Reflection

In our interview, Dr. Woodford mentioned some of the introspection that took place after her time studying abroad as a teenager. After gaining exposure to a new set of people, cultures, languages, and experiences, she became aware of some of the misconceptions she had previously internalized surrounding various groups. Her decision to enter the field of multilingual/multicultural education was inspired, in part, by the work she was doing to address some of these internalized notions. A similar process seems to be happening universally today, as the events of 2020 have highlighted systemic inequalities across various spheres such as healthcare, education, policing, and so on. As the events of this year cause people to do some reflection, much of the conversation centers on the systemic differences across race, gender, and class lines. With this project, I was curious to see how language fits into this picture given that language interacts with each of these three key elements of our identities. Language, like race, gender, and class, is a huge determinant of one’s social power.

Much like racial/ethnic and other biases, linguistic biases are deeply rooted in our society— as Linda Christensen explains, they are related to colonization and its imposed hierarchies. A seemingly quick fix for someone to overcome linguistic bias may be learning to mimic “standard” speech, but this only carries people so far. Our appearances spark assumptions in others about the accents we have, how intelligent we may be, or how threatening or trustworthy we seem before we ever have the opportunity to open our mouths. We could make every effort to sound a certain way, but it’s not a guaranteed safeguard. The key is not in disproving the misconceptions others hold about us by adapting the way we speak but instead getting to the root of the misconceptions each of us holds and making an effort to combat them. While my interview and classroom observations steered me toward solutions within educational spaces, I think many of the considerations that Dr. Woodford and the professionals in the ¡Colorín Colorado! videos have shared with respect to English Language Learners also translate to society at large. To demonstrate this, I’ll expand on the question posed by Lulu Delacre: We live in a multicultural society which makes us so rich. Why shouldn’t we profit off this?

Research has demonstrated the benefits of bilingualism in students, and these benefits extend well beyond their classroom years. A study from Vanderbilt University highlights that the combined use of both languages promotes increased “academic knowledge, English proficiency, metacognitive awareness, identity and self-esteem” for students. Bi/multilingual individuals reap various benefits stemming from their linguistic knowledge, yet everything they can offer from their linguistic repertoires is often overshadowed by their accents and/or external appearances. Consider a Spanish-speaking employee who is seeking a more advanced, higher-paying customer service role at a company where he’s worked for years. He is rejected for the position while another applicant— a monolingual, native English-speaker who has been with the company for less time and has less experience— is hired instead. He’s rejected because he speaks with an accent, but his employer doesn’t consider how his bilingualism has strengthened his critical thinking and problem-solving skills. He may be better at effectively communicating with customers (in both languages) and de-escalating situations in which customers are unsatisfied, yet the manager feels he is ill-equipped for the position based on the way he sounds.

If we wish to profit off the richness of our multicultural society, we need to adopt more accepting attitudes of the people that come from different cultures. This means thinking twice before subjecting people to a single story, as Adichie informs us, and this means avoiding microaggressions like anglicizing names, as Dr. Woodford informs us. Most of all, this means adopting an attitude guided by the idea of integration rather than assimilation. Instead of operating from a place of fear of what’s different or unknown, I feel we would benefit from being more welcoming of opportunities for cultural exchange. We should challenge ourselves to think beyond what’s been predetermined as the standard or dominant culture. This shift in attitude is the difference between hearing someone speak a language other than English in public and thinking to yourself “I wish they’d just speak English… This is America after all” versus thinking “How incredible it is to be able to communicate and connect with people in more than one language!” Overall, embracing encounters with people from various backgrounds as opportunities for cultural exchange opens us up to invaluable experiences which help make us more well-rounded and empathetic. I hope this project can demonstrate the importance of expanding our world views and invite people to reconsider the ways they think about language.