Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Language Policy as Metapragmatic Discourse: A Focus on the Intersection of Language Policy and Social Identification

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Discursive Approaches to Language Policy

Abstract

Discursive approaches to language policy analysis have advanced our accounting of the complexity of language policy processes, actors, and activities, and in particular to the sociocultural contexts of all three. Drawing upon scholarship in linguistic anthropology, sociocultural linguistics, and sociolinguistics, this chapter focuses on the role of social identification in the appropriation of language policy. It highlights the concepts of metapragmatic discourse—or talk about recognizable kinds of people, language use, and social activity (Agha, Language and social relations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007; Wortham, Learning identity: the joint emergence of social identity and academic learning, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2006)—and speech chains, or series of communicative events along which a message travels (Agha, Language and social relations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007), as useful ways of seeing language policy and appropriations that help to foreground the important role of social identification therein.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    A term popularized in media and popular discourse in the United States during the 1996 presidential election and used to refer to a social type of voter predicted to be influential in the election: a white, middle-class, suburban woman with children. Many other characteristics (e.g., that she drives a minivan) and social values came to be associated with this type of person.

References

  • Agha, A. (2007). Language and social relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agha, A., & Wortham, S. (2005). Discourse across speech-events: Intertextuality and interdiscursivity in social life. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 15(1) Special issue.

