Julián Duque

Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

How was the

Participatory Approach
originated?

The Participatory Approach was first promoted by

Paulo Freire’s ideas in the late 1950s, however, it
became widely studied after the 1980s.
(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011)
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

What is the
Participatory Approach?

“The goal of a Participatory Approach is to help students to

understand the social, historical, or cultural forces that shaped a
particular context, and then to help empower students to take action
and make decisions in order to gain control over their lives in that
context.”
(Wallerstein 1983 in Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

How is language understood from

the Participatory Approach?

Kumaravadivelu (2003) states that language, any

language, is implicitly linked to the exercise of power
(p. 164).

Therefore, learning and teaching a language

configures a political act where those involve become
empowered through discourse.
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

How do you think you can

incorporate the Participatory
Approach in your praxis?
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Critical and participatory

approaches to pedagogy
Critical Language Awareness
Literacies
Plurilingualism and multicompetence
Non-native teachers
Hidden curriculum
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Critical Language Awareness

“power relations work increasingly at Introduced by Norman
an implicit level through language, Fairclough in 1992.

and given that language practices

are increasingly targets for Linked with Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) by acknowleding
intervention and control, a critical the power relations present in
awareness of language is a language.

prerequisite for effective citizenship,

and democratic entitlement” Advocates to consider the
sociopolitical nature of
language.
(Fairclough, 1995, p. 222 in Kumaravadivelu, 2003).
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Critical Language Awareness

Whose English / Which authors should
French should be be read?
taught?

What examples do I How do I foster identity

provide in my class? construction through
language?
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

How can language teachers

perpetruate marginalization in
the classroom?
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

How can language teachers

perpetruate marginalization in
the classroom?
“English teachers can cooperate in their own
marginalization by seeing themselves as “language
teachers” with no connection to such social and
political issues.”
(James Gee,1994, p. 190 in Kumaravadivelu, 2003)
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Literacies
Some authors are Gee
(1996) and Luke (2004)
“Learning the unique forms,
vocabulary, and norms of different
discourses is empowering. Teachers Students need to learning the
discourse of politics, or
who embrace this idea will find
education, or business.
themselves examining their teaching
practice, choice of texts, activities, and
assessment tools, looking for when and
Participation in a literate
how power is explicitly and implicitly English culture means more
expressed.” than being able to read English

(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).

 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Plurilingualism and multicompetence

“ The goal of language teaching should be successful language use and
multicompetence, not trying to get students to imitate monolingual native-speaker
use.”

(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).

 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Plurilingualism and multicompetence

“ The goal of language teaching should be successful language use and
multicompetence, not trying to get students to imitate monolingual native-speaker
use.”

(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).

The target language should not The teacher should aim to integrate
languages rather than keeping them as
replace any other language the separate. This fosters respect for
learner speaks. students’ plurilingual identities.
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Non-native teachers
“The teacher’s status is a political
Non-native speaker teachers
issue, then, not an issue of
are role models of successful
competence. It is not whether or not learning of the target language.
they are native speakers of the
language they are teaching that
makes for a good teacher.” When the teachers are also native to the
students’ native language, they know the
obstacles for learning the TL and how to
(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011). overcome them.
Hidden curriculum
Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

“what is being taught and learned that is not explicit. What do teachers indicate,
for example, when they move their students’ desks into a circle formation rather
than leaving them in rows? When a teacher asks the students what they want to
learn in the class, what message is sent? How is this message different from a
teacher presenting a carefully-planned syllabus on the first day of class? What if
a teacher does not choose to do certain activities in the coursebook and
instead replaces them with activities with students’ backgrounds and interests
in mind? What meaning might be attributed to these actions by the students
(and potentially those concerned observers such as parents and
administrators) and is that meaning something positive or negative?”

(Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011).

Experience

retrieved from Larsen-Freeman & Anderson (2011).

What does a teacher need to have in mind
to implement critical and participatory
approaches in their teaching praxis?
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

8 principles for applying the

Participatory Approach
1. What happens in the classroom should be connected with what happens outside.
2. The curriculum is not a predetermined product, but the result of an ongoing context-
specific problem-posing process.
3. Education is most efective when it is experience-centered.
4. When knowledge is jointly constructed, it becomes a tool to help students find a voice.
5. Language teaching occurs with texts that students have co-constructed.
6. Language skills are taught in service of action for change, rather tan in isolation.
7. Students can create their own materials.
8. Students learn to evaluate their learning to focus future learning.

Based on Larsen-Freeman & Anderson (2011).

 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

let’s discuss

How then, would you implement

the Participatory Approach in your
language teaching intervention?
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

References
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond methods—Macrostrategies for language teaching. Yale
Univ. Pr.

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in language teaching
(Third edition). Oxford University Press.
 Julián Duque
Maestría en Didáctica de la Lengua

Thank you.