Accept Diversity, Love the Languages Mili Saha, University of Toronto, Winter, 2018

1. Accept Diversity,
Love the languages!
Mili Saha

2. Language Discrimination : What and How?
Linguistic discrimination or ‘languagism’
is the unfair treatment of an individual
based solely on their use of language.
Based on a difference in language a
person may automatically form
judgments about another person’s
wealth, education, social status,
character or other traits.
These perceived judgements lead to the
unjustifiable treatment of the individual .
Most schools in North America are all about
helping the learners to get rid of the ‘burden’
of speaking or reading another language
and:
• Linguistic diversity is often looked upon as
a temporary block in learning.
•Teachers and schools may view ELL’s English
language learners) as ‘handicapped’.
•Children who don’t speak English yet are
often viewed as lacking language period.
(Nieto & Bode, 2010)

3. Diversity of languages are protected and respected by most nations who value
cultural diversity. However, people are sometimes subjected to different
treatment because of their preferred language to be associated with particular
group, class or category.
Discrimination exists if there is any prejudicial treatment against the person or
a group of people who speak a particular language or dialect.

4. Languagism : How is it?
• Individual prejudice
Those who are born overseas, and who speak accented English as a second
language, or who cannot speak English proficiently, are especially vulnerable
to being treated in a prejudicial and discriminatory way by others.
• Internalised prejudice
Negative attitudes experienced by people whose first language is not English
are sometimes minimised, explained and justified as being ‘not racism’ – even
though their experience leave them feeling upset.
• Institutional prejudice
Negative attitudes toward people who either do not speak English as a first
language or do not speak it at all are embedded in the system as
demonstrated by such things as a lack of infrastructure to support language
services, a lack of resources, and a lack of hard data defending the need for
resources that, paradoxically, are difficult to obtain because of a lack of
resources and infrastructure.
(Johnstone & Kanitsak, 2008)

5. Contributors to negative attitudes:
Underpinning the negative attitudes and related behaviours discerned
concerning people who speak accented English or who do not speak
English proficiently are:
• Dislike of difference,
• Fear of difference,
• Intolerance of difference,
• Repressed hostility toward difference,
• Ignorance.

6. An Activity-Based
Anti-oppressive Framework
on
Language Discrimination
for
The Elementary/junior Level

7. Rationale of the Activity
“the more voices (of teachers/practitioners) are heard (in theory
and practice), the more difficulties are to be exposed and thus
more favourable changes are to come .” (Kumashiro et al.,2004)
“…..linguistic discrimination, including accent discrimination, has
negatively impacted the lives of many new Canadians”
(Professor Heywood, 2018)
“The power relationship is not ‘subtractive’, rather ‘additive’
were interpersonal relationship matters and it begins with
‘tolerance of differences’ and ‘impairment of diversity’ that
increase motivation for learning” (Cummins, 2006)
“ What I hope is now clear is that the bi- or multilingual readers
of the books discussed in this issue of Bookbird do not “lack”
skills; on the contrary, they have very special skills.” (Kokkola,
2013)
“This social injustice embedded in schooling should be addressed
with the conceptual framework consisting of 1. Creative teaching
practices, 2. Reflections and revision of these practices.”
(Kelly,2012)

8. My anti-oppressive educational activity on Language Diversity
Step one:
Role plays followed by question-answer sessions. (1st, 2nd and 3rd day)
Step two:
Documentary shows (4th and 5th day)
Step three:
Power-point presentation (6th and 7th day)
Step four:
Briefing on both “what not to do” with someone speaking different
language and “what to do” for being friends at the same time. (8th day)
Step five:
Finally, the learners are asked to keep a journal to write on their
experiences with the new classmates speaking languages other than English
throughout the session. (9th day)

9. Day 1, 2, & 3
Role-plays
on
1. Individual Language prejudice
2. Hostility Toward Differences
3. Intolerance of difference

10. Individual language prejudice
A student acts as a Mom and another as a boy who is a grade 1 student:
Mom: ‘Asmit’, you should send the invitation cards to your friends.
Boy: Yes Mom, except ‘Sana’. I don’t like to invite her to my birthday party.
Mom: Why?
Boy: Because, she speaks Arabic! I want to invite only the English speaking
friends. She doesn’t understand English!
Here will be an interruption with question-answer session: Teacher will ask both
the participants and the audiences:
•How and what do they feel about the matter?
•Should it be like this?
•Why and why not?
The teacher takes note to provide necessary feedback later on their beliefs.
Mom: Can you speak Arabic?
Boy: No, that is not my language.
Mom: What’s her fault? English is not her language too!
Boy: I am sorry, I have changed my mind. I will invite her.
Mom: By this time, learn some Arabic from her and teach her some English so
that you can communicate in the party.

11. Hostility toward differences
The class reads a Chinese tale with the help of a teacher
and suddenly the teacher notices two of the English
speaking boys mocking the Chinese language. He
immediately stops the lesson and draws the attention of
the class to the feelings of the Asian students.
Here will be an interruption with question-answer session:
Teacher will ask the class:
•How and what would they feel if it was English or their
L1 instead of Chinese?
•Should it be like this?
•Why and why not?
He explains to the class that making fun of others’
traditional language is called a ‘systematic violence’ and it
is harmful from various perspectives. Finally, the teacher
encouraged those students to apologize to their fellow
students and returned to the lesson.

