Students’ Critical Language Awareness in Social Justice-Oriented Units

482 

Research-Oriented Paper 

Non-language specific 

English 

Helena Ruf  
University of Minnesota

Helena Ruf  
University of Minnesota

Lauren Goodspeed  
University of Minnesota

Kate Paesani  
University of Minnesota

Social justice pedagogies have gained ground in language education in recent years. Critical Language Awareness (CLA), or understanding the relationship between language and power, is a key component-and potential outcome-of using such pedagogies. A growing body of research investigating CLA among learners of English as a second language and Spanish as a heritage language reveals that explicit, consistent, and intentional instruction attending to language, power, and justice is crucial for developing students' CLA. Yet no research to date has explored CLA among English-dominant postsecondary learners in U.S. world language contexts. The results reported from the present study address this gap by examining the CLA of intermediate-level postsecondary learners of French and German relative to their participation in social justice curricular units. After sharing results from pre- and post-unit questionnaires, presenters discuss implications for developing CLA in world language classrooms.

Does social justice-focused language instruction impact students' Critical Language Awareness (CLA)? This presentation will report results of a study investigating the CLA of intermediate-level postsecondary learners of French and German before and after their participation in social justice curricular units.

High School/Post-Secondary

Research