The Dilemma

Current State of the Industry

The genius of Grammar Captive, if such an epithet can herein be entertained, is the realization that

One, the English language industry, like so many other global industries today, is less about providing a useful service or product, than it is about the making of profit and the exercising of political influence and power.

Two, the English language programs imposed by national governments  around the world have resulted in massive economic waste and social damage.  These perverse outcomes are the result of the excess artificial demand created by these governments’ poorly considered language policy and programs.  As the agents of profit, influence, and power involved in the promotion of these policies are both numerous and powerful these perverse outcomes are unlikely to go away any time soon.

Three, the idea that every human being should be minimally endowed with two languages:  his native tongue and a global lingua franca — namely, English — is neither necessary, nor —  at least, and more importantly under the current state of the second-language industry — even possible.

Four, the learning of a second language is for several important reasons very different from the learning of one’s first language — this, despite several incontrovertible truths about the nature of language acquisition in general.  The widely promulgated Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology is in many ways a false product.

Five, the value of the English language as a lingua franca has been diluted by the linguistic variation that has been introduced through the imposition of the language on those who have little interest or any real need for the language.

Six, English language education shares most of the problems with which mass education is fraught, but it stands out in one very important way.  All students already have a means to communicate when they enter school and most have little desire in acquiring an unnecessary other.  In effect, both the demand and the motivation are artificially created and imposed.

Seven, language diversity is a social and environmental good that encourages local community and protection from the scourge of the state and the large multinational corporations who compete for its control.  National governments that would destroy language diversity in the name of national unity are providing a disservice to humanity as a whole.

This is not an exhaustive list.


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