Linguistic ideologies

The present analysis interrogates the ways that American educators and bureaucrats at the turn of the twentieth century conceptualised the project of nationalism and modernity in the newly annexed nation of the Philippines through the trope of 'linguistic unification'. These robust ideologies of language arose from the perception that national progress and democracy were centrally achievable through a shared linguistic code, arising from Enlightenment concepts of nationhood imported from Europe and subsequently figured in the uniquely American framework of exceptionalism, expansionism, and economic logics framed in the political and religious concept of 'benevolent assimilation'. Focusing attention on a series of documents written by American teachers and administrators during the transitional time of the Insular Government from 1900 to 1916, the details of the ideological foundations of the role of English in the Philippines is explored.

Language use is notably connected to the construction and negotiation of gendered identity (Butler, 1993; Cameron, 1997; Norton, 2000; Menard-Warwick, 2009). However, the study of intersectional identities-such as gendered and religious identity-as it relates to linguistic behavior remains a relatively unexplored area of research. This study examines self-reported language use as a gendered practice among Muslim immigrant women in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). Using data collected from interviews with 34 Muslim women, this study looks at self-reported gendered roles, as well as the linguistic and gendered ideologies that are reflected in informants' beliefs about their own language use. Furthermore, this study provides evidence of informants expressing specific gender roles that stem from both the heritage and target language (Spanish/Catalan) communities, as reflected in informants' tendencies to interact primarily with other women and vary their speech depending on the gender and/or heritage identity of their interlocutors.

This chapter discusses the role that word meaning plays both as an element of ordinary pretheoretical discourse and as a hypothesis in the theoretical explanation of language structure and use. It contrasts externalist (reference-based) and internalist (psychologybased) semantics, and distinguishes between descriptive and expressive/evaluative members of the vocabulary. The role of concepts in a theory of word meaning is
motivated through a discussion of their explanation of reference, categorization, and inference and their role in underpinning successful communication, and three particular
theories of concepts – concepts as definitions, as prototypes, and as exemplars – are sketched. The possible contribution to semantics of simulation-based accounts of conceptualization is assessed. Finally, the chapter outlines the challenge of polysemy and figurative meaning – metaphor and metonymy – to our conception of the semantics of the vocabulary.

Desde una perspectiva de sociolingüística crítica, se analizan los asuntos de aceptación, discriminación y estigmatización de los hablantes de las modalidades menos aceptadas por la sociedad. Se investiga el fenómeno de la identidad lingüística de los hablantes de la variedad andaluza del español y las hablas regionales del sur de Serbia. La comparación de los rasgos lingüísticos análogos en español y serbio servirá como un instrumento para investigar y confrontar la cuestión de la identidad lingüística de los hablantes de ambas lenguas. Se observan tanto la interacción entre la sociedad, la lengua y los modelos culturales, como las ideologías lingüísticas y la relación entre la lengua y el poder social. En una encuesta hecha entre los estudiantes de filología hispánica se han comprobado sus puntos de vista sobre los asuntos de aprobación o desaprobación de las hablas meridionales de Serbia y España. El objetivo del análisis de las respuestas es aclarar diversas creencias, prejuicios, actitudes negativas, estereotipos y juicios lingüísticos que tradicionalmente acompañan las dos variedades descreditadas y despreciadas.
Palabras clave: La identidad lingüística, el andaluz, variedades meridionales del serbio, prestigio lingüístico, estigmatización.

* * *

Acceptance, discrimination and stigmatization issues of less socially accepted varieties of language are analysed from the perspective of critical sociolinguistics. The paper discusses the question of linguistic identity in relation to the Andalusian variety of Spanish and southern varieties of Serbian speakers. The comparison of similar linguistic features in Spanish and Serbian serves as a tool to investigate and address the issue of linguistic identity of speakers of both languages. In this way we can observe the interaction between society, language and cultural models, such as language ideologies and the relationship between language and social power. In a survey made among Hispanic Philology students, their views on matters of approval or disapproval of the southern varieties of Serbian and Spanish were verified. The aim is to clarify various beliefs, prejudices, negative attitudes, stereotypes and linguistic judgments that traditionally accompany the two stigmatized varieties.
Key words: linguistic identity, Andalusian variety of Spanish, southern varieties of Serbian, linguistic prestige, stigmatization.

