Language Ideologies Research Articles

The malaise of preserving a minority language in multilingual homes in southwest China: a family language policy perspective

ABSTRACT This study investigated the family language environment of the Miao ethnic group in southwestern China to understand the preservation of the Miao language through the lens of family language policy (FLP). The household members’ language ideologies, practices and management were examined. The findings revealed that: (1) Perceptions of Putonghua and the Miao language, shaped by household members’ deprived life experiences and connection to ethnic roots respectively, have led to a FLP characterised by differentiated language ideologies with a pro-Putonghua orientation; (2) In alignment with these language ideologies, household members substantially facilitated Putonghua practices while kinship relations still sustained Miao language practices within the family space; (3) While the formation of language ideologies and language practices were congruent to their constitutions as understood via FLP, the drifting management efforts identified could possibly jeopardise good preservation of the home language in question. In particular, this study revealed the potential influence of co-residing extended family members in the process of Miao language shift or maintenance. A comprehensive management approach, mirroring the strategies for Putonghua adoption, was proposed to enhance the preservation of minority languages.

Working in the gap: empowering local educators in Taiwan’s bilingual education policy

ABSTRACT Focusing on Taiwan’s bilingual education policy, this study explores the complex relationship between top-down policy and local educators' agency. It highlights the role of a professional development (PD) program for bilingual teachers in shaping the interpretation and implementation of bilingual education policy through a case study at an Elementary School in southern Taiwan. This study draws on Hornberger and Johnson’s (2007, 2011) ethnographic conceptualization of language policy. Through semi-structured and focus group interviews with bilingual teachers, it investigates how the PD program acts as a catalyst in shaping participants’ language ideologies, language use, and pedagogical practices. The research also explores the tensions and challenges faced by local educators in bilingual education. The findings underscore the significant role of language policy arbiters, including the PD program and the local educators, in addressing the conceptual gap in Taiwan’s bilingual education policy and carving out the ideological and implementational space for an inclusive approach to bilingual education. They also demonstrate the agency of local educators in interpreting and appropriating bilingual education policy. Overall, this study provides insights for policymakers, educators, and researchers in the field of bilingual education, shedding light on the dynamic interplay between policy and practice in non-English speaking contexts.

Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of distinction in a globalised world

ABSTRACT This article presents an analysis of the relationship between language ideologies, elite multilingualism, and the identity of migrants with a focus on L2 speakers of German. Relying on interviews with the Francophone community in Berlin, I show that two main language ideologies circulate: ‘language as a skill’ vs ‘language as an identity marker’. While these ideologies may seem opposite, I argue that both are in fact shaped by dominant language ideologies around German being hard to learn. Even if the argumentation differs, in both cases, becoming a speaker of German enables the interviewees to profile themselves as different from other non German-speaking communities. Both ideologies are a reaction to English as a dominant language that can be traced back to early metadiscourses on foreign language learning in French schools. Ultimately, I suggest that both positions correspond to elite multilingualism in which learning and using German works as a means of distinction in a globalised world.

“Using Students’ L1 Would Become a Problem”: Practical Discrepancies and Ideological Challenges in Teacher candidates’ Translanguaging Pedagogy

ABSTRACT While previous studies have addressed shifts in teacher candidates’ (TCs) translanguaging stance and their pedagogical knowledge (PK), research in this area is still limited. Using a participatory research design, this study explored how a group of general education TCs implemented translanguaging and the underlying justifications for their practices. Data included lesson plans, reflections, and self-assessments. The findings indicate that although the TCs adopted an asset-based perspective in their reflections and self-assessments, their actual practices as revealed in the lesson plans reflected monolingual ideologies. Despite initial progress in understanding translanguaging, this discrepancy highlights the necessity of probing deeper into TCs’ translanguaging stances and language ideologies prior to focusing on pedagogical implementation. Our study suggests that to fully embrace the ideological and pedagogical shifts advocated by translanguaging, it is crucial to integrate translanguaging pedagogy throughout the teacher education program, including training for teacher educators who are not yet familiar with translanguaging.

