Language Policy, Ideological Clarification and Theory of Mind

Autor/in	Albury, Nathan John
Titel	Language Policy, Ideological Clarification and Theory of Mind
Quelle	In: Language Policy, 20 (2021) 2, S.193-214 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Albury, Nathan John)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1568-4555
DOI	10.1007/s10993-020-09547-z
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Language Planning; Language Attitudes; Ideology; Theory of Mind; Multilingualism; Politics; Malaysia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Sprachwechsel; Sprachverhalten; Ideologie; Mehrsprachigkeit; Multilingualismus; Politik
Abstract	This interdisciplinary paper shows that investigating community language beliefs, as a pillar of language policy research, can be enriched by the principles of theory of mind. The case study is Malaysia where ethnonationalist law and policy elevates the language and culture of the Muslim Malay majority above those of citizens of Chinese and Indian ethnicity, but where a seismic political shift is underway. The re-election of Dr Mahathir Mohammad as prime minister in May 2018, but now standing for Pakatan Harapan, broke decades of rule by the traditionalist United Malays National Organisation. Promises are being made to bring an end to Malaysia's race-based politics and foster equality. The situation is ripe for producing contentious and politically-embedded talk in the community about Malaysia's linguistic diversity and ethnonationalist language policy. In that context, this paper analyses how youths from different ethnic groups feel about Malaysia's societal multilingualism. However, the innovation is in then soliciting and analysing the hypotheses of these same youths about how their own heritage languages, as well as societal multilingualism and language policy, are perceived by the other ethnic groups. As Malaysia embarks on political change, exploring beliefs in these interethnic multidirectional terms reveals fissures and alignments between beliefs that are articulated by different youths and the beliefs that are attributed to them. This methodological approach can support language policy processes and research by more richly investigating language beliefs and ideological positioning from multidirectional vantage points. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01