Decolonising English language teaching: what does it mean and how can it be approached?

Watch a recording of our webinar on decolonising English language teaching through research insights from Ukraine, held on Tuesday, 28 January 2025.

Two girls in school

Who is this webinar for?

Please note that the content of this webinar is tailored for teacher educators and teachers who are engaged in facilitating the professional development of others.

What is this webinar about?

Ursula Lanvers, Programme Leader for the PhD Programme in Applied Linguistics at the University of York and Tetyana Lunyova, Researchers at Risk Fellow at the University of York, discuss the meaning of and approaches to decolonising ELT. With reference to their 2024 British Council English Language Teaching Research Awards (ELTRA), they talk through how considerations of decolonisation impact on pedagogy, the relative positions of different languages and teacher identity and wellbeing, with a particular focus on insight gathered from the secondary school context in Ukraine.

When?

Recorded on Tuesday 28 January 2025, 12.00 – 13.15 (UK time). 

About the speakers

Professor Lanvers is a sociolinguist with a special interest in language policy, language education and learner motivation. She completed her first degree in French History and Education at the University of Munster and her teacher training at the University of Oxford. After completing her PhD in Linguistics, she focused her research on language learning in the UK and language learner motivation. She has worked at the Open University, University of Exeter, Durham Plymouth, and has been at the University of York since 2015, where she directs her focus more on language education policies and social justice in language learning.

Tetyana Lunyova is an educator and a linguist interested in semantic and pragmatic dimensions of meaning making in educational, societal, and aesthetic contexts. She completed her PhD in English text stylistics and cognitive semantics at Kyiv National Linguistic University. She has been teaching TESOL and a range of linguistic modules in Poltava V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University since 2003. Since August 2022 she has been a Researchers at Risk Fellow (a participant of the Programme established by the British Academy and CARA) at the University of York and focused on studying current language policies and debates on them in Ukraine as well as decolonised TESOL practices and present-day challenges of teaching English in Ukraine.

Supporting material for this webinar

Pre-webinar reading

Find out more about our webinar theme with our suggested pre-reading:

  1. Language Learning beyond English
  2. Decolonising English Language Teaching Pedagogy
Pre-webinar task

Engage with the webinar theme by completing our pre-webinar task.

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Comments

Submitted by mangay on Fri, 02/28/2025 - 15:39

Lanvers your principles of decolonising the english language for a flexible and multicultural teaching and learning is inspiring and awesome. If this dream comes true that would be the happiest era for non native english language teachers around the globe.
Tetyana your research finding on the obstacles of teaching english in ukraine is noteworthy.
I wish to add here that either UK OR US cultural way of teaching and learning englsh is a mundane practice not only in ukraine but also in most of the non-native english speaking countries.

Submitted by Blerina on Thu, 02/13/2025 - 20:51

Thank you .I recommend Teaching - English with British Council to every teacher around the world .I m very satisfied being part of this community!

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Fri, 02/14/2025 - 09:22

In reply to by Blerina

Thanks Blerina! We're very happy that you find our resources useful!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Md Mansur Hoshain on Sat, 01/18/2025 - 13:54

Thanks a lot. There was a problem in login option. It has been solved. Thanks the authority to solve it.

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