Monolingual Language Ideologies Research Articles

Living both here and there: a study of identity construction among Korean-Chinese elites in an international metropolis

ABSTRACT This study explores how college graduates from an ethnic minority group, bilingual Korean-Chinese, negotiate and reconstruct their identities in the scale-changing process as they move from ethnic minority communities to an international metropolis in China. Drawing on the notion of scale, this study used data collected from semi-structured interviews with 24 bilingual Korean-Chinese participants in Shanghai to explore their lived experiences. Their language use in social media was also tracked and recorded over a period of four months. The findings reveal that most of the participating bilingual Korean-Chinese elites flexibly moved across the spatial–temporal scale and the social scale, situationally adapting their language use to the environment and for various communicative purposes. As such, they retained their ethnic identity while accommodating new identities, achieving a reconciled ‘amphibious identity’ by ‘living both here and there.’ The remainder of the participants chose to use either Chinese or Korean, under the influence of their monolingual language ideology, and developed a marginalised or replacement identity. This study contributes a more fine-grained and non-reductionist understanding of ethnic minority migrants’ construction of identity in a situation of mobility and its relation to their language practices across different scales.

Navigating monolingual language ideologies: Educators’ “Yes, BUT” objections to linguistically sustaining pedagogies in the classroom

Aims: We examine how educators articulate tensions between linguistic pluralism and linguistic normativity in written Linguistic Autobiographies through their metacommentary about student language and their role as educators. We specifically focus on “Yes, BUT” objections articulated by 17 participants that frame monolingualism and adherence to idealized forms of English as necessary, despite rhetorical nods to embracing linguistic diversity. Research questions: (1) How do participating educators construct “Yes, BUT” objections to linguistic pluralism in their written Linguistic Autobiographies? (2) What language ideologies inform these objections? (3) What ideological positions for educators are implicated? Design/methodology/approach: Collaborative emergent qualitative coding and inductive discourse analysis. Data and analysis: We analyzed Linguistic Autobiographies written by 50 educators taking an online master’s class in Sociolinguistics for Bilingual Educators and examined features of “Yes, BUT” objections and their ideological justification using collaborative, emergent coding and inductive discourse analysis. Findings/conclusions: We document how educators’ “Yes, BUT” objections illuminate discursive moves that justify the seeming embrace, yet ultimate rejection of, linguistic diversity. Originality: This study disentangles monolingual language ideologies to address objections inherent to educators’ “Yes, BUT” constructions that arise as common barriers in teacher education. We reframe these objections as emergent degrees of linguistic pluralism, which serve as evidence of the contextual difficulties educators often encounter in schools. We thus acknowledge rather than dismiss the tensions educators face in fostering linguistic pluralism. Significance/implications: This study illuminates how language ideologies shape (and possibly offer insights for undoing) complacency in what is often discussed as a long-standing tension between the seemingly mutually exclusive positions of linguistic pluralism and linguistic normativity. We argue that analyzing and addressing these “Yes, BUT” objections in educators’ narratives is key to the disruption of monolingual language ideologies in educational settings and beyond.

Speak English in the department or perish? A multimethod study on online public responses to an English-only incident at a US university

ABSTRACT This study investigated more than 3600 online comments responding to an incident in 2019 where a controversial memo was sent to instruct Chinese graduate students at a US university not to speak Chinese in the department. A text analysis based on Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software showed that these comments included more negative-emotion words compared with positive-emotion words. In addition, an inductive thematic analysis identified themes supporting monolingual language ideology and other themes supporting language freedom in the United States and questioning the context of this English-only incident.

Treatment of and Attitudes Towards ‘Other’ Languages in Modern Russia: Evidence from Metalinguistic Discourse

Russian Federation, being de jure and de facto linguistically diverse multilingual country, can be described, at the same time, as being under a strong influence of monolingual language ideology, with Russian totally domineering in most public spheres. Minority languages and especially languages of migrants lack official recognition and support, and their speakers often have to face prejudices and negative stereotypes. The paper aims at revealing language ideology prevailing in modern Russia through analysis of attitudes to languages other than Russian as they are expressed in discourse about language, i.e. metadiscourse. When approaching it, it is important to distinguish state discourse (manifestation of official language policy) and public discourse (collective attitudes towards certain sublanguages and their users expressed more or less directly). The analysis shows that over the past two decades, official language ideology in Russia has shifted from guaranteeing linguistic equality and diversity to having an emphasis on unity and purity and giving support to the Russian language. This reorientation is realized through status planning, corpus planning, and acquisition planning. At the level of public discourse, analysis of collective attitudes towards the languages used by non-native speakers demonstrates that a significant part of the Russian-speaking population express negative attitudes towards non-native speakers and their poor Russian language skills, which once again confirms that there is dominant monolingualism and purism in public discourse. However, language practices in Russia are gradually becoming more diverse which can become a challenge for monolingualism and purism in future.

