Abstract
Language ideologies are a powerful way of perpetuating inequalities, as peripheralized speakers who have internalized the lack of legitimacy attributed to them often end up reproducing censure rather than resisting it. Foregrounding the affective dimension, this paper explores the role of shame as a fulcrum articulating the individual with the collective in the perpetuation of linguistic stigma. To do so, it presents excerpts of autobiographies written by university students that reveal the impact of language idealization on the subjectivities of those who, by deviating from the norm, forge subaltern identities. As victims of language shaming are often unaware that their suffering is due to ideologies, but instead blame it on personal failings, rather than challenge the linguistic vigilantes who harass them, they silence themselves. The paper discusses how the inherently social nature of the construction of otherness and stigma is obscured by the individuality of shame and presents an educational intervention with which to scaffold students to overcome language shame.
Resumen
Las ideologías lingüísticas perpetúan potentemente las desigualdades ya que, quienes han interiorizado la falta de legitimidad que se les atribuye, suelen acabar reproduciendo la censura en lugar de rechazarla. Este artículo, que hace hincapié en la dimensión afectiva, explora el papel de la vergüenza como nexo que articula lo individual y lo colectivo en la perpetuación del estigma lingüístico. Para ello, presenta fragmentos de autobiografías escritas por estudiantes de universidad que revelan el impacto de la idealización del lenguaje en las subjetividades de quienes, al desviarse de la norma, forjan identidades subalternas. Como las víctimas de la vergüenza lingüística no suelen ser conscientes de que su sufrimiento se debe a ideologías, sino que lo achacan a fallos personales, en lugar de desafiar a quienes las acosan, se silencian a sí mismas. El artículo analiza cómo la naturaleza intrínsecamente social de la construcción de la alteridad y el estigma queda oculta por lo individual de la vergüenza y presenta una intervención educativa con la que intentar rebatir la vergüenza lingüística.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the reviewers for their insightful feedback on previous versions of this paper, part of the larger research project “Towards a new linguistic citizenship: Action-research for the recognition of speakers in the Madrid educational context” [Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant number PID2019-105676RB-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033].
References
Ahearn, Laura M. 2010. Agency and language. In Jürgen Jaspers, Jef Verschueren & Jan-Ola Östman (eds.), Society and language use, 28–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Search in Google Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 2015. The cultural politics of emotion, 2nd edn. London/New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Alim, H. Samy, John R. Rickford & Arnetha F. Ball (eds.). 2016. Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190625696.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Baker-Bell, April. 2020. Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315147383Search in Google Scholar
Banville, Morgan C. & Jason Sugg. 2021. Challenging surveillance: Linguistic justice in the college classroom. In Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, 33–38. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9793429.10.1109/ProComm52174.2021.00011Search in Google Scholar
Baratta, Alex. 2017. Accent and linguistic prejudice within British teacher training. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 16(6). 416–423.10.1080/15348458.2017.1359608Search in Google Scholar
Birney, Megan E., Anna Rabinovich, Thomas A. Morton, Hannah Heath & Sam Ashcroft. 2020. When speaking English is not enough: The consequences of language-based stigma for nonnative speakers. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 39(1). 67–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x19883906.Search in Google Scholar
Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul. 2013. The invention of the native speaker. Critical Multilingualism Studies 1(2). 29–58.Search in Google Scholar
Browne, Simone. 2015. Dark matters: On the surveillance of blackness. Durham: Duke University Press.10.1515/9780822375302Search in Google Scholar
Busch, Brigitta & Tim McNamara. 2020. Language and trauma. Applied Linguistics 41(3). 323–333. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaa002.Search in Google Scholar
Butler, Yuko G. 2017. The role of affect in intraindividual variability in task performance for young learners. TESOL Quarterly 51. 728–737. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.385.Search in Google Scholar
