Transgressive Language Practices: Taboos, Boundaries, and Linguistic Agency in the Classroom

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Drawing on data from four different qualitative studies, this symposium focuses on a set of linguistic practices that some educators may deem inappropriate in classroom settings. The rigid boundaries enforced with respect to classroom language use often discourage non-dominant students from drawing on their full linguistic repertoires to make meaning in their everyday interactions. The papers in this symposium present evidence of creative and skillful language use by students that might be overlooked or condemned due to its “transgressive” nature. These examples of transgressive language include the use of profanity, graphic humor, and non-dominant languages and registers. Collectively, these papers seek to interrogate common taboos, question dominant language ideologies, and explore how students assert agency by transgressing normative linguistic boundaries.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Language and Social Processes

Chair

• Ramon Antonio Martinez, The University of Texas - Austin

Papers

• ¿Puras Groserías? Rethinking the Role of Profanity and Graphic Humor in Latina/o Students’ Bilingual Word Play - Ramon Antonio Martinez, The University of Texas - Austin; P. Zitlali Morales, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Code-Switching on Command: The Dominant and Nondominant Language Practices of Students and Teachers in Secondary English Classrooms - Ursula S. Aldana, Loyola Marymount University

• “It’s Both What You Say and How You Say It”: Trangressive Language Practices Via Spoken Word Poetry - Shiv Raj Desai, Thomas More College

• “That’s Just How We Talk”: The Affordances and Constraints of Profanity Used by Black and Latina/o Youth in an English Language Arts High School Classroom - Danny C. Martinez, University of California - Davis

Discussant

• Aria Razfar, University of Illinois at Chicago