Infusing Human Values in Postgraduate Curriculum through Courses in Bi-/multilingualism

Abstract

University education plays a pivotal role in fostering human values in individuals and in creating communities of ethical practitioners. This paper presents how the postgraduate curriculum of English language Teaching (ELT) and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) at The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad infuses humanistic and ethical values in its learners through its programme objectives and courses in language education. It will discuss one course in particular titled Bilingualism and Bilingual Education that claims to align with the programme outcome of embracing and practicing constitutional, humanistic and ethical values in one’s life. This course aims to equip students to strive for equity and social justice through ethical practices in English Language Education. The course content, class assignments, students feedback and learning trajectories will be considered to argue that this course instils ethical values in students and prepares them to create communities of practice that uphold human values of linguistic and cultural diversity and create solutions for multilingual communities to learn English without having a detrimental effect on their other language identities.