Linguistic Ideologies Research Articles

What can interactional sociolinguistics bring to the family language policy research table? The case of a Malay family in Singapore

ABSTRACT This research applies interactional sociolinguistics within a family language policy framework to investigate how social structures and institutional discourses outside the home trickle into daily mundane activities within a Malay-English bilingual family in Singapore. Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and naturally-occurring interactions at home, the study examines the parents’ reported linguistic ideologies and the ‘practiced’ family language policy. The analysis suggests that the family embraces language mixing in the family and reports making efforts to strike a balance between Malay and English at home as a way of raising the children bilingually. The analysis of familial interactions, however, shows that the parents’ and children’s language practices vary as certain frames are evoked in the conversation. The findings suggest that a better understanding of language maintenance and shift processes through family language policy research necessitates a nuanced examination of how languages are used to evoke, negotiate and establish certain frames during daily activities at home.

Cinismo y «quinismo»: dos actitudes en la concepción de las lenguas en Cataluña

El cinismo y el quinismo son actitudes antitéticas que pueden materializarse discursivamente a través del grado de opinión de la modalidad epistémica. En este trabajo proponemos cuatro enunciados arquetípicos que representan múltiples opiniones respecto a la idoneidad o inconveniencia de que el catalán y el castellano acaparen los espacios y usos sociolingüísticos en Cataluña y en las cuales están presentes los componentes cínico y quínico. Estos elementos, que privilegian a una u otra lengua, no aparecen aisladamente, sino que se da una lucha entre ambas actitudes en la que una de ellas matiza la efectividad de la otra. Tomamos la perspectiva del Análisis Crítico del Discurso porque las ideologías que reproducen las relaciones de poder entre las lenguas se manifiestan discursivamente. Mediante esta perspectiva, dividimos los enunciados en segmentos separados ideológicamente y señalamos cuál de ellos se ha de atacar para construir ideologías lingüísticas favorables a la lengua minorizada. Cynicism and kynicism are antithetical attitudes which can discursively materialize through the opinion degree of the epistemic modality. In this paper, we propose four archetypical statements representing several opinions regarding the suitability and inconvenience of Spanish and Catalan languages about how they compete to monopolize sociolinguistic domains and uses in Catalonia. Cynical or kynical components are made clear in these sentences. These elements, which favour one or another language, do not appear in isolation, but there is a struggle between both attitudes in which one of them nuance the effectiveness of the other one. We take the Critical Discourse Analysis since the ideologies which reproduce the power relations between languages reveal themselves discursively. Through this perspective, we divide the sentences into ideologically separated segments and we point out which of them must be attacked to build favourable linguistic ideologies to the minoritized language.

Ethnicity is in the blood, not in the language: exploring Korean-Chinese bilingual families’ multilingual planning

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore how ethnic identity, linguistic ideology, and family capital work in interaction in shaping Korean-Chinese migrant families’ multilingual planning against the backdrop of China’s rapid urbanisation and internal migration. A model of investment (Darvin and Norton [2015]. “Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35: 36–56) was drawn upon. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey on 30 Korean-Chinese bilingual families in Shanghai, and semi-structured interviews and home visits with six focal families over a period of four months. The findings revealed a shift to Chinese and English and a suspension of Korean learning in the families. It was shown that the bilingual parents reconstructed their ethnic identity through linguistic socialisation, acquired hierarchical language ideologies, and made differentiated use of family capital. Moreover, when facing ideological conflicts and structural constraints, these parents attempted to sever the assumed link between language and ethnic identity, claiming that ethnicity is in the blood but not in the language. They made family language investment decisions guided by imagined identities they had for their children. The study contributes to the body of FLP research by eliciting a more nuanced understanding of how identity mediates the investment of different forms of family capital in different languages.

The Relationship of Racial Identity and Language in American Ideology

The article examines the relationship between the concepts of racial identity and language in the American linguistic ideology, which are most clearly reflected in the changes in the racial classification and scenarios of the US census. Racial identity cultivated in the United States is a legacy of hegemonic ideology and implies the legal and social division of people with differences into different races. Linguistic ideologies have influenced the legitimization of racial categories and their integration into the structure of American identity. The immigration and citizenship debate has played a key role in the formalization and reformalization of American races. The use of the language-race ligament, traditional for the American racial and linguistic ideology of the 19th century and using the concept of the mother language to identify races, in practice turned out to be difficult due to the objective difficulty of determining the mother language of a person. In parallel with the use of language as an indicator of race, the connection between language and national identity was strengthened, reinforced by the three-part ideological construct “White race – English language – American identity”. The ideological link between national identity and Anglo-Saxon racial identity has led to changes in immigration policy and calls for racial restrictions on immigration. In the ever-changing classification of races, language has invariably been an important component of individual identity and has played a key role in shaping racial categories. Today, the ideological basis for differences between groups is not physical, but cultural characteristics. This transition led to the emergence of a new discourse of marginalization: the responsibility for socioeconomic oppression rests with the oppressed themselves, ostensibly unwilling to accept the cultural values and behaviors that lead to social and economic success.

