Social Justice Language Education (SJLE) belongs to a tradition of critical pedagogy stretching back over several decades based on the work of Paolo Freire, which gives it a number of important concepts, including conscientiza & ccedil;& atilde;o. Critical pedagogy and social justice are ideas that have attracted significant interest in Applied Linguistics over recent years without resulting in widespread adoption of these ideas in ELT. Brown's article proposes a solution to this issue incorporating strong Communicative Language Teaching approaches. In this counterpoint article, we critique the proposal, pointing out some fundamental issues that we think SJLE needs to address. We conclude by drawing attention to an extant proposal that is less radical and seems more realistic.
This article examines a graduate-level TESOL initiative designed to bridge the gap between theoretical coursework and classroom practice through community-engaged experiential learning. Implemented in collaboration with federally funded Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs, the project paired 90 TESOL students with 18 adult ESL instructors. Over a structured, seven-phase process, students designed communicative listening and speaking activities aligned with the Canadian Language Benchmarks. Instructor feedback highlighted three key outcomes: students developed greater awareness of learner realities, demonstrated enhanced pedagogical competence, and experienced identity growth as legitimate educators. Notably, the initiative fostered reciprocal professional learning, with experienced teachers reporting renewed insight from student collaboration. Challenges included scheduling constraints, limited classroom observation opportunities, and delays in material delivery. Overall, this project affirms the potential of structured, community-based experiential learning to cultivate reflective, justice-oriented practitioners and offers a scalable model for TESOL programs preparing educators for multilingual, socially complex classrooms.
Abstract The concept of ‘decentring’ in ELT is framed around reducing reliance on externally produced ideas and valuing local expertise. However, debates can sometimes slip into binaries: for example, that any centre influence is incompatible with decentring, or that locally initiated ideas are the only legitimate sources of change. Using a teacher development initiative in a Mexican university as an analytic case, we examine how centre and non-centre contributions combined to produce a desirable outcome. We argue that the most important factor is not whether centre contributions are present, but whether they are imposed with authority. We propose a brief analytic distinction and checklist for stakeholders to consider where authority sits across actors, and how different contributions are taken up and adapted. Overall, we recommend a ‘beyond binaries’ stance in which both centre and non-centre contributions can play meaningful roles in ELT teacher development.
Abstract This qualitative case study examines how process drama supported critical intercultural awareness among Chinese pre-service EFL teachers. In a 16-week university course, fifteen participants adapted Lao She’s Rickshaw Boy and Stendhal’s The Red and the Black through improvisation, teacher-in-role work, hot-seating, and reflection. Thematic analysis of observations, journals, interviews, and student artifacts shows that embodied role-play fostered empathy, symbolic competence, and more critical understandings of poverty, ambition, and class mobility. It also shaped participants’ emerging teacher identities, while revealing challenges related to performance anxiety, linguistic insecurity, and institutional constraints. The findings suggest that teacher educators can integrate process drama into EFL teacher education through carefully scaffolded role work, reflective dialogue, and adaptable small-group activities, thereby connecting literary study with intercultural reflection and teacher identity development.
Abstract Classroom polling tools make response distributions immediately visible, yet teachers often interpret these results primarily at the individual level. Drawing on the author’s regular classroom practice in tertiary EFL teaching, this article argues that patterns of collective convergence and divergence can function as epistemic pause points in language teaching. Rather than treating majority correctness as simple confirmation or majority error as mere failure, teachers can use aggregated response patterns as diagnostic evidence of instructional alignment. Anchored in formative assessment theory and engaged with classroom-based language assessment scholarship, the article proposes a framework for interpreting three recurring configurations: accurate convergence, inaccurate convergence, and distributed divergence. A four-step reflective routine operationalizes the pause in everyday practice. The article offers practical implications for instructional calibration, teacher education, and materials design in EFL contexts.
