ABSTRACT

The National Bilingual Programme was launched in order to promote English learning in Colombia. The failure of this programme and subsequent iterations is well-documented, and research has also examined some of its negative effects for different societal groups. However, a comprehensive study of the social justice implications of Colombia’s national bilingual programmes has not been carried out. Using Young’s framework ‘the five faces of oppression’, the current paper shows how different groups experience different forms of injustice as a result of the implementation of Colombia’s national bilingual programmes and their focus on language as a means to the end of economic development. It is argued that the the Colombian government’s policy approach instrumentalises foreign language learning and diminishes the importance of the other purposes of learning a foreign language. Furthermore, this study shows how a lack of consideration of contextual factors from a social justice perspective can lead to shortcomings in policy implementation and the neglect of social justice issues. The conclusion suggests that bilingual policies need not be oppressive and outlines ways to ensure socially just English-Spanish bilingual education in Colombia.

摘要

发起了国家双语计划，以促进哥伦比亚的英语学习。该程序和后续迭代的失败已得到充分记录，并且研究也检查了其对不同社会群体的某些负面影响。但是，尚未对哥伦比亚的国家双语计划对社会正义的影响进行全面研究。本文采用扬的框架“压迫的五个面孔”，显示了由于实施哥伦比亚的国家双语计划而不同群体如何经历不同形式的不公正待遇，以及他们将语言作为经济发展终结手段的关注。有人认为，哥伦比亚政府的政策方法有助于外语学习，并削弱了学习外语的其他目的的重要性。此外，这项研究表明，从社会正义的角度出发缺乏对背景因素的考虑会如何导致政策实施中的缺陷以及对社会正义问题的忽视。结论表明，双语政策不必过于压制，并概述了在哥伦比亚确保社会公正的英语-西班牙语双语教育的方法。