From Critical Literacy to Critical Pedagogy in English Language Teaching

Melina Porto is a researcher at the National Research Council in Argentina (CONICET) in Argentina, Professor at Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), Honorary Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in UK (2019-2024). She was Visiting Academic at UEA (2012-2018). She holds an MA in English Language Teaching from Essex University, a PhD in Sciences of Education from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and a postdoctoral degree in Humanities and Social Sciences from Universidad de Buenos Aires. Her current research interests include intercultural citizenship in the language classroom, critical pedagogies, and teacher education, among others.

Introduction.- Part I: Awareness-raising on the Importance of Critical Thinking in ESOL Classrooms.- Chapter One English Language Teaching in Schools that Teach Children to Think Critically.- Part II: Booklets for the Primary and Secondary English Classrooms.- Chapter Two Providing Critical Answers to ESOL Teachers’ Questions in Times of Educational Change.- Part III: Lessons from Four Argentinean Classrooms.- Chapter Three Developing Critical Thinking Skills through Language, Art and Reflection in a Fourth Form English Language Classroom in Argentina.- Chapter Four Critical Thinkers in the Making: 5th Form Argentinian Children Start Thinking Critically as they Explore Different Ways of Interpreting the World and Enhance Human Relationships.- Chapter Five Developing Critical Thinking Skills in a Multi-Grade Classroom in a Rural Primary School in the City of Verónica in Argentina.- Chapter Six A School Visit to the Ecological and Cultural Park William Henry Hudson in Florencio Varela: Developing Critical Thinking in the English Class in a Disadvantaged Secondary School Context in Argentina.- Part IV: A Proposal for Critical Teacher Education.- Chapter Seven Teacher Education for Critical Practice in ESOL.- Chapter Eight Critical Literacy: Integrating the Imaginative, Moral, Ethical and Citizenship Dimensions in the Foreign Language Classroom.