English as Gatekeeper King, E. T., & Scott, L. M. (2014). English as gatekeeper: Linguistic capital and American schools. Journal for Multicultural Education, 8(4), 226-236. doi:10.1108/JME-06-2014-0026

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Article #5 Abstract
Submitted by Toby Zhu
King, E. T., & Scott, L. M. (2014). English as gatekeeper: Linguistic capital and
American schools. Journal for Multicultural Education, 8(4), 226-236.
doi:10.1108/JME-06-2014-0026
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to progress the dialogue on language rights in the urban
classroom. Research has evidenced how language can serve as a powerful tool in
mainstream ideologies; more specifically, the preferred and dominant use of Standard
Written English in the American classroom has demonstrated how language serves as a
gatekeeper for student success. This paper calls for a more democratic notion of language
usage that denies the “gatekeeper” of English into specific educational tracks.
Design/methodology/approach – By framing the issue of linguistic diversity through a
theoretical analysis of cultural reproduction theory, this paper demonstrates how
language serves as a bridge in building and negotiating cultural identities for students. In
addition, an examination of how language serves as a stratification tool in educational
contexts provides credence for reform initiatives.
Findings – In the field of linguistics, the shift in verbal and language repertoires has
provided a new paradigm for rethinking what constitutes as an acceptable and innovative
language use.
However, structures such as schools have remained static in their vision of linguistic
success in the classroom, assessing students’ language abilities in the specifics of
standard written English.
Originality/value – This analysis encourages recommendations for examining current
curriculum with regards to the promotion of language diversity, encouragement for
teachers to reexamine their individual perceptions about language difference and the
realignment of assessment and academic measurement tools to better accommodate
students with linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Keywords African American Vernacular English, English language learner, Linguistic
diversity, Standard written English, American English (from the authors)
Introduction
One article from the Huffington Post announced a number of dialect maps which
inform the 122 illustrations of American people’s language choices. Twenty-four hours
after the dialect maps were posted on the Internet, there resulted over 17 millions hits on
the various word choices, slang, and pronunciation. While the dialect maps seem not to
be harmful, American students who are accustomed with linguistic diversity and able to
be in the majority language group are benefited in public schools. Nowadays, language
use such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and hybrids of Spanish and
English have become more complex within school curriculum. Language becomes a
labeling agency when limited English-proficient (LEP) and tracking based on linguistic
ability are in practice in the US schools.
This paper tackles the issues on English as a second language (ESL) curricula and
placement tests. The authors also talks on the effects of tracking in public school settings.
The authors also illustrates the linguistic and cultural capital in the classroom based on
Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. Recommendations are also provided for
educators to approach linguistic choice with a thinking shift from “structured to fluid
verbal repertoires.”

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English language learners in the ESL classroom
Lau V. Nichols (1974) and Castañeda v. Pickard (1981) are two laws that concern
language-minority students. The first one points out that non-English-speaking students
were not given an equal educational access because of their inability to comprehend
English. The latter one provided a three-part criterion established by the court to assess
the equity of ESL and bilingual programs to satisfy the Equal Educational Opportunities
Act of 1974 requirements. These criterion require ESL and bilingual programs to be
sound in educational theory and effectively implemented to overcome language barriers.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2011 has disaggregated the English language
learner (ELLs) into the LEP subgroup which stresses the English language proficiency
tests and expect the schools to improve the ELLs’ academic performance within one to
two years instead of five to seven years for them to grow their academic language
proficiency, because the ELLs are expected to exit from the LEP status within a relatively
short period of one to two years.
The World-Class instructional Design and Assessment Placement Test is used to
assess a student’s English ability if during school registration his/her home spoken
language is indicated as other than English. If the result of assessment cut scores shows
that the student has limited English proficiency, he/she would be labeled LEP and get
ESL services. If the student wants to get rid of the LEP status, he/she then needs to get
higher score than the official cut-score required by the yearly performed English
proficiency assessment. Because the students are normally assessed by the English
proficiency test rather that more well rounded and authentic assessments, for instance, the
writing samples or class presentations, etc., these yearly English proficiency tests then
function as gatekeepers, setting the bar for what courses are allowed for the students to
take and which tracks are for the students to follow. For instance, second generation LEP
Latino(s)/Latina(s) (those born in the USA) students, although cable to switch between
Spanish and English in a linguistically competent manner, are often viewed by their
teachers as “poor students” because of their difficulty to pass standardized tests.
Furthermore, English language, serving as a gatekeeper, also prevents both first and
second generation Latino(s)/Latina(s) from getting involved in advanced courses.
African American students’ negotiation of language identity
African AMerican Vernacular English (AAVE), also named as Ebonics,
non-standard American English, African American English, Black English Vernacular
and Black Dialect, has been discredited as a language and even as a legitimate dialect due
to its difference from the standard English and the linguistic hierarchies and race issues in
the USA. African American students who are much like Latino(s)/Latina(s) students have
a hard time earning “respect for their language and cultural choices within societal
structures in American schools”.
In 1997, a pilot reading primer entitled Bridges was used in schools with large
numbers of AAVE speakers with the intention to “bridge” AAVE and the SWE through
culturally engaging stories. Although students liked this reading primer and improved
their reading and writing skills through it, the controversy of “teaching” AAVE has
caused the Bridges program to cease.
In 1979, a precedent was created by the court case Martin Luther King Junior
Elementary School Children V. Ann Arbor School District [1979] 473 F Supp.
1371,1376 through the use of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Equal Educational
Opportunities Act of 1974 for the purpose of securing the linguistic rights of 11 African
American students who were labeled “linguistically handicapped”. Consequently,