Canagarajah, Suresh & Sender Dovchin. 2019. The everyday politics of translingualism as a resistant practice. International Journal of Multilingualism 16(2). 127–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2019.1575833.Search in Google Scholar
Cantone, Jason A., Leslie N. Martínez, Cynthia Willis-Esqueda & Taija Miller. 2019. Sounding guilty: How accent bias affects juror judgments of culpability. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice 17(3). 228–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2019.1623963.Search in Google Scholar
Codó, Eva & Elvira Riera-Gil. 2022. The value(s) of English as a global linguistic capital: A dialogue between linguistic justice and sociolinguistic approaches. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 277. 95–119.10.1515/ijsl-2021-0076Search in Google Scholar
Council of Europe. 2020. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Companion volume. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing. Available at: www.coe.int/lang-cefr.Search in Google Scholar
Crookes, Graham V. 2022. Critical language pedagogy. Language Teaching 55. 46–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444820000609.Search in Google Scholar
Cushing, Ian. 2023. Standards, stigma, surveillance: Raciolinguistic ideologies in England’s schools. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-3-031-17891-7Search in Google Scholar
Cushing, Ian. 2021. ‘Say it like the Queen’: The standard language ideology and language policymaking in English primary schools. Language, Culture and Curriculum 34(3). 321–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2020.1840578.Search in Google Scholar
Cushing, Ian. 2020. The policy and policing of language in schools. Language in Society 49(3). 425–450. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404519000848.Search in Google Scholar
Dewaele, Jean-Marc & Kazuya Saito. 2022. Positive psychology can help overcome the pernicious native speaker ideology. The European Educational Researcher 5(2). 225–234. https://doi.org/10.31757/euer.526.Search in Google Scholar
Donnelly, Michael, Sol Gamsu & Alex Baratta. 2022. Accent and the manifestation of spatialised class structure. The Sociological Review 70(6). 1100–1118. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261221076188.Search in Google Scholar
Dovchin, Sender & Stephanie Dryden. 2022. Translingual discrimination: Skilled transnational migrants in the labour market of Australia. Applied Linguistics 43(2). 365–388. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab041.Search in Google Scholar
Dovchin, Sender. 2019. The politics of injustice in translingualism: Linguistic discrimination. In Tyler Andrew Barrett & Sender Dovchin (eds.), Critical inquiries in the sociolinguistics of globalization, 84–101. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781788922852-008Search in Google Scholar
Dovchin, Sender. 2020. The psychological damages of linguistic racism and international students in Australia. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1759504.Search in Google Scholar
Dragojevic, Marko, Fabio Fasoli, Jennifer Cramer & Tamara Rakić. 2021. Toward a century of language attitudes research: Looking back and moving forward. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 40(1). 60–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x20966714.Search in Google Scholar
Drummond, Rob & Amanda Cole. 2019. The accentism project. Available at: https://accentism.org/.Search in Google Scholar
Ferrada, Juan Sebastián, Mary Bucholtz & Meghan Corella. 2019. ‘Respeta mi idioma’: Latinx youth enacting affective agency. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 19(2). 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2019.1647784.Search in Google Scholar
Fine, Caitlin G., Kimberly Strong & Deborah Palmer. 2019. The impact of language ideologies in schools. Available at: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-impact-of-language-ideologies-in-schools.Search in Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. London: Penguin.Search in Google Scholar
Habermas, Tilmann. 2018. Emotion and narrative: Perspectives in autobiographical storytelling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781139424615Search in Google Scholar
Higby, Eve, Evelyn Gámez & Claudia Holguín Mendoza. 2023. Challenging deficit frameworks in research on heritage language bilingualism. Applied Psycholinguistics 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0142716423000048.Search in Google Scholar
Holguín Mendoza, Claudia. 2022. Sociolinguistic justice and student agency in language education: Towards a model for critical sociocultural linguistics literacy. In Sergio Loza & Sara Beaudrie (eds.), Teaching languages critically, 138–156. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781003148227-10Search in Google Scholar
