Language and Social Justice Workshops

Language, Ideology, and Teaching

The importance of Standard English rests on several assumptions: 1) it is easily recognized and understood; 2) other varieties are slang or incorrect; and 3) its existence binds the diverse population of the US together.  The purpose of this workshop is to examine these assumptions and consider how they function in education.  We will consider the following questions:

• When one variety of language is placed at the top of a linguistic hierarchy, what or who is silenced?  
• How can teachers reconcile their obligations to help students succeed while also advocating for an environment in which no one's language or linguistic identity is devalued?  
• How can we shift our perceptions so that we view language varieties as arbitrary systems used for different purposes depending on the communicative situation?

Opening Remarks

Nicole Sampson, Dean
College of Arts and Sciences

Instructors:

Joy Janzen, Lecturer, Department of Linguistics

Francisco Ordóñez, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics

Transcending Language Bias: Practical Exercises For Educators

English monolingualism is a set of assumptions about language that can negatively impact the classroom as an equitable space where all students have the opportunity to thrive. This workshop centers student texts and teacher feedback and course materials to generate discussion about language variation and the nature of our responses to student writing.

We will examine how and in what ways can teachers make room within the context of their courses for students to invoke their language identities in “as limited or broad a range” as they would like.

Instructors:

Laura Lisabeth, Lecturer, Program in Writing and Rhetoric 
Shyam Sharma, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, Program in Writing and Rhetoric

Creating Equitable Participation Opportunities in the Classroom

As teachers, the way we manage classroom interaction reflects our assumptions about our students – our perceptions of their level of preparedness, of their academic competence, of their potentials as well as limitations. This workshop extends the themes of language ideology and language bias developed by the previous two workshops in this series by exploring ways in which social justice can be promoted through creating equitable opportunities for speaking and learning in the classroom, especially for students of linguistic minorities.

We will examine the following:

• How does turn-taking work in the classroom? What is equitable participation? 
• How can we develop usable, diagnostic tools to enable equitable participation, especially by students of linguistic minorities?

Instructor:

Agnes He, Professor, Department of Asian and Asian American Studies; Director, Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication