| Summary/Abstract |
The present article addresses British efforts at using English Language Teaching (ELT) to bolster its position among a broad range of Gulf residents, from sheikhs to students. During a time in which the British image in the Arab world was often discredited, policymakers believed that the English language was one commodity capable of overcoming prevailing negative attitudes. Through an analysis of British Council files for the Persian Gulf, this article examines the successes and failures which attended British efforts to use English language expertise to forge new contacts and to develop a new role in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. It shows that there was rising demand for ELT across the trio of states. In Qatar and, especially, Bahrain, this demand helped Britain to enhance its presence within the education sector and thus help to maintain a form of British involvement in the years following withdrawal. Kuwait proved a more difficult nut to crack; but even here, a revamped ELT effort from 1969 gave British observers encouragement that the English language was among the country’s trump cards in its effort to maintain favourable relations with its former client.
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