ELT Journal Advance Access published online on April 9, 2009
ELT Journal, doi:10.1093/elt/ccp021
© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Culturally responsive L2 education: an awareness-raising proposal
Melina Porto is a teacher, teacher educator, and translator of English from the National University of La Plata and a researcher from CONICET in Argentina. She holds an MA ELT from the University of Essex. She has published articles in Journal of Further and Higher Education, Foreign Language Annals, Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ), Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (JAAL), and ELT Journal, among others. She is currently a reviewer for The Reading Teacher and Foreign Language Annals and a member of the Language Diversity Sub-Committee of the International Reading Association
Email: melinaporto{at}speedy.com.ar; melinaporto2007{at}yahoo.com.ar
 |
Abstract |
|---|
The increasing prevalence of multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural classrooms in varied educational contexts worldwide points to the importance of cultural factors in language education and education in general. In the EFL/ESL classroom of this century, ELT is seen as including much more than purely linguistic aspects as it focuses also on broad literacy issues which acknowledge the importance of global economic, social, historical, and cultural factors in language learning and teaching. In other words, ELT in the twenty-first century means culturally responsive literacy education. It is argued here that foreign/second language education viewed in these terms requires cultural responsiveness in educators. This paper will offer a concrete proposal aimed at raising foreign language educators' awareness of this topic.