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacchi, C. (2000). Policy as discourse: What does it mean? Where does it get us? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 21(1), 45–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. J. (1993). What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. Discourse: The Australian Journal of Educational Studies, 13(2), 10–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1972). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 585–614.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, D. (1997). Performing gender identity: Young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In S. Johnson & U. H. Meinhof (Eds.), Language and masculinity (pp. 47–64). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, J. (2012). Migration, sociolinguistic scale, and educational reproduction. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 43(2), 192–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and Burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flores, N. (2013). Silencing the subaltern: Nation-state/colonial governmentality and bilingual education in the United States. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 10(4), 263–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gal, S., & Irvine, J. T. (1995). The boundaries of languages and disciplines: How ideologies construct difference. Social Research, 62(4), 967–1001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galdames, V., & Gaete, R. (2010). Chilean literacy education policies and classroom implementation. In K. Menken & O. García (Eds.), Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers (pp. 232–246). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. New York: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hornberger, N. H. (2002). Multilingual language policies and the continua of biliteracy: An ecological approach. Language Policy, 1(1), 27–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornberger, N. H. (2005). Opening and filling up implementational and ideological spaces in heritage language education. Modern Language Journal, 89, 605–609.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hornberger, N. H., & Johnson, D. C. (2007). Slicing the onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education policy and practice. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 509–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hult, F. M. (2010). Analysis of language policy discourses across the scales of space and time. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 202, 7–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irvine, J. T., & Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. V. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities (pp. 35–83). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe, A. (1999). Ideologies in action: Language politics on Corsica. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. C. (2009a). Ethnography of language policy. Language Policy, 8, 139–159. doi:10.1007/s10993-009-9136-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. C. (2009b). Implementational and ideological spaces in bilingual education language policy. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(1), 61–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. C. (2011). Critical discourse analysis and the ethnography of language policy. Critical Discourse Studies, 8(4), 267–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. J. (2012). Arbitrating repression: Language policy and education in Arizona. Language and Education, 26(1), 53–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kroskrity, P. V. (Ed.) (2000). Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinson, B. A. U., & Sutton, M. (2001). Introduction: Policy as/in practice—A sociocultural approach to the study of educational policy. In M. Sutton & B. A. U. Levinson (Eds.), Policy as practice: Toward a comparative sociocultural analysis of educational policy (pp. 1–22). Westport: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinson, B. A. U., Sutton, M., & Winstead, T. (2009). Education policy as a practice of power: Theoretical tools, ethnographic methods, democratic options. Educational Policy, 23, 767–795.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liddicoat, A. J. (2013). Language-in-education policies: The discursive construction of intercultural relations. Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarty, T. L. (Ed.) (2011). Ethnography and language policy. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menken, K., & García, O. (Eds.) (2010). Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortimer, K. S. (2013). Communicative event chains in an ethnography of Paraguayan language policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 219, 67–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortimer, K. S. (In press). A potentially heteroglossic policy becomes monoglossic in context: An ethnographic analysis of Paraguayan bilingual education policy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortimer, K. S. (2016). Producing change and stability: A scalar analysis of Paraguayan bilingual education policy implementation, Linguistics and Education, 34, 58–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortimer, K. S., Wortham, S., & Allard, E. (2010). Helping immigrants identify as university-bound students: Unexpected difficulties in teaching the hidden curriculum. Revista de Educación, 353, 107–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paraguay (1992). Constitución de La República del Paraguay. Asunción: Gabinete Civil de la Presidencia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paraguay, M. E. C. (2001). Modalidad Guaranihablante: La Trayectoria de una Innovación Educativa. Asunción: Ministerio de Educación y Cultura.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C. S. (1992). The essential peirce: Selected philosophical writings, 1893–1913 (Vol. II). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennycook, A. (2002). Language policy and docile bodies: Hong Kong and governmentality. In J. W. Tollefson (Ed.), Language policies in education: Critical issues (pp. 91–110). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, B. (1995). Crossing: Language and ethnicity among adolescents. New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricento, T. K., & Hornberger, N. H. (1996). Unpeeling the onion: Language planning and policy and the ELT professional. TESOL Quarterly, 30(3), 401–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Safire, W. (1996, October 27). Soccer moms. New York Times, p. SM30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shohamy, E. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shore, C., & Wright, S. (1997). Policy: A new field of anthropology. In C. Shore & S. Wright (Eds.), Anthropology of policy: Critical perspectives on governance and power (pp. 3–39). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein, M. (1976). Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In K. Basso & H. Selby (Eds.), Meaning in anthropology (pp. 187–221). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein, M. (1992). The indeterminacy of contextualization: When is enough enough? In A. DiLuzio & P. Auer (Eds.), The contextualization of language (pp. 55–75). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein, M. (1993). Metapragmatic discourse and metapragmatic function. In J. A. Lucy (Ed.), Reflexive language: Reported speech and metapragmatics (pp. 33–58). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein, M. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language and Communication, 23, 193–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein, M., & Urban, G. (1996). The natural history of discourse. In M. Silverstein & G. Urban (Eds.), Natural histories of discourse (pp. 1–17). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Phillipson, R. (Eds.) (1994). Linguistic human rights: Overcoming linguistic discrimination. Berlin: Mounton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton, M., & Levinson, B. A. U. (Eds.) (2001). Policy as practice: Toward a comparative sociocultural analysis of educational policy. Westport: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tollefson, J. W. (1991). Planning language, planning inequality: Language policy in the community. New York: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urban, G. (1996). Entextualization, replication, and power. In M. Silverstein & G. Urban (Eds.), Natural histories of discourse (pp. 21–44). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valdiviezo, L. (2010). Angles make things difficult: Teachers’ interpretations of language policy and Quechua revitalization in Peru. In K. Menken & O. García (Eds.), Negotiating language policies in schools: educators as policymakers (pp. 72–87). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wodak, R. (2006). Linguistic analyses in language policies. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method (pp. 170–193). Malden: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wodak, R., & Fairclough, N. (2010). Recontextualizing European higher education policies: The cases of Austria and Romania. Critical Discourse Studies, 7(1), 19–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolard, K. A. (1998). Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In B. Schieffelin, K. A. Woolard, & P. V. Kroskrity (Eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory (pp. 3–47). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S. (1992). Participant examples and classroom interaction. Linguistics and Education, 4, 195–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S. (2003a). Accomplishing identity in participant-denoting discourse. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 13(2), 189–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S. (2003b). Linguistic anthropology of education. In S. Wortham & B. Rymes (Eds.), Lingusitic anthropology of education (pp. 1–30). Westport: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S. (2005). Socialization beyond the speech event. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 15(1), 95–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S. (2006). Learning identity: The joint emergence of social identity and academic learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S. (2012). Beyond macro and micro in the linguistic anthropology of education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 43(2), 128–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S., & Rhodes, C. (2012). The production of relevant scales: Social identification of migrants during rapid demographic change in one American town. Applied Linguistics Review, 3(1), 75–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wortham, S., & Rhodes, C. (2013). Life as a chord: Heterogeneous resources in the social identification of one migrant girl. Applied Linguistics, 34(5), 536–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zajícová, L. (2009). El bilingüismo paraguayo: Usos y actitudes hacia el guaraní y el castellano. Madrid: Iberoamericana.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA

    Katherine S. Mortimer

Authors
  1. Katherine S. Mortimer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Elisabeth Barakos

  2. Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Johann W. Unger

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mortimer, K.S. (2016). Language Policy as Metapragmatic Discourse: A Focus on the Intersection of Language Policy and Social Identification. In: Barakos, E., W. Unger, J. (eds) Discursive Approaches to Language Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53134-6_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53134-6_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53133-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53134-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation