Terminological tussles: Taking issue with ‘English as an Additional Language’ and ‘Languages Other Than English’

• Published in: Power and education Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 121 - 128
• Main Author: Cunningham, Clare
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2019
• Subjects: Ambiguity (Semantics); Bilingual Education; Classification; English (Second Language); Labeling (of Persons); Multilingualism; Native Language; Native Speakers; Power Structure; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Social Bias; Social Justice; Discourse; EAL; monolingual ideology; terminology; Languages Other Than English; Languages Beyond English
• ISSN: 1757-7438; 1757-7438
• DOI: 10.1177/1757743818806919

The field of English language teaching and learning has long been full of a plethora of acronyms and terms. Those terms that relate to languages and users of languages that are not those privileged or dominant in any given context should be subject to particular scrutiny. The author argues that labels applied to individuals and less dominant languages have the power to entrench and perpetuate monolingual ideologies and deficit-model thinking with regard to multilingualism in education. This article seeks to offer a critical examination of terminology pertinent for children designated as EAL (English as an Additional Language) in the UK school context (as well as other anglophone countries) and to problematise the most commonly used of ideologically entrenched terms. The author proposes a new option that reconfigures the current hierarchical relationship between the dominant language, English, and those that have a lower status within the wider society. The author concludes by arguing that this discussion is arguably a starting point for a broader reconceptualisation of many of the terms and acronyms that abound in the field of language teaching and learning.