Jaime-Díaz, Jesús. 2019. Take a little trip on the AZ side: Examining a pedagogy of surveillance within the structure of schooling. Ethnic Studies Review 42(1). 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1525/esr.2019.421007.Search in Google Scholar
Khan, Karam. 2022. The securitization of language borders and the (re)production of inequalities. TESOL Quarterly 56(4). 1458–1470. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3186.Search in Google Scholar
Kiczkowiak, Marek. 2017. Confronting native speakerism in the ELT classroom: Practical awareness-raising activities. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL 6(1). 5–27.Search in Google Scholar
Kiramba, Lydiah Kananu. 2018. Language ideologies and epistemic exclusion. Language and Education 32(4). 291–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2018.1438469.Search in Google Scholar
Kubota, Ryuko. 2020. Promoting and problematizing multi/plural approaches in language pedagogy. In Sunny Man Chu Lau & Saskia Van Viegen (eds.), Plurilingual pedagogies: Critical and creative endeavors for equitable language (in) education, 303–321. New York: Springer.10.1007/978-3-030-36983-5_14Search in Google Scholar
León-Howarth, Kelley & Claudia Holguín Mendoza. 2021. A short introduction to basic concepts of sociolinguistics, and the role of prescriptive organizations like the Real Academia Española. Open Education Resource. Available at: https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Languages/Spanish/Empowering_Learners_of_Spanish/01%3A_Unidades_(Lessons)/1.01%3A_Introductory_Lesson-_An_overview_of_sociolinguistics.Search in Google Scholar
Lew, Shim & Nicole E. Siffrinn. 2019. Exploring language ideologies and preparing preservice teachers for multilingual and multicultural classrooms. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice 68(1). 375–395. https://doi.org/10.1177/2381336919870281.Search in Google Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 2012. English with an accent. Language, ideology and discrimination in the United States, 2nd edn. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203348802Search in Google Scholar
Liyanage, Indika. 2023. Linguistic shaming and emotional labour: English medium of instruction (EMI) policy enactments in Kiribati higher education. Linguistics and Education 75. 101151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.101151.Search in Google Scholar
Liyanage, Indika & Suresh Canagarajah. 2019. Shame in English language teaching: Desirable pedagogical possibilities for Kiribati in neoliberal times. TESOL Quarterly 52(2). 430–455. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.494.Search in Google Scholar
Lyiscott, Jamila. 2019. Black appetite, white food: Issues of race, voice, and justice within and beyond the classroom. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781351062381Search in Google Scholar
Magyar-Haas, Veronika. 2020. Shame as an anthropological, historical and social emotion. In Liz Frost, Veronika Magyar-Haas, Holger Schoneville & Alessandro Sicora (eds.), Shame and social work, 55–78. Bristol: Policy Press.10.1332/policypress/9781447344063.003.0004Search in Google Scholar
Martín Rojo, Luisa & Rosina Márquez-Reiter. 2019. Language surveillance: Pressure to follow local models of speakerhood among Latinx students in Madrid. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 257. 17–48. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2019-2019.Search in Google Scholar
Martín Rojo, Luisa. 2019. The “self-made speaker”: The neoliberal governance of speakers. In Luisa Martín Rojo & Alfonso del Percio (eds.), Language and neoliberal governmentality, 162–189. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780429286711-8Search in Google Scholar
Martín Rojo, Luisa. 2020. Sujetos hablantes. In Luisa Martín Rojo & Joan Pujolar (eds.), Claves para entender el multilingüismo contemporáneo, 165–198. Zaragoza: UOC y Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.Search in Google Scholar
Matteo, Elizabeth K. & Di You. 2012. Reducing mental illness stigma in the classroom. Teaching of Psychology 39(2). 121–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628312437720.Search in Google Scholar
Mena, Mike. 2022. The ‘language-elsewhere’: A friendlier linguistic terrorism. In José Cobas, Bonnie Urciuoli, Joe R. Feagin & Daniel D. Delgado (eds.), The Spanish language in the United States: Rootedness, racialization and resistance, 80–95. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781003257509-9Search in Google Scholar
Milroy, James & Lesley Milroy. 2012. Authority in language. Investigating standard English, 4th edn. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203124666Search in Google Scholar
