Cambridge ESOL pops up in the strangest places
“Cambridge University Press had committed to publishing the book with minor revisions, and then they suddenly decided not to publish the book. They had committed to it and suddenly changed their minds. Prof Herzfeld was on the editorial board of CUP’s anthropology series at the time, and he resigned in protest, as did other members of the board.
CD: Yes, they cited ‘the safety of their staff in Greece’ as their reason, right?
VF: Well they said that. However, the way I heard it, CUP had a monopoly on English-language testing in the schools of Greece as well…
CD: Do you believe that the Greek government threatened that they would lose this privilege?
VF: I have no idea, but assuming that they had a monopoly- two plus two, what are you going to make of that, four or twenty-two?”
From here. I’d recommend reading the whole interview, especially if you have any interest in the Balkans and/ or how language policy and nationalism go together.
February 5th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
But Cambridge ESOL and CUP are two different companies, so don’t see how the connection between not publishing a book, and language testing are related.
February 5th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Well, I only know what I read there, but they are two different companies (actually non profits, but basically companies) both owned by Cambridge University. They also work very closely together, e.g. CUP publishing all the Cambridge ESOL past papers until recently