ABSTRACT
Word-for-word translation was aimed at aiding comprehension of the foreign language; meaning-focused translation was considered useful for understanding lexical and grammatical differences across languages; and translating accurately and fluently was suggested as an additional written exercise for advanced learners. Central to communicative language teaching is the use of activities designed to engage learners in cooperative work that stimulates the “genuine use of language for communicative purposes”. The bilingual approach adopted by educators such as Duff is endorsed also in methodologies informed by the principles of community language learning. Politics involves debates about language education policies, language planning, monoglossic versus heteroglossic ideologies, unequal power relationships between majority and minority languages, cultural pluralism and the negotiation of multilingual identities. The model of language description underpinning such multilingual pedagogies is ecological. Ecological linguistics, an offshoot of educational linguistics, focuses “on the way individuals relate to the world and to each other by means of linguistic and other sign systems”.
