ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the significance of Bourdieu’s work in the teaching of English as a second language (ESL), and more generally its implications for bilingualism and literacy education. It is our view that the contributions and implications of Bourdieu’s work in the teaching of ESL, World Englishes, and African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) are largely unexplored territory. Bourdieu’s stance in posing the question, “Who has the right to speak?” enables us to understand the discursive workings of class, race, culture, and power in these fields; it enables us in the Teaching of English as a Second or Other Language/Bilingual Education (TESOL/BE) and literacy education to take a stand with students who have been systematically underrepresented in higher education. Bourdieu’s viewpoint on the workings of the production and reproduction of legitimate language and symbolic capital is a valuable theoretical resource in the education of “other people’s children” (Delpit, 1988). Bourdieu’s method in asking the question, “Who goes to the university?” (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977) gives us valuable tools for talking about the ways in which different groups develop the capital resources to achieve and succeed in educational systems. Our purpose here is to openly use and appropriate Bourdieu to stand with those who are the descendents of slaves, colonized and indigenous people, and the sons and daughters of workers, the working poor, and those from rural areas.
