"Good Readers" Use "Proper Language": Academic Language in Latina/o/x Students' Discussions About Text

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Deconstructing Language Ideologies: Students' and Teachers' Practices and Perspectives

Abstract

The widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), since 2010, has led to growing debate among education practitioners and researchers about how the new language demands and associated high-stakes tests are impacting the educational opportunities of students from minoritized backgrounds (Bunch, Walqui, & Pearson, 2014; Hakuta, Santos, & Fang, 2013; Lee, Quinn, & Valdés, 2013). The CCSS’ characterization of students’ desired language practices is consistent with monoglossic language ideologies (Flores & Schissel, 2014) that favor “standard” or “academic” English. In the area of English Language Arts (ELA), the CCSS specify that students are expected to produce “standard English” grammar as well as to identify and correct “variations” from “standard English” or “conventional language” (CCSSI, 2010). As numerous scholars have argued, the notion of “conventional language”, particularly the perceived need to improve on the expression of conventional language, marginalizes the linguistic practices of emergent bilinguals (García, 2009) and speakers of other English language varieties, such as African American English (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Gutiérrez, Morales, & Martínez, 2009; Valdés, 2004, inter alia). Academic language is, consequently, defined in opposition to, rather than in addition to, other languages and language varieties that may compose students’ diverse linguistic repertoires.

This paper is part of my dissertation study, which examines student interactions during instructional activities designed to support the acquisition of literacy skills required for the analysis of complex texts--an area that has been prioritized within the CCSS. Drawing from a sociocultural orientation to literacy (Castanheira, Crawford, Dixon, & Green, 2001; Hull & Moje, 2012) and a sociocultural linguistic framework (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), I present a discourse analysis of interaction in a 6th-grade public school classroom in California. Informed by an ethnographic methodological approach, I collected data over the course of five months using video and audio recordings, participant observation, field notes, and samples of students’ work. The interactions analyzed in this paper focus on peer discussions involving emergent bilinguals from Latina/o/x immigrant backgrounds, several of whom had been recently transitioned out of the school’s English Language Development (ELD) program.

As the examples illustrate, students viewed academic language as a valued skill that was embedded within broader ideological discourses about being a competent English speaker and a “good reader”. Students displayed a strong awareness of academic language practices and often used academic language without being instructed to do so. In their discussions, they employed their translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014) skills to frequently transition between various linguistic registers and demonstrated metalinguistic awareness by drawing attention to their language choices. While academic language played a central role in students’ interactions surrounding text, they were also able to accomplish complex analytic work without relying heavily on academic language forms to communicate and negotiate their ideas. These findings further suggest that by moving beyond ideologies that equate academic language use with learning, educators can attain a more comprehensive view of students’ complex analytic practices and linguistic repertoires.

Author

• Maria Jose Aragon, University of California, San Diego