24.676, Review: Sociolinguistics: Fuller (2012)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-24-676. Tue Feb 05 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.676, Review: Sociolinguistics: Fuller (2012)

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Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:39:11
From: Haomin Zhang [haominz at andrew.cmu.edu]
Subject: Bilingual Pre-Teens

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-3052.html

AUTHOR: Janet M. Fuller
TITLE: Bilingual Pre-Teens
SUBTITLE: Competing Ideologies and Multiple Identities in the U.S. and Germany
SERIES TITLE: Routledge Studies in Sociolinguistics
PUBLISHER: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
YEAR: 2012

REVIEWER: Haomin Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University

SUMMARY

“Bilingual Preteen: Competing Ideologies and Multiple Identities in the U.S
and Germany” discusses different qualitative research methods such as
fieldwork, classroom observation, and discourse analysis in order to provides
us with insight about how language functions among bilingual kids in the U.S
and Germany. The book includes six chapters, a list of figures and tables, two
appendices, a reference list, and an index. It is divided into three parts: 1.
Introduction- Chapter One; 2. Four main chapters including studies of
linguistic ethnography; and 3. Conclusion- Chapter Six.

Chapter One provides us with a general picture about bilingual discourse,
identity construction and ideologies. Different attitudes toward bilingualism
in various bilingual contexts are described (e.g. elite bilingualism in
Germany and normative monolingualism in the U.S). This chapter also gives a
brief introduction to the social theories relevant to the author’s research,
including the social construction of race, ethnicity and identities. Finally,
the author discusses multilingualism and problematizes linguistic hybridity,
which provides background for the discussion of identity construction and
language ideologies in the following chapters.

Chapter Two specifically addresses the issue of normative monolingualism (i.e.
hegemonic language ideology) in the U.S in general and in Southern Illinois in
particular. The author talks about English-Spanish bilingual education in
Southern Illinois and argues that hegemonic ideologies in the U.S include
normative English monolingualism and the inferiority of Spanish. Under the
English-only policy in the U.S, English was stereotypically looked upon as a
more valuable language than other foreign languages. Moreover, Spanish and
English mixing indexes a “mixed” identity, which contradicts essentialized
ethnic and national identity categories. In this chapter, the author indicates
that language ideologies are constructed by specific linguistic practices
(e.g. English-only language policy, and bilingual classroom discourse).

Chapter Three switches from the discussion of general language ideologies to
the presentation of specific conversational data in a transitional bilingual
education classroom to see how identity is constructed through language
choices in classroom practices. The data discussed comes from thirteen
children in a Spanish-English bilingual classroom in Montville, Illinois. The
results show that children show positive attitudes toward bilingualism, often
positioning themselves as bilinguals while positioning others as monolinguals.
Hegemony of English, however, is apparent in classroom discourse. English is
treated as a dominant and powerful language in the classroom. Usage of English
works as a way of constructing a Mexican-American, as opposed to Mexican,
identity. Moreover, codeswitching is found as another salient language choice
in the bilingual classroom discourse of the children, who engage in bilingual
discourse practices that challenge normative monolingualism and essentialized
ideas about social and ethnic categories. Finally, from the discourse data, it
is shown that immigrant bilingualism is always associated with membership of
the working class. Mexican-American children in this study are confined to the
boundaries of their socio-economic status, and thus, it is difficult for them
to assimilate into the wider White community. Supporting the author’s
findings, Kanno (2008) mentions that students are not able to resist their
assigned identities once a school sets the range of identity options for them.

Chapter Four, based on the concepts of iconicity, erasure and recursiveness
proposed by Gal & Irvine (1995), addresses ideologies in German society in
order to see how normative monolingualism and elite bilingualism are present
in English-German bilinguals. On one hand, normative monolingualism in German
is represented through the ideology “one nation, one language”. On the other
hand, uses of English and borrowings of English words/phrases index an
international and sophisticated identity (p. 113). Like Spanglish,
nonetheless, Dinglish (i.e. mixing of English and German) is not treated as a
real language with high status. Thus, it is found that separation of the two
languages is advocated in bilingual schools.

