Last week, a man who most people have probably never heard of died: John Gumperz. He was, however, a very important discourse analyst and sociolinguist. His work has had an impact on my own thinking particularly about my approach to intercultural communication. As a result, I wanted to write a brief post talking about one of the most important everyday lessons that his research holds for us as members of pluralistic societies. Read more ›
Why the cynics are wrong (this time)
I still have some things to say about our discourse on language learning and immigration, and I’ll get back to it soon.
However, I wanted to interrupt my regularly scheduled broadcast to say a few words about the recent discourse surrounding same-sex marriage. With the Supreme Court hearing arguments about the issue today, there has been quite a lot of discussion of the issue. My favorite part of all of this has been watching my facebook news feed become one long line of names next to pictures like this:
Myths of melting pots and discarded tongues (part 2)
In my last post, I looked at a story told by a US Senator about how his family immigrated to the United States and learned English. I wrote that I think the stories we tell reveal a lot about how we think the world should work. In other words, these stories tell us a lot about our ideologies. Working from this assumption, I claimed that the Senator and his story simplified the process of language learning in order to present it as a choice. In the logic of the story, immigrants choose their languages. For the Senator and others like him, choosing the “right” language (English) is equated with choosing to belong in the US, and choosing the “wrong” language (anything other than English) is resisting membership in the US.
I want to look now at an editorial I found from a newspaper in a small California city: Santa Maria. In this article, the idea of a so-called “melting pot” seems to establish expectations that immigrants conform to an unnamed “us”. Read more ›
Tagged with: bilingualism, English, immigration, melting pot, narrative, nationalism, politics
Posted in Human migration
Posted in Human migration
Myths of melting pots and discarded tongues (part 1)
While the United States government seems intent on providing me a never ending supply of budget dysfunction discourse, I’ve decided to move on to another pressing topic that US politicians have been discussing: immigration.
President Obama gave some prominence to immigration in his recent State of the Union address and, importantly, connected the topic of immigration to language Read more ›
Tagged with: bilingualism, English, immigration, narrative, nationalism, politics
Posted in Human migration
Posted in Human migration
“Is speaking English a civic duty?” by Ingrid Piller
It’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog, but I assure you I haven’t forgotten it! I’m gathering material for a post about immigration in the United States and the role of English.
However, I wanted to put out a quick post with some exciting news. I recently published an article in the Journal of Sociolinguistics titled “‘English… it’s part of our blood’: Ideologies of language and nation in United States Congressional discourse”. Read more ›
Posted in Human migration
linguistic pulse 