Do language teachers have to be political?

They are not, of course, supposed to promote the views of political parties or indoctrinate their pupils. Education systems, however, are never independent of politics. Thus, in the Berlin curriculum document, we read that the ultimate goal of secondary education is for learners to "take responsibility for themselves and others, to promote the equality of all human beings, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, language, nationality, disabilities, religious or political views, sexual orientation or socio-economic standing" (Rahmenlehrplan Sek I & II 2006: 5, my translation). Clearly, the motivation behind this is to promote democracy and a liberal society. If teachers are to teach social responsibility, it goes without saying that they need to be responsible members of society themselves.

(1) Somebody’s left… purse.
      [ ] his
      [ ] her
      [ ] their

The issue of politically correct and gender-neutral language lies at the interface between teaching language and teaching social responsibility, and it shows nicely that we cannot not take a position without ceasing to speak at all. Where do Germany’s educational authorities stand? Delaja Harder looks at singular they in German textbooks.

Delaja Harder. 2016. "Gendered Language in the EFL classroom. Singular They in German Textbooks and the Berlin Curriculum". Seminar Paper, FU Berlin.

What is the ultimate goal of foreign-language teaching? According to the Berlin Senatsverwaltung, learners are to acquire the skills necessary to verbally interact in international contexts (2006. Rahmenlehrplan für die Grundschule und die Sekundarstufe I – Englisch). As Steven Wosniack explains in his paper "Cultural Literacy, Curricula und was Star Trek damit zu tun hat", this includes far more than grammatical competence, comprehensible pronunciation and a reasonably large vocabulary. Competent language users leave things unsaid; they allude to shared knowledge and expect their interlocutors to supply missing information in unfinished quotations or idioms. You just can’t be a successful member of the literate English speaking world if you’ve never heard of books like Moby Dick, TV series like Star Trek or people like Hilary Clinton or Jon Snow. If we want to be successful teachers of English, we need to enable and encourage our students to gain access to cultural literacy. Steven Wosniack shows us how this can be done using a Star Trek episode.

Wosniack 2106. Cultural Literacy, Curricula und was Star Trek damit zu tun hat. Seminar paper, Freie Universität Berlin, 2016.