What Then Is Language Privilege?

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What then is language privilege? Although we sometimes talk about language as being something we choose, we are largely incapable of choosing which language(s) we speak. It is for the most part a coincidence having to do with where we were born or raised, what our racial or ethnic background might be, and to some extent the education we receive. This is especially true when we consider people’s first (or native) language(s). It is widely acknowledged in applied linguistics that as the age at which you begin learning a second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc.) language increases so too does the likelihood that you will never speak it in the same way that someone who is a native or first language speaker of that language does (please don’t take that to mean you shouldn’t try to learn a second language). Research shows that by the time you are of an age when you can make decisions about where you will live and what school you will attend, you are quite unlikely to ever speak an additional language (one learned past childhood) in a manner that is indistinguishable from someone who acquired the language in childhood. Of course, despite this limitation, you can learn to speak a second language in adulthood and be a completely competent and even eloquent communicator. However, this does mean that adults have very little control over their dominant language(s) (in other words, over the language or languages they are viewed as being native speakers of or that they feel most comfortable using). Since we acquire the language or languages that will likely come to be the language of our thoughts and our identities from the world around us as children, we have very little control over which language or languages these might be. In a world where all languages were treated equally, this would not be a big deal. However, languages are not treated equally in society. Being
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