Language Narratives and Shifting Multilingual Pedagogies : English Teaching From the South

This book challenges monoglossic ideologies, traditional language pedagogies and dominant forms of knowledge construction by foregrounding multilingual and multicultural students’ language narratives, repertoires, and identities. The research is based on a sixteen-year longitudinal study of a sociolinguistics course at an English language university and the language narratives produced by the first-year education students. The study was borne out of a need to create a critically inclusive course that would engage a cohort of students from socially and linguistically diverse backgrounds in contemporary South Africa. Drawing on data from over 5,000 students who have journeyed through this course, this book’s outlines how a narrative heteroglossic pedagogy harnesses students’ multilingual strengths. A close analysis reveals complex identity work by students located in the Global South. The authors argue that decolonising language education is about reconceptualising language, reconfiguring what knowledges are valued in the classroom, and reshaping pedagogy. Winner of the UKLA Academic Book Award 2024This book challenges monoglossic ideologies, traditional language pedagogies and dominant forms of knowledge construction by foregrounding multilingual and multicultural students'language narratives, repertoires, and identities. The research is based on a sixteen-year longitudinal study of a sociolinguistics course at an English language university and the language narratives produced by the first-year education students. The study was borne out of a need to create a critically inclusive course that would engage a cohort of students from socially and linguistically diverse backgrounds in contemporary South Africa. Drawing on data from over 5,000 students who have journeyed through this course, this book shows how a narrative heteroglossic pedagogy harnesses students'multilingual strengths. A close analysis reveals complex identity work by students located in the Global South. The authors argue that decolonising language education is about reconceptualising language, reconfiguring what knowledges are valued in the classroom, and reshaping pedagogy. This book challenges monoglossic ideologies, traditional language pedagogies and dominant forms of knowledge construction by foregrounding multilingual and multicultural students' language narratives, repertoires, and identities. The research is based on a sixteen-year longitudinal study of a sociolinguistics course at an English language university and the language narratives produced by the first-year education students. The study was borne out of a need to create a critically inclusive course that would engage a cohort of students from socially and linguistically diverse backgrounds in contemporary South Africa. Drawing on data from over 5,000 students who have journeyed through this course, this book shows how a narrative heteroglossic pedagogy harnesses students' multilingual strengths. A close analysis reveals complex identity work by students located in the Global South. The authors argue that decolonising language education is about reconceptualising language, reconfiguring what knowledges are valued in the classroom, and reshaping pedagogy.. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Illustrations Foreword Series Editors’ Foreword Acknowledgements Voices I Introduction Chapter 1: The Story of a Course Chapter 2: Narrative Ways of Knowing Chapter 3: Pedagogy in Motion Voices II Chapter 4: (Re)Constructing Identities across Languages Chapter 5: Juxtaposing Creative and Critical Genres in a Heteroglossic Pedagogy Voices III Chapter 6: Enacting the Critical Imagination Chapter 7: English and/in the Colonial Matrix of Power Conclusion: Final Voices Appendix 1: Published Language Narratives Used 2005–2020 Appendix 2 The Original Language Diary Activity Notes References Index