Classroom as Neo‐National Microcosm: Teachers Learning to Disrupt Linguistic Microaggressions

AbstractNeo‐national ideologies are often associated with despots and political extremists. Yet, we argue that neo‐nationalist discourses also manifest in everyday TESOL classroom interactions. In English‐dominant contexts, teachers send potent messages about who does or does not “belong” in classrooms, largely based on racialized notions of English proficiency. These dynamics create a classroom microcosm where students are apprenticed into linguistic normativity and anti‐immigrant sentiments, ultimately sustaining future generations of neo‐nationalist rhetoric. In light of these dynamics, we believe that teachers can play a key role in disrupting normative, monolingual language ideologies in classrooms, but that they often feel underprepared to do so. In this brief research report, we present findings from our ongoing examination of TESOL licensure endorsement candidates responding to deficit‐oriented microaggressions about multilingual learners in a simulated environment. Our results suggest teacher candidates have the desire to promote asset‐based orientations around multilingualism, but are often unable to do so in real time. These findings have important implications for teacher education and the underutilized potential of teachers for disrupting deficit‐oriented monolingual discourses that too easily turn into neo‐nationalist ideologies.

Introducing a Polynomic Approach in Ryukyuan Language Learning

The polynomic model as a model of language codification treats regional and social variation within language as inherently good and does not hierarchise this variation. This research is an argument in advocating the application of a polynomic model in Ryukyuan language learning, focussing on Okinawa Ryukyuan. The Ryukyuan languages consist of a minimum of 5 abstand languages that are spoken in the Ryukyuan island chain in southern Japan. The Ryukyuan languages have no standard languages and show internal variation. A monolingual language ideology implemented since the annexation of the Ryukyus by Japan in the late 19th century has caused a language shift towards Japanese, rendering all Ryukyuan languages endangered. A small revitalisation of the Ryukyuan language has been taking place since the early 21st century, necessitating the development of an infrastructure for language learning. In this research, I give reasons why the application of a polynomic model would allow for an inclusive language revitalisation that respects local language practices and identities in the Ryukyus, without reproducing the colonialist attitudes towards language that led to language endangerment in the first place.

A multi-layered comparative analysis of English-medium instruction in the Netherlands

AbstractThe rise of English in Dutch higher education has been accompanied by a language ideological debate that affects students’ and lecturers’ lives at the micro level, policy and planning at the meso (institutional) level and is related to the macro perspective (national political agenda). This study explores how language ideologies and attitudes play a role in this debate by comparing lecturers’ perceptions of the use of English in higher education to general language ideologies reflected in the Dutch printed press. A thematic analysis was conducted, including a three-dimensional investigation incorporating a vertical approach (macro, meso, micro) combined with a horizontal approach focusing on ideological themes present at the vertical level. Our data consist of 151 news items and 20 interviews with lecturers in higher education. Results show that monolingual language ideologies are the norm in both the perceptions of teaching staff and the Dutch media. Lecturers were generally more positive towards the exclusive use of English than the printed media. The study suggests that the Dutch/English dichotomy and accompanying persistence of a monolingual language ideology contrast with the reality of the Netherlands as a multilingual community. Implications for language policy and practice within EMI are presented.

Once a Chinese International Student and Now an English Professor: An Autoethnographic Self-Inquiry of Journeys Against Linguicism and Monolingual Ideologies

