Reshaping language learners’ languaging habitus: A world-Englishes-informed critical pedagogy

Contemporary sociolinguistic research highlights that language is a social practice deeply entwined with unequal sociopolitical structures, making language teaching and learning inherently non-neutral. Choices such as prioritizing “standard” English often unintentionally reinforce the superiority of standardized languages while marginalizing “non-standard” varieties rooted in multilingual and intersectional realities. This perpetuates linguistic discrimination, potentially disadvantaging learners rather than empowering them. In response to these challenges, this paper proposes a critical world Englishes-informed pedagogy designed to disrupt ingrained norms and expectations shaped by learners’ socialization, or their “languaging habitus.” Drawing on Mezirow's transformative learning theory and employing a case-study approach, this study examines how critical pedagogy reshaped the languaging habitus of undergraduate English learners in a Hong Kong English program. Analysis of multimodal learner artifacts, alongside survey and interview data, revealed significant—though uneven—shifts in learners’ sociocultural understandings, self-perceptions, orientations, and attitudes (e.g., describing their own variety as “beautiful”). These findings, we argue, illustrate transformative processes in learners’ languaging habitus, highlighting the dynamic interplay between pedagogy, language ideologies, and identity. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).