Language is one of the most influential driving forces in its ability to communicate with others, however, as we speak with one another every day we don’t realize that there is a barrier between languages and when one is on top the other could be used as a tool of rebellion. Powerful institutions and individuals use language as both a means to construct their power and as a way to maintain it.
Bell hooks’s “Language” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” exemplifies reasons groups or individuals have altered language to resist domination. In modern U.S. society, the predominant language ideology is that Standard English is valued and other languages such as Spanish is stigmatized. According to this idea, English is the language of power while Spanish is a minority language, unfit for academic or professional settings. Speakers of Spanish are seen as secondary status to speakers of English.
This leads these speakers to continue to stand and speak their tongue in the daily interactions of education as a tool of resisting domination.
