Is the study of language ideologically neutral? If so, is this study objective and autonomous? One of the most cherished assumptions of modern academic linguistics is that the study of language is, or should be, ideologically neutral. This professed ideological neutrality goes hand-in-hand with claims of scientific objectivity and explanatory autonomy. Ideologies of Language counters these claims and assumptions by demonstrating not only their descriptive inaccuracy but also their conceptual incoherence.

Is the study of language ideologically neutral? If so, is this study objective and autonomous? One of the most cherished assumptions of modern academic linguistics is that the study of language is, or should be, ideologically neutral. This professed ideological neutrality goes hand-in-hand with claims of scientific objectivity and explanatory autonomy. Ideologies of Language counters these claims and assumptions by demonstrating not only their descriptive inaccuracy but also their conceptual incoherence.

The academic discipline of linguistics is at a critical stage of development. Whatever consensus there may have been fifteen or even ten years ago is fast disappearing. A process of redefinition is underway, and it is the aim of this volume to contribute to that process, explain why a redefinition is needed, and how it should proceed. In the case of linguistics the subject is also the subject matter. Many linguists have ignored the problem of definition, simply regarding linguistics as the ‘science of language itself’. What, though, is ‘language itself’? Is it a language, ie English, Swahili? Or, language in a more general sense? The primary goal of a redefinition of linguistics should be to demonstrate that language is not an objective matter. Linguistics is, and should be, the study of whatever is linguistically pertinent. A linguistics redefined would look at how we interpret and construct our day-to-day communication acts, what views of language are shared by and opposed by societies, and the source and roles that these views play in our living and learning experience. These papers argue the case for such a redefinition more explicitly than has ever been done before in modern linguistic theory. Such a redefined perspective, precisely because it is a perspective, subject to ‘outside’ influence, and in constant dialogue with the perspective of the other human sciences, must be endlessly redefined.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Decolonizing Linguistics, the companion volume to Inclusion in Linguistics, is designed to uncover and intervene in the history and ongoing legacy of colonization and colonial thinking in linguistics and related fields. Taken together, the two volumes are the first comprehensive, action-oriented, book-length discussions of how to advance social justice in all aspects of the discipline. The introduction to Decolonizing Linguistics theorizes decolonization as the process of centering Black, Native, and Indigenous perspectives, describes the extensive dialogic and collaborative process through which the volume was developed, and lays out key principles for decolonizing linguistic research and teaching. The twenty chapters cover a wide range of languages and linguistic contexts (e.g., Bantu languages, Creoles, Dominican Spanish, Francophone Africa, Zapotec) as well as various disciplines and subfields (applied linguistics, communication, historical linguistics, language documentation and revitalization/reclamation, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, syntax). Contributors address such topics as refusing settler-colonial practices and centering community goals in research on Indigenous languages; decolonizing research partnerships between the Global South and the Global North; and prioritizing Black Diasporic perspectives in linguistics. The volume's conclusion lays out specific actions that linguists can take through research, teaching, and institutional structures to refuse coloniality in linguistics and to move the field toward a decolonized future.

This volume investigates ideological and hegemonic practices in globally and locally written English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks, and explores whether these textbooks reflect the values, beliefs and norms of the native-speaker society by examining their ideological components and the hegemonic practices by means of which the source society or state seeks to influence learners of the language. It also attempts to clarify EFL teachers’ and students’ views on the underlying ideology and hegemonic practices in globally and locally written EFL textbooks. Studies on the relationship between ideology, hegemony and textbooks in applied linguistics have become more prevalent in recent decades, as the emergence of critical theory, critical pedagogy, and critical thinking skills from the 1920s onwards has led scholars to adopt a more critical perspective towards EFL textbooks, especially with regard to elements of ideology and hegemony. These two terms encompass a plethora of components, ranging from nationalism to religion. At the same time, the importance of metanarratives originating from the tenets of modernism has declined from the 1960s onwards, the assumption being that the world has entered a new age called postmodernism and post-structuralism that emphasizes the role of individuals and rejects efforts to reinforce post-colonialism, the effects of which can be seen in EFL textbooks. Accordingly, taking the elements of ideology and hegemony into account remains a vital aspect in the analysis of EFL textbooks.

Many students for whom English is a second language may be reticent in the classroom due to their perceived lack of English language fluency, among other reasons. The study featured in this book investigates the discourses of affective trauma, injustice and identity in the personal language narratives of academic literacy students enrolled into a four-year undergraduate degree programme at a South African university. The study also featured interviews with students and teaching staff, observations of tutorials, observations from the teacher, as well as a comprehensive survey. The purpose of the book is to attempt an analysis of the underlying reasons for the students’ apparent reticence and demotivation, and to engender a critical awareness of affective issues in the learning and teaching environment of educators at primary, high school, and tertiary education levels. Affective trauma, and its impact on student success and retention, is an under-researched area of learning and teaching. The book aims to present transformative measures to address these issues. This is an important book for educators, educational policy-makers, curriculum developers, and learning and teaching specialists.

This collection of essays developed out of a conference held in Hong Kong in 1988. The aim was to provide a forum for an exchange of views between academics working within the field of sociolinguistics, in particular between those working in the West and those working in the East. Sociolinguistics Today has taken this aim a step further to produce an overview of contemporary research into sociolinguistics worldwide. The book contains articles by acknowledged leaders in the study of language and society, and the presence of sociolinguists working in Asia provides a new and exciting challenge to the hitherto western-dominated field. The comprehensive study of Asian sociolinguistics is unique and engages with the non-Asian contributions to great effect. The range of contributors reinforces the international emphasis of the book.

The ability to speak two or more languages is a common human experience, whether for children born into bilingual families, young people enrolled in foreign language classes, or mature and older adults learning and using more than one language to meet life's needs and desires. This Handbook offers a developmentally oriented and socially contextualized survey of research into individual bilingualism, comprising the learning, use and, as the case may be, unlearning of two or more spoken and signed languages and language varieties. A wide range of topics is covered, from ideologies, policy, the law, and economics, to exposure and input, language education, measurement of bilingual abilities, attrition and forgetting, and giftedness in bilinguals. Also explored are cross- and intra-disciplinary connections with psychology, clinical linguistics, second language acquisition, education, cognitive science, neurolinguistics, contact linguistics, and sign language research.

Provides a way of accounting for the relationship between language and a variety of social phenomena.