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Article
Publication date: 27 December 2022

Melissa Schieble, Amy Vetter and Kahdeidra Monét Martin

This paper aims to present findings from a three-year qualitative study that used a model of teacher learning referred to as teaching as inquiry (Manfra, 2019). Teaching as…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present findings from a three-year qualitative study that used a model of teacher learning referred to as teaching as inquiry (Manfra, 2019). Teaching as inquiry centers the teacher as a learner in a prolonged and “systematic process of data collection and analysis focused on changing teaching” (p. 167). Findings from the larger qualitative study demonstrate the work of collecting transcripts and using discourse analysis to analyze classroom discourse fostered high school English teachers’ knowledge and skills for facilitating critical conversations (Schieble et al., 2020). For this paper, the authors highlight Paula, a white, female secondary teacher who is dual certified in English Language Arts and ESL. Findings from Paula’s case demonstrate the ways the teacher inquiry group disrupted Paula’s language ideologies of linguistic purism, an ideology embedded in white supremacist and colonialist, hegemonic language policies and practices (Kroskrity, 2004), and transformed her instructional practices over time.

Design/methodology/approach

The research used qualitative methods for design and scope to generate an information-rich instrumental case study (Stake, 1995). Case study is a form of qualitative inquiry that concentrates on experiential knowledge of the case. This study used case study methods to construct an instrumental case to understand how participation in the teacher inquiry group shaped Paula’s facilitation of critical conversations. Data analysis used inductive and deductive qualitative coding procedures and discourse analysis (Gee, 2004; Rogers, 2018) to address the research questions.

Findings

Findings demonstrate that prior to meeting with the teacher inquiry group, Paula’s teaching practices embodied linguistic separatism by emphasizing that standardized English was the “appropriate” way to participate in critical conversations. Through studying her classroom discourse, the inquiry group supported her to critically question these instructional practices and ideologies. Findings demonstrate that the work of the inquiry group supported her embodiment and articulation of a translanguaging ideology that supported her facilitation of critical conversations.

Originality/value

Findings from this study contributes to scholarly and professional knowledge about how models of teaching as inquiry (Manfra, 2019) demonstrate a positive or reconstructive impact on teacher and student learning. This study highlights the potential for reconstructive shifts in the context of how teachers learn together and the tools that support them in doing so.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 October 2022

Xu Ning and Jeannet Stephen

This research explores the standard language ideology in Chinese foreign language education policies. The most substantial in relation to language policy and management in regard…

Abstract

Purpose

This research explores the standard language ideology in Chinese foreign language education policies. The most substantial in relation to language policy and management in regard to language ideology are beliefs associated with the values on the named language and its varieties (Spolsky, 2009). In the standard language ideology, the standard is treated as being valuable linguistic capital and possessing prestige as well as authority. Mandarin is the most well-accepted standard Chinese, and similarly, UK English or US English is the most popular and Standard English (SE) in China.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical framework in this research is critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse-historical approach (DHA) to guide the data collection and data analysis. This research will review recent and seminal literature obtained from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on language policy in China in relation to standard language ideology. The literature also investigates Chinese state's English language ideologies using official language education policies (FLEPs).

Findings

The results show that standard language ideology is a common mindset found within official state policies in regard to SE. The authors argue that the Chinese trust on the ideology of standard language appears to not be aligned to recent worldwide trends such as globalization and multilingualism.

Originality/value

This research can provide insights into future language planning and language policy in China and shows that the future research could do more on language planning in China.

Details

International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, vol. 24 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2396-7404

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2022

Kyoungmi Kim and Jo Angouri

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of language ideologies in negotiating organisational relationships in a Korean multinational company (MNC). By adopting an…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of language ideologies in negotiating organisational relationships in a Korean multinational company (MNC). By adopting an interactional sociolinguistics (IS) approach, this paper illustrates how language becomes part of a mechanism of negotiating group membership and of perpetuating or challenging power asymmetries through social and ideological processes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on interview data from an ethnographic case study of a Korean MNC to understand language ideologies in one working team. The interview data are analysed through an IS framework to connect the situated interaction to the broader social context.

Findings

This paper shows that participants’ discourse of linguistic differentiation becomes an interactional resource in challenging the organisational status quo. Linguistic superiority/inferiority is constructed through particular sequencing and the systematic production of a dichotomy between two groups – expatriate managers and local employees – at various levels of their company structure. Group membership is enacted temporarily in positioning the self and the others.

