Intensive English programme ecology: decolonizing ‘within the cracks’

Abstract

Intensive English programmes (IEPs) are college and university units that provide international students with academic English instruction for the purpose of admission to the host institution. IEPs are colonial endeavours: they commodify and promote a language with a traceable colonial history that is reinforced through modern structures of knowledge distribution within higher education. Reliance on colonial architectures limits creativity and enforces hegemonic structures upon a field that tends to manifest more social justice orientations. This article argues that the position of IEPs allows them to contest their colonial nature through conscientious, incremental change. It considers the core activities of the IEP ecology (i.e. instruction, discipline, profession, business, and service), looking at how each facet may be utilized to enact a decolonial option. These interventions lend themselves to goals of decolonial projects by reducing bias and hegemony in how IEPs approach language and are positioned within the field and their host institution.