Didactics I

UNESCO. Education in a multilingual world

Since its creation in 1945, UNESCOs mission has been to contribute to the building of peace, poverty
eradication, lasting development and intercultural dialogue, with education as one of its principal
activities to achieve this aim. The Organization is committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of
quality education worldwide, the realization of everyones right to education, and the belief that
education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development.
Through this document, UNESCO shows its commitment to the inherent value of cultural diversity and
the need to maintain it. It considers that education is
A tool for and a reflection of cultural diversity.
A fundamental attribute of cultural identity and empowerment.
It also admits that everybody should receive a quality education in their mother tongue, respecting and
protecting specific linguistic and ethnic populations, but at the same time, to have access to the
acquisition of a second language such as English and its global communication proportions.
This organization has an essential role to play in providing international frameworks for education
policy and practice on key and complex issues. In the particular case of the English teaching,
questions of identity, nationhood, power and prestige are closely linked to its use in the educational
system.
Many hundreds of languages have disappeared throughout the world and many more remain
endangered, due to the significant changes that have been taken place over the past fifty years,
regarding political transformations, migratory movements, accelerated globalization, and the arrival of
the internet.
Part 1. The challenge for education systems in multilingual societies is to adapt to the different and
complex realities providing a quality education.
Linguistic diversity and multilingualism. The existence of languages spoken in the world is estimated at
between 6000 and 7000. The challenge relies in safeguarding this diversity since half of them are in
danger of disappearing in the coming years. For this, the specific learning needs of children in relation
to the language must be taken into account. We find different aspects related to this matter:
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The difference between minority and majority languages (ethnic dialects, sign languages and

Braille for the blind).

Official and national languages.

The language of instruction.

The mother tongue instruction (as the language one has learnt first; the language one identifies

with; the language one knows best; and the language one uses most)
Linguistic rights (election of language schooling, inter-cultural education).

Part 2. The normative framework for language and education. Regarding the many declarations,
recommendations and agreements which guarantee education we find:
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

The international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
The Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and
Linguistic Minorities (1992).

Part 3. Guidelines on language and education. Although these documents follow three basic
principles, they have a fundamental principle in common which sets that language should not induce
any kind of discrimination. The three principles UNESCO supports are:
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Mother tongue instruction.

Bilingual or multilingual education at all levels.
Language as an essential component of inter-cultural education, to encourage understanding
between different groups and ensure respect for fundamental rights.

Critical Language Pedagogy. A postmethod perspective on English language teaching

(Kumaravadivelu).
This document covers the nature of English linguistic imperialism, its colonial character and the
subaltern attempts to resist its dominance.
English has achieved the status of a genuinely global language since it has developed a special role
that is recognized in every country. Of course, every culture has adapted the English to fill their own
needs into what is known as world Englishes. The author then, presents two interesting terms:
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Nativization: described as an attribute of a language and a simple process of indiginizing the

phonological, syntactic and pragmatic aspects of the linguistic system of the English language.
By saying indiginizing we describe what happens when locals take something from outside

and adapt it to their own culture; in the case of English with their forms and functions.
Nativization always precedes the process of decolonization.
Decolonization: on the other hand, this is an attitude of the mind, and a complex process of
appropriating the principles and practices of planning, learning and teaching English.

Common people who speak English as an additional language see it as a language communicational
necessity than as a symbol of cultural identity.

The author considers there has been no systematic attempt to explore possible methodological means
to decolonize English language teaching. Thats why he:
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Reviews the colonial character of the concept of method.

The author defines method as a construction of marginality which has four inter-related dimensions:
Scholastic: Western scholars have marginalized and made local knowledge irrelevant. They not only
evidenced very little interest in drawing insights from existing local knowledge but also deliberately
denigrating the production and dissemination of knowledge in India and China.
Linguistic: also called the monolingual tenet. It held that the teaching of English as a foreign or
second language should be entirely through the medium of English.
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Presents the concept of postmethod pedagogy as a postcolonial construct.

Explains what it takes to treat a postmethod pedagogy as a postcolonial project.
Highlight a postmethod predicament that might challenge the successful conception and
construction of a postmethod pedagogy in postcolonial contexts.