Inclusive Language

Inclusive Language: Educating for Sociolinguistics Agency within the Language Learning Classroom analyses standardised and non-standardised uses of language that can be considered acts of sociolinguistic revolution from across a range of social media platforms. Using examples from French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, the book explores how linguistic inclusiveness related to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, the LGBTQIA+ community, and people with disabilities is a bottom-up phenomenon led mainly by members of marginalised socio-cultural groups, disseminated widely throughout social media, and integrated (or disregarded) consciously in language classrooms. Inclusive Language challenges the extreme prescriptivism of the languages analysed and contributes to the advancement of inclusive language within the language learning classroom by proposing frameworks such as critical digital ethnography for curriculum development and enactment, guidelines for syllabus and material design, as well as teaching strategies based on critical and intercultural pedagogies. The book is a valuable resource for language educators and students at undergraduate and graduate level education courses with a particular interest in language teaching.

Michele Saraiva Carilo is a Teaching Fellow in Language Education and the Programme Director of MSc Language and Intercultural Communication at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her teaching and research interests are related to Applied Linguistics, Intercultural Language Education, Language Teacher Education, Critical Pedagogies, Romance Languages - especially Brazilian varieties of Portuguese and Interlanguages across South America - Decolonisation of Language Teaching and Learning, and Inclusive Language. She represents the Institute for Language Education at the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee and co-founded the Research Group TILTED (Towards Intersectionality in Language Teacher Education) with the Language(s), Interculturality, and Literacies Research Hub.

Introduction Part I: What Language Doesn't Say Speaks Volumes 1. When Prescriptivism Ends, Does Descriptivism Really Begin? 2. From Language as a System to Sociolinguistics and Critical Intercultural Perspectives: Implications and Limitations for Language Teaching and Learning 3. Sociocultural Identities, Intersectionality, and Inclusive Language: Why Representation Matters and Creates Spaces for Agency Part II: Where and How Language Is Being Changed 4. Critical Digital Ethnography within Social Media Platforms as a Research Design 5. When Digital Activism and Digital Representation Collide Part III: Sociolinguistic Agents 6. Virtual Is Real: The Sociolinguistic Revolution Has Been Posted and Livestreamed 7. The Language Classroom as a Space Where Inclusive Language Goes to Thrive 8. Final (for Now) Remarks, Thoughts, and Expectations