Questioning assumptions in English language teaching and ESP

At a time of crisis it is natural to re-examine the underlying assumptions of our behaviour, and the purposes, both spoken and unspoken, that might be at their origin. The present paper attempts to offer a critical view of the assumptions that inform the claims and practices associated with the teaching and learning of English as a second language, and to tease out possible ideological positions they stem from. The analysis is followed by a series of suggestions as to how English teaching might develop after the pandemic and its economic aftermath. Assumptions of practicality, neutrality, efficiency, knowledge and value are all identified in current English language teaching practice and the literature associated with it, and these are questioned. The significance of these observations is underlined in relation to practices such as international examinations and certification, the introduction of CLIL, and attempts to encourage ELF. Of particular importance is the role of English as a language of science and of global communication: a reality with both educational and political aspects, but one usually accepted as a given, with little examination of its nature beyond the excessively optimistic or rather polemical critique (Phillipson 1992, 2010). Potential effects of the technological mediation of learning are also discussed, with reference to language use in new contexts. A radical overhaul of the theoretical underpinning of English teaching is proposed in the concluding section of the article, attempting to posit attested good practice in a changed worldview and altered circumstances and a re-examination of the relationship between the centre and the periphery. This ties in with the eternal challenge of cross-cultural communication: both to interact and analyse interactions without subservience to a single socio-political outlook.