What is race? What does it mean to be White, Black, Asian, Latina/o, or any other identifiable race? Most of us probably think of it as something marked on our bodies. It’s the pigment of our skin, the shape of…
In my previous post, I presented my approach to balancing two competing needs: (1) preparing students who speak ‘nonstandard’ English to succeed as academic writers and (2) creating an environment that promotes respect for linguistic diversity among my students while…
The online magazine Splice Today is running an article I wrote titled “Should the U.S. Make English The Official Language?” Here’s a preview: Debates over immigration policy quickly devolve into arguments over the degree to which immigrants’ presence within our society is…
Summer is coming to an end. Many teachers in the US are preparing for a new school year (and some have already started). As I get ready myself to head back into the classroom, I’ve been thinking about the ideas…
Higher education in the United States has been struggling to deal with issues of linguistic diversity for many years. On the one hand, the majority of US citizens are English speakers, and most of this majority are monolingual (having forgotten…
linguistic pulse 