小瓢虫传媒 has learnt that one of the world鈥檚 biggest academic publishers, 聽(OUP), is being investigated by Trading Standards over potentially misleading claims that one of its English language learning courses is the first of its kind.
OUP has called its , launched this summer, 鈥渢he first course to use social networking to help students succeed in English鈥�. However, Languages Out There, a relative minnow in the ELT world,聽says its (EOT) programme published in 2009 was the first.
Moreover, it alleges OUP knew this, having consulted Languages Out There about EOT in 2010-11 before deciding not to collaborate with the company 鈥� a claim OUP denies.
A spokesman for Dorset Trading Standards said: 鈥淲e are concerned about the claims that are being made by the Oxford University Press and we have taken that up directly with them聽and are still thinking about how we will deal with that.
“We are concerned about the claims that are being made by the Oxford University Press and we have taken that up directly with them”
鈥淚n particular there are claims relating to whether or not this was the first type of product that used social media in a certain way.鈥�
English Out There launched as 鈥渢he first ever ‘social media’ English language teaching course book鈥� , offering 鈥渦nique鈥� course materials which can be used both offline and on through platforms such as Facebook and Skype. Founder Jason West said the course was developed through thousands of teaching hours at his language school, but had only turned a small profit in the last few years.
West said he was excited when OUP expressed interest in English Out There at the start of 2010, but after a meeting and email correspondence, OUP declined to take the relationship further in May.
West was asked to another meeting with OUP representatives in November 2011 where OUP mentioned it was developing a programme using social media. No collaboration followed聽but West was dismayed when OUP launched 聽in 2012 claiming to be a “first” in what he considered was a similar way.
鈥淚t just seemed strange to claim to be the first, given they were developing the programme while speaking to me and I had been promoting mine as ‘the first’ for two years,鈥� West told 小瓢虫传媒
Since being contacted by Trading Standards, Oxford University Press has removed the claim from its website and Amazon of its own volition, while making private a number of promotional videos on Youtube. However, it still appears in the Network textbooks (pictured above) and in numerous Google listings.
A spokesman for OUP told 小瓢虫传媒 the claim had been made in good faith. 鈥淲e believe that Network was the first classroom-based ELT course to stress the teaching of social media etiquette and to teach students how to be critical users of social media for language learning purposes,” said a spokesperson.
鈥淲e recognise that other services which harness the power of social media are available for English language students”
鈥淲e recognise that other services which harness the power of social media are available for English language students, and accept that some of our marketing messages might not have reflected that.鈥�
It added: 鈥淲hile there has been contact between several OUP employees and Mr West in recent years, the team involved in developing Network, and those producing specific marketing messages for the course, were not involved in these discussions.鈥�
Trading Standards is yet to make a decision on the case but said that OUP “did not seem capable of substantiating its claims” which could potentially be creating “unfair competition” with Languages Out There.
If OUP is found in breach, Trading Standards will try to make it comply with its ruling “through advice”, but could issue a warning or take legal action if necessary.
“Any claims that we have been made aware of, we will scrutinise and if there has been a breach of any legislation then we鈥檒l apply our usual enforcement policies,” it said.