Politiques linguistiques d'immigration et didactique du français pour les adultes migrants : Regards croisés sur la France, la Belgique, la Suisse et le Québec

Thèse soutenue sous la direction de Jean-Louis Chiss (Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3)

Prix de thèse 2019 des Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Publication prévue en 2021)

La lucha por la hegemonía en el campo del lenguaje parece haberse convertido en objeto de análisis lingüístico en los últimos tiempos. En este artículo se exponen las diferentes ideologías, la «hegemónica» y las «alternativas», que parecen hallarse detrás del estudio del género gramatical y su tan polémica correspondencia con el sexo de los hablantes de español. La ruptura de la norma o la preservación de esta en relación con innovaciones lingüísticas determinadas refleja a menudo una ideología política y, a su vez, pretende (o no) ejercer en ocasiones de motor de un cambio lingüístico. Este trabajo trata de explicar la importancia que tendrían los hablantes (o, en su defecto, sus instituciones) a la hora de convertir una ideología en autoridad y, asimismo, lo artificial en natural a través del uso.

Irish-language discourse features a pervasive system of practices involving the production and dissemination of directly reported speech. These homologous practices, here termed personation, include brief imitations of others in conversational speech, the use of direct voice in several poetic genres, the Irish-language song tradition, and a few influential novels. Personation is motivated by a semiotic ideology (personalism) which naturalizes speech and other expressive behavior as an immediate aspect of a person’s social being. It is argued that personation, as a semiotic practice, motivates Irish-speakers’ resistance to various attempts, centered in discourses of the nation and the state, to refigure the Irish language as the ‘‘voice’’ of a generalized and purified national past or as a semiotically transparent medium for the state.

En las páginas que siguen, estableciendo el género sayagués como punto de partida, interpretándolo desde la sociolingüística como una expresión de jaronismo y haciendo referencia a obras y testimonios de algunos de sus máximos representantes como Juan del Enzina y Manuel Herrera de Gallinato, se analizará cómo la diglosia leonesa da signos de prevalencia en textos del Renacimiento. La ideologización de la jerarquía entre la lengua A y la lengua B a través de la literatura afianzó prejuicios latentes e influyó notablemente en la temprana y profunda estigmatización de las variedades zamorano-salmantinas, exhibiendo rasgos aún presentes en el discurso metalingüístico contemporáneo sobre el asturianoleonés. Haciendo uso de la literatura del Siglo de Oro para situar el leonés en una posición de subalternidad frente a la lengua oficial, las estructuras de poder de la Corona de Castilla inadvertidamente sentaron las bases para una estigmatización secular y las consecuencias que ha tenido entre los hablantes para acelerar su pérdida son apreciables en la realidad lingüística contemporánea. Asimismo, haremos hincapié en el proceso de cambio de adscripción etnolingüística a través del concepto de englobamiento descrito por Louis Dumont recurriendo a documentos de época que muestran cómo desde la Corona se difumina lo leonés dentro de la cosmovisión castellana, favoreciendo la pérdida de conciencia y lealtad lingüísticas. Los procesos de sayaguesización y cambio de adscripción etnolingüística en el Reino de León se imbrican en un contexto más amplio de hegemonía política castellana durante los siglos XVI y XVII que entronca posteriormente con la elaboración de un relato nacional durante el siglo XIX. Concluiremos haciendo referencia a muestras de nacionalismo lingüístico castellanocéntrico en obras científicas, donde se llega a negar la pervivencia del leonés como código diferenciado del español, y a testimonios de falantes de los siglos XIX y XX que proporcionan ejemplos fidedignos de estigmatización.

Abstract: Linguistics explained by native speakers, also called naïve linguistics or folk linguistics,
amateur linguistics, and in many other ways, is an interesting chapter, albeit elusive, of the social
representation of language, i.e. language ideology of a community. In this article we analyze the discourses
of the readers of a blog that appears on a national online Italian newspaper. The research
discusses on one hand the idea of linguistic norm and of error which readers carry through their
queries for clarification of language facts, and on the other hand the spread among non-linguists
of the linguistic meta-language for talking about grammar. The conclusion of the research shows a
fairly rigid view of the idea of linguistic norm and a very traditional meta-language used to talk about
language facts.

