Item Details

“This May Create a Zero-lingual State”: Critical Examination of Language Ideologies in an English Learning Blog

Issue: Vol 36 No. 1 (2019)

Subject Areas:

Abstract:

Given the importance of the blogosphere for autonomous language learning, many studies on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have vigorously investigated the use of blogs in language learning. Noticeably lacking in these endeavors are investigations of language learners’ social engagement with others in online spaces to define and negotiate their own meanings of language and language learning. To fill this gap, this study investigated the language ideologies disseminated in a Korean blog that has become a collaborative online English-learning community. Focusing on this blog owner’s ideas and her followers’ responses, I explored the language ideologies disseminated and negotiated in conversations on language learning and using. This is part of a larger virtual ethnographic study conducted over the past three years. I analyzed online posts and comments using Gee’s situated meanings (2014). Findings suggest that the Korean bloggers subscribe to monolingual ideologies because they are acutely aware of the ideological contexts in Korea surrounding English and are critical about their own language learning and using practices. The current study asserts that the blogosphere can create opportunities for language learners to contest existing knowledge and voice their opinions on issues that matter to them as language learners and members of a society.

Author: Rayoung Song

View Original Web Page

References :

Aljumah, F. H. (2012). Saudi learner perceptions and attitudes towards the use of blogs in teaching English writing course for EFL majors at Qassim University. English Language Teaching, 5(1), 100–116.

Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. L. (2003). Voices of modernity: Language ideologies and the politics of inequality. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486647

Bhavana, A. R. (2009). Honing language skills using blogs. Journal on School Educational Technology, 4(3), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.26634/jsch.4.3.585

Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2010). Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London, England: Bloomsbury Academic.

Blommaert, J. (2009). A market of accents. Language Policy, 8(3), 243–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-009-9131-1

Canagarajah, S. (2013). Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203120293

Carter, D. (2005). Living in virtual communities: an ethnography of human relationships in cyberspace. Information, Communication & Society, 8(2), 148–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180500146235

Chen, P.-J. (2016). Learners’ metalinguistic and affective performance in blogging to write. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(4), 790–814. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2015.1068813

Cummins, J. (1976). The influence of bilingualism on cognitive growth: A synthesis of research findings and explanatory hypotheses. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 9.

Cummins, J. (1994). Semilingualism. In R. E. Asher & J. M. Y. Simpson (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (pp. 3812–3814). New York, NY: Pergamon Press.

Edelsky, C., Hudelson, S., Flores, B., Barkin, F., Altwerger, B., & Jilbert, K. (1983). Semilingualism and language deficit. Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/4.1.1

Elola, I., & Oskoz, A. (2008). Blogging: Fostering intercultural competence development in foreign language and study broad contexts. Foreign Language Annals, 41(3), 454–477. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2008.tb03307.x

Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Garcia, O., & Sylvan, C. E. (2011). Pedagogies and practices in multilingual classrooms: Singularities in pluralities. Modern Language Journal, 95(3), 385–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01208.x

Garcia, O., & Wei, L. (2013). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. London, England: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315819662

Gee, J. P. (2014). How to do discourse analysis: A toolkit. New York, NY: Routledge.

Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Hanna, B. E., & de Nooy, J. (2009). Learning language and culture via public Internet discussion forums. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230235823

Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020277

Irvine, J. T. (1989). When talk isn’t cheap: Language and political economy. American Ethnologist, 16(2), 248–267. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1989.16.2.02a00040

Jang, I. C. (2015). Language learning as a struggle for distinction in today’s corporate recruitment culture: An ethnographic study of English study abroad practices among South Korean undergraduates. L2 Journal, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.5070/L27323591

Johnson, N. F., & Humphry, N. (2012). The teenage expertise network (TEN): An online ethnographic approach. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 25(6), 723–739. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2011.590160

Kidd, W. (2013). Investigating the lives of new teachers through ethnographic blogs. Ethnography and Education, 8(2), 210–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2013.792510

Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing ethnographic research online. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Kroskrity, P. V. (2000). Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.

