Humanizing the English Language: Sustaining the Global South through Teaching

In an era of global crises, there is a growing call for translingual and trans-cultural approaches to teaching humanities, particularly English. This contrasts with the prevalent view of English as a neutral, culture-free tool for profession-al success. This chapter examines how an English language university course for Prospective Primary English Teachers (PPETs) can shape theoretical assump-tions on complex discourse constructions and address problematic (de)colonial relationships. It advocates for integrating migration narratives into ELT classes to re-position English in the global context, centering on human speakers. The analysis of two children’s books selected from the PPET ELT syllabus as a case study is carried out with a transdisciplinary approach, and the methodology draws from multimodal critical discourse analysis to understand the potential of these readings to transform ELT by fostering deeper cultural and linguistic understanding.