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Linguistics Critical Applied Linguistics
by
Alastair Pennycook
  • LAST MODIFIED: 27 October 2021
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0280

Introduction

Critical applied linguistics is a field of inquiry and practice that can be understood in several ways. It brings a critical focus—where the critical is understood as social critique rather than critical thinking—to applied linguistic work. A central goal is to connect questions of domination (contingent and contextual effects of power), disparity (inequitable access to material and cultural goods), discrimination (ideological and discursive frames of exclusion), difference (constructions and realities of social and cultural distinction), and desire (operations of ideology, agency, identity, and transformation) to applied linguistic concerns. A key challenge for critical applied linguistics is therefore to find ways of understanding relations between, on the one hand, concepts and critiques of society, ideology, neoliberalism, colonialism, gender, racism, or sexuality and, on the other hand classroom utterances, translations, conversations, genres, second-language acquisition, media texts, and other common applied linguistic concerns. Whether it is critical text analysis, or an attempt to understand implications of the global spread of English, a central issue is always how a classroom, text, or conversation is related to broader social cultural and political relations. Critical applied linguistics suggests therefore certain domains of inquiry—language and migration, workplace discrimination, anti-racist education, language revival, for example—but also insists that all domains of applied linguistics—classroom analysis, language testing, sign language interpreting, language and the law—need to take into account the inequitable operations of the social world, and to have the theoretical and practical tools to do so effectively. Critical applied linguistics can also be seen as the intersection between different critical domains of work—such as critical pedagogy, critical literacies, and critical discourse analysis—where these pertain to applied linguistic concerns (critical second-language pedagogies for example). There are also several domains that carry labels other than “critical”—such as anti-racist education, feminist discourse analysis, queer theory—that are equally part of the picture. As a domain of applied work, critical applied linguistics seeks not just to describe but also to change inequality through forms of research, pedagogy, and activism.

General Overviews

Although people have doubtless been doing critical applied linguistics for a long time, the term seems to have been first used in Pennycook 1990, followed by an introductory text, Pennycook 2001, and the substantially revised second edition, Pennycook 2021. Other books with a more specific focus nonetheless provide good overviews of the field, including Benesch 2001 and Chun 2015, focusing on teaching English for academic purposes from a critical perspective. The edited book Norton and Toohey 2004 similarly brings a focus on language learning and critical pedagogy together. From an applied sociolinguistic perspective, Piller 2016 provides an introduction to issues of language diversity and social justice, while Joseph 2006 provides a broad overview of why we must always understand language politically. In an introduction to a special issue of the journal Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Kubota and Miller 2017 gives an overview of current concerns around critical language education.

  • Benesch, S. 2001. Critical English for academic purposes: Theory, politics, and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    DOI: 10.4324/9781410601803Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This book combines English for academic purposes (EAP) and critical pedagogy, arguing that students need to both learn and learn to question academic norms in English.

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  • Chun, C. 2015. Engaging with the everyday: Power and meaning making in an EAP classroom. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

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    Combines critical literacy pedagogy and English for academic purposes (EAP) and shows how a teacher gains awareness of power and meaning making in her classroom.

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  • Joseph, J. 2006. Language and politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624522.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Argues that language is political from top to bottom, from the level of individual interaction to the formation of national languages.

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  • Kubota, R., and E. Miller. 2017. Re-examining and re-envisioning criticality in language studies: Theories and praxis. In Special issue: Re-examining and re-envisioning criticality in language studies. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 14.2–3: 129–157.

    DOI: 10.1080/15427587.2017.1290500Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Re-examines the meaning of criticality in language studies from different theoretical perspectives, arguing for the importance of praxis.

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  • Norton, B., and K. Toohey, eds. 2004. Critical pedagogies and language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

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    A key edited text bringing second-language learning and critical pedagogy together.

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  • Pennycook, A. 1990. Towards a critical applied linguistics for the 1990s. Issues in Applied Linguistics 1.1: 8–28.

    DOI: 10.5070/L411004991Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Though critical applied linguistic work clearly predates its naming, this was the first article to describe the field in these terms, and lay out a critical applied linguistic agenda.

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  • Pennycook, A. 2001. Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    DOI: 10.4324/9781410600790Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A widely cited introduction to the field, pulling tother work in related areas and explaining key concepts in critical theory and applied linguistics.

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  • Pennycook, A. 2021. Critical applied linguistics: A critical re-introduction. New York: Routledge.

    DOI: 10.4324/9781003090571Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A thoroughly revised version of the earlier text, taking into account political and epistemological changes in the intervening years and arguing for a renewed activist agenda.

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  • Piller, I. 2016. Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Focuses on linguistic dimensions of economic inequality, cultural domination, and barriers to political participation, drawing attention to a wide range of contexts of linguistic injustice.

