Language Rights in Education

In dealing with educational language rights in the United States, it is useful to make a distinction between the right to access education and the right to an education in one's mother tongue(s). For language minority students, both rights are important for participation in the broader society and staying connected with their home/community language. According to Reynaldo Macias, two basic rights exist: (1) the right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of language, and (2) the right to use one's language in the activities of communal life. There is no legally protected right to choice of language except as it flows from these two rights in combination with other rights, such as due process, equal enforcement of the laws, and so on.

In the United States and other Western countries, rights are usually located in the individual rather than in groups, explains Macias. In international law, all the existing rights are individual rights and freedoms, although their manifestations may involve more than one individual, according to Fernand de Varennes. The idea of language rights generally means something different than freedom of speech. Language rights around the world frequently are ignored in the formulation of educational policies. Unfortunately, even though organizations such as the United Nations have passed resolutions supporting the right of children to instruction in their native languages, member nations, including the United States, do not act on them because these resolutions are not binding, clarifies Tove Skutnabb-Kangas.

In the United States, language rights are largely derived from their association with other constitutional protections, which are also linked to race, religion, and national origin. Bill Piatt argues that some accommodations for the use of minority languages have been made in some legal cases dealing with educational, economic, and political access; the recognition of language rights generally and linguistic accommodations, therefore are on a tenuous legal foundation. This entry describes the orientations and implications of language policies, their historical context, and key court decisions relating to educational language policies.