In this paper I present a case study on language learning trajectories and language ideologies of Portuguese migrants residing in Andorra. The case study was conceived as parte of the MIME project, which focuses on ways to ease the trade-off between mobility and social inclusion in different immigration settings in Europe. This paper is based on a collection of 19 interviews, video-recorded as linguistic biographies, during two stays in Andorra. The paper examines how the Portuguese consultants see the languages of their environment (Catalan, Spanish and French and Portuguese). The paper further addresses the interaction between Spanish and Catalan in the Andorran territory, as embodied in the Portuguese community who mainly targeted Spanish especially in the 1980s. Then, I present the possible attitudes and the language behaviour of families with Andorran-born children, noting that shift to Spanish and/or Catalan is often occurring in the second generation. Finally, I discuss the issues of language awareness and evaluation of the learning needs for the people in mobility, given that the languages involved are close enough for limited mutual comprehension.

En este trabajo analizamos las actitudes y representaciones sociolingüísticas y su relación con ideologías lingüísticas en comentarios a una entrevista del diario La Gaceta. Publicada en mayo de 2016 en Tucumán, "El habla popular de los tucumanos es un patrimonio cultural enorme”, se trata de una entrevista a la Prof. Mg. María Stella Taboada, en la que se aborda la diversidad lingüística y el habla tucumana como “una potencialidad de enriquecimiento cultural”. Analizamos desde el enfoque glotopolítico 77 comentarios de foristas a partir de los conceptos de representaciones y actitudes sociolingüísticas. Concluimos que la mayoría de los comentarios están asociados a una ideología monoglósica. Observamos como práctica recurrente el exhibicionismo de una conciencia del propio error lingüístico. Finalmente, discutimos la productividad del concepto de autoodio lingüístico para explicar la complejidad de las actitudes lingüísticas y las estrategias enunciativas que los sujetos desarrollan a partir de ellas. Proponemos como alternativa una conceptualización de la dinámica entre deslegitimación del colectivo de pertenencia y legitimación individual.

Si la « violence verbale » est une transgression des tabous langagiers,
« l’euphémisme » est un moyen de les contourner. L’étude de ces deux
concepts dans ce qu’on appelle «  le langage des jeunes  » est
intéressante dans la mesure où elle pose la question de son
« caractère masculin ». J’aborde la question des pratiques langagières
des jeunes de ce nouvel angle qu’est le sexe en mettant à l'épreuve
l'hypothèse de la politesse du langage des femmes auprès de groupes
de jeunes filles cairotes. J’ai cherché mes réponses à travers un guide
d’entretien semi-directif formé à la lumière de données collectées sur
le journal du Facebook de certains internautes. Un questionnaire
copiant ce guide d'entretien sous forme de questions fermées a
facilité le traitement statistique des données.

El médico y político liberal Jaime Ferrer y Parpal (Mahón: 1817-1897) es autor de diversas obras lingüísticas sobre el dialecto menorquín y su enseñanza. Sin embargo, los aspectos meramente lingüísticos de estas obras quedan subordinados a las intenciones político-ideológicas del autor. Este artículo explica como Ferrer y Parpal defiende a) una supeditación absoluta del menorquín al español y b) un secesionismo lingüístico explícito. Dos argumentos utilizados para lograr una progresiva sustitución del menorquín por el castellano, en vista a conseguir uno de los objetivos fundamentales del liberalismo español: la unificación lingüística del estado.

This study’s purpose is to analyse the economic value that the languages receive from Galician upper class business managers. This research takes the Galician upper class as the object of study to investigate their perceptions regarding the languages used in the business world national and internationally to be in contact with customers and other companies. Twenty Galician managers make up a sample of informants who provided data, which is here treated using a qualitative methodology. A questionnaire allows us to know the informants’ sample profile and to resolve whether they are consistent with the requirements to consider them as upper class. Additionally, a semi-structured interview is the main data extraction

Neste traballo investígase o valor económico que reciben as linguas por parte de directivos empresariais galegos de clase alta. Esta investigación toma como obxecto de estudo a clase alta galega para pescudar as súas percepcións verbo das linguas empregadas no mundo dos negocios para se relacionar nacional e internacionalmente coa clientela e outras empresas. Vinte directivos e directivas de Galicia conforman unha mostra de informantes que aportou datos tratados mediante unha metodoloxía cualitativa. Un cuestionario permite coñecer os perfís da mostra de informantes e determinar se concordan cos requisitos establecidos para lles considerar clase alta, unha entrevista semidirixida é a ferramenta principal de extracción dos datos e, finalmente, todas as persoas entrevistadas asinaron un código ético que garante a confidencialidade dos datos aportados.

