Cross-cultural methodological innovation in Bhutan: teacher experiences with the process writing approach

The role of English as the global lingua franca and its centrality to economic and social expansion in the twenty-first century has led to increased government emphasis on fostering the language in contexts where it has no official status. Frequently initiatives to increase English competence in these so-called ‘expanding circle’ nations – a term coined by Kachru (1992) in association with his concentric circles model of the global uptake of English – take the form of aid-funded projects with methodological innovation based on educational paradigms originating in contexts where English is a primary language. This paper examines one such collaboration; a partnership between the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Kingdom of Bhutan, which led to Bhutan’s adoption of the Process Writing Approach (PWA). Specifically, we utilise Hofstede’s (1980) framework of cultural dimensions to compare the ideological underpinnings of the PWA with the values and practices of traditional Bhutanese education.