Critical English Language Teaching Research Articles

Co‐constructing a critical ELT curriculum: A case study in an Indonesian‐based English language teacher education program

The current case study investigated how teacher‐learners (TLs) in an Indonesia‐based undergraduate English language teacher education program learned to apply critical pedagogy (CP) when co‐constructing a critical English language teaching (ELT) curriculum with English language learners (ELLs). CP insights into ELT and second language teacher education are synthesized as a theoretical framework to shed light on how the TLs co‐constructed the critical curriculum. This qualitative research study triangulated data collected from (1) audio‐recorded dialogues between three TLs and their teacher educator (TE) in multiweek classes, (2) video‐recorded teaching sessions when TLs taught ELLs from Papua, and (3) curricular documents and the TLs' reflections submitted on a learning management system. The findings suggest that TLs could raise their critical awareness of (un)fairness or inequalities experienced by ELLs while co‐constructing components of a critical ELT curriculum (i.e., needs analysis, learning objectives, syllabus design, materials development, and lesson planning). TLs' critical consciousness emerged when practicing dialogues with ELLs. Ultimately, reflexivity allowed TLs and their TE to envision improvements of the critical ELT curriculum.

Embedding Sustainable Development Goals into critical English language teaching and learning

ABSTRACT One critical question for English language teachers is how their learners, especially in non-English-speaking developing countries, address global issues as they learn the foreign language. The question seems more viably answered following the United Nations’ dissemination of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 to be achieved by 2030. Against this backdrop, the present case study investigates an English language teacher’s attempts in his critically oriented undergraduate course to introduce SDGs as a tool for his Indonesian students to foster criticality through English language teaching and learning (ELTL). Data were generated from teacher-selected SDGs texts, teacher-initiated prompts/questions in worksheets based on the SDGs texts, students’ responses to the worksheets, and their SDG-related remarks elicited by the teacher in multiple meetings in a semester. Different theoretical lenses of criticality at language, cognitive, pedagogical, and philosophical levels were employed to examine the data. The findings suggest that the selected SDGs texts and the teacher’s prompts were prepared in ways that could elicit students’ critical responses at word, sentence, and discourse levels by identifying and addressing global issues before and after SDGs were introduced to them. The data could also be reflexively viewed through Marxist, postmodernist/poststructuralist, and postcolonial lenses of criticality.

As contribuições de Paulo Freire para o entrelaçamento de vozes no ensino crítico de língua inglesa

Supported by the assumptions of Critical Education and the understanding of Paulo Freire's work as one of the constitutive pillars of the Critical Literacies perspective, this article outlines considerations in favor of teaching and learning the English language for social justice and the construction of active citizenship. The main objective is to observe how intertwined they are, in order to indicate paths and foster inspiration for contextualized, meaningful, purposeful and critical English language teaching. The materials indicated here can contribute both to expanding the knowledge of school actors about the world, and to stimulating critical practices in the classroom.

Frame analysis in critical ethnography: applications for ELT research

ABSTRACT Critical English language teaching (ELT) research is expanding in scope, covering topics such as linguistic imperialism, native-speakerism, and the intersections between issues of race, class, and gender. With this expansion comes a requirement for robust and rigorous methods of data collection and analysis for researchers to employ. This article puts forward ‘frame analysis’ as a tool for analysing data in critical ethnography, particularly in ELT. Frame analysis is the systematic investigation of the organisational principles which people draw on in interpreting actions and events. After describing the conception of critical theory in which this discussion is situated, the paper gives a theoretical and overview of the concepts of ‘frames’ and ‘framing’, with a focus on social movement research. A step-by-step discussion is provided explaining how frame analysis can help to identify hidden ideologies in a research setting as a part of critical ethnography, before supplying a concrete example of data analysis using this approach. It is suggested that frame analysis may be a useful part of a critical ethnographer’s toolkit, particularly in terms of identifying hidden ideological assumptions in research setting.

Doing Critical English Language Teaching: Designing critical tasks to promote critical media literacy

In the Brazilian educational scenario, textbooks often function as the main foundation of knowledge in additional language classrooms, reproducing and legitimating specific ideologies and representations of the world (GRAY, 2010). Critical approaches to language teaching, therefore, can be seen as an alternative that looks at students’ reality, problematizing it and offering a space for transforming it. This article, hence, has as its main objective to offer teachers who are interested in critical pedagogies for language teaching a sample of materials that attempt to promote critical language development (CROOKES, 2013) and critical media literacy (HOBBS, 2011) for students of English in Brazil. The tasks (ELLIS, 2003) here described are to be seen as sources that can be used to understand, in a more practical stance, how to promote critical language teaching.

Considering Emotions in Critical English Language Teaching: Theories and Praxis * Emotion in Interaction

Considering Emotions in Critical English Language Teaching: Theories and Praxis * Emotion in Interaction

Sarah Benesch: Considering Emotions in Critical English Language Teaching: Theories and Praxis

Since the advent of the critical turn in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), researchers have addressed previously ignored or glossed over issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, cultural politics, and identity in the language classroom. Curiously, the issue of emotion in language teaching and learning, which would seem to be an integral part of the aforementioned constructs in a person’s identifications and performativities, was left largely unexplored from critical perspectives. Benesch’s thought-provoking, and in many ways, groundbreaking book is a much needed and welcomed contribution to the exploration of emotions that extend beyond the cognitive approaches prevalent in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. Much like her 2001 book, Critical English for Academic Purposes, Benesch seamlessly integrates complex theories with illustrative classroom practices, providing avenues for researchers to pursue further explorations in this area as well as classroom examples for practitioners interested in expanding their own critical approaches with English language learners (ELLs).

Review of Benesch, S. (2012) Considering Emotions in Critical English Language Teaching: Theories and Praxis

Review(s) of: Considering emotions in critical English language teaching: Theories and praxis, by S. Benesch, New York and London, Routledge, 2012, pp. XII, 148)