12. Intolerance of difference
A new student enters a class who has very limited knowledge of English. The
teacher fails to acknowledge or incorporate her L1 skills into the lessons the
class is going through. It can be demonstrated by teachers lecture, activities and
explanations in English.
The new learner expresses her inability to understand the lessons and
nervousness to communicate through facial expressions and postures. At some
point, she leaves the class for a special ESL class and the whole class laughs
and teases at her English language deficiency.
Here will be the question-answer session:
Teacher will ask to the class
•How and what would they feel if they were in her place?
•Should it be like this?
•Why and why not?
(Note # 472)

13. Day 4 & 5
Documentary shows
on
1. The value of Mother Tongue (L1)
2. International Mother Language day

14. Do you know how admirable anybody’s L1 is?
In Bangladesh, a south Asian country, there was a
language movement against the colonial government’s
manipulation on their mother tongue not to be their
official language. Rather they imposed Urdu as their
official/academic language.
On February 21, 1952 , students of Dhaka University
defying the ban marched toward the legislative
assembly to protest the suppressing of their right to their
indigenous mother language.
The law enforcement agencies opened fire
on the peaceful demonstrators, killing and
injuring several protestors. Many of them
were martyred.
Bengali language movement awakened the
nation from the political slavery to fight the
injustices of cultural genocide and in 1971,
declared Bangladesh as independent
country and Bengali as their national
language.
Recommended resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIDnzAp
sLwc

15. Respect Anybody’s First Language/Mother Tongue
In November, 1999 UNESCO proclaimed to celebrate
February first as International Mother Language Day.
Bengali language Movement played a historical role in
spreading awareness about indigenous people, cultural
heritage and right to mother language.
UNESCO did it to promote unity in diversity and international understanding
through multilingualism and multiculturalism. The resolution was suggested by
Rafiqul Islam, a Bengali living in Vancouver, Canada. International Mother
Language Day has been observed annually since 2000 to promote
multilingualism around the world, to raise awareness of linguistic diversity and
to protect all mother languages.
Recommended resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POIr824FkeI

16. Day 6 & 7
Presentation
on
1. Know About the Languages
2. Bilingualism: What and Why?

17. Know About the Languages
• Our planet has over 7 billion people who speak between 6 000 and 7 000 different languages.
• A few languages are spoken by hundreds of millions of speakers, such as English or Chinese.
• Most other are spoken by only a few thousand, or just a handful of speakers.
• In fact, 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by just 4% of the people.
• Most of the world’s languages are spoken in a broad area on either side of the Equator
- in southeast Asia, India, Africa, and South America.
• linguistic diversity is related to three groups: a. linguistic majorities b. linguistic minorities and c.
indigenous peoples who have their own different languages.
• It is feared that almost 50% of the world’s 7000 languages will die out in the coming generations.
Only a few hundred languages are taught in schools globally and only less than 100 are used
online.

20. •More friends and better communication skills: It
breaks you away to ask what? Or can you tell it in
English? You understand and respond properly.
•Secret code: If you know another language, you can
use secret codes with the help of another language:
You and your friend can talk about personal stuff
and maintain privacy and no one can eavesdrop you.
Bilingualism : What and Why?
•Studying abroad or travelling: studying in a
foreign university or travelling to that country
becomes easy if you know that language, right?
•More intelligent: If you use two languages at a
time, you will prove yourself to be more intelligent
than others as you have to go through many
difficult cognitive processes.
•Better intellectual abilities: Research shows that
those who use two languages are more capable in
perceiving, classifying, understanding and problem
solving.
Recommended resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBL
Y

21. Recap: Day 8
Step one:
Teacher asks if any of the students have any questions regarding the lesson
Step two:
Teacher describes the objectives of this lesson .
Step three:
Each of the learners summarize what they have learned from the activity.
Step four:
Finally, they make posters on ‘what to do’ and ‘not to do’ with someone’s /peers’
speaking different languages.

22. Journal: Day 9
The learners are asked to start a journal to write on their
experiences with the new classmates speaking languages other
than English.
It is an activity to go throughout the session.

23. Bibliography:
Bilingualism: Definitions and Issues
https://www.slideshare.net/cmcgoun/bilingualism-definitions-and-issues
Bilingualism & Multilingualism:
https://www.slideshare.net/DeviHermasari/bilingualism-multilingualism?next_slideshow=1
Cultural and Linguistic discrimination TESOL 2015 :
https://www.slideshare.net/ElisabethChan/cultural-and-linguistic-discrimination-tesol-2015
Cultural and linguistic discrimination of international students :
https://www.slideshare.net/ElisabethChan/cultural-and-linguistic-discrimination-of-international-students-3-1713
Cummins, J. (2006). Cultural and linguistic diversity in education: A mainstream issue? Educational Review, 49(2), 105-114.
Johnstone, M.-J. & Kanitsaki, O. (2008). A Cultural racism, language prejudice and discrimination in hospital contexts: an Australian
study. Diversity in Health and Social Care. 5, 19–30.
http://diversityhealthcare.imedpub.com/cultural-racism-language-prejudice-and-discrimination-in-hospital-contexts-an-australian-
study.php?aid=2186
Nieto. S, & Bode, P. (2010). Affirming Diversity: The Socio-political Context of Multicultural Education. 6th ed., Pearson.
Link: www.Pearsonhigherd.com
Prejudice and discrimination:
https://www.slideshare.net/vrajpatel18/prejudice-and-discrimination-51293452

24. Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at
mili.saha@utoronto.ca