Critical Perspectives in Language Education and Literacies: Discussing Key Concepts (original) (raw)
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Critical Literacies and Language Education: Global and Local Perspectives
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics - ANNU REV APPL LINGUIST, 2005
Increasingly aware of the "critical" turn in our disciplines, we offer a partial survey of scholarship in two key realms-English for academic purposes (EAP) and globalization-where the term "critical literacy" has particular relevance. We begin by addressing some key concepts and ideological tensions latent beneath the term "critical." We then address the pedagogical priorities that arise from this conceptualization, in particular, the use of texts to distance individual and group identities from powerful discourses. Next, we review studies that demonstrate how different teachers and researchers have engaged in unraveling and cross-questioning the rhetorical influences of various texts types, including multimodal ones. In the final section, we discuss the intertwined processes of homogenization and diversification arising from the economic, cultural, and political strains of globalization with particular emphasis on their implications for critical literacies and language education.
1 Critical pedagogies and language learning : An introduction
2007
Advocates of critical approaches to second language teaching are interested in relationships between language learning and social change. From this perspective, language is not simply a means of expression or communication; rather, it is a practice that constructs, and is constructed by, the ways language learners understand themselves, their social surroundings, their histories, and their possibilities for the future. This collection assembles the work of a variety of scholars interested in critical perspectives on language education in globally diverse sites of practice. All are interested in investigating the ways that social relationships are lived out in language and how issues of power, while often obscured in language research and educational practice (Kubota, this volume), are centrally important in developing critical language education pedagogies. Indeed, as Morgan (this volume) suggests, “politically engaged critiques of power in everyday life, communities, and institutio...
Critical Literacy and the Communicative Approach: Gaps and Intersections
Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 2018
The objective of this paper is to foster reflections on the similarities and differences between the Communicative Approach, one of the best-known methods for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) around the world, and Critical Literacy, a relatively recent trend in the Brazilian EFL scenario, as suggested by the National Guidelines for High School Teaching (BRASIL, 2006). First, we will address the theoretical traditions that give rise to the two teaching approaches, explaining their main concepts. We will then discuss the similarities between the two approaches, as well as their main differences. We claim that the two teaching approaches, however different in their epistemological underpinnings, are not incompatible, but rather complementary. Finally, we suggest an example of an integrated activity that aims to reconcile the objectives of the two approaches.
2004
All the chapters in this volume share this aim-that is, to consider how, in diverse sites of language education, practices might be modified, changed, developed, or abandoned in efforts to support learners, learning, and social change. At the same time, most of the authors here remind us that critical pedagogy cannot be a unitary set of texts, beliefs, convictions, or assumptions. Like Pavlenko (this volume), these authors describe local situations, problems, and issues and see responsiveness to the particularities of the local as important in the equitable and democratic approaches they are trying to develop. In seeking to resist totalizing discourses about critical teaching, subjects, and strategies for progressive action, we have used the term critical pedagogies in the title of our book. While each of the authors represented here uses critical lenses to reflect on the teaching and research practices in her or his community, there are important differences of focus across the chapters. We have therefore decided to divide the book into four sections, each with a slightly different emphasis. In doing so, however, we recognize that the distinctions between sections are not clear-cut and that many overlapping themes emerge. Such themes are discussed in greater detail later in this introduction.
Critical pedagogies and language learning
2004
Advocates of critical approaches to second language teaching are interested in relationships between language learning and social change. From this perspective, language is not simply a means of expression or communication; rather, it is a practice that constructs, and is constructed by, the ways language learners understand themselves, their social surroundings, their histories, and their possibilities for the future. This collection assembles the work of a variety of scholars interested in critical perspectives on language education in globally diverse sites of practice. All are interested in investigating the ways that social relationships are lived out in language and how issues of power, while often obscured in language research and educational practice (Kubota, this volume), are centrally important in developing critical language education pedagogies. Indeed, as Morgan (this volume) suggests, "politically engaged critiques of power in everyday life, communities, and institutions" are precisely what are needed to develop critical pedagogies in language education. The chapters have varying foci, seeking to better understand the relationships between writers and readers, teachers and students, test makers and test takers, teacher-educators and student teachers, and researchers and researched.
11.Implications of Critical Literacy for Language Classroom
The present study is aimed at examining how critical literacy helps the students in using language efficiently and exploring new ways of reading any text. The study focuses on gauging the place of critical literacy at graduate level and also checks the awareness of students and teachers to this productive way of using language. This study also tries to find out about the gap that exists between the objectives of critical literacy in Pakistan and our present curriculum. For this purpose both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. Finally it brings the results that in Pakistan curriculum dominantly focuses the structural level of language and does not give students sociopolitical insight. The learning of students is more bookish and does not enable the learners to employ their language skill in understanding the ways of the world.
Challenges in Critical Language Teaching
TESOL Quarterly , 2012
This article is based on the conception of language teaching as a liberatory practice. Drawing on some principles of critical pedagogy (Ellsworth, 1992; Freire, 2005; hooks, 1994; Norton & Toohey, 2004), critical applied linguistics (Pennycook, 1990, 2001), critical language teaching (Ferreira, 2006; Pennycook, 1999), and critical language teacher education (Hawkins & Norton, 2009), the authors developed a case study in a language center of a federal university in the state of Goia´s, Brazil, in which they analyzed the challenges of teaching English through critical themes based on students’ perception and on collaborative reflections between the teacher and his collaborator. They found that, in general, students were pleased with their development concerning language and critical thinking as a result of engagement in the dialogic process established in class for 4 months. However, the research also implies that language teachers, when adopting critical teaching, should learn how to engage fully with students’ positions and academic voices, choice and length of themes, and the conception of language as a social practice.
Implications of Critical Literacy for Language Classroom
The present study is aimed at examining how critical literacy helps the students in using language efficiently and exploring new ways of reading any text. The study focuses on gauging the place of critical literacy at graduate level and also checks the awareness of students and teachers to this productive way of using language. This study also tries to find out about the gap that exists between the objectives of critical literacy in Pakistan and our present curriculum. For this purpose both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. Finally it brings the results that in Pakistan curriculum dominantly focuses the structural level of language and does not give students sociopolitical insight. The learning of students is more bookish and does not enable the learners to employ their language skill in understanding the ways of the world.
The Role of Critical Language Pedagogy in Education
2016
The present study provides a sketchy overview of the current development in language teaching. It is delimited to critical language pedagogy which aims at cultivating democratic culture by creative learning in a collaborative learning situation. It focuses on dialogic interaction through problem posing interaction. This study is delimited to the origins of CP teaching and learning in CP, critical literacy and the corresponding role in learning situation through the lens of critical thinking. The finding has implication in language teaching and learning.
Criticality and English Language Education: An Autoethnographic Journey
HOW, 2021
This article, relying on a series of epiphanies throughout my journey as a researcher and scholar-activist, shares my relationship with criticality and how it has guided my research and teaching agendas. I share how critical theories have informed my main research areas and the questions and issues I have raised in my own work. The article also discusses my main scholarly influences and how my interactions with varied literature, mentors, and colleagues have shaped my own criticality. I also take a moment to reflect on how this journey has helped the field of language education in Colombia to continue with the evolution toward stronger critical and social justice-oriented frameworks and how I see my changing positionality as mentor and ally of colleagues and the future cadres of scholars moving forward.