Мовна політика і мовний ландшафт: польська мова на банкнотах Чехословацької Республіки 1919–1938 рр.

This publication examines which languages were represented in the inscriptions of different series of banknotes issued between the First and Second World Wars (1919–1938) in the Czechoslovak Republiс. Along with portraits of historical figures, images relating to the culture and history of a particular nation, the presence (or absence) of banknotes of languages is also an element of symbolic politics and part of the manifestation of the language policy of a particular state. Banknotes are seen as an element of the linguistic landscape, and the linguistic landscape is understood as a reflection of language policy, its peculiar public expression. The main purpose of the study was to show why the Polish language appeared on the banknotes of Czechoslovakia, which were in circulation between 1919 and 1925, and to analyse why the Polish language disappeared from paper money after 1926. Placed languages on banknotes are subject to quantitative and qualitative analysis, examines the location of languages, the relationship between them. It is shown that the concept of "linguistic landscape" is not only an analysis of signs in public places, it can be interpreted and investigated in various ways. We believe that part of the increasingly interpreted linguistic landscape may also be the analysis of languages used in monetary units. It is noted that the historical approach to the analysis of the linguistic landscape helps to clarify aspects of language policy and linguistic ideologies. The authors conclude that even states that issue multilingual banknotes guarantee that the state language should be in a dominant position. The article shows why the Ukrainian, German, Polish and Hungarian languages appeared next to Czech and Slovak on the banknotes of the first issue of the Czechoslovak Republic. The Polish language was reflected on Czechoslovak banknotes that were in circulation between 1919–1925, but Prague removed the Polish language from paper money after 1926. The article analyses the reasons for the appearance and disappearance of the Polish language on the banknotes of the Czechoslovak Republic. Keywords: banknotes, language policy, linguistic landscape, polish language, Czechoslovak Republic.

Restituting Language: Ethics, Ideology and the Making of a Dictionary

I this article, I propose to consider the ethical dimension of the return of data to the research field site, here the Solomon Islands by focusing on the writing the Pijin Dictionary I published in 2002. I start by discussing the disconnect between the linguistic data we gather and the transformation these data undergo before linguists and anthropologists typically return them. I then focus on the making of the dictionary showing how the techniques of dictionary making and linguistic ideology of research participants and collaborators interact with my own to create a product far removed from the original data. I am questionning the ethics of such a transformation. Finally, I explain that though the dictionary is now 20 years, it is not used by Solomon Islanders who are not taught to read and write in Pijin but in English (the official language of the country). Rather, young Solomon Islanders using social media, are developing their own spelling for the language, neither that of Pijin nor that of English.

“I Call Them My Little Chinese Kids”: Parents’ Identities and Language Ideologies in a Mandarin-English Dual Language Immersion School

Research on bilingual education presents clear advantages for children’s linguistic, cognitive, and social development. However, recent criticism of dual language education programs has led to claims of dual language education as a marker of elite bilingualism or that parents play their roles as socially accepted “good parents” by sending their child to a bilingual school. This paper presents the linguistic ideologies of parents of students enrolled in two Chinese-English dual language schools in the MidAtlantic U.S. Qualitative data were obtained from in-depth interviews with 21 parents (mothers = 15, fathers = 6), the majority of whom have no Chinese ethnic connection. In drawing from theories of Family Language Policy, parents addressed the connections between Mandarin and economic, political, sociolinguistic, or sociocultural factors. Discussions with parents reveal both their knowledge and misconceptions regarding language learning theories. Findings also indicated that parental language ideologies often intertwine Chinese language with culture and nationality. Further, this research explores the ways parents uniquely shaped their identities in how they both accept and reject aspects of Chinese culture and language. My study reveals a more nuanced portrait of the parents who choose Mandarin immersion for their children, and explores the critical role that caretakers can play in informing bilingual policies and practices.