In this autoethnographic critical self-inquiry study, I draw upon my unique identity as once a Chinese international student and now an English professor at a private research university in the United States to investigate how I sought for my multilingual identity and empowered my international students while coping with linguicism and monolingual ideologies. Despite the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in student population, the faculty body in degree-granting postsecondary institutions remains dominated by White, native speakers of English (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Such a lack of diversity in the faculty body is present especially in the field of English, where monolingualism and nativeness is often the unspoken norm (Nigar & Kostogriz, 2019). This has exerted far-reaching impacts on all facets of English language teaching, posing substantial challenges to the professional development, instructional practices, and identity negotiation among nonnative English-speaking faculty of color. In this autoethnographic critical self-inquiry study, I reflected on my identity as once a Chinese international student and now an English professor to explore: How did my non-whiteness and non-native-English-speakerness affect my identity and self-positioning as a Chinese international student and an English professor? How did I cope with linguicism and monolingual language ideologies in American higher education and beyond? Autoethnography is a helpful approach to systematically explore one’s personal experiences from unique cultural perspectives (Ellis & Bochner, 2006). Critical self-inquiry is an essential research methodology to investigate tensions between belief systems and about identities (Larrivee, 2000; Marshall, 2001). Integrating the two methods together, autoethnographic critical self-inquiry allows exploration of lived experiences from an emic stance while acknowledging the dynamics of identity shifts and interaction. This autoethnographic critical self-inventory study focused on my journeys as once a Chinese international student (2012-2019) and later an English professor (2019-current) in American higher education. Following the critical self-inventory model (Allard & Gallant, 2012; Attard, 2014), data were collected to reflect both my on-going self-reflections (my teaching journals and diaries) and my conversing with others, including recordings and documentations of my interactions with colleagues and students. Data were analyzed following the coding procedures of applied thematic analysis (Guest et al., 2011) to explore important storylines in order to bring "readers into the scene" through showing and telling (Ellis, 1993, p. 711). Preliminary findings show that while my non-whiteness and nonnativeness have posed challenges to my initial self-positioning as a legitimate member in American higher education, I gradually transitioned my self-perceived “otherness” into my unique advantage as a multilingual expert with lived experiences as a means to fight against linguicism. Consequently, I was able to draw upon my lived identities to serve as a role model to empower my students which in turn empowered myself.

Critical Language Awareness in the Spanish as a Heritage Language College Classroom

This article analyzes the critical language awareness (CLA) of Spanish university-level students who were enrolled in a 16-week Spanish heritage language (SHL) course, using CLA as an instructional approach. Students’ attitudes towards bilingualism, Spanglish, language variation, and prescriptivist grammar were measured via pretest and posttest surveys that used a four-point Likert scale of strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree, along with a text box asking participants to explain their answers. The CLA instructional methods delivered in the course included the analysis of code-switching grammar constraints, the study of standard language ideologies and monolingual language ideologies, the analysis of stigmatized grammar features found in varieties of Spanish, and English-influenced lexicon. Ten out of fourteen items were included in a factor analysis which yielded a statistically significant change between pretest and posttest. Qualitative analysis of answer explanations showed that some students adapted their language ideologies to the new information and did not change their beliefs at a deep level. Future CLA research should identify “CLA proficiency” levels as well as how to differentiate for students who hold deeply entrenched language ideologies.

Language ideological landscapes for students in university language policies: inclusion, exclusion, or hierarchy

ABSTRACT Many universities in non-English speaking countries have been adopting English as a medium of instruction to internationalize their education. We set out to compare the language policies of a Finnish and a Japanese university using the lens of language ideology – a set of normative beliefs about the social dimension of language. Data were collected from selected documents of the two universities, and analyzed utilizing critical discursive psychology. This social constructionist approach allows mapping out language ideological landscapes – interrelationships among different co-occurring language ideologies – from which students may draw ideas about how they orient themselves towards their peers on international campuses today. Our analysis shows that different language ideological landscapes are constructed in the language policies of the two universities, affording them different positioning in the phenomenon of internationalization. The findings suggest that both multilingualism and languaging would be important discursive resources for universities to maintain ethnolinguistic nationalism and ensure equality among students with different linguistic backgrounds, in the process of internationalization of higher education through English. On international campuses where multilingualism is prevalent, students are likely to be constructed as cosmopolitans for inclusion, locals and foreigners for exclusion, or ‘native/native-like and non-native speakers’ for hierarchy through different monolingual language ideologies.

Cyborgs and Fox Wives


 
 
 Using an arts based posthumanist lens, (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; jagodzinski & Wallin, 2013) I examine my evolving beliefs about American Sign Language (ASL) through the analysis of arts based data (poetry) (Leavy, 2015). Central to my analysis is an examination of Western domination and control of the language used by ‘othered’ communities through the imposition of dualisms, binaries and categories in sign language ideologies (Canagarajah, 2013). This exploration traces the evolution of sign language ideologies embraced by the deaf cyborg subject featured in the poetry volume as she explores ways to survive and resist the effects of a monolingual language ideology embedded in an imaginary assemblage containing intra-actions between human, animal, earth and machine (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987).
 
