Language is Never Neutral

Multicultural Learning Community Social Justice Panel

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ruslana A. Westerlund, Ed.D.

March 9, 2015

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My Storya Ukrainian and marginalized for speaking Ukrainian in Ukraine

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A language ideology is a model for how social or cultural differences are

to be linguistically expressed. It codifies language norms and contains

notions on which social functions a language variety should have.

Schieflin, B., Woolard, K., & Kroskrity, P., (1998)

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How does language ideology play out in the United States?

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Language Ideology in the United Sates

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Language ideologies are cultural representations of the

intersection of language and human beings in a social world.

It involves language-based border-making.

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Schieflin, B., Woolard, K., & Kroskrity, P., (1998)

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I wish I had an

African

American

Accent@ELLBillofRights

Reaction to Coke's Super Bowl ad "America the Beautiful" sung in seven languages

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Top Six Countries with Number of Languages Spoken (Ethnologue, 2011)

Papua New Guinea 820 languages

Indonesia 720 languages

Nigeria 516 languages

India 427 languages

USA 422 languages (216 indigenous, 206 immigrant)

Mexico 297 languages

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This is America. Speak American!

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How does language ideology play out in education?

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English-Only Ideology

English-Only Testing Policies

Subtractive Bilingualism

Children don’t have access to

education in their L1

School disengage-ment, loss of identity

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How does language ideology play out in education?

Are All Bilingual Programs Created Equal?

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My Speech is Accentless, but My Skin Color is Not

Poem by Ruslana Westerlund

As featured on Protest Poems: Writing For Social Justice

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