In the past ten years, the number of English cram schools has tripled in Taiwan and more than 70% of fifth and sixth graders claim they attended cram schools before receiving formal English education in primary schools. In response to pressures of both globalisation and localisation, the government introduced a school policy of learning a Taiwanese minority language, in addition to Mandarin, in 2005. The majority of parents, however, are not keen to encourage their children to learn a Taiwanese second language compared to the ‘trend’ of learning English (as a foreign language). This study explores family language policies using a multiple-case-study strategy with twelve families whose children attend a language school in Taichung, Taiwan, with two additional cases from different geolinguistic areas. The main focus is on how parents form their ideologies about language and language learning. The data were gathered using semi-structured interviews. The macro- and micro-factors which underpin the parents’ language ideologies are the central focus of analysis. Amongst these families the process of ideology formation involves more than three languages, English, Mandarin, Minnan and Hakfa (which, in this study, is the only representative of other minority languages spoken in Taiwan). The three Chinese languages appear as ‘mother tongue’ in various combinations amongst the parents in the study. The findings indicate that the influence of macro- and micro-factors on parents’ language ideologies is complex and interactive, rather than linear. Significant macro-factors identified include the local, national and global sociolinguistic environments, government policies and economic factors, notably the labour market. Macro-factors, as well as micro-factors, do not influence parents’ ideologies in isolation from each other. Similar, shared macro-contexts are responded to in diverse ways by the parents in the study, with familial mother tongue, educational experiences and different perceptions of the social roles of language all playing a part. Parents’ language ideologies are, therefore, clearly not structurally determined, but neither do the parents act as ‘free agents’ in their ideological choices which, in turn, have an impact on family language management and language practices. The complexity and fluidity of the Taiwanese language situation and the rapid social, political and economic changes that are taking place in the community make this study particularly valuable in enhancing our understanding of how personal language ideologies evolve.

My dissertation research employs theories that examine the relationship between language and social meaning to look at semiotic processes through which ideologies of differentiation are formed. This dissertation considers language use and heritage language maintenance in four multigenerational families whose ancestral language was a target of elimination by national language policies. Utilizing paradigms for examining the semiotic processes of ideologies of language differentiation, as well as identity formation, this dissertation attempts to untangle the various language ideologies surrounding the different language resources within the ethnic Chinese community in Singapore and examines their effects on identity formation and intergenerational interactions where different language competencies are featured. Linguistic resources in Singapore are legitimized with differentiating attribution of linguistic capital where four official languages are placed higher than the heritage languages, and within the official languages, English is legitimized as the language for business and science, and for use in interethnic communication. Differentiation is constructed among the languages, which then project indexical values to their speakers and their respective linguistic behaviors. Taking a discourse-centered approach and paying attention to historicity, this dissertation provides an in-depth analysis of language patterns in multigenerational families. The findings show varying degree of heritage language maintenance at home and language shift from the heritage language in the public sphere. The study also identifies a unique skipped-generational heritage language transmission phenomenon resulting from changes in woman’s roles, as well as from the complexity of identity configurations featuring ethnic, heritage, linguistic, and national affiliations. This dissertation also examines processes of intergenerational language negotiation foregrounding age and religion as two intersecting factors, discussing their implications on traditional family values, family structure, as well as heritage language maintenance. Utilizing multigenerational and multilingual families as a research site encompasses alternative linguistic markets and temporalities to examine the creative use of linguistic resources by speakers for identity formation and language maintenance efforts. / text

