Language ideology and academic language as a medium of socialization

Abstract

In this chapter we show how academic language (AL) functions as a medium of socialization. In contrast to formalist approaches to AL that presume that AL is a natural and necessary part of education and academics and which thus seek to identify AL language practices so that they can be taught to children, we instead take a language ideology perspective. From this perspective, we describe three language ideological processes through which AL is naturalized, namely rhematization, dicentization, and regimes of linguistic recognition, thus revealing the power-laden nature of AL, particularly with respect to race and class. We review linguistic anthropological case studies that show how social agents (including children, teachers, and researchers) denaturalize AL in everyday practices such that we can see the language ideological work behind the naturalization of AL. We close by considering literature in instructional design and teacher education that offers ways for teachers, administrators, and other educators to denaturalize AL while working within an educational system that valorizes it.