The author examines some of the critical issues raised by Baker-Bell (2020a) about language education in the United States. The challenges associated with linguistic justice are related to a history of linguistic discrimination in the United States, which many sources have documented and affected many different linguistic backgrounds and peoples.…

Shin and Mill (2021) propose four steps children go through when learning "variable form use." Although I applaud Shin and Miller's focus on morphosyntactic variation, their accrual of evidence is post hoc and selective. Fortunately, Shin and Miller recognize this and encourage tests of their ideas. In support of their work, I share data…

The purpose of this article is to discuss issues of language, specifically African American Vernacular English (AAVE), as it relates to the reading performance of African American children. Previous research on the science of reading provides a research-based framework that is a starting point for evidence-based research that can be used to…

The objective of this single-class activity is to get students to make connections between Eurocentric standards of communication and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) through a womanist rhetorical lens. This activity sheds light on how professional, academic, and corporate communicative spaces tend to deflect and reject Black people…

Through teaching and research, the authors have seen the magnificent ways that Black people use language to connect people, families, and communities across the Black diaspora. When students come to school using African American English, they know that many of their relatives, friends, and neighbors speak like them. They may also know that many of…

There is tremendous variation in the use of American English by major geographic regions, as well as within these regions or cities, and by cultural background. The variety of English spoken by many African American people in the United States is called African American English (AAE). AAE affects early literacy skills in ways that may require…

This article makes a case for why Black Language (BL) must be a part of teachers' conceptualizations of multilingualism in U.S. contexts. BL is a living linguistic legacy, an embodiment of Black culture, and much more than simply a list of distinct grammatical features. For teachers to move toward dispositions and language and literacy pedagogical…

Leveraging ground-breaking work of Black feminist scholars alongside established techniques of focus group and community-based participatory research, we explain sister-girl talk as a novel method for collecting and analyzing group interview data with Black women. We outline the procedures for consultation, facilitation and preliminary analysis of…

This essay describes writing and conversations that took place in my First Year Writing class at St. John's University in Queens, New York. I analyze student responses to my invitation to consider more deeply--and wield more consciously--the language resources they bring into classrooms. I seek to understand the potential for their often deeply…

The field of TESOL has experienced a renewed interest in the role of race in language teaching and learning within the context of the recent "racial reckoning" in the US. As a result, the field has seen a plethora of DEI position statements, initiatives, and publications on race, racism, and anti-racism over the past two years. However,…

"Talking College" shows that language is fundamental to Black and African American culture and that linguistic justice is crucial to advancing racial justice, both on college campuses and throughout society. Writing from a linguistics-informed, Black-centered educational framework, the authors draw extensively on Black college students'…

Multicultural and culturally sustaining approaches to education help educators act on two essential concepts: that each student is unique and that uniqueness is central to the academic and social development of every student. Language is a key aspect of this uniqueness, and because language is integral to culture and identity, understanding…

Purpose: Spoken language sample analysis (LSA) is widely considered to be a critical component of assessment for child language disorders. It is our best window into a preschool child's everyday expressive communicative skills. However, historically, the process can be cumbersome, and reference values against which LSA findings can be…

Purpose: The purpose of this tutorial is to guide practitioners to a critical praxis of speech, language, and hearing. This tutorial provides a foundational knowledge of critical theory as an approach to framing, conceptualizing, and interpreting phenomena and demonstrates its application to the speech, language, and hearing profession. Method:…

Children who speak with nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialects represent a growing population in the U.S. public school system. This article provides recommendations for how teacher educators can support novice teachers in addressing the needs of NMAE speakers with or at risk for learning disabilities. This article focuses on four core…