Business As Unusual

Andy Martin looks at the different directions publishers are taking in the competitive book world of ESL and EFL.

They say what goes around comes around, and nowhere is this more true than in the field of education in general and in ESL specifically. ESL teachers have always been on a quest for the perfect book, method or guru__remember Suggestopedia, or Gattegno? These days, prescriptive methodologies are pretty much out of favor - but don’t worry, they’ll be back. Whole Language had a pretty good run and affected a broad range of disciplines, including ESL. Unfortunately for its devotees, the "back-to-basics three ‘R’s’" folks have come back real strong and are now in control of public K-12 education in the United States.

Educational publishers like myself take a slightly different view of trends and fashions than teachers and academics. To be honest, I think our view is somewhat broader and more realistic. We are not really innovators: Frankly, we are market driven and publish what customers want (i.e. what sells). In the 70’s, grammar in ESL was pronounced dead. As a teacher, I myself was one of the pallbearers. But when I got into ESL publishing in the 80’s, I was astonished to learn that grammar was alive and kicking as far as sales were concerned. Grammar books continue to be the best selling ESL books of all, e.g. Azar, Focus on Grammar, Grammar in Use (catchy titles, aren’t they?). The fact is that ESL teachers and students can’t get enough grammar.

The other bread and butter item has been the integrated, four skills, multi-level series. Whether it’s Lado, Side by Side or New Interchange, these types of series have always dominated both the ESL and EFL markets.

But recent developments in K-12 public education are threatening to derail the parallel tracks of ESL and EFL publishing. I’m referring to the "back-to-basics" movement, which is creating new market forces to which publishers will have to respond.

Many readers will be aware that, during the 90’s, there was a major movement throughout K-12 education to establish national standards in many academic areas, including English and ESL. Subsequently, many states either adapted these standards or created their own. Furthermore, they developed standardized tests such as the TASS in Texas and the Regents in New York, not only to measure student progress but also to evaluate teacher performance. The result is that many states (not to mention the teachers) have gone test crazy.

In order to survive many teachers feel they have no recourse but to "teach to the test." LEP (Limited Eng-lish Proficient) students have been swept up in the melee. They are be-ing mainstreamed faster than ever and are now required to pass the very same tests as native speaking
students, if they wish to graduate.

Remember state adoptions? I wrote about how all-powerful they were in determining content of textbooks (see ALR, May/June 1999). Well, in the current and next round of adoptions, California, Florida and Texas will be asking for ESL materials that prepare students to meet the very same English standards as native speakers, not state or national ESL standards. This development spells the end, at least for a while, of the integrated skills’ series in the K-12 market. It’s probably the end, too, of the "Content-Based" materials that publishers have tried to develop (not very successfully). It’s back to what non-ESL professionals perceive as basics for ESL students, namely, phonics, literary genres
and rhetorical mode.

So publishing for the two markets of ESL and EFL is now going in very different directions. In non-English speaking countries, English is taught as a foreign language. The goal of such instruction will never be to raise the English language standards of the population at large. People in these countries will continue to learn English for a variety of reasons and motivations and will not suddenly feel the need to have native speaker standards and skills, or be booted out of the school system. To this end, the EFL market will continue to need integrated skills’ courses, which the publishers will happily continue to provide.

But what about the States? Should the integrated series market dwindle, ESL publishers will simply stop publishing them. Will they suddenly start publishing ESL/Lang-uage Arts series? I doubt it. The really big houses cannot accommodate change so quickly. I predict that the mainstream publishers will do for secondary and middle schools what has already happened in K-5. They will create and promote materials designed for native English speakers and "enhance" them with ESL "tips" for teachers on how to deal with ESL students while teaching the lesson. Also, look out for the introduction of supplementary (and cheap) workbooks.

Will this be a permanent situation? No. In a few years, just when ESL publishers have finally caught up with the mainstream boys and are ready to introduce their Language Arts series, some do-gooder, probably in California, will start organizing all the ESL dropouts into a political party. In response, there will be a new Proposition, proclaiming the radical idea that maybe students should actually be given the chance to learn the language in which they will be tested. Then the natives can stop being restless, and the ESL publishers can go back to business as usual.