Hello everyone! My name is Bryan Gonzalez and I am your host today for the Teaching Outside The Box Podcast. Today we will be diving into steps and strategies future teachers can use to build on cultural diversity within the classroom and promote linguistic equality within the classroom environment.

But before we start listing off some strategies, we must familiarize ourselves with the rooting issues, linguistic discrimination is the term used to describe the prejudice taken up against individuals because of their native language and the traits associated with said tongue. Now you see this term goes rather unnoticed and is an undermined issue within schooling systems.

A further breakdown into specific ideologies within the classroom is the standard language ideology

Define - this is the concept of language being the ideal of a homogeneous, logical, bounded variety which is reaffirmed through the education system. This variety is believed to be superior and represents the interests of the most powerful groups in society.
Example - Standard language ideology for examples is comparable to racism in that a portion of the issue is what can be seen at face value and more so the underlying tone of inferiority whenever the English language is further developed in what discriminatory groups see as unfit.

Taking things a step further we come across linguistic purism.

Define - describes what is 'good' or 'proper' and targets certain features or less 'prestiged' varieties of language.
Example - Linguistic purism can take the form of slang or other deviations from the english language being seen as inferior leading to discrimination.

So now that we’re familiar with our terms and the issues present, what can be done? Well for one it’s important to spread awareness of the issue in schools and the classroom environment. Linguistic equality can be achieved by encouraging diversity in school faculty and resources. In order to integrate and focus on the distinct individual differences of students, strategies can be as broad as implementing sociolinguistic ideas into lesson plans or as personal as one-on-one check in’s with students in order to ensure everyone is feeling included in the classroom.

Impacts these strategies have on children are:
The building of confidence
allowing them to become more intune with their cultural background outside of only learning/viewing it at home
Allowing them to learn about their classmates and their respective cultures, leading to well rounded individuals.
And finally giving students the ability to express themselves using their native tongue in the classroom without fear of being penalized, but rather commended for there expression of cultural diversity

Concluding :
These strategies will not only improve the education system but allow the students of today to become the leaders of tomorrow. If all teachers take into consideration the impact that breaking linguistic ideologies and standard English restrictions have on their students, the lack of cultural diversity within schools will become a thing of the past.