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What Does It Mean to be a Language  
Variationist and Bilingual? 

By Jeehye Park 
jpark91@student.gsu.edu  

Department of Middle and Secondary Education 
College of Education and Human Development 

Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 

 
In this article, the writer discusses what it means to be bilingual and a language 
variationist by reflecting on her language learning experiences. The author shows 
how she gains power through her multilayered identities as she learns to employ 
a variety of Englishes as tools for academic success and community participation.  

Keywords:  language variationist, bilingual, power, identity, standardized English 

 

As a non-native English speaker, my first language learning experiences began 

with learning how to speak and write Korean. Our family uses standardized 

Korean, which is spoken through mass media. As Foulkes, Docherty, and Watt 

(1999) emphasize that early input is essential, my Korean has developed since an 

early age through the language input of my family members. The way of speaking, 

such as accents, frequently used words, and even gestures resemble the language 

of my parents (Roberts, 2013). It seems that I developed my language skills 

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mailto:jpark91@student.gsu.edu


according to Labov’s (1990) hypothesis on child-directed speech, which says that 

young children echo their mother’s speech. My mother, as the principal caregiver, 

provided the most influential input that supported my language acquisition at an 

early age. My family members do not speak the Korean dialect, which has unique 

accents, intonations, and word choices based on local language variations 

throughout South Korea. However, when family members on my father’s side 

gather, they suddenly begin to speak the Korean dialect of the island located in 

Northern West side of South Korea. As an adult, I selectively and intentionally 

choose not to speak my father’s dialect because Seoul, which is the place where I 

live, as the main city of South Korea, privileges standardized Korean, and I am 

proudly a member of that community (Meyerhoff & Strycharz, 2013).  

During school days, learning was focused on standardized tests. English 

teachers taught mostly reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar, and 

there was a little bit of listening practice. Students learned English to get into 

prestigious colleges for their future rather than studying English as a lingua 

franca, and I was one of them. English class was teacher centered and students 

rarely had opportunities to speak during the class. In high school, English listening 

comprehension became emphasized and was included in the college entrance 

exam. We listened to a tape with native speakers’ recordings. The conversations 

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consisted of daily conversations with friends or families. In one of the listening 

tests, I was confused by the strange and unfamiliar British accents of a native 

speaker, and I couldn’t understand what the speaker was saying, which made me 

embarrassed. Right after the test, all the students complained about the native 

speaker’s different accents and pronunciation to the English teacher and asked to 

replace the British speaker with an American English speaker. We all felt that only 

American English was the correct and recognized worldwide standard language, 

and we could not accept Englishes from other countries.  

Later, I had a chance to change my views about learning English through a 

trip to the Philippines. People from the Philippines did not look embarrassed at all 

when they used strange pronunciations or incorrect grammar. They seemed to 

use very simple sentences and sometimes Tagalog mixed with English, and 

nobody cared about it because we could communicate and understand each 

other. The Filipinos seemed to employ either a heritage dialect or a “mixed” 

variety as described in Fought’s linguistic repertoires (2013, p. 389). My 

understanding was that people only spoke a standardized English, which was 

American English as employed in the classroom. When I tried to make concrete 

sentences without grammatical errors in my brain, I could not communicate with 

people. I was already off the topic of that group when I was finally ready to speak 

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an English sentence. In this setting, it did not matter to me whether accent or 

pronunciation of English were similar to American English; rather, all I wanted was 

to be able to communicate with people in English. 

I initially came to the U.S. as a graduate student. I remember that I had to 

face many challenges in terms of building my academic identity through English as 

a second language in an unfamiliar place, Knoxville, Tennessee. According to 

Johnstone (2004), place is essential to construct identity. For example, Spanish-

dominant speakers showed that adopting local language forms such as “y’all” and 

“fixin” helped them to be in the community and to gain “local identity” (Wolfram, 

Carter, & Moriello, 2004, p. 344-345). Similarly, I tried to learn academic uses of 

standardized English in order to be a member of the graduate school community. 

At the same time, I picked up several expressions of colloquial English with 

southern accents because I was sure that this would be the effective way to be 

close to my classmates.  

Since success in graduate study relies on heavy reading, writing, and 

discussing, I had to adapt to new strategies associated with how to express my 

points of view, support ideas, and discuss arguments in standardized English. I 

had to struggle in order to equip myself with an aggressive attitude to express my 

ideas in writing and class discussion. I sometimes found myself mimicking 

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Tennessee’s Southern accents when talking with classmates. I knew that my 

pronunciation couldn’t be the same as theirs but I guess that I wanted to be a part 

of the community rather than being an outsider. I memorized some expressions 

to use later when I was in a similar situation where the conversation happened. 

Finally, I selectively chose a variety of English that depended on the context and 

the type of discourse being used. For example, I speak in different ways when I 

am in classroom and in local markets.  

When I teach English to Korean students and English language learners 

(ELLs) from other countries, I often feel that my perspectives and experiences 

about learning English are reflected in my teaching. For example, I respect ELLs’ 

diversity in language and culture. I encourage them to be proud of different 

cultural perspectives and ideas, and a variety of ways of speaking English with 

different accents and pronunciations. They also need enough time to be ready to 

share ideas and to speak in front of classes. I especially feel empathy towards 

English learners who will go through learning processes in English only classes in 

the U.S. public school system. The learners might be confused when they realize 

that there are a variety of Englishes depending on the context such as school or 

community. The learners would be overwhelmed by the fact that their way of 

speaking English is not welcomed by teachers and other native speakers. 