Chapter Five builds upon the background description developed in Chapter Four
and investigates identity construction in depth through recorded data from a
German-English dual language classroom. The results show that both German and
English have power in the construction of identity on different levels. Unlike
the immigrant bilingualism presented in Chapter Three, elite bilingualism,
which helps promote speakers’ socio-economic status in Germany, is
demonstrated in this chapter. More importantly, “speaking two elite languages
badly or in an overly mixed fashion does not grant a speaker cultural capital”
(p. 155). Furthermore, another phenomenon found in this chapter is that
speaking non-elite languages or other varieties of languages is also valued
(e.g. speaking an immigrant or minority language is perceived as a resource).
Overall, languages are not only valued as resources but also as markers of
authenticity (Heller, 2009).

In the last chapter, Chapter Six, the author concludes by reiterating the main
theme and goals of the previous chapters, which were to address how language
ideologies are reproduced and challenged through linguistic practices. She
states, “Competing ideologies found in this research are due to the conflicts
in norms in the wider society and within the classroom” (p. 159). Practices of
the wider community are influential in specific linguistic practices of
bilinguals. In the end, two important implications are generalized: first,
bilingual curricula need to be examined, since children in bilingual
classrooms do not behave in accord with the expectations of program creators;
and second, teacher training and pedagogical practices are crucial, which can
be summed up by stating that “Teachers need to be trained to teach bilinguals
as bilinguals, not as if they were two monolinguals sharing one body” (p.
161).

EVALUATION

The author clearly identifies the focus of the book: competing ideologies and
the construction of multiple identities in different contexts (i.e. the U.S.
and Germany, broadly). Certainly, the author achieves the goal of presenting
competing ideologies, namely, normative monolingualism and elite bilingualism,
in both the wider societal contexts of the U.S. and Germany, and within the
specific context of the bilingual classroom. Holistically, the author presents
her research in a logical and progressive manner. Before analyzing specific
discourse data, she provides readers with relevant background of the contexts,
such as ideologies about bilingual education in Southern Illinois and
competing ideologies in Germany.

Having a solid theoretical framework and a clear background description
related to each geographic location, the author explores the main themes,
competing ideologies and construction of multiple identities through
conversational data among young children in both American and German bilingual
classrooms. She provides ample supporting details, such as language choice,
language mixing, and codeswitching from discourse data. Through discourse
analysis, construction of identities is found in multiple levels and
categories, all of which are clear and tenable.

The most compelling part of this book is the comparison of bilingual classroom
discourse in the U.S. and Germany. In the data analysis of Chapter Three and
Chapter Five, the author highlights specific linguistic features (e.g.
codeswitching and language mixing) in bilingual data to provide a clearer
picture about how language functions in different bilingual discourse
communities. For example, in Chapter Five, codeswitching is analyzed in the
bilingual classroom of Germany, where the use of English can grant students
authoritative power in classroom discussions. Through the salient linguistic
features produced in the discourse data, bilingual identities are clearly
constituted among the young kids. Moreover, by means of incisive discourse
analysis in Chapter Three and Chapter Five, readers can find different
language ideologies present in the bilingual education systems of the U.S. and
Germany.

Due to its clear focus, this book caters to an audience interested in
sociolinguistics, language and identity, discourse analysis, bilingual
education, and linguistic ethnography. It would also be helpful for students
seeking an understanding of sociolinguistic research methodologies.

The current research opens up the door for comparative analyses of
bilingualism. Future research may cover more groups of language speakers to
see how language ideologies and multiple identities are constructed in
different age groups, regions, and countries. More critically, applied
sociolinguistic research should provide policy makers and teachers with
insights into the implementation of language policies and the improvement of
teaching practices.

REFERENCES

Gal, Susan and Judith Irvine. 1995. The boundaries of languages and
disciplines. How ideologies construct difference. Social Research 62.
996-1001.

Heller, Monica. 2009. Multilingualism and transnationalism. In Auer and Wei,
539-553.

Kanno, Yasuko. 2008. Language and education in Japan: Unequal access to
bilingualism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Haomin Zhang is a PhD student in the Department of Modern Languages at
Carnegie Mellon University. He holds BA in Economics from Shanghai Jiao Tong
University and MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. He is
currently teaching Mandarin Chinese in Carnegie Mellon. His general areas of
research interest include second language reading, morphology,
psycholinguistics, linguistic variation and comparative linguistics. He is
especially interested in heritage/incomplete language acquisition
(cross-linguistic transfer and morphological awareness).








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