 

Monolingual Language Ideologies and the Idealized Speaker: The “New Bilingualism” Meets the “Old” Educational Inequities

Background/ContextAfter decades of restrictive U.S. language policies geared toward English-only education, recent years have seen a proliferation of dual-language programs, Seal of Biliteracy awards, and bilingual education programming more broadly. The demand for such programming ostensibly suggests growing consensus around the benefits of linguistic diversity—dubbed “The New Bilingualism” by The Atlantic in 2016. However, recent research suggests that the pivot to this New Bilingualism is largely taking place in contexts of privilege, disproportionately benefiting English-dominant, middle- and upper-class communities as compared with multilingual communities where demand for bilingual programming is not “new” at all.Focus of StudyThis piece explores how recent, well-intentioned expansions in bilingual education programming may actually reinforce historical inequities. Putting forth a framework of idealized language ideologies, the article documents how bilingualism has historically been encouraged for some and denied to others in U.S. education and policy contexts.Research DesignThrough historical analysis, this article documents how language ideologies overlap with racism and nationalism in educational and policy contexts across key periods of U.S. history and into the present day.Conclusions/RecommendationsA framework of idealized language ideologies foregrounds (1) idealized language practices, (2) idealized speakers, and (3) institutional interests, highlighting how these dynamics function to maintain educational and broader social inequities. Applying such a lens makes it possible to simultaneously acknowledge positive expansions of bilingual programming, while also questioning the framing of such programming as “new” or as a panacea for educational inequality. In a time of rapid expansion for bilingual educational programming, this piece demonstrates that even bilingualism can be normatively framed as an idealized language ideology to reinforce problematic language hierarchies. Thus, it is imperative that teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers reckon with these historical dynamics to ensure that educational models designed to ameliorate linguistic inequities do not end up reproducing them instead.

Who’s being ‘sheltered?’: How monolingual language ideologies are produced within education policy discourse and sheltered English immersion

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the notion of ‘sheltered’ pedagogies for English language teaching in English-dominant contexts. I specifically explore how the increasingly popular Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) model has been interpreted in certain contexts to further monolingual language ideologies. Drawing on critical and poststructural approaches to policy analysis, I ask who is being sheltered through SEI – interrogating the degree to which the model accommodates multilingual learners as compared to ‘sheltering’ monolingual pedagogies, teachers, students, and policies of the status quo. Ultimately, this framing destabilizes assumptions around who benefits from ‘sheltered’ approaches. I first introduce a theoretical framework to challenge claims of a widespread transcendence of monolingual language ideologies through theoretical advances such as the pluri/multilingual turn. Next, I analyze the socio-historical trajectory of SEI’s use within U.S. English-only movements and the language ideologies produced therein. Finally, I provide a specific example of an SEI training mandate in the U.S. state of Massachusetts that demonstrates how monolingual language ideologies can be reinforced through teacher education, even in the absence of specific English-only policies. Beyond SEI classrooms, this analysis has implications for how language hierarchies are maintained across a broad range of educational settings and policies.

Translanguaging by Design in EFL Classrooms

ABSTRACTThis study presents the analysis of a translanguaging by design activity I conducted with students finishing an EFL program at a Costa Rican university, for which I showed them pictures of graffiti in Spanish and encouraged them to discuss these, using their entire linguistic repertoire. I recorded their discussions, selected instances of bilingual languaging, and analyzed their spontaneous and intuitive translanguaging. Whereas classroom interaction showed that students translanguaged for various purposes and in clearly distinctive ways, follow-up student interviews revealed some of the affordances and constraints of purposefully bringing translanguaging into programs that have for long been dominated by monolingual language ideologies. By and large, this study constitutes an attempt at transforming translanguaging from a furtive to a purposefully planned practice, which is a much-needed step forward in challenging monolingual and language separation ideologies in EFL programs and in disrupting the trend in EFL education to view students simply as learners, and not as emergent bilinguals with a complex linguistic repertoire and intricate languaging skills.

