Defend language classes:

1. Bad consequences for un-revitalized language

a. Can disappear completely
b. With the loss of a language comes the loss of creoles which can
sometimes represent different pockets of culture
2. Strengthens principles of linguistic relativity
i. Promotes idea of heteroglossia
b. Heteroglossia
i. Because several realities existing in student’s mind now, not
just one reality
ii. Normalizes other cultures
1. When more normalized, prevents an othering of othe
cultures, which stems from an americentric perspective
that is engendered in many US students
a. Less ethnocentrism, in which one judges other
cultures relative to their own, + less exoticism, as
one realizes that there is more than America
c. Sheds light on ethnopragmatics of foreign cultures
i. Teaching a foreign language illuminates connections between
English and other languages
1. Especially in how foreign languages effects our thinking
and social interactions
a. Studying both languages can reveal potential
common ground between the ethnopragmatics
of both English and another language
1. Learning another language useful
in studying roots of certain
unconscious biases shared by both
cultures
a. Highlights the sometimes
overlooked neocolonial
connotations of Negro
b. Negro
i. Negre in french and
negro in English
both share its roots
in ethnocentrism, in
which the whites are
the most important
priority of the slave
ii. In French, used to
refer to indigenous
Africans in French
colonies
iii. Used as way in both
languages to refer to
 indigenous Africans,
or to refer to
slaves—connotes
The word reinforced
connection between
dark skin color and
exotic danger
ii. Just from one word, can understand
differences and similarities of a word and
its equivalent French translation
b. Hence increases reflexivity—critically thinking
about how one thinks+allows us to better
acknowledge the way in which experiences may
impact our unconscious bias
ii. Educates others on neocolonial effects of former colonial
empires such as France
3. But…one must be careful in teaching language
a. Run the risk of promoting an ethnocentric viewpoint
b. But also runs risk of fantasizing or exoticizing cultures
4. Makes Americans multilingual
a. We are usually unilingual and become ethnocentric
Need to expand curriculum
 Our curriculum is way too narrow
o Latin, Chinese, French, Spanish (4 languages, who do not need
revitalization, popular enough already)
 May promote globalization, as you are assigning priority to
more popular langauges while leaving behind the less popular
o Leaving behind the languages that need revitalization/are on the
verge of extinction (ex Gurung)
 Reinforces notions of globalization (especially with Chinese)
 Globalization can be dangerous because:
o Further marginalizes endangered languages
 Forces people who speak endangered
languages to use the
“globalized”/accepted language