“Technically an EL”: The Production of Raciolinguistic Categories in a Dual Language School

Abstract

Discourses of languagelessness that suggest that Latinxs are not fully proficient in either English or Spanish have a long history in the United States. These discourses produce raciolinguistic categories that frame the bilingualism of Latinxs as deficient and in need of remediation. In this article, the researchers examine one such raciolinguistic category: students in dual language programs who are classified as both English learners and first language (L1) users of English. The authors offer case studies of three students who fit this linguistic profile. They examine the ways that teachers working with these students struggle to make sense of this raciolinguistic category and often resort to discourses of languagelessness as an explanation. The researchers document the ways that these discourses negatively impact the educational supports provided to the students. The authors end with a call for developing new conceptualizations of the language practices of Latinx students in these programs that resist discourses of languagelessness and, instead, frame the fluid bilingualism of these students as a resource for learning.