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Journals and Book Series

As an emergent field, there are limited numbers of journals and no handbooks (yet) dedicated to critical applied linguistics. The journal Critical Inquiry in Language Studies encourages critical discourse studies and research on a range of language-related concerns. Critical Discourse Studies is a journal focused centrally on critical studies of discourse. The Multilingual Matters book series Critical Language and Literacy Studies looks at language and literacy in different parts of the world from a critical perspective, emphasizing the uneven distribution of global resources. A number of studies discussed in other sections are drawn from this series. Several journals and book series reflect the recent turn toward an understanding of multilingualism in the field but emphasize that this must be studied from a critical and global perspective. Multilingual Margins: A Journal of Multilingualism from the Periphery focuses on diverse language practices in the Global South, and particularly southern Africa. The Journal of Critical Multilingualism Studies is a transdisciplinary journal focusing on multilingualism, monolingualism, and the ways they are understood across different domains and media. The book series Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism publishes work on multilingualism from critical, poststructuralist, and ethnographic perspectives.

Critical Discourse Studies

One way of understanding critical applied linguistics is in terms of the intersection between various related domains. One of the most obvious is critical discourse analysis/studies (CDA/S), which has carved out a distinct space for itself (with its own journal). It is now often understood as a methodological tool for a range of projects and has had an influence across the social sciences as a research method. The author of Fairclough 1989 and Fairclough 2010 is generally seen as the “father” of CDA/S, though earlier work can be found in the work of others such as Fowler, et al. 1979 and Kress and Hodge 1979. Other major contributions to this field are Wodak 1996, with a focus on workplaces, racism, and populist political discourse in Europe, a similar concern with racist discourse in van Dijk 1993, and the broad semiotic approach to CDA/S from van Leeuwen 2008. Lazar 2007 makes a case for a stronger emphasis on feminist concerns within CDA/S, while Thurlow 2016 asks a range of questions about its scope and methods from a queer perspective.

Critical Language Awareness and Critical Literacies

A focus on critical language awareness emerged from some of the same scholars as critical discourse analysis, summarized in Fairclough 1992, through a dissatisfaction with the lack of critical engagement in the language awareness materials being produced for schools in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s. A different focus has also emerged in the United States in Alim 2005, and others, with a stronger focus on language and race. Work in critical literacy has emerged from similar contexts, though Australian work has also played a role here in the debates around teaching the language of power as opposed to the more American-influenced focus on student voice. Janks 2000, discussing South Africa, draws on related themes. Freire 1970 has been a key background influence elsewhere, which insists that reading the word and the world were interconnected, as exemplified by Freire and Macedo 1987. Much of this has been usefully summarized in Morgan and Ramanathan 2005. Gee 2008 is a popular and readable introduction to literacy studies in social contexts and Luke 2018, with its emphasis on understanding literacy sociologically, remains important for the field, while others, such as Hernandez-Zamora 2010, have brought a decolonial lens to these discussions.

  • Alim, H. S. 2005. Critical language awareness in the United States: Revisiting issues and revising pedagogies in a resegregated society. Educational Researcher 34:24–31.

    DOI: 10.3102/0013189X034007024Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Makes a strong case for critical language awareness in the United States to address ways language and wider sociopolitical concerns are interconnected in a society still segregated along racial lines.

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  • Cope, B., and M. Kalantzis, eds. 1993. The powers of literacy: A genre approach to teaching writing. London: The Falmer Press.

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    A collection of papers outlining the literacy movement in Australia that focused on teaching the “genres of power” to overcome social disadvantage.

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  • Fairclough, N., ed. 1992. Critical language awareness. London: Longman.

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    A collection of papers, focusing on the United Kingdom, arguing that language awareness needs to be connected to broader social and political issues.

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  • Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Translated by M. B. Ramos. New York: Continuum.

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    First published in Portuguese—Pedagogia do Oprimido—in 1968, the classic text for critical literacy and pedagogy, drawing on Freire’s own experiences of teaching literacy to adults in Northern Brazil.

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  • Freire, P., and D. Macedo. 1987. Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.

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    Explains why literacy has to be understood as a set of practices that can empower or disempower people, according to whether it reproduces existing social formations or aims toward social change.

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  • Gee, J. P. 2008. Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. 3d ed. London: Routledge.

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    Originally published in 1990, and revised and updated since, a clear introduction to the study of language, learning, and literacy in their social, cultural, and political contexts.

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  • Hernandez-Zamora, G. 2010. Decolonizing literacy: Mexican lives in the era of global capitalism. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/9781847692641Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Focusing on Mexico and the United States, shows the colonizing and decolonizing potentials of illiteracy and literacy among those marginalized by global power structures.

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  • Janks, H. 2000. Domination, access, diversity and design: A synthesis for critical literacy education. Educational Review 52.2:175–186.

