Critical Language Awareness in the United States: Revisiting Issues and Revising Pedagogies in a Resegregated Society

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 24-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Samy Alim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Critical Language Awareness

scholarly journals Understanding Heritage Language Learners’ Critical Language Awareness (CLA) in Mixed Language Programs

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Laura Gasca Jiménez ◽  
Sergio Adrada-Rafael
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Critical Language Awareness ◽  
Upper Level

Despite the prevalence of mixed language programs across the United States, their impact on the unique socio-affective needs of heritage language (HL) students has not been researched sufficiently. Therefore, the present study examines HL learners’ critical language awareness (CLA) in a mixed Spanish undergraduate program at a small private university in the eastern United States. Sixteen HL learners enrolled in different Spanish upper-level courses participated in the study. Respondents completed an existing questionnaire to measure CLA, which includes 19 Likert-type items addressing different areas, such as language variation, language ideologies, bilingualism, and language maintenance. Overall, the results show that learners in the mixed language program under study have “somewhat high” and “high” levels of CLA. The increased levels of CLA in learners who had completed three courses or more in the program, coupled with their strong motivation, suggests that this program contributes positively toward HL students’ CLA. However, respondents’ answers also reveal standard language ideologies, as well as the personal avoidance of code-switching. Based on these findings, two areas that could benefit from a wider representation in the curriculum of mixed language programs are discussed: language ideologies and plurilingual language practices.

Theorizing Linguistic Racisms from a Language Ideological Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-89
Author(s):  
Paul V. Kroskrity
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Critical Language Awareness ◽  
Political Economic

Previous scholarship has linked the promotion of racializing projects to the larger political economic contexts of nation-states and their role in (re-)producing social hierarchies. Language, in the form of language ideologies (Kroskrity 2016), linguistic forms, and discursive practices, provides a special kind of resource in such racializing projects because it contributes not only overtly but also covertly to the hierarchical production of social inequality. This study builds on prior language ideological studies of linguistic racism in the United States (e.g., Hill 2008) and demonstrates how this theoretical orientation reveals patterns of overt and covert racism that derive from speakers’ consciousness across a continuum ranging from practical consciousness (Kroskrity 1998) to critical language awareness (Alim 2010). Language ideological data, including the publications of “salvage era” academic researchers, disclose a sector on the spectrum of linguistic racisms directed specifically at indigenous people and their culture by a settler-colonial state and its citizens.

AT WAR WITH DIVERSITY: U.S. LANGUAGE POLICY IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY. James Crawford. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2000. Pp. 144. $49.95 cloth, $15.95 paper. LANGUAGE DIVERSITY AND EDUCATION. David Corson. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2001. Pp. xi + 253. $29.95 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-128
Author(s):  
Timothy Reagan
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Vernacular English ◽  
Critical Language Awareness ◽  
Educational Debate

The need to recognize the presence and significance of language diversity in educational settings in the United States has become increasingly apparent to educators and educational policy makers in recent years. Among the more contentious debates about public education that we have witnessed have been those concerned directly with language and linguistic matters, not the least of which have been those dealing with the education of minority-language students in general and bilingual education programs in particular. Also, frequent touchstones for educational debate have been efforts to “recognize” African American Vernacular English as many children's first and dominant language variety—a matter of no linguistic controversy at all but one of immense political and educational controversy, as events in Oakland, California, made quite clear. Although of increasing significance and relevance, it is interesting that relatively few works have sought to target one of the more important audiences concerned with such debates: future classroom teachers. Issues of language and language diversity are largely absent from the teacher education literature, and preservice teachers are relatively unlikely to be exposed in any significant or in-depth way to such matters in their formal preparation (see Reagan, 1997). As David Corson notes in Language diversity and education, “A major challenge for beginning teachers is to understand how language differences construct and reflect ideologies and power relations, especially through the work that teachers do themselves” (p. 96). Fortunately, the two books under review here provide an excellent start for helping new and future teachers to develop the type of critical language awareness necessary if they are to meet the needs of their students more adequately.

Critical language awareness for the heritage context: Development and validation of a measurement questionnaire

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Beaudrie ◽  
Angelica Amezcua ◽  
Sergio Loza
Keyword(s):  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Critical Language Awareness ◽  
Development And Validation

Critical language awareness (CLA) is increasingly identified as a central component of the Spanish heritage language (SHL) classroom (Leeman, 2005; Martínez, 2003; among others). As a minority language, SHL is subject to sociopolitical, cultural, and economic forces that devalue its status. It is devalued in the eyes of the public, as a legitimate U.S. language, and as something worthy of being maintained. It is essential that students receive instruction not only in the heritage language, but also on the contextual factors that affect the Spanish-English sociopolitical relationship in the United States. Such instruction will enable learners to begin resisting heritage language loss by questioning language ideologies that promote English monolingualism and standard, monolingual Spanish as the ideal norm. The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire with adequate psychometric properties to measure CLA in the SHL context. The respondents were 301 students enrolled in SHL courses in four U.S. universities. The questionnaire results were submitted to a series of statistical analysis to investigate how well the instrument meets the criteria of reliability and validity specified in this study. The final 19-item instrument had adequate psychometric properties and detected change in the CLA of students in a class where CLA was taught.

Correlative microscopy in distrubuted (client/server) computing environments: tools for catalyzing the rapid dissemination of information about the cell biology of the human prostate

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 682-683
Author(s):  
A. Hakam ◽  
J.T. Gau ◽  
M.L. Grove ◽  
B.A. Evans ◽  
M. Shuman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Tissue Bank ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prostate Adenocarcinoma ◽  
Correlative Microscopy ◽  
Client Server ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Transplant Organ

Prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common malignant tumor of men in the United States and is the third leading cause of death in men. Despite attempts at early detection, there will be 244,000 new cases and 44,000 deaths from the disease in the United States in 1995. Therapeutic progress against this disease is hindered by an incomplete understanding of prostate epithelial cell biology, the availability of human tissues for in vitro experimentation, slow dissemination of information between prostate cancer research teams and the increasing pressure to “ stretch” research dollars at the same time staff reductions are occurring.To meet these challenges, we have used the correlative microscopy (CM) and client/server (C/S) computing to increase productivity while decreasing costs. Critical elements of our program are as follows:1) Establishing the Western Pennsylvania Genitourinary (GU) Tissue Bank which includes >100 prostates from patients with prostate adenocarcinoma as well as >20 normal prostates from transplant organ donors.

Digital image acquisition, processing, and analysis in a polymer microscopy laboratory

1994 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 454-455
Author(s):  
Vinod K. Berry ◽  
Xiao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Image Analysis ◽  
Digital Image ◽  
Image Acquisition ◽  
Image Transmission ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quantitative Image Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Image

In recent years it became apparent that we needed to improve productivity and efficiency in the Microscopy Laboratories in GE Plastics. It was realized that digital image acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis, and transmission over a network would be the best way to achieve this goal. Also, the capabilities of quantitative image analysis, image transmission etc. available with this approach would help us to increase our efficiency. Although the advantages of digital image acquisition, processing, archiving, etc. have been described and are being practiced in many SEM, laboratories, they have not been generally applied in microscopy laboratories (TEM, Optical, SEM and others) and impact on increased productivity has not been yet exploited as well.In order to attain our objective we have acquired a SEMICAPS imaging workstation for each of the GE Plastic sites in the United States. We have integrated the workstation with the microscopes and their peripherals as shown in Figure 1.

Silence of the Land: On the Historical Irrelevance of Territory to Congressional Districting and Political Representation in the United States

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Communities Of Interest

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.

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