Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Language Gap: Ideologies Within Varying Communities Of Practice, Brandi L. Antonsen

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The “language gap” claim, originally framed by Hart and Risley, has received powerful attention throughout our society regardless of its lack of qualifications. In this paper, I explore language ideologies concerning language development throughout early childhood and its role in future academic achievement. I conducted interviews with university faculty members in Education, preschool and elementary teachers, and parents of young children in order to attain perspectives about their experience within language acquisition and socialization. In short, I found that the participant’s indicative level of expertise affected their ideologies regarding the “language gap” claim as the university faculty in Education aligned …