Celebrate plurilingualism and the accents, colloquialisms, dialects, and speech patterns that help make our voices unique. This initiative highlights the power of using your authentic voice and provides you with the resources and supports to use and develop that voice.
Why it matters
Standard Academic English (SAE) can be seen as the only way to speak properly and is often presented as objectively more correct or superior to other dialects of english. But the idea that there’s only one right version of english, or any language, starts to fall apart when you ask why a specific version is seen as better than another. The reason is proximity to power, usually historic colonial power.
Language is a tool for communication and if your audience understands you, the communication works. We often discuss dialects as if they only exist when there is enough of a difference that we can easily categorize it. We might also know about a dialect if it’s used by a large enough population it enters public conversations. But everyone speaks a version of english different from SAE. We all code-mesh when we mix languages, dialects, or even versions of english together to communicate.
learn more
The Student Learning Hub provides a philosophy on Linguistic Justice, Language Awareness, and Plurilingualism that recognizes the inherent value of linguistic and cultural diversity in communication. They also provide a handout (see below) to help you learn more about academic English, code meshing, and pluralingualism.
See below to discover how authors Aiden Thomas, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and M.L. Rio use plurilingualism and code-meshing to express their authentic voices and entering our language awareness draw for your chance to win a copy of their books.
Get support
Consultants in the Student Learning Hub and Centre for Scholarly Communication are trained to support you in using your own authentic voice in your writing.
Undergraduate students can book an appointment with Writing and Language Consultants in the Student Learning Hub.
While we can’t change what instructors’ grade on, you can ask an instructor if they are requiring standard academic English for assignments or if writing in other englishes is welcomed. Consultants can also help you write an email to your instructor to ask about this if it is a conversation you want to start.
Graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty members can get support from Writing and Academic Communication Consultants at the Centre for Scholarly Communication.
Centre for Scholarly Communication
Examples in literature
The Student Learning Hub partnered with the Equity and Inclusion Office and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies to offer a pluralingualism prize pack that contains one of these three books that demonstrate pluralingualism and code-meshing.
About the books:
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Aiden Thomas code-meshes Spanish and English in his paranormal young adult novel Cemetery Boys about a trans Latinx boy and a ghost.
Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson code-meshes Nishnaabemowin and English combining prose and poetry in Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
M.L. Rio incorporates Shakespearean English and contemporary English in her murder mystery If We Were Villains.
Learn more about linguistic diversity and linguistic justice with these resources:
- CCCC Statement on White Language Supremacy. 2021. CCCC Statement on White Language Supremacy – Conference on College Composition and Communication
- National Council of Teachers of English. 1974. Resolution on the Students’ Right to Their Own Language. National Council of Teachers of English. https://ncte.org/statement/righttoownlanguage/
- Strause, A.W. 2017. Why We Need Greater Linguistic Diversity. Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/08/11/colleges-should-encourage-greater-linguistic-diversity-classroom-essay
- Young, V. A. 2014. (Video). https://www.pbs.org/video/connections-dr-vershawn-young/ PBS Connections
- Inoue, A.B. (Video) – How do we stop languaging so people stop killing each other, or what do we do with white language supremacy?
- Conference on College Composition and Communication. 2020. CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Multilingual Writers. CCCC. https://ncte.org/statement/secondlangwriting/