    DOI: 10.1080/713664035Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Explains how critical literacy operates according to the interdependent relations among domination, access, diversity, and design.

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  • Luke, A. 2018. Critical literacy, schooling, and social justice: The selected works of Allan Luke. London: Routledge.

    DOI: 10.4324/9781315100951Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A collection of key papers by one of the most important writers on critical literacy, schooling, and equity, focusing on literacy education, teacher education, educational sociology, and policy.

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  • Morgan, B., and V. Ramanathan. 2005. Critical literacies and language education: Global and local perspectives. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 25:151–169.

    DOI: 10.1017/S0267190505000085Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    An overview of critical literacies and language education within the context of globalization.

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Critical Second-Language Pedagogy

A key domain of critical applied linguistics is formed by the conjunction of critical pedagogy and second-language education. Auerbach and Wallerstein 1987 draws directly on Paulo Freire’s problem-posing approach, as discussed in Critical Language Awareness and Critical Literacies, while work such as Wallace 2003 connects critical literacy, critical discourse studies, and language education. Other texts draw on the critical pedagogy approaches of Giroux 2011 and hooks 1994, making explicit connections between critical pedagogy in general and language education. The edited book Norton and Toohey 2004 pulls these themes together, as does Crookes 2013. Chun 2015 focuses on critical approaches to teaching English for academic purposes. Motha 2014 draws attention to the need for anti-racist pedagogies, particularly in the context of English language teaching, while a recent strand of work on culturally sustaining pedagogies, Paris and Alim 2017, looks at language, race, and education in the United States. A special issue of the L2 Journal, Gounari 2020, focuses on critical second-language education with a particular focus on the Global South.

  • Auerbach, E., and N. Wallerstein. 1987. ESL for action: Problem-posing at work. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

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    With a focus particularly on immigrants in the United States, this book uses a Freirean framework to explore ways to assist them in their language-oriented goals.

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  • Chun, C. 2015. Engaging with the everyday: Power and meaning making in an EAP classroom. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

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    Based in a wider critique of neoliberal forces and educational marketplaces, this book focuses on one EAP class and the teacher’s implementation of a critical pedagogical approach.

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  • Crookes, G. 2013. Critical ELT in action: Foundations, promises, praxis. New York: Routledge.

    DOI: 10.4324/9780203844250Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Arguing that language education curricula need to address student lives and concerns, this book discusses English language teaching for social justice.

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  • Giroux, H. 2011. On critical pedagogy. London: Bloomsbury.

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    An introduction to the work of the prolific Henry Giroux, this book is useful background to this important strand of North American critical pedagogy.

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  • Gounari, P., ed. 2020. Special issue: Critical pedagogies. L2 Journal 12.2.

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    This edited special edition of the L2 Journal looks at critical language pedagogies in a range of contexts, arguing for a better understanding of Global South contexts.

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  • hooks, b. 1994. Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.

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    An important work by bell hooks, urging teachers and students to transgress racial, sexual, and class boundaries in pursuit of educational alternatives.

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  • Motha, S. 2014. Race and empire in English language teaching. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

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    Locating English language teaching within a history of colonialism and racism, this book looks at anti-racist teaching strategies in schools.

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  • Norton, B., and K. Toohey, eds. 2004. Critical pedagogies and language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

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    A collection of papers by many of the key critical language educators in the field, this book makes a strong case for a critical agenda in language education.

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  • Paris, D., and H. S. Alim, eds. 2017. Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. New York: Teachers College Press.

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    Based on the idea of culturally sustaining pedagogy—teaching that fosters cultural and linguistic pluralism as part of schooling for social transformation—this book focuses particularly on North American educational contexts.

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  • Wallace, C. 2003. Critical reading in language education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    DOI: 10.1057/9780230514447Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Drawing on her own research and experience in classrooms, develops a distinctive critical reading pedagogy for learners of English.

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Critical Approaches to Language Classrooms, Materials, and Testing

While the work discussed in Critical Second-Language Pedagogy centered around critical pedagogies—critical approaches to language teaching aimed at social change—another strand of work looks critically at language classrooms, materials, methods, and testing. Textbooks have come in for critical attention, notably in Dendrinos 1992 and more recently Gray 2010, in approaches that bring together critical discourse analysis and language education. Language testing, long resistant to critical approaches, has finally been given a more critical appraisal in Shohamy 2001, while McNamara and Ryan 2011 and McNamara, et al. 2019 draw attention to the difference between fairness and justice in language testing. Analysis of classroom discourse has also been taken up from a critical perspective by Kumaravadivelu 1999 while Phan 2008 looks at how English teachers in Vietnam negotiate their pedagogical identities.

  • Dendrinos, B. 1992. The EFL textbook and ideology. Athens, Greece: N.C. Grivas.

