Deconstructing ELT ideology and normalized discourses through critical discourse analysis: Collaborative autoethnography

Abstract

English language teaching departments have been regarded as neutral and prestigious for more than a century. However, the colonial, neocolonial, postcolonial and neoliberal practices of these departments are forgotten. In this study, we aim to deconstruct this ideology and develop a critical perspective within the framework of critical pedagogy and critical discourse analysis. Both of these two approaches aim to analyze power, power relations, forms of knowledge and subjective experiences. This study is based on collaborative autoethnography that prioritizes researchers` beliefs, experiences, observations and stories. We asked 10 guiding questions that showed how we came to reject our current identity in ELT discipline that produced various forms of knowledge that constitute certain discursive practices. We aimed to show that ELT departments in Turkey are a continuation of this colonial and neoliberal mind, and therefore a new space should be created for other languages to take their place on social circles. We strongly recommend that ELT departments can incorporate lessons that reinforce criticality, critical pedagogy and critical discourse analysis so that the real historical conditions could be shown to the students and teacher candidates in these departments. Therefore, new discourses can be constituted and produced to allow novel subjective experiences and practices.