Language Police Research Articles

Tiered vocabulary and raciolinguistic discourses of deficit: from academic scholarship to education policy

Tiered vocabulary is a pervasive concept in academic scholarship, education policy, and schools. It involves placing individual words into hierarchically arranged tiers, based on their apparent simplicity, sophistication, utility, and complexity, with these categorisations used to determine which words carry value in the classroom. In this article I conduct a genealogy of tiered vocabulary and argue that it is a raciolinguistic ideology which frames the language practices of racialised and working-class children as deficient and requiring modification. I trace the ideological roots of tiered vocabulary to European colonial representations of the purportedly limited vocabulary of Black African communities. I then examine how tiered vocabulary emerged as a concept in 1980s US academic knowledge production, based on experiments led by white academics on predominantly Black children from low-income homes. I show how tiered vocabulary is descendant from deficit, anti-Black thinking which characterised mainstream educational linguistics in the 1960s. I then focus on how it has become normalised in England’s education policy in the 2020s, as part of a flawed theory of change which deems that the acquisition of academic language is a tool for enabling social justice. Ultimately, I show how tiered vocabulary is a flawed theory of language which ties together race and class in producing discourses of linguistic deficiency, and legitimises language policing which undermines the education of marginalised children.

Institutional language policing and the maintenance of race-class inequalities

In this article, we show how Ofsted operates as institutional language police, and how the inspectorate's attitudes about language maintain race-class inequalities under a guise of social justice, equality and evidence-based practice. Our research has repeatedly demonstrated how Ofsted reproduces long-standing, deficit-based and colonial logics that marginalised children lack adequate language, and that school is a place where they can be compensated for these supposed shortcomings. We outline three key areas of this work. First, we trace the kind of research about language that Ofsted draws on to build the so-called evidence-base which underpins its contemporary policies. Second, we reveal the language ideologies that circulate in school inspection reports and how the inspectorate evaluates the language of teachers and pupils. Finally, we show how these stances on language have direct impact on the lives of teachers and children in schools. We argue that the extent of the language policing and discrimination we have uncovered in Ofsted's policies and reporting demonstrates that these are not simply individual mistakes but an institutionalised, systemic and normalised feature of the inspectorate's practice.

Kaduwa, humor and language policing: Memes and folk linguistics in Sri Lanka

This article takes the position that knowledge and opinions about language and the intersections between language and society don’t belong merely to the academic world but also are alive in, and activated by, the community. It considers Internet memes as folklore, and memes about languages in Sri Lanka and the English language in particular as expressions of folk linguistics — the field that investigates what non-linguists know and feel about language topics and any area of linguistics that non-specialist folk engage with — since everyone has an opinion about language in general or about particular languages and how languages should be used. Such attitudes can privilege some varieties and/or accents and languages over others, sustaining and re-creating power structures. Therefore, this article, drawing on the theoretical lens of Folk linguistics and Language Ideology, and taking the position that memes posted on the Internet depict grassroots level prescriptivist views about language, uses discourse analysis to examine a corpus of memes published on the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter between 2018 and 2022 in order to reassess the complexities and tensions as well as attitudes towards English in Sri Lanka. It was found that while old divisions related to English still exist and attitudes toward English are still complex and contradictory, there are more nuanced and complex views related to the learning of and speaking English in Sri Lanka.

Editorial: Wokeness in Education

Over the last few decades, students in secondary and higher education have become increasingly vocal about expressions of racism, sexism, heteronormativity, colonialism and other mentalities tied to inequalities in power. These forms of concern with social injustice, especially in its creeping, veiled or hidden forms, are often summarized under the heading of ‘wokeness’. Lately, the ‘woke movement’ has been faced with fierce critique and is often casted in the role of a language police, leading others, for fear of saying the wrong things or using the wrong words, to keep their mouths shut. But what if these tensions are not an expression of the closure of an argument, but rather a sign that something is beginning to open up? Do we need to move/work through these tensions in order to foster free debate in educational settings?

Persuasive Speech and the Power Play in Pinter’s Mountain Language: An Interdisciplinary Analysis

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this paper analyses power play, speech strategies, and speech impact in Harold Pinter’s one-act play Mountain Language (1988), in which prison officials exercise power over inmates and their visitors through various tactics of control and subjugation. The paper’s methodological framework of corpus analysis is founded upon the linguistic features of police speak in the English language (a hybrid genre of spoken language police officers use when interrogating suspects), which, we propose, permeates the discourse in Mountain Language. The paper first reflects on discourses on/of power as observed in literary theory, then examines discursive strategies in the play, to illustrate speech impact caused by “conduct-regulating persuasion” and linguistic features of verbal violence. It also reflects on the concept of the persuasive power of discourse, in terms of the impact it may have on the mindset and behaviour of the interlocutor(s).