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    Looking at English language teaching in Greece and elsewhere, this book looks at the ideological messages of textbooks.

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  • Gray, J. 2010. The construction of English: Culture, consumerism and promotion in the ELT global coursebook. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    DOI: 10.1057/9780230283084Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    With a focus particularly on global English language textbooks, shows how the messages conveyed by texts and images are closely tied to ideologies of consumerism, individualism, and similar ideological formations.

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  • Kumaravadivelu, B. 1999. Critical classroom discourse analysis. TESOL Quarterly 33.3: 453–484.

    DOI: 10.2307/3587674Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Brings a critical perspective to classroom discourse analysis, suggesting it must take into account questions of gender, race, and power in classroom interactions.

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  • McNamara, T., U. Knoch, and J. Fan. 2019. Fairness, justice and language assessment. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    Shows how Rasch models can be used to address fairness in language testing but that other external criteria need to be used to address justice in relation to education, employment, immigrant status and citizenship.

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  • McNamara, T., and K. Ryan. 2011. Fairness vs justice in language testing: The place of English literacy in the Australian Citizenship Test. Language Assessment Quarterly 8.2:161–178.

    DOI: 10.1080/15434303.2011.565438Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Draws an important distinction between tests that are fair (internally well-constructed) and those that are just (externally justifiable in their uses).

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  • Phan, L. H. 2008. Teaching English as an international language: Identity, resistance and negotiation. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

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    Draws attention to the ways English teachers, with a particular focus on Vietnam, resist and negotiate their pedagogical roles between global and local pedagogical norms.

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  • Shohamy, E. 2001 The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests. London: Longman.

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    Applies a critical perspective to language tests by examining their uses and consequences in education and society and by viewing tests not as isolated events but rather as embedded in social, educational, and political contexts.

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Critical Approaches to Language Policy

It is sometimes assumed that language policy in itself has a critical focus because of its engagement with political questions but it is only when this takes on an interest in questions of language and equity that it can be considered critical. Shohamy 2005 makes a strong case for understanding the hidden agendas behind language policies, while Flores and Chaparro 2018 argues for anti-racist activism in relation to educational language policies. The global spread of English has been a major focus of critical language policy, with Phillipson 1992 making the case for understanding the expansion of English as an imperialist project. Different approaches, taking into account the use and users of English, can be found in Pennycook 1994 and Canagarajah 1999, while a more recent emphasis in Tupas 2015 has been on unequal Englishes. The other side of the picture looks at how policies can be developed to sustain and promote minority languages, often through a focus on language rights, as discussed by May 2001. The particular issues faced by indigenous languages are discussed by McCarty 2013 and McIvor 2020.

  • Canagarajah, S. 1999. Resisting linguistic imperialism in English teaching. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    Discusses the creative, resistant strategies of teachers and students in periphery communities in response to the global spread of English.

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  • Flores, N., and S. Chaparro. 2018. What counts as language education policy? Developing a materialist anti-racist approach to language activism. Language Policy 17:365–384.

    DOI: 10.1007/s10993-017-9433-7Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Makes a case for language education policy that connects language activism with movements addressing poverty, racism, and other societal inequities.

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  • May, S. 2001. Language and minority rights: Ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of language. Harlow, UK: Longman.

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    A sophisticated account of minority language rights, addressing the concerns of minority communities in relation to language policies at the state and supra-national level.

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  • McCarty, T. 2013. Language planning and policy in Native America: History, theory, praxis. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/9781847698643Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A critical examination of language policy and education among diverse Native American communities in their efforts to revitalize threatened mother tongues.

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  • McIvor, O. 2020. Indigenous language revitalization and applied linguistics: Parallel histories, shared futures? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 40:78–96.

    DOI: 10.1017/S0267190520000094Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Reviews the relation between current work on Indigenous language revitalization and applied linguistics, making a case for closer collaborative work.

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  • Pennycook, A. 1994. The cultural politics of English as an international language. London: Longman.

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    A critical analysis of the causes and effects of the global spread of English, and a discussion of creative and pedagogical responses to this spread.

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  • Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    An influential text that lays out the case for understanding the global spread of English as a form of linguistic imperialism.

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  • Shohamy, E. 2005. Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge.

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    Looks at the effects on people and communities of different overt and covert language policies, suggesting strategies of resistance to protect language rights.

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  • Tupas, R., ed. 2015. Unequal Englishes: The politics of Englishes today. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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    An edited book that makes the case for understanding the diversity of forms of English in relation to their unequal use and access.