Characterizing Competing Tensions in Black Immigrant Literacies: Beyond Partial Representations of Success

AbstractIn this study, we problematize the notion that Black immigrant youth be designated as high achieving or new model minority when comparing their literate success with that of their Black American peers. We draw from ideological and autonomous views regarding literacies while recognizing notions such as languaging informed by personhood, monoglossic norms, heteroglossic perspectives, and raciolinguistic ideologies, which come to bear on the literacies of Black immigrant youth. Using these lenses, we examined Black immigrant literacy from both qualitative and quantitative paradigms. Quantitative findings revealed that native English‐speaking Black immigrant youth had significantly higher scores on reading literacy than native English‐speaking Black American youth on the Programme for International Student Assessment. Among all Black students in 2009, native English speakers outperformed non‐native English speakers. However, superior reading literacy performance among native English speakers was not as obvious in 2015 as was observed in 2009. In 2015, non‐native English speakers outperformed native English speakers among Black immigrants, whereas native English speakers had higher scores than non‐native English speakers on reading literacy among Black Americans. Qualitative findings showed that (a) literate success in one Black immigrant youth’s (D’Arcy) literacy practices was influenced by multilingualism as both an asset and a deficit; (b) dialectal difference was perceived as language interference and as binary (i.e., legitimate vs. nonlegitimate); (c) there was persistent unacceptability of D’Arcy’s language, accent, and certain literacies across home and school; (d) expectations about D’Arcy’s racial literate identity remained steeped in assumptions regarding racialized language and raciolinguistic ideology; and (e) teacher interventions revealed tensions across (racio)linguistic ideologies. Implications for theory, research, policy, and practice are provided.

Negotiation of native linguistic ideology and cultural identities in English learning: a cultural schema perspective

ABSTRACT Despite the proven benefits of combining target language education with corresponding cultural studies, little is known about the impact of infusing and integrating native culture and ideology into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. Few studies focus on how Chinese English language learners (ELLs) negotiate multifaceted identities in English classes in which native oriental culture and philosophical values are deeply embedded. Situated within a tertiary-level English classroom located in southeastern China, this article explores how Chinese ELLs negotiate linguistic ideology and construct cultural identity during their English learning. Qualitative analysis of the data reveals that students experience cultural capital enrichment with an increasing capability to tell Chinese stories worldwide in English, while at the same time experiencing a clash of ideological struggles and multilayered identity construction. The findings have significant implications for understanding the role of cultural capital, linguistic ideology, and identity construction in EFL teaching and learning, and for the global spread of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

Code-switching Llibre dels Fets: Language ideology in the 13th century Crown of Aragon

Abstract In this article, I explore code-switching in Llibre dels Fets (a 13th century chronicle that narrates the life and deeds of king James I of Aragon) from a glottopolitical perspective in order to uncover the linguistic ideologies reflected in the text through this phenomenon. Code-switching in contemporary Romance languages, as well as in Latin and Arabic, is found throughout the text, mostly within reported speech. Through the analysis of these fragments and the analysis of the labels used to refer to each of these varieties, it is shown that: (i) different varieties are used to express either allegiance (Catalan and Occitan) or opposition (Western Ibero-Romance) to the figure of the King, and that that Aragonese was erased as a language of the Crown of Aragon; (ii) code-switching in Latin is used to confer authority to the discourse; (iii) code-switching in the Romance languages is a mechanism to express group membership; and finally (iv) that mutual intelligibility between Catalan and the attested contemporary Romance varieties is assumed at the time of composition of the text.

Ideologí­as lingüísticas en las obras misionero-coloniales sobre el mapudungun (Valdivia, Febres y Havestadt)

Estudiamos las ideologí­as lingüísticas en las obras misionero-coloniales referidas al mapudungun: Arte (Luis de Valdivia, 1606), Arte (Andrés Febres, 1765) y Chilidúgú (Bernardo de Havestadt, 1777). Para ello, establecemos relaciones teóricas entre ideologí­as lingüísticas y lingüística misionera, y definimos un estudio interpretativo. En el análisis nos centramos en la concepción del mapudungun como lengua general y en la universalidad-particularidad del lenguaje. A partir de esto, corroboramos la presencia de ideologí­as lingüísticas en el conjunto, lo cual justifica su empleo como corpus.

