“What is English?”

Albert Kitzhaber’s keynote speech at the 1966 Dartmouth Seminar was titled “What is English?” His paper, which regarded English as monolithic and unchangeable, represented American thinking about the teaching of English (Sublett, 1973; Trimbur, 2008). However, the British scholars in attendance were interested in a new process-oriented conception of English that was less concerned with the perfection of a final linguistic product. Each group felt that their nation’s curriculum was outdated and needed modernizing, but the Americans’ goal was to develop a rigorous curriculum in the style of the New Mathematics and New Science (e.g. Project English) founded on scientific principles (Trimbur, 2008), whereas the British wanted to deemphasize the technical and academic aspects of English and build on their students’ authentic usage of English (Harris, 1991; Dixon, 2009). Contemporary accounts of the debates and reminiscences of the participants suggest that the Americans wanted to continue to legitimize their nation’s ownership of the English language, whereas British educators, who were secure in their literary history, felt no need to flaunt their linguistic heritage (Dixon, 2009; Donahue & Blewett, 2015; Harris, 1991; Trimbur, 2008). The British, particularly, seized this moment of dialogue about English to argue for a more creative, expressive, and student-centered form of English instruction.