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According to Gee (2013), people acquire “new social languages and genres” 

resulting in constructing different “Discourses”, in other words “identity kits” (p. 

143-144). ELLs have already built identities in their culture and language, and they 

are required to build new identities again in a new language, English (Kiesling, 

2013). I am sure that there has to be thoughtful consideration, attention, and 

support given to these students. However, they are sometimes misunderstood 

and characterized as being without language even though many children have 

confident language abilities in their own languages (Gee, 1996; Labov, 1972). The 

learners' home language is a valuable asset in globalized society. However, these 

students are often unconsciously forced to forget their home language in the 

process of learning the norm language; in fact, most third-generation immigrants 

have entirely lost the use of their home language (Milroy & Llamas, 2013). This 

rapid language loss requires educators' attention and, at the same time, requires 

a shift in the dominant perspective that currently values only a standard English 

dialect in the public education system. 

As a non-native English speaker, I feel that I have some advantages to help 

ELLs because I have experienced identity changes (Kiesling, 2013) and employed 

English in different “communities of practices” (Meyerhoff &Strycharz, 2013, p. 

428) which are inseparable from language learning. From my language learning 

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experiences, it seems to me that ELLs benefit from building “multi-layered” 

(Kiesling, 2013, p. 463) identities. This is how I negotiated learning English in 

various settings. While keeping pride in who I am and the language I speak, I am 

able to adapt to the dominant language and culture in order to fit harmoniously 

into this community. By employing standardized academic English, I try to 

become a member of the doctoral student community. On the other hand, I speak 

Korean borrowing a few English words with my children and sometimes with 

English language learners from Korea because I want to build a strong cultural and 

linguistic bond with them. I sometimes copy the way native Americans speak 

English in my community and thus, I don’t want to be an outsider.  

Looking back on my language learning experiences, I realized that I have 

chosen a type of language based on both my own will and unavoidable forces 

around me. Now, as a doctoral student, I, once again, feel the shift of language 

paradigms especially in standardized academic English. My views about English 

have changed from viewing English as somebody else’s language to adopting it as 

my second language so that I can communicate with people from different 

cultures and linguistic backgrounds. I feel that I have more power over using 

English. I employ standardized English as my tool to communicate with other 

doctoral students and professors and to assert my point of view.    

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Still, I do not think that people understand how many different language 

variations they are using. There is no static English structure because language 

always changes. Furthermore, I am certain that each person will experience the 

shift of language paradigm while meeting diverse people, gaining new learning 

experiences, and building careers.  

As an educator, language variationist, and future researcher, I would like to 

invite people who speak a variety of English to enjoy and celebrate what they are 

and who they are. English is not owned by only some countries or cultures. 

English is a language that anybody is able to own and use as a lingua franca. This 

way, anyone who respects uniqueness and difference can be a language 

variationist. 

  

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References 

 

Fought, C. (2013). Ethnicity. In J. K. Chambers & N. Schilling (2nd ed.), The 

handbook of language variation and change (pp. 387-406). Malden, MA: 

Blackwell. 

Foulkes, P., Docherty, G., & Watt, D. (1999). Tracking the emergence of structured 

variation. Leeds Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics, 7, 1-25.  

Gee, J. P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (2nd ed.). 

London: Traylor & Francis.  

Gee, J. P. (2013). Reading as situated language: A sociocognitive perspective. In D. 

E. Alvermann, N. J. Unrau, & R. B. Ruddell (6th ed.). Theoretical models and 

processes of reading (pp. 136-151). Newark, DE: International Reading 

Association.  

Johnstone, B. (2004). Place, globalization, and linguistic variation. In C. Fought 

(Ed.), Sociolinguistic variation: Critical reflections (pp. 65-83). New York: 

Oxford University Press.  

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Kiesling, S. F. (2013). Constructing identity. In J. K. Chambers & N. Schilling (2nd 

ed.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 448-467). 

Malden, MA: Blackwell. 

Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia, PA: University of 

Pennsylvania Press.  

Labov, W. (1990). The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic 

change. Language Variation and Change, 2, 205-54.  

Meyerhoff, M. & Strycharz, A. (2013). Communities of practice. In J. K. Chambers 

& N. Schilling (2nd ed.), The handbook of language variation and change 

(pp. 428-447). Malden, MA: Blackwell. 

Milroy, L. & Llamas, C. (2013). Social networks. In J. K. Chambers & N. Schilling 

(2nd ed.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 409-427). 

Malden, MA: Blackwell. 

Roberts, J. (2013). Child language variation. In J. K. Chambers & N. Schilling (2nd 

ed.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 263-276). 

Malden, MA: Blackwell. 

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Rueda, R. (2013). 21st-century skills: Cultural, linguistic, and motivational 

perspectives. In D. E. Alvermann, N. J. Unrau, & R. B. Ruddell (6th ed.), 

Theoretical models and processes of reading (pp. 1241-1267). Newark, DE: 

International Reading Association.  

Wolfram, W., Carter, P., & Moriello, B. (2004). Emerging Hispanic English: New 

dialect formation in the American South. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 8, 339-

358. 

 

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