Language-Code or Language-Verb? A Decolonial Look at the English Language Classroom
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v27n3a06Keywords:
coloniality, decoloniality, teacher education, English language education, language as code, language as verbAbstract
In times of neoliberal globalization, English language has filled a hegemonic space as the language of communication, science, business, media and education. This space, naturalized by issues of power, politics and coloniality, tends to ignore questions such as who can speak English, what variety is validated and to whom it belongs, for example. Faced with this problem, we conducted a qualitative research study in a university setting on the initial training of teachers, and the public school on the continuing education of teachers. Our goal was to investigate how the conception of language and, therefore, of the English language, shaped and re-signified the practices of the participants in the research conducted in the aforementioned contexts. The study was based on critical and decolonial perspectives, especially those stemming from the reflections produced by the Latin American Research Group Modernity/Coloniality. The reflections underscored the tensions between the conceptions of language as a code or as a social practice in the participants’ imaginaries and practices in both contexts of teacher training. These tensions suggest that the ambivalent and situated space of the English classroom is productive for the deconstruction and expansion of knowledge, as well as for the reconfiguration of the function of education and the roles assumed by teachers and students in their training.
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