Abstract:
In this talk I explore the productive messiness of language and cultural
understanding in English language teaching, drawing on Global Englishes
and decolonial research. I will challenge the dominance of Anglophone
norms and native speaker models by foregrounding the fluid, contested, and
plurilingual ways English is used across diverse contexts. Through this lens,
I will show how multilingual users resist linguistic imperialism (Canagarajah
1999), re-semiotize English, and negotiate complex identities in ways that
defy neat categorizations, thus advocating for decolonizing pedagogies that
embrace linguistic and cultural complexity, value local knowledges, and
disrupt deficit framings of “non-native” speakers. Rather than seeking tidy
solutions, I argue for pedagogical approaches that engage with the mess, i.e.
acknowledge ambiguity, contradiction, and transformation as central to more
equitable and empowering ELT practices.