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Decolonizing Applied Linguistics

A major move across the humanities and social sciences in recent years has been the call to decolonize academic disciplines, to recognize the long connections between colonialism and academic knowledge formation—a very clear relation in the context of linguistics, as Errington 2008 makes clear—and to seek alternative ways of thinking. Kubota 2019 confronts applied linguistics directly, calling a for a radical rethinking of how the field works, and an urgent need to address epistemological racism. Kumaravadivelu 2016 asks related questions of English language teaching, challenging the field to act rather than just talk, a perspective that Phipps 2019 also takes, asking how we can decolonize multilingualism by doing it. Accounts of projects aimed at decolonizing language revitalization and education can be found in Leonard 2017 and López-Gopar 2016, while Makalela 2018 and Ndhlovu and Makalela 2021 bring together projects aimed at similar multilingual decolonizing projects in southern Africa. Macedo 2019 is a collection of papers arguing for the need to decolonize foreign language education more broadly, while Pennycook and Makoni 2020 pulls these themes together in an argument for an applied linguistics from the Global South.

  • Errington, J. 2008. Linguistics in a colonial world: A story of language, meaning and power. Oxford: Blackwell.

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    Shows how early endeavors in linguistics were connected to colonial rule and identifies the enduring influences of colonial linguistics in current thinking about language and cultural difference.

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  • Kubota, R. 2019. Confronting epistemological racism, decolonizing scholarly knowledge: Race and gender in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics 41.5:712–732.

    DOI: 10.1093/applin/amz033Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Makes the case for anti-racist and decolonial work to confront the epistemological racism in applied linguistics that marginalizes and erases the knowledge produced by scholars in the Global South, women scholars of color, and other minoritized groups.

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  • Kumaravadivelu, B. 2016. The decolonial option in English teaching: Can the subaltern act? TESOL Quarterly 50.1:66–85.

    DOI: 10.1002/tesq.202Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Presents a plan for collective, concerted, and coordinated actions to shake the foundation of the hegemonic power structures that continue to subordinate nonnative speakers of English within the field of English language teaching.

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  • Leonard, W. 2017. Producing language reclamation by decolonising “language.” In Language Documentation and Description, Vol. 14. Edited by W. Leonard and H. De Korne, 15–36. London: EL.

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    Argues that language revitalization projects may reproduce colonial linguistic constructs if they continue to operate with standard linguistic frameworks. A project to decolonize language is needed in order to provide new hope for Indigenous languages.

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  • López-Gopar, M. 2016. Decolonizing primary English language teaching. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/9781783095773Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Challenging the association between English and “progress,” this book shows how English teaching can support rather than marginalize Indigenous languages and aspirations.

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  • Macedo, D., ed. 2019. Decolonzing foreign language education: The misteaching of English and other imperial languages. New York: Routledge.

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    A collection of papers that critically examine current language education approaches that prioritize White, western knowledge, thus challenging the marginalization of foreign language education and the displacement of Indigenous and non-standard language varieties.

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  • Makalela, L., ed. 2018. Shifting lenses: Multilanguaging, decolonisation and education in the Global South. Cape Town, South Africa: CASAS.

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    A collection of papers questioning the way multilingualism has been understood in the context of education in Africa, and arguing for decolonized, local understandings of language, text, and education.

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  • Ndhlovu, F., and L. Makalela. 2021. Decolonising multilingualism in Africa: Recentering silenced voices from the Global South. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/NDHLOV3354Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Critically investigates African multilingualism in language education and research, arguing that conceptions of multilingualism from the Global North cannot account adequately for African multilingualisms.

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  • Pennycook, A., and S. Makoni. 2020. Innovations and challenges in applied linguistics from the Global South. London: Routledge.

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    Argues for an understanding of applied linguistics from the Global South, challenging mainstream understanding of language and education, and incorporating southern and Indigenous perspectives.

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  • Phipps, A. 2019. Decolonising multilingualism: Struggles to decreate. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/9781788924061Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A call to arms to enact decolonization, to learn non-colonial languages, to cite scholars from the Global South, to rethink citation and copyright more generally, to look for different ways of doing things.

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Language, Work, and Political Economy

The rise of neoliberal politics and economics, as well as an inadequate approach to questions of class and political economy in applied linguistics in the past, has led to an upsurge of work focused on education, workplaces, and political economy. Heller and McElhinny 2017 provides a useful historical background to the development of language studies in relation to capitalism and colonialism. The importance of addressing the question of social class in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics has been addressed explicitly by Block 2018, while Ricento 2015, O’Regan 2021, and Park and Wee 2012 focus on political economy and the global spread of English from varied perspectives. The effects of neoliberalism on work and education have also been a major emphasis, with Block, et al. 2012 looking at the neoliberalism and applied linguistics, Flubacher and Del Percio 2017 at education, and Gray, et al. 2021 at discourses and practices of neoliberalism in education. Gonçalvez and Kelly-Holmes 2021 focuses on the linguistic implications of blue-collar labor and mobility while Lorente 2017 shows how domestic workers from the Philippines are caught up in relations of gender, class, race, mobility, and language.