Originality/value

This paper offers a methodological contribution to international business language-sensitive research on language and power by conducting interactional analysis of interview talk. Through the lens of IS, it provides insights into how discourse becomes a primary site of negotiating power and status and a multi-level approach to the study of organisational power dynamics and the complex linguistic landscape of any workplace.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2019

Mike Metz

The purpose of this study is to support the integration of scientifically grounded linguistic knowledge into language teaching in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms through…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to support the integration of scientifically grounded linguistic knowledge into language teaching in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms through building an understanding of what teachers currently know and believe about language.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 310 high school English teachers in the USA responded to a survey about their language beliefs. Statistical analysis of responses identified four distinct constructs within their belief systems. Sub-scales were created for each construct, and hierarchical regressions helped identify key characteristics that predicted beliefs along a continuum from traditional/hegemonic to linguistically informed/counter-hegemonic.

Findings

Key findings include the identification of four belief constructs: beliefs about how language reveals speaker characteristics, beliefs about how society perceives language use, beliefs about how language should be treated in schools and beliefs about the English teacher’s role in addressing language use. In general, teachers expressed counter-hegemonic beliefs for their own role and their view of speaker characteristics. They expressed hegemonic beliefs for societal perceptions and the dominant school language narrative. Taking a linguistics class was associated with counter-hegemonic beliefs, and teaching longer was associated with more hegemonic beliefs.

Practical implications

The findings of this study suggest that the longer teachers teach within a system that promotes hegemonic language practices, the more they will align their own beliefs with those practices, despite having learned linguistic facts that contradict pervasive societal beliefs about language. The Dominant School Language Narrative currently accommodates, rather that disrupting, linguistic prejudice.

Originality/value

A current understanding of teachers’ language ideologies is a key step in designing teacher professional development to help align teaching practices with established linguistic knowledge and to break down a socially constructed linguistic hierarchy based on subjective, and frequently prejudicial, beliefs.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 October 2010

Martyna Śliwa

The purpose of this paper is to address the intensive spread of the English language in Central and Eastern Europe as an aspect of postsocialist transition.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the intensive spread of the English language in Central and Eastern Europe as an aspect of postsocialist transition.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses the discourses and ideologies related to the spread of English in postsocialist Poland, drawing on insights from critical discourse analysis and language ideology. The empirical material discussed comprises newspaper articles dealing with the topic of language policy in Poland, with a focus on the media campaign, “battle for English”.

Findings

The paper finds that the spread of English is facilitated by powerful discourses propagating the knowledge of English together with the ideology of neo‐liberal economic and social transformation. The exploration of the discourses inherent in the story of the “battle for English” enables the links between the linguistic practices applied by individual actors and the ideologies conveyed by the discourses found in mainstream media to be made explicit.

Research limitations/implications

An awareness of the mechanisms of discourse and ideology allows us to question both the drive behind and the social impact of the spread of English in Central and Eastern Europe.

Originality/value

The paper offers a novel theoretical and empirical contribution to the understanding on postsocialist transition.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 September 2020

Natalie J. Mullen

As US universities increasingly participate in the project of the internationalization of higher education through growing international student enrollment, those campuses need to…

Abstract

As US universities increasingly participate in the project of the internationalization of higher education through growing international student enrollment, those campuses need to better support their diverse learners and prepare students to be culturally competent. Part of cultural competence for university students includes issues related to language use and language policy because one cannot separate language from culture. Highlighting multilingual international undergraduate student voices from China, India, and Malaysia, the author offers insight into how these students thoughtfully navigate through complicated language ideologies and policies inside and outside of the classroom. The chapter concludes with recommendations for how US universities should encourage cross-cultural competence through embracing multilingual ideologies and language policies.

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2006

Renata Fox

This paper seeks to explain and establish theories and methodologies for the exploration of corporations' ideologies as a subfield of study of corporate communication. By a…

2130

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to explain and establish theories and methodologies for the exploration of corporations' ideologies as a subfield of study of corporate communication. By a corporation's ideology is meant a system of ideas, beliefs, meanings, and concepts prioritised and institutionalised by a corporation in its internal and external communication.

