Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

The English Class and Global Education
There is still a controversy as to why the English class should be singled out for global
education. Some skeptics believe it is a storm in a teacup, since other disciplines address global
issues. But this is not evident in curriculums across nations. In the Cameroon school system, for
instance, the regular curriculum as defined by the Ministry of Secondary Education comprises
single subjects such as biology, chemistry, math, history, geography, economics, citizenship and
English language. The observation is that aspects of global education appear in some subjects at
different levels as relevant to the course in question. Biology, for example, covers HIV/AIDS,
malaria, and other health issues; in history is found issues of war, peace, and conflict resolution;
geography highlights natural disasters and environmental protection; economics deals with world
economies, poverty, and food security; and citizenship may cover such issues as human rights,
social justice, and community service. English, French, Spanish, and German are the only
subjects that may contain a lot of global issues in the form of comprehension passages or in
prescribed literature textbooks.
However, despite attempts to include global issues in the school curriculum, it is not done
in a conscious or systematic manner. The evidence is that many other aspects of global education
remain conspicuously absent or dormant. Some examples are gender and discrimination, peace
education, critical thinking, and universal/moral values. Moreover, the Anglophone subsystem of
education in Cameroon tends toward specialization, permitting students to concentrate on only a
few subjects of their choice at a higher level. This diminishes the opportunity for a continued
global education as contained in a wide variety of subjects. English and the other languages
remain the only universal subjects for a possible continuity of global teaching and learning.
Recalling what Jacobs and Cates (1999) state, global education should be a regular and
consistent part of the curriculum and not thrown in randomly. This can be achieved in the
language classroom.
I agree with Maley’s (1992) observation that some English textbooks (as is the case in
Cameroon) treat global issues superficially, dwelling more on the linguistic aspect. Yet it is
evident that English (or any language class) offers the ideal opportunity for the realization of a
global education. Teachers must be able to seize the said opportunity to integrate global issues in
their teaching. Naturally, language teaching/learning is incomplete without a social context,
given its role as a factor in human social, political, and economic behavior. And because
language is not subject specific, it provides a convenient context in which to discuss topics of
concern to students and address all global issues. The “content proper” (which is essentially
grammar and vocabulary and the language skills) is usually taught using the “content carrier,”
which consists of issues in everyday life (Medgyes, 1998). This implies that any text or subject
matter could be used as a basis (content carrier) for teaching the content proper and not just those
topics found in the textbook.
Silver (1991) and other experts in content-based language teaching buttress this point of
using a content to teach language skills. To illustrate, take the grammar point until. To
contextualize this point, it is not enough to say “You won’t watch TV until you do your
homework.” The teacher could follow up with a global issue such as gender as content.
Discussion on gender issues can lead students to say: “There won’t be gender equality until girls
are given equal opportunities to succeed.”
According to Cates (1990), schools, especially in developing countries, focus on rote
memorization, are tied to national syllabuses, and succumb to exam pressures, thereby
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