Challenging colonial language ideologies: EAL student-teachers’ praxis in indigenous communities

Abstract In Mexico, English as an Additional Language (EAL)) seems perpetuated by language ideologies evoking coloniality. Conversely, indigenous languages in Mexico are regarded as communication between “Indians” and as “incomplete languages”. Within this ELT scenario, it seems urgent that teacher-educators and especially EAL student-teachers become advocates who challenge these ideologies and their narratives. The classroom experiences of Mexican EAL student-teachers are valuable, since most research on advocacy and EAL has been carried out in the USA. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to understand how two Mexican student-teachers have challenged colonial language ideologies and how this has impacted them and the children in the praxicum at a public elementary school in an Indigenous-populated urban area of the capital city of Oaxaca, Mexico. It also examines how ideological awareness may result in concrete pedagogical praxis. To explore these two student-teachers’ praxicum, we utilize a mixed critical ethnographic and critical action-research methodology, which includes a performative “little ‘ n ’” narrative method for data collection. As part of the results, we present the life stories of the two student-teachers and discuss the three emergent themes: (1) Subjectifying language; (2) Using language to reposition children; and (3) Gaining trust and confidence in each other.