Exploring Authenticity and Literary Dialect from a New Perspective

This paper presents a theoretical discussion of literary dialect and authenticity and proposes a new approach that will enhance our knowledge of these concepts. It reveals the existence of a gap in the study of literary dialect and authenticity, where most researchers have paid attention to the role of the writer/creator while leaving aside the reader/audience. Scholars interested in the authenticity of literary dialect have traditionally concentrated on assessing how closely literary dialects resemble real-world dialects. However, the idea that authenticity only depends on the linguistic accuracy that the writer/creator lends to the fictional portrayal of dialect has been abandoned. More recent studies have started to examine how readers/audiences authenticate (or deauthenticate) dialect representations. Their focus is on which readers/audiences evaluate a portrayal as authentic and why. This paper is in line with the view that authenticity depends on the readers’/audiences’ evaluations and suggests that the perceived authenticity of literary dialect can be measured using methods similar to those employed in language attitudes research.

‘We are still British or American colony, we are still a colony, we are not free’: language ideologies, policies in education in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This study examines how Pakistan’s language-in-education policies, rooted in colonial legacies and shaped by neoliberal globalization, perpetuate linguistic hierarchies and social inequalities. Using Tollefson’s historical-structural lens, it explores the language ideologies of two NGOs, the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) and the Linguistic Association of Pakistan (LAP) suggest that how these organizations balance advocating for inclusivity with inadvertently reinforcing English dominance. The findings of the study indicate how policies that elevate English as a symbol of modernity and progress marginalize local languages, perpetuating colonial power dynamics and social stratification. The study highlights the need for critically re-evaluating language policies to address their role in maintaining socio-political hierarchies and to foster more equitable and context-sensitive educational frameworks.

Interpreter Mediation as Other-Initiated Self-Repair in Court: Effects on the Defence in Chinese Bilingual Criminal Trials

This study examines the linguistic phenomenon of other-initiated self-repairs (OISRs) in the specific context of Chinese inquisitorial criminal courts. These OISRs are prompted by interpreters and implemented by non-native English-speaking African defendants, adversely affecting the defendants’ defence strategies. Transcriptions of five interpreter-mediated trials are analysed to understand the dynamics at play in court settings. Quantitative analysis of turn distribution data and subsequent qualitative conversation analysis reveal that linguistically vulnerable defendants are relegated to a constrained discursive space with limited support from their lawyers in Chinese bilingual courts. In these settings, frequent interpreter-initiated repairs hinder defendants disproportionately, undermining their ability to establish credibility, present new evidence, argue for exoneration or use sympathy cues for leniency. Placing these findings in the context of Chinese court power dynamics, we argue that the pervasive interpreter-initiated OISRs in Chinese courtrooms should be considered a shared responsibility rooted in the court’s language ideology and its legal beliefs and culture, which, at present, systemically marginalise defendants’ right to a fair trial.

Pushing boundaries in the measurement of language attitudes: Enhancing research practices with the L’ART Research Assistant app

The importance of methodological developments has recently been emphasised both in language attitude research specifically (Kircher & Zipp 2022), and across linguistics and the social sciences more broadly, where there has been a particular focus on replicability (Sönnig & Werner 2021; Kobrock & Roettger 2023). One aspect of this concerns the adoption of more open, consistent, and comparable implementations of method. We introduce a new digital application (the L’ART Research Assistant) for research in multilingualism and language attitudes. Designed specifically for work with populations speaking a majority and a regional/minority/minoritised/heritage language, the app implements reference versions of some common research methods and tasks. This benefits the research community by enhancing consistency and comparability within and across studies and by improving replicability and reproducibility. We discuss technical and methodological considerations behind the app and illustrate its use with a brief case study of language attitudes across three European communities whose regional/minority languages receive radically different degrees of socio-political recognition: Lombard (Italy), Moselle-Franconian (Belgium), and Welsh (UK). The case study demonstrates not only how the app facilitates research across different communities that is easily comparable, results also reveal fundamental differences in attitude scores depending on the methods employed (AToL v. MGT). Consequently, we argue that there is a need to move toward both the adoption of more consistent, comparable methods as well as toward a more holistic approach to measuring language attitudes, where a battery of tests — as opposed to a single measure — should become the norm.