Mirhosseini, Seyyed-Abdolhamid. 2018. Issues of ideology in English language education worldwide: An overview. Pedagogy, Culture and Society 26(1). 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2017.1318415.Search in Google Scholar
Miyahara, Masuko. 2015. Emerging self-identities and emotion in foreign language learning: A narrative-oriented approach. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783093823Search in Google Scholar
Moustaoui, Adil & Júlia Llompart. 2022. Family, school, and crossroads: The language regimentation of multilingual repertoires in youth of Moroccan origin in Spain. Sociolinguistic Studies 16(2–3). 279–300.10.1558/sols.22477Search in Google Scholar
Nunan, David & Julie Choi (eds.). 2010. Language and culture: Reflective narratives and the emergence of identity. London/New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Núñez, Idalia. 2018. Literacies of surveillance: Transfronterizo children translanguaging identity across borders, inspectors and surveillance. The University of Texas at Austin Doctoral Dissertation. Available at: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/65982.10.3102/1427308Search in Google Scholar
Núñez, Idalia. 2021. Collective (re)constructions of linguistic surveillance at home: Transfronterizx families as cultural and linguistic guardians. Equity & Excellence in Education 54(3). 238–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2021.2021614.Search in Google Scholar
Paterson, Laura. 2019. Interview with Erin Carrie and Rob Drummond of “The Accentism Project”. Journal of Language and Discrimination 3(1). 76–84. https://doi.org/10.1558/jld.38682.Search in Google Scholar
Patiño-Santos, Adriana & David Poveda. 2023. Bilingual education: English and the life projects of youth in contemporary Spain. In Eva Codó (ed.), Global CLIL: Critical, ethnographic and language policy perspectives, 149–173. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781003147374-9Search in Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2005. Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511584305Search in Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2007. Autobiographic narratives as data. Applied Linguistics 28. 163–188. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amm008.Search in Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2013. The affective turn in SLA: From ‘affective factors’ to ‘language desire’ and ‘commodification of affect’. In Danuta Gabrys-Barker & Joanna Belska (eds.), The affective dimension in second language acquisition, 3–28. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid & Kimie Takahashi. 2006. A passion for English: Desire and the language market. In Aneta Pavlenko (ed.), Bilingual minds: Emotional experience, expression, and representation, 59–83. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781853598746-005Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2002. Passing for a native speaker: Identity and success in second language learning. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6(2). 179–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00184.Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2016. Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2017. Anatomy of language shaming. Available at: https://www.languageonthemove.com/anatomy-of-language-shaming/.Search in Google Scholar
Pinto Pajares, Daniel. 2021. El españolismo lingüístico en el alumnado madrileño de Bachillerato. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada 34(2). 642–670. https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.19014.pin.Search in Google Scholar
Pratt, Teresa. 2023. Affect in sociolinguistic style. Language in Society 52. 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404521000774.Search in Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. 2013. Language with an attitude. In Jack K. Chambers, Trudgill Peter & Nathalie Schilling (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change, 157–182. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1002/9781118335598.ch7Search in Google Scholar
Pujolar, Joan. 2019. Linguistic entrepreneurship: Neoliberalism, language learning and class. In Luisa Martín Rojo & Alfonso del Percio (eds.), Language and neoliberal governmentality, 113–134. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780429286711-6Search in Google Scholar
Pujolar, Joan. 2021. Valencian sociolinguistics: Aracil, Ninyoles and the minority question. Journal of Sociolinguistics 25. 131–158. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12473.Search in Google Scholar
Randolph, Linwood J.Jr. & Stacey Margarita Johnson. 2017. Social justice in the language classroom: A call to action. Dimension 2017. 99–121.Search in Google Scholar
Relaño Pastor, Ana María. 2014. Shame and pride in narrative: Mexican women’s language experiences at the US-Mexico border. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137348593_2Search in Google Scholar
