Students' Right to Their Own Language
Students’ Right to Their Own Language: A Simple Summary
In 1974, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) adopted a resolution called Students’ Right to Their Own Language (SRTOL). It said students should be allowed to use their own language varieties in classwork, not just Standard American English.
Why this matters: Requiring everyone to use only Standard American English is unfair and racist because it favors one group and silences students from other backgrounds. Teachers have a duty to respect language diversity and help students use their language with pride. Language is linked to culture and self-esteem.
Context and impact: SRTOL grew from the growing diversity in colleges in the 1960s and connected language rights to civil rights and anti-racist teaching. It was revised in 2003 to say language diversity is both a right and a resource for learning. In 2015 it was republished as part of a Critical Sourcebook.
Core ideas: Students should be able to use dialects from their communities, including Black English and other varieties. There is no single “correct” language for all academic writing, and insisting on one standard can hide racism. Teachers should be trained to respect linguistic diversity and support students’ language choices.
Debates and related ideas: Some people questioned how to balance correctness with expression. Critics have discussed White Language Supremacy—the idea that standard English often favors whiteness and marginalizes students of color. CCCC has explored this and, in 2019, Asao Inoue expanded the discussion, linking language racism to education.
2021 update: A statement in Black Vernacular English called for Black linguistic justice, with five demands for teachers:
- Stop treating academic English as the only norm
- Stop forcing code-switching and teach about white language supremacy
- Create a safe space for politics and activism in the classroom
- Build Black linguistic consciousness in teaching and research
- Center Black language in how we study and teach
Conclusion: SRTOL argues that students should have the right to use their own language as part of their education, recognizing language diversity as a strength rather than a barrier.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:20 (CET).