JOB TALK: Prof. Ramón Antonio Martínez
“Language and Learning in a Changing Nation: Leveraging Students’ Linguistic Repertoires to Cultivate Academic Literacy”
As global demographic shifts and changing immigration patterns continue to reshape our country’s linguistic landscape, culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms are quickly becoming the norm in school districts nationwide. Against this backdrop, educators and policymakers face the urgent task of preparing all students for academic and career success in the 21st century. In this talk, I explore how our nation’s increasing linguistic diversity is reflected in the micro-level details of classroom interaction. Drawing on ethnographic and interactional data from my research in urban schools, I identify how bi/multilingual students’ linguistic competencies overlap with the forms of language and literacy valued in academic settings, and I examine how these students make sense of their emergent bi/multilingualism. I situate this discussion within broader conversations around equity and access for students of color in public schools, and I offer conceptually grounded implications for leveraging students’ linguistic competencies as resources for academic literacy learning.
Ramón Antonio Martínez is an assistant professor of Language and Literacy Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is affiliated with the Bilingual/Bicultural Education program and the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies. His research explores the intersections of language, race, and ideology in the public schooling experiences of students of color, with a particular focus on bi/multilingual Chicana/o and Latina/o children and youth. Martínez examines how students’ everyday language practices overlap with the forms of language and literacy privileged in academic settings, how competing ideologies inform language policy and classroom practice in urban schools, and how pre-service teachers are prepared to teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. He has published articles in journals such as Linguistics and Education, Research in the Teaching of English, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Teachers College Record, and Review of Research in Education.
