Power, Language, and Bilingual Learners

• Published in: Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning Vol. 1; pp. 178 - 192
• Main Authors: Flores, Nelson, Saldívar García, Erica
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2020
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Linguistic Mismatch; Young Man; Discursive Practices; Educational Linguists; Academic Language; Professional Development; Social Reproduction; BICS; Racialized Communities; Design Based Implementation Research; Vice Versa; Language Ideologies; Colonial Governmentality; Trackton Children; Bernstein's Code Theory; Home Language Practices; Larger Socio-historical Context; Functional Framing; Dominant Societal Language; Monoglossic Language Ideologies; Dichotomous Framings; Mexican Origin Student; Raciolinguistic Ideologies; Language Practices
• ISBN: 9780415839044; 041583905X; 9780415839051; 0415839041
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203774977-12

Since its emergence as a field in the 1960s educational linguistics has examined the relationship between the marginalization of racialized communities and broader political and economic inequalities. Yet, the solutions to this marginalization proposed by applied linguists focus primarily on linguistic issues. At the core of this focus on linguistics issues is a theory of social change that suggests that the solution to social inequalities is rooted in modifying the language practices of racialized communities. Using the concept of academic language as a point of entry, this chapter critically points to the ways that this theory of social change contributes to the marginalization of racialized communities. It first describes the socio-historical context of nation-state/colonial governmentality that has made the emergence of the discursive practices associated with academic language possible. It then examines the ways that conceptualizations of academic language within educational linguistics reinforce this nation-state/colonial governmentality in ways that reify the marginalization of racialized students. It ends with a call for a reconfiguration-oriented theory of social change that situates linguistic solutions within broader political and economic solutions.