DEI in the world languages classroom: “Keep us connected”

DEI in the world languages classroom: "keep us connected"We as world language educators have the unique distinction of explicitly teaching interpersonal communication.Interpersonal communication requires listening to one another, negotiating and interpreting meaning, arriving at a mutual understanding.We must understand the context of our interlocutor to effectively communicate with him or her.Therefore, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is not something ancillary to world language education but rather it is the very core of what we do.This is largely why Ohio's 2020 revision of language standards now leads with culture before communication.As the introduction to the revised standards explains, "The standards also change the order in which the learning end goals are presented, with Cultures preceding Communication.Placing the Cultures standards in the first position sends a clear message to Ohio educators that the study of culture is equal to language study.To achieve high levels of proficiency in another language, learners must simultaneously develop their intercultural competence and communicative proficiency."One of the points of teaching languages is to get our students to embrace differences-to embrace diversity.We want our students to view difference as normal and as good.Different is neither inherently worse nor better, it is simply different!Refusing to acknowledge differences is not only bad policy, it's bad pedagogy.We know that ignoring difficult issues like prejudice and race does not make them go away and that explicit targeted teaching about racism and prejudice is the most effective way to combat and eliminate it.Ignoring difference does not make it go away.It in fact makes matters worse.It fosters inequity and exclusion.DEI is essentially about expanding opportunities for everyone.Strategies for doing this include identifying and mitigating biases and being supportive to a wide range of students.Far from being divisive or threatening, this is welcoming and inclusive, which is what an effective classroom should be.The College Board's Advance Placement French, German, Italian, and Spanish Language and Culture Courses use the theme Public and Personal Identities.AP Classroom addresses this theme in the unit The Influence of Language and Culture on Identity.As the theme implies, people can have multiple identities.Our job as educators should be to not only make students aware of these possibilities in their home and target cultures, but also to assist them in successfully navigating these identities.In the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 musical episode "Subspace Rhapsody," Ensign Nyota Uhura, the Kenyan born specialist in xenolinguistics, questions her value as a crew member on the U.S.S.Enterprise.During her solo song, she realizes that her job as communication officer and linguist is to "light the path" for others to follow and, as the song title states, to "keep us connected."