Reflect, Revisit, Reimagine: Ethnography of Language Policy and Planning

Abstract

Tracing applied linguists’ interests in language policy and planning (LPP) as reflected in the pages of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics since its founding in 1980, I focus on the emergence of, and current boom in, ethnographic LPP research. I draw on the ethnographic concept of ideological and implementational LPP spaces as scalar, layered policies and practices influencing each other, mutually reinforcing, wedging, and transforming ideology through implementation and vice versa. Doing so highlights how the perennial policy-practice gap is given nuance through exploration of the intertwining dynamics of top-down/bottom-up language planning activities and processes, monoglossic/heteroglossic language ideologies and practices, potential equality/actual inequality of languages, and critical/transformative research paradigms in LPP.

Examining relationships between religious and linguistic nationalism in a recent controversy surrounding the Sri Lankan national anthem

“…However, as Dulina becomes older, we hope he will likely be exposed to writers and thinkers who have critically studied how unequal power relations come into play in everyday life through matters concerning language and religion. Possibly, through constant reflection and attuning his mind to identifying forces and processes through which people are minoritized, he would learn to unlearn years of ethnonationalist upbringing, to learn to live a "good life lived with others" (Hornberger, 2020).…”

Towards an In-Depth Understanding of English-Swedish Translanguaging Pedagogy in Multilingual EFL Classrooms

“…Hornberger & Johnson 2007;Johnson 2009) provides a methodological heuristic for studying local, micro-level language practices that are nested in layers of policy on wider scales in social organization. This affords a bridge across the practice-policy gap, illuminating the role of people in creating, interpreting, appropriating and sometimes resisting policy discourse (Hornberger 2020).…”

“…A growing number of ethnographies of language-in-education policy in contexts across the world has revealed the powerful role of educators in shaping mono-or multilingual classroom language practices (e.g. Menken & García 2010; see list of studies in Johnson 2013, andHornberger 2020). In these studies, discourse analysis of micro-level ethnographic data is related to policy discourse on wider scales, often in the form of educational policy texts on a provincial or national scale.…”

Discursive ripple effects in language policy and practice

“…Hornberger (2020) encourages viewing ideological spaces for valuing linguistic diversity and implementational spaces for enacting multilingual education as "scalar, layered policies and practices influencing each other" (p.122). The process of expanding the additional language curriculum at BU illustrates how multilingual education was fostered through collaborative efforts of university language policymakers and students who, like Yang and Nathan, qua policy actors, agentively cultivated an ideological space that valued multilingualism as a resource for enriching international educational experiences (Hornberger, 2020;Hult, 2018). As two participants explained, Amy: Why did the university start to offer French and Spanish courses?…”

“…Hult & Hornberger, 2016) to guide a new language curriculum that meets the students' diverse learning needs. It highlights the necessity of collective engagement of institutional power and social actors to open ideological and implementational spaces fostering linguistic diversity in educational contexts that otherwise prioritize certain languages over others (e.g., De Korne et al, 2019;Hornberger, 2020). This has practical implications for international universities in China, especially the transnational universities, whose administrators might benefit from reflecting on how language policies might avoid entrenching the dominance of English as the language of academia and better prepare students for multilingual lifeworlds during and after their university studies.…”