TY - JOUR
T1 - Commodification of the Chinese language: investigating language ideology in the Chinese complementary schools’online discourse
AU - Liu, Yuying
N1 - Funding Information:
The author would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The author would also like to thank Dr Michael Toomey for his contributions to this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022/2/17
Y1 - 2022/2/17
N2 - Despite the increasing popularity of Chinese and the recognition of the growing commodifying ideology of Chinese language in many contexts [Liu, Y., & Gao, X. (2020). Commodification of the Chinese language: Investigating language ideology in the Irish media. Current Issues in Language Planning, 21(5), 512–531. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2020.1741236], the ideological orientations of the Chinese diaspora community towards the Chinese language remain under-researched. This research seeks to bridge this gap by investigating the micro-level language ideologies embedded in Chinese complementary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Informed by Ruíz’s [(1984). Orientations in language planning. NABE Journal, 8(2), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/08855072.1984.10668464] metaphorical representations of language, 11 Chinese complementary schools’ websites were analysed as discursive texts that signal the language policy and ideology to prospective learners and parents. The results of the analysis suggest that a move from a portrayal of Chinese as linked to student heritage identity, to the commodification of linguistic and cultural diversity, is evident. It denotes the growing commodifying ideology among the Chinese complementary schools in the Republic of Ireland. This study contributes to wider discussions of language ideology and language planning, with regards to modern language learning and heritage language maintenance.
AB - Despite the increasing popularity of Chinese and the recognition of the growing commodifying ideology of Chinese language in many contexts [Liu, Y., & Gao, X. (2020). Commodification of the Chinese language: Investigating language ideology in the Irish media. Current Issues in Language Planning, 21(5), 512–531. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2020.1741236], the ideological orientations of the Chinese diaspora community towards the Chinese language remain under-researched. This research seeks to bridge this gap by investigating the micro-level language ideologies embedded in Chinese complementary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Informed by Ruíz’s [(1984). Orientations in language planning. NABE Journal, 8(2), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/08855072.1984.10668464] metaphorical representations of language, 11 Chinese complementary schools’ websites were analysed as discursive texts that signal the language policy and ideology to prospective learners and parents. The results of the analysis suggest that a move from a portrayal of Chinese as linked to student heritage identity, to the commodification of linguistic and cultural diversity, is evident. It denotes the growing commodifying ideology among the Chinese complementary schools in the Republic of Ireland. This study contributes to wider discussions of language ideology and language planning, with regards to modern language learning and heritage language maintenance.
KW - CDA
KW - Chinese language
KW - Language ideology
KW - commodification
KW - heritage language maintenance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124742502&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14664208.2022.2037290
DO - 10.1080/14664208.2022.2037290
M3 - Article
SN - 1466-4208
VL - 23
SP - 319
EP - 342
JO - Current Issues in Language Planning
JF - Current Issues in Language Planning
IS - 3
ER -