Abstract 6B

Sunday, July 9 4:35pm

Responding to students’ resistance to learning about linguistic diversity and justice in the linguistics classroom

Sarah Hercula herculas@mst.edu
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, USA

Much recent work related to the field of linguistics and the scholarship of teaching and learning has consisted of calls to incorporate more linguistic diversity-, equity-, and justice-related content in our linguistics classes (Curzan, 2013; Reaser et al., 2017; Wolfram, 2013). And many linguists have put forward useful models toward incorporating such content in various types of linguistics-related classrooms at various levels of education (Alim, 2010; Godley et al., 2015; Mallinson & Hudley, 2018). Yet such efforts are not always well received by our students, who can encounter feelings of shame, guilt, and blame (Cook et al., 2012; Margolin, 2015) as they process their past (and ongoing) participation in institutions and practices that contribute to the unjust promotion of speakers of certain languages, dialects, and accents and the denigration of speakers with less overtly prestigious language backgrounds. This student resistance is, perhaps, understandable, but it is also a barrier to students’ ability to fully engage with the content, to develop a linguistically principled understanding of how language works, and to develop a sense of their responsibility to act in situations of linguistic injustice.

In this presentation, I share examples of the kinds of resistance I have encountered in the classroom when teaching about linguistic privilege, stigmas, prejudice, and discrimination across various university course contexts, including introductory linguistics classes as well as courses on sociolinguistics and English grammar. I will suggest a potential framework through which we can organize and conceptualize such responses in an effort to better understand what is at the root of students’ resistance. Finally, I propose some strategies that may be of use to educators at different levels for how to best simultaneously support and challenge students through the process of un-learning and re-learning.

References

Alim, H. Samy. 2010. Critical language awareness. In Nancy H. Hornberger & Sandra Lee McKay (eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education, 205–231. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Cook, Katrina, Aisha Lusk, Laura Christina Miller, Oscar Esteban Dodier, & Ana M. Salazar. 2012. Understanding unearned privilege: An experiential activity for counseling students.
Journal of Creativity in Mental Health 7, 289–303.

Curzan, Anne. 2013. Linguistics matters: Resistance and relevance in teacher education. Language 89(1), e1–e10.

Godley, Amanda J., Jeffrey Reaser, & Kaylan G. Moore. 2015. Pre-service English language arts teachers’ development of critical language awareness for teaching. Linguistics and Education 32, 41–54.

Mallinson, Christine & Anne H. Charity Hudley. 2018. Balancing the communication equation: An outreach and engagement model for using sociolinguistics to enhance culturally and linguistically sustaining K–12 STEM education. Language 94(3), e191–e215. 

Margolin, Leslie. 2015. Unpacking the invisible knapsack: The invention of white privilege pedagogy. Cogent Social Sciences 1, 1–9.

Reaser, Jeffrey, Carolyn Temple Adger, Walt Wolfram, & Donna Christian. 2017. Dialects at school: Educating linguistically diverse students. New York: Routledge.

Wolfram, Walt. 2013. Sound effects: Challenging language prejudice in the classroom. Teaching Tolerance 43, 29–31.