Exploring the language policy and planning/second language acquisition interface: ecological insights from an Uyghur youth in China

Abstract

Building on recent calls to examine the material realities of people’s lives, our paper explores how developments in ecological approaches to second language acquisition (SLA) and recent SLA identity work can help advance the language policy and planning (LPP) research agenda. To this end, we draw on (1) the multi-level transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world put forward by the Douglas Fir Group (Mod Lang J 100(S1):19–47, 2016), which examines how language learning and teaching are influenced by micro-, meso-, and macro-level forces, and (2) Darvin and Norton’s (Annu Rev Appl Linguist 35:36–56, 2015) model of investment, which looks at the intersection of identity, capital and ideology. By combining these two frameworks, we explain how an ecologically-oriented LPP research agenda can be advanced by taking into consideration key social actors who exist in the complex material realities within which learners are embedded. We anchor our arguments in a case study of a Uyghur youth, Alim, in China whose Putonghua learning trajectory is traced as he moves across several cities over the span of 16 years. Alim’s lived experience illustrates how a SLA and LPP interface can be realized in research.