“Tiffany Does Not Have a Solid Language Background, As She Speaks Only English”: Emerging Language Ideologies Among California Students

Abstract

Californians often take for granted a split between ethnic and linguistic identities, expecting immigrants to maintain strong ethnic identities while becoming monolingual in English. However, recent immigration has led to increasing diversity at California universities, with no majority ethnic group and many students bilingual. This study explores the language ideologies of diverse university students through an analysis of 100 essays written by undergraduates in an introductory Linguistics class. Specifically, the study asks what language ideologies are constructed when California students write about the language backgrounds of other people, and whether these ideologies appear connected to the writers' own backgrounds. Results show strong tendencies for students, regardless of ethnolinguistic background, to support home language maintenance as an index of ethnic pride and loyalty. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these results for the pedagogy of introductory Linguistics classes.