Language is not only a means of communication but also a mark of difference that can be used to establish a gap between two groups "We" and the "Others". Austria and Germany are multilingual countries with allochthonous and autochthonous languages, which at first glance could be seen as a welcome sign of diversity. However, it makes a difference which languages someone can call one’s own. This difference concerns various domains in life – with different consequences for the speakers. On a symbolic level, languages and language variants are valued differently and so are their speakers (Settinieri 2011; Kalpaka & Räthzel 2000), as Bourdieu already made clear with his study on the social difference between someone speaking patois and someone speaking ‘the’ standardized variant of French in France (Bourdieu 1982). Dialects and standard languages are presumably valued differently everywhere (Guldenschuh 2018). But what happens when a migration-society perspective is taken into consideration? This perspective reveals that "accents" and languages are valued differently alongside the differentiation "native speaker". Being – or at least sounding like – a so-called native speaker evokes the mental image of an autochthonous person, who is more often than not perceived as competent and generally capable. Not sounding ‘native’, not speaking fluently and/or with an accent, on the other hand, can be related to being generally less capable (Dirim 2010) and as not belonging to the linguistic majority – the “We”. Not belonging, or being perceived as not belonging to the hegemonic and majority group means potentially facing multiple challenges. From less severe consequences like being seen as an expert in the so-called mother tongue or heritage language (at this point already being labelled as part of the group of the “Others”) to real challenges like facing difficulties and/or unfairness in school or at university (Dirim 2013; Gomolla & Radtke 2009; Döll & Knappik 2015; Knappik & Dirim 2013, Pokitsch 2022), or not being considered to rent an apartment or not getting a job. This fact was reconstructed with studies in various countries, including Turkey and Austria. The problem of devaluing languages and language variants will be illustrated with examples in the lecture and then theorised. It will be shown that colonial (Cyffer 2011) and nation-state (Gogolin 2008) traditions of thought and native speakerism (Holliday 2006) play a major role in the emergence of the described problems and complement Bourdieu’s perspective of power.

Bourdieu, P. (1982): Ce que parler veut dire. Paris: Fayard. Bourdieu, P.(1990): Was heißt sprechen? Wien: Braumüller. Cyffer, N. (2011): Gibt es primitive Sprachen oder ist deutsch auch primitiv? Stolz et al. (eds.): Kolonialzeitliche Sprachforschung. Berlin: Akademie. Dirim, İ. (2010): „Wenn man mit Akzent spricht, denken die Leute, dass man auch so denkt oder so. In: Mecheril et al. (Eds.): Spannungsverhältnisse. Münster: Waxmann. Dirim, İ. (2013): Rassialisierende Effekte? In: Mecheril, et al. (Eds.): Migrationsforschung als Kritik? Wiesbaden: Springer Döll, M. & Knappik, M.(2015): Institutional mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in Austrian pre-service teacher education, Tertium Comparationis, 21(2). Gogolin, I. (2008): Der monolinguale Habitus der multilingualen Schule. Münster: Waxmann. Gomolla, M. & Radtke, F. (2009): Institutionelle Diskriminierung. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Guldenschuh, S. (2018): Akzentismus. In: Dirim et al. (Eds.): Sprache(n) und Diskriminierung in (Hoch-)Schule und Gesellschaft. Holliday, A. (2006): Native-speakerism, ELT 60(4). Kalpaka, A. & Räthzel, N.(2000): Die Schwierigkeit, nicht rassistisch zu sein, In: Räthzel, N. (Ed.): Theorien über Rassismus. Hamburg: Argument. Knappik, M. & Dirim, İ. (2013): „Native Speakerism“ in der Lehrerbildung, Journal für LehrerInnenbildung 3/2013 Pokitsch, D. (2022): Wer spricht?. Wiesbaden: Springer. Settinieri, J. (2011): Soziale Akzeptanz unterschiedlicher Normabweichungen in der L2-Aussprache Deutsch, Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht 16(2)