Ideological Clarity for English Language Teachers in Paraguay

• In Event: Latin America Writes Back: Praxiologies in Language Education

Abstract

In the field of English language teaching, little is known outside the U.S. about the goal of ideological clarity among English language teachers. The goal of ideological clarity is to continually compare and contrast teachers’ own belief systems about language with those proposed and advocated by dominant society to learn when and the extent to which English teachers’ belief systems uncritically reflect those of the dominant to support inequitable beliefs about language (Bartolomé, 2008). In this paper, we examine teaching materials used in Paraguay and the requirements for teaching English to children and youth. Although English is not available to the vast majority of children and youth in Paraguay, there are numerous private schools and some public schools that do teach English. We will interview up to 10 English teachers about their beliefs in pure and perfect language ideologies, which build upon monolingual understandings about bilingualism, about translanguaging (García, 2014; Martin, Aponte, & García, 2019), about raciolinguistics Flores & Rosa, 2015, and about the standard academic language in language development Faltis, 2022 & 2013) . In the paper, we provide a critical review of these dominant language ideologies, in order to ask the following research questions:
1. How do English teachers in Paraguay take up pure and perfect language ideologies of bilingualism when teaching English?
2. In what ways do English teachers in Paraguay show ideological clarity about pure and perfect language ideologies with respect to bilingualism?
We situate this study on ideological clarity within four major frameworks: (1) Dominant language ideologies; (2) Translanguaging; and (3) raciolinguistics.
In this paper, we examine teaching materials used in Paraguay and the requirements for teaching English to children and youth. Although English is not available to the vast majority of children and youth in Paraguay, there are numerous private schools and some public schools that do teach English. We interviewed 8 English teachers about their beliefs in pure and perfect language ideologies, which build upon monolingual understandings about bilingualism, about translanguaging (García, 2014; Martin, Aponte, & García, 2019), about the standard academic language in language development (Faltis, 2022 & 2013) . The findings line up with previous and new research about the impact of the complex language ideologies on what teachers believe and how they act in classroom settings teaching English to bilingual and multilingual students who speak Spanish and Jopara for their daily communicative needs. Because English teachers have the responsibility for providing an equitable environment for all learners, it is important to understand how English teachers reflect on their beliefs and practices to become ideologically clear about the dominant views embedded in language teaching.
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Authors

• Valentina Canese, Universidad Nacional de Asunción

• Christian J. Faltis, Texas A&M International University