Advice From Practitioners: Implementing Critical Language Pedagogy: 3 Ideas that Second Language Writing Teachers Can Explore

Dilara Avci, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Implementing Critical Language Pedagogy: 3 Ideas that Second Language Writing Teachers can Explore

As a graduate student, reflecting on the general design and content of English as a Second Language (L2) writing classes in my home country, Turkiye, I realized that the classes mostly covered simple and general topics, such as jobs and hobbies, at nearly any grade level. Through the coursework in the MATESL program at the University of Arizona, I explored why the classes were built around such themes. The main reason is that teachers in Turkiye are often required to avoid sensitive or political topics in their teaching because of institutional policies, maintaining an “apolitical” or “neutral” stance in the classroom. Considering the role of English in the global world today, however, we can assert that staying “apolitical” is also a political action in English language teaching and writing instruction. As Johnston (2002) highlights, language teachers have the power to trigger social change and increase learner empowerment. This idea of empowering students and working towards social change comes from critical language pedagogy. Critical language pedagogy is an approach to teaching that places the political dimension of language and power at the center of the learning and teaching environment (Johnston, 2002). Oftentimes, teacher education lacks exposure to how to implement critical language pedagogy, and materials around critical language pedagogy are still limited due to educators’ concerns that discussing sensitive topics can potentially evoke discomfort and create push-back among students. To address this issue, I aim to discuss critical language pedagogy-related activities and share three ideas that teachers can explore while teaching L2 writing. These ideas can be effectively applied in higher education but can also be adapted and implemented at other levels.

Implementing Critical Language Pedagogy

Incorporating Meaningful and Authentic Materials

I envision teaching writing as something beyond learning the mechanics of the language. I believe that integrating sensitive and critical topics through meaningful and authentic materials and tasks is essential to empower students. To achieve this, writing activities can be created around topics such as native speakerism, women’s inequality, human rights, and eco-tourism. The political aspects of the topics can be integrated via role plays, press conference activities, debates, and narratives (Macalister & Nation, 2020). Students should have the ability to express and articulate their thoughts on global issues beyond their personal experiences, as they can contribute to social change through their language and thought processes. Then, they are not passive listeners in the learning process, instead, they will be active participants who discuss and evaluate the issues around them.

I created an activity that encourages students to analyze the effects of language policies. It is based on a news article about the growing number of international companies that adopt an English-only policy in the workplace. In this activity, students participate in a role-play acting as an executive board to determine if the policy should be implemented. Incorporating topics like “native” speaker teachers, “Standard” American English in writing, and English-only policies introduces issues of power and language into the classroom as components of critical language pedagogy. The activity can help students understand how complex the implementation of language policies can be. I foresee that a lot of disputes may happen between the students’ opinions about sensitive topics but when planned carefully, critical pedagogy can provide them with argumentation politely and strongly. That is, students will be able to see that they can agree or disagree with their friends respectfully without getting into hateful speech. These ideas will hopefully be beneficial for the students not only for language learning but also for real-life situations. To access the activity, click here.

Revisiting Assessment and Feedback Practices

Feedback practices are an important part of L2 writing classrooms to view writing as a process and help students practice incorporating feedback effectively. For example, when reading a student’s draft and encountering a phrase that might not be what a teacher is used to, they might feel the urge to correct it. Before doing that, a teacher can ask themselves: “Is it an error or could it be a variation?” While an error is simply a mistake or uneducated use, a variation can be an acceptable and innovative use (Bamgbose, 1998). That’s why, what a teacher regards as an error can be a legitimate variant.

Assessment is a key component in teaching and critical pedagogy. Teachers can take simple steps to foster an inclusive, equitable, and diverse teaching environment through their assessment practices. For example, they can check their rubric for the language part and be critical about each criterion. Does it include varieties of English or compare students’ work to a “standard”? Whose standards are they? In addition, teachers can even integrate their students in the rubric analysis process, collaborate, and co-construct assessment criteria to build language awareness. Having discussions with students about language variation, word choices, and their impacts on the reader can help students make more informed decisions in their rhetorical choices. Depending on students’ previous learning experiences, some might find it challenging initially to engage in active self-assessment or peer assessment due to the hierarchical structures they are accustomed to, with “teachers as the authority figure” in class. However, discussing their concerns and addressing such issues would also be part of critical pedagogy in writing classrooms. That way, students can learn how to practice “agency” and “independent learning” in their classes. Such collaboration and language awareness in assessment can help students achieve interactional competence.

