Developing a sociological imagination: Expanding ethnography in international English language education

Journal/Book: Appl Linguist. 1996; 17: Walton St, Journals Dept, Oxford, England OX2 6DP. Oxford Univ Press United Kingdom. 234-255.

Abstract: Whereas the importance of ethnography in analysing broad social realities in education is now established, in international English language education, ethnography has often been restricted to oral aspects of classroom behaviour. This paper argues that the cultural complexity and variety in English language classrooms across the world also require ethnographies of non-verbal behaviour and of curriculum and curriculum project design and management beyond the classroom. A professional sociological imagination needs to be cosmopolitan, broad-based, and wide-ranging in the multiplicity of relations between students, educators, the community, and also the people, material, and concepts which the profession transports across cultures. In the search for ethical research, we can and must look wider than the emicism of verbal data. The polyphony of views which is essential to international English language education can be achieved in as many ways as there are cultures.

Note: Article A Holliday, Christ Church Coll, Dept Language Studies, N Holmes Rd, Canterbury CT1 1QU, Kent, England

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