Plurilingual education portal

Subject classification: this is an education resource.

Type classification: this resource is a course.

Starting activity

Read this text: Les idéologies linguistiques et le plurilinguisme (J. C. Beacco)

What do you remember about the three ideologies presented by Beacco, particularly the implications this has for the consideration of multilingualism?

Watch this video.

What did you learn (or were reminded of) from the video about how accents in the pool of African languages are viewed—within communities, by outsiders, or in media/literature?
Can you think of a moment in your own life (or your community) when someone was judged, praised, or responded to differently because of their accent or dialect? How did that feel or what was the outcome?
How might accent prejudice affect language learners? For instance, what pressures might learners feel to “sound right” or “erase” their own accent?
How can teachers help students value accent diversity and reduce stigma?

Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

understand the impact of colonisation on the recognition of different languages, particularly the languages of colonised populations;
identify and understand situations related to raciolinguistics;
develop a critical view of the Eurocentric vision often associated with different languages;
consider all languages on an equal footing, with a view to decolonisation.

Key words

Decolonisation - ideology - multilingual education - racial linguistics - Eurocentrism - language status - language policy.

Pre-requisites

Knowledge of Western colonial movements;
Knowledge of so-called ‘colonisation languages’, often identified as hegemonic languages.

Introduction

Teaching languages has the potential and the responsibility to value all languages and most importantly all speakers of a language equally. This is not the case in societies based on racist structures that we find in our world. This is why it can be important to open the language classroom to decolonial approaches (Walsh, 2013) that can include linguistic varieties instead of only the most prestigious (often European) varieties, and reflections about the connection between racism and linguistic discrimination (raciolinguistics, cf. Flores & Rosa, 2015; Lavoie, 2022). This connection is based on the fact that language contributes to the construction of racial differences, with the potential for discrimination. It allows us to perceive that these practices are informed by ideologies that shape how individuals or groups are positioned.

History

When considering the history of language teaching, we must acknowledge that there have been ways all over the world to pass a language from one person to another, from one generation to another or from one group to another. In many Indigenous communities, this passing of languages was done through oral methods. However, we often refer to the documented, written ways of teaching a language, which were developed in Europe and not that much in Indigenous communities. The fact that we refer to it is due to (neo-)colonial ideologies, in which European and Westernised sciences are positioned as superior to any other sciences and epistemologies. For instance, language measurement follows European and Westernised ideologies (of monolingualism, see also “Concepts”) and does not include flexible forms of language use (see also Translanguaging). Kilomba (2019, p. 52, our translation) provides an example of how science is associated differently, illustrated in Table 1.

Supposed associations of European and Westernised sciences	Supposed associations of non-European and Westernised sciences
“universal	specific
objective	subjective
neutral	personal
rational	emotional
impartial	partial
they have fact	we have opinions
they have knowledge	we have experiences”

Table 1. Supposed associations of sciences

Due to to the critical turn in language education, this ideology is more and more challenged, notably the pedagogy of the oppressed by Freire (1970) that aims to make students aware of structures and authorities “oppressing” them so that they can empower themselves and, in the best case, liberate themselves.

Throughout history, linguistic discrimination and racism have not always been considered together. Instead, racialization has often been understood in the contexts of colonisation, nationalisation, or religion, sometimes excluding skin colour (Alim, 2022).

The inclusion of decolonial approaches to the foreign language classroom has been addressed only in the last decade.

Definitions

To grasp decolonial perspectives in plurilingual education, we define decolonialization, ideologies and the specific ideologies of monolingualism as well as raciolinguistics.

