Beyond Unit Thinking: Post-Standardization in Language Teaching
Document Type
Book Chapter
Role
Author
Published In
Contemporary Topics in Applied Linguistics for Language Educators
Publisher
Center for Educational Resource in Culture, Language and Literacy
Publication Date
12-4-2025
Abstract
This chapter reconsiders the widespread assumption in language education that language is a bounded unit and proposes alternatives to this framework. Political scientists, anthropologists, and linguists have critiqued the nation-state ideology that problematically views languages as stable and internally homogeneous units. This notion has been reinforced through standardizing practices that attempt to render language stable and homogeneous, when it is in reality dynamic and diverse. In the field of language education, there has been an increased appreciation of diverse linguistic forms and critiques of the power relations behind the standardization processes. Some pedagogical approaches, such as those associated with translanguaging, have attempted to avoid seeing language proficiency in terms of bounded units of the target language. At the conceptual level, however, the notion of language as a bounded unit dies hard. The standard language based on an idealized view of a dominant group’s speech continues to be taught in classrooms as the only correct one. In this chapter, we use the term unit thinking for the framework that views language as a stable, internally homogeneous unit and review its connections to the modern nation-state ideology of “one nation, one language, one culture.” Unit thinking not only assumes internal homogeneity but also forces homogenization through standardization processes. In due course, this, what we call normative unit thinking, leads to the hierarchization of diversity according to the proximity to the standard, marginalizing and excluding those at the bottom of the hierarchy. The examples in this chapter focus on normative unit thinking in Japanese language classrooms and its effects. As an alternative, we argue for language pedagogies that view language as fluid and diverse, avoiding homogenization or hierarchization. We explore these pedagogies beyond unit thinking by introducing two classroom exercises that move beyond seeing only one correct form and use of language.
Suggested Citation
Doerr, N. M., Park, J., & Suzuki, K. (2025). Beyond Unit Thinking: Post-Standardization in Language Teaching. In J. Fernández & C. Warner (Eds.), Contemporary Topics in Applied Linguistics for Language Educators. Center for Educational Resource in Culture, Language and Literacy. https://opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu/handbookappliedling/part/chapter-9/
