Language Gap

David Cassels Johnson is Associate Professor of Multilingual Education at the University of Iowa and Visiting Professor of Applied Linguistics at Shanghai International Studies University. He holds a PhD (with distinction) in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Language Policy (2013) and co-editor of Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning: A Practical Guide (2015, with Francis M. Hult).Eric J. Johnson is Professor of Bilingual Education at Washington State University. He received his PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from Arizona State University. His research focuses on ethnographic approaches to immigrant education programs and language policies in public schools. His publications span topics involving bilingual education, immigration, and family engagement.

• Chapter 1: The Re-Normalization of Language Deficit IdeologiesChapter 2: Language Acquisition and Diversity: (Socio)linguistic and Anthropological PerspectivesChapter 3: What’s Past is Prologue: Language Deficit Research Past and Present - with Darrin HetrickChapter 4: Tracing the Genealogies of Language Gap Policies and ProgramsChapter 5: Normalization of Deficit Language IdeologiesChapter 6: The Language Gap and Education

Johnson and Johnson’s work is highly readable, engaging and informative, especially in advancing the central argument that unquestioning acceptance of the language gap only casts the responsibility of poor educational outcomes on families/ communities, whilst precluding an attendance to the systemic inequities (including raciolinguistic ideologies) that are the real issues. Deborah Chua, Springer Journals