Postcolonial complexities in foreign language education and the humanities

Abstract

This chapter develops a critical perspective on foreign language education by drawing on postcolonial theory and research in order to better conceptualize and address the complexity of language education in terms of ecologies of interconnected spaces of policy, curriculum, and classroom practice. Starting from the basic classroom issue of linguistic diversity and variability, this chapter offers a critical approach to language in education that strives to “situate language study in cultural, historical, geographic, and cross-cultural frames within the context of humanistic learning” (Modern Language Association [MLA], 2007, p. 4). This chapter advocates a critical, transcultural, and translinguistic humanism grounded in decolonial practices of foreign language education that are theoretically informed, educationally relevant, socially engaged, and ethically accountable. The chapter also attempts to bring increased historical and critical depth to how foreign language educators understand and perform the teaching of language in ways that connect to transdisciplinary research concerns in the humanities and beyond.