Invited Forum: Bridging the “Language Gap”

Abstract

This Forum provides a range of voices on the Language Gap, as our aim is to shed light on the need for more critical dialogue to accompany the proliferation of political initiatives, policymaking, educational programs, and media coverage. We highlight some relevant background on the Language Gap and describe some of the research used to support the concept. The diverse slate of Forum contributions that we have assembled approach the Language Gap topic from a range of linguistic anthropological perspectives-theoretical, empirical, political, ethnographic, personal, and experiential. Based on an acknowledgment of the need to improve educational access for economically and culturally diverse students, the subsequent discussions provide a range of perspectives designed to move away from denouncing and altering home language skills as a panacea for academic woes and social inequity. Linguistic anthropology's focus on language learning ecologies, and the sophistication therein, provides a novel perspective on the Language Gap. The contributions included below problematize existing ideologies, demonstrate the wealth of resources within various communities, and propose new directions for school practices and policymaking in an effort to bridge the "language gap" toward a more inclusive and discerning view of linguistic practices across diverse groups. [Language Gap, poverty, education, language socialization] bs_bs_banner

Reexamining the Verbal Environments of Children From Different Socioeconomic Backgrounds

“…The validity of addressing only the number of words poor children hear in the preschool years as the cause of their inadequate school achievement has been questioned by anthropologists, linguists, and educators (e.g., Avineri & Johnson, 2015;Blum, 2015;Johnson, 2015). Critics charge that the Word Gap ignores the culturally defined contexts in which language is learned and used, and they take issue with the assumption that maternal vocabulary spoken directly to the child is the only speech that matters for language learning (Avineri & Johnson, 2015;Miller & Sperry, 2012;Zentella, 2015). They note that the practice of talking to the child in dyadic interaction is socioculturally defined (Brown & Gaskins, 2014;Duranti, Ochs, & Schieffelin, 2012;Miller, Cho, & Bracey, 2005), does not exist in many cultures (Brown & Gaskins, 2014;Duranti et al, 2012;Rogoff, 2003), and is not necessary for language learning (Akhtar & Gernsbacher, 2007).…”

Longform recordings of everyday life: Ethics for best practices

“…Parents in the United States report that receiving a variety of feedback from ambulatory recordingsfrom parenting advice to deviant behaviorswould increase their reported willingness to participate in mobile-sensing studies (Levin, Egger, Johnson, & de Barbaro, 2019), suggesting this type of feedback is valued among U.S. parents. Though these approaches are not without criticism (Avineri et al, 2015), they suggest that longform recordings could have direct benefits for some participants. Moreover, studies of interventions can be important in shaping public policy, thus having broad impacts for communities and society at large (Greenwood et al, 2017).…”

Reflections on an ethnographic project with elementary educators on the Wind River Reservation: A cautionary tale

“…I n t r o d u c t i o n T he field of educational anthropology provides a robust literature examining the tacit cultural biases of white classroom educators toward nonwhite students. Its social critique of schooling-thorough cultural analyses of policy and pedagogy-has clearly documented challenges to deficit model beliefs and practices under ethnographic scrutiny (see Avineri and Johnson 2015;Grenfell et al 2012;Heath 1983;Valdés 1996). However, cultural deficit models 1 that emerged formally in the 1960s and 1970s continue today by upholding white, mainstream practices as exemplars (McDermott et al 2009), highlighting proper instruction as a central means to overcome putative language and cultural deficiencies.…”

“…The field of educational anthropology provides a robust literature examining the tacit cultural biases of white classroom educators toward nonwhite students. Its social critique of schooling—thorough cultural analyses of policy and pedagogy—has clearly documented challenges to deficit model beliefs and practices under ethnographic scrutiny (see Avineri and Johnson ; Grenfell et al. ; Heath ; Valdés ).…”

“…), their conclusions have become a rallying cry for framing nonmainstream ways of speaking as deficient, driving deficit thinking among educators (Adair et al. ; Avineri and Johnson ) and using social class “as a proxy variable for ethnic differences” (Sperry et al. :1–2).…”