Download Linguistic Diversity

Linguistic
Diversity
February 2016
Language Rights
“The vast majority of the world's nations are at
least bilingual, and most are multilingual, even if
one ignores the impact of modern migrations.“
Prepared by the Committee on Social and Political
Concerns Approved by the Executive Committee of
the LSA Ratified by the membership of the LSA June
1996
http://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/lsastmt-language-rights.pdf
Linguistic Diversity
Because it is seen and heard, it can
effect the evaluation of candidates
and faculty, even those who are
“native” speakers of English.
Screening for Fluency

Language ‘proficiency’ screening is used to
Protect instructors from negative evaluations
 Protect student learning
“…the Arizona Department of Education and
State Board of Education recently (in May 2010)
directed Arizona schools to remove teachers who
speak English with "heavy accents" from English
Language Learner (ELL) classrooms…”

http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/resolutionarizona-teachers-english-fluency-initiative
Resolution on the Arizona
Teachers' English Fluency Initiative
Furthermore, exposure to different ways of
speaking has been shown to help, and not
hurt, students acquire language. It is
therefore helpful for all students (English
language learners as well as native
speakers) to be exposed to foreignaccented speech as a part of their
education.
http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/resolutionarizona-teachers-english-fluency-initiative
English with an Accent
“…a Ph.D. cannot render anyone accentless.”
“…undergraduates are not very good at
making such assessments (fair assessments of
English proficiency)”
“Depending on the slide projected, the students
evaluated the same native speaker of U.S.
English as having more or less of a foreign
accent.”
Lippi-Green, R. (2012)
Perception of Language
“The distinction between "languages" and
"dialects" is usually made more on social
and political grounds than on purely
linguistic ones.“
http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/lsa-resolutionoakland-ebonics-issue