How English develops in the world is no business whatsoever of native speakers in England, the United States, or anywhere else. They have no say in the matter, no right to intervene or pass judgment. They are irrelevant. The very fact that English is an international language means that no nation can have custody over it. To grant such custody of the language is necessarily to arrest its development and so undermine its international status. It is a matter of considerable pride and satisfaction for native speakers of English that their language is an international means of communication. But the point is that it is only international to the extent that it is not their language. It is not a possession which they lease out to others, while retaining the freehold. Other people actually own it (Widdowson, 1994, p. 385).

KILICKAYA, F. World Englishes, English as an International Language and Applied Linguistics. English Language Teaching, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2009. Available at:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42386333_World_Englishes_English . Access on: 21 may. 2024. [Adapted].

How English develops in the world is no business whatsoever of native speakers in England, the United States, or anywhere else. They have no say in the matter, no right to intervene or pass judgment. They are irrelevant. The very fact that English is an international language means that no nation can have custody over it. To grant such custody of the language is necessarily to arrest its development and so undermine its international status. It is a matter of considerable pride and satisfaction for native speakers of English that their language is an international means of communication. But the point is that it is only international to the extent that it is not their language. It is not a possession which they lease out to others, while retaining the freehold. Other people actually own it (Widdowson, 1994, p. 385).

KILICKAYA, F. World Englishes, English as an International Language and Applied Linguistics. English Language Teaching, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2009. Available at:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42386333_World_Englishes_English . Access on: 21 may. 2024. [Adapted].

The concept of language as discourse leads to a perspective of language teaching as a process of teaching not only pre-existent meanings, but also a process of teaching ways in which we can create new meanings, position ourselves and construct our identities. In other words, when language is defined as discourse, teaching a foreign language becomes teaching new ways of reinventing and representing oneself and of perceiving (and constructing) the world. Language as discourse implies an understanding of our language practices as practices of constructing and assigning meanings to the world, to what happens in the world, to what we see and what we don't see in reality. A change in discourse practice therefore leads to a reconfiguration of our identity and the way we read the world (cf.: GEE, 1986). This is to say that, when learning a new language we learn new meanings, new (des)identifications (HALL, 2005) and new ways to understand ourselves and the "wor(l)d" (FREIRE; MACEDO, 1987).

JORDÃO C. M, FOGAÇA F. C. Critical literacy in the English language classroom. DELTA v. 28, n. 1, p. 69-84, 2012. Available at:https://www.scielo.br/j/delta/a/hsrcx4LBJZmLpsBjNKsVbvt# . Access on: 21 may. 2024. [Adapted].

The concept of language as discourse leads to a perspective of language teaching as a process of teaching not only pre-existent meanings, but also a process of teaching ways in which we can create new meanings, position ourselves and construct our identities. In other words, when language is defined as discourse, teaching a foreign language becomes teaching new ways of reinventing and representing oneself and of perceiving (and constructing) the world. Language as discourse implies an understanding of our language practices as practices of constructing and assigning meanings to the world, to what happens in the world, to what we see and what we don't see in reality. A change in discourse practice therefore leads to a reconfiguration of our identity and the way we read the world (cf.: GEE, 1986). This is to say that, when learning a new language we learn new meanings, new (des)identifications (HALL, 2005) and new ways to understand ourselves and the "wor(l)d" (FREIRE; MACEDO, 1987).

JORDÃO C. M, FOGAÇA F. C. Critical literacy in the English language classroom. DELTA v. 28, n. 1, p. 69-84, 2012. Available at:https://www.scielo.br/j/delta/a/hsrcx4LBJZmLpsBjNKsVbvt# . Access on: 21 may. 2024. [Adapted].