Language self-immersion: towards a critical theory of autonomous language immersion for a neoliberal digital age

Language self-immersion (LS) is the most popular language-learning method online, evidenced by the large body of online non-academic discourse on its theory and best practices. Nonetheless, LS remains largely unexplored within academia, its theory thus yet to be fully articulated. This article addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive theory of LS, as (1) a lifelong learning approach/philosophy and (2) an online phenomenon by contextualising it historically. I conducted a literature review and qualitative critical discourse analysis of scholars, YouTube polyglots, and language-related tech companies’ beliefs about LS. Results provide a nuanced understanding of LS as a learning philosophy inherent to the digital age, influenced by neoliberal rationality and problematic language ideologies. Furthermore, this article examines the liberating potential of LS in online spaces and the problematic implications of content-based language self-immersion. Results also underscore the need to explore critically aware approaches to language self-immersion.

African American Language in science education: A translanguaging perspective

AbstractIdeologies of language and race are deeply connected in the United States. Language practices associated with racially marginalized communities, such as African American Language (AAL) or Spanglish, are often heavily stigmatized. Such stigma is not grounded in empirical research on language, but rather in “raciolinguistic ideologies” that reproduce white supremacy and oppression in teacher education and in US classrooms—including science classrooms. Science education need not be this way, however. Translanguaging pedagogies can create space for students to use any and all types of languaging practices to engage in scientific sensemaking. Implementing translanguaging pedagogies to support scientific sensemaking will require science teachers to develop inclusive ideologies of language—not only the knowledge that multiple varieties of language are valid tools for sensemaking, but also the inclination and ability to formatively assess student thinking even when that thinking is not couched in canonical “science language.” In the present manuscript, we explore the relationships among teachers' language ideologies, their racial ideologies, their knowledge of language as an epistemic tool for teaching science, their self‐reported assessment practices, and their actual responses to several different samples of student science writing—including a writing sample that includes an oft‐stigmatized feature of African American Language. We show that teachers with more language‐inclusive ideologies—that is, those who take a translanguaging stance, and thus value the use of AAL in classrooms—appear to be better at formatively assessing and responding to student science writing compared to teachers with more language‐exclusive ideologies. We also show that seemingly race‐neutral ideologies of language are in fact strongly associated with oppressive ideologies of race, and that these language ideologies predict teachers' science formative assessment practices independently of existing measures of pedagogical knowledge. We discuss implications for science teaching, teacher education, and science education research.

An internationalization framework for Brazilian higher education and the role played by languages

Globalization, technological advances, and new geopolitical organizations have impacted the political, economic, and social world systems, generating new ways of engaging with and “being” in the world. Higher education has responded to those changes by devoting efforts to internationalization, acknowledging its contribution to the quality of education and research. In this direction, this paper aims to provide a brief history of the internationalization of Brazilian Higher education, highlighting the language ideologies and policies that underlie the different historic moments, in order to establish the groundwork to propose a successful internationalization plan which is able to answer the demands of the present challenges faced by the Brazilian higher education institutions. Borrowing De Wit et al.’s (2015) conceptualization of internationalization, this paper reflects on some core elements that relate to who should be involved in the process, why and how it should be conducted and to whom it is aimed. Anchored in data provided by the methodological approach of a SWOT analysis, a five-dimension framework is proposed for the development of an institutional internationalization plan that can incorporate the complex variables that involve the process. The analysis developed demonstrates how language and internationalization are interconnected and how different perspectives of internationalization are associated with specific strategic languages. Furthermore, language is seen as a tool to promote internationalization at home, contributing to the internationalization of the curriculum for all, including students unable to go abroad. In this perspective, internationalization at home is viewed as an inclusive and equitable process. Language is also seen as a two-way channel: it values Brazilian identities and cultures while serving to participate in a globalized world. Finally, it acknowledges the fundamental role of language as a tool to welcome and value different cultures. In doing so, it helps individuals reconstruct their identities in new contexts and build a sense of belonging. This, in turn, enables the promotion of multiculturalism, fosters mutual respect, and facilitates cultural integration rather than cultural assimilation.

“Can I speak that यहाँ पे (here)?”: Emergent bilinguals navigating intersectional inequities with relational multimodal multilingual practices in elementary school

