The question of power in language classes from a critical discourse analysis perspective: Once a student, always a student (original) (raw)
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Language Teaching Research from a Global Perspective 2 0 2 0 ONOMÁZEIN-Special Issue VI | Language Teaching Research from a Global Perspective: 23-43 Yiyi López Gándara English language learning and learner empowerment: a mixed-method study of pre-service English ... 24 It is widely acknowledged that the expansion of English has had a democratising effect: knowledge is now accessible to a larger number of people worldwide. However, it is also contended that the uncritical and unreflective teaching of English is contributing to reproducing power structures, accentuating inequalities among speakers. This article presents the results of a study carried out with 86 final-year students in the Degree of Primary Education (English) at the University of Seville. Working within the framework of critical research, and combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study analyses learners' perceptions on communicative competence, on the factors that bear upon successful communication, and their capacity to identify and understand power relations in communicative interactions. Results show that communicative competence does not necessarily entail learner empowerment; learners are too worried about linguistic aspects and accuracy when they speak English; they aspire to a model-the native speaker-that they can never reach; and they are not aware of power inequalities, their origin and how they transpire in communicative situations. This analysis points to the need to include a critical component in English language teaching to equip learners to identify and tackle power asymmetries in communicative interactions.
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This article explores various dimensions of the relations of power, language and literacy, and how these work out within contemporary educational contexts. Such relationships are contextualized into at least three different templates: turn-taking interaction, (primarily) one-way interaction and institution-based interaction. In the first two templates it is shown that the role of rational communication and solidarity has been an essential part of educational systems of the modern world. However, in the third template, when interaction is institution-based, communication is inevitably structural and mechanistic, as if losing its human aspects. Understanding the different templates of interaction allows education stakeholders or interactants in general to achieve their goal in communication effectively and efficiently. Preceding the discussion, however, the nature of language, literacy and power relationships is introduced.