A Language Ideological Lens on Language Policy: An Ethnographic Case Study at a Suburban Indian Orphanage

• In Event: Ethnographic Research in Multilingual Contexts: Microlevel Perspectives on Macrolevel Policies

Abstract

This presentation draws on a four-year ethnographic case study of five young boys at an anathashram (orphanage) in suburban New Delhi, India, in order to illustrate how a language ideological lens can shed light on the micro-/macro- relationship in language policy scholarship. The anathashram is a microcosm of India’s own complex multilingualism, and hence serves as a useful site from which to explore this issue. The focal children speak Bengali, Bihari, or Nepali as a first language; Hindi as a second language; attend an English-medium village school; and participate daily in Sanskrit prayers. I analyze both prevalent policy discourses and the everyday discursive practices of the focal children in order to illustrate the marked disconnect between beliefs about English at the national and local levels. The first part of the analysis, focusing on the macro-level, draws on 20 national language policy documents and 2 interviews with policymakers. The data for the second part, focusing on the micro-level, examines two interviews with the focal children as well as two of their chutkule (funny anecdotes). The data collection process entailed participant observation, supplemented with video-recording, structured and semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and the collection of written artifacts.

I employ the construct of language ideologies to unpack the relationship between the two levels under examination. Language ideologies are commonsense ways of thinking about languages (see Irvine, 1989; Irvine & Gal, 2000; Kroskrity, 2000; Rumsey, 1990; Silverstein, 1979, Woolard & Schieffelin, 1994; Woolard 1998). They reflect the ways in which members make sense of differences within and across languages, “and map those understandings onto people, events, and activities that are significant to them” (Irvine & Gal, 2000, p. 35). They are especially crucial where regional and national ideologies stand at variance and locals must negotiate competing beliefs about languages (Moore, 2008), a point that is particularly salient in the complex Indian linguistic context. Furthermore, I utilize the concept of ideological erasure, through which “ideology, in simplifying the sociolinguistic field, renders some persons or activities (or sociolinguistic phenomena) invisible” (Irvine & Gal, 2000, p. 38), to highlight how broader policy discourses enact erasure of local voices.

This concept of erasure is uncovered in the findings as one of the consequences of national policy discourses about English. These discourses render differences in the imagination of English speakers and learners invisible, ignore the on-the-ground challenges of English education in India, and overlook the role of English in elite formation (Phillipson, 2009). At the local level, language ideologies offers a counter-narrative to broader policy discourses: the anxieties, concerns, and ambivalences excavated through the analysis reveal enduring concerns with the learning, socio-cultural valence, and colonial heritage of English.

The analysis along two scales of investigation demonstrates how language ideologies, revealed through ethnographic inquiry, can yield unique insights into local responses to wider language policies. In addition, the concept of ideological erasure illustrates the ways in which language policies, while appearing to confirm, actually modify local beliefs about English (see Spolsky & Shohamy, 2000), with important consequences for educational equity.

Author

• Usree Bhattacharya, Indiana University of Pennsylvania