ABSTRACT This paper highlights the stories of two grade 2/3 emergent bilinguals, Jay and Pari, to underscore the need for more inclusive listening for the experiences of marginalized learners and to offer relational, multimodal, and multilingual pedagogical designs. Framed by theories of intersectionality, translanguaging, and multimodality, I present moments from a collaborative multilingual photo project, Something/Someone I love, and center Jay and Pari’s identities – newcomers marginalized as ELLs, racialized students from low-income families – and their gendered experiences. The children negotiated the identity categories within the classroom’s social and academic worlds and shifted their deficit identities. Jay took up writing in Spanish and digitally editing a favorite car photo; Pari shared a photo of her stuffy, reflecting multiliterate competencies in her Hindi and English narratives. Jay and Pari drew on their communicative repertoires for connection and achievement, transitioning their languages, experiences, and emotions as valued resources. Yet this shifting of identities was not straightforward and normative English-only discourses were apparent. Three themes connect their stories: bridging multimodal and multilingual practices to celebrate capacities; focusing on relational and emotional processes to invite children’s experiences; and challenging dominant language ideologies for equitable learning. Implications center on redesigning the relationship between children’s lived experiences and school practices toward more inclusive listening for equity and relationality.

Forced Migration and Family Language Policy: The Ukrainian Experience of Language

This study investigates the impact of forced migration on family language policy among Ukrainian families, with a particular focus on women who have relocated to Poland with their children due to the war in Ukraine. Utilizing data from in-depth interviews, it explores the language situation in refugee families. The analysis concentrates on changes in language behaviour caused by shifts in emotional attitudes towards their language repertoire, due to the traumatic experience of war. It is noteworthy that there has been an increase in the use of the Ukrainian language in family communication, an intentional familiarization of children with the linguistic situation in Ukraine, and a conscious avoidance of the Russian language in public places abroad. Despite these trends, some families continue to predominantly use Russian at home as the primary language for family communication, or they frequently engage in language code-switching. The study examines patterns of changes in language behaviour resulting from the rejection of the Russian language in daily communication, highlighting politically motivated decisions to alter language use and the corresponding strategies of language behaviour. These changes in adults' speech behaviour significantly affect the speech practices of children, one manifestation of which is language attrition. Special attention is given to the phenomenon of language shame and self-shame associated with the use or non-use of the Russian language, the evolution of language attitudes, and their influence on language choice in family language practices.

Family Language Policy Among Ukrainian Refugees in Zadar

This paper deals with family language policy among Ukrainian refugees in the Croatian town of Zadar. The data that were collected via interviews conducted in May and June 2023 indicate that there is a certain correlation between families’ language ideologies and war-induced circumstances. Moreover, the newly arrived Ukrainians retain the use of their mother tongue in the family domain, while their use of other languages primarily depends on the level of linguistic competence, attitudes about language as a symbol of national identity, but also attitudes towards foreign language learning. Ukrainian refugees seem to encounter some language barriers, but due to similarities among Slavic languages and their efforts to adjust to the new sociocultural context, they are largely successful in overcoming them. Since many Ukrainian children are introduced to the Croatian educational context after migration, besides their parents, the children also become influential agents in designing aspects of their family language policy.

Multilingual Families Based in Poland: An Investigation into Family Language Policies

This article explores family language policies among mixed couples in Poland, focusing on how family members perceive and manage their languages. Using Spolsky’s FLP Model, the authors analysed 79 language biographies from multilingual speakers based on in-depth narrative interviews conducted between 2014 and 2021. The findings revealed that although families expressed explicit language ideologies and strategies, these often did not align with their actual language practices. The analysis also indicated that the affective and social aspects of multilingualism, such as the language status resulting from the political, social, and historical situation, were crucial factors influencing family language policies.

Language ideologies guiding language practices and management strategies: a study of family language policy among Iranian families in The Netherlands

ABSTRACT This study seeks to explore the Family language policy (FLP) of Iranian migrant families in the Netherlands, with a particular focus on those who preserve and use Persian as their heritage language. Drawing on [Spolsky, B. 2004. Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.] tripartite language policy model, the study looks into the language ideologies, language practices, and language management strategies adopted by nine families, who were recruited through snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used to compile the data. The findings indicate that the home sphere plays a pivotal role in the continued use of Persian. As for parental language ideologies, all respondents shared a longing to uphold Persian and cited an array of cultural, emotional, practical, and cognitive reasons for embracing Persian as their heritage language. The studied parents reported that Persian is the constant choice of communication within their households and employed deliberate strategies to ensure the sustainability of Persian within the home setting. The findings of this study bear important implications for understanding the dynamics of language maintenance within the Iranian diaspora and contribute to the scholarly discourse on FLP and heritage language maintenance.

