Language of Identity, Language of Access
By Michelle Benegas and Natalia Benjamin
Benegas and Benjamin offer a solution to the challenge of the association of the term, academic language with racism, which also carries with it, the idea that MLs need remediation in order to learn it. They write that as a result of this, educators are caught between two opposing ideas.
“1. Educators acknowledge the importance of validating and valuing home languages and dialects and welcoming them into the classroom.”
“2. Educators acknowledge that academic English is a form of social capital, and it is our responsibility to provide students with this tool for social mobility.”
The authors provide an excerpt from their book, “Language of Identity, Language of Access (LILA): Liberatory Learning in Multilingual Classrooms” as a theory-based model of best practices. They identify three considerations for teaching language. They are “language of access, the language of identity, and the language of criticality”.
Language of Identity helps students feel comfortable as multilingual learners. The example given was the use of the book Code Talkers. After reading the text, the students wrote about their own experiences from one of three writing prompts.
Language of Criticality can help students understand the power dynamics in society through critical analysis of the story and connect it back to their own experiences.
Language of Access is a transformation from academic language, but the idea of which has changed over time just as language changes. The article traces these changes in a chart from 2003 to 2020, and then adds a note for 2025. Instead of using the term academic language, it should be considered language of access. This doesn’t diminish the importance of teaching the language. It is still “a heavy lift” that involves not only the study of vocabulary, but also syntax and discourse, and it requires careful planning about teaching language. First, noticing what students need in their language development, and second, what they need to understand a lesson.
The use of all three of these components equally “With intentionality in our instruction, our students can develop their language skills while also enjoying a humanizing learning experience that affirms and empowers them.”
Mohamed addresses these two questions from teachers who are trying to value their students’ home languages.