Resistance among the Classroom Actors: A Critical Analysis of the Discursive Practices in the ESL Undergraduate Classroom

Abstract

The current study focuses on the ESL multicultural classroom discursive practices on ideology, race, power, resistance and gender. The ESL classroom involves the classroom participants in learning the non-native language in a common setting where all the students learn the content of the ESL course in socially constructed practices. Since, classroom is a constituent of the social growing practices, the classroom approved practices contribute a significant role in the development and establishment of social norms. All the three universities of Islamabad (the capital city of Pakistan) were taken as the sites of the study where the undergraduate four-year English program is being offered. The study is a census enquiry where all the population of the sites is considered as sample of the study. Moreover, all the students of the research site were contacted to participate in the study. The data were collected through questionnaires – being the only tool of the quantitative study – from the students only. The study is descriptive in nature and the design is explanatory. It was found that some groups of students are dominant in the ESL (English as Second Language) classrooms discursive interactions which cause the back-benching and silencing of some of the students. In such multicultural ESL classrooms, the students also feel alone and certain minority groups hesitate to participate. Silence and lack of participation among some of the students have been observed as they come across dominant cultural values in the ESL classrooms. In order to get plausible academic results in the ESL multicultural classroom, the teachers need to understand, perceive and sensitize themselves to the cultural, and social understanding of the students for a smooth academic process in the language classroom.