(Re)Positioning in the Englishes and (English) Literacies of a Black Immigrant Youth: Towards a Transraciolinguistic Approach

Abstract

Increasing evidence confirms that multilingual and multiethnic English-speaking students face challenges with Englishes and English literacies when they migrate between their home countries and the United States. These challenges faced by immigrant and transnational students involve their dialects, accents, and communication styles, which lead them to question their capacity to speak English appropriately and grapple with what it means to be successful users of English literacy. Although examinations of these students’ Englishes and literacies often centralize language, it is not often that race and language are equally foregrounded to illustrate the effects of both elements in the literate practices of these youth, many of whom are students of color. This article draws on positioning theory to describe how a Black immigrant English-speaking adolescent undergoes shifts in her experiences that (re)position her as a literate user of Englishes. I illustrate how the individual and global analyses recommended by a raciolinguistic perspective reflected Jaeda’s development of a transraciolinguistic approach that allowed her to persist with a sense of agency. Implications for teachers, educators, researchers are outlined.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional Resources

1. Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 149-171.

The article, written for researchers, allows insights into the ways in which raciolinguistic ideologies can be considered as a basis for applying positioning in a raciolinguistic perspective.

2. Kim, E. (2014). Bicultural socialization experiences of Black immigrant students at a predominantly white institution. The Journal of Negro Education, 83(4), 580-594.

The article, written for researchers and practitioners, allows insights into the ways in which Black immigrant students face challenges with socialization in relation to race and allows insights that can facilitate the fostering of a transraciolinguistic approach by teachers and educators.

3. Strand, S. (2012). The White British‐Black Caribbean achievement gap: Tests, tiers and teacher expectations. British Educational Research Journal, 38(1), 75-101.

The article, written for researchers and practitioners, allows insights into the ways in which Black immigrant students face challenges with socialization in relation to race and allows for an understanding of how testing practices are reflected in this process.

Notes

¹ Englishes: The term Englishes refers to the many different varieties of English that represent a plurality, variation, and change within the English language as a norm (Kachru, 1992). Englishes represent the interweaving of both standardized (e.g., Standard American English) and nonstandardized (e.g., African American English) forms. I use nonstandardized Englishes (e.g., African American Vernacular English, Jamaican Creole, Trinidadian English-lexicon Creole) here to refer to Englishes that do not adhere to what has been determined to be a Standard English within a given context. Linguists refer to these variations as dialects or New Englishes (Kirkpatrick & Deterding, 2011), and to their counterparts, what I and others have labeled, standardized Englishes, as those that have been typically adopted for use in English literacy classrooms (e.g., Standard Jamaican English, Trinidadian Standard English, Standard American English).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patriann Smith

Patriann Smith serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of South Florida.