The social justice potential of critical reflection and critical language awareness pedagogies for L2 writers

Abstract

L2 writing pedagogies have traditionally raised students’ language awareness. By drawing attention to the form, structure, and properties of the target language, traditional paradigms foster L2 writers’ language and literacy development, but do not necessarily enhance their capacities for critical reflection on matters of social and linguistic responsibility. This paper explores the social justice potentialities that critical language awareness (CLA; Fairclough, 1992) and critical reflection (CR; Mezirow, 1990) hold together as pedagogies for the L2 writing classroom. It features the collaborative self-study research of a university developmental English writing instructor who presents three case studies of ESL writers, and reveals how the pedagogical phenomena appear to manifest in each students’ writing. The instructor’s own interpretations are questioned by a “critical friend”, who provides a trusted critique, and supports the instructor in identifying changes to her practice (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009). The article concludes with the instructor’s own critical reflection. Ultimately, the article offers further ways that CLA and CR can be fostered together in writing instruction. It proposes that L2 writers may become more socially and linguistically responsible individuals as they write and reflect on their own experiences with language differences.