The ‘Language Deficit’ argument and beyond

This introductory paper gives some background to the origins of the special issue: it came about as a response to the re-emergence of the discourse of linguistic deficit in educational policy-making. Here, we outline the five papers contained in the issue, all of which challenge the idea that the language of socially disadvantaged children is linguistically deprived. The papers present new theoretical and empirical approaches to the question, and they extend the debates originally articulated by Labov in the 1960s. Overall, we as editors hope that this special issue will stimulate others to take up the argument, using new approaches and including those members of disadvantaged groups who have thus far not been allowed a voice.