Unveiling the discourses of coloniality: Mexican Student-Teachers’ language awareness in personal stories and language practices

ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH

(English) language teaching in Mexico occurs within ‘coloniality. Hence, it is imperative to raise the critical multilingual language awareness of future language teachers in terms of colonial practices. In order to promote decolonizing pedagogies, this paper presents the results of a critical-ethnographic-action-research study, whose main goal was to unveil the discourses of coloniality present in the daily lives and personal stories of 37 student-teachers enrolled in a language teaching BA program while connecting the student-teachers to language teaching in general and the position of Spanish and English vis-à-vis Indigenous languages in Mexico in particular. The data originates from student-teachers’ stories about (self)discrimination, their collection and analysis of memes, videos circulating in their social media, samples from their language textbooks, and a written piece in which the student-teachers identified and reflected on words and phrases stemming from coloniality. Based on an iterative and recursive analysis of the data and utilizing a decolonizing theoretical lens in connection to race theories in Latin America, this paper addresses three emergent themes: (1) race and physical appearance; (2) colonial linguistic hierarchies; and (3) awareness of the discourses of colonial difference.

ABSTRACT IN SPANISH

La enseñanza de lenguas (inglés) en México ocurre dentro de la ‘colonialidad’. Por lo tanto, es importante desarrollar la conciencia lingüística multilingüe crítica de los futuros profesores de idiomas en términos de prácticas coloniales. Con el fin de promover pedagogías descolonizadoras, este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio crítico-etnográfico-acción-investigación, cuyo objetivo principal fue develar los discursos de la colonialidad presentes en la vida diaria y en las historias personales de 37 estudiantes-maestros inscritos en un programa de licenciatura en enseñanza de lenguas, además de conectar a los estudiantes-maestros con la enseñanza de lenguas en general y en particular con la posición del español y del inglés frente a las lenguas indígenas en México. Los datos se originan de las historias de (auto)discriminación de los estudiantes-maestros, la recopilación y análisis de memes y vídeos que circulan en sus redes sociales, muestras de sus libros de texto de lenguas y un trabajo escrito en el que los estudiantes-maestros identifican y reflexionan sobre palabras y frases procedentes de la colonialidad. A partir de un análisis iterativo y recursivo de los datos y utilizando una lente teórica descolonizadora en conexión con teorías raciales en América Latina, este trabajo aborda tres temas emergentes: (1) raza y apariencia física; (2) jerarquías lingüísticas coloniales; y (3) conciencia de los discursos de la diferencia colonial.

PLS

Mexico was conquered by Spain and endured colonialism for 300 years. Even though Mexico has been an independent nation for the last 200 years, there are still vestiges of colonialism in people’s minds and daily practices. Consequently, the teaching of foreign languages, such as English, may carry some colonial practices, which may show in face-to-face conversations and through social media. Hence, the purpose of this study was to discover how colonial practices might be present in the daily lives and personal stories of 37 student-teachers enrolled in a language teaching BA program and how these colonial practices might be connected to the teaching of languages in general and the position of Spanish and English versus Indigenous languages in Mexico in particular. For this study, the researchers collected student-teachers’ stories about (self)discrimination, and student-teachers’ analysis of memes, videos circulating in their social media, samples from their language textbooks, and a written piece in which student-teachers’ identified and reflected on words and phrases stemming from Mexico’s colonial past. It was discovered that colonial practices were connected to race and physical appearance and linguistic hierarchies; that is, how certain European languages were perceived as better than local or Indigenous languages. Furthermore, the result show that student-teachers become aware of these colonial practices once they start analyzing language practices in different languages.

Keywords:

• Decolonizing language practices
• critical multilingual language awareness
• language student-teachers
• Oaxaca

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term “mestizo” refers to Spanish-speaking people of mixed Indigenous and European (usually Spanish) heritage (López-Gopar, 2016). The majority and mainstream population of Mexico can be considered “mestizo”.

2 Hereinafter these reflective texts written by the student-teachers are referred to as Text 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively.

3 This extract, and all of the following extracts from the student-teachers’ texts, have been translated from Spanish to English by the co-authors of this article.

4 The name “Ana,” along with all the other participant names mentioned in the article, is a pseudonym.

5 As seen in this quoted extract, and in other extracts to follow, we have kept some words or phrases in Spanish, as they appear in the student-teachers’ texts, primarily when they cite examples of vocabulary in Spanish. In their texts, the student-teachers have put these words and expressions into quotation marks, and here in the extracts we have italicized the words and expressions.