about it:
TQ100: “que la verdad.. nunca me había puesto a pensar en este punto.. así que..
ahora que me lo mencionas.. (…) a::m si hay cosas interes.. pero no:: especialmente
interesada en esa parte.. la verdad es que no.. o:: o sea te mentiría si te dijera voy a
eso así como a buscar ¡no!.. no me interesa enseñar algo especialmente de Australia

172 “For example, punctuality: Here in Chile you know we aren’t [laughs] very… at nine
means at half past ten, twelve nearly and when you are a punctual person it means you
are obsessed and neurotic. ‘Oh come on, is that necessary?’ (…) Here in Chile suppos-
edly we are those who work the most but look: those hours that you sit down at the
desk, doing your job, what you produce…I always tell the kids ‘Miss, I studied like four
hours for the test and I got a bad grade’ but ‘one thing is that you sat down for four
hours with the book in front of you, concentrating, doing the exercises, consulting
sources or were you looking at your phone?’ ‘oh, true’, so that part is what we lack a
bit, really making the most of the time.”

237
 Estados Unidos o no sé.. Inglaterra... si aparece algo interesante lo enseño pero por-
que sea una cultura de habla inglesa la verdad es que no.. (…) o:: a lo mejor estoy
loca en realidad .....porque debería de ser... como más más interesada en esas cosas...
[giggles]” (4M, 9).173
Two teachers (3M, 13M) focus their response on the idea that it is important to
foster universal values through language teaching, emphasising commonalities
among different cultures:
TQ101: “it’s a good idea to make them to [sic] understand that in a way we’re not so
different.. from each other.. countries.. we have some things in common… in order
that they can realise what are the common things and the different things” (3M, 7).
Two teachers (9S, 19M) emphasise the perspective that language and culture
have to be taught in conjunction, so they usually establish intercultural compari-
sons when talking about language use in class. Janet (9S), for example, had been
preparing their students for the visit of a US American high school class:
TQ102: “lo pasaban re bien los chiquillos y ahí viendo otra cultura.. entonces para
mí era vital de que ellas se manejaran con ciertas cosas.. por ejemplo yo les expli-
caba a ellas que el nickname… o sea si tú le dices a un gringo ‘my nickname is Chi-
ca’.. no va a entender porque el nickname viene del nombre.. viene de… enton-ces
eso es parte de la cultura nuestra de:: de buscar la parte física.. el nickname.. si es
gordo es el guatón.. si es chica es la chica.. ¿me entiendes?.. entonces para una per-
sona que vive afuera es re difícil entender el nickname.. ‘¿cómo te llamas?’.. ‘[Ja-
net]’ ‘¿y tu nickname?’.. ‘chica’… me entiendes o sea a las chiquillas por ese lado
yo les estoy tratando de meter la cultura.. o sea ... para que vayan entendiendo y no
es que el gringo sea fome ... es que es otra cultura y ven el humor de otra manera..
ya no como nosotros… nosotros ... para mí.. eso es..... importante.
KG: o sea tú en el fondo también los preparaste para esos encuentros..
J: sí.. sí.. los preparé.. los preparé bastante..
KG: y había algunos otros aspectos que quizás podrían venir a cuenta acá.. co-
mo aparte de los nicknames… (…)
J: a.. es que a ellas les llamó mucho la atención.. pero esa es una cuestión gra-
matical.. más específica en la lengua.. el .. el uso del you.. nosotros tenemos el tú y
el usted.. entonces cuando ellos hablan español .. tienden a usar el tú no más .. o el
usted pero no el tú o usted.. a no ser que se manejen muy bien ellos.. me entiendes..
(…) .. porque ellos no tienen la diferencia.. el respeto de ellos no pasa por el you..
pasa por otra cosa.. el respeto hacia la persona.. no es por… no porque te traten de tú

173 “In fact, I have never thought about that point, now that you mention it. If there are in-
teresting things… but [I am] not specially interested in that part, to be honest. I mean I
would by lying to you if I said that I look specially for those things, no, I am not inter-
ested in teaching specially something about Australia, United States or I don’t know,
England. If there is something interesting I teach it but just because it is an English-
speaking culture, to be honest, no… or maybe I’m crazy because I should be more in-
terested in those things [giggles].”

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 te van a respetar menos o te van a respetar más.. en eso también cuento que la.. que
de una u otra manera el idioma ... te está diciendo cómo funciona estructuralmente
también..” (9S,12)174
Six teachers give a lot of importance to the general idea of educating their stu-
dents for tolerance and respect (3M, 8P, 14M, 16P/S, 17S/A, 18M), which some
of them see as their task as a teacher in general, not necessarily as their task as
an English teacher. Here, Carolina (8P), who works at a school that was founded
especially for the children of Navy marines, emphasises the idea that these val-
ues might even be more important for intra-cultural (or rather, intra-national?)
education than for intercultural encounters with other ethnicities; even though
the context of her school might be exceptional in some terms, some of the prob-
lems that she mentions are symptomatic of a class-conscious and politically di-
vided society as a whole:
TQ103: “KG: ¿y tú ves algún rol especial en educar a los alumnos frente a esos...
quizás estereotipos o prejuicios?
C: claro claro o sea....
KG: ¿cómo ves tú tu ... o qué haces tú como para enfrentar eso? (…)
C: bueno .... mostrándoles ejemplos o sea.... ellos di...que.... no sé ......... todas
las culturas tienen cosas rescatables y otras que no lo son tanto ................ e::::: la éti-
ca protestante de los norteamericanos creo que uno debiera rescatar o sea ..... e::::
trabajar ... ser responsable qué sé yo (…) o sea Dios te está premiando pero tú esta-
bas trabajando haciendo tus cosas bien.. estabas haciendo lo que te corresponde.... y
eso es lo que nosotros debiéramos hacer también .... porque esperamos que se nos

174 “They had a great time, the kids, seeing another culture there. So for me it was vital that
they knew how to handle certain things. For example, I explained to them that the nick-
name – I mean, if you tell a gringo ‘my nickname is Shortie’, they won’t understand be-
cause a nickname comes from the name. So it is part of our culture to look for the phys-
ical part for a nickname: if someone is big he is the Fattie, if someone is short she’s
Shortie, you see. So for someone who lives abroad it is really difficult to understand the
nickname. ‘What’s your name?’ – ‘Janet.’ ‘And your nickname?’ ‘Shortie.’ So you see,
I mean I am trying to teach the girls about culture in this way, so they can understand
that it isn’t because the gringos are boring, it’s another culture and they see humour
from a different angle. Not like we do. So for me this is important. (KG: So in the end
you prepared them for those meetings.) Yes, yes, I prepared them, quite a lot. (KG: And
were there any other aspects that could be relevant here, apart from the nicknames?)
What caught their attention a lot, but that’s more a specific grammar thing, is the use of
you, we have tú and usted, so when they [native speakers of English] speak Spanish
they tend to use only tú, or [only] usted, but not tú or usted, unless they are very good at
Spanish, you see, because they don’t have that difference. For them, respect is not
marked by the use of you, it is marked by other things, the respect for another person.
It’s not that they say tú and will respect you less or respect you more. With this I also
tell them that in one way or other the language tells you how it works structurally too.”

239
 entreguen cosas y se nos den cosas así porque sí ...... (…) tratar de sacar los prejui-
cios pero yo.. más importante que sacar los prejuicios hacia fuera me parece que es
sacar los prejuicios acá mismo... (…) hacia la persona que:::: que que no es igual a
uno.... que no vive en el mismo barrio ..... que no tiene la misma educación..... que
no tiene un apellido .. extranjero...... em:::::::::::::::: que finalmente eso no importa ...
entonces a mí me preocupa mucho porque ellos.. nacen... en una especie de sociedad
total.... en el mundo naval... nacen en un hospital naval... viven en poblaciones nava-
les..... van a jardines navales .. van a colegios navales estudian en la univ .. o sea..
están en una burbuja... (…) difícilmente andan en micro porque todo queda en la ba-
se ..... entonces..... ¡el mundo no es eso! ..... y porque alguien porque alguien no sé
po... en su minuto .. es.. fue de la Concertación o estuvo en contra de Pinochet no es
ma::lo ... no es ni mejor ni peor que tú ... es distinto no más y eso..... .. cuesta mu-
cho... porque vienen mucho a veces con los prejuicios de los papás... además la ar-
mada es una institución de mucha apariencia ..... (…) entonces es pura apariencia
........... pura pura entonces .... me parece que en ese sentido yo les pongo un poco
más de .... em::::::::: de énfasis a esos .... a esos prejuicios ..... porque ellos van a po-
der viajar ............. reciben también gente de afuera ......... tienen contactos.... vienen
alumnos de intercambio.... vienen agregados navales ........ tienen la posibilidad de
botar o de derribar ellos solos sus prejuicios... no nos necesitan a nosotros ..... pero
los internos ....... ahí sí .........” (8P, 11/12)175

175 “(KG: And do you see a special role in educating the students in the light of these ste-
reotypes or prejudices?) Of course, I mean… (KG: How do you see that or what do you
do to face this? (…)) Well, showing them examples, I mean, (…) all cultures have
things that are worth picking up and others that aren’t so much. The North Americans’
Protestant ethic is something that one should give credit to, I mean, to work, to be res-
ponsible. (…) God is giving you a reward but you were working, doing your things
well. You were doing what you had to do. And that is what we should be doing too. Be-
cause we expect that we are given things just like that (…) Trying to get rid of prejudi-
ces – but I think that more important than getting rid of prejudices towards other coun-
tries, it is to get rid of the prejudices here, where we are, against people who are not the
same as one, who don’t live in the same neighbourhood, who don’t have the same edu-
cation, who don’t have a foreign surname [i.e. descendants of British, French, German,
(formerly) Yugoslavian or other non-Spanish immigrants], that eventually those things
aren’t important. So this worries me a lot because they are born in a kind of total so-
ciety, in the navy world, they are born in a navy hospital, they live in navy
neighbourhoods, they go to navy nursery schools, they go to navy schools, they study at
univ… I mean, they are in a bubble. They hardly ever take a bus because everything is
on the navy base. So… the world is not that! And because someone belonged to the
Centre-Left Coalition or was against Pinochet they aren’t bad, they aren’t better or wor-
se than you, they are different, that’s all. It’s tough, because they often come with their
parents’ prejudices. What’s more, the Army is an institution where appearances are eve-
rything. Everything, everything. I think that in that sense I give those prejudices a great-
er emphasis, because they will be able to travel, they also receive guests from abroad,
they have contacts, there are students who come on exchange, navy attachés, they have

240
Her point of view is confirmed by another teacher who works at a publically
funded school; this teacher thinks that Foreign Language teachers in particular
play an important role in the task to educate for tolerance, not just in terms of
class divisions, but also in relation to an increasingly multi-racial and multicul-
tural society:
TQ104: “… lo cultural yo creo que hay que hacer… hay que desarrollar en los chi-
quillos la tolerancia.. cierto.. a esto de lo multirracial y lo multicultural…. más que
al casarte con una determinada cultura… pero que eso hay que.. sobre todo Chile ..
hasta hace.. muy poco.. era un país.. como estamos tan aislados.. e::: muy puro en
términos de… de.. raza… o de nacionalidad… pero de un tiempo a esta parte.. e::
están llegando ya.. más gente.. por lo tanto... e:: nosotros somos un país muy clasis-
ta… y tenemos que ir desarrollando la tolerancia en términos de.. de clase social..
que están muy marcadas.. tú te habrás dado cuenta acá… yo creo que.. vamos para..
cierto.. preparar a los chiquillos para… la tolerancia .. en términos ya.. de otros paí-
ses… entonces yo creo que por ahí va… nuestra labor como profesor y sobre todo
en.. el idioma extranjero.. de prepararlos también para que ellos puedan… convivir
con otras culturas…” (18M, 8/9)176
Four teachers (3M, 9S, 10S, 16P/S) give an account of how they have created
opportunities for classroom intercultural encounters; these do serve the purpose
of providing linguistic exposure and practice occasions, however, in the inter-
views it seems that creating intercultural contact is the teachers’ first and fore-
most concern – maybe due to the way in which I asked for this kind of infor-
mation. One of them establishes contact on the internet:
TQ105: “(KG: tú también dijiste para los alumnos hoy en día ya es mucho más co-
mo factible digamos .. más posible que en algún momento via::jen o que tengan con-
tacto con una cultura extranjera y ¿tú.. e::.. tienes alguna manera de.. como prepa-
rarlos a un encuentro así con personas extranjeras ... aquí o allá?) sí... mira sabes lo
que nosotros estábamos haciendo:: bueno con esto del Facebook.. ya:: habíamos
contactado personas bueno en estas redes que hay de:: no sé po personas:: que ha-
blan inglés:: personas que:: de estos grupos y::: y de hecho tenemos una página en

the possibility to get rid of their prejudices themselves, they don’t need us for that, but
for the internal ones, they do.”
176 “The cultural [education] that I think we have to do is to develop tolerance in the kids,
right, because of this multi-racial and multicultural issue rather than making a strong
link to a specific culture; until recently Chile used to be a country in which we were so
isolated and very pure in terms of race or nationality but for some time now there are
people arriving so – we are a very class-conscious country, and we have to develop tol-
erance in terms of social class; social classes are very clearly marked here, you must
have noticed, so I think that we need to move towards preparing the kids for tolerance in
terms of other countries. So I think that our task as teachers, above all in the foreign
language, prepare them too so they can live together with other cultures.”

241
 donde hay personas que::: obviamente intercambian su cultura .. y tenemos como
cuatro personas de Polonia:: y cuentan por ejemplo:: la vez pasada contaba:: de la
comida que le gustaba::: y ellos también van escribiendo oye qué pasa en Chile con-
taban por ejemplo ... como se celebraba aquí el año nuevo… y ellos también con-
taban allá… claro eso.. (…) .. de diferentes lugares.. incluso habían algunos de Tur-
quía:: de lugares súper que uno .. de Arabia:: que no:: y nos contaban por ejemplo
del:: de Hollywood que ellos tenían .. de cómo se hacían las películas allá después
vimos en youtube como eran las pelicu videos de Michael Jackson:: .. que era ese
Thriller .... como lo hacían ellos allá y nosotros como o:: y pensar que para ellos eso
es como súper::: sorprendente po y nosotros ‘pero cómo’ y ahí vemos las las di-
ferencias ... sí (KG: ¿con qué nivel hicieron eso?) con:: tercero medio (…) es como
lo único así que te puedo decir como relevante que podría decir de cultura:: e::::
que:: ... como que nos salimos un poco y nos preparamos pa::ra hablar con alguien
que no es de acá y que ... y qué a qué le pude responder como tú:: e:::.. si te pregunta
ya po cuéntame de Chile..” (10S, 9/10)177
In this netpal exchange, English is used as a lingua franca among various Ex-
panding Circle countries. Two other teachers established face-to-face contact
with native speakers of English by inviting US Americans to their classes – one
in a one-off occasion, which gave students the opportunity to ask their foreign
peers about their impressions on Chile (16P/S), the other one through a repeated,
“monolateral exchange” that she had established with a personal teacher friend,
who used to bring his students to Chile once a year (see above, 9S/TQ102). All
of these teachers refer to these contacts as valuable, enjoyable experiences both
for themselves and for their students. On the other hand, Christian (3M) was
sent native speaker volunteers who came to Chile on invitation by the Chilean

177 “(KG: you also said that for the students nowadays it’s much more feasible and possible
to travel some day or that they have contact with a foreign culture; do you have some
way of preparing them for an encounter like that with foreign people – here or there?)
Yes, look, you know, what we were doing, with Facebook, we had contacted people in
those networks with people who speak English, from those groups; in fact we have a
page where there are people who obviously exchange their culture. And we have like
four people from Poland, and they tell us for example, last time they told us about the
food they like and they also write, hey, listen, what about Chile. They told them for ex-
ample how the New Year is celebrated here, and they also told us about there. Of
course, from different places, there were even some from Turkey, from places like Ara-
bia, and they told us for example about the Hollywood that they have there, how they
made movies there, and then we watched on youtube the videos, on Michael Jackson,
how they made Thriller over there, and we, think how that is really astonishing for
them; and there we see the differences … (KG: With what year group did you do that?)
With Year 11. (…) It’s like the only thing that I could say is relevant about culture, like
we digress a bit and prepare ourselves for talking to someone who is not from here and
what we could answer if they ask come on, tell me about Chile.”

242
government, which proved a failure; he puts this down to the “small world” in
which his students live:
TQ106: “I had the experience of… inviting students students from the United States
under this kind of interchange programme ….they were native speakers.. em:: the
government sent us.. these staff.. these people.. to make the students to understand
that my accent is quite different from their accent.. but they got .. they got…the cul-
ture themselves … because they can show everything inside the class.. but you know
that I was.. in front of the class with these students.. next to me.. and they didn’t ask
anything.. just a few of them asked them some questions .. ‘where do you live..’
‘what’s your personal..’ or ‘why don’t you ask them for example how do you cele-
brate I don’t know Christmas?’” (3M, 9)
In general terms, culture teaching seems to live a rather marginal life in Chilean
English classrooms; very few of the interviewed teachers identify intercultural
learning as one of the objectives they have to, or want to, pursue. On the other
hand, when asked more specifically about certain textbook contents, the teachers
were far more prepared to give detailed answers.

9.3.2 The Teachers’ Decision-Making Processes: Material

and Contents
9.3.2.1 Pre-analysis: categories and added categories, organisation of
content
In this second part I will refer to those responses related to the teachers’ deci-
sion-making processes in the use of the government textbooks and cultural ma-
terial in general. This chapter is based on the following interview questions and
questionnaire items:
• The teachers’ use of the government textbooks (questionnaire, part 1).
• How much and according to what criteria do the teachers use the textbooks
that the Chilean government distributes to the schools (question 9)?
• What is the teachers’ experience with cultural material in class (question 10)?
In order to elicit more specific responses about the government textbooks, I pre-
pared a few additional questions for the interviews, to ask them whenever I con-
sidered it necessary:
• In the teachers’ perception, which parts of the textbook can the students re-
late to best? Why?
• Generally speaking, what is the teachers’ experience with written texts and
reading activities in class?

243
• How much do the teachers use the “culture pages” in the textbook (as a tran-
sition question from 9 to 10)?
For question 10, I split up the initial question into two, in order to obtain an-
swers in relation to the students’ reaction to cultural material on the one hand,
and in relation to the teachers’ own interest in teaching them on the other hand.
Here, too, I prepared some supplementary questions:
• What other texts or cultural information do the teachers use in class? How do
teachers make their decisions on which texts to use?
• In the teachers’ experience, is there one country or one aspect of culture(s)
that their students are particularly interested in? How do they meet that inter-
est?
Both my sub-questions and the teachers’ responses guided the elaboration of
categories. In question 9, I could establish the following inductive categories: a)
reasons not to use the government textbooks, b) reasons to use the textbooks, c)
conditions under which to use the textbooks, d) appealing textbook contents, and
e) demotivating textbook contents. In question 10, I decided to categorise an-
swers according to a) the countries to which the cultural contents refer, and b)
specific cultural aspects.
For the synopsis given in the following section, to grant optimal readability,
I will first summarise the more general answers on the textbooks; then, I will
review the teachers’ answers about the various possibilities to refer to (target)
cultures (without necessarily distinguishing between textbook and alternative
material); finally, I will sum up the most important aspects of culture(s) that
teachers refer to (equally, without making this distinction). In all cases, the con-
dition “student motivation” will serve as a determining point of reference.

9.3.2.2 Summary of the Teachers’ Answers

The textbooks
This chapter will start by looking at the teachers’ experiences with the textbooks
distributed for free to all state-subsidised (publically funded and state-subsidised
private) schools (cf. chapter 6 for their titles and analysis). As was shown in
chapters 6 and 9.1, the distribution of the textbooks was one of the steps taken
by the government to give English a higher status at schools. Most teachers ap-
preciate the fact that the government provides materials for their lessons; how-
ever, in general terms, the textbooks themselves have not proven particularly
useful in the actual educational contexts for which they have been designed. In
these terms, several teachers express harsh criticism about the way in which the

244
textbooks are designed and selected, accusing the government of working with
non-educational criteria, and not taking into account the teachers’ opinions:
TQ107: “los libros pecan algunos de esas cosas… los libros son muy buenos.. yo re-
conozco el esfuerzo que se ha hecho.. son buenos en cuanto a la presentación.. (…)..
pero son poco reales para aplicar en (…).. nuestro contexto..los temas.. muy poco
reales… (… )... entonces yo no sé... [laughs] la gente en qué (…) colegios trabaja-
rán.. [laughs] porque no creo que trabajen en municipalizados o subvencionados..”
(9S,4)178
TQ108: “a ver.. tengo mis serios reparos en términos de los.. (…) y se los hemos he-
cho saber.. porque.. a ver.. aquí hay.. desgraciadamente en términos políticos [lau-
ghs] tú sabes que hay mucho aprovechamie::nto.... tráfico de influen::cias.. cosas
que.. escapan a:: a los objetivos educativos.. entonces aquí hay grandes negocios
dentro de toda esta cosa entonces.. para qué hablar.. entonces los.. los libros que se
escogen.. no son a lo mejor los mejores para la realidad de alumnos que tenemos no-
sotros.. e:: y se hace mucho.. gasto.. en términos de .. cierto.. de despliegue.. de pla-
ta.. e:: por una cosa que no obedece a:: en.. en beneficio a los propios alumnos… yo
creo que.. sería mucho mejor .. que se nos dieran los recursos.. directamente a los es-
tablecimientos para nosotros.. con el conocimiento que tenemos.. de la realidad de
los alumnos.. nosotros poder determinar cuáles son los mejores instrumentos educa-
tivos que nosotros usaríamos con ellos.” (18M,6)179
TQ109: “yo trabajo el libro ... porque tengo que justificar el hecho que nos entre-
guen el libro.. esa es la verdad ... pero no es un gusto para mí ... no es como.. que
aquí tengo un apoyo.. igual .. el texto no lo es todo... pero más que eso de repente ..
hasta te diría .. es una carga... por lo mismo .. aparte que:: nosotros tampoco partici-
pamos en::.. en la elección... yo me acuerdo que unos tres años atrás::: colocaban
opciones en el ministerio... sin el nombre del texto... entonces tenías en las páginas
web .. podías ver algún tipo de ejercicio .. y tú votabas por ejemplo el libro A ... y si
preguntabas a los demás .. mucha gente .. ‘sabes que el A es mejor’ y encontrába-
mos en marzo que llegaba el B ... entonces la verdad es que tú dices oh.. sirve:: apor-

178 “The books sin in some of those things. The books are very good. I recognise the effort
that has been made. They are good in terms of their presentation. But they are not realis-
tic enough to be applied in our context. The topics are very barely realistic. So I don’t
know [laughs] in what schools these people work [laughs] because I don’t think they
work in publically funded or subsidised schools.”
179 “Let’s see. I have serious doubts in terms of the… - and we have let them know – be-
cause, let’s see: Here, unfortunately, in political terms [laughs] you know that there is a
lot of opportunism, influence traffic, things that are beyond any educational aims. So
there’s clearly huge business in it. So the books that are selected are maybe not the best
ones for the reality of the students that we have. And a lot of money is spent for some-
thing that is not to the benefit of the students themselves. I think it would be much bet-
ter if they gave those funds directly to the schools so that we, with the knowledge of our
students’ reality, can determine which the best educational instruments are that we
would use with them.”

245
 to en algo .. pierdo el tiempo.. con la famosa .. elegibilidad de los textos...(…) lo
otro que pasa ..no sé si influirá... pero de pronto tienes en primero medio una edito-
rial .. en segundo medio tienes otra y en tercero otra y en cuarto otra ... entonces
tampoco hay un plan.. de continuidad .. y de progresión.. a mí la impresión que me
da.. y a muchos colegas también es que parece que el ministerio llama a concesión ..
y el que le sale más barato.. ahí está... de verdad ..” (16P/S,8) 180
The textbooks are changed for different ones regularly, sometimes every year or
every two years. In 2009, the distribution of books to (secondary) schools was
suspended until further notice - maybe as a result of the teachers’ complaints?
In the questionnaires, I asked the teachers to give information about their
use of the textbooks. Ten of the seventeen teachers who answered the question-
naires use at least some of the government textbooks, or mix them with other
materials. Half of them express some reservations about the texts in the ques-
tionnaires, especially for In Contact 4º Medio, which they find too difficult for
the students’ level. Most teachers use Going Global 1º Medio, not the New Ac-
tion that I had erroneously included on the questionnaires. Three of the teachers
do not use the government textbooks because their students’ level is far lower
than what the textbooks expect. Two teachers, who work at state-subsidised pri-
vate schools, do not answer the question. Concluding from the information they
give in the interviews, one of them uses the government textbooks partially, the
other one does not. The teachers who work at private schools, plus one who
works at a state-subsidised private school, use other (British) textbooks, which
the students have to buy themselves.
So, what are the problems that the teachers have experienced when using the
textbooks in class? Seven teachers simply say that the level of English is too
high for their students (1M, 2M, 5M,14M, 15S, 16P/S, 17S/A). Some refer to
more specific difficulties, for example, that the reading texts are too long or too

180 “I work with the book because I have to justify the fact that they send us the books,
that’s the truth. But it’s no pleasure for me, it’s not like: here I have support. Anyway,
the textbook isn’t everything, but more than that, I would even say it’s a burden. Apart
from the fact that we don’t participate in the selection. I remember that about three
years ago they gave us options in the Ministry, without the name of the book. So on the
websites you could see some type of exercise and you voted, for example, book A. And
if you asked other people, many people [would say]: ‘you know what, book A is the
best’. And in March we would find out that book B had been sent. So really you say
‘Can I be of help? Or am I just wasting my time?’ with the famous textbook selection.
(…) Another thing is – I don’t know if that will have an impact – but sometimes we
have one publisher in Year 9, another one in Year 10, another one in Year 11 and an-
other one in Year 12. So there is no plan of continuity, of progression. The impression
that I’ve got, and many colleagues too, is that the Ministry chooses the cheapest one, re-
ally.”

246
dense (3M, 5M, 12M, 13M, 16P/S, 19M), or that the listening exercises are dif-
ficult to access, as they are often long, monologic pieces of audio recordings
without enough visual support (2M, 5M, 8P, 12M, 18M, 19M). Apart from the
length of the (oral or written) texts, some teachers complain about the topics
presented, in which they find little appeal for teenagers, sometimes even for
themselves (1M, 8P, 12M, 15S, 19M), or which are not contextualised, nor
adapted to the realities in which they are working (4M, 9S, 11S, 18M, 19M).
The topics with which they have the most problems are labelled as “complicat-
ed” or “serious” topics, such as environmental, political, economic, or historical
issues. Some teachers have serious problems with the task-based approach that
is based on developing only the receptive skills; some of them wish there was a
clearer grammatical progression with exercises for the students, or at least more
activities that could be used for oral work (3M, 5M, 14M, 15S, 16P/S, 18M).
One teacher says that for her school it would be ideal if the textbooks had differ-
entiated tasks to help her with the heterogeneous levels of her students (1M).
Of course there are some positive voices about the textbooks, too. Some
teachers highlight the fact that all the students have new, updated material at
hand; audio material is provided; generally speaking, the topics are appealing for
teenagers (2M, 4M, 5M, 6S). As most teachers declared that they use parts of
the textbook, I asked them about the criteria that they used for selecting these
parts. The most frequently mentioned factor was content: eight teachers said that
they looked for the topics that seemed to be the most appealing for the students
(1M, 2M, 4M, 6S, 11S, 12M, 15S, 18M).181 They also consider the difficulty
and length of the texts, both of written and audio material (2M, 4M, 13M, 18M,
19M). Another factor is grammar: here, teachers select those aspects which they
believe need to be covered (2M, 6S, 13M, 18M, 19M). Even though several
teachers state that they use the textbooks because they are forced to use them by
the authorities in their schools, it is highlighted that they have certain liberties in
adapting and complementing the textbooks with other material:
TQ110: “(KG: ¿como... defines tú cuáles son los temas que te interesan?) e:::: defino
por material... por el interés del alumno básicamente o sea.... más que me interesen a
mí.... que les interesen a ellos..... y que les pueda sacar partido (…) por ejemplo de
lifestyles ... o.. yo lo adapto.... (…) qué materiales en Internet puedo encontrar..... e:::
como hacer la evaluación... si puedo hacer algo entreteni::do..... (…) como esa esa
de las recetas que terminaron cocinando.... algo super divertido y entretenido.... (…)
(KG: o sea.. tú usas el libro.... ) sí (KG: pero lo complementas con otras cosas) lo
complemento sí ..exactamen.... . el libro no es mi biblia.... (…) y yo dentro a lo me-
jor dentro de la unidad que yo misma elegí me salto cosas (…) dependiendo de las

181 Cf. Chapter 9.2.2, part c) for a summary of motivational contents; most, but not all of
them are based on textbook contents.

