CRITICAL PEDAGOGY & ELT CLASSROOMS IN INDIA: SOME THOUGHTS

Abstract

This paper examines critical pedagogy and English language teaching (ELT) to understand how a classroom may, or may not, incorporate both of these aspects in a productive manner. It begins with looking at a relatively different paradigm of education that emerged towards the end of the twentieth century, where ideas of knowledge economy and knowledge capitalism gain ground. It traces a changing field of ELT that argues for language teaching from the perspective of Gramscian hegemony and spontaneous grammars. The paper briefly surveys the concept of critical pedagogy starting with the work of Paulo Friere and various other scholars. It will then see how this concept works in ESL classrooms and contexts, using culture and local concerns from the lives of learners particularly from India.

 

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