ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the short training courses provided for people in positions of power and responsibility in relation to bilingual speakers of English. These people are mainly white and native speakers of English. The training which was developed in ILT focussed on two major groups of such people:
People in supervisory positions in workplaces, for example managers, supervisors and shop stewards.
Gatekeepers (see Chapter 1, p. 15 and Chapter 2, pp.98–9) who control access to, for example, employment opportunities, advice on social services entitlements, public housing and education. They usually exercise this control through a relatively highly structured interview process which is considered to be ‘objective’. Because gatekeeping is largely exercised through the process of verbal interaction, it became a major focus for this type of training.
