What do Sanctions and Bombing have to do with English Coursebooks?

Jelena Kovacevic

Jelena Kovacevic, teacher and materials developer, Belgrade, Serbia.
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This article looks into the extent to which English learning/teaching situations in Serbia are affected by the social, political and economic changes that the country has been exposed to in the last 10 -15 years and how those changes have shaped not only the needs and motives of the English language learners but also the profile of the learners themselves and accordingly the content of the teaching materials.

The last decade has been a very turbulent period in the history of Serbia. Several years of international sanctions, the years of wars in the region, the NATO bombing, the significant transition the country is going through, and an unstable political and economic situation all have had a great impact on many aspects of life, including foreign language teaching and learning. Living in a world of ever-changing standards, values, and beliefs, experiencing the damaging effects of being negatively stereotyped as a nation and living in a kind of ghetto have left immeasurably negative effects on most people living in this country and especially on younger generations.
At the same time the growing awareness of the fact that we are also becoming part of an increasingly globalized world where borders are disappearing and new possibilities appearing has made potential learners want not just to learn a foreign language but rather to become equipped with a communication tool that will help them navigate through this globalized world.

While in the previous years, such as in the early 90s, a great number of people studied English for pleasure, for professional reasons, or in order to obtain some kind of internationally recognized certificate, the present day learners often study English because they think it might improve their job possibilities or make it easier for them to go abroad in order to work or study. There are also quite a number of those who would like to be able to communicate with the new members of their families, such as grandchildren or in-laws (because a large number of people emigrated in the last decade, mainly to some of the English-speaking countries, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). There is still a number of those who study English for professional reasons and a certain number of those who want to learn only some basic English in order to be able to communicate with people they meet either at home or abroad. The number of those who study English for pleasure is small, not because English is becoming less popular, (on the contrary, it is constantly gaining in popularity), but simply because not everybody can afford it, either because of the lack of time or more often the lack of money.

While in the early 90s, learners were interested in a number of specialized courses, (British Studies, for instance, were quite popular at the time) the present day learners seem to be interested mostly in General and Business English.

There is no doubt that the circumstances described above have greatly affected the learners, but to what extent depended on many things such as age range, social status, educational level, vulnerability, and many others. As the detailed analyses would require more time and space, we would limit our observation to the age group of 15-16. A fifteen-year old student has been living in a country that has changed its name, its flag, its national holidays, its geography, three times during his or her lifetime and is going to do it for the fourth time very soon again. His/her mother tongue has changed its name (Serbo-Croat into Serbian) and his country's borders might soon undergo some changes too. S/he has been through two educational reforms and can possibly experience some more changes. So much about the feeling of identity.

Living in a country under international sanctions meant, among other things, great difficulty in getting a visa to go abroad. In other words our fifteen year old learner has hardly been anywhere out of the country unless s/he has been lucky enough to be taken on a two or three day school excursion to Prague or Budapest or at best on a ten day holiday in Greece. What is his/her knowledge of the world and cultures outside his/her immediate surroundings? What are his/her feelings towards the British and the Americans who, along with some other nations, imposed the sanctions and bombed them for days on end?

For a period of time there was a strong anti-American sentiment as a result of some political tensions existing between the two countries in recent times, which culminated with the sanctions and bombing. Those undoubtedly provoked the feelings that helped reaffirm all the negative clichés and stereotypes about Americans. Morover, during the NATO bombing our fifteen-year old witnessed the death of many civilians, often children and youth like him/herself, caused by those whose language and culture s/he is studying. So the question is, how interested those young learners are in British and American language and culture and what elements of those cultures would they want to get to know without having 'who- cares- for- their- culture' attitude?

On the other hand the influence of British and American culture, especially films, literature, music, fashion, etc. has for many years been so powerful and predominant that the curiosity and everlasting wish to know and learn more about all those things were not diminished by the political and social tumult of the last decade. This sentiment is especially prominent among those who decide to start learning the English language.

Besides, this young generation does not see English as the language of the British or Americans but rather as the language of the Internet, the language of e-mails they exchange with friends from all over the world or the language of the pop culture they belong to, even though living in Serbia. English has definitely become the 'lingua franca' and, as such, it transcends the boundaries of anyone's country and/or nation.

Yet, some young people cannot help showing their bitterness for being unjustly deprived of the possiblity of moving freely through the world, for having to queue endlessly in front of the British or American Embassies in order to apply for a visa in an attempt to spend two or three weeks in one of those countries studying the language they want to learn. They find it even harder to accept that quite often, without any apparent reason nor any explanation they are refused that visa.

As a coursebook writer working for many years as a member of the team developing English teaching materials in the Institute for Foreign Languages in Belgrade I believed that the advantages of developing our own materials were powerful: we knew our audience and their needs and were thus able to produce textbooks tailored to satisfy those needs. I also believed that, although being a non-native speaker of English was a drawback, speaking the same language and having the same cultural background as our learners could again be considered an advantage as it enabled us to predict with greater certainty the difficulties the students might encounter when learning a foreign language and thus help them overcome those difficulties.

But under the new circumstances the coursebook writer was faced with a completely different situation. We were aware of some of the changes our learners went through, we had the results of needs analysis and knew our students needs and motives but we were not so sure we knew our students as well as we used to. We felt we had to make some changes in the content of our teaching materials as we were aware that the content should not only follow our students' needs and interests but also the changes caused by the external events that influenced their lives so deeply.

So for example, as they were bombed by the British and Americans, our guess was that the students would probably not be very much interested in things like the British Royal Family, Punch and Judy shows or how the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. On the other hand they might want to know more about the Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter (who criticized Anglo-American politics and the bombing of Serbia ) and might be interested to read about an American student who has to work hard in order to make money for his education, who shares a flat with three or four friends and has to queue in front of the bathroom every morning while dreaming of getting a job in a museum which celebrates American pop and rock music. In other words we tried to look for some of the similarities that might help the students create a more realistic image of the Americans, and which at that particular moment in time could help in narrowing the gap between the people of the two nations. We made it our aim to try, whenever possible, to dispel prejudices and negative stereotypes about the British and American people and nations in general.

It is clear that the coursebook developer has to make some important decisions concerning the issues which may influence the students' perceptions of the target language and its culture. This is what makes the textbook developer's job much more difficult and much more rewarding at the same time. On one hand, s/he has a responsibility to ensure that the materials are as free from personal bias as possible. On the other hand, the textbook writer can help students become more aware of the world around them and help them understand and interact with that world in a much more meaningful and constructive manner.

Please check the British Life, Language and Culture course at Pilgrims website.