Reading with My Eyes Open Embracing the critical and the personal in language pedagogy

Untangling the various approaches to language teaching and their history, Gerdi Quist maps recent thinking in language studies at university. Using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, drawn from educational philosophy, cultural studies, intercultural studies and language pedagogy, the author discusses the many tensions and currents in contemporary language teaching. The author puts forward an alternative pedagogy, that of a cultuurtekstperspective, which engages learners at complex linguistic and cultural levels. In discussing the case study in which this approach is tested, the author develops her argument for embracing various critical perspectives through the personal engagement of students. From the start the author acknowledges her own engaged position as a language teacher in a liberal humanistic educational environment. She adopts a self-critical perspective through which her engagement with adverse student reaction leads to deepening insights both for the author and her students as part of the non-linear process of learning. ‘This book should be obligatory reading for all new lecturers in foreign languages at university. It is extremely thought-provoking and will help them make sense of the world in which they find themselves.’ Jane Fenoulhet (Professor in Dutch Studies and co-editor of Mobility and Localisation in Language Learning)