For critical, expanded and decolonial language education and teacher training

Abstract

The aim of this article, which is theoretical and propositional in nature, is to present some reflections on the concept of critical, expanded and decolonial language education and its contribution to both teacher training and language teaching practices. More specifically, in the first moment, I (re)visit some conceptualizations, which are not unique and exclude others, regarding what has been understood as language education in language teaching in the Brazilian educational context. In the second moment, I present some notes on critical, expanded and decolonial language education practices in/for the training of teachers, especially of Portuguese as a mother tongue, recovering and expanding, based on Gomes and Latties (2021), some formative and decolonial thematic axes that I believe are important for/in the composition of the language teacher training curriculum. In order to develop these reflections based on the proposed objectives, I turn to authors who deal with the concept of language education in relation to school practices and the development of communicative skills. Next, I present other definitions that broaden the understanding of language education beyond the idea of linguistic and textual knowledge and communicative competence. To do this, I turn to studies carried out by Brazilian researchers who establish fruitful dialogues between the field of Critical Applied Linguistics, decolonial studies and studies on race, gender, identities and sexualities.