Formal English without tears: Rewriting the narrative of the ‘low-level’ learner

This is an account of a paradigm shift in perspective, emerging from a Living Theory approach to action research, and the way in which this shifted perspective revealed both a longstanding and systemic educational injustice and a high academic failure rate directly tied to that injustice. It also describes the development of an approach to the teaching of Academic English that is just, empowering and effective for students. I argue here that a transformation in personal perspective, especially the recognition of a living contradiction, (as articulated by Jack Whitehead), was the key to understanding and addressing what has long appeared to be an academic and pedagogical issue but which, in fact, was one of social justice and cultural diversity.