Undoing Competence: Coloniality, Homogeneity, and the Overrepresentation of Whiteness in Applied Linguistics

Abstract

Conceptualizations of competence that permeate applied linguistics systematically fail to account for the role of racialization in language learning and assessments thereof. To interrogate the racialization of linguistic competence, we first examine its discursive emergence in conjunction with the ideological construction of linguistic homogeneity as central to the naturalization of race within the context of European colonialism. We then track how ideas about linguistic competence took shape jointly with a genre of the human that is overrepresented as white, as well as how this particular genre of the human informed foundational conceptualizations of communicative competence. After analyzing relevant examples of how communicative competence has been taken up in ways that reify this racializing ideology, we end with an alternative conceptualization of the goals of language learning that focuses on the worldviews and lifeways of racialized communities to move beyond universalizing conceptions of competence as the desired outcome.

Gender‐justice beyond inclusion: How trans knowledges and linguistic practices can and should be re‐shaping language education

“…Consider, for example, that many proponents of écriture inclusive [inclusive writing] in French maintain binarist positions (Knisely & Russell, 2024, Introduction). 17 These considerations resonate with those brought to the fore by others who are questioning concepts like native speakerism (Espinosa Alvarado, 2019;Gramling, 2021), appropriateness and competence (Anya, 2022;Flores & Rosa, 2022;Namboodiripad & Henner, 2022), and numerous other manifestations of hegemonies in our fields. Together, we are building toward ways of languaging and learning to language that enlarge the ways that we (and others) think, teach, research, and do language (Knisely & Russell, 2024, Introduction; see also Hudley et al, 2020).…”

“…This attention to ourselves and to one another as whole persons has also provided fertile ground for laying bare who has (and continues to be) minoritized in and by our fields and the forces that contribute to persistent, wide‐ranging inequities and injustices. Growing social awareness has meant extensive conversations about identity writ large (Norton, 2013) and about race (Anya, 2020, 2022; Anya & Randolph, 2019; Flores & Rosa, 2022; von Esch et al., 2020), class, sexuality (Nelson, 2008; Paiz, 2020; Pakuła, 2021), disability (Henner & Robinson, 2021; Watzke, 2020), or any combination of these and other aspects of being and belonging (Motschenbacher, 2016; Paiz & Coda, 2021). Considerations of gender have also figured in this list (Kissau et al., 2010; Knisely, 2017; Sunderland, 2010), although attention to gender modality has been considerably scanter.…”

“…These are no doubt issues with widespread, systemic causes that will not be solved by shifts in pedagogical approach alone, but by a broader undoing and remaking of our systems to be more humane. 6 Although the concept of competence merits troubling (see, e.g., Anya, 2022;Flores & Rosa, 2022). 7 Intercultural competence can be understood as an ability and desire to communicate (or negotiate symbolic meaning) effectively, appropriately, and ethically with diverse individuals and groups whose cultural practices are other than one's own.…”

Towards a decolonial syntax: Research, teaching, publishing

“…At the same time, the history of syntax is intrinsically connected with broader positivist movements in linguistics which have valued moves towards scientism (see also Clemons, this volume) and away from studying language-in-context (Goldsmith and Laks 2007, Sankoff Gibson et al 2023preprint 6 1988. While these theoretical moves are most closely associated with "Mainstream Generative Grammar" (Cullicover and Jackendoff 2006), there have been knock-on effects across linguistic subdisciplines, where many assumptions about structuralism and generative grammar are taken for granted (Bell et al 2016, Flores andRosa 2022).…”

Deshaciendo la raciolingüística1

“…En nuestro estudio de la raza y el lenguaje, hemos buscado interrogar críticamente modos de ser y saber que surgieron junto con la globalización del colonialismo europeo, así como su desvinculación de esta historia a través de marcos que los posicionan como universales (Rosa & Flores, 2017). Esto ha informado nuestro análisis de intentos de describir supuestos universales (socio)lingüísticos que se conformaron conjuntamente con lógicas coloniales europeas de larga data que vinculan la europeidad con la homogeneidad ordenada y la no-europeidad con la heterogeneidad rebelde (Flores & Rosa, 2022). Así que, aunque la (socio)lingüística a menudo se posiciona como una intervención progresista que busca promover la justicia racial, está construida sobre una base ideológica de colonialismo.…”