Abstract:
Surveying the massive current project of teaching English as a missionary language, this
article raises concerns about the scale and cultural politics of this work, as well as issues of trust and
disclosure, and the implicit support it provides for furthering the global spread of English. We discuss
various responses to this work, from the Christian evangelical and Christian service positions, to the liberal
agnostic, secular humanistic and critical pedagogical. Unless we engage in debate over the various moral
projects tied up with English language teaching, we argue, educators will be unable to establish the
grounds for our choices between missionary, liberal or critical projects.
