Three Multilingual Dynamics of Indigenous Language Use that Challenge Standardized Linguistic Assessment

Abstract

Global efforts for standards-based linguistic assessment increasingly hold that examinees should be tested in the language with which they are most familiar. Yet, language use still occurs differently from its characterization in exams, even as exams are increasingly developed in historically minoritized languages. Drawing from two years of ethnographic research on bilingual education in Ecuadorian Quechua (Kichwa) and Spanish, this article examines a national-scale proficiency exam in Kichwa for planners and teachers in Ecuador. It foregrounds three dynamics of Indigenous language heterogeneity that contrast with how exams reinscribe standardized language ideologies: (1) There are different regional varieties that may not be mutually intelligible; (2) Standardizing initiatives have included lexical “purism,” whereas speakers often blend words and grammatical categories from Spanish into an Indigenous linguistic variety; (3) There are a range of forms and degrees of standardization, some of which are difficult to comprehend and produce, especially in writing. Ultimately, standardization and authority in exams may cause concern and anxiety for a number of examinees and, further, may not recognize proficiency. For languages undergoing shift to more spoken languages, such concern risks discouraging Indigenous language use and increasing shift to Spanish.

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