The UMBC Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Program Presents
a Virtual Session in Celebration of International Education Week
Decolonizing Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Dr. Angel M. Y. Lin
Professor & Canada Research Chair in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education
Simon Fraser University
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
4:30-5:30pm EST
What does it mean to decolonize TESOL in a globalized world still dominated by “postcolonial desires for colonial English”? In this presentation, I seek to deconstruct the discourses that naturalize and normalize what we call “postcolonial desires for colonial English” (Lin & Motha, 2021), a phenomenon observed in many officially post-colonial or independent societies as well as in contexts themselves considered (former) imperial powers. We do this first by tracing the historical origins of the gradual inscription of such desires upon the subjectivities and cultural imaginaries of the colonized by analyzing the historical processes of imperialism and colonialism, and the cultural and psychological aftermath of such processes. I conclude by outlining what is needed to interrupt the working of the effects of these processes at the level of subjectivity and cultural imaginary, as well as at the micro and macro levels of critical analysis and intervention in TESOL.
Reference
Lin, A. M. Y., & Motha, S. (2021). “Curses in TESOL”: Postcolonial desires for colonial English. In R. Arber, M. Weinmann, & J. Blackmore (Eds.), Rethinking languages education: Directions, challenges and innovations (pp. 15-35). Routledge.
Angel M. Y. Lin received her doctoral degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, in 1996. Her research and teaching have focused on classroom discourse analysis, bilingual plurilingual education, academic literacies, language across the curriculum, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), translanguaging and trans-semiotizing. She has published six research books and over 100 research articles and book chapters. She serves on the editorial boards of international research journals including Applied Linguistics, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, and Language and Education. In 2018, Angel Lin moved from the University of Hong Kong to Simon Fraser University to take up the position of Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education.
About the UMBC TESOL Program
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) offers a master of arts (MA TESOL) and a four-course postbaccalaureate certificate (TESOL PBC) in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Options are available for those seeking to teach any age group from children to adults in the United States or abroad, including Maryland P-12 teacher certification in ESOL. Both the MA TESOL and the TESOL certificate can be completed on campus, online, or through a combination of online and campus courses. Find out more at
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