Language with an Attitude: White Girls Performing Class

Based on data collected during a three-year ethnographic study, this article explores the inextricably-linked notions of language and identity for White girls living in a high-poverty neighborhood in the US. Class-specific primary discourses are analyzed through an informal discussion, a literature-based discussion, and a conflict within a tutoring session. Drawing on sociocultural theory, I argue that the White, working-poor girls have constructed language practices and identities that reflect intimate relations at home and the material and discriminatory conditions they face in society. Such language practices, however, don’t serve them well in academic contexts therefore the girls are faced with learning multiple languages – and what I call hybrid languages and identities – to succeed in academic contexts.