Language, Power, and Policy: Exploring Language Identities With K-2 Students Through Language Portraits (Poster 15)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 11:40 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Language, Literacies, and Representations

Abstract

This presentation explores the ways in which K-2 students at a public International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB PYP) elementary school think and talk about their language identities, specifically through a language portrait activity. Drawing on theories of language ideologies (Fairclough, 1989), language and identity (Bourdieu, 1991), and linguistic repertoires (Busch, 2017), students’ language portraits are situated in relation to larger power structures and policies that shape students’ depictions and descriptions of their identities. In examining not only students’ portraits, but their responses to the activity itself, this presentation contributes to discussions about how schools and teachers can better welcome, support, and celebrate students’ languages and identities.

Authors

• Teresa Speciale, Trinity College

• Adrianna Arocho, Middletown Public Schools