This volume is a welcome addition to the increasing body of research investigating the relationship between individual and group identity construction and dialect use. The collection is in four parts, and comprises nineteen chapters examining dialect performance in a wide range of contexts.

Hacia fines de la década de 1930 la industria editorial argentina asistió a un proceso de apertura y de impulso internacional que suele vincularse a la crisis del libro español como resultado de la guerra civil, por el cual Buenos Aires pasó a convertirse en el principal centro editorial en habla hispana. Como muchos otros intelectuales españoles, Amado Alonso participó de ese proceso de auge editorial, no solo como miembro del grupo fundador de Losada y director de varias de sus colecciones, sino también mediante su producción ensayística, como dan cuenta sus artículos periodísticos publicados en La Nación en agosto de 1940, en donde Alonso reflexiona sobre el fenómeno editorial argentino y sus alcances, sobre todo en relación al potencial de la industria editora como agente unificador del idioma como consecuencia de la creciente difusión de libros argentinos por todo el continente americano. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar un análisis de estos artículos de Amado Alonso, haciendo hincapié en aquellos aspectos en los cuales su propuesta de regulación lingüística para el mercado editorial en lengua española empalma con el factor económico, en tanto no deja de estar ceñida a la idea de una lengua unificada que pudiera facilitar y consolidar el comercio librero entre la Argentina y el resto de las naciones de habla hispana. Palabras clave: Mercado editorial, Unidad del español, Hispanoamérica, Amado Alonso, siglo XX.

English version: By the end of the 1930s, the Argentine publishing industry witnessed a process of international openness and momentum that is usually linked to the Spanish book crisis as a result of the Spanish Civil War, for which Buenos Aires became the main Spanish-speaking editorial center. Like many other Spanish intellectuals, Amado Alonso participated in this process of editorial growth, not only as a member of the founding group of the Losada publishing house and director of several of its collections, but also through his essay production as, for example, the series of three articles published in newspaper La Nación during August of 1940, where Alonso reflects on the Argentine publishing phenomenon and its scopes, especially in relation to the potential of the publishing industry as unifying agent of the language as a consequence of the increasing diffusion of Argentine books throughout the American continent. e aim of this paper is to analyze these articles by Amado Alonso, emphasizing those aspects in which his proposal of linguistic regulation for the Spanish-language publishing market links up with the economic factor, while still being close to the idea of a unified language that could facilitate and consolidate the bookseller trade between Argentina and the rest of the Spanish-speaking nations.

During a debate in an Esperanto association in Paris, Esperantists were discussing technology, surveillance, and freedom, when the question of how to say “drone” in Esperanto emerged. At this point, the previous political debate became a linguistic discussion on possible Esperanto equivalents (drono, droneo, or spavo) and vocabulary choice. Based on socio-anthropological research, this study seeks to explain why, instead of looking for the “right” word in a dictionary, Esperantists often try to create their own words in the language. In everyday conversations in a constructed language, how can speakers refer to things they have no words for? After Zamenhof (the original language authority) died, who can decide whether drono is a neologism, non-standard language use or an error?
I propose three principles – flexibility, internationality, and originality – to understand how the linguistic ideology of equality and inclusion upon which Esperanto is based helps to develop vocabulary in this language. Finally, I use Esperanto as point of departure to reflect on language authority, variation, and errors, comparing Esperanto to more standardized languages.

Il contributo descrive i blog, i portali web e i gruppi di Facebook che si occupano di divulgazione della linguistica su internet, ne indica le caratteristiche peculiari e gli orientamenti teorico-ideologici e tenta di tipizzarli secondo tre parametri principali: le modalità di redazione, le piattaforme di origine dei contenuti e le modalità di interazione con gli altri utenti della rete. Dopo aver indicato alcuni problemi di cui soffre l’attuale pratica divulgativa linguistica, si propongono possibili novità e soluzioni per migliorarla.

