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Annotated bibliography

Munira Vassilova

M.A. in Multilingual Education Program

Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University

EDML 610: Foundations of Multilingual Education

Dr. Bridget A. Goodman

September 9, 2021
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: THEORETICAL EXAMPLES

De Costa, P. I. (2020). Linguistic racism: its negative effects and why we need to contest it.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 833–837.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1783638

De Costa presents a review of the articles focused on the concept of "linguistic racism", its

overt and covert dimensions, causes, and consequences for minority language speakers. The

implicit nature of linguistic oppression can be expressed through racial microaggression when

educators prevent minority speakers from using and self-identifying with the Catalan language;

and take explicit forms in teachers' race-based discriminatory attitudes towards international

students (Corona & Block, 2020). The latter became the victims of linguistic invisibility in

educational settings since their first languages remain in the shadow of a dominant English

language. Furthermore, minority language speakers feel detached and demotivated as university

learners due to their low English proficiency compared to their fellow native speakers who enjoy

linguistic privilege (Dobinson & Mercieca, 2020). Dovchin's (2020) study elaborates on the

mental health issues encountered by international students in Australia. She reports the cases of

students suffering from inferiority complexes due to ethnic-accent bullying and linguistic

stereotyping. The interesting observation of in-group linguistic racism was made by Oliver and

Exell (2020), as they found that Aboriginal people speaking a traditional language and Standard

Australian English were judged for "shadowing white people". Based on the research works of

the authors mentioned above, De Costa highlights the need to design anti-racist pedagogy with

the focus on explaining the relationship between language and race to learners and educators as

the first step to combat linguistic racism and social injustice.

Martinez D.C., & Martínez R.A. (2017). Researching the language of race and racism in education. In:
K. King, YJ Lai, & S. May (Eds.) Research methods in language and education. (3rd ed.)
(pp. 503–516). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02249-9_37

This book chapter reviews the relationship between language and racism in the educational

context discussed by several language scholars. The earlier linguistic studies (Menchaca, 1997)
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reported the "primitiveness" of non-Europeans' languages compared to White people. However,

other researchers (Boas, 1889; Labov, 1969) condemned these works for strongly biased

assumptions towards "non-mainstream" language speakers. To expand the research area of

minorities' languages, Gumperz and Hymes (1972) proposed "ethnography of communication",

which focused on investigating a language within communities rather than separately. This shift

helped language scholars to understand the bond between language policies and interaction

patterns in cultural communities (Duranti, 1999). Specifically, the poor performance of minority

students was explained by the differences in home and school learning styles and teachers'

requirements for standard language practices (Philips, 1983; Au, 1980). Another instance of

linguistic racism in education is assessing the youth's code-switching as "improper" language

usage (Zentella, 1997; Alim, 2004). Rampton (1999) revealed that code-switching led to the

interracial and interethnic agreement, whereas Bucholtz (2001) argued its contribution to racial

ideologies promotion. In the end, Martinez and Martínez pose two questions that follow the

increasing interest in language and race: (1) labeling language practices as varieties or dynamic

language resources, and (2) the ways and extent of expanding students' linguistic repertoire. In

addition, they point out the need to investigate the impact of linguistic racism on multilingual

educational institutions.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: EMPIRICAL EXAMPLES

Baker-Bell, A. (2019). Dismantling anti-black linguistic racism in English language Arts classrooms:
Toward an anti-racist black language pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 59(1), 8–21.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2019.1665415

In this article, Baker-Bell focuses on Black Language (BL) and linguistic injustice

experienced by Black students in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. The central concept

of the study – anti-black linguistic racism – refers to discrimination of BL speakers within school

domains and demand to learn White Mainstream English (WME) at the cost of their native

language. Baker-Bell also questions the notion of "academic" language, as it reflects WME and

extends the racial and linguistic hierarchy, where WME speakers already possess necessary
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language skills, but minorities do not. Specifically, the monolingual ideology of ELA classrooms

treats BL as an obstacle to Black students' literacy development. Consequently, Black students

developed negative attitudes towards their linguistic, cultural, and racial identities and viewed

BL as deficient. Baker-Bell called this outcome the anti-blackness internalization. The evidence

is seen in ELA classroom discussions, where BL students labeled the BL extracts with negative

connotations (e.g. "silly", "disrespectful") and WME samples with positive perceptions (e.g.

"proper", "smart"). To combat these assumptions, Baker-Bell designed a Critical Language

Pedagogy (CLP), contributing to students' critical and cultural awareness of their mother tongue.

However, CLP still lacked the ways to teach Black students to identify their experiences of

linguistic oppression. For this reason, she proposes Anti-Racist Black Language Pedagogy with

the set of lesson plans based on Angie Thomas' novel "The Hate U Give". She concludes that

this approach should empower Black students to stop looking at BL through the lens of white

hegemony and combat anti-black linguistic racism.

Dobinson, T., & Mercieca, P. (2020). Seeing things as they are, not just as we are: Investigating
linguistic racism on an Australian university campus. International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 789–803.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1724074

This paper explores the monolingual tendency of national language planning policies

affecting international students in Australian higher education. Dobinson and Mercieca address

two research questions: (1) the prevalence of linguistic racism in a university setting in Australia,

and (2) the perspectives of linguistic racism discussions for Australian tertiary education

language policies. For this purpose, two new domains of linguistic racism are presented:

"linguistic invisibility" and "linguistic privilege". "Linguistic invisibility" refers to the fact that

languages may not be recognized in some contexts due to other languages' supremacy (e.g.

minority languages are unseen on campus). "Linguistic privilege" means a particular advantage

granted for speakers of specific languages over those not given such authoritative right (e.g.