Design/methodology/approach

Because the natural receptacle of a corporation's ideology is language, research into corporations' ideologies will necessarily involve the analysis of text: the social manifestation of language. A corpus‐driven approach, which is concerned not with what is going on in the minds of people and the way they understand words, phrases and text, but with the categories and probabilities of words, phrases and text, assures empiricity and objectivity.

Findings

Research into corporations' ideologies creates multiple avenues of enquiry related to corporate communication, corporations, and society.

Practical implications

A new understanding of corporate communication which enables its more reliable strategic management.

Originality/value

Offers a theoretical understanding and practical application of a new subfield of study of corporate communication: corporations' ideologies.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2023

Quentin Charles Sedlacek

The purpose of this study is to support advocacy for racial and linguistic justice by examining teachers’ efforts to contest their colleagues' language-exclusive policies and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to support advocacy for racial and linguistic justice by examining teachers’ efforts to contest their colleagues' language-exclusive policies and practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The author used a critical and reconstructive discourse analysis guided by interest convergence theory to analyze narratives shared by teachers working to contest language-exclusive practices.

Findings

Teachers identified or created interest convergence to successfully contest specific practices. However, their arguments had the potential to be coopted for hegemonic purposes.

Originality/value

Previous studies have used interest convergence to analyze bilingual education policy. This study is one of the few to apply the theory to analyze other efforts to contest language-exclusive practices.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2019

Uzoechi Nwagbara and Ataur Belal

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how language (choice) in CSR reports of leading oil companies in Nigeria is used to portray an image of “responsible organisation”.

2096

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how language (choice) in CSR reports of leading oil companies in Nigeria is used to portray an image of “responsible organisation”.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws insights from communication studies (persuasion theory) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) studies to discursively unpack all those subtle and visible, yet equally invisible, linguistic strategies (micro-level elements): wording (single words), phrases and chains of words (clauses/sentences). These linguistic strategies (micro-level elements) proxy organisational discourses (meso-level elements), which are reflective of wider social practices (macro-level elements). The authors base the investigation on CSR reports of six leading oil companies in Nigeria from 2009 to 2012.

Findings

The findings of this study reveal that (leading) Nigerian oil companies linguistically use CSR reports to persuasively construct and portray the image of “responsible organisation” in the eyes of wider stakeholders (the communities) despite serious criticism of their corporate (ir) responsibility.

Originality/value

As opposed to the previous content analysis based studies, this paper contributes to the emerging stream of CDA studies on CSR reporting by providing a finer-grained linguistic analytical schema couched in Fairclough’s (2003) approach to CDA (and persuasion theory). This helps to unravel how persuasive language/discourse of responsible organisation is enacted and reproduced. The authors thus respond to the calls for theoretical plurality in CSR reporting research by introducing persuasion theory from communication studies literature which has hitherto been rarely applied.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 32 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 December 2022

Thea Williamson and Aris Clemons

Little research has been done exploring the nature of multilingual students who are not categorized as English language learners (ELLs) in English language arts (ELA) classes…

Abstract

Purpose

Little research has been done exploring the nature of multilingual students who are not categorized as English language learners (ELLs) in English language arts (ELA) classes. This study about a group of multilingual girls in an ELA class led by a monolingual white teacher aims to show how, when a teacher makes space for translanguaging practices in ELA, multilingual students disrupt norms of English only.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use reconstructive discourse analysis to understand translanguaging across a variety of linguistic productions for a group of four focal students. Data sources include fieldnotes from 29 classroom observations, writing samples and process documents and 8.5 h of recorded classroom discourse.

Findings

Students used multilingualism across a variety of discourse modes, frequently in spoken language and rarely in written work. Translanguaging was most present in small-group peer talk structures, where students did relationship building, generated ideas for writing and managed their writing agendas, including feelings about writing. In addition, Spanish served as “elevated vocabulary” in writing. Across discourse modes, translanguaging served to develop academic proficiency in writing.

Originality/value

The authors proposed a more expansive approach to data analysis in English-mostly cases – i.e. environments shaped by multilingual students in monolingual school contexts – to argue for anti-deficit approaches to literacy development for multilingual students. Analyzing classroom talk alongside literacy allows for a more nuanced understanding of translanguaging practices in academic writing. They also show how even monolingual teachers can disrupt monolingual hegemony in ELA classrooms with high populations of multilingual students.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

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