Issues of constraint and power: The creation of English language center in Esteli, Nicaragua

Bilingual Research Journal, Winter 1997 by Cindy A Brantmeier

Abstract

This article examines the development of an English Language Center in Esteli, Nicaragua in 1993. This case study aims to help those involved with the implementation of similar language teaching projects in the developing countries of Latin America. This critical examination reveals the struggles with power and resistance that one faces when implementing a program of its kind. The complexities of the different agendas within the classroom, as well as outside the school, are explored within the parameters of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language in Nicaragua. This reflection not only explores the pedagogical soundness of the English Language Center, but it also focuses on an awareness ofthe social, cultural, and political ramifications. While the nature of this article is anecdotal and the situations presented are not necessarily directly representative of other environments, these authentic experiences serve as a guide for the planning and implementation of similar language projects in Latin America.

Introduction

From 1961 to 1979 the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional), used armed resistance and political organization to fight against the Somoza government. In July of 1979 the Sandinistas ended the revolution by overthrowing Somoza, and in 1984 the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega won the presidential election. Ortega's direction ended in 1993 when the UNO (Union Nacional Opositora) won the election with Violeta Barrios de Chamorro as president. At this point the country of Nicaragua suffered a serious economic crisis.

The immediate answer to the question of why the city of Esteli requested the creation of an English language center is that the Lion's Club (whose policies were anti-Sandinista) with the support of the Mayor of Esteli (proSandinista) wrote a proposal to a grassroots organization, Partners for America, for the creation of a language institute. The State of Wisconsin is a partner with the country of Nicaragua via the 33-year-old National Alliance of the Partners of the Americas (NAPA), a non-political, non-religious volunteer organization that for the last 35 years has remained a viable inter-American force during the years when even the Peace Corps was asked to leave Nicaragua. Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and Esteli, Nicaragua are partner cities and for the last 10 years have worked together in the exchange of cultures, travelers, and a common vision to re-establish a self-sustaining community after the years of war.

Since the beginning of the relationship between the two cities, the need for English as a Foreign Language was repeatedly expressed by the teachers, doctors, nurses, forestry technicians, and other members of the community of Esteli. These parties declared that the establishment of an English Language Center would help erase the scars of war in Esteli, a city of 60,000. They felt that this language project would aid in the goal for Esteli to become an economically self-sufficient community. One primary concern lay with members of the medical community, who communicated the need for English to study and do research with the latest materials that were only published in English. According to Maher (1986), in an examination of the development of English as an international language of medicine, the dissemination and exchange of medical information in English has become not only an international but also an intranational phenomenon. There were also several other specific professional domains where English was needed. The business community needed English for growth in the inter-American commercial community; the local forestry technical school, a multinational organization sponsored by the Swedish government, needed English for its study of the latest work in vital areas like reforestation; high school and university students needed English as part of their curriculum to prepare for graduate work in the USA, as the Nicaraguan universities were still reconstructing graduate programs; and, finally, the Nicaraguan teachers of English expressed a desire for teacher-training workshops and regular English classes to improve their English proficiency as the majority of these teachers had never been to an English-speaking nation. All told, the people who wanted to study English were members of the learned communities who were obliged to reach a high level of competence in English to pursue their professional goals. The Estilians saw English as a tool of development, and in this sense, development was viewed as a process that has as its end the goal to increase economic productivity, the wealth of the nation, the level of health or education of the people-in short, to increase public welfare (DuBois, 1991).

The Nicaraguans expressed great pride in maintaining their own Spanish speaking heritage, but nonetheless articulated the necessity for English as it is (in the mayor's words) the "utilitarian world language." The community Lions Club stated, "Estamos seguros del exito ya que hay mucha demands de BUENA enseianza del ingles en la ciudad de Esteli," (We are sure of the success as there is a big demand for good English teaching in Esteli). The community repeatedly expressed the view that to develop and modernize they needed to become English literate; they connected communicating in English to development and modernization, and saw an English language center as an investment. This prevailing attitude divides the world into developed and undeveloped nations and further characterizes this distinction as one between modern and traditional (Pennycook, 1994). The Estilians saw English as an investment in the education of the people to speed up the process of progress and modernization. The Stevens Point Partner's group stated, "With the use of the English language we will bridge the cultural distances between the worlds of diversity and the homogeneity of our mid-Wisconsin community." With this knowledge of the immense desire and need for English, and the granting of funds from various sources, a search for a director of this English language center began.