The rigidity of specifications is a problem that any UK publisher will be aware of, although it is probably most experienced by authors in the book production chain. Each year, the various awarding bodies create specifications to guide teachers on what content to teach and how pupils will be assessed, with the aim of ensuring consistency across schools and exam boards.
How does this affect textbooks? They follow the rigid, functional and communication-poor syllabus set out in the specifications to the letter and focus only on how to pass the exams. There is little room for creativity. The result of this practice is often an unnatural, stereotyped language, full of supposedly useful phrases that do not always fit with how native speakers express themselves. I could write a lot on the need for specifications to be written by native speakers with a sensitivity for language teaching. Perhaps another time. For now, I would like to draw attention to a serious impact that goes beyond the grammatical or linguistic framework, which is that specifications also lead to an absolute disconnection with reality.
As we know, a language is a gateway to a world. It is as simple as that. Speakers of one language have a different way of understanding social relations, of experiencing their past and of understanding their surroundings than speakers of another language. Learning a language gives access to all of this knowledge, as well as to the social reality of a community. Specification-based GCSE books ignore this and present a view of the Spanish-speaking world that lacks diversity. I am aware that, ironically, reflecting diversity is one of the aims of these specifications (or at least of the editors), and they take great care in this; however, real diversity is not mentioning out of context the existence of LGTBQ+ people (I am not saying that this is a negative thing, but just insufficient); neither is it mentioning different countries and cities, about wich nothing is known.
In the GSCE books, the Hispanic world is made up of festivals, traditions and emblematic places, all within a framework in which all people lead middle-class lives, with holidays, functional schools and access technology.
I do not believe that students who have merely used classroom materials to pass their exams will be able to name any Spanish-speaking artists, scientists or intellectuals.
Spanish-speaking culture is presented positively as an exotic celebration in which there is no room for:
– Socio-economic differences.
– The reality of the media.
– Political trends.
– Migration.
– History.
– Science and thought.
– Literature.
– The rural world.
– The colonial past.
And so on and so forth. The consequence of all this is that students are ignorant of the culture whose language they are learning, and this makes it difficult for them to acquire true competence. This feeling of disconnection between language and culture generates a bubble of isolation from reality, and turns Spanish into a mere logical code, a dehumanised transcription, a soulless system. I invite the creators of specifications to dare to find out what is really happening in Spanish-speaking countries, and what their citizens are really concerned about. This would make students, even with a basic knowledge of grammar, acquire real culture and tools to navigate the world.