247
 características del curso .... porque hay cursos que dependiendo de la eda:::d ... son
más lúdicos ... y podemos hacer la actividad así al pie de la letra.. amén.. y hay otros
cursos que les carga una actividad o les carga esto .. y sé que no me va a resultar la
actividad.... así que:::: depende xxx es flexible...” (11S, 6)182
In terms of student motivation and the cultural contents presented in the text-
books, three teachers (1M, 4M, 6S) reported their experience about students not
showing any special interest, or at least, their not making any distinction be-
tween these contents or other types of reading comprehension tasks:
TQ111: “los chiquillos lo leen como un texto más no más ... no hay como mucha
cultura de conocer más del país.... sino... que lo leen como:: como::: un texto más no
más ... como tipo de comprensión de lectura. (…) no hay como una mayor preocu-
pación de saber realmente y decir, ah, Escocia, en el libro de inglés decía que Esco-
cia no sé...” (6S, 7)183
Five teachers (2M, 5M, 11S, 15S, 18M) say that the students’ interest, and con-
sequently the teachers’ decision to use the “culture pages” in the books, depend
very much on the specific texts; one important factor is how contextualised these
contents are:
TQ112: “si está incluido en el contexto sí pero a veces los libros tienen.. esas uni-
dades culturales las tienen aparte.. fuera de todo el contexto que hacías en la unidad..
entonces generalmente .... cuando es así no las uso po porque me descontextualiza
todo...... (…) están hablando de deportes ... xx y después hablan de:: no sé po....
Glasgow.. y:: no están hablando del .... del equipo de fútbol sino que de la ciudad..
donde queda.... no tiene nada que ver po.... (…) ¿me entiendes?.. pero si está contex-
tualizado dentro de la unidad temática... sí lo uso obviamente....” (11S, 6)184

182 “(KG: How do you define the topics that interest you?) I define by material, basically
by the student’s interest; more my interest, that they are interesting for them, and that I
can make the most of them, for example lifestyles, or I adapt it; what materials I can
find on the internet; how to evaluate them; if I can do something fun, like the one with
the recipes, when they ended up cooking, something real fun and entertaining. (KG: So,
you use the book but you complement it with other things) I complement it, right, exact-
ly. The textbook is not my bible. And within each unit that I chose myself I leave out
things depending on the class’s characteristics. Because there are classes that depending
on their age are more playful and we can do the activity word-by-word, amen, and there
are other classes that hate an activity and I know the activity won’t work. So it depends,
it’s flexible.”
183 “The kids read it just like another text, no more. There is not much culture [=interest] of
getting to know more of the country, but they read it like another text, no more. Like a
reading comprehension. There is not a great concern about knowing really and saying,
oh, Scotland, in the English book it said Scotland, I don’t know…”
184 “If it’s included in the context, yes, but sometimes the books have these cultural units
apart, out of all the context that you were doing in the unit, so generally when that is the

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Four teachers (9S, 12M, 15S, 16P/S) report positive experiences with the cultur-
al contents presented in the textbooks; the teachers say, for example, that the
students are fairly motivated by these topics, and that they react with surprise to
this kind of information. In some cases, the positive student reactions could even
make up for the otherwise not too favourable teachers’ opinions about the text-
books:
TQ113: “esos temas son buenos.. esos temas son más entretenidos para las chiqui-
llas..” (9S, 10)185
When the teachers are given some liberties to complement the textbooks with
alternative material, or to replace them altogether, they choose, for example, dia-
logue work (probably because there is so little of it present in the textbooks),
taken from other textbooks such as the Interchange series (e.g. Richards et al.
2007) or software programmes (2M, 5M, 13M, 14M). Other teachers mention
vocabulary and grammar exercises. For more culturally charged material, five
teachers (3M, 6S, 9S, 11S, 12M) talk about their use of movies and videos;
some of them have watched complete movies with their students, others show
short clips and music videos from youtube, mainly in order to engage students,
or to complement a topic in a more entertaining way. While music is referred to
as a motivator by many teachers, only three (3M, 11S, 17S/A) of them talk more
explicitly about their use of song lyrics for teaching English. Several teachers
refer to alternative textbooks for interesting cultural material. Go for Chile is a
favourite here (5M, 7P, 16P/S, cf. chapter 6.4 and below). Another recommend-
ed textbook series is English in Mind by Herbert Puchta and Jeff Stranks (2010
in its most recent edition), described as a highly motivating textbook (7P). Final-
ly, six teachers (6S, 7P, 8P, 10S, 11S, 12M) refer to narrative and literary read-
ing material.186 This includes Easy Readers that were written specifically for
teaching English to teenagers, or complete and abridged versions of classics.

case I don’t use them because it de-contextualises everything. They are talking about
sports and then they talk about – I don’t know – Glasgow; and they aren’t talking about
the football team but about the city, where it is, it has nothing to do [with it], you see?
But if it is contextualised within the topic unit, then obviously I use it.”
185 “Those topics are good; those topics are more fun for the girls.”
186 Note that with the exception of one, all of these teachers work at private or state-
subsidised private schools, where the level of English can be expected to be far higher
than in public schools, making it possible for the students to access more extensive
reading passages.

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Cultural Contents: Countries
Now, the teachers’ experience with cultural contents used in class will be exam-
ined. To begin with, which countries do the materials that they use refer to? As
already mentioned above (cf. 9.3.1), it seems that in general terms, the Chilean
teachers view English as an international language, rather than one tied to a spe-
cific target culture.187 In this sense, the implications for culture teaching and
learning within the English as a Lingua Franca paradigm have to be considered.
Yet, in spite of the fact that in the interviews, many teachers highlight the global
character of the English language, when it comes to making references about
teaching materials on specific countries, they still give numerical preference to
the two “main” Anglophone countries: the USA (12 teachers) and England (10
teachers), closely followed by the Chilean home culture (9 teachers). It must
however be noted, as shown in 9.2, that some of the interviews deal with the
conflicts that these materials can cause with the students, especially concerning
the USA. Also, some of the textbooks are still very much rooted in their British
culture of origin, as corroborated by the analysis in chapter 6, in spite of their
title’s claim to be, for example, “Going Global”.
The reasons why teachers – in spite of their beliefs - tend to emphasise the
“typical” target language countries (USA and Great Britain) are manifold; one
of them can be the intrinsic, “logical” relationship that to them English still has
with those countries; here, expected lack of student motivation for other cultural
contents is also considered:
TQ114: “sí porque de repente si yo les digo::: ‘el matrimonio:: en China’.. ¿qué les
va a importar? (…) pero como es inglés... les enseño cosas de cultura de Estados
Unidos y de Gran Bretaña ... de los países de habla inglesa (…) de hecho les tengo
un ma:pa incluso... les cuento donde está .. y todo” (14M, 8)188
The knowledge about the origins of English, together with geographical termi-
nology for the different nations and territories, is also considered important by
the teachers to ensure that their students can understand why they are presented

187 This view is also shared by McKay’s findings, who collected questionnaire data on the
question “Which type of cultural content would you prefer to use in your class?”,
among others. A wide majority of teachers (about 60%) opted for the answer “Content
that deals with the life and culture of various countries around the world”. The other
two options – Chilean places and people, and aspects of US or British life and culture –
obtained an estimated 20% of answers each, with fairly equal distribution (2003:143).
188 “Yes, because if for example I tell them ‘weddings in China’, what interest will they
have? But as it’s English, I teach them things about the culture of the United States and
Great Britain, about the English-speaking countries. I even have a map for them, I tell
them where it is and all that”.

250
with certain concepts in the textbooks. Therefore, the teachers see the need to
spend class time on clarifying these concepts:
TQ115: “sí.. esa vez me acuerdo que era un texto que estaba relacionado con Aus-
tralia (…) y había otro texto que estaba relacionado con el Reino Unido… entonces
para las alumnas ‘Inglaterra Gran Bretaña Reino Unido es como chino’ entonces los
británicos los ingleses entonces por qué los británicos los ingleses Reino Unido...
entonces ..¡ya!... entonces lo más práctico .. un mapa ‘¿a qué se le llama Reino Uni-
do, a qué se le llama Gran Bretaña’.. eso qué se yo... entonces por lo menos ... se les
aclara el panorama y logran entender .. porque de repente no entienden... claro.. los
británicos... ¿qué tienen que ver los británicos con inglés?”189 (2M,8)
Paola, who in my sample was somehow an exception due to her positive attitude
towards the USA, alludes to the notion of Pan-Americanism, but also her per-
ception of student interests, when she talks about her own cultural preferences:
TQ116: “Estados Unidos:: [laughs] (…) me gusta mucho sí .. me gusta.. uno porque
está más cercano... de partida es mucho más fácil saber información de Estados Uni-
dos.. y aparte yo digo ‘somos america:nos chicos..’ o sea estamos en el mismo con-
tinente y por el hecho de que la juventud chilena está muy influenciado por el mode-
lo gringo...”190 (16P/S, 10/11)
On the other hand, some teachers give evidence of their “mission” to show stu-
dents that English cannot be equalled any longer with the USA and Britain ex-
clusively (e.g. 6S). Thus, four teachers talk about materials or teaching units on
Australia (6S, 8P, 16P/S, 15S), three each about New Zealand (8P, 9S, 15S) and
Canada (9S, 15S, 17S/A), two each about Ireland (7P, 10S) and Scotland (10S,
15S), and one about Jamaica (6S). What is more, the increasing emphasis on
“other” English-speaking countries of the Inner and Outer Circles in the text-
books seems to contribute positively to the students’ interest:
TQ117: “sí .. en general sí .. yo he descubierto por ejemplo Katharina últimamente
que.. ha habido digamos porque antes era.. si era un texto británico todo era más de
la cultura británica .. si era un texto americano era relacionado con cultura america-

189 “Yes, that time I remember there was a text related to Australia, and there was another
one related to the United Kingdom. So for the students ‘England, Great Britain, United
Kingdom, that’s like Chinese’ [i.e. incomprehensible], so the British, the English, so
why the British, the English, United Kingdom? So the most practical thing [was to
bring] a map: ‘What is called United Kingdom, what is called Great Britain?’ So like
that at least the panorama becomes clearer to them, and they manage to understand, be-
cause sometimes they don’t understand what the British have to do with English.”
190 “United States – I like it, because it’s nearer, it’s much easier to find information about
the United States, and apart from that, I say, ‘We are Americans, guys’, I mean, we are
on the same continent, and also, the Chilean youth is very much influenced by the
‘gringo’ model…”

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 na .. sin embargo ahora yo he visto que ha habido más trascendencia o sea ... ahora
por ejemplo tú a los chiquillos les cuentan cosas más de Canadá:: de Nueva Zelandia
de Austra::lia... te fijas no solamente de Estados Unidos e Inglaterra sino que más ..
el espectro digamos cultural .. se ha ampliado lo cual es súper interesante pa’ lo chi-
quillos.... me ha tocado por ahí readings ponte tú en segundo medio e: sobre la vida
en Nueva Zelandia ..en Canadá.. te fijas en países de.. digamos del Reino Uni::do no
solamente en Inglaterra sino por ejemplo en Escocia ..en Gales.. a entonces ... nom-
brándoles por ejemplo a artistas actores actrices que vienen de esos paí::ses.. enton-
ces eso les eso les engancha .... se enganchan inmediatamente con… con esos aspec-
tos culturales en que digamos la vida… pero es más variado ahora el rango… sí… sí
(KG: ¿y tú lo ves como que los alumnos... reaccionan positivamente a eso?) sí .. sí
porque digamos ellos ven digamos cultura .... (…) saber las capitales por ejemplo.. a
e:: saber e::: algunas cosas productos que:: las principales ciudades a eso yo creo que
sí.. sí.. eso como que engancha porque ellos lo ven como... como algo cultural que
les va a servir en algún momento en su vida .... sí sí eso sí enganchan.” (15S, 11)191
Teaching units and projects that include a closer look at the students’ and teach-
ers’ home culture are also an interesting option for several teachers (11S, 12M,
16P/S, 19M; cf. also McKay 2002, 2003). This includes, for example, the possi-
bility of studying local history in English in the context of tourism (19M), or an
internet campaign to include Easter Island on the list of the Wonders of the
World (11S). In this context, several teachers also make reference to Go for
Chile, among others Paola, with her concern about strengthening local identity
(see 9.3.1):
TQ118: “hubo (…) un texto que salió (…) hace como siete años atrás que era el Go
for Chile ... recibió críticas y todo pero ¿qué es lo bueno? ... que salían fotos del
Chino Ríos ... el Marcelo Salas .. no sé.. salían fotos de las Torres del Pa:ine el de-
sierto de Ataca:ma entonces los chiquillos se sentían súper identificados porque al
menos podían ‘¿Cómo digo desierto en ingles?’ a:::… desert... ‘¿Cómo se dice to-

191 “Yes, in general, yes. I have discovered for example in the past time that – before, if a
text was British it was all about British culture, if it was American it was related to
American culture. However, now, I have seen that there has been more transcendence, I
mean, for example, now they tell the kids more things about Canada, New Zealand,
Australia, not just the United States and England, but the cultural spectrum has wid-
ened, which is super interesting for the kids. I’ve come across readings for example in
Year 10 about life in New Zealand, in Canada, you see, countries of the United King-
dom, not just in England but for example in Scotland, in Wales, so mentioning for ex-
ample, artists, actors, actresses to them who come from those countries, that engages
them. They are immediately engaged with those cultural aspects… but now the range is
more varied. (KG: And so you see that the students react positively to that?) Yes, be-
cause they see culture, knowing the capitals for example, knowing some things, prod-
ucts, the main cities, I think that engages them because they see it as something that is
going to be of use to them at some moment in their lives. Yes, they do engage with it.”

252
 rre?’ (…)tower .. (…) los otros libros de la media muestran realidades también de
afuera ... pero como que olvidan la parte nuestra” 192 (16P/S, 8)
She is not the only one in showing enthusiasm about materials that refer specifi-
cally to Chilean contents:
TQ119: “A mí me invitaron la otra vez a una muestra de unos libros que eran de pri-
mero básico hasta cuarto creo (…) era basado en el Condorito (…) yo lo encontré
bastante bueno porque lo puede enseñar una persona que (…) casi ni sepa inglés eso
los chiquillos ... el Condorito les encanta, porque es super nacional, y con eso ellos
pueden aprender lo básico del inglés y llegar a quinto ya en mejores condiciones” 193
(1M, 5)
Then, there are a few teachers who refer to topics that could be labelled as
“global issues”, stating that they are generally not considered very motivating by
the students, such as environmental topics (1M), famine (18M), economy, or
history (15S):
TQ120: “un chiquillo no va a querer aprender de la hambruna en Etiopía.. ponte tú..
o sea porque.. si son temas que a lo mejor a nosotros como adultos nos resultan in-
teresantes.. pero no están en el ámbito de interés del cabro..” 194 (18M, 6)
TQ121: “un tema histórico... no los pescan o sea en inglés por ejemplo no les gusta
que uno digamos... o temas de economía esos temas un poco densos ... que no.. no..
no moti:van y... (…) no sé po la inflación y esos temas que son medios... medios
complicaditos... y pa los chiquillos en general no... no... no... no... no los motiva pa
ná po todo lo contrario..”195 (15S,6)

192 There was a textbook that came out about seven years ago, Go for Chile. It received
criticism and everything, but what was good about it? That it had photos of the Chino
Ríos, Marcelo Salas, I don’t know, there were photos of the Torres del Paine, of the
Atacama Desert, so the kids felt super identified because at least they could [ask] ‘How
do you say desierto in English?’ Oh, desert. ‘How do you say torre?’ Tower. The other
books for secondary level also show realities from outside, but like they forget our
part.”
193 “I was invited the other day to a book show, for books from Year 1 to Year 4. It was
based on the Condorito [a Chilean cartoon character, icon of national popular culture]. I
found it quite good because it can be taught by someone who hardly knows any English,
and the kids, they love the Condorito, because it is super national, and with this they can
learn the basics of English and are better prepared in Year 5.”
194 “A kid won’t want to learn about famine in Ethiopia, for example, I mean, those might
be topics that we as adults find interesting, but they aren’t in the area of interest of the
kid…”
195 “A historical topic – they don’t react to it, I mean, in English for example, they don’t
like it, or economic topics, those topics that are a bit dense, no, they don’t motivate, and
(…) I don’t know, like inflation and those topics that are a bit complicated, for the kids
they aren’t motivating, not at all, on the contrary..”

253
However, it must be emphasised that not all teachers share this experience or
point of view. There are others who believe that those topics that have to do with
“general interest”, or “general culture” are well accepted by the students (cf.
9.2).
Finally, there are also some teachers whose stated preferences point at a
“teaching English without a culture” approach. For example, 18M explains that
she uses a more linguistically oriented approach: although she treats socio-
linguistic topics like slang in class, based on an analysis of her students’ inter-
ests, she prefers to avoid an explicit link to specific cultural entities. Another
teacher, who has an additional qualification in teaching orientación (which is
comparable to the school subject PSHE - Personal, Social and Health Education
- taught in British comprehensive schools), proposes the use of contents that
centre around the psychological needs of the individual student, which places
her choices close to humanistic approaches to teaching languages. She found
samples of personality tests on the internet, with positive results for her stu-
dents’ motivation:
TQ122: “en algún momento dije ... sería re bueno... poner digamos la parte de orien-
tación:: llevarla al inglés... o sea... digamos... es otra carrera que estudié que nunca
he ejercido porque siempre me he dedicado:: .. a ser profesora de inglés .. pero por
ejemplo cuando uno le hace a los chiquillos test de personalidad (…) como para que
se conozcan a sí mi:smos .. para que puedan descubrir digamos su... sus potencia:les
y (…) descubrir para donde ellos quieren... quieren (…) llegar en la vida ... e::: de
repente cuando uno les hace tests de personalidad los chiquillos se motivan bastan-
te..” (15S, 5)196
Conspicuously absent are explicit references to postcolonial contents. One
teacher (5M) talks very briefly about Nelson Mandela’s biography (in Global
English), another one refers to her students having researched Mahatma Gan-
dhi’s life (12M). However, there is no indication that teachers have drawn con-
scious parallels between Chile’s situation and other postcolonial experiences
throughout the world. Likewise, Latin American contents appear only in one
interview (11S); the brevity of the reference does not allow detecting whether
there is more to it than a touristic view of some important monuments (such as
the Machu Picchu in Peru). However, this is also the only interview in which a

196 “At some moment I said: It would be really good if we took orientación to English, I
mean, it’s something else that I studied for and I never worked in it because I’ve always
worked as an English teacher. But for example when one does personality tests with the
kids so that they get to know themselves, so they can discover their potentials and dis-
cover what they want to achieve in life, when one applies these personality tests the kids
get fairly motivated.”

254
teacher talks about having researched Mapuche culture with her students (cf.
below, 10.4).

Cultural Contents: Aspects of culture(s)

Thus, with the given sources - former and present government textbooks, alter-
native textbooks, movies, songs, and narratives – what aspects of culture or cul-
tures do the teachers cover in their lessons? For classifying the various refer-
ences that teachers make in the interviews, I will use the five dimensions of cul-
ture here that Moran (2001: 24f.) proposes in his introduction to teaching cul-
ture: products, practices, perspectives, communities and persons – considering
the necessary overlaps of these categories.
Starting with the largest category, cultural products (including art forms, in-
stitutions, places, and artefacts, ibid.: 49f.), there are thirteen teachers who make
more or less detailed references to their experiences of using them. They range
from symbols for national states (such as flags, coins, or traditional clothes: 1M,
4M, 10S) and architectural monuments (7P, 10S, 11S, 16P/S), to songs (6S, 9S,
11S, 16P/S, 17S/A), the media / TV (14M, 15S, 17S/A), movies (3M, 6S, 9S,
11S, 12M) and literature – folk tales, history re-told, narrative and poetry (3M,
6S, 7P, 8P, 10S, 11S, 12M). Whenever more details were given in the inter-
views, most of the products mentioned in this category are originally from the
USA or from Britain, although there are a few exceptions.
There are important differences in the students’ acceptance of these aspects.
For example, dealing with the more factual, symbolic information about nation
states in class is often not well received. One teacher talks about a complete
failure of trying to include this kind of cultural information in her lessons:
TQ123: “yo me acuerdo que en un tiempo que estuve haciendo séptimo y octavo.. y
en séptimo hacía una carpeta así de Inglaterra y Estados Unidos… así que me pusie-
ran lo más básico.. la bandera.. la moneda.. la capital.. los estados en Estados Uni-
dos.. con e:: los mapas.. o sea cosas bien elementales.. y... no tenían gran interés.. no
tenían mayor entusiasmo po: .. entonces de repente que era una lata para ellos y las
notas no eran buenas ... y hacía eso como dices tú como para que conocieran algo
más y empezar a sacarse malas notas porque uno.. no lo hacían” (1M, 5)197

197 “I remember that for some time I was teaching in Year 7 and 8, and in Year 7 I made a
folder about England and the United States. So they had to put the most basic things, the
flag, the currency, the capital, the states of the United States, with maps, that is, very el-
ementary things. And they did not have great interest. They did not have great enthusi-
asm. So in the end it was a nuisance for them and the grades were not good. And I did
that as you’re saying so they got to know something else and they began getting poor
grades because they did not do it.”

255
Similarly negative experiences are reported in interview 4M. Along the same
lines, there are other teachers who state that talking about the symbolic monu-
ments of a country is not really teaching culture – rather, it could be described as
touristic sight-seeing:
TQ124: “the tourist comes and sees the churches or sees the building and he takes
the picture and he didn’t get to know the culture…. and if I can talk about maybe
New York … there’s the Statue of Liberty and in Washington there’s the White
House… I don’t think that is culture… I think culture is what do the people do … on
a day-to-day basis” (7P, 12).
On the other hand, those cultural products that imply a more holistic learning
experience – especially listening to songs and watching movies – are among the
most frequently mentioned motivators. Most teachers put this down to the pres-
ence of these genres in students’ everyday life. Whereas songs seem to be most-
ly used for the purpose of engaging or entertaining students, with the teachers
giving few detailed accounts of the exploitation of the song lyrics (except
17S/A, see 10.4), movies are seen as a pedagogical tool to integrate language
learning with other, cross-curricular objectives:
TQ125: “tratamos que sea::: algo que les deje algún mensaje obviamente… no cual-
quier película (…) por ejemplo una que vi este año justamente fue de::: The Ultimate
Gift (…) es una película preciosa.. si tienes la oportunidad de verla.. ve:la.. trata de
los valores.. de la vida.. preciosa… (…) el valor a la familia.. el valor al dinero.. el
valor al trabajo.. el valor… o sea.. es una película para que la vea cualquier adoles-
cente…” 198 (9S, 9/10)
Few teachers give great importance to literature in English teaching. The main
reason for this is most likely to be the students’ level of English: it seems that
there are only a handful of teachers whose students can read well enough to be
able to face a more extensive piece of reading. Other teachers mention their own
lack of interest in reading literary works in English (6S, 13M). Those teachers
who do find literature an important topic all talk about the great need to make it
relevant and attractive for their students, especially those who are still working
on a very basic level. For example, Gabriela (11S) and Tania (12M) centre on
the “universals” of literary production and move from there to literature written
in the English language (cf. below, 10.4). One of them links up with the Spanish
teacher to develop joint units on literary topics (12M). The same teachers also

198 “We try [to find] something that leaves them with some message, obviously, not just
any movie. For example, there is one that I saw just this last year, it was The Ultimate
Gift, it is a beautiful movie, if you have an opportunity to see it, go and watch it, it is
about the values of life, beautiful (…): the value of family, of money, of work … I
mean, it is a movie that every young person should see.”

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turn to movies and songs as a more accessible way of presenting literary texts
and topics to their students (for example, through Shakespeare in Love or Jane
Austen’s Sense and Sensibility). In another case, a private school teacher, who
places great emphasis on literature, reports about more advanced uses of litera-
ture. Her students read, for example, complete or abridged versions of classics
like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (8P). Here, the literary work is used as a
basis for further exploration, e.g. of the historical background, or for cultural
comparisons with current issues in contemporary Chile.
Finally, the Media (especially TV) are one type of cultural products about
whose negative impact some teachers (14M, 15S, 17S/A) see the need to edu-
cate their students – especially concerning the amount of violence and other stu-
pefying contents.
Cultural Practices (acts, operations, scenarios, and lives – cf. Moran op.cit.:
58) are another important aspect of cultures. Nine teachers talk about them in
more or less detail, how they discuss and explain cultural practices to their stu-
dents - mainly in reference to English-speaking countries, but also sometimes
with a world-wide scope (7P, 8P, 9S, 11S, 14M, 15S, 16P/S, 17S/A, 18M). On
some occasions, this is done using a comparative approach. They mention topics
like food (e.g. comparing Chilean and English / US-American breakfasts, 16P/S;
also 17S/A), celebrations (7P, 9S, and especially Halloween, 11S, 16P/S,
17S/A), greetings (14M, 18M), punctuality and efficiency (16P/S). Especially
those teachers who have had experiences abroad, or who have had personal con-
tact with foreigners (7P, 9S, 11S, 14M, 17S/A), enjoy telling their students
about these aspects from a personal, experiential point of view. Another topic
that might fall under this heading is sports; it is referred to by several teachers as
an especially motivating topic, but more in terms of a global matter of interest,
not necessarily as an issue with cultural or intercultural references (7P, 9S, 11S,
15S).
Still, it must be noted that one of the objectives of teaching about cultural
practices – interculturally appropriate linguistic and extra-linguistic behaviour –
is not seen as a priority by most Chilean English teachers. This is mainly due to
the fact that travelling abroad, especially to English-speaking countries, is eco-
nomically speaking out of reach, and therefore also out of imaginative scope, for
most students. Real face-to-face interactions with foreigners are rare, even for
the teachers themselves (cf. also 9.3.1 on intercultural education).
Thirteen teachers (2M, 4M, 5M, 7P, 9S, 10S, 11S, 12M, 14M, 15S, 16P/S,
17S/A, 18M) talk about what could be roughly referred to as Cultural Perspec-
tives (perceptions, beliefs, values, and attitudes, cf. Moran op.cit.: 74ff.). In
terms of categorisation, this might be a bit problematic, as Moran takes a syn-
chronic viewpoint, whereas several of the teachers refer to historical issues; I

257
include them here, as it is historical events and processes that have shaped the
perspectives of cultural communities; not all the teachers establish this link ex-
plicitly, however. Also, overlaps with cultural practices, communities and per-
sons are inevitable. The category includes teachers’ comments about materials
and class discussions on multiculturalism (7P, 14M, 17S/A), geography, history
and politics (2M, 9S, 10S, 11S, 12M, 15S, 16P/S), environmental issues (1M,
5M, 9S, 17S/A), gender issues (4M), and linguistic features expressing certain
cultural perspectives (such as identity, or formality / informality: 14M, 15S,
18M). These cultural aspects are especially important when it comes to counter-
ing an overly negative view of the United States, as the following quote shows:
TQ126: “ya me recuerdo muy bien de esa.. unidad.. que aparecía en el libro y que:::
que Estados Unidos era uno de los pocos países que no había firmado el tratado [of
Kyoto about global warming]…. entonces dijeron.. ‘pero por qué profe’.. enton-
ces… ahí uno de una manera u otra tiene que tener.. la conversación… (…) así co-
mo que.. ‘no teníamos idea de que Estados Unidos tenía esa parada’.. me entien-
des…. tampoco la idea es generar un anticuerpo hacia los gringos.. (…) no es la idea
pero (…)… es lo que aparecía en el libro (…) …. entonces aparecían como “uy.. los
malos de la película”.. entonces.. claro.. hay que explicarles a ellas las chiquillas que
no es Estados Unidos como cultura.. como país.. no es así… ya.. yo les enseño por
ejemplo los xxx los pilgrims…que esa me parece fantástica… todo lo que son los
derechos e::: civiles que tienen los gringos muy buenos… que no nos encasillemos
con uno.. dos o tres personajes mala onda que tienen ellos.. o sea eso no es Estados
Unidos… me entiendes.. entonces de esa manera.. pero::: también.. mostrarles otras
culturas.. de todas maneras a través del inglés.. o sea no solamente la… (KG: y tú
¿(…) generalmente frente a esos temas como tú mencionaste los pilgrims y esas co-
sas.. e:: enganchan con eso o:: o cuesta?) sí… enganchan fíjate.. porque a las chiqui-
llas les gusta lo que es cultura general.. ellas se dan cuenta que como.. “ah.. esto es
cultura general y shh.. quédense calladas así como que la profe va a contar una his-
toria”199 (9S, 11)

199 “I remember well that unit that appeared in the book and that the United States were one
of the few countries that had not signed the treaty [of Kyoto about global warming] …
so they said ‘but why, teacher?’ so there, one way or other, one needs to have a conver-
sation, like ‘we didn’t know that the United States had that stance’ you see. And it can’t
be the idea to create anti-bodies against the gringos either. It’s not the idea but … that’s
what appeared in the book (…) so they said like ‘ooh, the villains of the movie’ so, of
course, we have to explain to the girls that it’s not the United State as a culture, as a
country, it’s not like that, right. I teach them for example about the pilgrims [fathers] …
that it fantastic for me, everything that has to do with Civil Rights that the gringos have,
all that is very good. So we shouldn’t get stuck with one, two or three ‘bad guys’ that
they have, I mean, that is not the United States, you see. So like that, but also show
them other cultures, anyway, through English, I mean, not just… (KG: and facing these
topics like the ones you mentioned, the pilgrims and those things, can they engage with

258
Cultural communities are another one of Moran’s classification of cultural as-
pects (op. cit.: 90ff.). This refers mainly to communities below the national cul-
ture level. The comments that teachers make on this aspect include references to
multiculturalism (7P, 14M, 17S/A) and to the teenage world (5M, 9S, 10S, 14M,
18M). Those who are able to talk in a fairly differentiated way about multicul-
turalism are two teachers who have lived for many years in English-speaking
countries. For example, here is an account of a native speaker teacher who refers
to the differences between cultural practices in diverse American communities;
he is also making a statement of how much personal experience influences the
way in which a teacher can talk about culture in general:
TQ127: “I can talk about you know… the fourth of July does xxxx …. this is how
we do it….but we’re just…. an I’m African American and this is how …. we did it
in my family …. and culture is really specific to …. to the heritage of the family
cause I can imagine uh a fourth of July party at a Latino home or a German home
would be maybe be a different type of celebration although we’re all celebrating the
fourth of July… maybe everyone’s not eating hot dogs and apple pie… there’s dif-
ferences… no I think that’s the issue… for me culture is personalised.” (7P, 12)
On the other hand, teenagers as a cultural community are often treated as a glob-
al subculture. Teachers highlight the commonalities between teenagers growing
up in different countries, especially their common interests, like music, movies,
fashion, diets, or drugs.
Finally, there are cultural persons; Moran describes them mainly in terms of
personal identities and life histories (op.cit.: 98ff.). For foreign language-and-
culture teaching, a favourite approach is to study the biographies of the “heroes”
of a target culture, as they help to bring the other culture closer, and can be used
as ways “to reveal the culture in the individual, and vice versa” (ibid.: 103).
Several teachers highlight the motivating potential that biographies of famous
actors and singers have for the students (9S, 15S, 16P/S). However, not neces-
sarily do these famous people have to be in immediate closeness to the teenage
world: one teacher (12M) names a whole list of “heroes” whose biographies she
has used for teaching English – and implicitly illustrates her approach of teach-
ing global English: they belong to an English-speaking ethnic minority, to Chile,
and (post)colonial India, and in their “heroism” transcend national boundaries -
Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Nicanor Parra, Sor Teresa de los Andes, Moth-
er Teresa, and Gandhi.

it, or do they find it difficult?) yes, they do, in fact, because the girls like general cul-
ture; they realise that ‘oh, this is general culture, shh, be quiet because the teacher is go-
ing to tell a story.”

