Multilanguage, Multipurpose: A Literature Review, Synthesis, and Framework for Critical Literacies in English Language Teaching

This article reviews and synthesizes empirical literature on critical literacies in English language teaching (ELT), gathering perspectives from international scholarship. Across a range of global contexts, the consistency with which English learning is touted as access to power while acting to marginalize those still learning the language demonstrates the need for critical approaches to ELT. In addition to reviewing the literature, this article develops a framework to analyze critical literacies in ELT. This multilanguage, multipurpose framework highlights language learning and critical engagement as foundational to the field’s endeavors. Analyzed through this framework, studies were found to coalesce around five key topics: teacher beliefs, learner beliefs, course design, specific practices, and language-emphatic designs. By exploring how current research conceptualizes and operationalizes critical literacies in ELT, this review outlines the current state of the field while illustrating impactful pedagogical approaches. In addition, the review challenges the ways in which multilingual learners are positioned within research, advocating practices that frame language learning and critical engagement as mutually reinforcing endeavors toward critical praxis.