Foreign Language Teaching and Learning as a Gateway for Democracy in the 21st Century

Abstract

Responding to the conflicting public perspectives about pedagogical approaches to, and purposes for, language teaching and learning, the authors suggest ways to reconceptualize foreign language (FL) teaching and learning as a springboard toward multicultural citizenship and social justice. The authors propose an approach to FL teaching that aims to develop learners’ information, media, and technology literacies as well as life and career skills, which are vital to succeed in a 21st-century global environment, and to empower them to become engaged citizens and agents of social change in their communities. By reframing FL and culture instruction within a social justice perspective, we devise new and creative ways to make the teaching of FL relevant to collegiate education and at the core of the university mission.