Many kinds of people with differences in race, ethnicity, and social status speak the same language. However, depending on their background, they will use the varieties of the language that challenge the concept of Standard Language Ideology (SLI). According to Kircher and Fox (2021), SLI is a socially constructed hierarchy of the language enforced by the elites who prioritize social positions. In other words, this is a belief in rigid language parameters that define the correctness of language use based on the norms of the educated ruling elite. As the scholars who use this concept, Chun and Lo (2016) claims that SLI is not just about the language, but it has ties to ethnoracial ideologies of people who use the language that they learned from their surroundings (220). Thus, focusing on the English language, lower classes and racial minorities’ usage of language will be considered inferior to those who are white and educated.
In the real world, the SLI can be easily seen in different parts of the country or even in big cities where social stratification is present. Kircher and Fox (2021) examine London as a melting pot of multiple ethnicities, which is evident from the diversity of English spoken in London. They refer to the transformation of the language as Multicultural London English (MLE), where some words are pronounced differently, and grammar rules deviate from a “standard” English language. As was expected, most users of MLE are working-class people or migrants who do not always have access to higher education. Thus, they are perceived as a threat to non-MLE speakers who represent the “correct way of speaking English.” The language examination is important and relevant to the course because it shows that a person’s background is reflected in the language used. In the bigger picture, language can illustrate the existing social order.
Works Cited
Chun, W. E., and A. Lo. Language and Racialization. Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology. Routledge, 2016, pp. 220-233.
Kircher, Ruth, and Sue Fox. “Multicultural London English and Its Speakers: A Corpus-Informed Discourse Study of Standard Language Ideology and Social Stereotypes.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vol. 42, no. 9, 2021, pp. 792-810.