Proof of a TEFL oligarchy??
I’d always scoffed at such conspiracy theories before, but I could have sworn that there were more than this many publishers of EFL materials in the UK. Maybe Delta Publishing etc have all been taken over by Saudi oil princes like Premiership football teams and therefore no longer count as British. Or maybe the small companies are doing so well that the big publishers need some help catching back up. If it’s not those, I’m sure there must be some other just as plausible innocent explanation…
October 18th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Nice, I’ll put a call-out on Twitter and see if we can’t find the answer… good grief.
October 18th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
It does say “selected”
of course, why those particular companies were selected….
October 18th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
It also says “trial period”, I think it is often the case that publishing companies with a higher turnover (profit rates) are able to invest in “trial” periods and therefore get in first and have the financial support to promote these sort of “free sample materials” linking intiatives. Not fair and I’m not defending it, just trying to understand! Perhaps not a conspiracy theory but big business?
October 18th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
OH Vale,
You are too kind… and here I was thinking that maybe Alex could stir up some trouble and get the BC to go be nice to the Delta lot – you just ruined it with it’s, shrug, just big business… sigh.
Karenne
October 18th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Excuse me if I’m being thick here, but I’m not sure I understand the outcry – surely it makes sense for the BC to approach ‘the big four’ UK publishers for such a trial? Or is the point here that they should have contacted all the UK publishers (impossible?) or…? Again, I’m with Valentina here – I’m not sure I understand why you think offering teachers sample materials from these publishers is bad.
October 18th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
They may have been approached and said no….
October 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Hmm. Interesting. When did this go up, anyone? It kind of makes official the knowledge/fact, call it what you like, that these four publishers have been quietly allowed to give stuff away on here for more than a year. One reply I got was that the free stuff was non promotional/altruistic and not linked to any to-pay-for product. That took about 20 seconds and the sending of a link to scotch
October 19th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
No idea how long it’s been up, found it while looking for something else.
The conspiracy theory:
- The British government has a secret list of British industry “winners” that the BC, British Chambers of Commerce etc should promote, while ignoring time wasting losers from other firms
The non-conspiracy theory:
- Like everything else in TEFL (and indeed all industry according to Dilbert cartoons), the job of setting up this page was given to someone with little relevant experience and even less time, and they simply took the easiest option. Now no one is in charge of it at all but the BC is too embarrassed to admit that, so people like Jason who want to be included find themselves fighting with air
October 19th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I think the old ‘cash-nexus’ was at work here – those companies paid to get the privilege of appearing on the site and hawking their goods. Hardly a conspiracy, is it? Much more like good old-fashioned capitalism!
October 20th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Totally changing the topic, here is my favourite blog post of the week:
http://the-pln-staff-lounge.blogspot.com/2009/10/should-tefl-be-more-like-ryanair.html
October 20th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Sorry to disappoint you all, but the British Council supports British publishers because that’s part of its remit from the British government. It also supports British artists, musicians scientists, educators, British English and British values like tolerance, diversity and intercultural dialogue …
(Whether you agree that’s a good thing or not is another question. And yet another question is whether it does the job well or in a fair way. But it’s what the BC exists to do. No conspiracy – it’s all out in the open). The publishers don’t pay the BC for the privelege.
As for the “evil publishers brutally giving stuff away for free”, it’s hard to see what there is to complain about.
I noticed one of my old worksheets was there – one I’d written for CUP’s Professional English Online site, which is also free. The idea is to generate a bit of traffic to the website in order to raise awareness of the books. That’s all.
I didn’t write it in order to help CUP or the British Council take over the world … it was actually kinda hoping teachers would use it and it’d save them some time and their students might learn something.
Of course, I could be the centre of the global conspiracy, with one foot in the BC and the other in CUP …
October 20th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
No one is expecting the British taxpayer subsidized BC to support American ELT publishers (for example), but why only the big 4 British ones? How about Summertown, Marshall Cavendish, Keyways, Delta, Mary Glasgow Magazines, Garnet Education etc etc?
October 21st, 2009 at 10:07 am
And how about a few independent British ELT websites too, rather than concentrating on working hand-in-glove with the BBC?
October 25th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Whilst I don’t personally buy into the conspiracy theory, it seems to me that if part of the British Council’s remit from the Government is to support British publishers, then shouldn’t they be providing a platform for publishers who genuinely need supporting, rather than free advertising for a bunch of major league players who are already have a huge chunk of the ELT publishing market pretty much sewn up, and clearly aren’t in any need of extra help from the British taxpayer?
Just my two penneth worth.
(Glad you enjoyed the Ryanair post, BTW, Alex
October 27th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Not looked at the ryan air link yet but yield management has been considered
Anyway, I got wind of this big 4 thing last spring via someone who should know. I was curious as to when and how the decision was made and understood that a committee/group made the decision. I sent the BC a freedom of information request and got some interesting answers which I have been sitting on. I was dangled the offer/prospect of a slot on a new directory part of the site (it was not what I would call 1/10000th parity with said big 4’s long running philanthropic association). Anyway. Rob. If you are reading this. It’s all gone very quiet your end