  • Block, D. 2018. Political economy and sociolinguistics: Neoliberalism, inequality and social class. London: Bloomsbury.

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    Explores the intersections between political economy and sociolinguistics, arguing for much closer attention to the relations among neoliberalism, inequality, social class, and language.

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  • Block, D., J. Gray, and M. Holborow. 2012. Neoliberalism and applied linguistics. London: Routledge.

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    Makes a strong case that applied linguistics needs to overcome its lack of attention to political economy as part of any study of language-related concerns.

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  • Flubacher, M. C., and A. Del Percio, eds. 2017. Language, education and neoliberalism: Marketization, dispossession, and subversion. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

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    Across a wide range of contexts, this edited collection shows how language and education are important sites and means for the reproduction of neoliberal ideologies and economic relations.

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  • Gonçalvez, K., and H. Kelly-Holmes, eds. 2021. Language, global mobilities, blue-collar workers and blue-collar workplaces. London: Routledge.

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    A collection of papers looking at multilingualism in diverse blue-collar workplaces, both in terms of top-down language policies and bottom-up language practices in different contexts.

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  • Gray, J., J. P. O’Regan, and C. Wallace, eds. 2021. Education and the discourse of global neoliberalism. London: Routledge.

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    Papers focusing on neoliberalism in education with particular attention to the role of language and semiosis in global educational discourse and practice.

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  • Heller, M., and B. McElhinny. 2017. Language, capitalism, colonialism: Toward a critical history. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.

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    A critical history of how language and linguistic ideas are related to colonial and capitalist regimes, producing and reproducing social inequalities.

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  • Lorente, B. 2017. Scripts of servitude: Language, labor migration and transnational domestic work. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/LORENT8996Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Shows how language is embedded in the infrastructure of transnational labor migration, in particular for migrant domestic workers from the Philippines.

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  • O’Regan, J. P. 2021. Global English and political economy. London: Routledge.

    DOI: 10.4324/9781315749334Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Traces the origins and development of the dominance of English to the endless accumulation of capital in a capitalist world-system.

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  • Park, J. S. Y., and L. Wee. 2012. Markets of English: Linguistic capital and language policy in a globalizing world. New York: Routledge.

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    Shows how the global spread of English reproduces and reinforces oppressive structures of inequality, not as an imperial imposition but as an effect of local uses and markets.

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  • Ricento, T., ed. 2015. Language policy and political economy: English in a global context. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    Papers arguing the importance of a political economy focus in order to understand the global role of English in education and elsewhere.

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Language, Gender, and Sexuality

While gender was long considered a “variable” against which forms of language could be mapped in sociolinguistics, a critical applied linguistic focus has brought much more careful attention both to how gender and sexuality are understood and how they are connected to language use and education. The study of language, gender, and power can be traced at least as far back as Lakoff 1975, though a great deal has changed in the intervening years, including a more complex understanding of both gender and sexuality, and a better appreciation of how language produces as well as reflects gender relations. Cameron 2005 provides a clear overview of these developments. Cameron and Kulick 2003 develops the focus on language, sexuality, and desire, while Levon and Beline Mendes 2016 shows how they intersect with social and cultural concerns. Milani and Lazar 2017 makes the further case for understanding language, gender, and sexuality from a southern perspective. Understanding language and sexuality in relation to language education is the focus of Appleby 2014, showing how particular masculinities become related to English language teaching, while Nelson 2009 makes a strong case for English language education to address sexual identities in much greater depth.

  • Appleby, R. 2014. Men and masculinities in global English language teaching. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    DOI: 10.1057/9781137331809Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Examines teacher identity, gender, and intercultural sexuality in English language teaching, with a particular focus on the role of Western male teachers, masculinity, and heterosexuality.

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  • Cameron, D. 2005. Language, gender, and sexuality: Current issues and new directions. Applied Linguistics 26.4:482–502.

    DOI: 10.1093/applin/ami027Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A clear account of trends in research around language, gender, and sexuality, detailing the shift from binary accounts of men, women, and language use to account for more diverse identities and practices.

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  • Cameron, D., and D. Kulick. 2003. Language and sexuality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511791178Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A clear introduction to the relationship between language and sexuality, including not only sexual orientation and identity but also the discursive construction of sexuality and the verbal expression of erotic desire.

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  • Lakoff, R. 1975. Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper & Row.

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    One of the first studies of women and language, pointing to the ways women’s language was subjugated, and noting the problems faced by women in trying to change language and gender norms.

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  • Levon, E., and R. Beline Mendes, eds. 2016. Language, sexuality, and power: Studies in intersectional sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    Examines how sexualities are understood and expressed linguistically in a diversity of contexts around the world, arguing that the intersections among language, gender, sexuality and other social factors have to be understood together.

