In recent years, the so-called decolonial perspective has become increasingly important and challenging, especially in the research field. This perspective criticizes the continuity of colonial practices and tries to find different ways to improve the research process, leaving aside colonial Eurocentric ideologies. As Ortiz Ocaña & Arias López (2019) state:
Siguiendo a Dussel, Rodríguez (2016a) considera que la cuestión metodológica es importante en el proceso de descolonización. “Las nuevas generaciones tienen la tarea de continuar con las hipótesis planteadas, una de las más interesantes es la de investigar en clave decolonial, que es más enriquecedor que hacerlo pasivamente-acríticamente bajo el esquema colonial eurocéntrico” (p. 215). En consonancia con lo anterior, desde hace algunos años, se viene trabajando en esta dirección. Así, tenemos la propuesta de descolonización de las metodologías (Smith,1999), la metodología de los grupos oprimidos (Sandoval, 2000), o la descolonización de las ciencias sociales1 (Bautista, 2012, 2014). (p. 151)
The decolonial perspective proposes a deep reconsideration of everyday practices, especially in the knowledge production and research field. For example, within the ELT field it is quite meaningful to analyze implicit colonial practices like the proliferation of English that has largely come at the hands of different forms of colonization. Furthermore, if we talk about language policies in ELT, we will notice that applying decolonial practices is even more necessary as language contexts look to embrace English in their own way, which may or may not be aligned with colonial legacies. Nevertheless, the question of how to improve the implementation process in language policies from a decolonial perspective is ultimately an essential one. Another question that might arise is: Is it convenient to follow the decolonial approach with language policies in the ELT field? Answering these questions could help us to better understand methodological procedures and unveil problematic situations in language policy research.