The variety of Kiswahili spoken in Bujumbura (Burundi) is central to the present sociolinguistic and structural analysis. Swahili in Burundi looks back upon a long history: first having been introduced by the German colonial administration, it has turned into a trade language along both the naval and non-naval trade routes between Uvira (DR Congo), Kigoma (Tanzania) and Bujumbura. Initially stigmatized as a language of ruthless urban rioters in the post-conflict era, it has increasingly gained popularity in Bujumbura, and is nowadays considered as one of the languages of Burundi, alongside Kirundi, French and English. Especially in the lively neighborhoods of the big- gest city, where there is a pulsating nightlife, Kiswahili can be heard in many interactions, and of- ten reveals influence from Kirundi, French, English and sometimes even Lingala. Structurally, the Swahili of Bujumbura combines elements from East Coast Swahili (ECS) as spoken in Tanzania and from Congo Swahili regiolects such as Kivu Swahili, and reveals a high degree of variability, depending upon interlocutors, contexts of interaction and communicative purpose. In this contribution, apart from summarizing the sociohistorical background and suggesting sociolinguistic approaches to grasping the high degree of variability in Kiswahili in Burundi, I discuss the most salient phonological and morphosyntactic patterns of variation and explain their situational distribution.

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This paper presents a pedagogical inquiry on the impending need for teachers of underserved students to be conscious of their own cultural identity and language ideologies. The paper also inquires on the possible effect such realization has on teachers’ practices, specifically on their usage of humanizing pedagogy in their classrooms. From a Freirean standpoint three bilingual, Latina teachers were invited to enter into a dialogue in order to identify each other’s cultural identity, language ideologies and to make evident how this may have an impact or how it influences their teaching practices. Using data from interviews and other informal interactions the article examines and argues the need for teachers to enter in this type of reflective and conscientious dialogue in order to learn from each other ways to include and increase humanizing practices in their classrooms. Several themes that surface in this inquiry are 1) the importance of teachers becoming aware of their own cultural identity and language ideologies, 2) the need for formal opportunities in which teachers explore these matters in order to build a community that causes change in the educational system, and 3) the presence, if any, of humanizing practices in these teachers’ classrooms and how they can influence each other to improve the opportunities they provide for their students to succeed. / text

This study examines attitudes towards anglicisms in Russian expressed in print media articles. Accelerated linguistic borrowing from English, a particularly visible aspect of the momentous language changes after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, has engendered a range of reactions. Print media articles spanning two decades and several central outlets are analysed to show how arguments for or against use of anglicisms are constructed, what language ideologies these arguments serve, and whether mediated language attitudes changed during the post-Soviet era. A summary of the history of Russian linguistic borrowing and language attitudes from the Middle Ages to the present day shows that periods of national consolidation provoked demands for the restriction of borrowing. Then, a survey of theories on language ideologies demonstrates that they function through the construction of commonsense argumentation in metadiscourse (talk about talk). This argumentation draws on accepted common knowledge in the Russian linguistic culture. Using critical discourse analytic tools, namely analysis of metaphor scenarios and of argumentation, I examine argumentative strategies in the mediated language debates. Particularly, the critical analysis reveals what strategies render dominant standpoints on anglicisms self-evident and logical to the audience. The results show that the media reaction to anglicisms dramatises language change in discourses of threat, justified by assumed commonsense rational knowledge. Whilst there are few reactions in the 1990s, debates on language intensified in the 2000s after Putin’s policies of state reinforcement came into effect, peaking around times of official language policy measures. Anglicisms and their users are subordinated, cast out as the Other, not belonging to the in-group of sensible speakers. This threat is defused via ridicule and claiming of the moral high ground. This commonsense argumentation ultimately supports notions of Russian as a static, sacred component of Russian nation building, and of speakers as passive. Close textual analysis shows that even articles claiming to support language change and the use of anglicisms use argumentation strategies of negativisation. Overall, a consensus on the character and role of the Russian language exists between all perspectives, emphasising the importance of rules and assigning speakers a passive role throughout.

This is an investigation into language ideologies, and the significance of same, among activists working to revitalize the Ojibwe language. Better inclusion of indigenous community members is necessary to spread the Ojibwe language. Improved competence in using--and strategically chging--language ideologies is necessary by language activists. Matters of orthography, storytelling, Elder status, state institutionalization, indigenous leadership, and decolonization reveal underlying ideologies of language, any of which can help or hinder efforts to reverse language shift. This is shown through participant observation in and around an Ojibwe language immersion school in Wisconsin.