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  • Milani, T., and M. Lazar. 2017. Seeing from the South: Discourse, gender and sexuality from southern perspectives. In Special issue: Discourse, gender and sexuality from the Global South. Journal of Sociolinguistics 21.3 (2017):307–319.

    DOI: 10.1111/josl.12241Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Introduction to a special journal issue, arguing the importance of southern perspectives in the study of discourse, gender, and sexuality.

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  • Nelson, C. 2009. Sexual identities in English language education: Classroom conversations. New York: Routledge.

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    Drawing on queer theory and research, provides clear and informed arguments for how and why queer, gay, and lesbian themes and identities need to be addressed in English language classrooms.

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Language, Race, and Raciolinguistics

Alongside questions of class—see Language, Work, and Political Economy—and gender and sexuality—see Language, Gender, and Sexuality—questions of language and race have come to the fore, particularly in recent years, although works by critical educators such as hooks 1989 have been connecting the themes of gender and race for a long time. In the context of English language teaching, Ibrahim 1999 shows the importance of understanding the ways Black youth came to identify as Black in relation to popular culture and schooling. Other studies of race and language education in the edited book Kubota and Lin 2009 address topics of Whiteness, native speakers, racial stereotypes, and classroom identities, while Motha 2014 examines racial hierarchies in relation to English language teaching and Jenks 2017 shows how White normativity in English language teaching (ELT) is based on White privilege and saviorism. Studies using a raciolinguistic framework—looking at how race and language are interconnected, as explained in Alim, et al. 2016—have looked in Alim and Smitherman 2012 at reactions to Barack Obama’s ways of speaking, in Flores and Rosa 2015 at problems with assumptions about appropriate language, and at the way Latinx are racialized in Rosa 2019.

  • Alim, H. S., J. Rickford, and A. Ball, eds. 2016. Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    A collection of papers looking at the importance of language in shaping ideas about race, and the ways that concepts of race, ethnicity and language inform each other.

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  • Alim, H. S., and G. Smitherman. 2012. Articulate while Black: Barack Obama, language and race in the US. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    A study of Barack Obama’s language use, and the particular reactions to it, showing how the designation of being “articulate” had particular racial implications.

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  • hooks, b. 1989. Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking black. Toronto: Between the Lines.

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    Discusses the interwoven themes of racism, feminism, politics, and pedagogy, and the need for oppressed people to find ways to move from silence to voice, to talk back.

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  • Ibrahim, A. 1999. Becoming Black: Rap and hip-hop, race, gender, identity and the politics of ESL learning. TESOL Quarterly 33.3: 349–369.

    DOI: 10.2307/3587669Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A study of the effects on a group of African youths in Canada entering a discursive space in which they are already imagined as Black, with implications for the language and culture they then identify with.

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  • Flores, N., and J. Rosa. 2015. Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review 85.2:149–171.

    DOI: 10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Critiques educational approaches based on assumed norms of appropriacy, arguing instead for an understanding of the raciolinguistic ideologies that inform such beliefs.

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  • Jenks, C. 2017. Race and ethnicity in English language teaching: Korea in focus. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

    DOI: 10.21832/JENKS8422Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Examines White normativity in English language teaching, with a particular emphasis on South Korea, arguing that there are deep forms of racial discrimination within the field founded on White privilege, saviorism, and neoliberalism.

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  • Kubota, R., and A. Lin, eds. 2009. Race, culture and identities in second language education: Exploring critically engaged practice. New York: Routledge.

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    A collection of papers looking at race in relation to second-language pedagogy, addressing questions of White identities and native speakers, racial stereotypes in textbooks, and other ways language and race impact on language education.

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  • Motha, S. 2014. Race and empire in English language teaching. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

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    Looks at how hierarchies of cultural privilege are connected to race, ethnicity, and empire in the context of English language teaching in public schools in the United States.

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  • Rosa, J. 2019. Looking like a language, sounding like a race: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the learning of Latinidad. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190634728.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Develops the ways language and race are co-naturalized through an examination of raciolinguistic ideologies around race, ethnicity, and language with a particular focus on Latinx identity.

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Critical Sociolinguistics

The relation between applied linguistics and sociolinguistics is not an easy one to unravel, and some, such as Piller 2016, talk of applied sociolinguistics. Various books offer a critical view of the field itself, Williams 1992 taking it to task from sociological perspectives, and García, et al. 2016 showing how sociolinguistic concepts developed from particular sociopolitical frameworks. While critical studies of language and society may lack the more interventionist aspects of critical applied linguistics, most critical sociolinguists also aim to change as well as just describe inequitable social relations. Baugh 2018, for example, explores how linguistics can advance social justice concerns, particularly around language and race. Lippi-Green 1997 likewise looks at issues such as accent discrimination while Cameron 1995 focuses on popular attitudes toward “correct” language. Other studies look at changes to the way language and multilingualism operate and are understood in the context of increased mobility caused by globalization (Blommaert 2010), heritage language education in UK schools (Blackledge and Creese 2010), and popular culture in South Africa (Williams 2017). Heller, et al. 2018 shows how critical sociolinguistic research projects can be developed.