Encouraging Multilingualism

Native speakerism has been prevalent for a long time. The key question here is to whom “native” exactly refers. English is a global language and its variations are commonly spoken in different parts of the world. The concepts of native/ non-native speakers are, therefore, problematic. Currently, more people speak English as an additional language than they do as a first language. Therefore, it is necessary to include different varieties of English in our course materials. Doing so can prepare students for communicating with a larger audience (Galloway & Rose, 2018). Of course, here comes the question “Which English should I teach, then?” There is no single answer to this question, and the version of English a teacher should teach depends on their students’ needs, goals, teaching context, and policies.

Given that there are so many varieties of English such as Australian English, Singlish, and Chinese English, it is not possible to teach them all. It might not be beneficial for students, either. However, this does not mean that teachers should only teach one type of English. Awareness-raising activities and discussions on how English changes over time, why there are varieties of English, and what are some differences between these varieties in terms of vocabulary, grammar, structure, and pragmatics can easily be implemented in the teaching agenda. For example, a fun activity like the U.S. Dialect Quiz shared in The New York Times can be incorporated to increase students’ awareness of culture and identity through the use of language. In the U.S. Dialect Quiz, a series of questions asks readers about the words they use, such as “How would you address a group of two or more people?”. Based on their answers, which include options like “you all,” “yous,” “you lot,” and “yinz,” a map is generated that shows the region associated with the language they use.

It is vital to acknowledge that students who use English as an L2 have multiple linguistic codes in their repertoires, which play a role in their learning processes both cognitively and socially (Gentil, 2018). There has been extensive research demonstrating the advantages of multilingualism in language learning and literacy development, such as cognitive benefits, better problem-solving skills, and metalinguistic awareness. Therefore, tapping into students’ multilingual resources can be helpful. For example, I created an activity that encourages students to reflect on the proverbs in their first language and English and how different cultures and languages play a role in creating different values and sayings. The activity can be suitable to help students draw connections between languages and cultures and can create an inclusive environment, especially when teaching in multilingual settings. To access the activity, click here.

Reflection

Critical language pedagogy might sound laborious for the teachers at first because the lesson plan and activities require a substantial amount of time to design. Teachers need to consider many factors to make the content meaningful for the students and enhance their language skills and critical thinking abilities while discussing sensitive themes. In many contexts, schools might have policies that aim to keep political or global issues away from class discussion and teaching. Therefore, teachers might resist implementing some of the activities or themes proposed in this article. However, such activities around critical topics in the writing classrooms can help students practice the necessary 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, leadership, and problem-solving. Then, students can leave the writing classes with not only academic content knowledge but also with transferable skills they can use in their immediate circles and future careers. Instructors might address some of the challenges by taking small steps. For example, instead of implementing the full activity, they can integrate it as a warm-up discussion at the beginning of a class or adapt the activities to help them address the existing learning objectives and tackle time issues. Teachers, teacher educators, curriculum designers, and stakeholders should take responsibility and work towards more meaningful L2 writing programs to raise critical awareness among students.

References

Bamgbose, A. (1998). Torn between the norms: Innovations in world Englishes. World Englishes, 17(1), 1-14.

Galloway, N., & Rose, H. (2018). Incorporating Global Englishes into the ELT classroom. ELT Journal, 72(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx010

Gentil, G. (2018). Multilingualism as a writing resource. The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, 1-7. doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0537

Johnston, B. (2002). Values in English language teaching. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410606983

Macalister, J., & Nation, I. (2020). Language curriculum design (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429203763

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my advisor and mentor, Dr. Christine Tardy, for her invaluable guidance, encouragement, and feedback throughout the process of writing this article. I would also like to thank Dr. Karen Barto for providing insightful comments on this article at multiple points.

Dilara Avci is a doctoral student in the Second Language Acquisition and; Teaching program at the University of Arizona. Her research interests are second language writing and material design with the application of innovative approaches.