Australian English over other Englishes). The research included interviews with 28 participants
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(12 academics and 16 students) from four faculties and one EL * center during a two-year period.

The focus group members were international students, heritage language speakers, monolingual

local students and academics, and overseas-born Australian scholars. The data findings showed

that university documentation and policies do not support the linguistic inclusiveness in campus

realities. As a result, students are marginalized and demotivated from interaction in their first

languages, which affects their self-identity and sense of belonging. Instead, local language

policies prioritize proficiency in English over linguistic diversity as evidence for the linguistic

privilege. The authors conclude that educational institutions should integrate interculturalisation

on campus to recognize minority languages and the benefits of translingualism for linguistic

racism elimination.

*
EL – English Language

Dovchin, S. (2020). The psychological damages of linguistic racism and international students in
Australia. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 804–818.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1759504

In this empirical study, Dovchin raises the issue of psychological difficulties experienced

by international students in Australia due to their English language practices. She attempts to

address two questions: (1) the relationship between racism and English language use of the

students, and (2) how linguistic racism affects their mental well-being. For these purposes, the

researcher illustrates two domains of linguistic racism: "ethnic accent bullying" and "linguistic

stereotyping". "Ethnic accent bullying" is defined as the abuse and mistreatment towards

EFL/ESL* speakers based on their biological accent (e.g. peer bullying of one's Vietnamese

English accent). "Linguistic stereotyping" means negative pre-fixed prejudice towards EFL/ESL

speakers based on their ethnic, racial, and national backgrounds (e.g. the bond between wearing

hijab and inability to speak English). The data extracts from linguistic ethnographic interviews of

thirty international students show their continuous encounter with these issues in public settings.

Consequently, it leads to damaging consequences as depression, social anxiety, alienation, and

even suicidal ideation. Therefore, Dovchin suggests eliminating the mental burden of linguistic
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racism by raising awareness among the Australian community on international students'

sociocultural and linguistic obstacles and implementing comprehensive bullying response

programs at educational institutions.

*
EFL/ESL – English as a Foreign Language, English as a Second Language

Oliver, R., & Exell, M. (2020). Identity, translanguaging, linguicism and racism: The experience of
Australian Aboriginal people living in a remote community. International Journal of
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 819–832.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1713722

Oliver and Exell investigate the linguistic repertoire and views on the aboriginality of eight

Australian Aboriginal adults settling in an isolated community in northwest Australia. According

to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2013), this minority group falls under the underprivileged

category with low rates in academic performance, occupation, healthcare, and social rank. Their

unsatisfactory education results are explained by the absence of a comprehensive teaching

program, which considers developing aboriginal students' languages and culture. The linguistic

repertoire of the respondents included Aboriginal English (lingua franca), Standard Australian

English, Kriol (creole language), and other traditional languages. Data collection and further case

studies were obtained through the "yarning" method (informal interviews). The field notes

included an inquiry about Aboriginal people's language skills, self-identification, and linguicism

experiences (if any). The research outcomes show that all respondents identified as Aboriginal,

bilingual, and bidialectal (SAE, AE, Kriol, traditional languages), actively engaging in

translanguaging. Some participants reported linguistic racism experiences within their

communities due to their fairer skin color and multilingualism. The latter was judged as

shadowing "Gardia" (white person) by their fellows. The researchers recommend integrating an

inclusive pedagogical approach to consider and support Aboriginal people's first languages and

culture. Translanguaging practices can facilitate this process, as they enable multilingual students

to express themselves within the wide range of their linguistic abilities. In addition, the scholars

highlight the need to extend the focus group and methods and investigate the integration of

multilingualism into modern assessment practices as directions for future research endeavors.
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CLOSING SUMMARY

Overall, all of these articles explore "linguistic racism" in the educational setting. Black

language speakers, international students, indigenous peoples, and other minorities suffer from a

monolingual ideology policy prioritizing English proficiency over linguistic inclusiveness. It

leads to severe consequences: a negative attitude towards one's language, culture, and race

(Baker-Bell, 2019), discouragement from speaking heritage language, and loss of sense of

belonging (Dobinson and Mercieca, 2020), mental health problems (Dovchin, 2020), poor

academic performance and self-identity issues (Oliver and Exell, 2020). To address this social

injustice, most authors suggest integrating translanguaging practices into the educational process,

raising the awareness of linguistic racism among privileged English language speakers and

educators, and fostering linguistic diversity in public domains.

Within Miro's* recent group work activities, the MA cohort members also have reported

experiencing/witnessing linguistic racism. Notably, the instances of linguistic prejudice (e.g.

expecting every Kazakh-looking person to speak Kazakh and judging them for a request to

switch to Russian), left-sided compliments of covert linguistic stereotyping (e.g. "you have a

good pronunciation [in English], is your father or mother white?"), linguistic privilege and

invisibility (e.g. teachers' positive attitude granted for Russian-background students over Kazakh

ones within one group). Since humanities subjects' (e.g. Languages, Literature, History)

coursebooks and teaching guidelines are more relevant fields to introduce the linguistic picture

of the world to students, the need to critically assess their content on the presence of the

information about the relationship between language, race, culture, and identity can be seen as a

direction for future research.

*
The evidence from the recent activities on Miro from group four is available with this link –
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l1IbyMI=/. The discussion participants granted permission to
use their stories as an example in the closing paragraph.