In recent years, the issue of sexual harassment in Egyptian society has attracted a significant amount of media attention in the form of newspaper articles, academic studies, television discussion programs, social media campaigns, and blog posts. In this thesis, I examine the language used in samples taken from television discussion programs and videoblogs in which Arabic speakers directly address the topic of sexual harassment, which I term sexual harassment discourse. I analyze the linguistic characteristics of this discourse, with the aim of discovering how speakers make use of various linguistic tools to achieve a targeted reaction or desired response in their audience. I will demonstrate how these tools allow speakers to both achieve an emotional connection with their audience, which I term empathy, or to place themselves within a power hierarchy, which I term legitimacy. Ultimately, I will show that sexual harassment discourse is indicative of an emergent and innovative new kind of public discourse in Egypt. / text

In this dissertation, I investigated the top-down implementation process of a dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program in over 60 schools in a large urban school district in Texas to identify language ideologies and issues of language policy and policy implementation according to local participating educators. Drawing on a language policy framework and research in linguistic anthropology to define language ideologies, I employed a multi-method approach (survey (n=323 educators), interview (n=20 DLBE teachers) and observation (n=3 DLBE teachers)) to measure and better understand language ideology and its significance for local language policy. Analysis revealed ideological tension and multiplicity, within and across educators, within single statements and overtime. For example, during interviews most teachers expressed additive views towards bilingualism, but subtractive views towards non-standard variations of each language. Similarly, several teachers articulated additive ideologies towards bilingualism while articulating the relative greater importance of English language acquisition. These ideological tensions operated in distinct ways at the classroom level. One teacher strictly followed the DLBE policy in her classroom to support bilingual/biliteracy development, but she also discouraged certain students and families from participating in the program because of their non-standard language practices. This dissertation complicates traditional understandings of the role of language ideologies within language policy implementation. Much research in our field discusses bilingual programs and program implementation in dichotomous terms (i.e. subtractive/additive). In contrast, I demonstrate how the multiplicity and complexity of language ideologies must be considered when trying to discuss the ideological struggle involved in implementing pluralist bilingual programs within an English dominant society. I present four potential models to conceptualize and analyze ideological tension as well as a discussion on the relationship between language ideologies and local language policy. Implications for teacher education, DLBE policy and future research are considered. / text

This dissertation explores verbal interactions in mock trial competitions at a US law school, in order to explore the ways that law students are taught the proper ways of speaking like advocates in adversarial speech settings. Learning to prevail in adversarial settings entails the use of conversational linguistic features whose primary function is pragmatic rather than referential. The proper use of these pragmatic markers enables lawyers to achieve desired effects in legal interaction and impression management, while maintaining intact the denotational content of their utterances. This dissertation examines in depth the feedback-mediated practices through which law students learn to use three prominent pragmatic markers in mock trials: tag questions, the declarative falling intonation, and using reported speech to cite legal authority. The metapragmatic discourses that constitute these practices socialize law students to use pragmatic markers in light of their ability to sway institutional decision-makers to favor their interpretation of the facts. The dissertation argues that these metapragmatic discourses articulate an institutional technology for the management of competing claims to propositional truth. How they justify the use of these pragmatic markers reveals, furthermore, that these technologies of truth are dialogic. Pragmatic markers allow legal advocates to project social voicing contrasts in adversarial settings, allowing them to associate the utterances of their courtroom rivals with the voice of dubious social characters, reducing the propositional value of their claims to truth. An analysis of metapragmatic discourses thus reveals the dialogic dimensions of the language of the law that relate language, agency, and power in the verbal constructions of institutional knowledge. It clarifies the ways that law students, as legal advocates, learn to incorporate broadly circulating ideologies of linguistic differentiation in their legal discourse.