The student's right to his own language: A response to colquit

Abstract

This article serves as a rebuttal to Jesse Colquit's article (CQ, Fall 1977) that charged current instructional language practices with racism and ethnocentrism. It is contended that current instructional methods emphasize the notion of social acceptability and adaptability, a goal designed to enhance the individual's exercise of his language rights. The confusion of “language” with “culture” led Colquit to make several erroneous and extreme positional statements in the original article. Current instructional practices do not exhibit racist or ethnocentric undertones; on the contrary, they demonstrate social utilitarianism designed to maximize each individual's personal and professional development.