Towards an applied linguistics of contact in the praxiological postures of basic education and english teacher education

Abstract

In this study, we aim to reflect about the relevance of linguistic contacts (Pratt, 2013) as a decolonial effort to confront the linguistic effects arising from the coloniality of power in language education – especially in basic education and english teacher education. Therefore, grounded on Prattian considerations (2013), we analyze the pattern of homogeneity inherent to the imagined community and reflected in the linguistic community. In order to present alternatives that go against limiting attitudes of the english language teaching education course, we re-contextualize two examples. The first, refers to an activity on gender based on the self-reflection of a teacher in an elementary school classroom (Pessoa; Hoelzle, 2017), simultaneously confronting an example of a typical dialogue in english teaching materials. Such dialogue is configured as a faithful sample of the perspective of a linguistic community, surrounded by patterns of homogeneity and linearization. The second example, at a time of teacher education (Bastos et al, 2021), brings an activity that deconstructs the ideal model of native speaker. We believe that actions like these, which embrace the perspective of a linguistics of contact in the face of a language still considered hegemonic, establish viable paths to combat linguistic utopias (Pratt, 2013) in schools and universities.