  • Baugh, J. 2018. Linguistics in pursuit of justice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1017/9781316597750Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A study of how concerns such as the legacies of slavery, linguistic profiling, and dialect discrimination can be addressed from a linguistic focus on social justice.

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  • Blackledge, A., and A. Creese. 2010. Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London: Continuum.

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    A critical exploration of questions of nationalism, heritage, culture, and identity in relation to multilingualism, with a focus on young people in complementary schools in the United Kingdom.

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  • Blommaert, J. 2010. The sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511845307Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Emphasizes the ways in which globalization affects language use through networks of mobility that bring to the fore people’s repertoires of linguistic resources.

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  • Cameron, D. 1995. Verbal hygiene. London: Routledge.

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    Examines popular attitudes toward language and its regulation through various mechanisms such as grammar teaching or style manuals, arguing that these perform important social functions.

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  • García, O., N. Flores, and M. Spotti, eds. 2016. The Oxford handbook of language and society. Oxford Univ. Press.

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    Challenging standard ideas in sociolinguistics, this handbook offers a critical poststructuralist perspective that examines the sociohistorical development of key concepts and offers alternative frameworks for sociolinguistics.

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  • Heller, M., S. Pietikäinen, and J. Pujolar. 2018. Critical sociolinguistic research methods: Studying language issues that matter. New York: Routledge.

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    Looking at the role of language in the construction of social difference and inequality, this book shows readers how to develop critical sociolinguistic research projects.

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  • Lippi-Green, R. 1997. English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.

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    A critical examination of the ways in which discrimination based on accent in the United States functions to support and perpetuate social structures and unequal power relations.

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  • Piller, I. 2016. Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Case studies looking at linguistic disadvantage and diversity in relation to social justice in societies undergoing rapid change in times of migration and economic globalization.

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  • Williams, G. 1992. Sociolinguistics: A sociological critique. London: Routledge.

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    A critique of mainstream sociolinguistics from a critical sociological perspective, showing the weakness of categories of class, variation, or function.

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  • Williams, Q. 2017. Remix multilingualism: Hip hop, ethnography and performing marginalized voices. London: Bloomsbury.

    DOI: 10.5040/9781474295420Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A study of how multilingual participants in the hip hop culture of Cape Town produce new ways of doing multilingualism through their performances.

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New Directions for Critical Applied Linguistics

While remaining wary of passing trends, critical applied linguistics has to be open to new directions that open up in the field. The massive interest in translinguistic perspectives as explained by García and Li Wei 2014 needs critical investigation but offers important ways forward in terms of rethinking what counts as language and multilingualism in the context of English language education, as Canagarajah 2013 explains, and García, et al. 2017 shows in the context of bilingual classrooms in the United States. Posthumanist perspectives have also started to emerge, as explained by Pennycook 2018, challenging our understanding of how we understand humans in relation to other animals, material surrounds, and digital technologies. Appleby 2019 looks at the relations between humans and animals from a critical feminist perspective, while Gourlay 2020 makes a case for understanding digital literacies in material terms.

  • Appleby, R. 2019. Sexing the animal in a post-humanist world: A critical feminist approach. London: Routledge.

    DOI: 10.4324/9781351271486Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Examines discursive and embodied relationships between humans and animals from a critical ecofeminist lens, with a particular focus on sharks, showing how this relationship is represented in different media.

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  • Canagarajah, S. 2013. Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. London: Routledge.

    DOI: 10.4324/9780203120293Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Challenges traditional approaches to English language education through an understanding of translingual practices that question the boundaries between languages and the boundaries of language itself.

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  • García, O., S. Johnson, and K. Seltzer. 2017. The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Philadelphia: Caslon.

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    Gives examples for teachers to navigate their bilingual classrooms so that students can use all their available linguistic resources in educational processes.

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  • García, O., and Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    DOI: 10.1057/9781137385765Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    An accessible introduction to the idea of translanguaging in relation to bilingual education, emphasizing how translingual pedagogies offer possibilities for personal and social change.

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  • Gourlay, L. 2020. Posthumanism and the digital university: Texts, bodies and materialities. London: Bloomsbury.

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    Argues that digital engagement should not be regarded as virtual or disembodied, but rather is an entanglement of bodies, texts, and material artifacts.

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  • Pennycook, A. 2018. Posthumanist applied linguistics. London: Routledge.

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    An introduction to posthumanism from an applied linguistic perspective, this book looks at alternative ways of thinking about the human predicament, with major implications for applied linguistic research and activity.

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