The above image uses the word "All" in Spanish articulated in several ways. "Todas" and "todos" are traditional gendered constructions. "Todas" refers is gendered to refer to women only. "Todos" refers to men only or a mixed gender group. And "Todxs' and "Todes" are new degendered structures.
For my final project, I have decided to focus on a polarizing issue that is of academic and sociological interest for me, but also of professional interest as well. In recent years with greater LGBTQIA+ visibility and advocation, nonbinary language has grown in popularity to meet the needs of nonbinary, gender fluid, and gender nonconforming persons. In English, this has been accomplished through the use of “they” to refer to the third person singular and while predominantly used by youth, has seen institutional implementation in places like universities. The movement toward gender inclusive and nonbinary language that is occurring in the U.S., is also occurring throughout the world, but has been a polemical in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world. Movements toward non-binary language, exemplified by the use of -e, -x, or -@ in place of the gendered ending -a or -o, have become popular in hispanic and lusophone youth and queer culture, but greatly criticized and condemned by the larger community of Spanish and Portuguese speakers such as, philosophers, linguists, and institutions. Instructors of Spanish and Portuguese here in the states are then put in a difficult situation in light of the conflict, one of particular import with the growing presence of nonbinary, gender fluid, and gender nonconforming persons in our classrooms. The question that we as instructors must answer is: Do we teach nonbinary language to our students? If yes, how and for what purpose? I believe these questions relate to a larger question that I hope to answer as well: Whose Spanish and whose Portuguese are we responsible for teaching?
Why does this topic matter now? In general, the use of nonbinary language is relatively new, at least in the main stream, which is true for Spanish, English, and Portuguese. These structures are yet to be integrated universally in their respective language, due to their newness and due to the traditional and conservative language and gender ideologies that encumber standardization. The newness of these structures and the controversy around them is precisely what puts language instructors in a precarious position at the present moment.
One of the things necessary to my study is explaining the philosophies and ideologies around nonbinary language in Latin America, these are the same philosophies and ideologies that guide the discussion in the states about whether or not to incorporate nonbinary language into our curriculum. There are two principle ideologies: the first being that language is a way for us to understand the world around us and ourselves, and as such language must evolve to fit the needs and understandings of the current moment. The other ideology is more linguistically traditional and nationalistic, which upholds the linguistic purity of gendered language and/or affirms that grammatical gender has nothing to do with the genders of speakers, subjects, and interlocutors. To be completely transparent, I side with the former, however as a non-native speaker, I don’t feel like I am in a position to make such a judgment on a language that is not my own. For that reason, I am less interested in covering these Latin American debates in my project, as I feel I have no place to opine as an outsider fearful of committing linguistic colonialism. Rather, I turn my attention to the classroom, a context that does pertain to my experience and knowledge, and that I feel obligated to speak on. In this section of my project I will pull from laws passed around Latin America prohibiting gender inclusive language, the institutional response of the Royal Spanish Academy, the work of thinkers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Noam Chomsky, as well as referring to artistic production like protest art and Netflix’s Pose the first series to utilize nonbinary language in Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
In terms of the instruction of nonbinary language in the world language classroom, there has been very little widespread movement either toward or against implementation. Rather, teachers, faced with this conundrum, often chose to continue teaching the language as it has always been done (i.e. gendered), while waiting for the Latin American community at large to either accept or reject nonbinary language. However, I believe this stagnancy is unproductive, because it is now that we are faced with navigating the use of gendered language in the classroom. Though it is worth noting, there have been some teachers, a definite minority, who have developed strategies to incorporate nonbinary language in their classrooms already.
I am of the opinion that nonbinary language should be incorporated in the Spanish and Portuguese language classrooms to validate and meet the needs of our LGBTQIA+ students, but also to allow students to begin to understand the complexity of language and it’s evolution. I think this controversy and the movement of nonbinary language in Latin America will allow students an insight to cultural practices and beliefs tied to language. Equipping students with these tools allows them to not only better understand the language and critically engage with it, but navigate the various linguistic and social codes. In this section, I will refer to language acquisition theory, learning objectives of second language acquisition, statements made by the American Association for Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, and a recent study published by María Luisa Parra & Ellen J Serafini.
The feedback I have gotten from my classmates has been positive thus far, the majority of them stating that they knew very little about the topic but were excited to know more. I am particularly interested in hearing Sergio’s opinion on the matter, given that he’s a native speaker, and also the opinion of Regan, who has recently been in the Spanish language classroom.
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