ENGLISH TEACHING AND SOCIAL CLASS IDENTITIES: SOME PERSPECTIVES

ABSTRACT English language teaching is an important means of constructing social identities, and among those identities we have social class identity (BLOCK, 2013). However, the small number of studies in this regard has failed to draw attention to its importance. In this article, we discuss why the issue of social class identity should become an important aspect to be considered and investigated in the language teaching-learning, especially hereafter in relation to the English language. We also seek, through the Critical Discourse Analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003; VAN DIJK, 2015), present a part of a research that investigates how the English language coursebook, an authority instrument in the classroom (TILIO, 2010; CORACINI , 1999), constructs social class identities and the meanings of these identities. The results reinforce the premise that English language teaching is largely a locus for social class identities, contributing to the maintenance of exclusions and inequalities.