Toward an Antiracist, Anti-Linguicist Framework of Language Pedagogy: Raciolinguistic Equity by Decentering Competence

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Identity, Ideology, and Grit: Language Education Research From Various Settings (Table 17)

Abstract

Current language pedagogical methods often bely the nature of language development as complex, dynamic interactions between systems. They also privilege prescriptivist phonetic, syntactic, and semantic knowledge with competence as the core value and written assessment “snapshots” as the primary measure of student success (Larsen-Freeman 2020). The goal of speaking “appropriately” (Flores and Rosa 2015) privileges linguistic proficiency over interpersonal and intercultural connections which maintain the connaturalized social constructs of language and race, facilitating racism and linguistic discrimination. I argue for an anti-racist, anti-linguicist language pedagogy that recognizes and embraces the complexity, dynamism, and the short and long-term consequences of second/additional language development (Nguyen and Hajek 2022). These changes have profound implications for public health and interpersonal engagement throughout all socioecological levels.

Author

• Michael Menzies, University of Texas - San Antonio