[Somean] Spring Course on Language/Literacy Ideologies

[Marcia Farr]

Edu T&L 925.19 (24801): Seminar on Language and Literacy Ideologies

Professor Marcia Farr

Spring, 2012 / Tuesdays, 4:30 pm - 6:48 pm

200a Ramseyer Hall

Description

Language ideologies are beliefs about language that link kinds of
language use with categories of human beings, placing them in particular
positions in the social world.   These beliefs can be explicit and
consciously articulated by people, or they can be implicit and only able
to be inferred from discourse and other social practices of people.
Language ideologies are not simply about language, but also involve
social and cultural conceptions of personhood, citizenship, morality,
quality and value, etc. (defining, for example, who is a "good" speaker,
person, citizen, etc.).  Because of this, language ideologies have
material effects in the world and thus are particularly important to
understand.  

Whereas research on language ideologies has burgeoned within the last
two decades, little such research has explored the written side of
language use, or literacy practices. In this seminar we explore both the
literature on language ideologies and some new studies on literacy
ideologies. Together we will develop and differentiate ideologies that
inhere in beliefs about language and those that inhere in beliefs about
literacy, especially since ideologies about language heavily impact
literacy practices. This exploration will include attention to the
history of Standard English, following the advent of printing and mass
literacy, and the rise of nation-states in Europe in the 17th and 18th
centuries. We will also consider particular European-origin language and
literacy ideologies that have accompanied European colonialism around
the world, investigating contemporary language and literacy practices
and ideologies in a global context. 

 

Texts

Blommaert, Jan. 2008. Grassroots literacy: Writing, identity and voice
in Central Africa. New York and London: Routledge. 

Kroskrity, Paul V. (ed.) 2000. Regimes of language: Ideologies,
polities, identities. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research
Press.

Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard & Paul. V. Kroskrity (eds.).
1998. Language ideologies: Practice and theory. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.  

 

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