Fostering critical perspectives among future teachers of English

Abstract

The last decades have witnessed the expansion of English as an international language, a phenomenon intimately linked to the processes of globalization. This dominant position makes it difficult to detect the power imbalances that hide behind the linguistic uses, the messages that are transmitted, or the communities of speakers, among other aspects. Equally, the teaching of English is impregnated with veiled values and policies that must be addressed from the training of future teachers of English. Given that the design and implementation of such training is often in the hands of teachers, pre-service teacher training suffers from a strong fragmentation. Thus, the enormous diversity of initiatives that exist needs to be integrated in an ordered and coherent proposal. This work emphasizes the importance of coupling a dialogic pedagogy with critical reflection and professional teacher identity within a categorized and integral formative proposal so that this formative period is a useful, integral and transforming tool to foster critical thinking in future English teachers.