Language is never neutral
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The document discusses how language ideology influences perceptions of language and impacts marginalized groups. It provides examples of language ideology in the United States, such as the belief that a single language should be spoken, English-only policies in education, and subtractive bilingualism that causes students to lose their first language. The document argues that language is never neutral and is used to create social boundaries that have real consequences for minorities.
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Language is never neutral
- 1. Language is Never Neutral Multicultural Learning Community Social Justice Panel University of Wisconsin-Madison Ruslana A. Westerlund, Ed.D. March 9, 2015 @ELLBillofRights
- 2. My Story a Ukrainian and marginalized for speaking Ukrainian in Ukraine @ELLBillofRights
- 3. A language ideology is a model for how social or cultural differences are to be linguistically expressed. It codifies language norms and contains notions on which social functions a language variety should have. Schieflin, B., Woolard, K., & Kroskrity, P., (1998) @ELLBillofRights
- 4. How does language ideology play out in the United States? @ELLBillofRights
- 5. Language Ideology in the United Sates @ELLBillofRights
- 7. Language ideologies are cultural representations of the intersection of language and human beings in a social world. It involves language-based border- making. @ELLBillofRights Schieflin, B., Woolard, K., & Kroskrity, P., (1998)
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- 12. This is America. Speak American! @ELLBillofRights
- 13. How does language ideology play out in education? @ELLBillofRights
- 14. English-Only Ideology English-Only Testing Policies Subtractive Bilingualism Children don’t have access to education in their L1 School disengage- ment, loss of identity @ELLBillofRights How does language ideology play out in education?
- 16. My Speech is Accentless, but My Skin Color is Not Poem by Ruslana Westerlund As featured on Protest Poems: Writing For Social Justice @ELLBillofRights
Editor's Notes
- Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, philosopher, and one of the main theorists in the field of critical pedagogy. Paulo Freire’s most influential work is “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, where he states that “the language is never neutral” as in our speech we express our own world, based on our experiences, filling with them our opinions of meanings which sometimes express more about ourselves than we can possibly imagine. I will argue that language is never neutral because language is always situated in the larger context: history, societal values, and beliefs about what is acceptable and not.
- Such ideologies are not only about language. They link to identity, power, morality, aesthetics. Since a language ideology always contains notions on the extra-linguistic qualities of the speech community, definitions of who belongs and who does not, involve processes of language-based border-making. Schieflin, B., Woolard, K., & Kroskrity, P., (1998)
- I often sit in meetings with people who speak British English and the other folks around me say. You sound so smart with that accent. I just love listening to you speak. Then I start speaking in my Slavic accent and even if I say something worth of the smart remark, no one says You sound so smart with that accent. I just love listening to you speak. Or……………
- Never heard this spoken by anyone