A critique of the principle of error correction as a theory of social change

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2915151
AutoresMark C Lewis (0000-0002-7451-5176)
Ano2018
Volume47
Fascículo3
Páginas325-346
Data de publicação2018-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
DOI10.1017/s0047404518000258
OpenAlexW2807776145
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas35
Referências citadas55

This article assesses the historical failures and limits of the dominant 'error correction' approach within sociolinguistics. The error correction approach supposes that social change can be achieved when knowledge is shared by researchers with the public or figures of institutional authority. This article reviews reflections on sociolinguists' work toward social change, especially those of Labov, through scholarship in language ideologies and critical race theory. From a language ideological and critical race perspective, error correction is limited in its engagement with marginalizing representations of language because it does not jointly address material conditions and social positions supported by these representations. Exemplifying these limitations, sociolinguistic error-correction efforts that address the evaluation of language practices racialized as Black may have unfortunately distracted from social change agendas that confront material and institutionalized racism directly. To address these limitations, this article highlights existing critical reflexive scholarship that explicitly interrogates disciplinary assumptions. (Critical race theory, error correction, language ideologies, social change, critical reflexivity

Critical race theory · Critical theory · Discipline · Language change · Reflexivity · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching