Intersections of Language and Race for English Language Learners

In this paper, I discuss the intersection of linguistic and racial hierarchies for English language learners in their school community. I argue that the mapping of one social hierarchy onto another is used to create Self-Other distinctions based on linguistic background. I examine how these hierarchies framed the social context in ways that marginalized this diverse group of learners. I draw on research data from six, white, middle-class English language teachers to analyze how their students experienced this intersection. I conclude with suggestions for teacher educators to include material and curricula that examines not only structural hierarchies of language and race but also the influence of white racial identity on teaching and pedagogy. educational and political systems (Shuck, 2001; Urciuoli, 1996). Pennycook’s research (1998) reflects such hierarchical constructions as the college students in his study—all from multiple language backgrounds—perpetuated a social order that placed native English speakers at the top and non-native English speakers, especially those languages spoken by students who were not white, at the bottom. The mapping of one social hierarchy onto another is used in the service of creating Self-Other distinctions based on linguistic background (Kubota, 2004; Shuck, 2006). Thus, language becomes racialized as the native and nonnative English speaker hierarchy intersects with existing structures that order and rank the collective conscience. Such ordering works to frame language use in relation to racial membership. Phillipson (1992) argues that “[L]inguicism 1 Liggett: Intersections of Language and Race for English Language Learners Published by PDXScholar, 2009 28 NORTHWEST PASSAGE has taken over from racism as a more subtle way of hierarchizing social groups in the contemporary world” (p. 241). This subtlety is realized not through separate forms of symbolic domination, but rather through ideological structures that provide discursive resources for laypersons, public figures, and academics alike to systematically connect linguistic discrimination and racism (Shuck, 2006). Discourse surrounding language use is bound by political and social constructs that frame its expressibility today, as seen in English Only initiatives throughout the United States and in the passing of English Only legislation in more than half of the states (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2006). Such institutional actions reflect the macrosocial conditions that have enabled linguicism to emerge and pervade social and personal identity through common assumptions of truth that authorize linguistic exclusions. In direct conflict with the emergence of linguicism is the increased number of linguistically diverse students. Of these school age children, a total of 9.779,766—one in six—speak a home language other than English and almost half do not have sufficient proficiency in English to succeed academically in traditional all-English classrooms (NCELA, 2004). Indeed, the question of this themed issue rings true: how do we, as teachers, negotiate the contradictory change contexts and processes that are taking place within the United States? While language ideologies cannot always be mapped directly onto beliefs about race, public discourse surrounding the use of non-standard varieties of English in the United States, for example, is racialized—in effect, expressed with direct or indirect reference to racial categories or by using rhetorical patterns associated with discussions of race and ethnicity (Shuck, 2006). Linguicism discourse—like racial discourse—is similarly reflective and constitutive of power and underlying power relationships that are normalized in the broader social context and implied as the “natural” order of things. The underlying set of factors that directly generate discursive fields take place at what Foucault (1972) calls the preconceptual level. Goldberg (1993) describes the preconceptual level as manifestations of power relations vested in and between historically located subjects that determine social history and generate concepts and categories of expressibility and comprehension. One consequence of such ordering is the establishment of a hierarchy of humankind where racial classification—the ordering of human groups on the basis of inherited or environmental differences— implies that certain races are superior to others. In attempting to better understand racial connections to linguicism at the preconceptual level, it is necessary to look at surrounding contextual factors such as how linguistic differentiation is described, explained, and excluded within schools in terms of implicit or explicit deliberation about English language learners (ELLs) and English as a second language (ESL) programs. Linguistic hierarchies are also intertwined with accents that are associated with white speakers and assigned a higher degree of prestige than those generally connected to racial minorities (Lindemann, 2003). As an English language teacher (ELT) of color, Motha (2006) describes a reciprocal relationship between race and language (including accent) hierarchies. The consequences of this interrelationship have surfaced throughout her teaching career and have served silencing or marginalizing purposes in the classroom and school community. Mahboob (2006) describes the understanding of racial identity in relation to language identity and other identity factors, as a process of being “enraced”—the way through which people acquire awareness of race by and through their own and others actions, behaviors, and/or discourses. The process of enracement extends to stereotypes, beliefs, and/or orientations of language (including accent), gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and so on. As English language teachers of color, Motha and Mahboob’s experiences reflect the ways in which race and language connect and intersect in American institutions of schooling. How do teachers perceive conditions that 2 Northwest Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 7, Iss. 1 [2009], Art. 4 https://pdxscholar.library. pdx.edu/nwjte/vol7/iss1/4 DOI: 10.15760/nwjte.2009. 7.1. 4 SPRING 2009 29 enable language use and language proficiency to map onto existing hierarchies of race? And, how do they perceive the social conditions within schools to reinforce such ordering? In the following sections, I describe how linguistic and racial hierarchies within the schools where this research study took place, framed the types of marginalization that ELLs experienced. I argue that this framing is reflective of Shuck’s (2001) ideology of nativeness—that the English language learners were not only nonnative speakers but also nonwhites, thus rendering the Self-Other distinction two-fold. I examine the types of marginalization that took place for ELLs in order to highlight the everyday occurrences that maintained these hierarchies within the school community.