Task-related collaborative behaviours in task-based oral peer interactions

ABSTRACT Collaboration in peer interaction has been investigated extensively by analysing language-related episodes (LREs). These have been classified variously depending on the nature of the discourse. Most studies of collaboration in peer interaction have thus tended to adopt a predetermined framework for analysis. Meanwhile, task type as a mediating factor has been widely examined by identifying and quantifying LREs. This study, drawing on sociocultural theory, explores this area by taking an ‘emic’ approach, focusing on a bottom-up analysis of collaborative behaviours in task-based EFL peer interactions. The participants were 15 adult learners of a state university in Turkey. Their EFL proficiency level was judged to be B1+ (intermediate) and their ages ranged between 18 and 20. They were randomly assigned to 3 peer groups and completed 8 different speaking tasks orally, involving 4 convergent and 4 divergent tasks.The qualitative analysis of this data identifies 5 categories of task-related collaborative behaviours; namely, (1) pooling knowledge/ideas, (2) encouragement for participation, (3) task policing, (4) simplification of the task and (5) language policing, in both types of tasks. The results are discussed in relation to social interdependence theory and learner autonomy in self-directed learning, and possible explanations for observing such collaboration are also provided.

Producing the disciplined English-speaking subjects: Language policing, development ideology, and English medium of instruction policy

AbstractThis article analyzes how English medium of instruction (EMI) policy is implemented by disciplining teachers’ and students’ language behaviors in school spaces. I adopt Foucault's (1977) ‘discipline’ to examine how schools exercise disciplinary power to create an English-only environment in multilingual classroom contexts. The data is drawn from an ethnographic study of EMI policies in two Nepali schools. The findings of the study show that schools exercise their disciplinary power through both panoptic and post-panoptic surveillance strategies to police their students’ and teachers’ language practices and punish them for speaking the languages other than English. Such disciplinary power is reinforced by neoliberal development ideology that legitimizes linguistic and symbolic capitals of English. While enforcing EMI policies, schools craft students’ identity as disciplined English-speaking subjects who are perceived to contribute to development ideology. The article discusses some major impacts that sociolinguists can make on transforming unequal EMI language policies and practices. (Discipline, English medium of instruction (EMI), language policing)*

Her Speech Betrays Her: The New Woman and Gendered Slang in the Periodical Press

Abstract: To Victorian prescriptivists writing for the periodical press, slang threatened the sanctity of the English language. While their complaint texts criticize slang as lower-class vulgarity, this language policing also fixates on the slang vocabularies of female speakers. By tracing three gender-based language ideologies expressed in Victorian periodicals—that women learn slang from men, that slang corrupts womanliness, and that slang is symptomatic of the feminist movement—this essay explores how Victorians denounced vulgar speech as a masculine act associated with the New Woman and nonconformist gender performance at the fin de siècle.

Postcolonial analysis of educational language policies of Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to compare the educational language policing in Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia. While distant geographically, the three countries experience similar linguistic processes when it comes to anglicisation, and propose different solutions to the issue of balancing linguistic rights, and promotion of English as the language of globalisation.
 This comparison aimed to find out what influences language policing in postcolonial countries, and in what ways language shift can be prevented. The aspects of language policing strategies are presented as a way of protecting linguistic human rights, but also as a way of dealing with the aftermaths of the policies implemented by the British Empire.
 Similarities and distinctions in the language policies of Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia prove that the weak position of native languages originates not in the “natural” decline of a language, but rather in the policy of promoting English by the colonial forces. Ethnic and linguistic discrimination favouring English speakers in Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia, originates in similar, imperial linguistic ideologies, which are still reflected in the current language policies of countries of colonial past. While the countries approach their bilingual educational policing in different ways, ultimately the outcomes seem similar when it comes to linguistic attitudes and prestige.

