Differential Enunciation, Mainstream Language and the Education of Immigrant Minority Students: Implications for Policy and Practice

This article is intended to guide policy and practice that are geared towards improving the education of immigrant minority students whose ever growing presence in Canadian schools (and indeed, much of the Western world) will only increase in the foreseeable future. Drawing on existing literature, the paper addresses the difficulties and prejudices faced by immigrant minority students who speak standard varieties of mainstream language with differential accents. While this issue is problematic for immigrant children, there is no sustained dialogue or research among scholars in related educational discourse. The overarching aim of the article is to make the issue an integral part of the language debate in teaching and learning.