Journal Article

Invited Forum: Bridging the \Language Gap\

Flores, Nelson, Brice-Heath, Shirley, Ochs, Elinor, Rosa, Jonathan, Paris, Django, McCarty, Teresa, Johnson, Eric, Blum, Susan, Avineri, Netta, Alim, H. Samy, Kremer-Sadlik, Tamar, Zentella, Ana Celia

2015

Overview

This Forum provides a range of voices on the Language Gap, as our aim is to shed light on the need for more critical dialogue to accompany the proliferation of political initiatives, policymaking, educational programs, and media coverage. We highlight some relevant background on the Language Gap and describe some of the research used to support the concept. The diverse slate of Forum contributions that we have assembled approach the Language Gap topic from a range of linguistic anthropological perspectives—theoretical, empirical, political, ethnographic, personal, and experiential. Based on an acknowledgment of the need to improve educational access for economically and culturally diverse students, the subsequent discussions provide a range of perspectives designed to move away from denouncing and altering home language skills as a panacea for academic woes and social inequity. Linguistic anthropology's focus on language learning ecologies, and the sophistication therein, provides a novel perspective on the Language Gap. The contributions included below problematize existing ideologies, demonstrate the wealth of resources within various communities, and propose new directions for school practices and policymaking in an effort to bridge the \"language gap\" toward a more inclusive and discerning view of linguistic practices across diverse groups.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,Wiley Periodicals, Inc
• Subject: Access to education / Anthropological linguistics / Anthropology / Community / Education / Educational Policy / Educational programs / Ethnographic research / Ethnography / Ideology / Inequality / Language / Language acquisition / Language Gap / Language Policy / Language proficiency / language socialization / Languages / Learning / Linguistic anthropology / Linguistics / Media coverage / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Policy making / Politics / poverty / Skills / Sophistication / Theoretical linguistics / Topic and comment / Wealth