Communication dans le cadre de la journée d'étude "Langue, savoir et pouvoir dans l'Espagne classique" (Université Paris-Sorbonne)

Dans cette communication, il s'agit de montrer comment López Madera, avocat madrilène et défenseur de l’authenticité des plomos du Sacromonte à partir de 1595, constitue une figure centrale, ainsi qu’un personnage-charnière dans l’histoire de l’idéologie linguistique espagnole. On insistera sur ses sources aussi bien que ses influences, car l’auteur ne tirait pas sa théorie du castillan primitif du néant, puis, au XVIIe siècle, ne fut pas sans écho. Entre ombre et lumière, on tentera de dresser un portrait de cet homme, capable aussi bien de défendre l’antériorité du castillan sur le latin, que de décrire, avec beaucoup de finesse et de perspicacité, le fonctionnement des idiotismes, entre opacité et non-compositionnalité.

Emancipation of Silesian in the context of “old” and “new” linguistic ideologies

The emergence of separate nationalities often entails standardisation of the language and an attempt to prove its multifunctional nature, while codification as such  becomes one of the basic demands of ethnic movements striving towards emancipation. In her paper, the author analyses the process of emancipation of Silesian in the context of linguistic ideologies, studying above all the ideologies shared by Silesian
ethnic leaders. The conclusions presented in the paper are based on analyses of numerous in-depth interviews conducted with Silesian ethnic leaders. This approach makes it possible to take into account, in the analysis of linguistic processes, the point of view of the users of the specific language and their linguistic awareness, and also makes it possible to seek relationships between linguistic awareness, language structure and social phenomena.

In this paper, we study the discursive construction of the process of language shift (“muda”), i.e. the process by which a language other than that of the speaker’s initial socialization becomes the dominant language in various areas of life. This shift emerges as the key element which shapes the interlacing of life and language trajectories among young people from a migrant background who are new speakers of Spanish and enrolled in universities in Madrid. Through the analysis of oral histories, we explore how these two trajectories merge and impact on the subjects’ access to university. The discourse of these new speakers reflects the changes experienced in their social position and in their status as speakers, following the “muda”. Our analysis also highlights the reconfiguration of their identities as multilingual speakers and the transformations experienced in terms of agency and self-esteem, in accordance with the management of language resources by these new speakers and by the institution of which they form a part. However, in spite of the fact that this sift is a process presented in the oral stories produced by all the interviewed, the linguistic ideologies evoked in the presentation of this process are multiples and diverse, and they range from traditional and hegemonic ideologies to some emergent ones.

Keywords: New Speakers, Native speaker, Linguistic shift, Linguistic Trajectories, Habitus, Linguistic Ideologies, Chronotope, Interactional Stance, footing, oral history

What do discourses of diversity achieve and what do they stand for? 1 This has become a central question in critical scholarship examining the recent drive for diversity in areas such as education , corporate organizations, and marketing as well as in national and supranational governmental institutions (e.g. as in In addition to acknowledging the perseverance of normalizing and stigmatizing discourses of difference, scholars have been particularly intrigued by how calls for diversity are articulated within the state management of racial progress and social inclusion (e.g. Berrey, 2015; Blommaert and Verschueren, 1998; Flores, forthcoming). Studies have also raised questions on ways in which diversity discourses become entrenched with processes of economic development and dispossession (see e.g. Heller and McElhinny, forthcoming; Pietikäinen and Kelly-Holmes, 2013). This special issue on " Discourses of Diversity " 2 is anchored within and inspired by feminist, antiracist, and neo-Marxist scholarship on the (symbolic) politics of diversity. It should be read as a collection of empirical analyses problematizing how and why discourses of diversity are articulated within the management of social (dis)order, economic development, and the governance of (in)equality. While research on language and diversity has recently turned its focus to studying the effects of globalization on language and communication (articles in this issue are interested in the multiple and sometimes contradictory ways diversity gets roped into the state and economic apparatus. The particular questions include: What do corporate, political actors and institutions accomplish when advocating for diversity? And: What projects does diversity serve and what social effects do such projects have? The authors of the studies also explore how, why, and with which consequences discourses of diversity are sometimes endorsed, sometimes contested, and sometimes even resisted within the spaces and settings documented as well as by other audiences and publics addressed or affected by these discourses. In sum, the articles represent a critical questioning of both the larger sociohistorical conditions and the ideological formations (Bauman and Briggs, 2003; Gal and Woolard, 2001; Williams, 1977) in which diversity and its multiple meanings are anchored. The authors furthermore discuss the ways in which changing, contested, or conflicting meanings of diversity are articulated within processes of societal transformation and resistance as well as within larger dynamics of inequality and subalternity.

