Crookes - Critical ELT in Action

Uniquely bridging theory and practice, this text introduces and overviews the various domains associated with the term critical pedagogy in the field of TESOL/ELT. Critical pedagogy addresses concepts, values, curriculum, instructional and associated practices involved in language teaching for social justice. Bringing critical pedagogy to classroom practitioners in a practical and comprehensible way, the text is designed to help teachers get started on critically grounded work in their own teaching.

Features

Textbook extracts offer direct and quick illustration of what this perspective might look like in practice

Coverage of feminist and anti-racist pedagogies; sexual identity, oppression and pedagogy; peace and environmental educationand their implications for second-language teaching

Historical backgroundshows that critical ELT can be done because it has been done before

Theoretical background on language and learningprovides confidence that critical ELT pedagogy is well grounded

Consideration of applicability of critical/radical educational concepts and traditions to non-Western cultural contexts (critical English as a foreign language)

A focus on issues of compromise and resistancewhat can a teacher do in contexts where the institutional or social context is not favorable?

This original, timely, and informative text is ideal for any course on methods and approaches in TESOL.

Graham V Crookes is Professor, Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii at Mnoa, USA.

First published 2013

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Simultaneously published in the UK

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Taylor & Francis

The right of Graham V. Crookes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. N o part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Crookes, Graham.

Critical ELT in action: foundations, promises, praxis /

by Graham V. Crookes.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. English language Study and teaching Foreign speakers.

2. English teachers Training of. I. Title. II. Title: Critical English Language Teaching in action.

PE1128.A2C724 2013

428.0071dc23 2012032643

ISBN: 978-0-415-88348-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-88349-8 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-88425-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by HWA Text and Data Management, London

To my family, and to Ikaikas future

The purpose of this book is to address issues that might face those beginning to explore second language critical pedagogy, including my own questions as a beginner. What are its elements, main points, primary concepts? How might a language teacher start doing critical language pedagogy? Where does it come from? What underpins or supports it? Where is it going? And are there any dangers I face if I try it?

The primary audience is teachers of English as a second or foreign language, partly because that is my primary professional community, and partly because, for now, English is the most powerful language and the language most deeply involved in international lineages of power and privilege. But I draw on some of the (small) literature of critical language pedagogy of languages other than English, and I believe that large portions of the work are not language-specific, so that teachers of other powerful (sometimes imperial?) languages such as Spanish, or Chinese, or any language that is potentially a tool of emancipation as well as a device of oppression, could draw from what is here.

A distinctive feature of the book is the opening chapters, with their focus on sample materials. Teaching materials have received less emphasis than they deserve, within the large literatures of critical pedagogy generally. Another distinctive feature is in the last chapter, where I turn from critical language teaching and learning to critical forms of social organization, a topic which is a logical implication of the thrust of critical pedagogy, yet nevertheless another topic underexplored by those writing about critical pedagogy.

I review some classic textbook materials exemplifying key aspects of this perspective.

In I break things down into a set of elements of curriculum that I see as implied by and contained in critical language pedagogy. My idea here is that we could develop our first steps in critical pedagogy by taking up one or another of them; or perhaps some at the same time, but maybe not all at once.

In I go back to the histories of this tradition and discuss where this line comes from (now that we have some better idea concerning the practicalities).

In I take a more academic approach, trying to answer the questions of those who would ask about whether the approach is based on theories of language and of second language learning.

opens things out by looking at different domains of critical pedagogy. There is a range of different things which need to be addressed if social justice, in one form or another, is to be fostered through our practice as language teachers.

responds to the fact that you dont just get into a classroom without somebody setting things up and administering things, usually. It suggests, first, the importance of institutional contexts and options, and second, that critical language pedagogy has to include educators who administer as well as teach.

says, wheres this all leading to, anyway?

And at that point, of course, you wont know all there is to know about this critical ELT pedagogy. No one does, not even the many specialists whose work I cite. I provide plenty of references to their work throughout this book. On the other hand, you have to become your own specialist, in that each one of us has different local conditions to contend with. So, through your own work, explorations, and reflections, you will become your own specialist. Stay in touch, tell others, even write your own bookplease.

I am happy to acknowledge tHe support and encouragement of my editor, Naomi Silverman. A substantial part of the writing was done during a sabbatical at the School of Languages, Universidad de Antioquia, Medelln; I would like to thank Dr. Doris Correa and her colleagues there for their particularly patient support during my time with them.

My wife helped me press forward with the work, for which also many thanks. And finally, in a way this book is partly thanks to Dr. Steven Talmy, except that it arrives about a decade after he might have expected it. Better late than never

Teachers have been doing something called critical pedagogy for fifty years (using that term), and for hundreds of years, or perhaps always, under a range of related terms. In a general sense, a pedagogy which can use the term critical is a perspective on teaching, learning, and curriculum that doesnt take for granted the status quo, but subjects it to critique, creates alternative forms of practice, and does so on the basis of radical theories of language, the individual, and society that take seriously our hopes for improvement in the direction of goals such as liberty, equality, and justice for all. In this book, I hope to address the practical questions that any language teacher starting out to engage with this viewpoint might ask. My primary group of language teachers are teachers of English as an additional language, but teachers of other languages, indeed any language of power, or any language associated with an oppressed group or culture as well, might benefit.