ABSTRACT
In the project on which this book is based we posed two questions: one about the school subject English, the other about a way of looking at English in the classroom. The first question, broadly, was this: how is English made; what, actually, is it like; and how is it experienced when it appears in this specific classroom, shaped by the mix of governmental curriculum policy, of the school’s response to that policy, the variety of departmental traditions in the school and their ethos, the social and geographical environment in which the school operates, the kinds of students who come to the school, and last – but by no means least – the variations in the professional trainings, experiences and backgrounds of the teachers? The second question, the question about methodology, simply put, was this: what is the best or the most appropriate way of looking at English, so that we might actually get a full understanding of its reality, in all ways, in the experience of students and teacher alike, in any one classroom?
