7 - Language choices and ideologies in the bilingual classroom

Summary

Introduction

This chapter looks at the language choices made by children in a German–English bilingual school and the role they play in the construction of ideologies about language and the social categories of speakers of particular languages. This research is done within a social constructionist framework, meaning that social realities are not considered fixed but are discursively produced (Foucault, 1972 : 49). Speaker identities are presented as socially constructed, as evidenced by the multiple and shifting identities individuals may perform (Kroskrity, 2000 ; Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001 ; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005 , 2008 ; Heller, 2007 ; Fuller, 2012 ). In this chapter, these identities will be shown to be part of a framework of language ideologies constructed by pre-teen speakers in a bilingual school. According to Errington ( 2000 : 115), the term ‘language ideology’ is used for dealing with issues of use and structure relevant to their social contexts. However, as noted by many researchers (Gal, 1998 ; Woolard, 1998 ; Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2002 ; Kroskirty, 2004), language ideologies are rarely just about language, but are about the political systems in which they operate. Here, the connection between language and nationality is examined.

This approach to the study of language ideology focuses on how ways of speaking not only represent ideologies but also shape them. Specifically, I examine how the use of German, English and bilingual discourse are part of a construction of language ideologies. These data illustrate that there are multiple, and sometimes conflicting, ideologies which emerge in this setting. At the same time, hegemony is an important aspect of language ideology. Hegemony can be defined as power which is achieved through consent; asymmetries of power are naturalized and accepted across social groups, whether the members of those groups benefit from the hegemonic ideologies or not. There are clearly hegemonic ideologies which need to be made explicit and addressed in terms of their consequences for the education and social development of children in bilingual schooling.

A hegemonic language ideology, which is pervasive in many nations, including Germany, is normative monolingualism (Heller, 1999 ; Bauman & Briggs, 2003 ; Gal, 2006a , 2006b ; Hansen-Thomas, 2007; Fuller, 2012 ).