language is a tool not a status symbol

by: anonymous

One of the articles I found most compelling this semester was the Allen (2006) piece about immigrant student integration in schools in Quebec. In this study the researcher observed and interviewed five students in the accueil program who were over the age of sixteen, eager to complete their secondary studies like their peers in their home countries, and barred from mainstream classes in their second year in Quebec because of their “inadequate” French. These students expressed feelings of discouragement, depression, anxiety, and disappointment. Because they were delayed and held back, many of the students viewed French as a barrier to learning rather than an academic tool for success. What I found the most heartbreaking was a Korean girl’s descriptions of her feelings of failure, blaming herself for her circumstances, and not feeling smart like she had in her home country (Allen, 2006).

This article reminded me of a couple other ones I had read for a final project last year in another class. Both are studies that took place in the United States context. Wiley and Lukes (1996) found that the ELL programs in the schools they observed created a hierarchy of linguistic privilege by barring non-anglophone students from higher education. Similarly, Kanno and Kangas (2014) found in their study that ELL students at the schools they observed were often not enrolled in the courses needed to enter university, and they were required to spend so much time in the English courses that they did not even meet graduation requirements on time, if ever. The students in this study expressed great disappointment at not having the opportunity to continue their studies at the university level. These three articles remind me of when I was a French teacher in New Hampshire, and the anglophone students weren’t required to take any second language courses whatsoever while the non-anglophone students were obligated to learn English at a high academic level within a very short time frame. I’m an anglophone, but even to me it seemed so unfair.   

Following the topic of language as a gatekeeper to resources, we also read an article about English dominance in Asia and its usefulness or lack thereof in the workplace by Kubota (2013) that same week. This article presented several interesting and enlightening points, one of which was that it may be more helpful to learn job specific language skills rather than the whole language, depending on the nature of the work and where it takes place. Goldstein (1995) presents a similar argument with her study of female Portuguese factory workers in Canada. The English teacher that was provided to these workers tried to teach them how to ask each other for tools when what they really needed was self-advocacy skills for safety reasons including on-the-job hazards and sexual harassment.

An enlightening conclusion that can be drawn from these articles, I believe, is that language should be used as a tool and not a gatekeeper for privileges within a society. Language as a tool and mutual transcultural respect are more helpful for everyone in a society than linguistic hierarchy and oppression. We have the opportunity to learn a great deal from each other if only it is allowed.

Allen, D. (2006). Who’s in and who’s out? Language and the integration of new immigrant youth in Quebec. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10(2-3), 251–263.

Goldstein, T. (1995). “Nobody is talking bad” creating community and claiming power on the production lines. In Hall, K. and Bucholtz, M. (Eds.), Language and the socially constructed self (pp. 375-400). New York and London: Routledge.

Kanno, Y., & Kangas, S. (2014). “I’m Not Going to Be, Like, for the AP”: English Language Learners’ Limited Access to Advanced College-Preparatory Courses in High School. American Educational Research Journal, 51(5), 848-878.

Kubota, R. (2013). “Language is only a tool”: Japanese expatriates working in China and implications for language teaching. Multilingual Education, 3(4), 20 pages.

Wiley, T., & Lukes, M. (1996). English-Only and Standard English Ideologies in the U.S. TESOL Quarterly, 30(3), 511-535.