The politics and praxis of academic English: Toward antiracist language pedagogy

Abstract

Academic English has drawn criticism for its hegemonic status, and its dominance and legitimization as an “appropriate” language variety within academic and mainstream discourse communities have been problematized for stigmatizing home languages and dialects of multilingual and multidialectal students. However, students' proficiency in academic language is cited as one of the critical factors affecting their academic success (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006); therefore, instructional support for multilingual and multidialectal students' academic language development has been crucial to the educational agenda. The debate surrounding the politics of academic English and of the instructional practices geared toward developing multilingual and multidialectal students' academic English proficiency has important pedagogical implications. Seeing value in the propositions on both sides of the debate, the authors of this article reflect on the implications of these propositions in classroom practice and seek ways to support multilingual students in their effort to develop their academic English proficiency without stigmatizing and suppressing their home language and dialect. The authors propose an integrated framework for antiracist language pedagogy that builds on critical inquiry, inclusive teaching, and a multiliteracies approach to academic language and literacy development.