Diversity, Super-Diversity, and Monolingual Language Ideology in the United States

Diversity, Super-Diversity, and Monolingual Language Ideology in the United States

(Trans)national language ideologies and family language practices: a life history inquiry of Judeo-Spanish in Turkey

This article explores the diminished use of Judeo-Spanish among Jews living in Turkey and asks the following research question: What factors, ideologies, and practices contribute to the demise of Judeo-Spanish? To address this question, we employed life history inquiry based on two oral history archives documenting elderly Turkish-Jewish community members’ lived experiences in Turkey. We argue that the endangerment of Judeo-Spanish is caused by the reciprocal interaction between broader, societal language ideologies and family-internal language practices. In particular, the opening of the Alliance schools among the Turkish Jewry in the second half of the nineteenth century relegated Judeo-Spanish to a lower social standing and promoted French as the language of Western enlightenment while Turkish nationalism and the ‘Turkish-only’ language policies of the newly formed Turkish Republic aimed to create a monolingual public space in Turkey. To further explain how monolingual language ideologies influenced the use of Judeo-Spanish in the family, we discuss the negative language attitudes towards Judeo-Spanish that are reproduced in the family and specific language practices (e.g., code-meshing) that relegate Judeo-Spanish to linguistic periphery, yet keep this language as a marker of ethnic identity.

Reassessing Gallo as a regional language in France: language emancipation vs. monolingual language ideology

This paper discusses the applicability of language emancipation to the regional languages of France and shows that, from a historical and contemporary perspective, it is very relevant for these languages. In particular, Gallo, Eastern Brittany's Oïl language variety, provides a pertinent grass roots illustration of many of the issues addressed through the concept of language emancipation. However, the historical and contemporary entrenchment of a monolingual and centralist language ideology which is vehemently opposed to pluralist language ideology in France means that, if language emancipation is to be socio-politically acceptable, some degree of care has to be exercised in the manner in which it is presented and what facets are emphasized in the French context. Indeed, through their long established activism in favor of regional languages in the education system, regional language movements and not least the Gallo movement are already well-positioned to promote one of the main and most compelling arguments for contemporary language emancipation: this is that an active knowledge of two or more languages, including a regional language, is beneficial to the individual and to society in general. Only a “language attitudes shift” can create the conditions for genuine language emancipation in France.

Diversity awareness and the role of language in cultural representations in news stories

Behind news stories are reporting, writing, and editing actions and decisions that constitute everyday practice within the news profession. As part of this, journalists are conscious of providing relevant coverage of the communities in which they work. A consequence is that news discourse reflects both profession-internal and societal values. To illustrate the relation of news reporting to values in the larger culture, I examine an aspect of US news coverage that is actively discussed within the profession: reporting on “diversity,” described as “issues of class, race, ethnicity, culture, abilities and sexual orientation” (Poynter Institute). Beyond prohibitions against pejorative labels, the role of language and its indexing of social identity is seldom included in diversity awareness discussions, despite its function in that regard. I argue that this is because of the monolingual language ideology that suffuses mainstream America and the absence of specialist linguistic insight that might provide a counter-perspective. Ethnolinguistic examination of profession-internal discourse concerning the industry's self-identified diversity reporting gaps can also lead to a more nuanced understanding of news practice, while looking at journalists’ outputs in topic-neutral contexts illustrates the larger sociocultural attitudes that the news community reflects when it engages in reporting about “diversity.”

Counter-hegemonic language practices and ideologies

This article examines how local norms for Spanish use in a multilingual Southwest Texas border setting respond to and contest dominant monolingual ideologies. The analysis focuses on notions of what languages are legitimate for use in the public sphere in this community and on the benefits of engaging in particular communicative practices. The corpus analyzed comes from interviews with key members of the university (president, program director, professor) and from newspaper articles published in the local newspaper. The article shows how institutional actors from the media and education contest dominant monolingual language ideologies by situating these views historically and connecting them to key conceptual metaphors that encapsulate language ideologies. In doing so, these institutional actors challenge national ideologies that construct monolingualism and standard ‘English’ as the natural and only option connected to social and economic success, offering Spanish and bilingualism as legitimate alternatives.

Monolingual language ideologies and code choice in the Belgian asylum procedure

When refugee claimants enter the Belgian asylum procedure, they have to motivate their application during one or more interviews with public officials. This paper examines the limitations of the procedural imposition of a monolingual standard code for a clear understanding of narrative accounts. Drawing on the case of a West African asylum seeker, it is shown how the applicant is forced to assimilate to English and how the imposition of this code acts as: (a) a catalyst to widen the gap between intended meanings and interactional uptake and (b) a filter on the subsequent entextualisation of the case.