I remember the first time I encountered academic language. During my freshman year, I was so excited to dive in and learn more about my class subjects, but I left the readings completely discouraged. I had all these difficult words thrown at me, and I felt inadequate for not understanding them. I had excelled in English in high school, so I thought I was prepared for college vocabulary. But I wasn’t. In fact, no one really is unless you’ve had the privilege of learning it. 
Academic language is just one of the many ways education is inaccessible to folks of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds. We like to think that everyone in America has equal access to education. It’s an important resource that should be available to everyone. However, without specialized training, most can’t digest the language used in academic pieces. Universities act on the assumption that all students have the same academic training, but that isn’t the case. Students come from a variety of backgrounds and some might not have encountered academic language before. The use of academic language sends a clear message that the journal, article or book was created for those of a specific class and race. 
In the United States, schools often discriminate against dialects spoken by Black and Latinx students. Black students are often criticized for speaking African American Vernacular English, which is a dialect of English specific to Black communities. It’s often not taken seriously in academic settings because it’s seen as a “less intelligent” dialect. Because of this, many Black students have to learn code-switching at a young age, going between AAVE and Standard American English. Speech pathologist Julie Washington explained how children that don’t adapt to code-switching can score a full academic year behind their peers. 
Latinx students also face barriers when it comes to their use of standard English. This is mainly because students come from bilingual households where English isn’t predominant. A study published in 2017 found that teachers either had deficit-based attitudes or prohibitory behavior towards Latinx students learning English. For example, one teacher in the study prohibited their students from using their home language in class and another teacher compared Spanish to low literacy and crime. 
Instead of schools adapting to students and their needs, they expect the students to adapt to standard (White) English. On top of language and dialect discrimination in education systems, inequitable distribution of funding also puts students at a disadvantage. Since schools are funded by local property taxes, wealthier districts have the resources to teach advanced vocabulary, while working-class districts scramble to provide the resources necessary for their students.
Academic language highlights systemic inequality in the country’s education system. This country has never focused on equity, but rather adequacy when it comes to educating the masses. Education has never been a right, but a privilege, and the exclusivity of academic language just reinforces that notion. It doesn’t take into consideration that some folks didn’t speak English as their first language, grew up around different dialects, had to drop out of school at an early age or just didn’t have the money to afford to go to college. 
From an early age, we’re told that academic language, the White standard set for us, is the “educated” and “professional” way of speaking. In reality, it is completely arbitrary and carries no significance when it comes to sharing knowledge. The best way to share knowledge is by using the language one is familiar with. That includes using the dialect and the tones they’ve grown up around to convey their point. When someone is forced to use unfamiliar vocabulary for the sake of “professionalism”, their message is no longer their own, but a confusing and diluted version of what they were trying to communicate. 
Clarity of communication, not the use of academic language, should become the standard for academic writing. Furthermore, students shouldn’t be expected to understand and use academic language in their own vocabulary to be taken seriously. It not only takes away educational opportunities for those seeking knowledge independently, but it also silences those who want to speak. It puts unnecessary pressure on them to sound “smart” when the form of language you speak isn’t a determinant of your intelligence. 
All it took was one professor to tell me that I didn’t need to sound like the authors we were reading from to convey my point. She explained to me that it is significantly easier to understand my point if I just use the language I’m familiar with. We should no longer be scrutinized for speaking the way we are most comfortable with. By doing away with the use of academic language, we would make education accessible to all who seek it and not just the privileged few.