Rosa, Jonathan & Nelson Flores. 2017. Do you hear what I hear? Raciolinguistic ideologies and culturally sustaining pedagogies. In Django Paris & H. Samy Alim (eds.), Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world, 175–190. New York: Teachers College Press.Search in Google Scholar
Rose, Heath & Nicole Galloway. 2017. Debating standard language ideology in the classroom: Using the ‘Speak Good English Movement’ to raise awareness of global Englishes. RELC Journal 48(3). 294–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688216684281.Search in Google Scholar
Savini, Catherine. 2021. How professors can and should combat linguistic prejudice in their classes. Inside Higher Ed. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2021/01/27/how-professors-can-and-should-combat-linguistic-prejudice-their-classes-opinion.Search in Google Scholar
Sener, Meltem Yilmaz. 2021. English with a non-native accent as a basis for stigma and discrimination in the United States. In Jasmin Lilian Diab (ed.), Dignity in movement: Borders, bodies and rights, 99–115. Bristol: E-International Relations Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Severin, Alyssa. S. 2017. Vigilance or tolerance? Younger speakers’ attitudes to Australian English usage. Australian Journal of Linguistics 37(2). 156–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2017.1239521.Search in Google Scholar
Slavkov, Nikolay, Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer & Nadja Kerschhofer-Puhalo (eds.). 2022. The changing face of the “native speaker”: Perspectives from multilingualism and globalization. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9781501512353Search in Google Scholar
Slinkard, Jennifer & Jeroen Gevers. 2020. Confronting internalized language ideologies in the writing classroom: Three pedagogical examples. Composition Forum 44. Available at: https://compositionforum.com/issue/44/language-ideologies.php#activity2.Search in Google Scholar
Song, Juyoung. 2018. Critical approaches to emotions of NNESTs (Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers). Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics 41(4). 453–467. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2018-0033.Search in Google Scholar
Stets, Jan E. & Jonathan H. Turner (eds.). 2006. Handbook of the sociology of emotions. New York: Springe.10.1007/978-0-387-30715-2Search in Google Scholar
Tan, Amy. 1989. Mother tongue. The Threepenny Review 43. 7–8.Search in Google Scholar
Tan, Kim Hua, Michelle Elaine Jospa, Nur-Ehsan Mohd-Said & Mohd Mahzan Awang. 2021. Speak like a native English speaker or be judged: A scoping review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(23). 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312754.Search in Google Scholar
Tissari, Heli. 2022. Expressions of emotion and linguistic change. In Gesine Lenore Schiewer, Jeanette Altarriba & Ng Bee Chin (eds.), Language and emotion: An international handbook, 302–323. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110347524-014Search in Google Scholar
Trainor, Jennifer. 2006. From identity to emotion: Frameworks for understanding, and teaching against, anticritical sentiments in the classroom. JAC 26. 643–655.Search in Google Scholar
Tseng, Amelia. 2021. ‘Qué barbaridad, son latinos y deberían saber español primero’: Language ideology, agency, and heritage language insecurity across immigrant generations. Applied Linguistics 42(1). 113–135. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaa004.Search in Google Scholar
United Nations: International Narcotics Control Board. 2021. Informe de la Junta internacional de fiscalización de estupefacientes correspondiente a 2020. Available at: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20691463-incb_ar2020_es.Search in Google Scholar
Vogl, Ulrike. 2018. Standard language ideology and multilingualism: Results from a survey among European students. European Journal of Applied Linguistics 6(2). 185–208. https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2016-0016.Search in Google Scholar
Volkmer, Ada. 2018. Language justice curriculum. Center for Participatory Change. Available at: https://www.cpcwnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/CPC-Language-Justice-Curriculum-May-2018.pdf.Search in Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn. 2021. Language ideology. In James Stanlaw (ed.), The international encyclopedia of linguistic anthropology, 1–21. New York: Wiley.10.1002/9781118786093.iela0217Search in Google Scholar
Worff, Dominik & Peter De Costa. 2017. Expanding the language teacher identity landscape: An investigation of the emotions and strategies of a NNEST. Modern Language Journal 101. 76–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12370.Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
