Melina Porto's research while affiliated with Universidad Nacional de La Plata and other places

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Publications (60)

Pedagogies of discomfort in the world language classroom: Ethical tensions and considerations for educators
  • Article

April 2024

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64 Reads

Modern Language Journal

Melina Porto

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The purpose of this article is to examine the ethical tensions and considerations that arise in the world language classroom from using pedagogies of discomfort. Although pedagogies of discomfort have mostly been seen through a positive lens in the literature for engaging students with difficult issues in the classroom, there are ethical concerns, particularly in relation to the harm that students might experience. To illustrate these ethical concerns and their implications in the world language classroom, we draw on data from a number of projects in which pedagogies of discomfort have been used in university classrooms. The analysis of examples shows that while some sort of ethical violence is inevitable, there are pedagogical ways to minimize the harm on students. The article concludes by raising further ethical and pedagogical questions for exploration in the context of using pedagogies of discomfort in the world language classroom.

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“My head between blankets”: exploring trauma and affective injustice in the school life trajectory of a female student in Argentina

March 2024

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29 Reads

International Journal of Qualitative Studies In EducationInternational Journal of Qualitative Studies In Education
Melina Porto

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Figure 4. Action in the community to channel discomforting emotions (identifying information is covered to protect anonymity).
Beyond Teaching Languages for Communication—Humanistic Perspectives and Practices
  • Article
  • Full-text available

July 2023

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287 Reads

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1 Citation

Languages

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Melina Porto

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Our purpose is to trace and explain theoretical and practical developments in foreign/world language teaching over the last decade or more. Language teaching in its modern form, from the Reform Movement of the late 19th century, has focused upon the need for learners to learn or acquire a foreign language in order to use it for communication. Other purposes involve language learning as an intellectual exercise, the development of a language faculty, and opening (young) people’s eyes to new worlds by introducing them to other countries. Here, we argue that these purposes are reasonable and enriching, but only if they are combined. We suggest that, by taking a humanistic perspective, language teaching can go beyond communication as a dominant purpose. This humanistic perspective is realised through two complementary developments. One is to emphasise that learners are members of various communities, including their local community, their national community, and a world community. The second is to pay attention to the fact that learners bring to the classroom their concerns and fears, especially in times of crisis. Language teachers, who are not only instructors in skills but educators of the whole person, should respond to their learners’ needs both as denizens of their society and as unique individuals. We first explain the theoretical framework and how it has evolved and then describe two experimental projects, one which focuses on the societal needs and one which adds to this a response to the affective needs of learners. We finally discuss how a recent controversy might be addressed in the language teaching class.

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A School Visit to the Ecological and Cultural Park William Henry Hudson: Outdoor Learning in Secondary School to Cultivate an Ethical Relationship with Nature and Take Action

September 2022

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21 Reads

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Melina Porto

This chapter reports an outdoor learning experience in secondary school that stimulated student community engagement in a disadvantaged context. The teacher planned and implemented a school visit to a local Park called the Ecological and Cultural Park William Henry Hudson, located in their city, Florencio Varela. The students did not know the Park or Henry Hudson, a local writer and scientist. The visit was a starting point to foster a sense of identification and bonding with the community and develop student initiatives to affirm their heritage and improve local conditions. This happened for example as the students learned about the local tree tarumá, planted one, took it to their school and took care of it. This initiative is evidence of their collective sense of responsibility toward the environment in general, and toward their local heritage in particular. Furthermore, these teenagers realized that English, a distant and irrelevant school subject for them, could in fact become a useful means of communication to learn about their local community and make it known to others. Discovering that their hometown, Florencio Varela, had become known in other continents thanks to Hudson’s writings in English proved to be highly inspirational.

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Challenging Difficult Circumstances: Appreciating Identities in the Neighborhood, the Classroom, the Home, and the Natural World in Fourth Grade

September 2022

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5 Reads

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1 Citation

Carolina Moirano

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Melina Porto

This chapter describes a fourth grade English language classroom in a poor suburban context in the city of La Plata in Argentina. It was a difficult context characterized by poverty, unsatisfied basic needs, and lack of family support. The children were familiar with linguistic and cultural diversity as several of them had Bolivian, Paraguayan, or Brazilian backgrounds and spoke Guarani or Quechua at home in addition to Spanish. English was consequently a third additional language for many of them – a language they had just begun to learn at school. The teacher fostered participation and reflection by engaging children’s creativity and imagination in addition to their linguistic resources in all available languages. In this way, the children developed a sense of self and identity as their languages, backgrounds, and interests were valued and appreciated in the classroom. Furthermore, the teacher encouraged them to act against what they considered unfair, oppressive, and unjust. In this case, the children chose to protect animals and the environment by denouncing hunting and polluting practices in the local area.

