Language Matters

Innovative approaches to teaching and learning must be informed by a passionate faith in the necessity of struggling to create classrooms and schools that address and encounter all students? language and culture so as to enrich them. My intention has not been to present the history of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL) but rather to understand the politics of technocratic approaches of practice and then put forth ideas for a critical pedagogy in the professional field. From the outset, I have argued that what are required for educating groups of immigrant adolescents are more expansive and inclusive programmes that apprehend the social, economic, and political contexts of learning. Thus, the book has stressed the importance of valuing the language and culture of students. This is necessary if the students are to continue their education not simply to absorb prescribed information and ideas but to actively understand, question, and challenge them to change school and the classroom. In this way, pedagogy is what it should be a richer synthesis of knowledge and critical awareness of people?s intimate environment.