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‘The good English’: The ideological construction of the target language in adult ESOL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2021

Kelsey Swift Open the ORCID record for Kelsey Swift [Opens in a new window]
Kelsey Swift*
Affiliation:
The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Kelsey Swift The Graduate Center City University of New York 365 5th Ave New York, NY10016, USAkswift@gradcenter.cuny.edu
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Abstract

This project problematizes hegemonic conceptions of language by looking at the construction of ‘English’ in a nonprofit, community-based adult ESOL program in New York. I use ethnographic observation and interviews to uncover the discursive and pedagogical practices that uphold these hegemonic conceptions in this context. I find that the structural conditions of the program perpetuate a conception of ‘English’ shaped by linguistic racism and classism, despite the program's progressive ideals. Linguistic authority is centralized through the presentation of a closed linguistic system and a focus on replication of templatic language. This allows for the drawing of linguistic borders by pathologizing forms traditionally associated with racialized varieties of English, pointing to the persistence of raciolinguistic ideologies. Nevertheless, students destabilize these dominant ideas, revealing a disconnect between mainstream understandings of language and the way adult immigrant learners actually use language, and pointing to possibilities for alternate conceptions and pedagogies. (Language ideology, raciolinguistics, Standard English, adult ESOL)

Type
Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 309 - 331
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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