Decolonizing Language Education

Due to colonialism and imperialism, Indigenous languages and communities worldwide have been subjected to genocide; colonial government policies and legislation entrenched in linguistic imperialism, epistemological, and cognitive supremacy; and ongoing practices of linguicide and historicide. As a result, studies estimate one language is “lost” every 1–3 months. Decolonizing language education is crucial to spur forward systemic, structural, and institutional change to address ongoing tools of colonization, such as colonialingualism: the privileging of dominant colonial knowledges and languages in language education and policy. Decolonizing language education is not a “one‐size‐fits‐all” nor a “catch‐all” for other movements in language education and necessarily centers the Indigenous Peoples, languages, lands, and communities where education is taking place. Decolonizing language education affirms context‐specific Indigenous language practices, definitions, and reclamation processes and follows Indigenous cultural protocols and guidelines. Decolonizing language education is place based—accountable to the lands and waters on which we reside and by which we are sustained—and community led, where language, culture, land, and identity are inseparable. Decolonizing language education is vital to enable more equitable, transformative, and self‐determined language education and policies that are informed by, and center Indigenous Peoples, languages, knowledges, expertise, and cultures across the globe. This entry will offer an overview of the role of language and education as key tools of colonization and the importance of decolonizing language education in the field of applied linguistics and in education more broadly.