Critical Practice in Community-Based ESL Programs: A Canadian Perspective

In this article I examine a number of conceptual priorities for critical practice and their potential application in community-based English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. I begin by outlining a brief history and development of community language programming in Canada and Toronto. Based on these origins, I argue that community-based ESL pedagogies should be informed by educational discourses that are more socially and ideologically focused. I then discuss key concepts such as community and identity and their relevance to classroom concerns, after which I propose that community ESL be conceptualized as a form of critical practice, comprised of both a transformative and reflexive dimension. These 2 dimensions of critical practice are then explained and developed in respect to a lesson on the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty and the related issue of how notions of citizenship are addressed in ESL. From this example of community-based ESL, I conclude with a few generalizations and suggestions for other language programs.