Constructing Bilingual Linguistic Capital: Linguistic Choices and Beliefs of Bilingual Latinx Students in Postsecondary Spaces

• In Event: Constructing Identities Across Language and Literacy Experiences

Abstract

In this study, I explore how students perceive their bilingual abilities and opportunities in postsecondary settings. I frame these affordances through the concept of bilingual linguistic capital, operationalized as a form of linguistic capital that recognizes students’ self-reported proficiency in both English and Spanish in a U.S. context, and includes the constraints of language ideologies and raciolinguistic perspectives. From eight semi-structured interviews conducted with students aged 18-20, I find that bilingual linguistic capital affords students human capital as a worker, social capital with family, friends, and at school, and navigational capital in various institutions, despite contending with raciolinguistic ideologies. Implications include a change to the notion of academic language as English only at all educational levels to a heteroglossic perspective.

Author

• Holland White, Vanderbilt University