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How do universities and other institutions today bring about linguaphobia (fear of language(s)?
We wrote a short public piece about the subtle dangers of linguaphobia in educational settings. In it, we tried to address linguaphobia's various forms: anxiety about our own voice, worry about how our kind of language might give away something about who we are, fear of (mis)using a language we're currently still learning, despair about always being somehow inadequate in our written or spoken language(s), hypervigilance about being "on record" saying the wrong thing or saying something in the wrong way.

Additionally, linguaphobia comes up when we fear using a certain kind of language, or using language in a certain kind of way, or when we're worried about being associated with a certain kind of language. These are often reasonable fears, but sometimes they become so embodied and habituated that we default to a very narrow comfort zone around language use. Sometimes linguaphobia can even be triggered by a simple concern about potentially misspelling, mispronouncing, or misusing a word, sound, or phrase—and that's enough to scare us off entirely.

Schools, communities, and social circles can be settings where linguaphobia is either modelled and enforced or critically unlearned. They can show where and when a "fear" of language use, of a certain kind, correlates to an actual threat or danger in the world, and how people can recalibrate their relationship to that danger in ways that suit their principles, their communities, and their livelihoods. Or, instead, schools can intensify the fear that incoming students already tend to have around language(s), and exploit those fears for allegedly meritocratic ends. 

Please help us develop a lively set of examples showing how linguaphobia works in our universities, schools, and social contexts today. The more detail and curiosity you provide, the better. You are welcome to fill out this form as many times as you like, any time a good example occurs to you! Feel free to name public figures in the news and share links to resources.

We will always credit you as you request. Feel free please to write in any language (not just English), any kind of language you use or cherish, and any mode you can fit into this web form. Don't worry so much whether we can read / understand it. That's our job, not yours! Feel free to do the survey as many times and as frequently as you like! Please review our Consent information here.
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In a few detailed words, name a form or example of linguaphobia, as you have experienced or witnessed it.  (It could be from something on television / film / music, online, in a political speech or advert, in a classroom moment, in an institutional setting, or even at home between friends / family.)

[Example: a student in a class on X topic leaves the class more afraid to speak up than ever before, because they have been instructed that there are proper and improper ways of talking about X topic, and they now doubt their capacity to live up to the "proper" language. So they self-silence.]
When and where did you first notice this example of linguaphobia? (feel free to include links, specific dates and places, etc.). Was it a one-off occurrence, or is this a repeated form of linguaphobia that you have noticed? Feel free to expand on any timelines or patterns in recognition.
Has this form of linguaphobia been promoted, caused, or intensified by some feature of a school, university, or other social institution? If so, what is that feature, and how does that feature work in this way?
To what specific institutional policy, practice, text(s), language/rhetoric, norm, or procedure would you link this form of linguaphobia, if any, even speculatively? Share links, full quotations with sources, etc.

[Example: University X refers newly enrolled international graduate students to voluntary "accent correction services" as part of their teaching assistant training, when many of those enrolled students had not before considered their accents a factor in their pedagogical readiness. This increases their worry about success at the outset of their graduate career.]
Is there anything about this form of linguaphobia you would like to expound or speculate on? How could it be diagrammed, unlearned, dismantled, or transformed?

[Example from the prior question: If accent is suggested to be a material factor in teaching workforce readiness at University X, does this run afoul of any labour laws or collective agreements governing workers' rights at the institution? How can those protections be best brought forward in this case?]
Does this form of linguaphobia feed into other kinds of socio-political phenomena, like linguistic racism, accentism, coloniality, sexism, elitism, capitalism, or the like? If so, how?

[Example from the previous questions: Certain accents at University X are favoured as valuable and therefore not seen as needing correction; or, in certain courses of study (English), accent is policed while it is not in others (Accounting).]
What is the institutional setting where this form or example takes place? Be as specific as you see fit, and tell us if you'd like us to mask the setting in a certain way.

[Example from previous questions: On the first day of graduate teaching orientation, a pamphlet for accent correction services is circulated; the faculty member who leads the orientation representing the university makes some dismissive jokes about the service but still suggests "it could be important for some among this group"]
Are there any good quotations, readings, artworks, poems, tv shows, etc. that demonstrate the workings of linguaphobia in a way that strikes you? (Remember, these can be in any language, not just English!)

[Example: Vijay Ramjattan's 2024 essay on "Imagining an anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy"]
Would you like to be credited for your contribution and insights on this? If so, how? And how can we get in touch with you with any questions? Remember, you can respond to this form as many times and as frequently as a new example occurs to you!

[Example: "Please credit to David Gramling and run the citation by me once it's ready, at david.gramling@ubc.ca." Or "No, thanks, I'm happy remaining anonymous.]
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