Inclusive Language: educating for sociolinguistic agency through digital ethnography

This project aims to present, in a pedagogically-sound and theorically-grounded manner, the intersectionality between sociolinguistic agency and language teaching and learning. Informed by critical and intercultural theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings, notions of language, language use, and culture are intertwined for the purpose of prioritising linguistic descriptivism over linguistic prescriptivism in educational settings – especially in language teaching and learning contexts. Inclusive language is categorised as a bottom-up phenomenon led mainly by members of sociocultural minorities, disseminated widely throughout social media, and integrated (or disregarded) consciously in language classrooms.
French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish are official languages in countries where language policies and language-in-education policies tend to be based on nationalist and prescriptivist ideologies for language teaching and learning – within and outside national borders. The combination of conservatism and European colonial heritage helps the advancement of monolingual and monocultural idealised standardisations through policy while languages and cultures which are not considered standard are silenced. Being silenced, however, does not mean being silent. Resistance and activism led by members of sociocultural and linguistic minorities have been appropriating, creating, and legitimising multiple varieties of languages and cultures through impactful social media presence and a strong commitment to inclusiveness.
Social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitter) are used as social environments for data gathering based on methodological guidelines for digital ethnographic research. Written, oral, and non-verbal materials were collected from public profiles, posts, comments, videos, audios, images, performances, etc. produced and/or shared by members of sociocultural minorities, based on class, disability, ethnicity, gender, language, race, religion, and sexual orientation, whose social media persona’s language of choice is French, Italian, Portuguese and/or Spanish. Inclusive language is categorised according to its use and negotiation around its use by those who identify as individuals and/or communities to whom such language refers.
Categories of inclusive language are introduced as the result of sociolinguistics agency and activism which allows for the decentralisation of language and culture standards that are established in policies. With the purpose of contributing to the advancement of inclusive language, frameworks for curriculum development and enactment, guidelines for syllabus and material design, and teaching strategies are proposed for language teaching and learning contexts. Those suggestions consider implications for educational settings and practitioners’ diverse circumstances – specifically for those under severe restrictions in term of freedom of speech.