Raciolinguistics and Spanish language teaching in the USA: from theoretical approaches to teaching practices

Abstract

Raciolinguistic perspectives have moved to the forefront of educational linguistics, examining how the co-construction of race and language (re)produce damaging ideologies from broader societal constructs in the classroom and beyond. Raciolinguistic theory helps us to unravel the white supremacist foundations of language education and policy. In this paper, after outlining the theoretical underpinnings of a raciolinguistic perspective, we offer three examples of applied practice demonstrating the power of denaturalizing the co-construction of race and language in linguistics and language teaching through multidisciplinary approaches. While we resist peripheralizing the role of racialization in our experiences teaching the Spanish language and preparing language teachers, we argue that the incorporation of a raciolinguistic perspective in curricula across disciplines is beneficial to society. Through the examination of raciolinguistic ideologies and decolonial theory, we contend that all students can be empowered to reflect on their positions and experiences to build empathy as a means to reimagine new [linguistic] worlds.