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Critical Thinkers in the Making: Exploring the World and Enhancing Human Relations in Fifth Grade

September 2022

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5 Reads

María Emilia Arcuri

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Melina Porto

This chapter addresses the development of critical literacy and the enactment of critical pedagogy in English language education through the implementation of teacher-developed materials. Resorting to the theme of mobility, migration and its consequences in cultural and linguistic terms, fifth grade Argentinian students were encouraged to learn about other children's lives by doing simple tasks such as writing an account of the first day at school, finding out about habitual activities classmates do at weekends and imagining the feelings of a book character, asking questions to her and answering those questions from her perspective. To do so, they identified, collected, analysed and synthesised information; compared and contrasted activities, experiences and feelings; shared opinions and views; and were curious and inquisitive. The children also engaged in the complex task of designing an ‘It’s Okay book’ to appreciate diversity locally. The chapter shows the ways in which these students developed not only social and cultural awareness, but also deep processing skills essential to promote critical literacy.

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Citations (31)

... In the context of higher education, there are diverse ideas about what the core purpose of higher education is. There are those who believe it is a public good and a site for raising critical thinkers [7][8][9], those who believe its purpose is to create a democratic public sphere and to educate intercultural/global citizens [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], and those who believe in the neo-liberal model and that higher education should solely focus on equipping students with the skills they need to be successful employees (see the article by Lynch [18] for a critical discussion). Regardless of one's beliefs about what the purpose of higher education is, students having the opportunity to understand their conflict communication style and develop conflictresolution skills could contribute to a university achieving its broader goals. ...

Reference:

Raising Students’ Self-Awareness of Their Conflict Communication Styles: Insights from an Intercultural Telecollaboration Project
Internationalism, Democracy, Political Education

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Melina Porto

... Students ought to be encouraged to become politically active participants in improving societal matters (ibid.). According to Porto (2022), the critical student will challenge normalized views held to be true, in opposing cultural, racial, and gendered stereotypes. As soon as critical thinking and literacy have been ensured, students will naturally be more likely to actively transform drawbacks in society (Crookes, 2021a). ...

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Critical Feminist Pedagogy in English Language Education: An Action Research Project on the Implementation of Feminist Views in a German Secondary School
Critical Language Education
  • Citing Chapter

  • September 2022

Melina Porto

... As such, CLP proposes instructional methods, activities and approaches that guide teachers and students to critically examine, reflect about, and address social inequalities, power structures, discrimination (Banegas & Gerlach, 2021), and power relations with regard to gender, migration, social class, or curriculum development (Pennycook, 1999;Porto, 2022). However, undertaking the task to contribute to the development of democratic values, critical thinking, and critical action is a challenging task for teachers in general, and primarily for those working under difficult circumstances (Moirano & Porto, 2022). Teaching the English language from a critical standpoint -going beyond the acquisition of linguistic information, the target language's culture, and the development of the language skills using mainstream teaching approaches (Chun & Morgan, 2019; Crookes, 2022)requires teachers able to leave their comfort zones (Porto & Yulita, 2019), question their teaching practices and their teaching contexts, develop agency (Porto, 2022), and resist oppressive educational systems (Bullough et al., 1984;Guerra & Seda, 2022) to make a difference. ...

Reference:

Gloria Romero (2023) Novice teachers in Chile: ELT teaching capability development and social (in)justice awareness in educational marginalization, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, DOI: 10.1080/15427587.2023.2240459
Challenging Difficult Circumstances: Appreciating Identities in the Neighborhood, the Classroom, the Home, and the Natural World in Fourth Grade
  • Citing Chapter

  • September 2022

Carolina Moirano

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Melina Porto

... A total of ten studies focused on accessibility in High Educational Institution (Delnevo et al., 2018;Dinc Uyaroglu, 2021;Eldridge et al., 2022;Lawrence, 2021;Ozdemir & Sungur, 2022;Porto et al., 2022;Prandi et al., 2021;Rafferty, 2011;Torkildsby, 2017, seven studies focus on Student with Disabilities ((Dinc Uyaroglu, 2021; Edwards & Larson, 2022;Parker et al., 2021;Porto et al., 2022;Rantanen et al., 2015;Vogt et al., 2022), eight studies discussed on Universal Design theory and new term of UD (Dinc Uyaroglu, 2021;Edwards & Larson, 2022;Nah & Lee, 2016;Ozdemir & Sungur, 2022;Prandi et al., 2021.;Torkildsby, 2017;Van Eck et al., 2022;Xu et al., 2022, and out twenty-two studies, twelve concentrated on outdoor environment Boeri et al., 2020;Bozkurt, 2021;Delnevo et al., 2018;Dinc Uyaroglu, 2021;Gasparovic & Sladovic, 2021;Nah & Lee, 2016;Parker et al., 2021, Prandi et al., 2021, Rantanen et al., 2015Samsudin et al., 2019;van Eck et al., 2022;Ytterhus & Åmot, 2021. ...

