Language, Education, and Language Education

Abstract Are humans and humanity the only categories for the understanding of language(s) and education? Do we need to think otherwise? Shouldn’t plurality, difference and otherness be indispensable categories for us - Sapiens - to rethink the humanism imbued in Modern concepts of language and education? These are questions I intend to tackle in this text. The first part of this article focuses on two main concepts of language and revisits structuralist, post-structuralist and post-humanist views of language, claiming that the latter two are sine qua non conditions for understanding language education. The second section investigates the concepts of ‘life’ and institutional education as vehicles of Modernity and shows that liberal/bildung education has led us to rather individualist, self-proclaimed, and self-emancipated views of the world. Finally, I define language education by revisiting the concept of teaching and learning of languages and claim for a post-humanist transdisciplinary language education.