259
 Apart from this more general overview of the teachers’ choices in content
selection, I will analyse the most innovative and creative approaches towards
culture teaching in 10.4.

9.3.3 Analysis
In the following section, I would like to explore some of the relationships be-
tween the teachers’ personal identities, their cultural-ethnic identities, and their
choices in terms of cultural contents and approaches to English language teach-
ing. I will attempt to balance, in these reflections, the focus on the individual
stories of some of the teachers with a wider, overall picture that considers recent
developments in Chilean society and, more specifically, within the professional
group of (becoming) English teachers.
The teachers’ personal stories of experience with (cultural) “otherness” are
important in that their reflections and beliefs based on their experience will have
a certain impact on how they deal with related topics in class. This is not without
significance as in many cases, students’ most significant “guided” encounter
with cultural otherness at school occurs in their English lessons. Visualising
English teaching as a potentially transformative practice (cf. Pennycook 2001,
Norton & Toohey 2004), it is worth digging deeper into the teachers’ cognitions,
which guide their content selection and their approaches towards the teaching of
culture, values and other cross-curricular objectives through English. Also, as
stated already in 9.1.3, recommendations for the choice of cultural contents can
only be given after considering the “ecological” context of English teaching
here, of which the teachers’ personal stories, experiences and belief systems
form part.
First of all, the teacher interviews give an account of a society that has un-
dergone significant changes over the past few years. Apart from the increasing
contact with foreigners through trade and tourism, it is especially immigration
from neighbouring countries which poses new demands on educators in order to
challenge racist attitudes, and instead, foster tolerance (e.g. 14M, 18M). On the
other hand, the concern about a class-conscious society prevails, and in terms of
the treatment of otherness, several teachers see it as their foremost task to break
down mental class barriers (e.g. 8P, 18M). In any case, whether interculturality
is seen to occur between different nationalities, ethnicities or social classes, this
perspective is sign of a pluralistic stance that has its deserved place in a demo-
cratic, post-dictatorship society.
On the other hand, it is important to remember that the more mature of the
interviewed teachers were socialised into, and trained within, a politically re-

260
pressive climate (cf. Gysling 2003: 214ff.). One result of this is that (still now) a
substantial number of English teachers view the foreign language primarily as a
linguistic system (as opposed to, for example, the vision of language as culture
and / or ideology, cf. Tudor 2001) and interpret their job as the fairly technical
transmission of English language knowledge, with its importance as a commu-
nicational instrument of the future in mind. Culture- and content-related consid-
erations play a minor role in many teachers’ belief systems (see also above,
9.1.2). At the same time, in the political system of past years, school education
played a major role in constructing the image of a homogenous Chilean cultural
identity. As Rubio (2009) points out, school curricula in Chile have played their
part in negating (or minimising the importance of) the presence of a variety of
ethnic groups, and in making social class and political differences invisible.
What he criticises especially is that this supposedly “uniform” Chilean culture is
constructed on the basis of European standards (276). Some of the results of this
education and ways of interpreting Chilean reality can be found in the teacher
interviews: the presence of a greater diversity of ethnicities in Chile is consid-
ered a novelty of recent years (e.g. 18M); references to indigenous cultures are
nearly nonexistent; what is more, a few teachers seem to display a fairly nega-
tive vision of their own (and their students’) culture, putting it into stark contrast
with supposedly more desirable cultural traits associated with English-speaking
cultures, such as politeness, punctuality and time-efficiency (e.g. 5M, to some
degree also 8P and 16P/S). According to Rubio, whose article appeared as re-
cently as 2009, these culturally homogenising and alienating tendencies in Chil-
ean school curricula, teaching practices and teacher training still need to be chal-
lenged, especially if education is to contribute to opening spaces for the discus-
sion of alternative visions of the country’s identity, history and future (cf. also
Núñez 2003).
However, it is not to be questioned that hegemonic forces are at play that
need to be examined, especially in terms of the relationship between Chilean
cultural identity and modernity (as “embodied” by English-speaking countries,
especially the USA). As described in chapter 2.1.3, modernity can be analysed
as consisting of two parts: control over nature and things, on one hand, and indi-
vidual and / or collective autonomy, on the other (Larraín 2005). Considering
that the teachers are in charge of teaching the students English, nowadays an
unquestioned element of modernising processes around the world, in some of
the interviews the various degrees can be seen to which their mission of the
transmission of linguistic knowledge is also related to “modernising the stu-
dents’ minds”, especially through the use of cultural references. In fact, the ref-
erences to supposed “virtues” such as punctuality and efficiency refer to person-
al self-control, i.e. control over one’s own “nature”, which might prefer to take

261
time for people or for certain “non-productive” activities in a different way.
Apart from Paola, who humorously explains how some Chileans react with ac-
cusations of “hysteria” or “pedanticness” to people who according to them are
“obsessed” with punctuality, there are no other teachers who make an attempt to
critically discuss this point in their interviews. Autonomy, as mentioned in chap-
ter 2, is the other aspect of modernity, the one that seems to be rather neglected
by today’s neo-liberal societies. However, there are also some examples of the
didactic use of potentially (collective!) autonomy-fostering references to US his-
tory, for example when Janet (9S) says that she likes to talk about the Civil
Rights movement in class (see TQ126). Herself being fairly critical of the USA,
but at the same time aiming to present a balanced picture of the country to her
students, she insists on the importance of including this topic into her teaching,
as an aspect of US culture that she finds “very good”.
In these ways, it can be seen that “modernising” tendencies in English teach-
ing can point, on one hand, to the uncritical hegemonic transmission of some
cultural traits of Northern countries in attempts to refine “uncivilised” (e.g. un-
punctual) students’ manners. On the other hand, some teachers see it as their
(unstated) mission to select those cultural references that could help students to
draw parallels between their situation of restricted autonomy (e.g. discrimination
or a lack of possibilities to effectively participate and shape the destiny of a
democratic society) and other cultural groups who have started to overcome this
situation. How these different options might impact on student motivation will
be examined below, in chapter 10.4.
Apart from the socio-historical influences on teacher cognitions, there is an-
other crucial aspect that is more closely related to the personal biographies of
the teachers: Whereas in most European language teacher training, the “live
abroad” experience has come to be seen as a “conditio sine qua non” (Butz-
kamm 2007: 8) – a necessary, indispensable part of becoming a language pro-
fessional -, here in Chile it is clearly the exception. Most of the teachers who
participated in this research study have no extensive experience of language-
and-culture immersion in English-speaking countries. Although in recent years,
ELT students (both undergraduate and graduate) have enjoyed greater participa-
tion in university exchange programmes and scholarships for study abroad
schemes, these continue to be a minority. However, the different degrees of cul-
tural awareness and reflectivity on meaningful and motivating cultural contents
that the teachers display in their interviews are not necessarily in direct relation
with the length of their stays abroad. It is true that for Verónica (17S/A), who
lived in Canada for ten years, her experience of migration and past immersion
into a multi-cultural society forms the centrepiece of her identity as an English
teacher. There are few parts of the interview with no direct relation to this expe-

262
rience. Likewise, John’s (7P) ability to explain US-American culture clearly re-
flects his own background as a native speaker belonging to an ethnic minority.
These two special cases notwithstanding, there are significant differences in the
remaining teachers’ cultural reflectivity and awareness, where some might be
closer to their colleagues who did live abroad than to some others who, like
themselves, did not have this opportunity.
The degree to which the teachers come up with creative and motivational
ways to integrate cultural content into their lessons is certainly not only condi-
tioned by the period in which they were trained or by their own cultural aware-
ness and interest. Other factors, such as the availability of audiovisual resources
for their lessons, or the way in which general motivation and discipline issues
are handled at whole school level will certainly have their impact, too. In the
following, I will give a few examples of (reportedly) more or less successful ap-
proaches to culture teaching in terms of student motivation, and then draw some
conclusions.
Soledad (1M), for example, describes her teaching situation as fairly frus-
trating. She is one of the more mature teachers who realises that the approach to
culture teaching that she used to use in earlier years, focusing on national sym-
bols (flags, coins, etc.) and geography does no longer have the motivating effect
that she experienced at the beginning of her teaching career. On the other hand,
she believes that using cultural symbols belonging to the students’ own culture,
such as the comic character Condorito, could help to engage students due to its
closeness to their own experience. The only other motivator that she mentions is
music.
Hortensia (5M) also belongs to the group of teachers who report having a
very hard time motivating their students. She, too, can look back on a long
teaching career and is now at her wit’s end as discipline issues have become
overwhelming. To her, the English-speaking cultures serve as a cultural model
that she uses in order to try and educate her students in politeness and respect
(see TQ94 in 9.3.2 and comments on modernity above). Beyond this, she relies
mainly on textbook contents, which, however, she finds, are difficult for her stu-
dents to relate to, as they lack the necessary background knowledge to quickly
access cultural references. This might further exacerbate the motivation prob-
lem.
Carmen and Anita (18M, 19M) are also two more experienced teachers.
They both work at the same publically funded school (with a more academic
profile than the previous ones, however). Their approach is mainly language-
and-topic oriented, where English acts as an international language, detached
from specific English-speaking cultures. In this vein, they suggest, for example,
project work on local tourism, where students get to explain their own culture in

263
English (“source culture contents”, Cortazzi & Jin 1999: 204ff.), to be mixed
with issues concerning music, slang and the world of work. They also mention
culturally different customs, without, however, going into detail about the origin
of these cultural practices, if they belong to English-speaking countries or cul-
tures around the world. The development of tolerance in an increasingly hetero-
geneous society is another priority for them. In their own judgement, their ap-
proach works well for the school in which they work, partly because it helps
them to avoid ideological clashes between their critical students and unnecessary
references to US culture, partly because they find it compatible with their own
linguistic interests and priorities.
Pamela (14M) is on the other end of the experience scale, as she has only re-
cently graduated from university. Since the circumstances at her school seem to
be fairly similar to those of Soledad’s and Hortensia’s, a generational contrast
becomes visible. It is clear that, with the given behaviour and motivation prob-
lems, she has enormous difficulties implementing a viable English teaching
methodology into her classroom. However, concerning the cultural contents of
her lessons (which are apparently dealt with in Spanish), her approach clearly
points at her desire to reach an interesting, while complex and balanced presen-
tation of foreign cultures. Without having first-hand cultural experience with
English-speaking cultures, she uses personal contacts and the media as infor-
mation sources. For example, Pamela reports using “The Simpsons” in order to
motivate her students to use the language: thus, she combines the presentation of
a cultural icon of the USA (fraught with comically self-critical cultural refer-
ences) with the need to bring English closer to the students. She also refers to
the way in which she tries to widen her students’ horizons by telling them about
various cultural topics, such as culturally different ways of greeting or problems
on the border between Mexico and the USA. In addition, the presence of a mi-
nority of Peruvian students in her school challenges the teachers to actively deal
with intolerance and racism issues.
Access to foreign cultures through the media also plays an important role for
other teachers, like Tania (12M), Janet (9S), and Gabriela (11S). They all talk
about their motivating use of movies in the lessons. Janet is most explicit about
the fact that the ensuing class discussion is done in Spanish; the other teachers
do not refer to this point. What they do highlight is that the movies serve as a
motivating starting point for developing certain linguistic and pedagogical ob-
jectives with their students: Tania has the students describe the characters’ phys-
ical and psychological characteristics, and emphasises the need to get her stu-
dents to think; Janet uses the movies as listening comprehension tasks and looks
for movies that offer the students a (moral) message; for Gabriela’s students,

264
they serve as a basis for cultural comparisons, especially between closer and
more distant cultures (see also 10.4).
Another “mediated” way of bringing the students in contact with foreign
cultures is the e-pal exchange that Emilia (10S) has arranged for her students.
Rather than issues of intercultural misunderstandings, her main concern in this
context is internet safety: her need to avoid unplanned internet encounters be-
tween her students and malevolent strangers. Her account is one of surprised
reactions (both her own and her students’) to cultural differences that arose
spontaneously in these e-pal exchanges, for example with Arabic countries,
which points at successful affective engagement on the students’ part.
Janet (9S), finally, brings groups of foreign students into the classroom in
order to get her students into contact with cultures. She seems to display great
reflectivity about the need to prepare her students for this (maybe because of the
impacting eye-to-eye contact) with empathy and intercultural understanding, as
reflected in her references to a different sense of humour in the use of nicknames
in Chile and the USA. Although Janet at her school has not experienced the
huge motivation problems that other teachers report, her students seem to espe-
cially enjoy the opportunity of having this personal contact with students from
the USA.
I could give examples of a few other teachers, who, depending on their
school context, talk about their inclusion of cultural topics into the classroom.
Some of their approaches will be discussed in 10.4. Here, for the sake of time
and space, I would like to concentrate on summarising a few problems and op-
portunities that can be detected in this analysis and the previous summary, in
order to be able to give pertinent recommendations in part IV (the final conclu-
sion).

Detected Problems
1) Integration of Language-and-Culture teaching: with the exception of private
schools, where English is introduced earlier into the school curriculum, and
where, therefore, complex vocabulary and structures are at hand for produc-
tive discussions by the time students enter secondary school, the way in
which teachers describe their inclusion of cultural contents into English les-
sons seems to suggest that there are difficulties in dealing with these contents
effectively in the target language. Some teachers, especially the younger
ones, appear very eager to use the English lessons to help the students broad-
en their horizons and to reflect on foreign cultures. However, they might need
support in finding effective strategies to combine culture and language teach-
ing, rather than dealing with the two as separate entities, and discussing more
complex cultural topics only in Spanish.

265
2) “Scaffolding” cultural content: as some of the teachers rely a lot on the cul-
tural contents presented in the textbook, they sometimes report struggling
with the need to affectively and cognitively engage students with the given
reading and listening texts. This seems especially pressing when the teachers
feel that the people or topics portrayed in the books should already be known
to the students (as part of their “universal cultural education”), but turn out to
be new due to students’ lacking previous knowledge. In those instances,
teachers might benefit from having scaffolding techniques at their disposition
that will allow them to build both linguistic and cultural knowledge with the
students that, in turn, will help them to enjoy the comprehension of new, pos-
sibly culturally distant contents.
3) World Culture contents: With the increasing – and generally welcome - ten-
dency to include cultural contents from around the world, following the logic
of English as a Lingua Franca, or World Englishes approaches, for teachers
it is becoming more and more difficult to be prepared to help students to ap-
propriately understand the wealth of differing cultural practices and perspec-
tives. I especially see a danger in overly exoticising ways of dealing with the-
se issues, rather than consciously aiming at fostering intercultural understand-
ing.
4) Hegemonic ways of presenting cultures: in the analysis of some of the inter-
views, it could be seen that if teachers tend to (one-dimensionally) present
English-speaking cultures as models to be followed so that their students can
“learn from these” to “overcome” some supposed cultural “deficiency”, this
will just lead to alienation and is not beneficial for raising motivation levels
in their students. Along the same lines, overly simplified, static and stereo-
typical cultural presentations (whether they are of English-speaking or other
cultures) do not seem to have much of a motivating effect on students. In ad-
dition to the motivation concern, there are obvious pedagogical issues at-
tached to these approaches, such as teacher-student relationship problems,
cognitively and affectively impoverished teaching contents (cf. Gysling
2003: 214), and cultural estrangement from the students’ own heritage.
5) Cultural distance dilemma: in several interviews, the teachers expressed con-
cern about the need, on one hand, to engage their students through the use of
references to known content to which the students can easily relate, and on
the other hand, the requirement, for example by textbooks, to eventually pre-
sent “foreign” or “alien” contents to the students. Some teachers see the solu-
tion in teaching English through source culture contents (cf. McKay 2002,
Cortazzi & Jin 1999). This approach is, in principle, acceptable, in order to
reach the linguistic objectives of the school subject, and would also be sup-
ported by the National Curricular Framework, which is more explicit about

266
 the need to strengthen national identity than about intercultural learning ob-
jectives (cf. MINEDUC 2009: 23). However, the data collected for this re-
search investigation are sufficient to support the idea that on the whole, the
more motivating approach for Chilean teenagers is the inclusion of foreign
culture content, at least in addition to source culture contents. The solution,
therefore, must be in viable ways of dealing with foreign cultures, not in their
omission.

Possible solutions and opportunities

1) Closeness of “foreign” cultural experiences through the media: most teachers
who report relatively high motivation levels emphasise their use of audiovis-
ual resources (videos and movies) in order to engage their students and pre-
sent cultural material. The strength of this approach seems to lie in the fact
that most youngsters can relate to these media and can therefore overcome
the cultural distance more easily. Furthermore, they are already accustomed
to accessing foreign (especially English-speaking) cultures in this way: TV
series, movies and music videos are among the central pathways of English-
speaking culture importation. In any case, younger teachers seem to be more
at ease with this than the more mature ones. For more on this point, see chap-
ter 10.3 on technology in EFL.
2) Source culture content: although I mentioned the recurrence to source culture
content as a problem above, it is clear that there is also a great motivational
opportunity in it: students seem to find it easier to develop a communicative
“need” to express themselves about their own reality. The importance is in
relating it to useful other-culture material. This is especially the case if it
leads to a deeper reflection of what cultural identity means in certain con-
texts, and if the way in which cultural comparisons and contrasts are dealt
with helps students develop empathy. In addition, a possible strength of this
approach is that it has the potential to challenge culturally hegemonic views
and that it might empower students by encouraging them to value their own
viewpoint, as proposed by Paola (see above TQs 77, 78, 98 and 99, in the
section on intercultural education). The danger is the thinness of the line be-
tween empowerment and cultural chauvinism, or hostility against other cul-
tures.
3) It is also worth mentioning here again the approach proposed by Cecilia
(15S), who has noticed the motivational impact of contents that help students
in their personal development, such as personality tests (see above, 9.3.2.2, in
the section on countries). However, this approach has its limits in that it
might lead to culture-less English teaching. It would be interesting, however,

267
 to explore how the use of this “humanistic” material can be combined with
stimulating cultural and intercultural education.
In chapter 10, several of these issues, like the use of audiovisual media, the im-
pact of teacher action on student motivation, and empowering contents, will be
explored in greater depth.

9.3.4 Conclusion
In relation to my initial hypotheses, what I can confirm is that in very general
terms, contents specifically used to develop cultural awareness play a compara-
tively minor role in Chilean English classrooms, although among the teachers
there is a wide spread of different perspectives and practices. Also, my personal
experience that “the right kind” of cultural contents worked as student motiva-
tors was corroborated by the fact that those teachers who reported higher levels
of student motivation also seem to give greater importance to cultural issues.
Clearly, there are some cultural topics that are better received than others. In
part, the country of origin bears some significance. What called my attention is
that teachers tend to be more interested in Britain and more critical of the USA,
whereas the students seem to be more motivated by North American topics, and
also by Australia and New Zealand. Britain does not seem to be especially inter-
esting to youngsters here. Postcolonial topics do not appear (or, at most, through
the presence of famous people like Mahatma Gandhi), probably because the
teachers have not been in contact with didactic proposals that include them. 200
In terms of aspects of foreign cultures, more than the topic itself, it seems to
be mainly the medium – audiovisual forms of presentation – that turns a topic
more motivating and accessible to the students. On the other hand, most teachers
seem also to be fairly clear about some topics that do not have power to moti-
vate students, such as national symbols: flags, coins, architectonic monuments;
whereas “human interest” stories, love tales, anecdotes about famous people,

200 In contrast, there is a substantial number of German ELT materials that deal with post-
colonial nations and issues in great depth; for example, on India: Nadolny & Mukherjee
2007, Banerjee & Stadler 2010, Strohn & Rauschelbach 2010. It might be a symptom of
the postcolonial world that European teenagers are educated in quite a lot of detail about
Third-world countries (cf. Said 1978/2003), whereas teenagers growing up in the
Southern hemisphere are prompted to either look North or at their own “homogeneous”
national identity. Education for empowerment, on the contrary, would strive to make
young people see connections between the different postcolonial experiences (cf. Young
2001: 427f.).

268
and (depending on the teachers) historical themes do call students’ attention and
motivate them to participate in class.
One final question remains unanswered: where exactly is the problem, or the
impediment, that prevents teachers from giving more importance to cultural is-
sues, especially if these could effectively help them to motivate their students?
Is it lack of time and resources? Is it insufficient, or inadequately focused teach-
er training? Is it the students’ low level of English that stops teachers from
choosing topics that might seem too complex? One could continue by turning
round the last question, as in the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma: is the stu-
dents’ level of English low because the learning contents are not appealing to
them, and therefore they do not engage with their learning?
In the next chapter, I will examine a few possible answers to these questions
and present some of the more successful approaches in greater detail.

269
10. The Teachers’ Sense of Agency as Part of
their Professional Identity
After presenting the most salient general responses to my interview questions
using a more quantitative approach for the analysis, this chapter will now focus
on a few issues that arose more or less spontaneously during several interviews;
on certain topics that I had not anticipated would arise in the way that they did,
either during the interviews themselves, or in the subsequent analysis. The inter-
view passages in question, and the teachers “behind them”, will now receive a
more profound treatment, focusing on qualitative approaches to analysis. Quan-
titative data will only be used to set the contexts.
In the first sub-chapter, I will first briefly discuss the concept that I have
found most useful for the analysis of these significant aspects: the teachers’
sense of agency, in connection with other related concepts, such as teacher au-
tonomy, curricular decision-making, etc. Then, in 10.2, I will concentrate on the
teachers’ use of motivational strategies, especially what I call “teacher talk”.
Sub-chapter 10.3 deals with access to and use of ICT resources for English
teaching. The following sub-chapter, 10.4, is maybe the most “anticipated” part,
as it goes back to the teachers’ selection of meaningful cultural content, focusing
on a few specific aspects this time. Finally, 10.5 sums up the most important
findings of these analyses.

10.1 The Teachers’ Sense of Agency

An important psychological concept that plays a role both in motivation research
(Williams & Burden 1997) and in identity theory is a person’s sense of agency
(Beijaard et al. 2004, Tsui 2007, Coldron & Smith 1999). This term refers to the
subjective awareness that a person is in control of his or her own actions, as op-
posed to the idea that it is other factors or people (e.g. traditions, “structure”, or
the “socially given” in Coldron and Smith’s terminology) who restrict one’s op-
tions to act according to one’s own best judgement. The sense of agency might
be the subjective side of teacher autonomy, a concept that has only recently
started to become the centre of attention in language education research (e.g.
Lamb & Reinders 2008). Accordingly, all those factors that might either facili-
tate or boost, or, on the other hand, put constraints onto teacher autonomy, will
have an impact on the teachers’ sense of agency. These factors can vary to a
great extent between different teachers. An interesting model to visualise this
phenomenon has been proposed by La Ganza (2008), according to whom teach-

271
er autonomy is located in a “Dynamic Interrelational Space” (DIS) and could be
seen as interacting with four important instances: first, teachers might have “au-
tonomy in relation to the teacher’s own internal dialectics with teachers, men-
tors, or significant others who (…) might support (…) his or her freedom to be
creative as a teacher (…)”. Second, they might (or might not) have “autonomy
in relation to learners, who might support the teacher’s freedom to be creative as
a teacher (…)”. Third, the teachers might be autonomous “in relation to those, in
the institution in which he or she is teaching, who could potentially make deci-
sions influencing the teacher’s freedom to be creative as a teacher, to develop
and practise ideas, and to pursue his or her ideals and [finally, have] autonomy
in relation to those, in the institutions and bureaucracies of society at large, ex-
ternal to the institution where the teacher is employed, who could potentially
make decisions influencing the teacher’s freedom to be creative as a teacher
(…)” (71f.; the emphases are mine).
In Chile, especially the last two “spaces” of teacher autonomy have been an-
alysed by critical curriculum analysts, such as Pinto (2008). He points out how
curricular decisions have increasingly been taken over by centralised bodies (es-
pecially the Ministry of Education) and “technically trained” staff at schools (Je-
fes de Unidad Técnico-Pedagógica), leaving the classroom teachers themselves
with only restricted opportunities to select material and/or decide on teaching
content, even though they ultimately have the best knowledge of their students’
needs, interests, and motivations. For Pinto, this is related to a “neo-conservative
restructuration of the curriculum at the level of educational policies: technologi-
sation of school, loss of autonomy in the teacher’s work, standardisation of texts
and methodologies, and automatisation of learning needs” (77), and in urgent
need to be challenged by critical, reflexive teachers.
In the following sections, I will analyse a few interviews in relation to the
way in which the teachers’ sense of agency, especially concerning student moti-
vation, mediates their curricular and methodological decision-making processes.
In this context, concepts previously discussed such as instrumental and integra-
tive orientations in motivation, and meaningful, critical-empowering contents
will again come into play; in addition, I will consider the importance that tech-
nological resources have gained in the past few years.

272
10.2 Teacher Talk and Other Motivational Strategies
in the Classroom
I would like to start here with an examination of how some of the teachers report
tackling the issue of student motivation: do they feel that what they do in class
has any impact? How do they view their own actions concerning motivation
within the given social structures – the students, their parents, other teachers,
governmental guidelines etc.? What strategies do they apply in order to raise
levels of student motivation?
In this context, in the global analysis of the interviews there was one recur-
rent element in particular that I had not anticipated, but which caught my atten-
tion due to its discourse style, and which I categorised as motivational talks.
This category encompasses those interview passages in which teachers quoted
themselves in their “typical” classroom talk, repeating what they would usually
tell the students in order to try to motivate them to learn English. According to
Dörnyei (2001a), these talks could form part of a series of motivational strate-
gies that are applied in a language classroom; more precisely, they could be
classified as teacher efforts to “generate initial motivation” by (mainly) “enhanc-
ing the learners’ language-related values and attitudes” through persuasive
communication (50ff.). While some teachers simply described their actions and
speeches in class, many of them used direct speech to illustrate the way in which
they talk to the students. I hope to be able to show how the interview data sug-
gest that there are certain types of “motivational” talks that do not seem to have
the desired effect and maybe, on the contrary, “switch” more students “off”. On
the other hand, some of the teachers interviewed described other ways of moti-
vating students that do appear to fulfil their purpose. Their interviews will serve
as a contrast. However, it is necessary to emphasise that neither the sample size
nor the method applied here can provide any conclusive result or correlation be-
tween these different elements. Further statistically supported quantitative stud-
ies including classroom observations and student questionnaires would have to
be applied to reach this. The following is a reflection that might serve as a start-
ing point for such a study.
For a more substantial analysis of some of these motivational talks, I find it
useful to make a link back to Gardner’s concepts of integrative versus instru-
mental orientations (Lambert & Gardner 1972; Masgoret & Gardner 2003; cf.
chapter 7.3), and examine how the teachers use these orientations as part of their
efforts to create initial motivation. Of course, it is important to remember that
these two concepts refer to motivation only in an indirect way: an “instrumental”
orientation would mean that the importance of learning English is mainly asso-

273
ciated with professional or economic success, whereas an integrative orientation
has to do with the idea of interacting with foreigners for personal, cultural or
social reasons. In either of the cases, this might lead to motivation to learn the
language or not. In his book on motivational strategies in the language class-
room, Dörnyei (op.cit.) also suggests exploiting these two orientations, but adds
a third category, the intrinsic value, to refer to the rewards of the actual process
of learning the target language (51). To give a brief quantitative summary, in
thirteen of the nineteen interviews, I could find passages relating to motivational
teacher talk. Among these, eight teachers used instrumental arguments; four of
these teachers combined them with integrative arguments; however, no teacher
referred to integrative arguments only. One teacher used emigration as a motive,
while two teachers talked about travelling in general. Some other teachers use
motivational speech that is not related to the possible future use of English but to
the learning-process itself, such as “English is easy to learn” (five teachers), or
“you can do it” (two teachers). According to Dörnyei (op.cit.), this latter strategy
is aimed at increasing the learners’ expectancy of success (57ff.).