Our Language—Linguistic Ideologies and Japanese Dialect Use in L1/L2 Interaction

This study uses conversation data and ethnographic interviews to examine the role of meta-talk in speaker legitimacy for L2 Japanese speakers. Autoethnographic analysis of conversation data demonstrates how an L2 speaker is co-constructed (jointly positioned) as a (non)legitimate speaker of Japanese Dialect. The researcher, an L2 Japanese speaker, recorded Japanese conversations with L1 interlocutors, namely, her L1 Japanese spouse and in-laws. Two contrasting cases of L2 Japanese Dialect use are examined. In the first case, L1 interlocutors respond to the L2 speaker’s dialect with meta-talk about “our language,” co-constructing the L2 speaker as a non-legitimate dialect user. In the second case, the L2 speaker’s dialect use is affirmed when the L1 interlocutor uses similar dialect; no meta-talk occurs. The conversation data is supplemented with ethnographic interview data which underscores the prevalence of meta-talk. Meta-talk reveals speakers’ beliefs about legitimate speakerhood in which “our language” does not include L2 speakers. Conversely, the absence of meta-talk affirms the L2 speaker’s dialect use and depicts dialect as a shared form of “our language.” This study contributes to understanding linguistic ideologies, demonstrates how language ownership and speaker legitimacy manifest in Japanese interactions, and adds to research examining Japanese Dialect use by L2 speakers.

Diversity, Inclusivity, and the Importance of L2 Speaker Legitimacy

This commentary builds on the work presented in Mori et al. (this volume) and considers diversity and inclusivity in the context of L2 speaker legitimacy in Japanese-language education. A discussion of linguistic ideologies, native speaker bias, language ownership, and speaker legitimacy is followed by a brief introduction of key research findings which demonstrate the persistence of native speaker bias for L2 speakers of Japanese. I argue that as Japanese-language educators, we must make a commitment to overcoming native speaker bias with regard to each other and especially with regard to our students. I conclude with some suggestions of steps we can take to become models for our students and demonstrate the legitimation of speakers regardless of linguistic background, so that we may begin to eliminate native speaker bias in our profession and in our classrooms.

Moments of relational work in English fan translations of Korean TV drama

This study is situated in the field of the pragmatics of fiction and audio-visual translation studies and explores renditions of relational work and im/politeness in the English fan subtitles of Korean dramas, as provided by the platform www.viki.com (Dwyer, 2012, 2017; Locher & Messerli, 2020). Within story lines, the indexical potential of language is used (among others) for character positioning, character development, relationship development and (indirectly) reflection of cultural norms and expectations (Planchenault, 2017). Fictional data is thus an ideal source for studying linguistic ideologies about relational work. The case of Korean is challenging for subtitlers since it dynamically indexes relationships through a complex system of grammaticalized politeness forms and a set of honorific morphemes and vocabulary (see, e.g., Rhee, 2019). The Korean nuances often cannot be translated as there is no straightforward correspondence to indexes of politeness in the target languages. Nevertheless, the English subtitles give access to an abundance of foregrounded relational work moments. The paper works on 215 scenes (from 4 dramas) and explores in what ways the complex Korean politeness system and the fictional play with this system is made accessible in the subtitles for non-Korean audiences. Four themes emerged: (1) character address term negotiations; (2) character meta-comments on relational work; (3) character meta-discussions on role understanding; and (4) subtitler meta-comments on language and culture. The results demonstrate two main issues: (a) these relational work moments are intricately connected with (character) identity construction in the fictional artefact; (b) the subtitlers take an active role in translating cultural assumptions about relational work and lean towards foreignization rather than domestication.

Nuevas perspectivas del lenguaje en la enseñanza de idiomas

El presente ensayo tiene como objetivo hacer una revisión bibliográfica de las nuevas realidades de la pedagogía de idiomas, independientemente del contexto. En los últimos años, el concepto de lenguaje ha variado para incluir realidades del uso del idioma socialmente. Algunos académicos argumentan que los idiomas deben ser vistos como una actividad más que como una formación de palabras, más que simplemente un sistema al que recurrimos, como una parte ingeniosa de la vida social e intercultural en cualquier sociedad. De igual manera, académicos enfatizan que comprender como se usan los idiomas funcionalmente implica pensar en ideologías lingüísticas y su rol en el proceso de aprendizaje/enseñanza de idiomas. En la pedagogía de idiomas, entender que el lenguaje es un sistema adaptivo complejo con una función fundamental social es vital ya que implica entender cuál es la función que dicho idioma jugaría en diferentes aspectos de la sociedad. Lo que implica, consecuentemente, pensar que competencias que deben ser desarrolladas, dentro del aula de clase.

Globalization, hybridity, and vitality in the linguistic ideologies of New Zealand Sign Language users

Language recognition has supported a discourse of NZSL vitality, yet the imagined boundaries of NZSL are blurring as foreign sign languages are more present in the digital landscape and absorbed into NZSL repertoires. In ‘superdiverse’ conditions, identities, ideas and language styles travel digitally across unconventional networks (Blommaert 2010). This prompts ideological tension between the “revival of regional languages and cultures… spread of international lingua francas, and new extents and forms of language hybridization” (Wendel and Heinrich 2012: 157). This article explores how NZSL users perceive the intersection of global influences, (especially ASL), with the identity of NZSL as a national language. While linguistic hybridity may suggest convergence, we found that many NZSL users see it as a source of vitalising local linguistic and cultural resources.