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teachers were required to modify their methodologies of teaching to accommodate all of
their students’ language needs with the consideration of dialects and language when
doing diagnostic testing and conduct teaching.
In 1996, the school board members of Oakland California deemed Ebonics
spoken by the majority of their students should be used as a means of instruction in their
English as Second Dialect class (ESD). Additionally, teachers who were well prepared in
both Ebonics and the Standard English were given salary increases to promote learning
for students who have limited English proficiency in SWE. Nevertheless, criticism and
national debate arose questioning the underlying motives of such practice, despite the
board members’ claim of maintaining “the richness of cultural languages of students in
the district”. As a result, the school board had to end the ESD programs.
Cultural reproduction theories
Unlike Karl Marx, Max Weber (2010/1909) argues that the stratification of
society is not just enacted through economic factors but by other spheres as well such as
family, politic, and religion. Language is one of the factors that contribute to social
capital and social culture. Nevertheless, the linguistic intricacies are overlooked by the
dominant white culture of the US amid the notions of social capital and linguistic capital
that the ELLs and speakers of AAVE lack.
Pierre Bourdieu (1974), on the other hand, focuses on cultural reproduction where
social class and group status is transferred by one generation to the next by the replication
of the existing social structure. The central piece of social reproduction is power
distribution which reflects the domination and inequality of the social structure. Utilizing
Bourdieu’s framework, Lareau (2011) talks the linguistic and social advantages that
parents from middle-class families provide their children through the various capital. She
asserts that children in these families are exposed to extensive vocabularies provided by
their parents that help them to engage in dialogue with adults. On the contrary, parents
from low SES families may use “linguistically less complex directives” with their
children which may result in “less-developed vocabulary and less practice in
institutionalized discourse” for their children. Moreover, parents who are with privileged
status find ways to execute their cultural superiority and ensure their children be awarded
a higher status track.
The stratification of education: tracking by language
Minority student group is silenced in language and in actions to engage in the
classroom discourse because the instruction processes don’t “reflect the skills that are
inherently taught”. And this may further produce a lower self-esteem about their own
cultural values.
A classic study on how kindergarten students were grouped based on their
demographic information reveals a cultural divide in the classroom (Rist, 1970). In this
study, students were arranged with permanent seating based on their demographic
information. The study shows the children who were placed at the first table spoke more
with the teacher while the children who were placed at the second and third table spoke
less frequently. The children at the first table were more accustomed to the “school
language”-the Standard American English while the children at the second and third table
were not. The study further shows that the children at the second and third tables were
not provided with the same access to educational opportunities as the children at first
table who demonstrated “the linguistic and cultural norms of white middle-class
children”.

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Students are sorted by their linguistic skills and consequently, the knowledge
distributed to them are categorized as “spelling”, “how to write checks” and how to
“distinguish one rock from another”. On the other hand, students with high-track status
were treated with knowledge on “different theories of psychology”, “how to analyze a
famous writing” and “inductive reasoning”. This type of tracking makes the students
from minority group fall further behind. Poorly run ESL classrooms can also be
detrimental to the students’ academic outcomes. Many ESL classroom researchers found
that students severely segregated with other English-speaking peers lack the cultural and
linguistic support and are not enabled with academic access to graduate on time.
The stratification of education: tracking by language
There needs to be thinking shift about language hierarchies and communication
which will foster “a more open classroom, access to the higher level course and greater
success for all students”. It is suggested to emphasize communication, understanding and
a hybridity of identity when it comes to the use of language instead of seeing it as “the
linguistic capital and power of the dominant culture”. Nevertheless, research shows that
people in power are hesitant to let go of their power. Therefore, it is critical to make sure
that students are educated by methods that equip them with linguistic and cultural capital
which will benefit them to “bypass the gatekeeper of SWE.”
Recommendations
At the pre-service level, it is suggested to evaluate the current curriculum to
promote language diversity. Pre-service teachers should be equipped to work with
students from different linguistic backgrounds. Teacher training programs also need to be
more linguistically sensitive in a way that prepares the teachers to address classroom
language differences.
At the in-service teacher level, teachers should value the students’ strengths rather
than their language “deficiencies”. They should assert more language variation activities
as an instruction method to “allow students to develop the skill of transitioning and
expanding their language styles”. Teachers also need to seek increased parental
involvement to have a better understanding of the students’ language and cultural needs.
By doing this, students will feel more value of their own culture and this in return will
influence their academic outcomes.
At the district and state level, it’s suggested that the assessment and academic
measurement tools to be realigned so that “they better accommodate students with
linguistically diverse backgrounds”. More efficient and longitudinal instruments need to
be developed by linguistic specialists to measure students’ performance with the purpose
of reducing labeling and improved academic outcomes.
Conclusion
Educators need to let go of the deficit thinking which stratifies students based on
their linguistic capital but to appreciate the language diversity and allow the student to
negotiate language in the classroom discourse and contribute to the “renegotiation and
reimagining of language repertoire” before they are able to master the SWE.
Critique:
This article is a great resource to understand the linguistic impact on students’
academic outcome in the context of social reproduction in the larger educational setting.
However, the thinking shift of language repertoire section has too much jargon for me to
comprehend.