Language ideology dimensions of politically active Arizona voters: an exploratory study

Abstract

In conjunction with other linguistic constructs, language ideologies are thought to be both components and determinants of language policies – decisions about language use at micro and macro levels. Although much work has been done towards identifying language ideology constructs in localised educational settings, the existence of such constructs in larger, more broadly distributed samples which influence educational language policy (e.g. voters) has not been verified. This study pilots (1) a survey grounded in existing language ideology research and (2) a factor analysis for identifying and exploring language ideologies expressed by a statewide sample of 218 politically active Arizona voters (Democrats and Republicans). Politically active voters are influential with respect to political decision-making, and those in Arizona have a history of encountering explicit language policies. The resulting seven-factor solution of language ideologies is presented, as is an analysis of how individual variables (i.e. political affiliation, age group, gender, and language background) differentiate factor scores along ideological dimensions. The results suggest that the surveys and factor analysis may be usefully combined with findings from qualitative research to scale-up identification and description of language ideologies among important samples of educational language policy stakeholders.