Decolonizing English Language Education With Literature by Black and Indigenous Writers

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss decolonial English Language Education with literature produced by black and indigenous writers. English language classrooms have been traditionally guided by principles that underscore systemic knowledge through an overemphasis on grammar in line with the Grammar Translation Method (QUEVEDO-CAMARGO; SILVA, 2017; PEREIRA, 2016, 2019) and by misconceptions about the limitations of teaching foreign languages for communicative purposes, especially in public schools (LEFFA, 2009; PEREIRA, 2019; QUEVEDO-CAMARGO; SILVA, 2017). With this in mind, I have proposed a concept of English Language Education that involves teaching the language while having a critical attitude toward social, racial, and gender problems, engendered by coloniality, with the use of literary texts (PEREIRA, 2017, 2019, 2020a, 2020b, MOTA, 2020; MOTA-PEREIRA, 2022), especially the ones produced by black and indigenous writers. Besides, the use of literature contributes to nurturing a taste for reading literary texts, which, among the aforementioned benefits, also fosters emotional consciousness and practices, including empathy (GHOSN, 2001). Considering these reflections, in this paper, I analyze autoethnographically (HUGHES; PENNINGTON, 2017) classes I taught in an online course for public school students in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, which is part of the extension activities of a Teaching Practicum course. In these classes, literature by black and indigenous writers was the main material for decolonial English Language Education.