Ch. 7 of Prof. Pennycook's CALx

Chapter 7 Applied Linguistics with an Attitude

7.1 CRITICAL THEMES

See TABLE 7.1 on p. 166 to review the main arguments of this book.

[Postcolonial performativity] "allows us to view language as productive and performative, to view the use of English in a postcolonial world as both a set of repeated acts within a regulatory frame that have congealed over time to produce the appearance of substance and as a site of resistance to and appropriation of norms and forms of standardized discourse." (Pennycook, 2001, p. 168)

7.2 GUIDELINES FOR A CRITICAL PRAXIS

I see critical applied linguistics as a way of thinking, a way of going about applied linguistics that constantly seeks to push our thinking in new and provocative ways. (Pennycook, 2001, p. 169)

Applied linguists around the world do not need another generation of British, American, or Australian "experts" trotting about the world telling them how to do their work. (Pennycook, 2001, p. 170)

7.2.1 Critical Notes for the Fridge Door


"The political and indeed the ethical can be seen less in terms of a dogmatic claiming of moral and political certitude and more in terms of an ability to politicize anew." (Pennycook, 2001, p. 171)



7.3 CRITICAL APPLIED POSTLINGUISTICS, POSTCRITICAL APPLIED LINGUISTICS, OR APPLIED LINGUISTICS WITH AN ATTITUDE

The following may be Pennycook's summary statement.

I see critical applied linguistics as a constantly shifting and dynamic approach to questions of language and education rather than a method, a set of techniques, or a fixed body of knowledge. And rather than viewing critical applied linguistics as a new form of interdisciplinary knowledge, I prefer to view it as a form of antidisciplinary knowledge, as a way of thinking and doing that is always questioning, always seeking new schemas of politicization. To the extent that this view of critical applied linguistics emphasizes the importance of working through the various post perspectives, and to the extent that I also argue that this critical applied linguistics needs to avoid any static model building and instead is an approach to language and knowledge that is always in motion, it might already be time to call this either postcritical applied linguistics, following the notion of postcritical pedagogy (<-- chap. 5), or critical applied postlinguistics, following the notion of postlinguistics as the use of linguistic tools withing a poststructuralist framework (<-- chap. 4). Or perhaps, as I suggest next, it is time just to talk of applied linguistics with an attitude. (Pennycook, 2001, p. 174)

Search in WWW Search in this blog