The Language Gap provides an accessible review of the language gap research, illuminating what we know and what we do not know about the language development of youth from working and lower socioeconomic classes. Written to offer a balanced look at existing literature, this text analyzes how language gap research is portrayed in the media and how debatable research findings have been portrayed as common sense facts. This text additionally analyzes how language gap research has impacted educational policies, and will be the first book-length overview addressing this area of rapidly growing interest.

About the Author

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.

Reviews

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

Book Information
ISBN 9781138674011
Author David Cassels Johnson
Format Paperback
Page Count 116
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 230g