(Re)Defining Freedom of Speech : Language Policy, Education, and Linguistic Rights in the United States

2009

In the United States, the current sociopolitical environment has produced a barrage of policies aimed at curbing the use of languages other than English. From a language ideologies perspective (Schieffelin et al. 1998), this discussion outlines the political architecture of anti-immigrant policies as they are realized in public classrooms. Schools are readily accessible to policymakers and effectively used in the process of instilling socially desired qualities while simultaneously filtering out unwelcome characteristics. As the largest minority group in the United States, the children of Latino immigrants have been especially affected by educational language policies. By tracing out the un…