“Free License to Communicate”: Licensing Black Language against White Supremacist Language Assessments in a PreK Classroom

The policing of Black Language is inextricably tied to the policing of Black people and is entrenched in a long history of white Western European colonization. The legacies of white supremacy pervade schooling in its earliest years, yet Black teachers have consistently mounted a counterforce in battling white hegemony. In this article, I feature one such teacher, Raniya, who licensed Black Language in her preK classroom. Based on three months of classroom observations and interviews, this ethnographic case study explores the institutional architecture that affords white supremacist language assessments, particularly through an epistemology of language as an abstracted entity and through its process of curricularization. A raciolinguistic perspective illuminated how the white teachers at Raniya’s school insisted on broadly dehumanizing students of color through a schoolwide policy based on white monolingual standards. Drawing on notion of “vernacular insurrections,” I juxtapose white teachers’ raciolinguistic ideologies with Raniya’s practices. She claimed her classroom as a critical vernacular site through her approach of student language as a practice, and by subverting the normalcy of white hegemony within the schoolwide assessment process. This article calls for a shift in thinking about skills-based, decontextualized approaches as inherently white supremacist, and excavates how such a language approach supports white supremacy to thrive. I discuss the significance of centering the fight against white supremacy in our analysis of literary practices, which elucidates the potency of even small amounts of white dominance in institutional mechanisms as detrimental for Black students. As a field, the stagnation of Black student equity and commitment to white hegemony by white educators and administrators across preK through higher education persists. Though some white educators diverge from hegemonic practices, we must consider who benefits and what is sustained when exceptions are used to overlook and not interrogate the norm. This work contributes to the mounting rationales for racial diversification in the teacher workforce.

Language ideology in an endogamous society: The case of Daghestan

AbstractStudies of multilingual systems found in Indigenous small‐scale communities often assume that exogamous marriages are the norm in such societies and contribute to their linguistic diversity. This paper is an account of the language ideology of endogamous societies in rural highland Daghestan (Northeast Caucasus). By studying language policing and language choice in infrequent mixed marriages, the paper uncovers the beliefs that support endogamy and reveals issues of linguistic identity and attitudes toward the usage of the matrilect within the family and the village. Interviews show that in‐married women do not bring new languages to the villages, because they quickly acquire the local language new to them and use it with all their in‐laws and their children. A strong association between villages and languages together with the ideology supporting linguistic homogeneity within the village contributes to the maintenance of the regional linguistic diversity.

Discussing -splain

This discussion note offers a response to Judith Bridges’ focus article “Explaining ‘‑splain’ in digital discourse”. We review some of the article’s core findings on the bound morpheme ‑splain, utilised in words such as whitesplain, covidsplain, and thinsplain, and expand on them by addressing three key concerns: we situate the construction and use of ‑splain formations in a more expansive version of prescriptivism, what we refer to as ‘prescriptivism 2.0’; discuss them within the context of language policing and political correctness; and ask whether forms ending in ‑splain are subject to moral gradience, highlighting directions and opportunities for future research.

An examination of teachers’ language policing in EFL young learner classrooms in Turkey

This study explores the instances when teachers employ language policing (Amir, 2013) in the Turkish EFL young learners’ context. Language policing studies are scarce in EFL young learners’ classrooms. Hence, this study is an attempt to address the gap in the literature concerning EFL young learners’ contexts from the expanding circle and contribute to the code switching literature. Data consists of 270-minute video recordings from three different classes in two private schools in Turkey and it was analysed using Conversation Analysis. Results show the presence of Turkish, English, as well as a bilingual medium before and after the policing was initiated through formulaic expressions. Unlike some secondary school contexts where the English-only policy is enforced with a strict rewards and punishment policy (Amir & Musk, 2013), speaking Turkish and the bilingual medium for the most part of the lessons was not corrected by the teachers in the current study. These findings have implications for teaching EFL to young learners, language policing and code switching in secondary contexts.

Language and Social Justice in US Climate Movements: Barriers and Ways Forward

Climate movements increasingly conceptualize the climate crisis as an issue of social injustice, both in terms of its root causes and its present and future effects. Climate justice calls for participatory decision-making within climate movements, which, as communication scholars have pointed out, necessitates inclusive and accessible communicative practices. Within sociocultural linguistics, a growing body of research has explored sociolinguistic justice, or marginalized groups' struggle for self-determined language use. This analysis interweaves these two research areas, applying the theory of sociolinguistic justice to climate communication in organizing contexts. Drawing on 67 semi-structured interviews and 112 online surveys with climate activists from organizations across the United States, the analysis finds that sociolinguistic injustice impedes frontline community members' participation in climate movements. Specific barriers include: (1) English-only communications; (2) the combination of incomprehensible jargon with a dry, emotionless register; (3) the use of Dominant American English in prescriptive climate communication materials such as phonebanking scripts; (4) language policing of discourses of environmental justice and environmental racism; and (5) a form of linguistic ventriloquism in which adult organizers pressure youth to express climate grief in their stead. Climate activists' insights are synthesized to propose countermeasures to each of these problems of sociolinguistic injustice. The results suggest that sociolinguistic justice can be a useful lens for understanding climate justice communication within climate movements, and provide guidance to climate organizers and educators who wish to align their communications with the inclusive, anti-racist, and decolonial values of climate justice.

