Critical Perspectives Of The Language Gap

This volume is an orchestrated critique of the notion that individuals from lower socioeconomic status communities have inferior language skills as compared to middle- and upper-class groups. The idea of this so-called “language gap” stems in large part from Hart and Risley’s (1995) publication Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Hart and Risley proposed that by age 3, children from more economically affluent households were exposed to approximately 30 million more words than children from low-income backgrounds. They also claimed that this gap in exposure to words negatively impacts cognitive development and eventual academic achievement. The contributing authors in this book contest the original concept of a “language-gap” as well as the recent swell of academic research and public programs that it has produced. The chapters interrogate the linguistic, academic, cultural, and social implications of the “language-gap” by providing critical accounts grounded in the scholarly disciplines of sociolinguistics, anthropology, and education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Multilingual Research Journal.

The Language Gap provides an accessible review of the language gap research, illuminating what we know and what we do not know about the language development of youth from working and lower socioeconomic classes. Written to offer a balanced look at existing literature, this text analyzes how language gap research is portrayed in the media and how debatable research findings have been portrayed as common sense facts. This text additionally analyzes how language gap research has impacted educational policies, and will be the first book-length overview addressing this area of rapidly growing interest.

This volume offers a critical perspective on current views on linguistic fixity and fluidity in sociolinguistics and highlights empirical accounts alternative to prevailing trends in the field. Featuring accounts from a broad range of regional contexts, the collection takes stock of such terms as "polylingualism", "metrolingualism" and "translanguaging" to question perceptions around multilingual and monolingual language use. The book critiques the status of fluid language use as a more "natural" language practice and in turn, its greater potential for corresponding social transformation, demonstrating the value of linguistic fixity and the continuous debate between fixity and fluidity in multilingual speakers' lives. In providing these accounts, the book seeks not to advocate for linguistic fixity or fluidity, but to argue that sociolinguists pay close attention to the way both types of linguistic practice open up or close down avenues for social transformation. This collection is a key reading for graduate students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and linguistic anthropology.

"This book addresses a current gap in our understanding of multicultural issues, communication disorders, and literacy discussing critical perspectives on issues of race, class, language, disability status, gender, and sexuality that are important and necessary for shaping novel research, teaching, practice, and policy that is oriented towards social justice for the individuals served by our profession"--

Critical Questions, Critical Perspectives: Language and the Second Language Educator is intended primarily for language educators, broadly conceived, and thus is appropriate for not only foreign language teachers, but also individuals teaching English to speakers of other languages in both Anglophone and non-Anglophone settings, teachers in bilingual education programs, heritage language teachers in both formal and informal settings, and others whose work involves language teaching and learning. It is also intended for teachers of all age groups and levels, since the issues that it raises are neither age nor level specific. This is not a book about teaching methodology, nor is it the sort of work that will provide the teacher with practical activities for use in the classroom.

Although the notion of Global Englishes (GE) has been widely discussed in the literature, few books consider how GE can be translated into educational practice. This book addresses the incorporation of GE into language policy and curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices, and focuses on a wide range of geographical and language contexts. Incorporating GE into language curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices calls for a reframing of our pedagogical practices that take into account the use of Englishes in intercultural and multicultural encounters where people have different first languages and cultural backgrounds. This book will be of interest to policymakers, curriculum developers and practitioner-researchers in the area of English language education.

The World Yearbook of Education 2023 centers on the intersection of racialization, inequality, and education. It critically examines how racial formation and its associated logics about citizenship, belonging, justice, equality, and humanity manifest in early childhood education, primary, secondary, and higher education, as well as non-formal, community-based education settings. The chapters offer multisited perspectives into how racialization has and continues to shape educational inequality, with an eye towards the agency and resistance of youth and communities in contesting such forms of domination and marginalization. Across three sections, the book examines how forces of imperialism, white supremacy, and colonization have shaped racialization in distinct locations and how education was historically utilized as a site for both the creation and/or reification of difference. It reveals the lingering effects of processes of racialization in distinct locations globally and their intersections with educational policies, ideologies, systems, and realities. Inviting readers to learn, reflect, and engage with the layered and complex realities of racialization and inequality in education across the globe, World Yearbook of Education 2023 is a timely and important contribution to discussions of racialization and provides the field with a robust foundation for future critical inquiry and engagement with the themes of race, racialization, inequality, and education.

This edited volume brings together the perspectives of a diverse group of international scholars to explore the intersections of study abroad and social mobility. In doing so, it challenges universalist assumptions and power imbalances implicit in study abroad across the Global North and South, and explores the implications of COVID-19 for equity within study abroad programs, policy, and practice going forward. Offering empirical, theoretical, and conceptual contributions, Critical Perspectives on Equity and Social Mobility in Study Abroad foregrounds critical reflection on the stratification of access to study abroad and examines the varied outcomes of international study in relation to graduates’ entry into domestic and international labor markets. Focusing on the experiences and outcomes of students from varied backgrounds, chapters identify a number of power imbalances relating to student race, ethnicity, religion, local and international policies and politics, and put forward valuable recommendations to ensure greater equity within the field. Against the backdrop of growing criticism over the power imbalances in international exchange, this text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in higher education, international and comparative education, and multicultural education. Those interested in educational policy and the sociology of education more broadly will also benefit from this book.