Wikipedia in lingua italiana è un caso interessante di applicazione di ideologia linguistica esplicita e implicita da parte di una comunità in rete. Le norme esplicite sono codificate in un Manuale di stile e in una nutrita serie di pagine di presentazione; le norme implicite si diffondono in vario modo, ma sembrano assimilate dai collaboratori più assidui soprattutto attraverso una lunga procedura di apprendistato. Le soluzioni adottate sono legate al normale uso dell’italiano in ambito editoriale e scolastico, ma presentano alcune caratteristiche peculiari. In generale, con Wikipedia una comunità composta sostanzialmente da non specialisti deve gestire questioni linguistiche complesse, spesso attraverso discussioni pubbliche. La gestione che ne risulta è molto sofisticata, ma al tempo stesso è condizionata dalla resistenza a fare riferimento esplicito a criteri già sviluppati all’esterno della comunità.

A fi de proposar un acostament a la concepció fabriana de les llengües i de la posició d’aquestes dins de la vida de la societat, caldrà fer una reflexió prèvia sobre les nocions d’ideologia i de representacions socials. L’ús habitual del terme ideolo­gia confon les concepcions de la realitat pròpies d’individus i de col·lectivitats amb les apreciacions esbiaixades que inevitablement contenen. Al meu parer, el punt de partida per a l’estudi de les ideologies és justament la distinció entre les concepcions de la realitat i les distorsions que comporten. Començo, doncs, la
meva exposició justificant l’ús del terme representacions per a referir-se al que he anomenat concepcions de la realitat i plantejant l’estudi del caràcter ideològic que poden tenir aquestes representacions. Sobre aquesta base teòrica i utilitzant una sèrie de citacions de textos de Fabra, situaré succintament les seves representacions socials i lingüístiques dins de la seva època tot tenint en compte el seu enquadrament sociopolític, faré una caracterització global de com va concebre la
seva feina de codificació lingüística i miraré de mostrar com aquesta cobra sentit en una perspectiva de l’acció per sobre del caràcter simbòlic inherent a les representacions i, d’una manera destacada, als seus components més marcadament ideològics.

(Article in English)
A  la  lumière  d'une  approche sociolinguistique, ethnographique et critique,  cet  article  examine  les intersections  entre  les  idéologies  langagières  d'English  only et  les  discours néolibéraux sur/par  les organisations caritatives (charity) dans le contexte d'Emmaüs Londres (GB). Le mouvement Emmaüs (re)insère des personnes marginalisées qui habitent et travaillent au sein de groupes locaux nommés "communautés"  qui  réalisent des travaux  de recyclage et des projets  de  solidarité.  Cet  article  fait partie  d'une  ethnographie  multi-site d'Emmaüs et  se focalise sur  une  communauté  à  Londres recherchée  en  2012.  L'analyse  historicise  l'appropriation  d'Emmaüs,  à  l'origine  un  mouvement  francophone, au sein de la tradition de charities et des politiques de laissez-faire depuis les années 1990 au Royaume Uni. L'article montre qu'Emmaus UK est une multinationale du cœur (Pech et Padis 2004)  dont  la  localisation  dans  le  régime  sociolinguistique  de  Londres  met  en  question  le plurilinguisme  attendu  des  ONG  internationales.  En  conclusion,  les  idéologies  langagières  qui construisent  l'hégémonie  de  l'anglais  à  Emmaüs Londres  font  partie  intégrante  de  l'économie mixte d'aide sociale (Gilbert 2004) et du nationalisme banal (Billig 1995)