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Systematic Review on The Integration of Universal Design in Architectural Outdoor Environments of Higher Educational Institutions
Undoing inequalities: inclusive and transformative language practices in rural Argentinian Patagonia
  • Citing Article

  • May 2022

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

Melina Porto

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... In its crudest, most deterministic forms, the locus of enunciation can resemble spatial bounding. Nevertheless, given the constant flux of migration and the endless patchwork of historically conditioned social differences, we must understand the locus of enunciation as being in place but not necessarily bounded to it (Porto and Byrum, 2022;Ulloa and Zaragocin, 2022). That is, the "locus" can be dynamic and emergent, reflecting "Latin America" (and the Global South more generally) as a polyvocal subject position (Rodríguez, 2018), an entanglement of European colonialism, U.S. imperialism, Indigenous and settler influences. ...

Reference:

Aporias of North/South political ecologies
Locus of enunciation: insights for intercultural language teaching
  • Citing Article

  • February 2022

Language Culture and Curriculum

Melina Porto

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... Enabling learners to contribute to social change through language teaching and community service (Porto, 2023;Wu et al., 2023;Henning et al., 2023;Ruiz-Montero et al., 2023;Al-Zoubi et al., 2023;Woodring & Feeney, 2023;Porto et al., 2023). Assign tasks that require students to plan and execute language-focused community service projects. ...

Reference:

Integrating Community Service in Language Education: Fostering Social Change via Inclusive and Transformative Learning Experiences
A community service learning experience with student teachers of English: enacting social justice in language education in a community centre
  • Citing Article

  • November 2021

Language Learning Journal

Melina Porto

... Enabling learners to contribute to social change through language teaching and community service (Porto, 2023;Wu et al., 2023;Henning et al., 2023;Ruiz-Montero et al., 2023;Al-Zoubi et al., 2023;Woodring & Feeney, 2023;Porto et al., 2023). Assign tasks that require students to plan and execute language-focused community service projects. ...

Reference:

Integrating Community Service in Language Education: Fostering Social Change via Inclusive and Transformative Learning Experiences
Channelling discomfort through the arts: A Covid-19 case study through an intercultural telecollaboration project
  • Citing Article

  • November 2021

Language Teaching Research

Melina Porto

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... It is a challenge for language teachers to be more interactive with students who are not native English speakers during language lessons (El-Omari & Bataineh, 2018;Tiawati, 2018;Onishchuk et al., 2020) because English must be actively mastered both orally and in writing to serve as a means of global communication (Yendra et al., 2018;Cesaria et al., 2022;Putri et al., 2023). At present, a subset of international students exhibit limited proficiency in the English language upon embarking on their academic pursuit in the field of art (Sarkar et al., 2021;Bai & Wang, 2022;Porto & Houghton, 2023). This issue pertains to international students who lack proficiency in the English language. ...

Reference:

How Effective Is Blended Learning for Short Courses In Language and Art for International Students?
Introduction: Arts integration and community engagement for intercultural dialogue through language education
  • Citing Article

  • September 2021

Language Teaching Research

Melina Porto

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... En los últimos años, el campo de la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras (ELEX) ha ido creciendo y consolidándose y se han impulsado diversos proyectos de investigación relacionados con este quehacer. Sin embargo, a pesar de haber aumentado el interés por realizar investigación en ese campo, se detectaron pocos trabajos que documentan y analizan la producción investigativa generada por países o regiones, entre los que destacan los de Blanco (2000) sobre Venezuela; Cárdenas Beltrán (2004) sobre Colombia; Ignatieva et al. (2015) sobre México; Nieto Ruiz (2008) sobre Colombia; Porto et al. (2016) y Porto et al. (2021) sobre Argentina; Quesada (2013) sobre Costa Rica; y Ramírez Romero et al. (2022) sobre México. ...

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Número especial sobre las investigaciones en América Latina en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras reportadas en la última década
Research on English language teaching and learning in Argentina (2014–2018)

Language Teaching

Melina Porto

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... These articles provide insights into theoretical knowledge and empirical studies in this field. The first highly cited article is Ethical Issues in Teaching for Intercultural Citizenship in World/Foreign Language Education [20], stressing that intercultural citizenship is an "educational philosophy" that aims to make language teaching relevant to students' lives, engaging them both in learning the language and in their development and application of intercultural competence. However, intercultural citizenship involves more than teaching linguistic and communicative competence; it includes teaching intercultural competence and citizenship responsibilities. ...

Reference:

Intercultural Communicative Competence in Language Education: A Bibliometric Analysis (1995–2022)
Ethical Issues in Teaching for Intercultural Citizenship in World/Foreign Language Education
  • Citing Article

  • November 2020

TESOL Quarterly

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Melina Porto

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