Page 79 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

was written, and the teaching materials for teachers were also developed, but they never saw the light of day. Despite the authors' requests, they also did not receive permission to publish the prepared materials for research purposes or for other audiences. Personnel in the Ministry of Education in Brazil had changed, and the new team was not interested in the project, and instead ordered its cancellation.
Many researchers in applied linguistics question the content of ELT (English Language Teaching) materials. Brown (1990, p. 13) argues that textbooks in the form of "bestsellers are increasingly marketed to westernised young people". Rinvolucri (1999, pp. 12–14) takes a similar view, arguing that in language textbooks the world is kept away from the dark side of life, with no mention of death, poverty, or war. Rinvolucri's position is that language course materials are the same as the soft, faded, sub-journalistic world of colour magazines. In 1994, Teodozja Rittel wrote about the predominance of content topics that are culturally distant from the contemporary learner in schoolwork. The above still seems to be true today, and language education, during which both the student and the teacher take a false stance, leads to the inhibition of the development of cultural competence in students, since participation in culture depends on linguistic awareness and on the proper situating of statements in a social context.
The educational materials designed by publishers are rarely based on the results of scientific research. Tomlinson (2018, p. 27) describes a situation where research findings were presented in a confidential report to the publisher but were ignored in the development of a new textbook series, which returned to the centrality of grammar and continued to cater mainly to the needs of the decision-makers who were to determine the purchase of the series. Global textbooks for language education, which are also used in Poland, are hardly ever considered suitable enough for users. They are characterised by a high degree of Anglo-centrism, contributing to the perpetuation of what Holliday (2005) described as the ideology of native speakerism, i.e., the belief that the ideals of the English language and English teaching come from the West. This discourse is reflected in textbooks, which mostly present standard British and all-American English (Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2013). In addition to Anglo-centrism, English textbooks often portray culture in stereotypical ways, presenting topics on food, folklore, facts, fashion, famous people, etc., thus creating situations in which learners and teachers are encouraged to operate with specific stereotypes140.
Discussions about language teaching mainly focus on language acquisition and how to organise work with learners. Some researchers and teachers look for ways to engage students in authentic conversation in the classroom without the use of a textbook. Textbook authors, on the other hand, defend the medium as a source of opportunity for engagement with spoken and written language (Hughes, 2019, p. 450). Disputes over the superiority and sequence of declarative and procedural knowledge still occur, even though Krashen (1982) long ago convincingly rejected the idea of a progression of foreign language learning from declarative to procedural knowledge. I completely agree with Jordan and Gray (2019, p. 443), who argue that the focus on form should only take place in communication classes when there is a need. The explicit teaching of grammar should be limited (Krashen, 1982). Perhaps we need to adopt a more pedagogical perspective when we look at foreign language teaching because it is safe to say we have not yet managed to truly promote deep, social learning in language education, to give learners the freedom to decide what and how they learn, and
140 Kiczkowiak, 2020.
64