10.2.1 Viviana (4M): “What can I do?”

To start with, I would like to present Viviana’s interview (4M), where, in my
view, the teacher seems the most strongly affected in her sense of agency by ex-
ternal pressures and constraints, but also, and especially, by the teacher’s own
beliefs. Viviana works in an inner-city public all-girls school. She starts by stat-
ing that to her, teaching English is a “challenge”. She believes that one of the
difficulties lies in the fact that students either have the talent required to learn
languages, or don’t, or are either motivated or not, but there is no “in between”.
According to her, the causes for this predisposition to either learn the language
or not are rooted in the students’ family backgrounds and the support that the
students can or cannot obtain for independent learning at home:
TQ128: “.. ellas no tienen muchas personas que pueden preguntarles afuera ... por-
que sus papás tienen tercero básico porque ... no acabaron la la básica o la media .. o
bien .. e::m e:: tienen que trabajar las personas todo el día y están solas todo el día..
y: no tienen a nadie a quien preguntarle.. tampoco tienen libros en su casas de in-
glés.... y aunque estuvieran sus papás ... como tienen tan poca enseñanza formal..
educación formal en realidad e:::: que no tienen no tienen un refuerzo e: permanen-
te.. entonces por eso les cuesta.” (4M, 2)201

201 “They don’t have many people that they can ask out there because their parents went to
school for three years, because they didn’t finish primary or secondary education, or
they have to work all day and they [the kids] are alone at home, and they have nobody

274
Another problem that she perceives is rooted in the excessive governmental
standardisation that has been promoted for English teaching in the past few
years; in her view, it does not account enough for the differences between the
various schools and the backgrounds of the students who attend those schools
(cf. Gysling 2007, Pinto 2008).
When asked about her own motivation to become an English teacher, she
says that she started out with great idealism, hoping that she would be able to
make a real contribution in a school where she was needed; she did not want to
work in a private school because of that. However, she admits that now after
several years she has started feeling a bit tired and sometimes wishes to do
something that provides more satisfaction, in a place where she can really use
her language skills. For example, the questionnaire ends in the observation that
she would choose her profession again if she had students that were really inter-
ested in learning the language. In the interview, she also talks about her relation-
ship with the students, referring to a division between those students who identi-
fy with her, who like English and would like to “speak like her”, and those stu-
dents who are not interested in her or in the language:
TQ129: “pero hay otras que no p.. no: no están ni ahí ni conmigo ni con inglés .. en-
tonces les da lo mismo lo que yo les vaya a decir” (4M, 4)202
This static view of students’ cognitive abilities and motivation is slightly coun-
tered by another observation, which refers to her experience that sometimes the
students start with certain degrees of motivation – albeit mainly instrumentally
oriented – but lose it as soon as they are faced with the first assessment proce-
dures; the teacher’s interjection of direct speech, reproducing her talk to moti-
vate students refers to everybody’s ability to learn English, which is clearly in
opposition to her opinion stated in other parts of the interview:
TQ130: “[ellas] saben que es importante.. saben que es muy importante y también..
ellas siempre dicen ‘oye, si no debería de ser tan difícil si siempre dicen que el in-
glés es más fácil que el castellano.. ¿señorita cierto?’.. me dicen.. entonces yo les di-
go ‘sí ‘¿cierto?... ¿si yo aprendí el castellano puedo hablar inglés?’.... entonces yo
les digo ‘claro que puedes..¡todos pueden! .. si todos pueden hacerlo’... pero:::::...
ellas como idioma sí::: ellas ellas saben que es importante..yo creo que les dan im-
portancia si ellas están claras... lo tienen claro.. pero como te digo..ahora cuando

to ask. They don’t have English books in their homes either and even if their parents
were there, as they had so little formal teaching, formal education in fact they don’t
have permanent support. That’s why they find it difficult.”
202 “But there are others who aren’t… they aren’t interested in me or in English… so it
doesn’t make a difference what I could be telling them”.

275
 empieza a ser la asignatura.. cuando ya empieza la evaluación que para ellas empie-
za como la lata..” (4M, 7)203
Viviana also feels that eventually it is useless to talk to certain students or to do
anything about their motivation, as there is no way to change their attitude:
TQ131: “‘tú no quieres aprender.. ¿qué puedo hacer yo? o sea.. me paro de cabe:za..
hacemos todo eso... no tengo problema ... pero si tú no quieres.. yo no puedo obli-
garte’... ese es el problema” (4M, 8)204
In this sense, she sees her role not so much as motivating those students who
have no initial motivation to learn English, but as merely bolstering already ex-
isting motivation:
TQ132:“yo creo que sinceramente parte de ellas más que de mí.. yo::: ellas vienen
con el interés y yo les refuerzo.. (…) (KG: ya.. y como.. o sea .. como.. se puede ex-
plicar de alguna manera que hay algunas niñas que.. que.. son así como que tienen la
chispa y otras no?) la verdad es que no sé (…) ... yo creo que se puede explicar
(…).. quizás del punto de vista.. entorno... e:: quizás han escuchado hablar en inglés
e: alguien de su familia a un amigo una amiga de su mamá su papá (…) y tienen a
quien preguntarle (…) y ellos ahí se van interesando.. a:: ‘quiero aprender más quie-
ro aprender más’ quizás eso.. mis alumnos no lo han tenido.... quizás eso.. no sé (…)
a: y:: (…) las niñas que están más interesadas.. mamá profesional.. papá profesio-
nal.. o por lo menos uno de los dos.. y eso está como bien ligado a la parte educacio-
nal de los papás..” (4M, 4/5)205

203 “They know it’s important; they know it’s very important and also, they always say,
‘hey, this shouldn’t be that difficult if they always say that English is easier than Span-
ish, right Miss?’ they say… So I tell them ‘Yes’. ‘If I learned Spanish can I speak Eng-
lish?’ So I tell them ‘of course you can, everybody can, everybody can do it’. But…
they know that as a language it’s important, I think they are clear about the importance
it has, but as I tell you when it comes to the school subject, when evaluation starts, for
them they start finding it boring, a nuisance.”
204 “‘You don’t want to learn… what can I do? I mean, I can stand on my head, we do all
of that, I have no problem, but if you don’t want to I can’t force you’… that’s the prob-
lem.”
205 “I think that honestly it comes more from them than from me. They come with the in-
terest and I reinforce it. (KG: And how can you explain that in some way there are some
girls that have the spark and others don’t?) I really don’t know… I think that you can
explain it maybe from the environment point of view. Maybe they have heard some-
body talking in English, somebody in their family, a friend of their parents’ and they
have somebody to ask and they take an interest: ‘Ah, I want to learn more, I want to
learn more’, maybe that’s what my students haven’t had. Maybe, I don’t know. Oh, and
the girls who are more interested: professional mum, professional dad, or at least one of
them. And that is closely linked to the parents’ education.”

276
This deterministic view of the students’ social background and the teacher’s res-
ignation in terms of the impossibility of her influencing their levels of motiva-
tion is worrying: in her view, motivation does not start from her, it starts from
them. This can also be seen in the way she constructs her sentences: the subjects
in the sentences are often the students, “ellas” (they, female) is much more pre-
sent than “yo” (I). There is a static view of motivation, which seem to have a
paralysing effect on the teacher, and which is contrary to many of the newer
dynamic or “process models” of language learning motivation (cf. Dörnyei
2001b: 82ff.).
Even though the brevity of the interview data here does not allow for an ex-
tensive analysis, it could be said that Viviana’s sense of agency is restricted, on
one hand, by her perception of the role that she has as a teacher: motivating the
de-motivated does not seem to be part of it; in conjunction with this, the “dy-
namic interrelational space” (La Ganza, op.cit.), i.e., the relationship between
her and her learners does not seem to call her to develop greater creativity. As
she does not complain about behaviour problems, for example, she might feel,
on the whole, that apart from “not being able” to do anything about motivation,
there might also be no real need to change anything. In terms of institutional re-
quirements, Viviana mentions “the first evaluations” as an important source of
student de-motivation. However, she refers to them as unshakeable facts, rather
than an institutional problem that interferes negatively with her students’ moti-
vation. The teaching resources provided by the government might also stand in
her way, preventing her from looking for other material that might be more suit-
able for her learners. Looking at the way in which Viviana describes her own
gradual loss of motivation as a teacher (which might also include other factors
that she did not mention, such as a low salary, little time to prepare lessons,
etc.), it could be concluded that her sense of agency as a teacher is strongly af-
fected by the students’ lack of interest, stemming, according to her, from the low
socio-economic background of her students. I would add that it is also affected
by an environment that does not support her in finding creative ways to counter
this problem, for example, through “significant others” who could help her to
challenge her own paralysing beliefs about the impossibility of motivating the
learners in her classroom, and assist her in finding appropriate motivational
strategies for the setting in which she is working.

277
10.2.2 Christian (3M): “My daily talk”
Christian is a male teacher who is probably in his early thirties. He works at an
urban mixed public school, where he seems to have some serious problems with
students’ discipline, and also, motivation. He also displays a fairly frustrated
tone; however, to him, combating his students’ lack of interest is clearly part of
his perceived teacher role: one central theme in his interview is the “motivation-
al speeches” that he gives to his students. His interview is quite different from
Viviana’s in that it is full of references to foreign culture(s)206. This is partly due
to the fact that he has himself had a longer stay in the USA as a child and con-
tinues to have friends there; however, this even causes some problems with sev-
eral of his students, who are among the few who reportedly exhibit strong anti-
American feelings.
With this background in mind, it is possible to focus part of the analysis on
the arguments that Christian uses in order to try and engage his students: how
much does he refer to instrumental and integrative orientations? The context in
which he works also seems to play an important role: in his school, which is vo-
cationally orientated, school-leavers finish with a certification that qualifies
them for work in gastronomy and tourism.
Christian refers to his motivational talks several times and emphasises the
regularity with which he tries to use this motivational strategy by using expres-
sions like “that is my daily talk”, “I always have this same speech”, “I always
try to say the same”. At the same time, in the quotes selected for this chapter, he
also expresses his frustration - even resignation - about the lack of motivation
twice (with several more examples of this in other parts of the interview).
In the first quote, in which he uses mostly direct speech to refer to his talks,
his students’ future work in tourism is the main theme, using predicting struc-
tures with will and going to / gonna. The instrumental orientation of his argu-
ments is sustained by examples of relationships with other people that his stu-
dents might have in the future: a boss (restaurant manager) on the one hand, cus-
tomers on the other.
TQ133: “because that is my daily talk… ‘please (…) pay attention.. you are gonna
have a good chance to start working after being graduated from high school’.. it
doesn’t happen to the rest of the students.. but they don’t take care about that.. be-
cause (…) I told them (…) ‘please .. go to a restaurant.. go to a .. walk around [a
tourist quarter of a Chilean city] okay? (…) and you will realise that there are many
.. many restaurants and they are full of tourists .. all the time.. so what’s the common
language they speak?’ and they told me.. they tell me.. ‘English!’ ‘So.. that means

206 Viviana is, in fact, one of those teachers who do not identify themselves as “culture
teachers” at all (cf. Chapter 9.3, TQ100).

278
 that you’re gonna work there as a waiter or.. I don’t know… as a chef (…) m::ost of
the times or.. the restaurant manager is going to ask you .. ‘I need help in English’
(…) or you will have to deal with a .. clients.. customers .. and some of them are go-
ing to speak English..” (3M, 4)
Christian does not only use instrumental orientations in his arguments: in the
coming quote, he refers to the importance of English in informal situations:
TQ134: “(KG: do you think that like all this experience about having travelled,
about having friends there about.. you know.. liking the teachers at school and the
books… etcetera.. do you think that in some way .. you .. you can take that to your
classroom?) …yes:: .. I think that .. enthusiasm helps me in a way to …make my
students to be aware about the importance of.. English. but ..not English precisely
I’m talking about.. this.. language that is spoken worldwide because it’s it’s it’s a
fact that we we have to deal with this language. even if you’re not working with it..
you are ..just dealing with this in a.. an.. informal situation.. like.. travelling abroad..
or talking with a friend.. on the messenger.. if he’s from.. a..an Anglo-Saxon cul-
ture.. and that’s why I always … have this same speech” (3M, 5)
Christian does not seem to be entirely convinced about his power to influence
his students. The hedging expression “that enthusiasm helps me in a way”… re-
flects his doubts about this. Also, he uses expressions that potentially lower the
profile of integrative orientations: “even if you’re not working with it.. you are..
just dealing with this in an informal situation”. Then, he refers to English as a
worldwide language, but exemplifies the people that the students could interact
with as being from an Anglo-Saxon culture. Could this be confusing for the stu-
dents, and therefore not have the desired effect?
His arguments do not stop at the use of English within Chile. In the follow-
ing quote, he elaborates a scenario in which students emigrate and then do voca-
tional training abroad. Even in those countries where English is not spoken as a
first language, they would benefit from their language skills. The motive “emi-
gration” is built into an instrumental orientation: the students’ lack of an integra-
tive orientation (“if you don’t like the culture…”) is accepted with a tone of res-
ignation; at the same time, the reference to “helping one’s family” combines an
instrumental argument with a deeply rooted Chilean value.
TQ135: “and I always try to say.. the same .. ‘if you.. want.. if you don’t want to
start working with the professional degree you’re gonna get.. after being graduated
from high school you can apply for a position abroad.. and maybe maybe and be-
cause what I know that most of you have some relatives living in Sweden for exam-
ple.. and maybe they have already invited you to go there after getting your profes-
sional degree.. and if you don’t like it a lot.. you can work in another field… think
that most of the times you’re gonna start working there and English is gonna be
…useful for you…. and those countries.. I’m talking about Sweden maybe I don’t
know.. other countries …Sweden.. Switzerland or …other countries in Europe.. they

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 speak English.. (…) maybe they’re gonna train you if you’re gonna learn something
a particular job.. they’re gonna train you in English… that’s why English is the only
way you can.. get a better life.. if you want to get a better position.. so think about
that…if you don’t like the culture okay.. but think that English is a way ..to.. help
your family for example.” (3M, 8)
Throughout the interview, Christian displays an uneasy mix between deep frus-
tration and a relentless sense of agency. This is not only shown in the passages
when he reports on his motivational talks, but also when he talks about other
motivational strategies that he uses:
TQ136: “I’m an advertising agent. (…) that’s why I use this kind of persuasive skills
of mine that I used to use.. my other skill.. my other field.. sorry.. but now inside the
class. (…) and that’s why.. I’m much more aware of for example using for example
visual aids.. and I deal with for example I can show you.. I wanna show you some
some tests (…) yeah some tests that catch my students’ attention from the very be-
ginning for example.. if I can tell you my experience about starting with a warming-
up activity.. I always use flashcards… that’s .. I do the same.. all the time (…) and
that’s the kind I wanna show you.. let me see if I have some test samples (…) yes.. I
always put some images related to the subject I want to evaluate::: e::m I use differ-
ent kind of.. type letters.. yeah? (...) and I usually.. so .. I usually try to a little kind
of skills from my students.. and emphasise the fact of getting a good mark by stick-
ing some figures .. som::::e ..you know.. cartoons that would say.. when I write
down some words ‘you did it well’ or ‘congratulations’.. so I think that maybe they
don’t take care about this.. they don’t pay attention about this.. but something that in
a way.. maybe unconsciously.. make them to:: see that maybe that’s not a boring
test.. maybe they’re gonna do it faster. (…) and I.. sorry… and from time to time..
I… try to::: to take my students to the library.. and I make them to:: to::: watch a
video.. I usually select some videos.. some songs.. I play them and I try to do some
kind of .. interactive.. (…) activities.. for example.. ‘watch the video and tick the
right words you may see .. on the video’.. or and then.. ‘read the lyrics and then find
these words underline them’ .. so they have to pay attention about the video.. so
they’re listening and they’re watching” (3M, 5/6)
His “other” professional background seems to be an important constituent of his
personal pedagogical profile: being an advertising agent has given him the tools
to use “persuasive skills” and attractive visual material for the students. By us-
ing songs and videos in his lessons he also tries to make his lessons attractive to
the students, which can be considered another motivational strategy. However,
Christian feels that the result of all his efforts is at best noticed at an uncon-
scious level.
To conclude, in Christian’s case, a significant “blockade” in his relationship
to his students, affecting his sense of agency, might revolve around a contradic-
tion between his own cultural and linguistic biography, in which his personal
relationship to the USA plays an important role, and the anti-American feelings

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of some of his students. Thus, a main source of identification and creativity for
him as a language teacher has great difficulty connecting with the students’
world and certainly causes a lot of frustration for him. On the other hand, the
liberties which he describes in terms of the opportunity to choose teaching re-
sources (music, videos) seem to support the view that at least in relation to this,
it is him, not anybody else who is hierarchically superior to him, who is in con-
trol of curricular decisions. Finally, another problem in his use of motivational
talk becomes more evident when it is contrasted with other interviews; there, it
might be possibly to find more effective ways of employing motivational strate-
gies.

10.2.3 Gabriela (11S): Good Saleswoman

Gabriela is a female teacher in her early thirties who works at an urban mixed
state-subsidised private school with links to the Chilean navy. She is a passion-
ate and ambitious young English teacher with clear professional goals who goes
out of her way to make the most of further professional development opportuni-
ties for herself. She has just won a scholarship to a university in an English-
speaking country to study for a Master’s. Her interview is quite different from
most of the others as she does not appear to have any problem with student mo-
tivation. In fact, she thinks that her students are “super motivated” – she esti-
mates her students’ motivation level as being between “80 and 90 percent”. And
what is more, her sense of agency seems to be not only present in the interview:
it seems to be the main constituent of her teacher identity. According to her, the
reason for her students’ motivation is this: “I am very motivating”.
Although she complains about some bureaucratic and administrative con-
straints (just like other teachers), she does not join in with the laments about “the
students nowadays”. On the contrary, she relates how she tunes in with the stu-
dents’ interests and concerns, especially in terms of use of ICT (see also below,
10.3) and in learning content choice (see also below, 10.4).
The use of the first person singular is prevalent in her interview; on various
occasions, she emphasises that it is her who is motivating, it is her who is tech-
nological, it is her who has high expectations of the students etc. The only time
she refers to other teachers is when she explains the difference between their
“traditional” style and her own, more modern, technological way of teaching:
part of her teacher identity is being unlike them, and at the same time being
close to her students. At the end of the interview, when asked about a “general
message”, again she does not ask for improvements or changes (even though she
is rather critical of some policies in other parts of the interview), but gives a rec-

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ommendation that she has also used when talking to the student teachers that she
supervises:
TQ137: “no hay una receta mágica yo creo (…) pero yo creo que la más importante
es.... yo siempre les digo a los alumnos... ‘es que si tú te crees el cuento...... te lo van
a comprar’ (…) y yo creo que soy super buena vendedora... (…) los alumnos me
compran todo... todo todo todo todo todo .... porque soy buena vendedora... y eso es
lo único... o sea si uno se cree el cuento si a uno le gusta lo que hace... si uno se pre-
para si uno.. e: busca y::: y piensa en los alumnos piensa... si esto les va a gustar esto
les podría interesar... va a tener el éxito y les va a ir bien...” (11S, 10/11)207
What are the motivational strategies that she mentions in her interview? Analys-
ing her discourse in comparison to the other teachers is very enlightening: even
though she also seems to use motivational talks with her students, what becomes
salient in the interview is that she rather does motivating things with the students
than telling them what English might be good for later on; or, if she does tell
them about the importance of English, she accompanies it with visible, tangible
facts, such as here, where the instrumental orientation in her talk is supported,
on the one hand, by figures from Chilean universities in which English is a re-
quirement for all study courses, and on the other hand, by the successes of her
former students:
TQ138: “(KG: ¿qué tan motivados están tus alumnos por aprender...?) em e:::::::: yo
creo que en una escala de cero a cien.... podría ser entre un ochenta y un noventa....
(KG: o sea.. super motivados) yo creo que están super motivados ... pero es porque
yo soy muy motivadora (… ) porque yo::: les pongo colo::r.. les digo que es bien
importante... yo los hago cocinar en el colegio... no sé pa Halloween hacemos fiestas
Halloween con los más chi:::cos ... a fin de año hacemos.. un villancico... entonces ..
e::::: con los más grandes hacemos pane:les.... entonces siempre.. así les machaco
como se dice acá en Chile.... les machaco el inglés .... les digo que es importante.... y
les muestro cifras..... e::: de repente... el año pasado me dediqué a investigar ... cuán-
tas universidades exigían en sus mallas curriculares el inglés (…) o les hablo de los
alumnos que han vuelto y me dicen ‘Miss... sabe que.. tuve que dar esta prueba.. me
fue super bien ... me eximí de tal ramo’ ... hay algunas universidades aquí en Chile
que::::: que tú tienes que dar un examen... para ver si tú pasas ese ramo o tienes que
tomar inglés o o estás eximida de inglés... (… ) entonces.. la mayoría de mis alum-
nos.... o sea.. todos los alumnos que yo he tenido .. que han sido míos creados por

207 “There is no magic recipe I think, but I believe that the most important thing is … I al-
ways tell the student [teacher]s: if you really believe in something, they are going to buy
it. And I think I am a super good saleswoman. The students buy everything from me.
They buy it all because I am a good saleswoman, that’s the only thing. I mean if one be-
lieves in something, if one likes what one does, if one prepares if one looks for things
and thinks of the students, thinks if they are going to like it if they could be interested,
one will be successful.”

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 mí... enseñados por mí... han pasado ese.. ese... (KG: ah.. qué bacán...) se han eximi-
do me entendís ... entonces yo...a:: siempre parto con:::: con mis éxitos y chiqui-
llos... es importante y yo creo que están altamente motivados pero es gracias a mí...
yo .... he hecho ese trabajo...” (11S, 4)208
Other motivational strategies that she uses can be related to her approach, which
is topic- and task-based (or action-oriented), and points towards meaningful
communication with interesting and cognitively challenging activities that also
involve students holistically, e.g. the cooking and singing in the previous quote
(cf. Dörnyei op.cit.: 76, 78; also Gudjons 1997; Penman 2005; Müller-Hartmann
& von Schocker-Ditfurth 2007; Bach & Timm 2009; Legutke 2009):
TQ139: “generalmente yo encuentro que que a los alumnos los hago harto pensar ...
siempre como que de un tema.... dependiendo también de la edad.. del nivel de
ellos.... o sobre todo por ejemplo en los ramos como te digo electivos.... siempre..
tratamos.. trato de llevarlos a la reflexión.... o de comparar.... de analizar.... siempre
como que resforzar el razonamiento lógico ... nosotros trabajamos con habilidades....
entonces como que... siempre apunta a eso....” (11S, 9)209
Other parts of Gabriela’s interview will be analysed when it comes to discussing
technology in 10.3, and (cultural) contents in 10.4. However, for a comparative
analysis it must be said that Gabriela works at a semi-private school and that she
might not be faced with the problems that some of the other teachers have to

208 “(KG: How motivated are your students to learn…?) Uhm, I think on a scale from zero
to a hundred, they could be between eighty and ninety (KG: that means super motivat-
ed). I think they are super motivated. But that is because I am very motivating. Because
I make it big, I tell them that it is really important. I make them cook at school. I don’t
know, for example for Halloween we have a Halloween party with the little ones, at the
end of the year we sing Christmas carols, with the older ones we make displays. So I
always keep telling them, I push them, I tell them that it’s important, and I show them
figures… so sometimes, last year I started researching how many universities had com-
pulsory English courses in their programmes… or I talk about my students who have
come back and tell me ‘Miss, you know what, I had to take this test, it went really well,
I won’t have to do that course’ There are some universities here in Chile where you
have to take a test to see if you already have the skills or if you have to take English or
if you pass it without taking the course, so most of my students, I mean, all those stu-
dents who I have had, those who were created by me, taught by me, have passed, they
don’t have to take English at university, so I always start with my successes and ‘kids…
it’s important’ and I think they are highly motivated but that is due to me, I have done
that work.”
209 “I generally believe that I make the students think a lot, always about a topic, depending
on their age, their level. Or above all, for example in the elective courses we … I always
try to take them to reflection, comparing, analysing, always reinforcing logical reason-
ing. We work with skills, so it points towards that.”

283
tackle. She does not refer to the social background of her students in the inter-
view, but by inference it is possible to suggest that in socio-economic and cul-
tural terms, Gabriela works mainly with students that for other teachers like Viv-
iana and Christian would not constitute as great a challenge. In those terms, it
seems that the institutional and structural “dynamic interrelational spaces” (La
Ganza op.cit.) allow Gabriela to develop a greater sense of agency (in spite of all
the complaints she has about a low number of lessons per week, etc.). Her use of
motivational strategies forms a powerful link between her own beliefs and the
positive relationship with her students.

10.2.4 Tania (12M): Humour

To balance the picture, and in order to show that not all public school teachers’
discourse is marked by frustration and resignation, I will present another teacher
here, Tania, who works at a public all girls’ school. The social background of
her students is similar to that of Christian’s and Viviana’s students, and her
school is also vocationally oriented. Even though she describes the difficulties
associated with working with students from a deprived social background (home
problems like abuse and single motherhood, low self-esteem, little future expec-
tations and low learning motivation in general), her attitude towards these seems
to be more positive. To her, being an English teacher in Chile is even “a little
treat that she gave to herself” (12M, 1: “un lujito: ... que me di yo misma”). She
repeatedly refers to her own interests in relation to the English language, among
them, her love for literature and movies in English, but also to the more instru-
mental advantages of being competent in English, such as the job opportunities
it opens to her.
Likewise, in her talks to the students, which she also seems to use as a regu-
lar motivational strategy, Tania combines instrumental and integrative orienta-
tions. However, her argumentation seems to run closer along an integrative ori-
entation in the examples she uses.
TQ140: “yo trato de… siempre se lo manifiesto ... y trato de empaparlas también
con.. con el gusto al inglés no solamente por el área de::: de pedagogía sino que
también por hacer otras cosas (…) y a mis alumnas yo trabajo con puras mujeres
(…) a mis alumnas que les gusta el inglés yo siempre les pregunto ‘¿qué quieres es-
tudiar?’… me dicen ‘a lo mejor inglés’ yo ‘estudia inglés estudia inglés’ y en algu-
nos trabajos con cuarto medio yo llevo anuncios de los diarios que salen en inglés..
para los cruce::ros.. ese tipo de cosas o que diga::: se necesita persona con conoci-
miento en inglés .. y también les pongo siempre.. em:: ejemplos de.. de.. por ejemplo
dos secretarias que tienen las mismas capacida:des.. aptitudes e… y las competen-
cias digo pero hay una que sabe inglés.. ¿a cuál van a elegir? a la que sabe inglés

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 (…) cuesta un poco que ellas perciban eso hasta que lo vivencian o conocen algo
más.. más cercano pero::.. por las cancio::nes no sé de li::bros interne::t siempre tra-
to de decir que tienen que aprender inglés .. por esas razones.. (KG: y tú has sentido
que eso ha tenido una repercusión en la motivación de las alumnas?) eh:::… (KG:
esa forma de que tú trates de explica::rles la importa::ncia todo eso..) mmm .. con
algunas ..es que… si yo les digo ‘aprender inglés es bueno para esto esto esto’ no..
no resulta .... no no no resulta (…) entonces siempre tengo que buscar.. ejemplos
que.. como que les lleguen bien a ellas.. la otra vez hice.. les enseñaba que para los
drinks que podían pedir ya.. coke .. una coke ... ya .. ‘si no saben’ les decía ‘si van a
un restorán y no saben dicen coke ya y les van a traer una coca cola’ xxx ‘ah de ve-
ras’ dijeron ahí .. se empezaron a motivar .. solamente con ese::: ejemplo súper sen-
cillo .. ‘entonces imagínense que van a [an important Chilean port city] y hay un
crucero y conocen a un tipo buen mozo rubio alto .. o moreno como.. como a ustedes
les guste.. y las invita no sé po a tomar una.. algo o no sé o después lo van a ver a
Estados Unidos o a cualquier país .. ¿qué van a decir? no van a saber como pedir una
coca cola van a tener sed como van a decir coke’” (12M, 2).210
What is interesting about the strategies that she employs is that she, like Ga-
briela, reinforces speech with actions in class, as she is fairly clear that “only
talking” does not have the desired effect: thus, for example, apart from explain-

210 “I always let them know that I try to drench them in their taste for English, not just in
the area of teaching but also for doing other things. And I always ask my students – I
am working with girls only – who like English ‘What do you want to study?’ They tell
me ‘Maybe English’ and I say ‘Study English, study English!’and in some tasks for
Year 12 I take newspaper advertisements in English, for the cruise ships and that kind
of thing that say ‘person required with English skills’ and I always give them examples
like (…) two secretaries who have the same skills and competencies but there is one
who knows English – Who are they going to choose? The one who knows English. (…)
It is a bit difficult to get them to perceive this until they experience it or get to know it
from closer. But through the songs, I don’t know, books, Internet… I always tell them
that they have to learn English… for these reasons. (KG: and have you felt that this has
had an impact on student motivation? The way in which you try to explain its im-
portance and all that?) Mmm, with some of them. The thing is that if I tell them ‘learn-
ing English is good for this and that’ it doesn’t work, no, it doesn’t work. So I always
have to look for examples that should reach them well… the other day I was teaching
them about the drinks that they could order, coke, a coke, so I told them ‘if you don’t
know – if you go to a restaurant and you don’t know how to say coke and then they are
going to bring you a coca cola’ (…) ‘oh really’ they said and they started to get moti-
vated, just with that really simple example… ‘so imagine you go to [an important Chil-
ean port city] and there is a cruise ship and you get to know a good-looking tall blond
guy… or dark, whatever you like best… and he invites you to have a [drink] (…) or
then you are going to see him in the States or in any other country… ‘What are you go-
ing to say?’ You won’t know how to order a coke, you’ll be thirsty, how are you going
to say coke?’”

