Decolonizing Classroom Discourse: Insights from Interactional Research

Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: +44-1865-353907; Fax: +44-1865-353485; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/

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English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Teaching Methods; Colonialism; Discourse Analysis; Classroom Communication; Teacher Attitudes; Intercultural Communication; Educational Change; Foreign Countries

10.1093/elt/ccad008

0951-0893
1477-4526

With the goal of contributing to ongoing efforts to decolonize ELT, this article addresses the potential of microanalytic research into classroom interaction in disrupting hegemonic forces of coloniality. Microanalytic research provides a step-by-step, minute examination of interactional discourse, and it has the capacity to reveal gaps between official policies/participants' beliefs and actual communication practices. To set the scene, we begin the article with a sketch of our experience in Japan and a review of previous studies reporting on teachers' struggles and responses in confronting coloniality in the ELT classroom. We then turn to microanalytic research to show how this strand of work may complement ongoing efforts towards decolonizing ELT by foregrounding participants' resourcefulness and agency in rewriting existing norms and structures. In closing, we consider future directions for decolonizing ELT classroom interaction research and pedagogy, emphasizing the affordances of microanalytic insights for pedagogical reflection and practice.

As Provided

2023

EJ1385114