The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate

AbstractEngland has had a schools inspectorate since 1839, first in the form of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI), and since 1992, in the form of the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). The inspectorate, a workforce made up of a majority of white inspectors, conduct regular inspections of all state schools in England, producing reports which comment on various aspects of educational provision, including teachers’ and students’ spoken language. In this article we deploy a raciolinguistic genealogy to examine the listening practices of the inspectorate, drawing on historical inspection reports generated from archival work, inspectorate language policy, and a large corpus of contemporary reports. We show how raciolinguistic ideologies are deeply embedded into the sociopolitical culture of the inspectorate, and how these ideologies translate into systems of sonic surveillance in which the nonstandardised language practices of students and teachers are heard as impoverished, deficient, and unsuitable for school. (Raciolinguistics, schools, language policing, standardised English, Ofsted, England, social class, ideology)

Children, childhoods and bilingualism: Exploring experiences, perspectives and policies

Children, childhoods and bilingualism: Exploring experiences, perspectives and policies

"Master" of none: Institutional language change linked to reduced gender bias.

Concern that masculine generic language (e.g., man to mean humanity) perpetuates gender inequity has led several institutions to formally discourage its use. While previous experimental research indicates that generic terms like man bring more exemplars of men than women to mind, only recently have researchers begun exploring additional consequences of gendered language. Understanding the range of processes affected is of particular importance when evaluating real-world policies. Yale University recently changed the title of a leadership role from master to head. The present study (N = 341) investigated what exemplars come to mind (i.e., cognitive accessibility) while also probing memory for women and men in the leadership role both before and after Yale's language policy change. Students exposed to master generated a male exemplar more than would be expected by the incidence of men and recognized actual men in the role more accurately (d') than women in a face recognition task. Among students exposed to head, both biases were eliminated. The previous literature shows that masculine generic language brings men to mind. The present work demonstrates a similar effect but in an applied context while further documenting consequences for memory. Gender inclusive language polices have potential to reduce gender biased thinking with applied significance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Where two worlds meet: language policing in mainstream and complementary schools in England

ABSTRACT We compare language policing in two educational contexts in England: mainstream schools and complementary schools. We draw on a varied dataset (policy documents, in-class observations, interviews) collected from mainstream schools and Greek complementary schools in London. We find similarities in how the two types of schools control, regulate, monitor and suppress the language of school students. Both settings hierarchise standardised and non-standardised varieties in institutional policies that delegitimise the non-standardised varieties. Teachers become vehicles for language ideologies in enacting monovarietal policies drawing on discourses around academic success and the primacy of written language over spoken language, including regional varieties such as Cypriot Greek. Our findings suggest that multilingual and multidialectal students in England who attend both mainstream and complementary schools are exposed to similar kinds of prescriptive discourses across the whole spectrum of their educational experiences, which can have a range of negative effects on their learning and the construction of their self-image. We argue that more links need to be forged between the two educational settings and that these should include the development of integrated pedagogies and policies that legitimise students’ whole linguistic repertoires, encompassing both their standardised and their non-standardised varieties as well as their other linguistic resources.

Language and Publics in a Global Digital World. What Is Linguistic Citizenship in the 21st Century?

"In this article, I discuss language from a linguistic anthropological perspective, where the existence of standardised languages is understood as an outcome of socio-political discourses in the age of nationalism, in which the technologies of print literacy enabled national public spaces – and with it, national language standards – to emerge. What happens to language standards and public spaces in the era of digital technologies and transnational interaction? I introduce some examples and develop ideas on language policing in settings where monolingual national ideals exist besides other emerging linguistic authorities. Keywords: languages, nationalism, public spaces, standardization, late modernity "

Identity performance and language policing in Hong Kong’s media

This study reports on our examination of local Chinese residents’ identity performance and language policing in Hong Kong’s media. In the study, we explored how local Chinese residents police the use of written Chinese in a context where the clash between traditional Chinese characters (associated with Hong Kong) and simplified Chinese characters (associated with mainland China) has been increasingly documented in the media. To examine local Chinese residents’ identity performance in language policing incidents, we identified shared social categories from 1311 news articles, comments, and postings online during the years from 2015 to 2019 for analysis. The analysis revealed that antagonism and social categories were presumed and reproduced by those whose participation in language policing incidents against the use of simplified Chinese characters reflects their identity performance. The findings enrich our understanding of how individuals exercise agency in resisting language policies from above, and undertake identity-related performance in language policing to achieve the policy outcomes that they desire to have.