Kroskrity, P. V. (2005). Language ideologies. In A. Duranti (Ed.), A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 496–517). Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996522.ch22

Lee, J. S. (2006). Linguistic constructions of modernity: English mixing in Korean television commercials. Language in Society, 35(1), 59–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404506060039

Lee, L. (2011). Blogging: Promoting learner autonomy and intercultural competence through study abroad. Language Learning & Technology, 15(3), 87–109.

Lee, M. W. (2016). “Gangnam style” English ideologies: Neoliberalism, class and the parents of early study-abroad students. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 19(1), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.963024

Makoni, S., & Pennycook, A. (2007). Disinventing and reconstituting languages. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.

Martin-Jones, M., & Romaine, S. (1986). Semilingualism: A half-baked theory of communicative competence. Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/7.1.26

McGroarty, M. E. (2010). Language and ideologies. In N. H. Hornberger & S. L. McKay (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 3–39). Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847692849-003

Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2015). Blogs and the development of plurilingual and intercultural competence: report of a co-actional approach in Portuguese foreign language classroom. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 28(3), 220–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2013.818556

Pennycook, A., & Otsuji, E. (2015). Metrolingualism: Language in the city. London, England: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315724225

Rashtchi, M., & Hajihassani, H. (2010). Blog-assisted language learning: A possibility in teaching reading to Iranian EFL learners. International Journal of Language Studies, 4(4), 245–262.

Reinders, H., & White, C. (2016). 20 years of autonomy and technology: How far have we come and where to next? Language Learning & Technology, 20(2).

Rosa, J. D. (2016). Standardization, racialization, languagelessness: Raciolinguistic ideologies across communicative contexts. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, (2), 162. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12116

Rumsey, A. (1990). Wording, meaning, and linguistic ideology. American Anthropologist, 92(2), 346–361. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1990.92.2.02a00060

Schreiber, B. R. (2015). “I am what I am”: Multilingual identity and digital translanguaging. Language Learning & Technology, 19(3), 69–87.

Shin, S. J. (2012). Bilingualism in schools and society: Language, identity, and policy. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203828670

Shumar, W., & Madison, N. (2013). Ethnography in a virtual world. Ethnography and Education, 8(2), 255–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2013.792513

Silverstein, M. (1992). The uses and utility of ideology: Some reflections. Pragmatics, 2(3), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.2.3.11sil

Song, J. J. (2011). English as an official language in South Korea: Global English or social malady? Language Problems & Language Planning, 35(1), 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.35.1.03son

Sultana, S., Dovchin, S., & Pennycook, A. (2015). Transglossic language practices of young adults in Bangladesh and Mongolia. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(1), 93–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2014.887088

Sun, Y.-C., & Chang, Y. (2012). Blogging to learn: Becoming EFL academic writers through collaborative dialogues. Language Learning & Technology, 16(1), 43–61.

van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006

Wang, S., & Vasquez, C. (2012). Web 2.0 and second language learning: What does the research tell us? CALICO Journal, 29(3), 412–430. https://doi.org/10.11139/cj.29.3.412-430

Woolard, K. (1998). Introduction: Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In B. B. Schieffelin, K. A. Woolard, & P. V. Kroskrity (Eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory (Vol. Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics, pp. 3–47). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Woolard, K. A. (1992). Language ideology: Issues and approaches. Pragmatics, 2(3), 235–249. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.2.3.01woo

Woolard, K. A., & Schieffelin, B. B. (1994). Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 23(1), 55–82. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.23.100194.000415

Zhang, H., Song, W., Shen, S., & Huang, R. (2014). The effects of blog-mediated peer feedback on learners’ motivation, collaboration, and course satisfaction in a second language writing course. Australasian Journal of Education Technology, 30(6), 670–685. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.860