They See Me Different…Like an Immigrant Cause of How I Sound: Perceived Difference, Limitations, & Co-Naturalizations of Race and Language

Abstract

Latinx English language learners (ELLs) have long been the intended targets of U.S. language planning and policy efforts that seek to manage both the use of Spanish and its speakers. Since 2000, Arizona has adopted some of the most restrictive educational policies that shape the schooling of its ELLs (e.g., Proposition 203 and House Bill 2064). Like other bilingual education policies, Arizona’s frame Latinx ELLs as needing linguistic remediation in order for ELLs to develop proficiency in academic English for them to be successful in the modern, global economy (Flores, 2016). Yet academic/home language distinctions have been shown to position multilinguals’ language practices as deficient compared to an unmarked norm even when ELLs ostensibly model language practices that are validated when produced by non-racialized individuals (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Rosa, 2016). What is not well-known is if/how multilinguals reconstruct raciolinguistic ideologies. This descriptive qualitative study is guided by the research question: In what ways do Latinx multilingual students reproduce raciolinguistic ideologies? To better understand the pervasiveness of raciolinguistic ideologies, I interviewed ten Latinx multilinguals from two high schools in southern Arizona and thematically analyzed the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings showed Latinx multilingual students reproducing raciolinguistic ideologies, particularly in relation to co-naturalizations of race and language, perceived linguistic limitations, and raciolinguistic difference. These findings suggest that multilinguals sometimes adopt the stances of white perceiving subjects that re/construct multilingual language practices as inferior (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Inoue, 2003; Rosa & Flores, 2017), and deviating from an idealized monolingual norm (Flores, 2013). I conclude that there is a need for practitioners to advance efforts to dismantle raciolinguistic ideologies, and that the interventions most needed by multilinguals are ones that challenge the ubiquity of raciolinguistic ideologies and contribute to their denaturalization.