Speaking Spanish in the US. Janet M. Fuller
Spanish as so illegitimate that he assumes that employees speaking it must be unauthorized immigrants (and threatens to call ICE), and he suggests that ‘they’ do not belong in ‘[his]’ country.
It’s important to note that there was a tremendous public outcry in response to this incident, again demonstrating the multiplicity of ideologies that can co-exist, as well as the possibility of resistance to hegemonic and/or racist ideologies. Particularly interesting is the response of one bystander who challenged the man; she can be heard on the video saying, ‘It is America,’ thus seemingly rejecting the one nation-one language ideology in favor of a construction of US national identity tied to the recognition (and perhaps celebration) of pluralism. And as we noted in Chapter 2, speaking Spanish in public can in and of itself constitute a form of resistance to anti-immigrant and anti-Latinx discourses (Sánchez-Muñoz & Amezcua, 2019).
Language ideologies also impact how people are treated in more subtle, but just as damaging, ways. For example, when schools treat one language or one language variety as the only ‘correct’ one, this tells students who speak differently that their way of speaking is wrong or bad and that, by extension, so are their ways of being, their identity, their family and their community. This denigration can be considered a type of symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1991; Zentella, 2017) or ‘linguistic terrorism’ (Anzaldúa, 1987). The negative impact is not only symbolic, emotional and psychological, but also academic. For one thing, there are added challenges of being asked to do schoolwork, and take tests, in a variety different from one’s own, especially if teachers don’t recognize that students are learning an additional variety. Consider how much harder it is for you to do well in school if lessons, instructions and recess all take place in a language you have not yet learned and, further, you are graded in part on how well you manage the grammar rules of that language. Moreover, language ideologies sometimes lead teachers to assume that certain students aren’t as smart as others based on the way they speak, which also impacts academic outcomes.
Just as language ideologies undergird negative assumptions about students who don’t speak ‘correctly,’ they also undergird employers’ decisions not to hire someone because they don’t sound ‘professional.’ Importantly, the use of the standard language ideology as a gate-keeping mechanism doesn’t just impact individual students or job-seekers, but instead contributes to structural inequality, in which disfavored groups are discriminated against (Fairclough, 1992, 2001; Flores & Rosa, 2015; Leeman, 2005, 2018b). In this way, as we noted earlier, hegemonic language ideologies play a role in the reproduction of social inequality. In the US, the hierarchy of languages portrays English as superior to Spanish (and other ‘foreign’ languages) and positions middle-class and White ways of speaking at the top; ethnoracial varieties (such as African American English, or AAE) as well as varieties associated with poor and/or rural people are positioned at the bottom. Thus, the standard language ideology plays a role in the socio-economic and political exclusion of these groups. However, because this same ideology portrays the favored variety (aka ‘standard English’) as inherently better, language discrimination is often naturalized, and not seen as discrimination at all. As we discuss below, ways of speaking are often portrayed as a choice, and this portrayal bolsters the view that negative consequences for speaking a particular variety or language are deserved, because the speaker could simply speak the standard. In turn, this allows people to express racist or discriminatory views while appearing (and claiming) to be defending common-sense views about ‘proper’ or ‘correct’ speech, or about English being the national language of the US. And because specific ways of speaking are linked to specific groups (i.e. AAE to African Americans, and Spanish to Latinxs), language ideologies contribute to structural racism without making reference to ethnic or racial identity (see Chapter 5).
Language ideologies can also become codified in language policies and laws. For example, the one nation-one language ideology and the related idea that monolingualism is the norm shape language-in-education policies such as the lack of bilingual education. As we discuss in more depth in Chapter 9, in the US, educational policies for speakers of minority languages (including speakers of Spanish) typically prioritize the acquisition of English over the development of students’ home languages, and even the learning of academic subjects. In the relatively rare cases where education in Spanish (or another minority language) is provided, this is usually only a temporary measure, as a way to teach English or content. Further, speakers of Spanish who also know English are generally not provided with any academic support to maintain or develop their abilities in Spanish. These same ideologies also explain why less than 20% of K-12 students in the US are enrolled in a ‘foreign’ language course, a percentage that is even lower at the elementary school level (American Councils for International Education, 2017; we discuss language-in-education policy in Chapter 9).
Thus far in this chapter we have given an overview of language ideologies and the ideological processes that mediate between language and the social world, and we have outlined some of the emotional, academic, professional and political consequences of language ideologies. In the second half of the chapter we will present various language ideologies that have an impact on Spanish in the US.
The Standard Language Ideology
We have used the standard language ideology as an example several times in our discussion of language ideologies above but now we want to provide a definition and make a few additional points. Lippi-Green (2012: 67) defines the standard language ideology as ‘a bias toward an abstracted, idealized, homogenous spoken language which is imposed and maintained by dominant bloc institutions and which names as its model the written language, but which is drawn primarily from the spoken language of the upper middle class.’ She points out that variation is inherent to all languages and language varieties, and thus languages are never actually ‘homogenous’; no two people speak exactly alike, and everybody speaks differently according to where they are, who they are with, what they are doing and what they are trying to express. For this reason, Lippi-Green describes the standard as ‘abstracted’ and ‘idealized.’ Nonetheless, the ideology sets up uniformity as a goal (Milroy & Milroy, 1999), and because certain ways of speaking are represented and perceived as being standard, they are seen as better than other varieties.
Despite favoring upper middle-class speech, the standard language ideology presents the standard variety as if it were neutral and equally accessible to everyone, thus erasing the unequal power relationships it reflects and reproduces (Woolard, 2005, 2016). This allows blame to be placed on people who ‘choose’ not to speak the standard. This is problematic for (at least) two reasons. First, people don’t just choose to speak one way or another; people’s languages, linguistic varieties and accents are obviously closely tied to their identities and their surrounding communities (Lippi-Green, 2012). Secondly, the standard language ideology makes it seem that subordinated groups could improve their status simply by speaking the standard variety. But this makes it seem as if language were the cause of social differences, when in reality language hierarchies are the mechanism by which inequality is reproduced. For example, let us take the case of AAE and Chicanx English. These varieties are often considered ‘non-standard’ and their speakers are frequently disparaged or discriminated against. If language were really the cause of this discrimination, then all the African Americans and Chicanxs who speak standard English would never face discrimination. However, this isn’t the case; institutional and interpersonal racism continue to operate, regardless of how people speak (Bartolomé & Macedo, 1999; Macedo, 1997).
But who chooses the standard and how do people know which variety is preferred? Who makes the rules? One way that language subordination (which goes hand in hand with the standard language ideology) plays out is that language is ‘mystified’ and speakers of the language are portrayed as not being able to use their own language without ‘expert guidance’ (Lippi-Green, 2012: 70). Regular people are delegitimized regarding how to speak their own language, and linguistic authority is assigned to ‘experts’ who are assumed to know more than ‘mere’ speakers of the language. In some countries, and for some languages, there are official language academies. Spain’s Real Academia Española (RAE; Spanish Royal Academy) was founded in 1713, and there are now affiliated national language academies throughout Latin America. With membership comprising prestigious members