Social Justice in Language

As a language teacher, I not only have the opportunity to deal with many social justice issues, but I will inevitably run into some of them. For example, there will undoubtedly be students taking a second language, especially recent immigrants to the United States who are having difficulty in learning English, that feel that they are ostracized and will not have the same opportunities because of their accent or skill level in English. This is, unfortunately, true to a certain extent, not because it has to be, but because there are many people who choose to exclude certain people based solely on the sociolinguistic characteristics of that person. Someone's accent and the vocabulary they use, tend to reveal a lot about a person, and for many people who are linguistically ignorant, this is the perfect opportunity to criticize and make themselves feel more superior for being a supposed "master" of their own native tongue. I will be helping many students learn English, but I will also be teaching Spanish to the same students who make fun of people who's native tongue is the one they are studying. This provides me with an opportunity to englighten these students on the vailidity and importance of every language. (AI)