285
ing the importance of English for job situations, she brings job advertisements to
the lessons, as visual stimuli. She also emphasises the importance of using ex-
amples that are close to the students’ age-related needs and realities, and ex-
ploits the integrative orientation by naming various possible motivating factors:
songs, books, the Internet, and especially, romance, as one possibility of interac-
tion with native speakers. This seems to be contextualised with the activities that
are done at specific times in the classroom, such as the restaurant role play that
is evoked here.
Whether Tania refers to integrative or to instrumental orientations, a main
characteristic of her classroom talk seems to be the humour that accompanies it.
This can have a positive effect on student motivation on many levels, as it helps
to “create a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the classroom” (Dörnyei,
op.cit.: 42), it “makes learning stimulating and enjoyable for the learner by in-
creasing the attractiveness of the tasks” (ibd.: 77) and can also be classified as
an “emotional control strategy” that “can very effectively lighten up any kind of
misery” (ibd.:114). Also, the references to possible love stories with foreigners
contribute “exotic” and “fantasy” elements that can likewise make learning tasks
more interesting for the students (ibd.: 76; cf. also Schumann 1998):
TQ141: “ah sabes que la otra vez se dieron cuenta ellas.. me hicieron caso.. pero
cuando estaban en cuarto medio .. porque había estado desde primero medio con
ellas e:: había varias que querían estudiar después en un instituto.. o en universidad y
en todas las carreras que dieron... en todas habían dos semestres de inglés.. yo dije
‘ven .. yo les dije.. les dije..’ .. se ríen ‘les dije’ y después pasaba por su sala y les
decía y ellas sabían que:: que yo les estaba haciendo burlas..” (12M, 6)211
TQ142: “además.. ‘bueno’ pero yo les digo ‘puede venir alguien de allá de allá para
acá .. y se enamora y cómo se van a decir?’.. yo siempre les digo cosas así [laughs]”
(12M, 7)212
In any case, the integrative orientation seems to be most important to her, re-
markably with an international scope; to her, knowing English opens up the pos-
sibility of communicating with all the people:
TQ143: “les digo a ellas que el inglés es un idioma:: internacional o sea generaliza-
do y que.. muchas otras personas de otros países que no son de habla inglesa .. y van

211 “oh you know the other day they realised, they listened to me, but when they were in
Year 12 because I had been with them since Year 9, and there were several who wanted
to study later on in an institute, or at university and in all the courses that were given
there, in all of them there were two semesters of obligatory English courses. I said ‘you
see, I told you, I told you’… they laughed ‘I told you’ and then I walked through their
classroom and I told them and they know that I was making fun of them”.
212 “But apart from that, I tell them ‘well, somebody could come here from there and falls
in love and how are you going to talk?’ I always tell them things like that [laughs]”.

286
 a otros lugares se manejan en inglés.. claro.. todo se maneja en inglés (…) ‘si sabes
hablar inglés se pueden comunicar con todos’” (12M, 11)213
Tania also refers to other benefits that learning a foreign language has. Here, she
highlights the transferability of skills to native language competence. To rein-
force her argument, she refers to another person’s authority – something she
seems to use strategically:
TQ144: “entonces yo les expli:co que también es bueno aprender otra lengua porque
también se va mejorando el otro idio:ma.. la lengua mate::rna porque compa .. ha-
ciendo comparacio::nes y que a mí en la universidad alguna vez me enseñaron e:sto..
y que la profesora nos decía tal co::sa y les pongo ejemplos de otras per-sonas..”
(12M, 3)214
In the context of students with very low self-esteem, she also uses motivational
talk in order to increase the students’ expectancy of success (cf. Dörnyei op. cit.:
57ff., 86 ff.):
TQ145: “‘no niñas si ustedes quieren algún día ustedes pueden lograr hartas cosas’
… y siempre:: como.. siempre tirándolas para arriba.. así se motivan harto:: con salir
o con conocer..” (12M, 8)215
Finally, rather than expressing frustration about strict governmental guidelines,
Tania expresses her sense of agency by highlighting the flexibility that is given
to her so she can find topics that are interesting for the students. Also, instead of
complaining about lacking student interest, she turns students into participants
of her own decision-making process, which also increases the students’ sense of
agency and, consequently, motivation (cf. Williams/Burden op.cit.: 127 ff., Ush-
ioda 2011):
TQ146: “en inglés yo creo que igual uno puede flexibilizar harto:: (…) si hay que
pasar modales .. los modales yo los puedo pasar.. con cualquier tema... que tenga::
inserto los modales entonces yo elijo temas.. que sean que yo creo que son atractivos
para ellas.. igual hago algunos sonde:os.. e:: las primeras clases conversa::mos.. les
pregunto que cosas les gu::stan .. que hacen e::llas.. qué música escuchan .. qué pelí-

213 “I tell them that English is an international language, I mean generalised, and that many
other people from other countries that are not English-speaking and who go to other
places speak English… of course, everything is done in English. ‘If you can speak Eng-
lish you can communicate with everybody.’”
214 “So I explain to them that it is also good to learn another language because (…) the
mother tongue also improves because you can make comparisons. They taught me that
at university some time ago… and that the teacher told us. I always give them examples
of other people.”
215 “’No, girls, if you want to, one day you will be able to achieve many things.’ And I al-
ways try to cheer them up, so they get really motivated to get to know other places or to
know more about things.”

287
 cula.. cosas así .. (…).. hemos visto algunas películas.. e:: entonces después hacemos
descripción de personajes por ejemplo ... descripción física .. psicológica.. ahí les
meto un poquito de literatura a veces..” (12M, 4) 216
To sum up, the students’ more deprived social background does not necessarily
mean that the teacher cannot employ any motivational strategies successfully.
Rather, a positive if realistic attitude towards the teaching situation, relieved by
a good amount of humour and enthusiasm about the contents that can be con-
veyed through English seem to help in the difficult task of motivating students
to learn the language.

10.2.5 Conclusion
In the analysis of four interviews in this chapter, I have been able to shed light
on the importance of the use of motivational strategies in the English classroom.
In this context, among the different “dynamic interrelational spaces” (La Ganza,
op.cit.) that have an impact on the teachers’ perception of their autonomy, or
their sense of agency, of being able to influence what happens in their class-
rooms, there are two that are especially important: the teachers’ beliefs about
themselves and their students, and the relationship between teachers and stu-
dents.
In this sense, the comparison of the interviews shows that the teachers’ per-
sonal interpretations of their teaching environments, and of their own power to
influence upon them, play an important role in the use and success of motiva-
tional strategies. Allowing myself to draw some very cautious conclusions from
the analysis of these interviews, I would highlight the following ones:
1) If teachers choose to use motivational talks as a strategy to engage students
with learning English, these talks should be as consistent as possible with
their own beliefs or interests. As we have seen, if a teacher tells her students
that “everybody can do it”, but she herself is convinced that some students
have a talent for language learning while others do not, the non-verbal mes-
sages she probably sends out to her students are powerful enough to reduce

216 “In English I think one can handle things very flexibly (…) If we have to do modal
verbs, I can do them with any topic in which the modal verbs are inserted so I choose
topics that are – I believe – interesting for them. Anyway, I do a few surveys in the first
lessons, we have a conversation and I ask them what they like, what they do, what mu-
sic they listen to, what movie, things like that. We have seen a few movies, so after that
we do a description of the characters for example, a physical and psychological descrip-
tion. So like that I introduce a bit of literature sometimes.”

288
 the effect of the verbal message. Likewise, if a teacher holds a fascination for
music, movies or literature in English or enjoys using the language in real
communicative situations, it seems to make sense to share this fascination
with the students, of course not without considering the students’ interests,
too.217
2) Motivational talks must be backed up by other motivational strategies, possi-
bly at the moment of delivery: thus, those teachers who say that they bring
visual material – job advertisements, course outlines from different universi-
ties - to the lessons to support the instrumental orientation of their speech,
seem to be more successful than teachers who limit their motivational strate-
gy to just the talk. Other valuable motivational strategies are the use of hu-
mour, interesting, stimulating, challenging, and holistic classroom activities
and contents218.
3) References to both the instrumental and the integrative orientation seem to be
effective in order to motivate students, as long as indications of the future
utility of English are accompanied by activities that make the learning and
use of English in the present classroom significant and stimulating. However,
when teachers refer to specific cultures in order to foster integrative motiva-
tion, they need to be sensitive about the students’ preconceptions of certain
cultures, and ideally tackle them positively.
If I have mainly examined student-teacher relationships and classroom dynamics
in their strictest sense, then it will now become necessary to open up and see
how other, more institutional and structural factors have an influence on student
motivation and the teachers’ sense of being able to have some type of control
over it. By examining the points some teachers made about ICT in the coming
chapter, this point will be explored further.

217 This idea could be supported by the neurobiological findings on the mirror neurons (cf.
Bauer 2005).
218 Finkbeiner (1995, 2005) found in an empirical study that initial creation and
maintenance of student interest benefit from action-oriented, holistic learning activities:
“[I]nsbesondere solche Lernhandlungen, die in handlungsorientierte Tätigkeiten
eingebunden sind, [tragen] längerfristig zum Aufbau und Erhalt von Interesse bei.”
(2005:54f.) Cf. also Bach & Timm 2009, Legutke 2009, Penman 2005.

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10.3 Technology and English Teaching: An Extra
Challenge or an Opportunity?
TQ147: “y creo que el inglés ahora es una prioridad incluso es una estrategia de marketing espectacu-
lar porque.. inglés más computación .. a parte de todo lo que son las salas de televisión salas de
computación es como un plus.. y eso es lo que los papás están buscando también…” (16P/S, 2)219

One issue that arose completely unexpectedly during the interviews, but in a
very recurrent and consistent way was the new Information and Communication
Technologies. When I started to analyse this point in greater detail, I could iden-
tify three interrelated themes that seem to be at the centre of the English teach-
ers’ perspectives and that point at both challenges and opportunities for the
learning of English in a globalised world: first of all, the public image of English
seems to have improved, or gained importance, in the few past years. Access to
media in English, such as English-language movies with their original sound-
track (as opposed to dubbed versions) on cable TV and the Internet seem to play
a key role in this development. Second, and conversely, study habits and disci-
pline at the schools appear to be in decline. Some teachers associate this with a
cultural change that has to do with, as one teacher put it, “the law of minimum
effort” (3M) and a new, more “visual” mode of accessing information. The third
issue can be located at the centre of the other two: technology, especially com-
puter-based technology, has begun to play a central role in students’ lives, as it
seems, across all social classes. In the analysis it seemed to me that in the teach-
ers’ accounts of their successes and failures in teaching English to today’s Chil-
ean teenagers, these three issues heavily influenced their perceptions; the issue
at the centre, technology, could either be successfully exploited in order to max-
imise students’ motivation to study English, or, on the contrary, formed an in-
surmountable obstacle that played against their students’ learning. As before,
and as the initial quote from a private school teacher to this chapter reflects, all
this has to be seen against the background of the neo-liberal structures that have
taken over education in Chile, and continued social inequity: in many cases the
teachers’ sense of agency, and connected feeling of achievement depended on
their access to ICT resources for their classes, which are apparently excellent at
private and some state-subsidised private institutions, but non-existent or in a
poor or basic state at many of the public schools. However, it also seems that the
teachers’ beliefs about themselves, their beliefs about learning in general, and

219 “I think that now English is a priority, it is even a spectacular marketing strategy be-
cause English plus ICT, besides all those things like TV rooms, computer rooms, it is
like a plus, and that is what the parents are looking for, too.”

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language learning in particular, work as a filter in the decision-making process
related to using the resources available to them (Tudor 2001).
The initial quote shows that in the public perception, English and ICT are
two of the symbols that are linked with modernisation and social success in
Chile; many advertisements for private schools use these two points to attract
prospective students. Thus, it is not surprising that the topic “technology”
emerged in seventeen of the nineteen interviews, even if it was unplanned and
unanticipated on my part. The marked frequency of the theme led me to add a
further inductive category to the previous analysis, for which I searched for the
following keywords in the interviews: technology, mp3, chat, computer, access,
Internet, television/TV, cable and visual; subsequently, I analysed the contexts
in which these keywords appeared. Even though not all teachers made a clear
statement as to whether they perceived technology as an opportunity or an addi-
tional challenge, in ten interviews it was associated with problems; in nine inter-
views, teachers described technology in terms of the opportunities it created for
teaching English; furthermore, there were four interview passages in which
teachers referred to technology in descriptive terms, without making an evalua-
tive statement on it. This shows that several teachers view the issue as some-
thing fairly complex with its advantages and drawbacks. In the following, I will
first summarise the interview passages that referred to technology; then, I will
illustrate the interrelationship of the issues presented above with three inter-
views, establishing a link to the teachers’ beliefs about learning.
Many of the teachers who describe the relationship between technology and
English learning as positive explain how they are able to use it as a motivator in
lessons – either as a topic in itself (for reading comprehension practice, for ex-
ample: 6S) or by watching videos from youtube (11S), watching movies (9S) or
establishing penpal contacts through facebook (10S). Other teachers come to
speak about technology and English in relation to the general cultural context,
without direct reference to the use of ICT in the classroom. Here, a teacher who
works at a publically funded school perceives this as having had a positive im-
pact on balancing out social inequities:
TQ148: “hoy día el inglé::s.. o sea para ellos se transforma en una herramienta.. es
algo útil.. o sea ... todo lo que es la globalización.. no es cierto.. cuando se comienza
a hablar del inglés así como .. el idioma universa:l y todo lo demás.. entonces…
ellos empiezan a sentir eso.. y yo creo que todo eso también lo ha traído también el
avance de la tecnología.. el acceso que hemos tenido también a cosas… por ejemplo
la televisión por cable.. o sea porque antes el inglés era privilegio así como de una
clase muy.. muy de elite.. ya… y a mí me pasó.. porque cuando entré a estudiar in-
glés a la universidad.. no es cierto… yo entré el año:: ochenta.. y dos parece.. el
ochenta y dos entré y todavía en ese tiempo el inglés era una cosa así súper de elite..
entonces la mayoría de mis compañeras que habían estudiado en colegios particu-

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 lares.. no es cierto.. donde… claro.. ellas estaban en contacto con el inglés… o ha-
bían viajado al extranjero… pero para nosotros que veníamos de colegio comunes y
corrientes.. un mundo así… súper extraño… entonces.. hoy día ya no… yo creo que
la mayoría:: hoy día.. tiene así como conocimientos del inglés desde… ya::: desde
chicos.. o sea.. por un lado el colegio .. y por otro lado todo lo que ha sido la tecno-
logía no es cierto.. en que está en contacto con el inglés (…) antes no teníamos esta
suerte… o sea de que tú sales a la calle y de repente .. hay gente que está hablado en
inglés.. o sea.. tú prendes la tele y puedes escuchar no es cierto.. el inglés… entonces
antes no existía como eso…” (19M, 3)220
However, not all teachers associate technology with positive cultural develop-
ment: the following quote is from a teacher who also works in a public school
(though one with serious discipline problems); she paints a pretty pessimistic
picture of her students’ cultural level, and describes how, in opposition to stu-
dents from private schools, the lack of travel or cultural perspectives apparently
stops her students from processing English cognitively, in spite of the frequent
exposure to the language through technological entertainment:
TQ149: “yo creo la dificultad (…) está por el tipo de personas a las que estamos tra-
tando de llegar..porque te repito... en un colegio inglés....donde el inglés es funda-
mental.. el chiquillo que va ahí .. va porque quiere aprender inglés.. pero tiene otro
nivel cultural.. él puede practicar el inglés.. en las vacaciones puede viajar al el ex-
tranjero con los papás... el nuestro no.... el nuestro es de un medio pobre... no tiene
acceso a nada en inglés...y el acceso que tiene que a lo mejor es bastante..a través de
la computación.. de Internet.. él no lo siente así.. en automát.... los chiquillos juegan
ponte tú los juegos de videos.. todo les funciona en inglés y ellos juegan no más..
aprietan botones..no tienen idea de lo que dice...pero lo hacen bien... no lo asocian
con el inglés... entonces yo creo que es una realidad más bien del nivel.. social...”
(5M, 2)221

220 “Nowadays English has become a tool for them. It is something useful, I mean, the whole globalisation,
right, when people start talking about English as the universal language and all that. So they start feeling
this. And I think that all that has also been brought about by the technological advances, the access that
we have got to things, for example cable TV, because before English used to be a privilege like of a very,
very upper class, you see. And it happened to me because when I started studying English at university,
(…) I started studying in 82 and in those years English was still a super upper class thing. So most of my
classmates who had studied in private schools, where they were in contact with English, or had travelled
abroad… but for us who were coming from common schools - a super strange world. So, today not any
more. I think the majority know some English from early on. I mean, on the one hand school and on the
other technology right, where they are in contact with English. Before we weren’t that lucky. I mean, now
you walk in the streets and sometimes there are people who speak English. You switch on TV and can
hear English, right. So before this didn’t exist.”
221 “I think the difficulty is (…) due to the type of people we are trying to reach because I’ll say it again: in
an English school [i.e. a Chilean private bilingual school], where English is fundamental, the kid who
goes there does so because he wants to learn English, but he has a different cultural level. He can practise

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In fact, in those cases where the teachers describe technology in relation to pro-
fessional difficulties, they frequently talk about it using concession clauses, in
which the first part refers to technological access to a globalised world and the
second one to student demotivation – the emphasis in the translation is mine:
TQ150: “a pesar que estamos en un mundo globalizado y en el que en este momento
tenemos información de todas partes del mundo por medio de la televisión.. y ellos
por Internet: … como que muchos no se dan cuenta de que realmente e:::::: deben
aprender inglés pero a ellos no les interesa.. porque ellos creen .. que no que no lo
van a necesitar. ..entonces hay una gran mayoría diría yo que no percibe lo impor-
tante que es aprender el inglés” (2M, 2)222
Other teachers establish a causal relationship between the technological compo-
nent of youth culture and a lack of interest in studying. Here, the teacher uses an
imaginary dialogue between herself and “the students”, on which she comments
in between:
TQ151: “los alumnos saben que ellos tienen que dominar el inglés (…) pero ellos
¿cómo lo ven?... ellos lo ven como que ‘a::: no no importa si total después si lo ne-
cesito ... tomo un curso rapidito o:: busco en Internet’... o sea para ellos la Internet ...
es como la .. la tabla salvadora de ellos (…) porque...porque suponte tú si ellos nece-
sitan... yo les muchas veces les digo ‘ustedes necesitan saber como hacer una car-
ta’.... ‘no .. pero por último copio una carta del Internet’ .... ‘y si les llega algo del
extranjero’... ‘no pero es que yo lo hago....o sea traductor... para eso hay traductor’”
(13M, 5)223
Finally, some teachers describe the relationship between technology and their
students’ English learning as a kind of competition, in which traditional learning
and teaching methods necessarily lose out, especially if the teachers have few
resources available to them:

English; during holidays he can travel abroad with his parents. Our kid can’t. Our kid is from a poor
background and has no access to anything in English, and the access that he has is maybe fairly…
through computing, Internet… he does not feel it like that… the kids play for example videogames, eve-
rything works in English and they simply play, press buttons, they have no idea what it says, but they do
it well. They don’t associate it with English. So I believe it’s a reality of a social level.”
222 “In spite of the fact that we live in a globalised world in which nowadays we have information about the
whole world by way of television, and they through the Internet, like many [teenagers] don’t realise that
they really must learn English but they aren’t interested because they believe that they won’t need it. So
there is a great majority I would say which doesn’t perceive how important it is to learn English.”
223 “The students know that they need to know English but how do they see it? They see it like ‘oh it doesn’t
matter because if I need it later I’ll take a fast course or I’ll search the Internet.’ So for them the Internet is
like their salvation because imagine if they need… I often tell them ‘you need to know how to write a let-
ter’ … ‘no but when it comes down to it I copy a letter from the Internet’ … ‘and if you get something
from abroad?’ … ‘no but I do it (…) there are [automatic] translators for that’”.

293
 TQ152: “los medios de comunicación también.. mucho… mucha televisión mu-
cho… mucho… Internet de repente también.. puede ser que:: haya muchos... distrac-
tores también para los chiquillos entonces e: quizás el el colegio no les está… no les
satisface las necesidades digamos que ellos.. lo que ellos esperan… digamos ... uno
tendría que tener un tipo de enseñanza un poco más mode::rna o sea .. usando cla-
ro... como te decía al principio o sea tecnologías digamos más modernas que llega-
ran a los chiquillos .... entonces si uno no tiene la infraestructura y ellos en su casa
están acostumbrados ponte tú a cosas súper entretenidas.. con el Internet .. con video
con qué sé yo e::: otras tecnologías más modernas… entonce::s claro po.. les debe
dar lata la la clase tradicional .... y por otra parte uno.. como profesora (…) no tiene
en los colegios los medios..” (15S, 6/7)224
The described themes parallel similar discussions around media literacy in other
parts of the world, where the aims and methods of foreign language teaching
also need to define their place in the middle of euphoria of unlimited access to
foreign language media and resources, the development of media competence
and the danger of (inadvertently) contributing to the “media squalor” (Medien-
verwahrlosung) of today’s computer-addicted youth (cf. Blell & Kupetz 2005,
Volkmann 2005b).
In the following, I will illustrate with three selected interviews how the dif-
ferent teachers develop the topic of technology, together with their beliefs about
language learning (cf. Tudor 2001); the context in which they work is again cru-
cial for their interpretations.

224 “The media also… a lot of TV, a lot of Internet maybe too… possibly there are many
distracting factors for the kids too so maybe school does not satisfy their needs… what
they expect… let’s say… one would have to have a type of teaching which is a bit more
modern I mean, using, as I said at the beginning, more modern technologies that reach
the children… so if one does not have the infrastructure and they at home are used to –
imagine – super fun things… with Internet… with video, whatever, other modern tech-
nologies, so of course, the traditional lesson must be boring for them… and on the other
hand, one as a teacher does not have the means at the schools …”

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 Teachers’ be-
liefs about lang.
learning: effort
& discipline or
fun & ease?

Technology:
“easy” access to
English in a
globalised
world

Cultural
change: Posi- Study habits in
tive public im- decline: “copy
age of English and paste cul-
through access ture”
to media

Figure 3: Technology in the teachers’ perspective

10.3.1 Christian (3M): “Copy and paste culture”

We have already encountered Christian in the section on motivational talks and
strategies (chapter 10.2): a public school teacher with many motivation and be-
haviour problems in his classes. Technology plays quite an important role in his
interview. In his view, technology is partly responsible for students’ poor study
habits, but also forms part of a way of life in which the values that he grew up
with have lost their relevance. The problems that he perceives in the educational
system do not have much to do with access to resources – he seems to be able to

295
use ICT tools for his lessons, such as videos. However, he identifies a certain
laissez-faire culture in educational management that fails to show teenagers
where the limits are, and thus, deprives them of the education that he considers
necessary for them.
In the following quote, he explains his view of a youth culture which appar-
ently works against a positive study attitude; here, as before, his own speech os-
cillates between his comments and a passage of direct speech in which he
demonstrates the talks that he gives to his students, referring to things that stu-
dents had previously told him about their use of English outside lessons:
TQ153: “for example you ask your students and you say.. ‘okay, you told me that
you told me that you don’t like English but you use English anyway.. so ..you told
me that you listen to music in English. that you usually chat with your friends.. and
you’ve got some friends::.. abroad, so.. you’re using English.. so you can’t deny
that.. so why don’t you pay attention to the class?’ what I think is that …there is a
lack of em:… work will ..I don’t know if I can say that .. because they’re not inter-
ested in doing anything.. maybe because of the media because nowadays it’s very
easy to get information .. to download information from the Internet.. e.. there are
not only not only photocopies.. you can make photocopies of everything. in our days
but .. you can copy and paste .. that’s the culture I dare to say.. our culture this youth
culture.. I call it the copy and paste culture” (3M, 3)
The expression “I call it the copy and paste culture” shows that, even if he has
not coined the term, he strongly identifies with this idea; to be more precise,
with a negative interpretation of it that is associated with a lacking motivation to
learn or to do anything of one’s own accord.225 Later, he goes on to explain one
of his beliefs about learning English: if the students are to acquire the language
to a reasonable level – including the development of speaking skills - they need
to do more than “just” be in contact with the language through music and enter-
tainment :
TQ154: “because… em::: they are exposed to the language.. because most of them
…watch you know these ..videos.. they watch DVDs movies.. they copy a lot of in-
formation some of them..e::: they’re always listening to MP3 music (…) from time
to time they like they like e:: listening to music.. and music is the tool to:: the way
to:: make them to understand that language could be closer to them (…) but the fact
that talking the language is another thing. .. to concentrate in the class. to start deal-
ing with an activity .. that’s the problem because.. a:::.. this.. the system the system
that you can find nowadays at schools …allows the students to have the power to
say.. ‘if I don’t take care about the .. the subject I can pass anyway because I’m go-
ing to arrange.. they’re gonna do something about my grades.. because the system..

225 There is also a positive interpretation of the same term: cf. for example Mugaas’ online
article (2006), in which the creativity of young cultural producers is highlighted.

296
 supports me.’ and you you know that you can’t touch you can’t do anything against
the students.. but.. calling he or his or her attention.. that’s all you can do” (3M, 4)
It is interesting to see how Christian describes the students as powerful, self-
directed and at once hedonistic beings who indulge in passive entertainment and
confidently make decisions on how to derive advantage from a system that sup-
ports them, and in which he, as a teacher, is left with the feeling that he does not
really have much control over their learning, which is why they are actually
there. At the same time, in other parts of the interview, he portrays their world as
“very special.. they’ve got a lot of problems inside their homes… there’s a lot of
violence problems (…) some of them don’t eat a lot.. eat in well conditions. so
they’re sleepy they’re feeling sleepy all the time… some of them are involved
with drugs” (3M, 8/9). So the seemingly empowered students really belong to a
marginalised social class that “out there”, in the real world outside school, does
not have much access to power at all.
In another part of the interview, when discussing cultural contents, he con-
tinues to describe their values which seem to work according to a reversed logic;
again, technology plays a role here:
TQ155: “the kind of .. environment they come from.. they are not open-minded
about this because they’re just .. open-minded to ….this..em:: culture we’re living
in.. so… so… material-oriented. because they don’t have money for buying for ex-
ample their clothes you know the.. dress code [i.e. uniform] for coming to school ,
but you know that maybe they have more.. updated models .. mobile phones than
mine….. that’s the problem … it’s everything upside down” (3M, 9)
In spite of all his efforts to engage with their world and to make learning English
attractive to them, by showing them videos or smartening up worksheets with
pictures, he feels powerless – while having the expectations of society on his
side. Notice the way in which he self-corrects from a personal “we” (i.e., the
teachers) to an impersonal way of referring to the students’ tasks “what they
have to do”, pointing to the fact that it was not him or his colleagues who “in-
vented” the students’ tasks, but it is simply what “the world” expects from them:
TQ156: “they don’t follow the rules, they don’t want to work.. they want to do what
they want to do.. not what we.. what they have to do…. not .. besides the point that
you’re very creative.. that you ask the students to watch the video .. to work with .. I
don’t know .. handouts or something about.. you have to ask the students ‘please
concentrate.. work’ they don’t do anything in the class…. it’s terrible” (3M, 10)
His ultimate belief lies in respect – all the paraphernalia of motivating visuals
would really not be necessary if students respected him in the way he respected
his teachers when he was a child. When I asked him about his motivation to be-
come an English teacher, he answered – quite beside the point that I was actual-

297
ly looking for: “First of all, I always respect…respected my teachers when I was
at school.” (3M, 4) In that moment, I felt the need to insist that I had actually
been asking something different; however, the theme “respect” re-appeared a
little bit later, pointing to the fact that this issue was central to his views about
being a teacher, even if he is conscious that nowadays, other things are expected
from his professional group:
TQ157: “I had good memories about my English teachers too. Even they weren’t
maybe not so creative at all because they didn’t have in those days they didn’t have
so many …… em: I don’t know.. these kind of.. so many.. audiovisual aids .. like
nowadays teachers have. And.. but.. I respect them a lot.. (3M, 5)
To conclude, Christian’s interview reveals great contradictions in the role that
technology plays both at a generalised, cultural level in society and in class-
rooms. Whereas he perceives it as an aid to motivating students to complete cer-
tain tasks in the classroom, he mainly senses that there is a relationship between
technology and a youth culture in which education is irrelevant; this, again para-
doxically, is reinforced by an educational culture that has lost its emphasis on
teaching students to respect their elders. In this sense, it can also be seen that
Christian’s sense of agency is restricted, not only by the difficult relationship
with his students, but also by the lack of institutional support for teachers to
“control” the classroom, i.e. to establish an environment that is conducive to
learning.

