CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND MULTILINGUAL ELT: INVESTIGATING CLASSROOM PRACTICES AND LEARNER EMPOWERMENT

Abstract

This research examines how English instructors in the multilingual Pakistani classrooms can use the Critical Pedagogy approach developed by Freire to promote empowerment among the learners. English language teaching (ELT) in Pakistan remains a teacher centred instructional process that has strict curricula and exam oriented culture. These dominant practises are limiting dialogue, reduce student agency and do not recognise the rich linguistic and cultural resources that students bring to the classroom. The qualitative research design was chosen to explore this problem. The research involved gathering data of forty English teachers by use of semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires that were distributed in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan. Four major findings were produced by the thematic analysis. To start with, a large number of teachers tried dialogic and participatory teaching methods, which included discussions in groups, questioning, and problem-posing assignments; such activities helped to raise the confidence of learners and promoted significant interaction. Second, educators engaged the use of multilingual tools, e.g., discussions in native languages and culturally-grounded examples to promote understanding and inclusion. Third, critical pedagogy was hindered by a number of obstacles; they were rigid syllabi, excessive student populations, a lack of chances to facilitate professional growth, and the presence of an institutional counter-force. Lastly, peer support, contextualised content and flexible group work were all methods of coping used by teachers. On the whole, the paper shows that the application of the Freirean principles has significant potential in the multilingual ELT context, but organisational limitations suppress the full implementation of the principles. The results highlight the need to increase teacher education, curriculum design, and favourable institutional practises to make ELT more inclusive, participatory, and empowering to learners in Pakistan.