By decolonization, we understand a disruption with colonial remains, i.e. “stripping the structure and content of the colonially received cultural valuation in education curricula from what is offered, in an emancipating post-colonial context. It requires studious intellectual introspection and the deconstruction of the processes of knowledge production with pinpointed reflexivity. We must be able to stand outside ourselves and critically objectify ourselves as historical and cultural products” (Prah, 2022, pp. 13-14). Moreover, decolonisation means the acceptance of the mission of reform in education, e.g. through creating an inclusive space to educate about the historical and social backgrounds of marginalised groups. Approaching these goals requires multiprofessionality, multiperspectivity from Western and Non-Western communities, multilingualism, and acting “as local as it is global; which affirms the granulations of the way peoples name their worlds” (Phibs, 2019). In other words, decoloniality examines the lasting effects of colonialism on societies, epistemologies, and power dynamics (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018). Rather than outright dismissing Western knowledge frameworks, it challenges their dominance and seeks to incorporate Indigenous, local, and marginalized viewpoints. Currently, postcolonialism evoques to the fact that colonial structures have pertained and demonstrate themselves today in different forms but maintaining the same differences, e.g. regarding economics, value of a language and culture, educational opportunities, etc.

Language ideologies can be understood as “cultural representations, whether explicit or implicit, of the intersection of language and human beings in a social world. Mediating between social structures and forms of talk, such ideologies are not only about language. Rather, they link language to identity, power, aesthetics, morality and epistemology.” (Schiffelin et al., 2023, p. 1). Monolingualism is an example of an ideology. Monolingualism is not the natural way of language use but a socially constructed one. As Gogolin (1994) shows, monolingual states were created in modernity, albeit their plurilingual past (and reality). This phenomenon is also known as historical linguistic amnesia. This ideology and others are framed by coloniality. Decolonisation is a way to challenge this widely present ideology.

Raciolinguistics explore the links between race, language and power, in the sense that language is a vehicle for the social construction of racial differences, which can lead to discrimination that runs counter to inclusion. A terminology that is little developed as such in French-speaking countries, it is addressed in Quebec, notably by Lavoie (2022), and in the United States by Flores & Rosa (2015). It sheds light on the ideologies and language practices that are part of racial and linguistic inequalities, particularly in the context of dominant discourses that do or do not grant legitimacy to a particular language associated with a particular race. Taken as a critical approach, raciolinguistics analyses the way in which races and languages are co-constituted, acting as markers of identity. As such, schools and other educational settings are spaces where these markers can marginalise or legitimise certain social groups.

Take home messages

Need for :

deconstruct the Westernised - Eurocentric - vision of languages, through appropriate teaching that values all languages, especially those of the learners;
develop recognition of all the world's languages and their use in the same way, by implementing decolonial approaches to language teaching/learning;

Self-assessment

Resources to go further

Bibliography

Alim, H. (2022). Introducing Raciolinguistics: Racing Language and Languaging Race in Hyperracial Times. In H. Alim, J. Rickford, & A. Ball (Eds.), Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race (pp. 1-30). Oxford Academic.

Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Herder and Herder.

Gogolin, I. (1994). Der monolinguale Habitus. Waxmann.

Kilomba, G. (2019). Memórias da plantação. Episódios de racismo cotidiano. Cobogó.

Lavoie, E. (2022). La perspective raciolinguistique comme outil de réflexion critique sur certains discours dominants. Revue Éducation et francophonie, 50(3), 1-17. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ef/2022-v50-n3-ef07163/1091115ar/

Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018). On decoloniality : Concepts, analytics, praxis. Duke University Press.

Phibs, A., (2019), Decolonising multilingualism. Multilingual Matters.

Prah, K., (2022). Language and Decolonization in Institutions of Higher Learning in Africa. In S. Makoni, M. Madany-Saa & B. Antia (eds.), Decolonial Voices, Language and Race (pp. 13-24). Multilingual Matters.

Schieffelin, B., Woolard, K. & Kroskrity, P. (Eds., 2023), Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195105612.001.0001

Walsh, C. (2013). Introducción. Lo pedagógico y lo decolonial: Entretejiendo caminos. In C. Walsh (Ed.), Pedagogías decoloniales. Prácticas insurgentes de resistir, (re)existir y (re)vivir (pp. 23-68). Ediciones Abya-Yala.

Credits

This resource has been created by Projet PEP (discuss • contribs) (Erasmus+ project, co-financed by the European Commission)

Lisa Brinkmann (Universität Hamburg)
Thierry Gaillat (Université de La Réunion)

Point added for a correct answer:
Points for an incorrect answer:
Ignore the questions' coefficients:

	hierarchisation of languages
	recognition of all languages
	recognition of the vernaculars of colonised countries.