Linguistic Equity

A national magazine, American Educator, put out by the folks from the American Federation of Teachers, recently made a great case for Hartford Public Schools improving on their dismal World Languages program…without really trying.

In the article, “Lift Every Voice: Valuing Black Language and Culture in Classrooms,” authors Anne H. Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, Rachel Samuels, and Kimberly Bigelow make the case that it is essential for educators to adopt instructional strategies that value African American English as a part of African American culture to support the success of Black students. The author’s state that “…language is integral to culture and identity, understanding language variation and diversity is critical to education equity.” The success of Black students relies on educators understanding their students’ “personal and cultural experiences.” The author’s point out that it is important to understand that “…linguistic discrimination [is] inseparable from racial discrimination [and] has historically limited African Americans’ access to opportunities afforded other citizens.”

While the article’s focus is on the cultural variation of “standard” English used by many African Americans, we can apply the same cultural and equitable educational logic toward the teaching of world languages to African Americans. Speaking multiple languages is the norm in African countries – and in most countries around the world – and it is a part of their cultural history. America’s nationalistic attitudes toward learning a world language has not created an incentive or urgency in American schools to create multilingual students, Black or White, despite the overwhelming evidence of educational and life success obtained through the learning of a world language. However, it is the Black student who suffers the most from this attitude as an integral practice of their culture is devalued by American schools. Similar to the authors noting the consequences of devaluing African American English, many Black students in American schools have become disengaged, discouraged, and have outright rejected the notion that they are able to learn another language. They do this, however, without a sense of equity since the leaders of their cultural independence here in the United States have not, like the Euro-centrist idealist of the past, created the incentive and urgency to intersect the multilingual nature of their culture with educational equity.

As the website CelebrateLanguages.com emphasizes, becoming multilingual is a “birthright” for African Americans. Understanding and valuing this birthright for black students in Hartford means that Hartford Public Schools must reimagine their World Language program with an equitable lens.