From academic language to language architecture: Challenging raciolinguistic ideologies in research and practice

In this article, I argue that academic language is a raciolinguistic ideology that frames racialized students as linguistically deficient and in need of remediation. I propose language architecture as an alternative framing of language that can serve as a point of entry for resisting these raciolinguistic ideologies in both research and practice. I use this framework as a lens for analyzing the literacy demands of the Common Core State Standard (CCSS). Using data collected as part of a larger ethnographic study, I illustrate how Latinx children from bilingual communities have unique opportunities for engaging in the language architecture called for in the standards. I then describe a unit plan that I developed from this perspective. I end with a call for situating language architecture within broader political struggles seeking to dismantle the political and economic inequities that are the root causes of deficit perspectives of Latinxs and other racialized students.