Localising linguistic citizenship in England

Ben Rampton; Melanie Cooke; Dermot Bryers; Becky Winstanley; Constant Leung; Anthony Tomei; Sam Holmes

doi:10.1017/S0261444823000241

Localising linguistic citizenship in England

Ben Rampton^*, Melanie Cooke, Dermot Bryers, Becky Winstanley, Constant Leung, Anthony Tomei, Sam Holmes

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

What’s the relevance of ‘Linguistic Citizenship’ (LC), a concept developed in southern Africa, to language education in England? LC is committed to democratic participation and voice, to linguistic diversity and the value of sociolinguistic understanding (Stroud 2001), and it provides a framework for contesting linguistic conditions in England, where vernacular multilingualism faces monolingual language education policies and an officially ‘hostile environment for migrants’. In fact, LC lines up with four sources of opposition to this: civil society and small-scale community organisations cultivating heritage language multilingualism; experience of system-wide ‘hospitality to diversity’ in education in England in the 1970s & 1980s; c.50 years of linguistics research in Britain; and universities themselves. Drawing on LC’s pedigree in sociolinguistics, we then turn to the Hub for Education & Language Diversity, a collaboration between King’s and non-profit language organisations which approaches LC as a multi-dimensional programme of language development. This includes BA & MA classes; teacher training (with resonant concepts like ‘diasporic local’); and efforts to broaden ideas about university ‘impact’. Overall, Linguistic Citizenship invites us to reassess the lie of the land in language education, and suggests an array of practical but principled initiatives at different points of the language teaching/university interface.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	215-228
Number of pages	14
Journal	Language Teaching
Volume	57
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444823000241
Publication status	Published - 28 Apr 2024

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title = "Localising linguistic citizenship in England",

abstract = "What{\textquoteright}s the relevance of {\textquoteleft}Linguistic Citizenship{\textquoteright} (LC), a concept developed in southern Africa, to language education in England? LC is committed to democratic participation and voice, to linguistic diversity and the value of sociolinguistic understanding (Stroud 2001), and it provides a framework for contesting linguistic conditions in England, where vernacular multilingualism faces monolingual language education policies and an officially {\textquoteleft}hostile environment for migrants{\textquoteright}. In fact, LC lines up with four sources of opposition to this: civil society and small-scale community organisations cultivating heritage language multilingualism; experience of system-wide {\textquoteleft}hospitality to diversity{\textquoteright} in education in England in the 1970s & 1980s; c.50 years of linguistics research in Britain; and universities themselves. Drawing on LC{\textquoteright}s pedigree in sociolinguistics, we then turn to the Hub for Education & Language Diversity, a collaboration between King{\textquoteright}s and non-profit language organisations which approaches LC as a multi-dimensional programme of language development. This includes BA & MA classes; teacher training (with resonant concepts like {\textquoteleft}diasporic local{\textquoteright}); and efforts to broaden ideas about university {\textquoteleft}impact{\textquoteright}. Overall, Linguistic Citizenship invites us to reassess the lie of the land in language education, and suggests an array of practical but principled initiatives at different points of the language teaching/university interface.",

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Localising linguistic citizenship in England

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