Walking the walk? Quantifying university L2 French students' prioritization and experience of critical literacies instruction

Abstract Critical pedagogical approaches such as critical literacies represent important tools for incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice into L2 teaching, an objective that is more important now than ever before. However, research has shown that implementing such practices is difficult—even for instructors who value them—due to numerous practical and sociocultural obstacles. This study thus adopted an innovatively quantitative approach to a primarily qualitative field to explore (1) the extent to which N = 136 students enrolled in first‐fifth semester L2 French at a large, public U.S. university reported prioritizing critical literacies‐based instruction in L2 learning and (2) how much experience they reported having with such teaching in their current French classes. Results from a survey developed and validated around Lewison et al.'s (2002) four dimensions of critical literacies instruction indicated that participants generally reported prioritizing critical literacies in their language learning but disagreed that it was routinely implemented in their courses. A statistically significant association and difference between participants' reported prioritization and experience additionally corroborated this finding. The implications of these results for L2 teaching and research are discussed, and suggestions are offered for incorporating critical literacies into novice and intermediate‐level language teaching.