This chapter examines the contribution of new production processes and markets in the information economy to the redefinition of national linguistic ideologies in the context of the U.S.-Mexican border, specifically in El Paso, Texas. We focus on the call centre sector – an industry whose basic work material is language and whose product is conversations – in El Paso, a bicultural border locale with a Mexican-origin population majority, linguistically diglossic in English and Spanish, with a variety of individual repertoires in the two languages. 
An important theme in the literature on call centres and language is nationalistically encoded tensions and accommodations between clients in one country and workers in other countries over language performance and ideology, often concerning varieties of English. The case of bilingual call centres based in the U.S.-Mexican border region adds new inquiries in interesting ways. In this site Latin American immigrant and second-generation clients have few linguistic performance and ideology conflicts with call centre operators. However, this positive production of value in the communicative economy goes largely unrewarded, as Spanish speech and English-Spanish bilingualism are treated as natural outcomes of the border environment, unworthy of extra compensation, training, and certification. Indeed, border speech is useful to corporations as a marker of low wages, disposability, and thus exploitability.
While tensions with clients are mostly subdued, call centre workers do conflict with guardians of nationalistic language purism and educated standards within their own corporations. Border bilinguals confront nationalistic Mexican language ideologies that prioritize educated standards over their own oral, peasant-worker, and English-mixed or -influenced speech. These include everyday interactions in the border region, some specific work functions (such as text translation), and a few (but increasingly important) cases of corporate Hispanic promotion. Likewise, mainly English-monolingual U.S. central corporate offices distrust and stigmatize border English speakers, though that does not prevent them from hiring them. This emerges most strongly as an issue when front-line operators seek to rise into management, a fortress of ideologies of U.S. English linguistic superiority. In important instances, persons of Mexican origin in the United States are thought of as useful but low-value labour, associated with the border. 
We can think of the situation of the border linguistic situation, and the wider border cultural situation of which it is part, in terms of “national monuments,” a term derived from Renato Rosaldo’s magisterial book Culture and Truth (1989). Rosaldo sees the border condition as occurring in all social-cultural spaces between or outside these massive, solid “monuments.” However, unlike the romantic connotations of his analysis, and generally of people who read him, the border condition cannot simply be celebrated. The border bilingual call centre operators are taken for granted, poorly paid and poorly cultivated, easily disposed of, and move through a complicated field of conflict, usually in a stigmatized and powerless position, though with some performances of critique and resistance. Nor should we forget that this is not just a matter of identities and nationalistic ideologies, for also involved are capitalist relations of value transfer from workers to corporations, within which “heritage Spanish at zero cost” is crucial.

In foreign language (FL) classrooms, students are rarely alerted to the politics behind a particular use of words. The recent introduction of critical literacy in some FL classrooms has pushed students to understand the ways texts influence how we perceive and act in society. Nonetheless, some of the basic linguistic notions have yet to be challenged in FL classrooms, preventing critical literacy from achieving its full potential. We examined Kumagai’s critical literacy project in an intermediate Japanese-as-a-foreign-language classroom at a college in the north-eastern US. The project encouraged students to question the textbook’s prescriptive explanation regarding the use of katakana (a Japanese syllabary system that the textbook explains to be for foreign loanwords). Analysis of classroom interactions and students’ reflection papers revealed that the notion of foreign loanword stifled the students’ critical thinking. We argue that it is because the notion supports an absolute and static foreign/ Japanese distinction, the idea of language as a homogeneous and bounded unit, and marking of only certain ‘foreignness’. We call for FL education to include critiques of taken-for-granted linguistic notions in order to make students become aware of the role that language plays in maintaining or transforming social orders.

This article examines bilingual identity of Vietnamese international school students as reflected in their language practices and language beliefs (Spolsky, 2004). It seeks to identify the factors related to sociocultural connection, interaction and investment (Fielding, 2015) that influence their bilingual identity. Interviews with three students were the main source of the data. Findings reveal that a number of factors had an impact on the students’ ways of practising Vietnamese and English and shaping their beliefs of the languages. As the students attached their imagined future identity to English and global mobility more than to Vietnamese and local experience, schools should play a significant role in encouraging students to think more “glocally” and positively contribute to their local communities.

Authors: Trang Thi Thuy Nguyen & Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen