Just a hunch, but English Plan is Lame Old, Same Old

Gerardo Barboza, M.Ed.
The Tico Times
April 11th, 2008

The Tico Times reported in the article "State cracking down on bad English teachers" about a national plan "to improve English instruction and produce a bilingual workforce for the nation's growing economy" (TT, March 14).

In the report, current Education Minister, Leonardo Garnier stated, "The demand of English knowledge is increasing more quickly than our capacity to respond… If we want our country to be successful, not just economically but also culturally… we have to make some headway."

Garnier's statements reflect, first, a phenomenon that is not recent in Costa Rica and, second, a situation that the Public Education Ministry has been unable to solve, in spite of the many "efforts" made in the past and the current "much greater and more systematic" effort titled Plan Nacional de Inglés (National English Plan).

Unfortunately, the necessary "headway" for Costa Rica to be successful in terms of providing a so- called "bilingual workforce" does not lie on "much greater and more systematic efforts" as the plan's authors argue.  No success can be attained with a plan lacking scientific foundations arising from independent scientific studies conducted in Costa Rica.  Instead, the plan is the result of the intuition of the many representatives from the public and private sectors.

The whole plan is based on two opposing discriminators of language abilities:  The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEF) and, standardized tests, such as the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC)- tools with international recognition, a recognition arising from the marketing industry, not from scientific educational research.

The CEF is a "manifestation" of the "Communicative Approach for the Teaching and Learning of Languages" and, according to the Council of Europe, its purpose is "to convert language teaching from structure-dominated scholastic sterility." 

The multiple-choice standardized tests are manifestation of the structuralist, behaviorist model for the teaching and learning of languages. In other words, testing tools for perpetuating the "structure-dominated scholastic sterility."

Interestingly enough, the plan is founded not only on tools that contradict themselves, but on tools that need to be reappraised for the Costa Ricans.  In the article by Glenn Fulcher called "Are Europe's tests being built on an 'unsafe' framework?,” published by the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, it is stated that the CEF "a system intended to ease comparison of language skills," fails learners. 

This generated a response article from one of the co-authors of the CEF, Brian North: "Europe's framework promotes language discussion, not directives."

Were at least these two different positions taken into consideration by the plan's authors to base the whole National English Plan on a tool that is still under testing and discussion in Europe? Let the Europeans find their way out in their conceptual and theoretical labyrinths.  Let us not continue trying to explain without understanding, copying formulas that have proven not to be efficient for our country. Let's take advantage of the global scientific and technological advantages to develop scientific educational criteria for Costa Rica.

Leaving aside the use of contradictory testing tools by the plan's authors -and the serious problem that it presents to base a whole national plan on a framework that seems to be "unsafe," and which efficacy is still under consideration in Europe- it will be impossible to secure a successful country and to provide a "bilingual workforce" if the Education Ministry continues to adopt and adapt teaching and learning approaches developed to satisfy the needs of teachers and learners in Europe and the United States, not that of the Costa Ricans.

Seventeen years ago, based on no educational criterion, the ministry adopted and adapted the Communicative Approach in the National English Syllabus.  An approach that, according to research is not a revolution and that, according to our country's current situation, has not improved the teaching and the learning of English, resulting in a scarcing "bilingual" workforce. 

Today, the National English Plan is based on a mixture of common-sense, testing tools that contradict themselves and not well defined objectives.  It is a plan that is the continuation of an inconvenient approach for Costa Rica.

Christian Rodríguez, vice president of operations at Western Union, was quoted in the Tico Times as saying, "Some approaches you and says 'I speak 55% English.'  'Well, what is 55% English?"

Rodríguez is right.  His question implicitly tells about the subjectivity in referring to the English proficiency in terms of percentages.  Is there a difference in terms of the subjectivity found in the CEF descriptors?

A radical, coherent syllabus redesign of the teaching and learning process founded on scientific, independent research, is the only "headway" to make our country successful.  A mixture of speculation, common sense, intuition, and hunch is not what our country needs again

A mixture that will not satisfy the need for a "bilingual" workforce. 

There are high, direct and indirect financial costs to be paid by Costa Ricans for unfounded, traditional services that will render a traditional and recycled low, negative outcome.