Ethnography and Language Policy - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415801400 ISBN 13: 9780415801409

Publisher: Routledge, 2011

Synopsis

Illuminating, through ethnographic inquiry, how individual agents "make" language policy in everyday social practice, this volume advances the growing field of language planning and policy using a critical sociocultural approach. From this perspective, language policy is conceptualized not only as official acts and documents, but as language-regulating modes of human interaction, negotiation, and production mediated by relations of power.

Using this conceptual framework, the volume addresses the impacts of globalization, diaspora, and transmigration on language practices and policies; language endangerment, revitalization, and maintenance; medium-of-instruction policies; literacy and biliteracy; language and ethnic/national identity; and the ethical tensions in conducting critical ethnographic language policy research. These issues are contextualized in case studies and reflective commentaries by leading scholars in the field.

Ethnography and Language Policy extends previous work in the field, tapping into leading-edge interdisciplinary scholarship, and charting new directions. Recognizing that language policy is not merely or even primarily about language per se, but rather about power relations that structure social-linguistic hierarchies, the authors seek to expand policy discourses in ways that foster social justice for all.

About this title

About the Author

Teresa L. McCarty is the Alice Wiley Snell Professor of Education Policy Studies, Professor of Applied Linguistics, and Co-Director of the Center for Indian Education at Arizona State University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415801400
• ISBN 13: 9780415801409
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: L. McCarty Teresa