10.3.2 Soledad (1M): Competition

Soledad is a middle-aged female teacher who works at an urban public school in
a large city. When I first made contact with her she “warned” me about the con-
flictive background of her school and her students. After the interview, she told
me that she was even considering leaving her school, as student discipline was
getting intolerable. The theme “technology” does not play a major role in her
interview, even if she refers to it two or three times; the main themes that per-
meate her statements are related to the precarious situation in which public edu-
cation finds itself nowadays, especially in terms of resources; student demotiva-
tion; and the decline in standards and student behaviour, which is in contrast to
her beginnings as a teacher, when her school was still selective and she still en-
joyed teaching.
The relationship that she describes between her teaching and technology is
one of competition to attract students’ attention. All this has to be understood
against the background of lacking resources in all areas; in her statements, she

298
uses the first person plural to indicate that her problem is shared by other teach-
ers:
TQ158: “lo que pasa es que no sé cuando yo empecé a hacer clases.. como treinta
años atrás.. el la situación en el mundo era diferente en ese tiempo.. no había celula-
res.. no había MP3.. no había toda esta tecnología que hay ahora.. y que con la cual
nosotros competimos ahora.. y nosotros como nos hemos quedado un poco atrás con
todo eso.. todavía nosotros estamos con el pizarrón y casi con la tiza bueno con el
plumón… tenemos pocos elementos como para atraer a los chiquillos a ... porque
nosotros luchamos incluso con que nos pongan los vidrios en el invierno te fijas.. en-
tonces.. claro.. nos faltarían muchas otras cosas como para atraer a los chiquillos un
buen: ... como algo.. una planificación así buena para ponerlos al computador.. para
que no se metan ellos a Internet no más .. no.. no.. sino algo específico que tú lo
mandes y que con eso aprendan inglés pero más entretenido.. te fijas no en la sala de
clase no más” (1M, 5)226
Her experience has also shown her that she cannot expect there to be much im-
pact from technological progress in her school, as any ICT resources would nev-
er be sufficient for her class size:
TQ159: “en algunos colegios hay laboratorios de inglés (…) sí.. pero en el mío no
hay… y si hubiera hay que hacerlo así mitad y mitad o sea no sé .. se lleva una mitad
de una clase.. la otra clase se llevará la otra mitad porque de todas maneras más de
veinte cabinas no::... no:: pondrían… porque con los computadores que tenemos lo
hacemos así.. veinte una clase.. veinte otra más” (1M, 3)227
Another difficulty that she describes in detail is the way in which student demo-
tivation affects her own enthusiasm as a teacher. There is a general tone of frus-
tration and resignation in the interview, like when she states that she has given
up on sending her students homework tasks (1M, 4). In the following passage,

226 “The thing is that I don’t know when I started teaching, like thirty years ago, the situa-
tion in the world was different in those times. There were no mobile phones, there was
no MP3, there wasn’t all this technology that there is now, and with which we compete
now. And we have been left behind a bit with all that: we are still with the board and the
chalk well with the board marker. We have few elements like to attract the kids
to…because we struggle even for them [school administrators] to install windowpanes
in the winter you see. So of course, we would need many other things to attract the kids,
like good planning to put them [to work] on the computer… So they don’t only surf the
Internet, but something specific that you send and with that they learn English but more
fun, you see, not just in the classroom”.
227 “In some schools there are English laboratories (…) yes, but in mine there aren’t. And if
there were we would have to do it like half and half I mean, you take half a class and the
next lesson you take the other half because anyway they wouldn’t put more than twenty
booths .. because with the computers that we have we do it like that.. twenty one lesson,
twenty in another one”.

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what caught my attention is the impersonal way in which she talks about her ex-
haustion – this might point to a certain way of distancing to avoid loss of face,
or also to indicate that there is a generalised problem that affects other teachers
in the same situation as hers; the emphasis in the translation is mine 228:
TQ160: “yo a lo mejor no sé po yo hace yo demasiados años que estoy en ese liceo..
y vi cuando ese liceo era muy bueno ... a lo que es ahora.. porque antes incluso se
hacía selección de alumnos entonces eran buenos chiquillos.. buenos alu... y buenos
como persona también ah.. porque además había una familia detrás… los tiempos no
eran como ahora tan tan difíciles que todo el mundo sale a trabajar y anda apurado
entonces respondían más y estaban más interesados y uno podía trabajar y si uno les
decía xxx y ... hagamos esto otro y lo hacían con entusiasmo.. este entusiasmo no lo
tienen los chiquillos.. y uno llega y trata de hacerlo y xxx pero uno mismo como el
desgaste para uno es muy grande.. muy grande.. entonces de repente uno también
ahí como que... no le pone el mismo entusiasmo que antes” (1M, 7)229
When proposing remedies in the last section of the interview, she immediately
asks for a reduction in class sizes, referring to the teachers’ union that has been
fighting for this for many years; the point that immediately follows is a language
laboratory:
TQ161: “primero que nada que bajaran el número de alumnos ... eso el Colegio de
Profesores lo ha peleado pero durante años y años y jamás se ha logrado.. porque la
educación como no depende del ministerio y está ... emmm.... ahí corre más la parte
económica, entonces a los sostenedores no les conviene tener menos de cuarenta y
cinco alumnos ... ya, entonces para nosotros lo ideal serían treinta, treinta y cinco
cuando más ya partimos por ahí y lo otro que que si se pudiera implementar más en
todos los colegios municipalizados la parte de por ejemplo laboratorio” (1M, 8)230

228 The translation with “one” is an effort to convey the impersonal style of the Spanish
“uno”; however, “uno” is more frequent in informal spoken language in Spanish than
“one” in English. On the other hand, the impersonal use of “you” in English would not
reflect the same distancing effect. Finally, there is also an impersonal Spanish “tú”,
which has a connotation of greater intimacy with the interlocutor than “you” in English.
229 “I maybe have been at this school for too many years, and I saw when this school was
very good, compared to what it is now, because before students were even selected so
they were good kids, good stu[dents] and good as persons too because there was a fa-
mily behind. The times were not like now so difficult, now everybody leaves for work
and is in a hurry so they were more responsive and more interested and one could work
and if one told them that xxx let’s do this they did it with enthusiasm. This enthusiasm
is missing in the kids.. and one gets there and tries to do it. But the exhaustion for one-
self is very big, very big. So maybe one does not bring the same enthusiasm as before.”
230 “First of all they should cut student numbers. The teachers’ union has fought for this for
many many years and it has never been achieved because education does not depend on
the ministry and… the economic part is more important there so it does not serve the lo-
cal authorities’ purposes to have fewer than forty-five students. So for us ideally we

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The importance that she gives to these issues is not only derived from her identi-
fication with the teachers’ union, but also from her own experience. The follow-
ing quote is extracted from a part of the interview when I asked her about a posi-
tive experience as a teacher:
TQ162: “de repente los diálogos pero algunos cursos compartidos con la profesora
de francés que todavía hacen francés porque como hay profesora de francés entonces
hacemos la mitad del curso… hacemos para la parte oral ahí.. yo aprovecho… como
ahí me quedan veinticinco (…) entonces eso ya es más divertido. más dinámico. y
ya no se aburren po... hasta puedo hacerlos ver las diferencias de de fonética (…) pe-
ro antes no antes puu las clases eran ricas antes antes” (1M,7) 231
It is noteworthy that the importance that she gives to oral work and her interest
in making her lessons entertaining and dynamic is linked to her belief that for
language learning, you also need silence:
TQ163: “porque ahí también son harto desordenados.. y de repente para el inglés
hay que estar más en silencio.. hay que poner más atención.. si quiero hacer algo
oral me tienen que escuchar” (1M, 5)232
Finally, at the very end of the interview she stresses that motivation is really a
key issue, and again, the hope for a solution lies in technology. To introduce this
point, she tells me about a project that has been created to support those schools
with the lowest results in standardised tests:
TQ164: “la universidad que nos tocó a nosotros es la [name of a state university]
ya… entonces ellos fueron al liceo e hicieron un diagnóstico (…) estuvimos conver-
sando el día que nos reunimos.. por lo menos en mi especialidad.. y todos concor-
damos en eso.. la parte mot... a:... motivación.. eso es lo que más nos falta.. porque
uno con los años uno de repente uno ya uno trabaja como isla porque yo soy casi ya
la única persona ya en el colegio porque hay otros cabros que hacen clase pero son
poquitas horas porque los veo xxx nunca entonces de repente a uno se le acaban los
... las ideas po entonces y como te decía denante.. la parte... e:: tecnológica ha
avanzado tanto que pudiera uno motivarlos con cosas más visuales... entonces eso

would have thirty, at the most thirty-five so we start there and the other thing is that
they could implement more for example laboratories in all public schools”).
231 “Maybe [doing] dialogues, but some shared classes with the French teacher because
they still do French because as there is a French teacher we do half of the class. We do
the oral part there. I take the opportunity as I have only twenty-five, so that is already
more fun, more dynamic, they aren’t bored any longer… I can even make them see
phonetic differences… but before, no, before oh the lessons were pleasant before.”
232 “Because they are also very badly behaved there. And probably for English you have to
be more in silence, you have to pay more attention… if I want to do oral work they have
to listen to me.”

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 nosotros le pedimos ayuda a los de inglés de la [name of a state university] que nos
dieran más ideas con respecto a motivación” (1M, 8/9)233
Again, Soledad uses the impersonal “uno” for talking about her own, isolated
and maybe worn out way of working, while stressing that all teachers - “we all”
- agreed on the problem that student demotivation poses. Another point that is
important in her interview is that she refers to the prospect of introducing more
ICT resources in a conditional clause (“que pudiera uno motivarlos”), as if see-
ing it as a mere remote possibility.
In conclusion, Soledad is mostly concerned with the restricted access to re-
sources as she feels that this has resulted in her (and colleagues in the same situ-
ation) being excluded from the opportunity to motivate her students with more
up-to-date teaching tools. In that sense, she views technology more as a hope
than as a threat. On the other hand, she does not refer much to the rise of English
in society (linked to technology) as do other teachers, who consider that this has
helped to level out the gap between the upper class and the lower classes in
terms of their access to English (see TQ148 above). The picture she draws of her
teaching setting is rather gloomy; an educational system that functions according
to the logic of an unequal society has simply left her and her students behind,
demotivated and without much hope that things are really going to change for
the better: here, it is her relationship with “bureaucracies of societies” that inter-
fere with her sense of agency and teacher autonomy.

10.3.3 Gabriela (11S): Success

Gabriela is another teacher who has appeared before, in the section on motiva-
tional strategies (10.2): the “motivator par excellence”, she seems to be in great
control over her students’ motivation and learning. Great part of her sense of
agency is derived from her relationship to technology in conjunction with her
closeness to youth culture – pop culture in English. What certainly helps is that

233“The university that has been selected to work with us is [name of a state university]
right… so they went to the school and made a diagnosis (…) we were talking the day
that we met, at least in my subject area, and we all agreed on that, motivation, that is
what we need the most.. because one after so many years one is like working like an is-
land because I am nearly the only person at school because there are other young people
who teach here but they have just a few hours, because I never see them; so sometimes
one runs out of ideas so as I said before… technology has advanced so much that one
could motivate them with more visual things… so we asked the people from the English
department at [name of a state university] to give us more ideas regarding motivation”

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her school seems to be well equipped, and that she has the skills to use the
equipment for her purposes.
TQ165: “KG: porque tú dijiste que tú .. tú los ves ¿supermotivados?
G: sí
KG: pero es.. por lo que tú haces .... en la sala de clase... ¿y tú podrías por
ejemplo decir.. no sé..... cuáles son las cosas (…) que tú haces ... o los temas que to-
cas.... qué sé yo (…)
G: mira generalmente soy bien tecnológica.... ya.. entonces siempre... de acuer-
do a las unidades temáticas ....siempre preparo cosas... o bajo videos desde youtube
.... o por ejemplo ya.... la primera unidad del libro de uno de los libros se llama Life-
styles (…) ya entonces.. yo me preocupé ... y había una canción.... que era de un
grupo que era My Chemical Romance o algo así..... era..... The Lifestyles of the Rich
and the Famous .... y bajé el video .. y les bajé la::s lyrics .... ya entonces..... con
esa:: con eso partió la unidad..... (…) y con el video ahí de youtube conectado y todo
y entonces yo creo que esas cosas.... que un alumno vea un profesor que se meta ....
y las cosas más simples .... que tú veas que tu profesor... se meta a youtube... conoce
My Chemical Romance.... a mí me gusta My Chemical Romance ¿me entendís? .......
a:::::: .. motiva.... o:: ‘este grupo me gusta a mí lo puso la profe en la clase de inglés’
.. ¿me entiendes?...... o a veces creo actividades en Internet .... y les doy una tarea
..pequeña les digo ... mándenmelo a mi correo (…) entonces los chiquillos muchas
veces así como.... ‘oye le mando mis tareas a mi profe por Internet .... por mail’.....
esas cosas mínimas tú no te imaginas como motivan a los niños..... porque para ellos
es como ‘wow... mi profe es cool es chora::::’ ¿me entiendes? que son cosas tan:::::
por lo menos.... yo lo hago porque a mí me gusta Internet... me gusta la tecnología..
yo busco páginas relacionadas co:n.. o siempre...un artículo... se lo muestro ahí::.. en
la pantalla... e::: porque a mí me gusta.... hay profes que ni siquiera tienen correo
electrónico..... entonces de repente entre.... a hacer una clase super tradicional y ha-
cer una clase..... que tenga que ver con:::: eso...” (11S, 5)234

234 “KG: Because you said that you see that they are super motivated (…) – what do you do
in the classroom, or what topics to you touch on… (…) Gabriela: Look, generally I am
pretty technological, so I always, according to the thematic units, prepare things, down-
load videos from youtube, or for example the first unit of one of the books is called Li-
festyles. So I made an effort, there was a song by a group called My Chemical Romance
which was The Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous, and I downloaded the video and
the lyrics, so the unit started with that. And with the youtube video there and all that, I
think that (…) a students sees a teacher who goes to … the simplest things, that you see
that your teacher goes to youtube, knows My Chemical Romance… I like My Chemical
Romance, you see? Oh, this motivates [them], or: ‘I like this group, the teacher put it on
in the English lesson’, you see? Or sometimes I create activities on the Internet and I gi-
ve them a small task and tell them ‘send it to me by e-mail’ (…) So the kids often say
‘hey I send my homework to my teacher by Internet, by mail.’ These minimal things
you can’t imagine how they motivate the children… because for them it is like ‘wow,
my teacher is cool’ you know? It’s things that are so… at least I do them because I like

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Gabriela uses her students’ direct speech in her account to highlight their posi-
tive reaction towards her teaching style and also their identification with her: the
possessive adjective “my teacher” expresses the strong link that she feels be-
tween her students and herself. Her self-confidence as a teacher is also ex-
pressed by her personal way of referring to the activities that she designs – it all
seems to have been her own invention, there is no reference to anybody else
who might have influenced that, apart from the students, but even her own mu-
sical taste goes along with theirs. She also draws the line between herself and
other teachers “who don’t even have e-mail”, highlighting that her up-to-date
technological approach is exactly what youngsters need nowadays to be moti-
vated to participate in the learning process.
It remains unclear whether the students’ behaviour and study attitudes are no
problem because of her successful approach to teaching, or because her school is
different in terms of student population, discipline policies, the families’ social
background or any other factor that might have an influence. She does not refer
to any of those issues in the interview. Another topic that she does not mention
directly is the increasing significance of English in society; on the other hand,
her interview is marked by a great empathy with the students’ world – it rather
seems that she has completely internalised the importance that movies and mu-
sic in English and the modern entertainment media have for the students nowa-
days. Her beliefs seem free from any kind of resistance against this “modernity”
or opposing ideology. On the other hand, the thematic link that she mentions in
one of the quotes above is also significant in her belief system, which will be
explored in the following chapter (10.4).

10.3.4 Conclusion
In this section, I have tried to show that part of the teachers’ sense of agency is
also developed in its relationship to bureaucracies at the whole-society level;
here, especially, in relation to the resources that are (or are not) made available
to engage students through technology. We have seen that currently, here in
Chile, this is a complex and multi-facetious aspect of language pedagogy, and
before concluding, I would like to briefly expand on this point in order to pro-
vide more background information.

the Internet, I like technology, I look for pages (…) or an article and show it to them on
the screen, because I like it. There are teachers who don’t even have e-mail. So maybe
between teaching a super traditional lesson and teaching a lesson that has to do with
this…”

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 One of the reasons why I have chosen to dedicate a whole sub-chapter to the
issue of technology is that in educational policies and governmental decision-
making, when it comes to budgeting, a great deal of money is spent on techno-
logical equipment for schools: for example, in 2007, the Bachelet government
announced that around 200 million dollars would be invested in the programme
“Enlaces” (= Links), for ICT equipment, software, Internet access and the rele-
vant teacher training for schools (Cf. MINEDUC / ENLACES, no year). - The
main reason given to justify this expenditure was to close the digital divide be-
tween Chile and developed countries. Technology is often perceived to be (or
“sold as”) the innovative solution to various problems in schools nowadays; at
the same time there are economic reasons behind these decisions, which benefit
big businesses, even if they do not turn out to be an advantage for society as a
whole. For example, as Correia (2009) states, since its start “Enlaces” has not
had any impact on learning outcomes in the student population. Dominant dis-
courses that are there to justify political decisions like these have certainly man-
aged to convince many people, including some teachers:
“There seems to be a general sense, encouraged by marketing, that technology can
solve problems at a stroke, and in general make areas of life easier, more entertain-
ing or more efficient. (…) The prevalent assumption appears to be that as technolo-
gy can solve the problem of entertainment or communication, then it must surely be
able to solve the problem of education equally easily.” (Bax 2000: 208)
On the other hand, there are also alternative discourses that call into ques-
tion the idea that technology is the real solution and that it is doing more harm
than help, especially in the area of education, as children’s and teenagers’ cogni-
tive and emotional development might be stunted by an over-exposure to the
computer screen, and funds that used to be destined for additional human re-
sources, remedial or extracurricular activities at schools might be cut in favour
of expensive ICT equipment (e.g. Craig 2009, Haughton 1999).
As pointed out above, these perceptions are present in the teachers’ state-
ments, in various ways:
1) Several teachers believe that more technology could be of great help, espe-
cially in the task of motivating the students to learn English. For the teacher
who reports the highest levels of student motivation, the Internet is a key
source of information, classroom resource, and tool for creating independent
learning opportunities, such as homework tasks that have to be sent by e-
mail. It constitutes an integral part of her professional pride and sense of
agency.
2) On the other hand, many teachers think that the presence of technology in
society has created more problems for them. This is not just because they feel

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 that schools are lagging behind in this area, but also because the “fast and
easy” culture of the Internet is contrary to study habits that they view as nec-
essary for learning the language.235 Thus, it gets in the way of their efforts to
promote a positive, constructive dynamic in the classroom.
3) Thus, there are other issues that seem to be more urgent than the equipment
in itself, for example: class sizes need to be reduced; if equipment is bought,
there should be enough to go round for all students. Behaviour policies need
to be implemented to support teachers in their work in the classroom. Teach-
ers clearly have to be trained in the skills they need in order to use the new
technologies meaningfully. Without these conditions, even if the ICT infra-
structure is improved, teachers will not necessarily develop the sense of con-
trol and agency that they need in order to be able to guide students towards
durable learning outcomes.
Finally, the Internet and other ICT resources are not simply a technical solution
to a problem. Meaningful contents, whether they originate from traditional text-
books or from selected websites continue to play a major role in the motivation
game. These contents will be the topic of the coming chapter.

10.4 Motivational and Empowering Contents

After exploring the relationships between the teachers’ sense of agency and stu-
dent motivation, motivational talk and other strategies, and access to or use of
ICT resources, I would now like to come back to the more central question of
this research investigation: the importance of cultural contents in English Lan-
guage Teaching, especially in relation to student motivation. For this final sub-
chapter, I have selected interview passages in which three teachers talk about
their experiences with specific cultural topics. So that this take on this issue can
be the most constructive possible, I have selected extracts where the teachers in
some way or other – despite facing evident difficulties – expressed their satisfac-
tion with the work they were doing with the students, as opposed to those teach-
ers whose interviews were marked by a tone of generalised frustration or resig-
nation.
In order to continue investigating their sense of agency and autonomy, I will
examine how these teachers have found their own creative ways of dealing with
cultural content. Also, I will try to show how they have, if not developed, at

235 This phenomenon has been subsumed under the term Medienverwahrlosung (“media
squalor” or “abandonment”) in Germany in recent years, cf. Blell & Kupetz 2005,
Volkmann 2005b.

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least appropriated specific cultural objectives which they want their students to
achieve, constituting certain priorities in their daily work. “Imposed” textbook
contents play only a minor role in their accounts. Rather, here are some good
examples of the ways in which teacher creativity can turn these textbooks into
useful resources, instead of additional obstacles to struggle with (cf. chapter
9.3.2).
For the purposes of this analysis, it is also necessary to bear in mind the
proposed critical and empowering learning objectives for English Language-
and-Culture Teaching (especially in the Chilean context) made in chapter 4.3.
For a brief recap, they include the general principles of enjoyment and the de-
velopment of a sense of ownership of the language. Then, access to human ex-
periences elsewhere through English should help to develop empathy and work
as an eye-opener for the individual’s own situation, giving her/him the ability to
confront it constructively. Other objectives point at the critical examination of
cultural products from various origins, as well as the analysis and eventual de-
construction of harmful stereotypes and prejudices. For a more active use of the
language, it is recommended that students analyse intercultural communicative
situations to develop greater sensitivity to their peculiarities, and to create op-
portunities for the students to participate in global discourses. Last but not least,
English lessons should contain some information about the historical reasons
behind English’s status as a global language, and the implications that this lin-
guistic situation might have for other languages, especially those belonging to
ethnic minorities.

10.4.1 Gabriela (11S): World Cultures by Topics

Gabriela’s interview has already received a lot of attention, both because of her
account of apparently successful motivational strategies (10.2.3), and because of
Gabriela’s positive experiences with technology and the new media (10.3.3).
However, for me it was really her own, very personal way of combining lan-
guage and culture teaching that caught my attention the most. With respect to
language, she is the sole teacher to make some reference to her students’ linguis-
tic achievements: she says that all her students pass English placement tests
when they enter Higher Education institutions, and therefore do not need to take
elementary / pre-intermediate English courses again. As for culture, she seems
to enjoy innovative ways of combining different “world culture” topics. On the
other hand, as she spent a few weeks in England for an in-service teacher train-
ing course, she also likes to use her own experiences in this English-speaking
country in her lessons.

307
 With regard to her principles, we have already seen that closeness to the stu-
dents’ world is essential for her, for example by using the new technologies that
the students also enjoy. Furthermore, topicality is another important concern for
her. Thus, she says that some topics simply “emerge”, as they are connected to
current world-wide events:
TQ166: “a mí me gusta Inglaterra entonces .. yo.. a veces les hago disertaciones so-
bre las cosas que yo visité::: o por ejemplo no sé po cosas que a ellos les interesa
.....e: .. cuando hemos hablado de Stonehenge por ejemplo ... es un tema que a ellos
les gusta ....todo lo que tiene que ver con el lado misterioso lo oculto.... los ovnis
(…) o no necesariamente Inglaterra no sé po.. si hablamos de Egi::pto a lo mejor les
gusta por cierto aspe:cto... o Brasi::l ..por el fú:tbol por las pla:yas (…) que podemos
hablar de otros países... de otras culturas.... que no solamente son de habla inglesa
.... que puede ser ..no sé po.. Brasil Perú Bolivia ... Macchu Picchu.... (KG: y ahí tú
sientes que de repente tienes más interés que en los países de habla inglesa?) (…) es
lo mismo... sí.... sí..... pero es lo mismo ¿sabes por qué yo creo? porque no todos los
alumnos aquí en Chile tienen la oportunidad de conocer (…) entonces cualquier cosa
que tú les presentes como:::: algo novedoso .... o una cultura..... o un monumento.....
o una creación....a ellos igual les va a interesar.. igual... una vez trabajamos me
acuerdo... las siete maravillas del mundo.... eso fue (…) en el dos mil siete.... porque
estaba la elección de las siete maravillas (…) había una página Seven Wonders (…)
of the World …. entonces había que votar y estaba la Isla de Pascua... entonces tam-
bién fue un trabajo entretenido... yo siempre trabajo también con la contingencia en-
tonces .... cada uno trabajó.... una maravilla..... hicimos campaña en el colegio para
que votara la gente por la Isla de Pascua... entonces... se van generando distintas te-
máticas de acuerdo a la contingencia... este año también trabajé harto con las olim-
piadas.... con los.... deportes olímpicos.... con los países que participaban.... yo creo
que de acuerdo a la contingencia.... se van dando los temas no más....” (11S, 7/8)236

236 “I like England so sometimes I give them presentations about the things that I visited.
Or for example, I don’t know, things that they are interested in … when we have talked
about Stonehenge for example, it’s a topic that they like because everything that has to
do with the occult, mysterious, UFOs… or not necessarily England, if we talk about
Egypt maybe they like it because of a certain aspect, or Brazil, because of football, be-
cause of the beaches. We can talk about other countries, other cultures that are not only
English-speaking; they could be, I don’t know, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Machu Picchu.
(KG: And there do you feel that sometimes you get more interest than in English-
speaking countries?) No, it’s the same, and do you know why I think that is? Because
not all the students here in Chile have the opportunity to get to know [those places], so
anything that you present as something novel, a culture, or a monument, or a creation,
they will find it interesting anyway. Once I remember we worked on the Seven Won-
ders of the World. That was in 2007, because there was the election of the Seven Won-
ders. There was a website. So people had to vote and Easter Island was there. So that
was fun work too. I always work with current issues so everybody worked on one Won-
der. We organised a campaign at school so that people vote for Easter Island. So differ-

308
However, it is not only topicality that makes her approach so interesting: the
campaign at school for people to vote in this online vote on the “Wonders of the
World” also includes other educational principles, some of which are usually
propagated by project-oriented teaching-learning settings: for example, the cam-
paign contemplates the school community as its audience and calls for action in
“real life” (cf. Gudjons 1997:73ff., Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von Ditfurth
2007: 47ff.). The world-wide democratic participation factor, even if it is mainly
symbolic, adds more educational value to this activity. In those terms, the activi-
ty described here in some way provides the opportunity to participate in world
discourses, which could, of course, be further developed.
Later in the interview, Gabriela describes a thematic unit in which she
worked with an unusual combination of “source culture” and “international cul-
ture” (cf. Cortazzi & Jin 1999, McKay 2002:88ff.). However, her use of cultural
material really serves another purpose: developing “higher thinking skills”, such
as comparing, contrasting, reasoning, etc.
TQ167: “una vez .. (…) .. vimos.. una película que era ... El Último Samurai ... (…)
que era sobre toda la cultura japonesa.... (…) entonces... yo les hice hacer un trabajo
que los compararan con .... los mapuche.... (…) que no tiene nada que ver [laughs] ...
tú me puedes decir... nada que ver.... pero al final igual encontramos hartos puntos
de comparación .... (…) tanto e:::::::m tanto el de:::: diferencias como de similitudes
¿me entiendes? porqué:::: no sé porque usaban espada ..los otros no usaban espada
..pero eran guerreros ... de estructura social.... ¿me entiendes? entonces.... de repen-
te.. siempre me gusta llevarlos a puntos que ellos.... razonen y digan a::: o o o yo me
daba risa porque yo misma me me me impresionaba o sea.... no tiene nada que ver
po o sea si tú comparai Japón con Chile no tiene nada que ver.... (…) entonces e::::::
es eso ¿me entiendes? trato de siempre llevarlos un poquito más allá y::: como el in-
glés es una lengua:::... tú puedes hablar de cualquier cosa po.... puedes hablar de
medicina.... puedes hablar ... de las flores.... no sé po.... e::: de cómo se hacen los va-
sos.... e: te lleva a muchos... a muchos rincones... ¿me entiendes? (…) (KG: [laughs]
(…) ¿y tú tienes algunos aspectos como... digamos que son como de cultura... del
mundo... que a ti te interesan mucho?) a mí me interesan mucho y siempre trato
de::::: de llevar el::: camino par’ allá..” (11S, 9)237

ent topics are generated according to topicality. This year I also worked a lot with the
Olympic Games, Olympic sports, with the countries that participated. I believe that ac-
cording to present-day events, topics emerge by themselves.”
237 “Once we watched a movie, The Last Samurai, which was all about Japanese culture.
So I asked them to work on a comparison with the Mapuche – where there is no relation
at all. You could tell me that there is no connection at all. But at last we found a lot of
points of comparison anyway. Both differences and similarities, you see? Because I
don’t know, they used swords, the others didn’t, but they were warriors, social struc-
ture… you see? So sometimes I like to take them to points where they can reason and
say… It made me laugh because I was impressed myself. I mean, there is no connec-

309
It is important to remember that the observation that English can be used to talk
about basically any topic has led others to conclude that therefore English can be
taught “without culture”. Fortunately, this is not the case with Gabriela: her mis-
sion clearly includes broadening students’ cultural horizons. Even so, whether
she chooses this approach primarily for motivational purposes in order to
achieve other aims, such as her students’ cognitive and linguistic development,
or pursues some other educational objective through the use of these contents
remains implicit in her interview.
At the end of chapter 9, the issue of the appropriate scaffolding of cultural
content was mentioned, which seems to be a major difficulty for several teach-
ers. This problem occurs especially when it has to be done on the basis of de-
contextualised textbook content, and in combination with linguistically chal-
lenging texts that also need scaffolding, for vocabulary and linguistic structures.
Here, on the other hand, Gabriela shows how she goes about to introduce a unit
that according to herself is difficult - literary culture:
TQ168: “siempre siempre en mis clases... están basadas en cosas culturales... o::::
hay un módulo en en:: en cuarto medio que se llama cultura literaria entonces.... (…)
.. vemos Hamlet..a Emily Dickinson... y lo comparamos con no sé...xxxxxx
....vamos a la Sebastiana hasta de paseo... (…) (KG: ¿y enganchan con eso?) no mu-
cho... (…) pero:::: parto por la .. la música... (…) siempre::::: e:::: les hago que trai-
gan por ejemplo la música que a ellos les gusta.... y tú podrías decir que esto es un
poe:::ma.... (…) ‘¿y por qué podrías deci:rlo::?’ y::: parto por ahí po entonces de re-
pente igual... enganchan un po:co y les digo... por lo menos para que conozcan hay
algunos que viven.. no sé po.. quince años de su vida acá y no conocían la Sebastia-
na... yo todos los años los llevo a la Sebastiana para ese módulo... (…) y se maravi-
llan.. ‘o .. profe.. qué lin’... aunque sea que se maravillen con la vista.... (…) pero::
por último alguna vez en su vida han xxxx ‘yo conocí la Sebastiana porque mi profe
de inglés me llevó’...” (11S, 10)238

tion, if you compare Japan with Chile, no connection at all. So you see, I always try to
take them a bit beyond and as English is a language in which you can talk about any-
thing: about medicine, about flowers, about I don’t know, how glasses are made, it takes
you to many corners, you see. (KG: And are there any aspects of world culture that in-
terest you a lot?) They interest me a lot and I always try to take the path that way.”
238 “Always, always my lessons are based on cultural things. There is a module in Year 12
that is called literary culture so we have a look at Hamlet and Emily Dickinson and we
compare it to… (…) We go to Pablo Neruda’s house on a trip. (KG: And do they en-
gage with that?) Not a lot… but I start with music, so I always ask them to bring the
music that they like, and you could say that this is a poem. ‘And why could you say
that?’ And I start from there, so sometimes they engage a bit anyway and I say, at least
so they get to know. There are some who have lived here for fifteen years and they have
never been to Pablo Neruda’s house. So I take them there every year for that module.
And they are amazed, “Oh Miss, how beautiful’, even if they only marvel at the view.

