“How languages are learned”: Revisiting the phenomenon of learners being oppressed in the English classrooms from the view of critical pedagogy

Abstract

This paper deals with a controversial perspective of language teaching and learning from the view of critical theories. From the assumption of the oppressed (learners) and the oppressors (teachers in the language classroom), the authors propose the idea to revisit the issues relevant to how languages are learned. The paper discusses the reality of language learning from the narrow view of non-European practitioners and learners to discuss the phenomenon of teaching from the oppressive perspectives. From that, proposals for different language classrooms with equality, ignorance-free, and especially real demands were suggested to be the main motivation for communication. Additionally, the paper also indicates that the issues of lexicon and learners’ fears were not the main reasons for communication failure. The authors borrow the terms from and grasp the literal implications of Lightbown and Spada (2006) and simultaneously employ the critical theories of Freire (2005) and Rancière (1991) as a counterbalance in the call to revisit “how languages should be learned” in the new era of technology and the matter of learning and teaching from critical perspectives.