Critical Pedagogies And Language Learning

This volume applies the critical pedagogical approach to the area of language learning, and in doing so, it addresses such topics as critical multiculturalism, gender and language learning, and popular culture.

This important volume on the critical pedagogical approach addresses such topics as critical multiculturalism, gender and language learning, and popular culture. Critical pedagogies are instructional approaches aimed at transforming existing social relations in the interest of greater equity in schools and communities. This paperback edition on the pedagogical approach addresses such topics as critical multiculturalism, gender and language learning, and popular culture. Committed to language education that contributes to social justice, the contributors explore the meaning of creating equitable and critical instructional practices, by exploring diverse representations of knowledge. In addition, recommendations are made for further research, teacher education, and critical testing.

This edited collection brings to the forefront attempts to connect critical pedagogy and ELT (English Language Teaching) in different parts of the world. The authors in this collection write from their own experiences, giving the chapters nuanced understanding of the everyday struggles that teachers, teacher educators and researchers face within different contexts. Throughout the book, contributors connect micro-contexts (classrooms) with macro-contexts (world migration, politics and social issues) to demonstrate the impact and influences of pedagogy. In problematizing ELT and focusing on so-called ‘peripheral’ countries where educators have created their own critical pedagogies to respond to their own local realities, the contributors construct ELT in a way that goes beyond the typical ESL/EFL distinction. This unique edited collection will appeal to teacher educators, in-service teachers working in the field as well as students and scholars of English language teaching, second language acquisition and language education policy.

This text brings together two significant domains of educational practice: foreign language education and critical pedagogy--linking them in a way that can help foreign language educators develop a critical awareness of the nature, purposes, and challenges facing foreign language pedagogy. Unique among texts in the field, this is the first to deal explicitly with the social, political, ideological, and economic aspects of language, language learning, and language teaching in our society and to connect the practice of foreign language education with these critical, and crucial, aspects of language and language use. The Foreign Language Educator in Society: Toward A Critical Pedagogy: *emphasizes what teachers and future teachers of foreign languages in this country ought to know and understand about language-- language attitudes, practices, rights, and policy-- and related issues; *focuses on helping students to move beyond pragmatic pedagogical concerns to the social and political concerns relevant to their teaching; and *provides students with the opportunity to develop critical perspectives on the central facets of the language education process. Intended for foreign language education programs at both basic and advanced levels, as well as courses in critical pedagogy, critical language awareness, sociolinguistics, and social and cultural foundations of education, the text provides helpful pedagogical features to direct the reader in applying the content of each chapter to his or her own context.

Accessible and cutting-edge, this text is a pivotal update to the field and offers a much-needed critical perspective on world language education. Building off their classic 2002 book, The Foreign Language Educator in Society, Timothy G. Reagan and Terry A. Osborn address major issues facing the world language educator today, including language myths, advocacy, the perceived and real benefits of language learning, linguistic human rights, constructivism, learning theories, language standards, monolingualism, bilingualism and multiculturalism. Organized into three parts – "Knowing Language," "Learning Language," and "Teaching Language" – this book applies a critical take on conventional wisdom on language education, evaluates social and political realities, assumptions, and controversies in the field. Each chapter includes questions for reflection and discussion to support students and educators in developing their own perspectives on teaching and learning languages. With a critical pedagogy and social justice lens, this book is ideal for scholars and students in foreign/world language education, social justice education, and language teaching methodology courses, as well as pre- and in-service teachers.

With a Foreword by Hugh Starkey and Audrey Osler, and Afterwords by Graham Crookes, Hilary Janks and Allan Luke, this book promotes critical language education and illustrates how a critical agenda can be enacted in English language education in real classrooms. It presents four cases located in primary and secondary schools in the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina in contexts that can be characterised as vulnerable or difficult. It describes the possibilities, challenges and limitations of this critical agenda using students’ drawings, posters, leaflets, artwork, classroom activities and conversational data as foundation, and including the voices of local teachers in their classrooms. Importantly, these teachers used teacher-made, locally produced, critical post-method materials, described by the author of those materials in one of the chapters. In this way, the book offers a unique balance of researcher, teacher and materials writer voices. These materials are included in the book and can help language teachers around the world to introduce critical perspectives in their specific contexts. The book is appealing to researchers, classroom teachers, teacher educators, and materials writers and developers interested in critical language education.

Bringing together theory, research, and practice to dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and white linguistic supremacy, this book provides ethnographic snapshots of how Black students navigate and negotiate their linguistic and racial identities across multiple contexts. By highlighting the counterstories of Black students, Baker-Bell demonstrates how traditional approaches to language education do not account for the emotional harm, internalized linguistic racism, or consequences these approaches have on Black students' sense of self and identity. This book presents Anti-Black Linguistic Racism as a framework that explicitly names and richly captures the linguistic violence, persecution, dehumanization, and marginalization Black Language-speakers endure when using their language in schools and in everyday life. To move toward Black linguistic liberation, Baker-Bell introduces a new way forward through Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, a pedagogical approach that intentionally and unapologetically centers the linguistic, cultural, racial, intellectual, and self-confidence needs of Black students. This volume captures what Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy looks like in classrooms while simultaneously illustrating how theory, research, and practice can operate in tandem in pursuit of linguistic and racial justice. A crucial resource for educators, researchers, professors, and graduate students in language and literacy education, writing studies, sociology of education, sociolinguistics, and critical pedagogy, this book features a range of multimodal examples and practices through instructional maps, charts, artwork, and stories that reflect the urgent need for antiracist language pedagogies in our current social and political climate.

Many American educators are all too familiar with disengaged students, disenfranchised teachers, sanitized and irrelevant curricula, inadequate support for the neediest schools and students, and the tyranny of standardizing testing. This text invites teachers and would-be teachers unhappy with such conditions to consider becoming critical educators - professionals dedicated to creating schools that genuinely provide equal opportunity for all children. Assuming little or no background in critical theory, chapters address several essential questions to help readers develop the understanding and resolve necessary to become change agents. Why do critical theorists say that education is always political? How do traditional and critical agendas for schools differ? Which agenda benefits whose children? What classroom and policy changes does critical practice require? What risks must change agents accept? Resources point readers toward opportunities to deepen their understanding beyond the limits of these pages.