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Her approach tackles the “new” and apparently fairly “alien” topic literature
through two different ways of access. One is the students’ very “own” youth cul-
ture: music and song lyrics which they can choose and bring to class. The other
one takes the students out of their usual classroom environment, out and into
their own countries’ cultural life and thus building on “universals” of human
life: a poetic stance towards life in general.
To conclude, Gabriela’s approach is exciting because it combines compari-
sons between the students’ own culture with international and target culture ma-
terials. In addition to this, her participatory, active methodology in which stu-
dents get involved into a variety of cultural and linguistic activities as “whole”
persons seems to bear fruits.

10.4.2 Tania (12M) : from small-c culture to big-C culture

Tania is another teacher whose motivational talks and strategies have served as a
positive point of reference, contrasting the experiences of some of those teachers
whose sense of agency seems to suffer in the face of similar difficulties (cf.
10.2.4). The interview with her is also very special as it develops the topic of
motivation from the beginning, without much prompting from my side. My ini-
tial question about the meaning of being an English teacher in Chile is immedi-
ately answered by her own motivations about learning and teaching English,
which are very much related to reading and the possibility of broadening one’s
perspective. Thus, I immediately follow up her answer with the question about
how much her own motivation is probably reflected by the students’. This leads
her to explain the complexities of the “cultural” environment in which she
works, first, in the context of her students’ future aspirations:
TQ169: “el nivel:: social de ellas ..o cultural:: .. es súper reducido .. es súper bajo..
imagínate que yo a veces les hago trabajos.... e:: que.. hagan un afiche.. e:: de .. no
sé po de algún lugar que ellas e:: puedan mostra::r de Chile de [a large city near the
town they live] yo siempre les doy algunos ejemplos.. y ellas no saben.. bueno .. al-
gunas .. y dicen.. ‘a ver es que no sé .. no conozco’ ‘¿pero cómo .. no has ido a [large
city near the town they live]?’.. ‘no.. una vez fui:: ya’.. la profesora de lenguaje ...
las saca harto y las trae acá de: casco histórico.. (…) les hace un recorrido bien in-
teresante bien entretenido.. y sabes que las niñas de eso comentan.. de esos viajes..
no conocen mucho más.. que eso” (12M, 3)239

But at least some time in their lives they have (…) ‘I got to know Pablo Neruda’s house
because my English teacher took me there’.”
239 “Their social or cultural level is super reduced, super low. Imagine that sometimes I ask
them to (…) make a poster of some place I don’t know that they can show of Chile, of

311
Then, Tania quickly moves on to lay out her theories about teacher action to-
wards student motivation. Interestingly, she first refers to “theoretical” educa-
tional discourse - “words that are used a lot” – to introduce the ideas of owner-
ship and meaningful contents:
TQ170: “que sea pertinente lo que uno enseña y que sea:.. atracti::vo y:: (…) que se
apropien.. de::: de los contenidos .. de las situaciones.. qué sea significativo” (12M,
3)240
However, in her accounts later on it becomes clear that these ideas have really
become part and parcel of her own beliefs, and that she, herself, has experienced
what it means to find meaningful contents of which the students happily take
ownership. She is also very clear about the limits and liberties she has as a
teacher, working at a public school where some contents are dictated by the
government curriculum and school programmes. What works well for her is that
it is only grammar contents and skills that are pre-established. Concerning top-
ics, she is allowed to make her own selection, as long as they are compatible
with the grammar and skills she needs to cover. In those terms, her own and the
students’ interests both play a role: at the beginning of the school year, she uses
surveys with students to find out about their likes and dislikes, to inform her top-
ic choice later on. On the other hand, she says that when she notices that a topic
(e.g. from the textbook) bores even her, she tries to quickly wrap up the unit and
move on.
What I found especially interesting in this interview is that there are some
issues that are closely related to the framework on cultural contents presented in
chapter 4, which, however, seem to spring from her own reflections; at least she
does not make any more explicit references to educationalists or cultural theo-
rists. I will briefly present two extracts, which are taken first from the middle
part, the other one from the end of the interview, before summing up the main
ideas. The juxtaposition of the two extracts will also show that there are certain
parallels, which point at the stability of her belief system:
TQ171: “para la elección de temáticas ahí va::. en mi:. digamos mi:: criterio propio
de:: de entretenerlas pero que también apren aprendan otras cosas (…) que no sea al-

[a large city near the town they live]. I always give them some examples. And they
don’t know, well, some of them, and say ‘well, I don’t know [that place]’. ‘But have
you never gone to [the large city near the town they live]?’ ‘No, well, I went once.’ The
Spanish teacher takes them out a lot and takes them to the old town and goes on a really
interesting and fun trip with them. And you know that the kids keep talking about those
trips. They don’t know much more than that.”
240 “What one teaches needs to be pertinent and attractive, so they can take ownership of
the contents, of the situations. It needs to be meaningful.”

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 go tan vacío .. que no sea no sé po hablar solamente de::: de.. un canta:nte.. pero que
aprendan una cosita más.. que .. ampliarle lo cultural.. (KG: ya.. ¿y como qué cosas
por ejemplo en en esos términos? .. ¿puedes dar algunos ejemplos? (…)) por ejemp-
lo una vez vimos un extracto de Hamlet… e:: era un resumen en realidad... entonces
después vimos algunas escenas de la película ... de Mel Gibson.. esa que es más mo-
derna.. e:: les gustó harto (…) yo pensé que no .. pero con la frase to be or not to be
ya es como ser o no ser como ellas de alguna: manera la traen por ahí: .. se acorda-
ron .. y la historia es interesante ..como era era un film review ... entonces era mos-
traban los detalles más… más importantes.. (…) les gustó harto.. he visto e:: Hamlet
... e::::m biografías.. una vez una de Nicanor Parra ... de:: .. después ellas buscan ya
yo les muestro un modelo a veces de: sor Teresa .. por ejemplo.. o de Martin Luther
King ... esa la vimos la otra vez chiquitita .. y::: explicaba lo del:: del caso Parks ..
de Rosa Parks .. de que se subía al bus y le pidieron que dieran el asiento .. y les en-
cantó..” (12M, 5)241
TQ172: “yo creo que:: que pescar no sé po.. a::: Ricky Martin como ejemplo está
bien (…) y ellas se entusiasman .. pero después ellas tienen que buscar de algo más
importante.. en relación ya no sé po.. e:: Mozart.. si es de la música .. entonces ven o
vemos varios tipos de música pop música clásica rock entonces ya.. ahí .. empeza-
mos a meter un poco el bagaje cultural po o:: otras cositas.. películas .. por ahí ve-
mos películas.. la unidad se llamaba films.. entonces vimos Notting Hill .. después
empezamos hablar de otras películas entonces algo primero que sea atractivo .. oh
que me encanta el Hugh Grant [laughs].. yo estuve todo el rato así.. (KG: [laughs])
e::: y se ríen porque yo les digo ay me encanta él:: siempre les digo.. o le digo cosas
a la pantalla y ellas se ríen .. claro.. y:::: e:: podemos partir con algo:: muy interesan-
te para ellas.. o muy light.. pero después viene la otra parte que ellas después no se
dan cuenta .. y se entusiasman.. porque una vez vimos una unidad de:: (…) personas
que hacen algo.. bueno por la humanidad .. entonces ahí vimos el del Martin Luther
Ki:ng .. del boico:t.. y yo les decía ‘y aquí qué hacemos los chilenos nos suben el pa-
saje.. y seguimos viajando.. entonces los niños caminaban kilómetros .. y no toma-
ban el bus .. por un año .. un año .. se imaginan’ y empezamos a conversar.. enton-
ce::s yo creo que de a poco las voy::: las chiquititas cuestan más pero ya.. que van:::
creciendo .. entonces se interesan y al final quieren conocer más de otras personas
que han hecho cosas de ese tipo .. como grandiosas… y ahí vieron la Madre Te-

241 “For the selection of topics, it is up to my own criterion to entertain them but also so
they learn other things. So it isn’t something that empty, not just talking about a singer,
but that they learn something else, to broaden their culture. (KG: And like what things
for example?) For example, once we saw an extract from Hamlet. It was a summary, in
fact. So after that we saw a few scenes from the movie, the Mel Gibson one, which is
more modern. And they liked it a lot. I thought that they wouldn’t. But with the phrase
To be or not to be they had it stored in some way there, they remembered. And the story
is interesting. As it was a film review they showed the most important details. They
liked it a lot. I’ve seen Hamlet, and biographies, for example, Martin Luther King. We
saw that the other day a little bit, and it explained the Rosa Parks case, when she got on
a bus and they asked her to give up her seat… and they loved it.”

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 re:sa.. ellas mismas buscaron.. e:: Gandhi .. también.. entonces ahí van aprendien-
do..” (12M, 10)242
Tania’s principles of culture teaching, thus, seem to include the following: first,
there is a clear distinction between cultural contents that are worth including be-
cause they are entertaining and fun, close to the students’ world (and therefore
motivating and engaging), and other cultural contents that need to be included
because they alone can broaden the students’ horizons and add to their cultural
background, or “cultural baggage”, as she calls it, that they collect on the way.
This distinction runs very closely along the lines of the concepts used in Cultural
Studies, differentiating culture with a “small c” (popular culture) and Culture
with a “capital C” (“high”, often elitist culture), and is reminiscent of
Volkmann’s call to include both “Rambo and Rimbaud” into foreign language-
and-culture curricula (2010: 39).
Then, the potential of audiovisual media to make “high culture” interesting
and accessible to the younger generations is also mentioned here. For example,
the fact that the shown Hamlet version is “more modern” is presented as having
a positive impact on student engagement. In those terms, Tania is also clear that
the “light” versions of culture are the first stepping-stone in the build-up of a
unit that leads on to deeper or more complex topics.
Last but not least, what seems to be important for Tania is that the additional
value of “high culture” or “universal culture” consists in its empowering com-

242 “I believe that to take, I don’t know, Ricky Martin as an example is okay, and they are
enthusiastic but then they have to look for something that is more important. I don’t
know, related to… Mozart, if it’s music. So they see or we see various types of music:
pop, music, classic, rock, so there we start to add a bit to their cultural background or
other things, movies, so sometimes we watch movies. The unit that was called movies,
so we watched Notting Hill, then we started to talk about other movies, so first some-
thing that might be attractive. Oh I love Hugh Grant! I was all the time like this
[laughs]. And they laugh because I tell them, oh, I love him, I always tell them, or I say
things to the screen and they laugh, of course. And we can start with something that is
very interesting for them, or very light, but then there comes the other part which they
don’t even notice, and they are enthusiastic about it. Because once we saw a unit on
(…) people who do something good for humanity. So there we saw something about
Martin Luther King, the boycott. And I told them: ‘and here, what are we doing, the
Chileans? They raise the fares and we continue taking the bus. So there the kids walked
for miles and didn’t take the bus for a year, a year, imagine!’ and we started talking. So
I think that little by little I … with the little ones it’s more difficult but they are growing
up… so they get interested and in the end they want to know more about other people
who have done things of that kind. Like great things. And then they found out about
Mother Theresa, they started looking for it themselves, and Gandhi, too. So they are
learning.”

314
ponent: the two interview extracts “culminate” in references to the biographies
of famous social or spiritual leaders, especially Martin Luther King and Rosa
Parks. The way in which Tania quotes herself as talking to her students about
the bus boycott parallels my idea of using other cultures as “eye-openers” about
one’s own situation, and extracting messages that show up possibilities for
change.

10.4.3 Verónica (17S/A): My Experience – Your Experi-

ence
Verónica is a clear exception among the interviewed teachers, as she lived in
Canada for ten years and also trained as a teacher there. It is not only the fact
that she lived abroad that marks her identity as a teacher; what is more, her in-
terview is full of references to the multiculturalism of the life she encountered
there. Verónica returned to Chile in 2005, i.e. about three or four years before
the interview took place, and gained her most significant teaching experience in
a state-subsidised private school for young adults who have not finished their
secondary education in the regular system, usually due to problems that are as-
sociated to their very low socio-economic status. Her interview is evidence of a
teacher with a very “different” experience, who tries to engage her students in
learning English by finding “matches” between the reality of their lives and
what she can offer to them as a returned emigrant.
Her declared aim is to share the foreign culture with her students so the
“kids” grow and open their minds. In addition, she also talks about both integra-
tive and instrumental motives for wanting to learn English: in this vein, she
wishes to be able to help her students in reading what they like in English and on
the other hand, help them with their future careers. However, this reference to
future jobs is the only time in the interview that she mentions instrumental moti-
vations. A much more consistent idea in the interview is the repeated reference
to her students’ personal and cultural identities, which are marked by the pro-
found social injustices in the country, and how these relate to the learning of a
foreign language and culture.
In the following, I will again present several interview passages with few
comments in between, to then summarise the most important principles of Ve-
rónica’s approach. First of all, she seems to have a very clear idea about her dis-
tinct personal identity as a teacher. To her, it has two advantages: on one hand,
she feels that her familiarity with life abroad gives her knowledge, and thus, au-
thority that other teachers might not have; on the other, her experience also
seems to help to reach her students on an affective level:

315
 TQ173: “el hecho de haber vivido allá a mí me da la.. quizás como la ventaja.. por
sobre los profesores que no han estado .. porque yo tengo mis propias experiencias..
y mis propias vivencias ... entonces yo a ellos les puedo con base.. decir .. ‘no po..
lo que tú estás diciendo no es así:: ... sino que e:e: esto se da así allá’ .. ¿me entien-
des?.. entonces.. e: incluso el hecho de que por ejemplo yo les cuente cosas de las
que yo viví como las cosas son allá:: y hago volar la imaginación de ellos e e:: .....
de cierta manera es interesante para ellos todos me escuchan así como wuuaauu el
hecho de que yo tengo fotos:: por ejemplo ... (…) ... y les llevo para que ellos vean
en vivo la.. entonces es otro... el approach que yo tengo con ellos. es diferente.. lo
que yo viví:: .... por diez años:: en en en Canadá ... entonces... es diferente.. quizás
el entusiasmo mío es diferente.. obviamente porque yo les cuento mis propias expe-
riencias...” (17S/A, 4)243
However, one of the most important passages of the interview does not really
depend so much on her own experience: when she tells me of her success to en-
gage her very disaffected students with the Phil Collins song “Another Day in
Paradise”, it seems that it is mainly her capacity to empathise that helps her to
find appropriate thematic teaching material for her students; on the other hand,
other characteristics such as the speed of the song and repetitions to make listen-
ing more accessible, also play a role in her decisions:
TQ174: “(…) realmente no les interesa nada ... o sea tú puedes hacer un tremendo
show adelante y puedes traerle .. lo que tú.. piensas que pudiera.. encajar ahí… tuve
una experiencia muy buena yo con una canción de Phil Collins ... es que donde yo
quería más o menos hacer una diferencia con e:: la gramática.. y que ellos analizaran
un poco la la canción de acuerdo al p:oco vocabulario que ellos tenían.. (…) ‘Anot-
her Day in Paradise’ (…) porque es lenta ves.. entonces.. de cierta manera se van
repitiendo ciertas cosas.. esa.. porque justamente.. la utilicé porque e::.. muchos
alumnos de estos tienen como esa experiencia que tiene esa canción... ya.. de estar
en la calle:: a:: de no tener dinero para:: de repente para:: .. ni siquiera para comer
porque ... e:: por ejemplo en el en el colegio donde donde yo estuve yo llevaba
sándwich:: porque habían.. a::lumnos que no tomaban desayuno por dos días .. o por
tres días e tuvimos la experiencia de un alumno que:: vivía con el perro:: y no tenía
un lugar donde vivir ... entonces él se entraba al colegio en las noches a dormir en
una sala..... o sea mi experiencia de media es totalmente diferente a las.. a lo mejor a

243 “The fact that I lived there gives me maybe the advantage over other teachers who ha-
ven’t been… because I have my own experiences, having lived it myself, so I can tell
them [the students] with good reasons ‘no, what you are saying is not really like this,
but it’s like that there’, you see? So even with the fact that for example I tell them things
that I lived there I make their imagination fly. In some way it is interesting because eve-
rybody listens so ‘wow’… the fact that I have photos for example and I take them so
they can see ‘live’. So the approach that I have with them is different. What I lived for
ten years in Canada. So it’s different, maybe my enthusiasm is different, obviously be-
cause I tell them my own experiences.”

316
 las versiones que te han dado los demás .. lo mío es fuerte ... es muy muy fuerte e::
lo social ha sido ahí fuertísimo .. (…) con esa canción me resultó porque la la letra
de la canción::.. de alguna manera les llamaba la atención.. porque ellos.. viven en
en un ambiente que es pobre ... me entiendes tú.. viven a o mejor alguno de ellos han
vagado alguna vez en la calle con.. con alguna droga que no es lo que dice la can-
ción pero.. a lo mejor se pusieron ellos en esa:: .. y a lo mejor yo fui la única profe-
sora.... e:: que les puso una canción..... me entiendes.. porque estaban ... pero e e yo
te digo o sea el curso que me tocó a mí era de los que tiraba papeles de los que daba
vueltas los .. los bancos de que había que estar pendiente si venían drogados para
mandarlos a la casa o venían con alcohol.. para mandarlos a la casa ... porque.. la
mayoría de ellos son.. e violentos.. niñas que ponte tú:: se prostitu::: se prostituyen..
¿me entiendes?.. pero en cambio cuando yo puse la canción y los hice escuchar....
quedaron todos en silencio.. e el interés fue súper grande en cuanto al contenido de
la canción... el hecho de que ellos me pudieran ‘¿qué es lo que piensan ustedes que
dice acá?’.. you know ... que ellos pudieran.. eso yo.. yo yo siempre recuerdo esa cla-
se porque::: .. fue:: incluso uno de ellos recortó:: .. porque el festival de viña del mar
tú lo conoces.. hizo una gaviota .. (…) felices con la canción y después a mi próxima
clase.. ellos querían que siguiera yo.. analizando más canciones .. algo que también
les di.. porque.. yo te digo después de esa clase.. llegar.. empezaron a llegar los
alumnos con su::s mp4 algunos:: ... (…) e:: y ‘profesora mire escuche esta canción ..
¿qué dice?’ y.. y me los ponían a mí.. entonces.. ‘aquí tengo los lyrics.. ¿qué signifi-
ca esto .. qué significa esto otro?’ .. ¿me entiendes?... eso... generó eso... el que.. ca-
da clase me me trajeran algo una canción que ellos quisieran..” (17S/A, 6/7)244

244 “They aren’t really interested in anything at all. I mean, you can do a huge show in front
and bring them what you think might fit there; I had a very good experience with a Phil
Collins song. I wanted to make a difference with the grammar and wanted them to ana-
lyse the song a bit according to the little vocabulary they had. ‘Another Day in Para-
dise.’ Because it’s slow, you see. (…) Some things are repeated. I used it because many
of these students have the experience of this song, of living in the streets, not having
money sometimes not even for food, because for example in the school where I was I
took sandwiches because there were students who had not had breakfast for two days or
three days and we had the experience of a student who lived with a dog and did not
have a place to live, so he entered the school at night to sleep in a classroom. I mean,
my experience with secondary school is completely different (…) maybe to the versions
that the others have given to you. Mine is heavy. It’s very very heavy, the social issue
has been extremely heavy there. With this song it worked because the lyrics somehow
caught their attention. Because they live in a poor environment, you see. They live or, to
be more precise, some of them have roamed in the streets, with some drug – which is
not what the song says but – maybe they put themselves into this... and maybe I was the
only teacher that put on a song, you see. (…) I mean, this class was one of those that
were throwing papers, who turned over the desks, so you had to watch out if they were
coming in on drugs or drunk to send them back home because most of them are violent.
The girls work as prostitutes, you see? But when I put on the song for them to listen
they all went quiet and their interest was huge as to the content of the song. The fact that

317
Then, she continues with an observation on the way this lesson connected to her
overall aim to help her students change their negative perception of English-
speaking cultures:
TQ175: “[Puedo] expandirme yo en cuanto a lo que significa e:: por ejemplo vivir
en otro lugar .. cambiarle un poco la percepción negativa (…) que tenían algunos de
ellos .. en cuanto a: los yanquis por ejemplo (…) esa parte negativa que que vienen a
puro explotar y que que se llevan toda la plata y dejan los países más pobres en fin:.
que que hay cierta verdad en ese sentido en cuanto a eso pero también... más mos-
trarles las partes positivas que puedo lograr yo como persona ... aprendiendo esto o
sea.. you know.. es e::: como grande ...(…) eso a mí me llena de satisfacción .. por-
que.. lo que yo quería lograr a lo mejor de alguna manera lo logré.. a lo mejor no to-
do lo que yo quería pero un poquito ..you know ... hay algunos que.. que cuando de
repente me ven en la calle ‘profesora sabe que.. cada vez que escucho esa canción
me acuerdo de usted..’” (17S/A, 7)245
She tells me that one idea about sharing the positive aspects of the culture she
experienced there is, for example, recycling, so she has started to separate waste
with her students. Likewise, she asks students to bring texts or other things they
find from or about Canada to lessons, to share that information. Another aspect
of Verónica’s mission is countering and putting into perspective the “negative”
bits that are part of the exportation of cultural products from the USA, such as
violent movies. On the other hand, she also calls on her students to reflect on
their own culture and think about those points that would make a positive con-
tribution to other cultures; thus, turn on its head the hegemonic assumption that

they could ‘what do you think it says here?’ You know, that they could… I always re-
member that lesson because one of them even cut out a seagull because of the Viña del
Mar Festival; you know it [audience award for best songs at the festival]. They were
happy with the song and then they wanted to continue analysing songs in the following
lessons. I also brought them because I tell you, after that lesson, the students started
coming to class, some of them with their mp4 players and ‘miss, look, listen to this
song, what does it say?’ and they had me listen. Then, ‘here I have the lyrics, what does
this mean, and that?’ you see? This was what it generated: every class they brought a
song that they liked.”
245 “I can expand on what it means for example to live in another place, change a bit their
negative perception that some of them had in relation to the Yankees for example. This
negative part that they only come here to exploit and that they take all the money home
and leave the countries poorer. Right, there is some truth in this but also… show them
the positive part that I can achieve as a person learning this or, you know, it’s like big. It
fills me with satisfaction because maybe in some way I achieved what I wanted to
achieve. Maybe not everything I wanted but a bit, you know. There are some who when
they see me in the streets ‘Miss, each time I hear this song I remember you’.”

318
countries like Chile only participate in globalisation as consumers, but not as
actively involved “givers”:
TQ176: “tengo la energía.. tengo la:: (…) pasión a lo mejor... (…).. por todo lo que
yo viví .. por todo lo que a mí me signi.. y de alguna manera ellos absorben un poco
eso.. y que no se dejen guiar.. e:: eso más yo creo que más que nada lo que yo
transmito.. e:: el respeto... que no se dejen guiar por imágenes que ellos ven.. de vio-
lencia por ejemplo.. porque yo les digo ‘eso no es así.. eso es nada más que para
vender.. entonces tómenlo ustedes… del otro .. desde el otro punto de vista..’ (…)
por ejemplo la pregunta ‘¿qué han absorbido los americanos de nosotros?’.. ‘¿qué
transmitimos nosotros..?’.. ‘¿qué a ellos les pudiera servir por ejemplo porque siem-
pre ellos..?’ .... ¿me entiendes?.. no sé si me entiendes” (17S/A, 9)246
Later on, she explains the way her multicultural experience in Toronto gives her
some points of reference to be able to address the covert or overt racism that she
notices in Chile; her use of the third person plural shows that she does not feel
part of that side of Chile:
TQ177: “el hecho de por ejemplo yo haber experimentado el vivir allá ...el que a mí
me pasaron unas experiencias propias por ser de::: Sudamérica (…) aquí en Chile
son muy racistas .... con los mismos países sudamericanos .. por ejemplo.. Bolivia..
Perú .. ¿me entiendes? e:: son racistas .... y hay como una negatividad en contra de
ellos:: ..... yo viví en en en Toronto.. y yo percibí ese racismo e:: por ser por hablar
español por ejemplo ..por no ser rubia .. por no tener los ojos azules... por no e…:: a
ver como explicarte:: más que nada por pertenecer a la parte de Sudamérica (…) en-
tonces yo les ... les hablo a ellos que somos todos iguales .... que somos todos seres
humanos ... que si yo ... no sé tengo la opción de abrir el cuerpo de un africano.. de
un chino de un mexicano de un peruano .... todos tenemos los mismos órganos:: ...
es la parte de afuera la que hace que te discriminen a ti como persona .... y yo lo vi-
ví:: ... y y y y .. no.. lo viví una vez si no que lo viví varias veces .. y bien feo ... por-
que ... ¿para qué? entonces yo les digo a los niños por ejemplo cuando e::: en la
misma enseñanza media cuando e:::: hablamos de:: Perú o de los partidos de fútbol
.... de repente .... se te van los temas para cualquier lado ....... e: esa negatividad en
contra de los peruanos .. o de los bolivianos.. e::: el rechazo.. que no debería existir
.... como yo lo viví ... entonces yo lo manifiesto de otra manera ... y de alguna mane-
ra yo podría decir que a lo mejor les cambio un poco.. e::: tendría que hacer un se-
guimiento para ver si realmente.. (…) em:: que los niños sean más tolerantes:: ...

246 “I have the energy, the passion maybe even; for all that I lived there, all that it means to
me. And in some way they absorb that a bit: that they should not be misled. I think this
is really what I transmit, the respect, that they should not be misled by the images that
they see, of violence, for example. Because I tell them ‘This is not the way it is, this is
only to sell, so take it from the other point of view.’ For example the question ‘what
have the Americans absorbed from us?’ ‘What do we transmit?’ ‘What could be of use
to them for example because they always…?’ Do you understand? I don’t know if you
understand.”

319
 ¿me entiendes? e:: eso ... porque yo les cuento mi mis:: experiencias... tampoco se
me va toda la clase contándoles mis experiencias .. pero cuando está el tema relacio-
nado con lo que estamos viendo .. me tiro un poquito a decirles ciertas cosas y de ahí
continúo...” (17S/A, 11) 247
Verónica then goes on from her observations on racism, to compare her experi-
ences concerning class-consciousness in Canada and in Chile. This comment is
already quoted in chapter 9.3 (TQ96), and refers to the importance that Chileans
tend to give to formal clothes and appearances, whereas in Verónica’s experi-
ence, in Canada nobody cared if she was wearing formal or casual clothes. What
might have worked as an eye-opener to her about her own culture helps her to
empathise with her students on her return to Chile; in response to my question
about how the students react to her observations, she answers:
TQ178: “por ejemplo estos alumnos de:: ... ellos están muy resentidos en ese aspec-
to... porque ellos obviamente.. que lo han vivido mucho más .... y cuando tú te en-
cuentras con un profesor que está.. que apoya digamos esa parte que que los entien-
de en esa parte..... ellos se sienten contentos de alguna manera.. porque.. ven que una
persona notó ese aspecto.. ¿me entiendes tú?.. (…) e:: y quizás por eso el .. el con-
tacto que por ejemplo me ven en la calle .. me me saludan o me digan ciertas cosas...
e:: y sean sincero también ... porque tú notas cuando un alumno es sincero” (17S/A,
12)248

247 “The fact for example of having experienced living there; the fact that I had a few expe-
riences of my own of being from South America… Here in Chile people are very racist,
with the South American countries themselves, for example Bolivia, Peru. You see?
They are racist, there is like a negativity against them. In Toronto, I perceived that rac-
ism for being, for speaking Spanish for example, for not being blonde, blue-eyed, for
not, how can I explain – simply for belonging to South America. So I talk to them that
we are all equal, that we are all humans, and if I had the option to open the body of an
African, of a Chinese, a Mexican or a Peruvian, we have all the same organs. It’s the
outside part which makes people discriminate against you as a person. And I lived it.
Not just once, several times, and really bad. (…) So I tell the kids that for example
when we talk about Peru, or about football – sometimes the topics start going their own
ways – this negativity against the Peruvians or the Bolivians, the rejection that should
not exist - how I lived it. So I state it in a different way. And in some way I could say
that maybe I do change them a bit… well, I would have to monitor to see if it really…
For the kids to be more tolerant, you see? Because I tell them about my experiences.
Not that I spend all the lessons telling them about my experiences, but when the topic is
related to something we are doing in class I take the chance to tell them certain things
and then I go on.”
248 “These students are very resentful in this aspect because they clearly have lived it a lot
more. And when you come across a teacher who supports that part, that understands
them in this respect, they feel happy in some way, because they see that someone no-
ticed this aspect, you see? And maybe because of this, when they see me in the street for

320
To sum up, Verónica’s account displays an impressive degree of reflexivity
around interculturality and identity issues. In terms of her teaching approach,
this seems to be mainly reflected in the way she communicates with her students
and tries to reach them both cognitively and affectively. It includes, first of all,
recognition of the special contribution that she can make as a returned emigrant,
based on the credibility and authority that she derives from her personal experi-
ences. Then, Verónica also shows great clarity about power relations in a world
that is divided into a rich North and a poorer South. However, she has a differ-
entiated perspective in identifying the power relations within these divisions and
the role that the media play, for example, in perpetuating stereotypes.
As a teacher, she describes herself as passionate; empathy seems to be the
central aspect of her approach, both in her own way of relating to the students,
and in the learning objectives she establishes for her students. Thus, the recogni-
tion of her students’ experiences and previous knowledge serve as a starting
point for her pedagogical intervention: for example, she does not refrain from
being empathically explicit about their marginality in a class-conscious society;
in the end, this is what she has found to “work” as a basis for learner motivation
and engagement. On the other hand, she also makes conscious, autonomous de-
cisions about prioritising learning objectives, such as tackling racism and break-
ing down stereotypes, especially within Chile. In addition, she gives a great deal
of importance to the “mediated” encounters that students generally have with the
target cultures: here, she sees the need to go deeper than the surface of the image
presented and gain a more complete and balanced understanding of the other
countries.

