ABSTRACT
The management of evaluation and innovation in English language programmes needs to address a tension between two professional-academic cultures. The academic culture of collectionism is often invaded by a skills-oriented culture of integrationist ELT. This state of affairs has important links with a similar tension between academic applied linguistics and integrationist ELT — in turn related to wider tensions within late industrial society. The relevance of applied linguistics to the management of English language education can sometimes be questioned. Also, the presentation within applied linguistics of national or global culture difference and conflict can be counterproductive when analysing institutional factors in language programmes. However, applied linguistics can make a valuable contribution to the management of evaluation and innovation through a critical discourse analysis of the collection-integration conflict, both within English language programmes and in its own relationship with those programmes.