The impact of divergent language policies on teachers’ language attitudes and proficiency in two multilingual education settings

Abstract This paper reports on a study on in-service and pre-service teachers’ language attitudes and perceived proficiency in two multilingual education contexts: the Basque Autonomous Community (Spain) and Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy). The total sample was made up of 1,094 participants (553 pre-service teachers, 541 in-service teachers). Data were collected by means of the same questionnaire used in a study published in 2007, which this research replicates. The cross-country comparison highlights the impact of diverse language policies; the Basque Autonomous Community shows robust support for the minority language, Basque, in contrast to Friuli Venezia Giulia’s less supportive approach to Friulian. Similarities include teachers’ high perceived proficiency in the State language (Spanish and Italian respectively) and positive views on multilingualism (including the minority, the majority and English as a foreign language). Notably, in-service teachers express more favorable attitudes than their pre-service counterparts towards the minority language, but less favorable towards the State language. With this study, we aim to contribute to the ongoing discourse on multilingualism within an educational system that embraces multiple languages, aiming to provide potentially valuable insights for policy and teacher training practice.

Teaching language attitudes through digital storytelling projects

Abstract This article addresses the teaching and learning of language attitudes within the context of a combined graduate/undergraduate Applied Linguistics course. Throughout the course, students critically discussed academic and research articles related to language attitudes towards some of the languages spoken by the students in the course (French, Spanish and Mandarin) and participated in a guided digital storytelling workshop. This article addresses the following research questions: (1) how do students embody their language attitudes through reflective storytelling? and (2) what do students gain in terms of learning outcomes from digital storytelling projects related to language attitudes? Common themes that emerged include (1) learning from others’ stories, (2) thinking creatively, (3) providing a platform for their voice, and (4) learning the connections between identity, language, and heritage. Digital storytelling can be used in other linguistics or problem-based courses as an alternative to final papers, with guidance that facilitates new understanding through collection of knowledge.

The Graphic Representation of Tōhoku Dialect in Contemporary Japanese Prose

This paper investigates the language ideologies behind the graphic and graphemic representation of Tōhoku dialect in contemporary Japanese prose. Despite being negatively perceived, recent interest in this variety has prompted its inclusion in literary works. Analyzing ten novels, this research examines authors’ strategies in navigating the complexities of portraying the characteristics of Tōhoku dialect within the frame of the Japanese writing system. Emphasis is placed on the techniques used to represent non-standard phonology of this variety, such as the choice of script as well as other forms of visual representation. Based on the assumption that writers are also carriers of language ideologies (Spitzmüller 2012: 257), the ideological implications of these choices are also established. The findings indicate that while various strategies were employed, there is a tendency to choose hiragana and kanji over katakana, which emphasizes familiarity and the connection with standard Japanese, indicating the influence of the ideology of the national language. Practical factors, such as understandability for potential readers, also play an important role. Some techniques, such as the use of graphic symbols, perpetuate the stereotype about the incomprehensibility of the Tōhoku dialect.

Critical Autoethnographic Narrative for Language Teacher Identity Development

English language teacher education requires a shift from a solely skills-based approach to one that addresses identity development and prepares teacher-learners to engage with issues of identity in the classroom. This article demonstrates the use of a critical autoethnographic narrative (CAN) assignment (adapted from Yazan, 2019) to foster language teacher identity development around these issues as a foundation for pedagogical praxis. The CAN assignment was developed for a sociolinguistics in education course required as part of a master’s degree program in educational linguistics, which enrolls primarily international students, at a prestigious private university in the northeastern United States. Authored by the instructor and two teacher-learners who were enrolled in the course, the article provides an overview of the course structure and key readings as well as prompts for a series of five short memos intended to stimulate reflection on and application of course topics, which included language varieties, speech communities, language ideologies, gender and sexuality, globalization, English as a Lingua Franca/World Englishes, and native-speakerism, to their own language-related experiences, identities, beliefs, and practices. At the conclusion of the semester, students compiled their memos into cohesive first-person narratives with references to the texts which influenced their thinking. Based on completed narratives and teacher-learner feedback, the CAN assignment achieved the goal of fostering critical reflection on sociolinguistic aspects of English language learning and teaching. Taking an autoethnographic approach in line with the assignment, the article includes excerpts from teacher-learners’ memos and CAN papers examining the roles that various languages have played in their personal and professional development and the connections between social environment, language, and identity. The article closes with recommendations for implementation of the assignment to foster awareness and foster practical application of sociolinguistic concepts.