Belizean Varieties of Spanish: Language Contact and Plurilingual Practices

The current paper focusses on Spanish (de facto second official language) in contact with English (official language) and Belize Kriol (considered to be a lingua franca). These three languages are numerically the majority languages and, as a consequence, are an important axis of study for multilingualism. Previous quantitative analysis of interviews with a cohort of Spanish speakers who use all three languages in the same utterance are examined within the context of linguistic ideologies to draw insights into the Belizean semiotic landscape and the ways in which speakers enact linguistic agency. More than linguistic competency, this analysis makes evident speakers’ plurilingual competency which entails simultaneously navigating ideological norms as well as mulitple grammatical systems.

Language Ideologies and Saudi Society: Understanding the Notion of Diglossia

Discussing the role of Spoken varieties within Saudi society exposes a point of tension between those who view these varieties as a threat to Fus‛ħa Arabic and those who value them for their close association with local traditions and culture. The absence of a clear understanding of the concept of diglossia among the general public is at the core of this issue. Thus, one can see that although the use of Spoken varieties is expanding rapidly through new mediums such as “Shilat” (folkloric singing) and “Alqanawat Ash-Shaʕbeyah” (TV channels focusing on folklore), the linguistic campaigns that criticize these varieties remain as strong as ever. In this context, this paper aims to explore the discrepancy between linguistic ideologies within society and the reality of language use on the ground. The data used in this study were collected from questionnaires disseminated among Saudi speakers from both sexes and different age groups. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data reveal a number of directions and views that are prevalent within Saudi society regarding the H/L dichotomy. There seems to be a wide consensus about accepting Spoken varieties as a normal component of the linguistic repertoire of speakers, provided that such varieties are used in their predetermined domains. In contrast, any signs of infringement on the functions reserved for Fus‛ħa Arabic are always condemned and denounced. These infringements include the nonstandard use of language in any written form, such as the use of local varieties on internet forums, newspapers, and magazines or on information websites, like Wikipedia. This paper also examines the participants’ views on using Spoken Arabic on social media platforms, and their attitudes towards the influx of recent English borrowings into Spoken Arabic.

Associate professor of applied linguistics Applied Linguistics Dept., Arabic Linguistics Inst., King Saud University

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the concern of the Arabic language is reflected in the Saudi language policy, which is displayed in all aspects of decisions, programs, projects and public life. The Kingdom’s development process has facilitated significant improvements at all levels, which enhances the need for continuous review of the language policy to ensure that it is achieving its goals. The current study seeks to discuss Saudi language policy in general, with a specific focus on Arabic language decisions, by utilizing an integrated approach, consisting of questionnaire and interview with a sample of administrative leaders in the Kingdom. The study seeks to discuss the ideology underlying Saudi language policy, as well as views on its nature, effectiveness, impact and implementation challenges; it also proposes a framework to build a Saudi language policy aimed at preserving previous achievements and achieving future aspirations. The study demonstrates the existence of social, cultural and linguistic ideologies that support the policies related to the Arabic language, such as considering it as a basic component of the political entity, a major part of the national identity; it also identifies concern for Arabic in the linguistic landscape, along with its centrality in the educational system, and the keenness of linguistic purification. The results also showed the participants’ agreement on the clarity of the decisions on language, as well as its comprehensiveness, need for development, and the extent to which individuals and institutions exhibit a weak awareness of it. Also, it reveals the existence of some problems that prevent its implementation, which are related to the decisions themselves, the procedural processes, or the administrative institutions. The study also provides suggested methodological recommendations to build the desired language policy, which proceeds from a research base and builds on current achievements.

Examining family language policy through realist social theory

ABSTRACTIn this article, I argue that one social theory that could help us better understand the interaction between social structure and human agency in the context of family language policy (FLP) research is realist social theory. FLP studies in multilingual contexts have shown that home often becomes a site where dominant societal ideologies and discourses of structuring nature compete with individual views and agency, ultimately informing language behavior. Realist social theory advocates the analytical separation of structure and agency and attributes causal powers to both social structures and individual agency. This conceptualization of structure and agency prevents us from falling into structural determinism or individual voluntarism. Through examining the linguistic ideologies and practices of thirteen mothers of young children in Tabriz, Iran, I illustrate how family language policy emerges in interaction with and response to structural powers. (Family language policy, realist social theory, Iranian Azerbaijanis, agency, social structures, language maintenance)