Abstract

ORTIZ-LOPEZ, Juan Eduardo  and  KEITT, Tracey L.. Controversial Issues and their Impact on the Construction and Reshaping of EFL Learners’ Habitus. Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J. [online]. 2022, vol.24, n.1, pp.119-133.  Epub Dec 03, 2021. ISSN 0123-4641.  https://doi.org/10.14483/22487085.14329.

The following study aims to explore Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and its shaping and re-shaping through exposure to authentic oral input in an EFL (English as a foreign language) advanced course at a language institute in Chile. This work used podcasts as an EFL teaching strategy, where learners were expected to confront their cultural dispositions. For this study, mental illness was employed as a controversial topic. We used a grounded theory approach and multi-case study design, where we implemented three unstructured interviews in each case along the teaching process. The research generated categories that emerged from the coding process. The results reveal that the EFL learning process and the inclusion of controversial topics can become a subversive form of defying culturally dominant dispositions and enhancing the learners’ probabilities of re-shaping their habitus while learning a foreign language.

Keywords : habitus; controversial topics; critical pedagogy; critical EFL learning; case study.

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