2.31: Languages

In the United States, language learning is taught both inside and outside of the academy. An opportunity to learn a new language allows students to expand their horizons and increase their marketability in the workforce. Languages worldwide however, are more numerous than the selection that is represented by most community college offerings. It is a choice made by each institution to offer certain languages over others, which centers some as more valuable. While some of that has to do with the need for bilingual speakers in the workforce, particularly Spanish, there are numerous European languages taught more frequently than languages such as Cantonese or Arabic, demonstrating a Eurocentric prioritizing of language learning. Spanish and French are the most commonly taught languages in U.S.schools, privileging those as the preferred options for U.S. students. And even within these two dominant language offerings, we see a preference towards a preferred type of Spanish or French taught in schools rooted in the form spoken in Europe. In pragmatic terms this has more to do with where it came from than its practical application to those who may be speaking it.For the billions of Spanish speakers living in the Americas, their dialect is seen as not proper and instead what is known as Spain Spanish is the form of Spanish regarded by many instructors,professors, and educators as the more prestigious or appropriate Spanish to teach to language learners. For many indigenous Spanish speakers in the US, this type of Spanish is not what they speak at home. In many ways there is a hierarchy to the type of Spanish which is seen as better and it correlates directly to race, region, and ethnicity and the stigma surrounding the vernacular is evident. The closer the dialect is to the European Spanish brought to the Americas by the colonizers, the better.

So if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic Identity is twin skinned to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex and all the other languages I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself. Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish, when I would rather speak Spanglish, as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate (Anzaldúa, 2012 p. 81).

Disregarding dialects and linguistic difference as not the right way to speak is a form of privileging language to resemble that of the conquerors. Because of this, we see some of the more European nations in South America being privileged over the more indigenous ones.Argentinian Spanish is a close second to Spain’s Spanish in terms of favorability, but nations like Guatemala or various Caribbean nations whose Spanish departs from the conqueror’s Spanish in its usage is not often taught in US schools. Perhaps not coincidentally, these nations also have a majority population that is ethnically non-anglo-European. French too becomes privileged if it is rooted in the nation of France, while other colonized nations that France is spoken in are less valuable. So those who study French in school whose roots are Creole or from various African nations like Morocco, Algeria, or Senegal may not recognize what they are learning as what they know at home.

The United States was created as an English speaking country on land that already had inhabitants who spoke other languages. Despite this, there are almost no institutions of higher learning that offer any languages indigenous to the Americas such as Náhutal, Quechua, or Quichéas apart of their “foreign languages” offering. Some schools do offer introductions to select indigenous dialects through their school’s Native American Studies departments though they are few.

Students enter higher education with varied exposure to speaking and learning a second language in their earlier schooling. A student's experience with foreign language classes has alot to do with their race and social class, and the school system in which their K-12 education took place. “Black students at the K–12 level are more likely to attend schools or be tracked into programs in which foreign languages are not available” (Anya & Randolph, 2019). If a student is not offered an opportunity to learn early on, as they move into higher education,that area of learning often becomes more of an intimidating obligation, rather than something to get excited to learn more about. It also creates yet another field in higher education that is lacking representation. According to Musu-Gillete, et al., 2017, Black students in the U.S.“complete the least number of high school credits in this subject; they earn only 4% of bachelor’s degrees conferred in the field of foreign languages; and Black teachers comprise just 6% of instructors in the humanities and a mere 3% of postsecondary foreign language faculty” (Musu-Gillete, et al., 2017; U.S. Department of Education, 2016).

These statistics are not due to a low interest or lack of motivation on the part of Black students to learn language; rather, it can be traced back to past and current segregation, inequitable distribution of resources, and the systemic exclusion and marginalization of African Americans in U.S. schools (Glynn, 2012). Further, teacher perceptions of their students have long been shown to contribute to student success so when a teacher harbors unconscious bias favoring white students over students of color, the result is that students of color disproportionately suffer. In a 2012 study of “79 students analyzing experiences in foreign language study, and perceptions of the low enrollment of African-American students in foreign language classes,findings reflected that teachers and fellow students harbored negative perceptions and stereotypes of African-American students” (Glynn, 2012).

Using whiteness as a standard for imagery and teaching culture to students has also proven to be a way to leave swaths of students out. Representation matters and languages like Spanish are spoken all over the globe by people from many different ethnic backgrounds. Leaving those representations out of the teaching clearly hinders student success.

Black students could not see themselves in mainstream Spanish teaching materials. The images found in instructional materials were overwhelmingly of White Spanish speakers worldwide. The visuals omitted Afro-Hispanic history and Afro-Latinx presence not to mention the absence of other marginalized groups like the large Spanish-speaking Indigenous populations. After all, it may be easier for Black students to see themselves speaking Spanish if they see, hear, and learn about Afro-Cubans, the Spanish speakers of Equatorial Guinea, and multicultural Puerto Ricans, among others. My Black students helped me to dig deeper to develop and publish more inclusive and thought-provoking instructional materials to use with all of my students (Spaine Long, 2020).

So much of language learning is designed for non-native speakers. Perhaps until native speakers from nations that do not have the specific preferred form of their language traditionally taught in the US began studying language, there was not as much pushback on the fact that this preference exists, but for those who see their particular culture disregarded as insufficient, it becomes problematic.

The majority of language teaching in US schools comes with outrageously expensive textbooks, which many students just cannot afford. There is a reckoning with this in terms of some faculty decrying the prohibitive costs, and as mentioned above, privileging of languages of the conquerors, but roots run deep and change comes slow (Hines-Gaither, 2020). In fact,the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has put together a list of Resources that Address Issues of Race,Diversity, and Social Justice, in order to address the need for change. ACTFL began in “1967 as a small offshoot of the Modern Language Association(MLA), and has set industry standards, established proficiency guidelines, advocated for language and education funding,” so like many of other discipline specific organizations, the ACTFL acted in response to the highly visible police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many unnamed other Black and Brown people in recent years (Resources that Address Issues of Race, Diversity, and Social Justice, n.d.). What comes from this depends on those in the field continuing to shine a light on the present inequity.