Critical language awareness and people's English

Abstract

People's English is part of an overall thrust to establish People's Education for People's Power in South Africa. People's English calls for the politicisation of the English syllabus. This paper argues that Critical Language Awareness has an important contribution to make to People's English. A set of CLA classroom materials entitled Language and Position will be examined and the methodology for their development will be discussed. I will attempt to show that both content and method contribute to the empowerment of teachers and students. People's English was part of a broad attempt on the part of the National Education Crisis Committee to establish People's Education for People's Power in South Africa during the late 1980s. The draft proposals for People's English maintained that if the study of English is to empower students and serve as a vehicle for liberation, language competence must include the ability: to say and write what one means to hear what is said and what is hidden to Defend one's point of...