10.4.4 Conclusion
In this sub-chapter, I have aimed to present some positive accounts of curricular
decision-making at teacher-and-classroom level, concerning cultural contents for
English, and in the light of student motivation and empowerment. I believe that
the picture presented here is one of hope, contrasting some of the bleak perspec-
tives presented by Pinto (2008, see also 10.1). We have seen three teachers who
have, at one hand, the institutional liberty, and on the other hand, the knowledge,
creativity and reflexivity to choose contents which they find appropriate for their
students, in terms of both motivation and pedagogical value; (external) liberty
and (internal) personal capacity being the main ingredients of autonomy (cf.

example, they say hello and certain things, and they mean it… because you notice when
a student is sincere.”

321
Benson 2008:17f.). In those terms, Pinto’s concerns expressed around the low
degree of autonomy awarded to teachers in a system which reserves important
curricular decisions for hierarchically and administratively “higher” levels, can
be, at least, complemented with the teacher interviews presented here. However,
it is certainly necessary to remember that among all the teachers interviewed for
this particular research investigation, these three really constituted exceptions,
both in their beliefs around the role of culture in ELT, and in the development of
their sense of agency: their personal experiences, their beliefs, and their relation-
ship with the students seem to open up a “Dynamic Interrelational Space” (La
Ganza, op.cit.) that supports their professional autonomy and their capacity to
find suitable cultural material for the work with their students.
At the same time, the analysis showed that, at least to a certain extent, the
teachers’ stance towards the society in which we live is fairly critical, and that
they see part of their mission in educating their students in relation to it. How
does this fit in with Pinto’s claims for a critical pedagogy? For example, with
Tania’s comments on the Montgomery bus boycott, or with Verónica’s ideas of
South American contributions towards a global culture, we can see that these
teachers are openly questioning the hegemonic order of society and even pro-
posing change. All of them seem to give preferential attention to alternative and
sub-ordinated cultures. With the three teachers’ clear idea about what good Eng-
lish teaching is about and the self-confidence with which they state it, there is
also a certain proxmity to Pinto’s call for teachers to act as “intellectuals without
fear of being protagonists” (222).
However, as Pinto points out, there is also a greater need for collective re-
flection: it cannot be just isolated cases of teachers who participate in the teach-
ing-learning process in the way discussed above (cf. 235). As such, it is not just
their personal identity as teachers, but also their collective and social identities
which are at stake. In some of these cases, it looks as if some of the teachers ob-
tain their sense of agency partly out of the comparison with other teachers who
are, according to them, less capable or less creative in engaging their students in
the way they do. Spaces and time for the exchange of curricular ideas could
therefore be a step forward.
In addition, we have seen here that the three teachers presented all have their
very own priorities, strengths, and possible areas for development. For example,
whereas Gabriela’s approach highlights the cognitive and action-oriented as-
pects of learning and teaching, Tania and Verónica give greater emphasis to af-
fective dimensions. Each of them also has a different approach to cultural con-
tents: in comparison, Gabriela seems to be most independent of target culture
contents, mixing mainly international and source culture materials; Tania’s ap-
proach contains a bit of everything – US and British culture, India, Chile; Ve-

322
rónica, of course, focuses on Canada, which is relatively unusual as a first
choice. This shows how the teachers’ search for solutions depends very much on
their own experiences, their beliefs, and the realities of their school environ-
ments and their students. Thus, the decisions that teachers finally take can be as
varied as the accounts presented in this chapter. Again, more opportunities for
exchange among English teachers could give the various possibilities greater
potential.
Finally, it is of course impossible here to make any judgment about the ef-
fectiveness or the results of the approaches described above. This is also a fact
that the teachers themselves observe. On the other hand, the teachers’ personal
sense of job satisfaction is a first indication that what they are doing is at least
more successful than the approaches of those teachers who feel frustrated with
their work at schools. What all of this might mean for further research, curricu-
lar policies, and teacher training will be the subject of the following, and final
chapter.

323
PART IV: Conclusions

Throughout this book I have examined the interplay of diverse aspects of Eng-
lish learning and teaching in Chile: cultural, social and personal identities of
learners and teachers in a socio-economically and culturally heterogeneous
country; teachers’ professional identities in a school system which suffers from
blatant social inequalities; Ministry of Education-defined linguistic, cultural and
cross-curricular learning objectives for English as a school subject; cultural text-
book contents and ICT resources; student motivation in general, and more spe-
cifically motivation to acquire the language; finally, teachers’ curricular deci-
sion-making, as based on their beliefs and experiences. It is now time for me to
draw final conclusions from the analyses presented above. As these conclusions
have a range of implications, they are divided into recommendations for further
research, for educational and curricular policies, for materials development, and
for teacher training.

325
11. 21st Century Proposals for Motivation and
Empowerment in the Teaching and Learning
of English in Latin America
11.1 Proposals for Further Research
As all research projects have their limitations in terms of time and available re-
sources, there are several aspects that, in my opinion, did not receive sufficient
attention within this investigation. In order to make the picture presented here
more complete, I believe that there are certain points that could be covered in
subsequent projects.
First of all, as one of the central points here is related to intercultural educa-
tion, one further line of research could focus on the perspective of teachers who
work in those schools in which intercultural issues are more directly tangible.
Unfortunately, this was not possible for this project, but it would certainly enrich
research if, for example, English teachers from Central Santiago were inter-
viewed, who work in schools with a greater immigrant population, especially
from Peru. In the same vein, in Santiago and in rural areas, it would be interest-
ing to find out about the perspectives of teachers who work closely with the Ma-
puche or other indigenous communities.249 These perspectives could give valua-
ble hints about ways in which intercultural education through English could be
offered to all students across the country.
For a different emphasis, classroom-based ethnographic research, especially
lesson observations, could provide insights into the way in which certain cultural
contents and classroom interaction forms could be exploited together for learner
engagement; i.e., how topics and methodological approaches can come together
to foster student motivation and critical reflection (cf. Tudor 2001, Wajnryb
1992, Watson-Gegeo 1988).
Another important perspective is, of course, the learners’ viewpoint on their
own motivation and the cultural contents they have encountered, or wish they
could learn about, in class. In this case, I would personally opt again for a quali-
tative approach, for example, by collecting data through group interviews. On
the other hand, quantitative methods, such as questionnaires could also yield in-

249 For a research line that does not have as its explicit aim to include or focus on the more
marginalised, less priviledged sectors of the population, one could add, at the other end
of the socio-economic scale, the views of teachers in bilingual (especially British) or tri-
lingual private schools (especially, Italian, German or French, but also Arabic or others)
– maybe for contrast?

327
teresting data, especially if they included some open questions for which the an-
swers could be more detailed. A research project from this angle would enrich
the knowledge base, complementing the experiences and views given by the
teachers. What is more, if such a perspective was accompanied by some sort of
immediate action concerning the respective learning contents, it could possibly
have a direct positive impact on the learners’ motivation and learning outcomes.
In addition to these empirical approaches, more theoretical research to sus-
tain a constant debate about pertinent learning contents for English (world-wide,
in Latin America, in Chile) is also needed. Literature, Cultural and Media Stud-
ies should play an important role in this area, with a pedagogical perspective in
mind (cf. for example Voigts-Virchow 2005, Delanoy & Volkmann 2006 for
publications in the German-speaking world).
Following this logic, a combination of all the points mentioned above could
also be very useful for case studies; under these circumstances, the participating
schools and the materials they use would have to be selected very carefully, so
as to ensure that the study would obtain insightful results. This could provide
further information to inform the following points: curricular policies, materials
development, and teacher training.

11.2 Proposals for Educational and Curricular

Policies
As pointed out before, some of the ways in which educational policies are im-
plemented actually undermine teachers’ sense of agency and their subjective
impression of being in control over their work, rather than supporting them. One
important cause for complaint is the “centralised” provision of textbooks which
are often not suitable for work with students. Instead, central government should
provide schools with budgets for language learning material, allowing language
departments to make autonomous use of the available funds. At the same time,
teachers must be allocated more time, training and opportunities for personal
and collective reflection, action research, and the selection, adaptation and crea-
tion of materials, of course all within their paid school hours (cf. Gysling 2007).
As this point has more than just financial implications, I will come back to mate-
rials in 11.3.
There are other issues, especially those related to motivation, that have aris-
en in the main part of this report, which should be addressed by educational
players who operate at a higher level than the teacher and her or his classroom.
As we have seen, many teachers stated that student demotivation is an issue that

328
affects all school subjects alike. In those terms, it cannot be the sole task of indi-
vidual teachers to try and motivate their students; even if isolated cases of self-
reliant teachers seem to be successful in this sense, their efforts have to be sup-
ported by the school system as a whole. On a government level, this could mean
providing more pleasant and stimulating school buildings as learning environ-
ments, and in general, making more resources available to the schools (among
others, human resources, and ICT resources). On a school level, I believe that
there are many strategic projects that could be implemented to improve learner
motivation, depending on the particular context, learners’ socio-economic back-
grounds, and the particular strengths or priorities of the various agents at the
school. To name just two ideas that have arisen from the teachers’ accounts,
strategies could include promoting more learner-centred and action-oriented
(task-based) teaching methodologies (cf. Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-von
Ditfurth 2007, Prieto Parra 2001), or conducting a critical review of the current
assessment system (turning it into a more learner-centred, process-based system,
such as the Assessment for Learning approaches, cf. Lamb 2010).

11.3 Proposals for the Development of Teaching

and Learning Materials
In the previous point, I argued that schools should have their autonomous budg-
ets to buy the learning materials that they find most suitable for their specific
contexts. However, there are dangers related to a policy of this kind: here in
Chile, apart from the books specifically commissioned by the Ministry of Edu-
cation, the market for English Language Teaching materials is entirely dominat-
ed by foreign (mainly British and American) publishing companies, selling text-
books and audio materials that are produced for supposedly “neutral” global
customers. The hegemonic implications related to this phenomenon have already
been examined in previous chapters.
What could be done to counter this trend? On a policy level, funds should be
made available for projects that sponsor the creation of English teaching materi-
als by writers from the region and targeted at the national or regional context.
These initiatives could consider, for example, the cooperation with other Latin
American countries and encompass both book publications and software- or In-
ternet-based projects.
In terms of contents, one important point that should be addressed by “au-
tochthonous” materials is the overlapping area between intercultural education
for the indigenous population, and the intercultural “potential” in English teach-

329
ing. Under a critical pedagogy perspective, materials that take into account the
heterogeneity of national cultures could lead to a deeper understanding (and
consequently, questioning and challenging) of the workings of cultural hegemo-
ny and social, racial and economic power-relations within Chile (cf. Kubota
2004: 40). With topics concerning cultural differences and paradoxes that could
even be, up to a certain point, disturbing or unsettling, teenagers and young
adults could be engaged in stimulating reflections and discussions (with the lin-
guistic support they need for doing this in English, and a great portion of sensi-
tivity on the teacher’s part). On the other hand, Volkmann rightly asks “How
critical can English teaching be?” (2010: 15f.). Of course, materials must find a
balance between stimuli for the cognitive learning goal of critical thinking, and
the integration of an affective component which aims at developing desirable
attitudes in the students, such as empathy with people from other cultures. This
could be reached through the due representation of otherwise (e.g. in the media)
under-represented, invisibilised social and ethnic groups from an “insider”
(emic) perspective. Thus, students are given opportunities to take their view-
point, and empathise with them.
As many teachers have stated that the most motivational teaching materials
are usually songs and movies, ideas and resources for the pedagogical exploita-
tion of audiovisual cultural products would probably be welcome, too. This
could mean providing background information on song writers, musicians, film
directors, etc., either in simple language for the students themselves or with ad-
ditional details for the teachers. Historical and geographical settings could be
exploited, and linguistic help (especially vocabulary explanations) could be of-
fered. Choices could again be made based on the criteria of motivation and em-
powerment, small-c culture and Culture with a capital C, and diversity of lin-
guistic, cultural, geographical and social origins.
Finally, given the concern expressed repeatedly by teachers about the heter-
ogeneous learner groups they have to deal with, all newly published material
should provide clear indications and options for differentiation, such as collec-
tions of texts with varying linguistic complexity, extension and review tasks,
references to help pages, etc. (cf. Jiménez Raya & Lamb 2003).

11.4 Proposals for Teacher Training

It is clear that one of the main aims of a research project such as the present one
must be to inform teacher training programmes. In the following section, I
would like to keep recommendations open for both pre-service and in-service
training instances, emphasising that most points should be covered in some way

330
sooner rather than later in a teacher’s professional career. I will specify the stage
of training only when I believe it to be necessary.
First, there are some important insights to be taken from the research ap-
proach taken here: under the reflective model for teacher training, the explora-
tion of teacher beliefs and previous experiential knowledge (e.g. as a language
learner) is already starting to become an important part of many teacher pro-
grammes around the world; they often focus on certain areas, such as methodo-
logical approaches, or learner and teacher autonomy (e.g. Müller-Hartmann &
Schocker-von Ditfurth 2007, Hacker & Barkhuizen 2008, Vieira et al. 2008).
The reflective analysis of cultural identities and its link to curricular decisions
and selection of content topics could be a great step forward in contributing to
the development of the type of critical teacher autonomy that authors like Pinto
(2008) postulate.
With regard to the area of motivation covered in this project, it is clear that
programmes must continue to emphasise the importance of learner motivation as
a key ingredient for learning success. Reflection on motivational strategies and
evaluation of their degree of success must be part of all pre-service training pro-
grammes; likewise, opportunities for collective reflection should be provided for
in-service teachers. In this context, the distinction between instrumental and in-
tegrative motives, and their possible implications in a globalised world, should
form part of these reflections, as they might have a significant impact on teach-
ers’ curricular decisions: the possibility of choosing cultural and critical ap-
proaches “as against” purely instrumental and hegemony-accepting approaches
should be made explicit to (future) teachers, especially in view of their motiva-
tional and empowering potential. Teachers must know and keep in mind that due
to its intimate connection with globalisation (and modernity in general), English
as a school subject is especially at risk of pursuing a de facto curriculum that is
based on an instrumental, functional rationality rather than a critical, empower-
ing and transformative one (cf. Pinto 2008: 74). Based on the data I have ana-
lysed above, especially in 10.4, it seems that students appreciate it positively
when teachers build their curriculum around topics that are not only “interest-
ing” for the learners’ professional futures. In this sense, it is important that one
declared aim of teacher training programmes is also the development of compe-
tences in the area of materials selection, adaptation and creation.
In order to achieve this, there are several points to be learned from that ap-
peared here in the context of culture: one point is that pre-service teacher train-
ing programmes must ensure that newly qualified teachers have a wide cultural
repertoire at their disposition, including both popular and “high” culture, and
tools to break this knowledge down for classroom use from beginner to interme-
diate level. How can this be achieved in a four-or five-year programme? As

331
most students are still at the level of second language acquisition when they en-
ter university, the language courses offered there should be model examples of
the integration of culture-and-language teaching, so that future teachers can later
build on their personal experience as learners. In addition to this, there must be
spaces and time for critical reflection on culture in general, including the
knowledge of some important theories and strands such as Literature Studies,
Cultural Studies, Film and Media Studies, Ethnography, Intercultural Theories,
etc. Ideally, both the language-and-culture teaching component and the more
theoretical component are pursued in parallel to make the reflective processes
more meaningful for the student teachers.
Finally, Chilean ELT programmes should not shy away from the aim of ac-
tively and consciously developing their students’ intercultural competence. With
increasing numbers of students winning scholarships to study abroad, the need
for this is becoming more and more evident. Even though for the majority it still
might not seem a necessity, teacher training programmes have always had to
“think ahead” of their times to prepare teachers for generations to come. How-
ever, this intercultural competence should not only be conceived of as a prepara-
tion for stays in English-speaking countries. As Rubio (2009) emphasises, there
is an urgent need for teachers (of all school subjects) to begin realising that
Chile itself is composed of a variety of co-existing cultures, rather than consist-
ing in one homogenous national culture:
“La formación inicial de los docentes debe instalarse sobre la conciencia creciente
de que avanzamos hacia un mundo cada vez más global y fragmentario, por lo cual
el concepto de ciudadanía compleja cimentada sobre la dialéctica entre integración y
diferencias, sobre los procesos de hibridación que siguen dándose, debiera conducir
la labor de un nuevo tipo de escuela, que valore la heterogeneidad cultural, los es-
fuerzos de integración y convivencia.” (Rubio 2009: 285f.)250
Each teacher training programme should establish its own priorities and ways of
achieving this aim. This might depend, for example, on varying factors, such as
closeness to more or less homogenous traditional or heterogeneous urban indig-
enous communities, the presence of migrants in the community, the numbers of
foreign students at the university, the percentage of students who travel and
study abroad, the universities and countries that have mutual exchange agree-
ments with the university, etc. On the basis of these varying contexts, it could be

250 “Initial teacher training must be built upon the growing awareness that we are moving
towards an increasingly global and fragmentary world. Because of this, the concept of
complex citizenship grounded on the dialectic between integration and differences, on
the hybridising processes that are still going on, should lead the effort of a new type of
school, which values cultural heterogeneity, the efforts of integration and co-existence.”

332
decided if the focus should be on the acquisition of politeness rules and commu-
nicational routines, the analysis of critical incidents, anti-racism awareness-
raising school projects, or other elements related to the development of intercul-
tural competence.

11.5 Outlook
To conclude, I would like to express my hope that the reflections and insights
presented here will serve other teachers and researchers to visualise English lan-
guage teaching as one of the ways in which we can make a positive contribution
towards a fairer, more humane, and more beautiful world. I hope that they can
help us to remember in favour of whom we are studying and teaching (Freire
1996/2004: 75f.). I also hope that the ideas presented here will be an inspiration
for those young people who are preparing themselves to become English teach-
ers in Chile and in Latin America, with the idea in mind to contribute to a fairer,
more equitable educational system, by teaching children and teenagers who
learn with joy and make their statement to the world about the way they would
like it to be: a place where their rights are respected, where all have opportuni-
ties to participate, where solidarity and creativity count for more than a prestig-
ious surname or a potent family budget.
Finally, thanks again to all the teachers who kindly shared their experiences
with me and thus made this project possible.

333
Appendix: Questionnaire
Cuestionario para profesores de inglés

Por favor, marque con una cruz las casillas correspondientes. Todos los datos recogidos en
este cuestionario y en la entrevista serán tratados con la más absoluta confidencialidad.

Datos biográficos
� Mujer � Hombre
Estudié en __________________________________________ (nombre de la institución
donde se preparó para ser profesor/a de inglés) y me titulé (o egresé) en el año ________.
Experiencia laboral
Nombre (opcional) y lugar del establecimiento donde trabaja (Si trabaja en más de un
establecimiento, indique aquí el donde más horas tiene):
_______________________________________________________________________
Este establecimiento es...
� municipalizado.
� particular subvencionado.
� particular pagado. Aquí llevo __________ años (indique número de años).
(Segundo empleo: Ese establecimiento es...
� municipalizado.
� particular subvencionado.
� particular pagado. Aquí llevo __________ años.
Tengo más experiencia con...
� 3º y 4º medio. � 1º y 2º medio.
� educación básica. � educación adultos.
Además del establecimiento donde trabajo ahora, gané experiencia en...
� educación municipalizada por ________ años (indique número de años).
� educación particular subvencionada por ________ años.
� educación particular pagada por ________ años.
Este año, trabajo con los libros entregados por el Ministerio de Educación para este año:
� Sí, New Action 1º Medio No, porque _______________________________
� Sí, Going Global 2º Medio No, porque _______________________________
� Sí, Global English 3º Medio No, porque _______________________________
� Sí, In Contact 4º Medio No, porque _______________________________

335
Estadías en países de habla inglesa / otras ocasiones para practicar inglés:
Lugar/país: Duración:
_____________________________________________ ___________________
_____________________________________________ ___________________
_____________________________________________ ___________________
Si pudiera viajar este año, ¿adónde iría?
� Inglaterra � Escocia, Irlanda o Gales
� Estados Unidos � Canadá
� Australia o Nueva Zelanda
� ningún país de habla inglesa, preferiría ir a _______________________________.
Razón: _______________________________________________________________.
Asociaciones espontáneas:
Para mí, el inglés es ____________________________________________________ ,
____________________________________________________________________ y
_____________________________________________________________________.
Los Estados Unidos son _________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________.
Gran Bretaña es _______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________.
Finalmente, yo volvería a escoger la misma profesión bajo la condición de que
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________.

Thank you very much for your help!

336
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 ANGLO-AMERIKANISCHE STUDIEN – ANGLO-AMERICAN STUDIES

Herausgegeben von
Rüdiger Ahrens, Maria Eisenmann und Laurenz Volkmann

Band 1 Hedwig Kiesel: Martin Luther – ein Held John Osbornes. Luther – Kontext und historischer
Hintergrund. 1986.
Band 2 Monika Hoffarth: Martin Luther King und die amerikanische Rassenfrage. Stereotypen-
korrektur und humanitäre Erziehung durch literarische Rezeption. 1990.
Band 3 Peter Erlebach / Thomas Michael Stein (eds.): Graham Greene in Perspective. A Critical
Symposium. 1992.
Band 4 Kevin L. Cope (Ed.): Compendious Conversations. The Method of Dialogue in the Early
Enlightenment. 1992.
Band 5 Zaixin Zhang: Voices of the Self in Daniel Defoe's Fiction. An Alternative Marxist Ap-
proach. 1993.
Band 6 Berthold Schoene: The Making of Orcadia. Narrative Identity in the Prose Work of George
Mackay Brown. 1995.
Band 7 Wolfgang Gehring: Schülernahe Lebensbereiche in Englischbüchern für die 7. Jahr-
gangsstufe. Ein Beitrag zur landeskundlichen Lehrwerkkritik. 1996.
Band 8 Klaus Stierstorfer: John Oxenford (1812-1877) as Farceur and Critic of Comedy. 1996.
Band 9 Beth Swan: Fictions of Law. An Investigation of the Law in Eighteenth-Century English
Fiction. 1997.
Band 10 Catharina Boerckel: Weibliche Entwicklungsprozesse bei Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell
und George Eliot. 1997.
Band 11 Rosamaria Loretelli / Roberto De Romanis (Eds.): Narrating Transgression. Representa-
tions of the Criminal in Early Modern England. 1999.
Band 12 Nic Panagopoulos: The Fiction of Joseph Conrad. The Influence of Schopenhauer and
Nietzsche. 1998.
Band 13 Roland Kofer: Historische Mehrdimensionalität in den Dramen Christopher Frys. Eine
hermeneutische Analyse der thematischen Struktur der einzelnen Dramen. 1999.
Band 14 Anke S. Herling: Phantastische Elemente im postmodernen Roman. Formen und Funktio-
nen non-mimetischer Darstellungsweisen in ausgewählten Werken der englischsprachi-
gen Literatur. 1999.
Band 15 Christian J. Ganter: Hoffnung wider die Hoffnungslosigkeit – Das Irlandbild im Erzählwerk
Bernard MacLavertys. Ein imagologischer Beitrag zur englischen Literaturdidaktik. 1999.
Band 16 Claudia Oražem: Political Economy and Fiction in the Early Works of Harriet Martineau.
1999.
Band 17 Kwok-kan Tam / Andrew Parkin / Terry Siu-han Yip (eds.): Shakespeare Global / Local.
The Hong Kong Imaginary in Transcultural Production. 2002.
Band 18 Matthias Merkl: Kulturgeographische Inhalte in deutschen Lehrbüchern für den Englisch-
unterricht der 8. Jahrgangsstufe. Ein Beitrag zur landeskundlichen Lehrwerkkritik. 2002.
Band 19 Martina Engel: Außenseiter und Gemeinschaft. Zur Funktion von Interaktion, Kommunika-
tion und sozialem Handeln in den Romanen George Eliots. 2002.
Band 20 Bárbara Arizti: Textuality as Striptease: The Discourses of Intimacy in David Lodge's
Changing Places and Small World. 2002.
Band 21 Andrew Parkin: The Rendez-Vous. Poems of Multicultural Experience. 2003.
Band 22 Götz Ahrendt: For our father's sake, and mother's care. Zur Eltern-Kind-Beziehung in den
Dramen Shakespeares unter Berücksichtigung zeitgenössischer Traktatliteratur und Port-
räts. 2003.
Band 23 Brian Hooper: Voices in the Heart. Postcolonialism and Identity in Hong Kong Literature.
2003.
Band 24 Alexander Bidell: Das Konzept des Bösen in Paradise Lost. Analyse und Interpretation.
2003.
Band 25 Isolde Schmidt: Shakespeare im Leistungskurs Englisch. Eine empirische Untersuchung.
2004.
Band 26 Claudia Schemberg: Achieving ‘At-one-ment’. Storytelling and the Concept of the Self in
Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time, Black Dogs, Enduring Love, and Atonement. 2004.
Band 27 Wing-chi Ki: Jane Austen and the Dialectic of Misrecognition. 2005.
Band 28 Daniela Carpi (ed.): Property Law in Renaissance Literature. 2005.
Band 29 Ina-Patricia Bellinger-Bischoff: Die New Woman und das suffragistische Propaganda-
drama der edwardianischen Zeit. 2005.
Band 30 Sabine Jackson: Robertson Davies and the Quest for a Canadian National Identity. 2006.
Band 31 Sidia Fiorato: The Relationship between Literature and Science in John Banville’s Scien-
tific Tetralogy. 2007.
Band 32 Shu-Fang Lai: Charles Reade, George Meredith and Harriet Martineau as Serial Writers
of Once a Week (1859–1865). 2008.
Band 33 Lyndsay Lunan / Kirsty A. Macdonald / Carla Sassi (eds.): Re-Visioning Scotland. New
Readings of the Cultural Canon. 2008.
Band 34 Valentina Adami: Trauma Studies and Literature. Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow As Trauma
Fiction. 2008.
Band 35 Zuzanna Ladyga: Rethinking Postmodern Subjectivity. Emmanuel Levinas and the Ethics
of Referentiality in the Work of Donald Barthelme. 2009.
Band 36 Alma Budurlean: Otherness in the Novels of Patrick White. 2009.
Band 37 Martina Deny: Lost in the Postmodern Metropolis. Studien zu (Des-)Orientierung und
Identitätskonstruktion im zeitgenössischen Londonroman. 2009.
Band 38 Catharine Walker Bergström: Intuition of an Infinite Obligation. Narrative Ethics and
Postmodern Gnostics in the Fiction of E. L. Doctorow. 2010.
Band 39 Pavlina Ferfeli: Poetics of Identity: Mina Loy Voicing the Fluid Female Body. 2011.
Band 40 Theresa Staab-Schultes: Feste als didaktischer Lerngegenstand im Englischunterricht
der Grundschule. Eine Untersuchung landeskundlicher und sprachlicher Aspekte in Eng-
lischlehrwerken der dritten und vierten Jahrgangsstufe. 2011.
Band 41 Jesús López-Peláez (ed.): Strangers in Early Modern English Texts. 2011.
Band 42 Thierry Di Costanzo: L’idée séparatiste dans la presse anglo-musulmane du Bengale. Le
cas du Star of India, 1937–1947. 2011.
Band 43 Andrew Parkin: Another Rendez-Vous. Poetry and Prose from Cultural Crossroads.
2011.
Band 44 Renée Dickason / Rüdiger Ahrens (eds.): Screening and Depicting Cultural Diversity in
the English-speaking World and Beyond. 2013.
Band 45 Katharina Glas: Teaching English in Chile. A Study of Teacher Perceptions of their Pro-
fessional Identity, Student Motivation and Pertinent Learning Contents. 2013.

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