The intersection of language ideologies and language awareness among in-service teachers of emergent bilinguals

Abstract

Important components of the teacher knowledge base are how aware a teacher is of language (including how it is acquired and best taught), as well as their language ideologies. Because a combination of ideologies and awareness may guide many pedagogical decisions, this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study explored prevalent language ideological orientations of educators in a dual language immersion (DLI) context, their degrees of Teacher Language Awareness (TLA), and the relationship between the two. Findings revealed that participants with high degrees of TLA oriented significantly more positively towards additive language ideologies, while educators with low degrees of TLA were significantly more likely to orient toward deficit ideologies. Data from cases representing high and low degrees of TLA provide an in-depth view of the relationship between teachers’ TLA and ideologies in practice. This study extends an understanding of how language awareness and ideologies interact, along with implications for pre- and in-service teacher professional development.

Identities and ideologies in a language teacher candidate's autoethnography: Making meaning of storied experience

“…Because language opens up possibilities of social identities and community membership for their students, more than just a subject matter, TCs’ self‐reflexivity and critical awareness about language are central to their identities and knowledge base. Resonating with the research on teacher language awareness (Lindahl, ; Lindahl & Henderson, ), CAN led Sara to understand and practice her roles as a language user, teacher, and analyzer and interpret the complex ways language functions as a medium and space for the construction, negotiation, and dissemination of ideologies (Hawkins & Norton, ; Morgan, ). Such an understanding is important in crafting practices to support language learners’ agency and identity while learning and using a new language.…”

“…As the most powerful decision makers in the classroom, teachers’ language identities and ideologies underpin their instructional beliefs, tasks, and interactions with students and parents (Kayi‐Aydar et al, ). The dominant ideologies that maintain the societal power relations prevail through the curriculum, although teachers and students can interrogate, challenge, and destabilize these ideologies by developing self‐reflexivity and awareness of dominant language ideologies (Athanases, Banes, & Wong, ; Lindahl & Henderson, ).…”

Language Ideology Change Over Time: Lessons for Language Policy in the U.S. State of Arizona and Beyond

“…The first section of the survey instrument has been used in several empirical studies (Bernstein et al, in preparation; Fitzsimmons‐Doolan, , ; Fitzsimmons‐Doolan et al., ; Lindhal & Henderson, in preparation) to identify language ideologies through factor analysis. This works by identifying groups of items (called factors) that participants respond to similarly and operationalizing those factors as language ideologies.…”

Linguistic Terrorism in the Borderlands: Language Ideologies in the Narratives of Young Adults in the Rio Grande Valley

“…This approach can "help students critically understand their own lives and worlds, develop agency in making their own language choices, and participate in the building of a more democratic society" (Leeman, 2005, p. 36). Indeed, studies find a relationship between language awareness and language ideologies (Lindahl & Henderson, 2019).…”