Archived Events
Research Workshop- Critical Language Research: Applied Linguistic and Anthropological Approaches
Date/Time: Friday 25th October 2019, 9:00am-6:00pm
Venue: Howden Room, KGVI Building
Many advances have been made in critical sociolinguistics that challenge the received wisdom about the 'bounded' nature of language(s), and yet in the sphere of language policy and planning for speakers of indigenous languages in postcolonial settings, little use appears to be made of these advances. For example, in Latin America, language mixture in its many guises goes largely disregarded in the design of intercultural bilingual education programmes for indigenous people.
Secondly, in a similar way, neither do the contributions of linguistic anthropology appear to have influence in applied spheres. Essentialist or mechanistic understandings of what language is, purist ideologies, and Western precepts about the epistemological and ontological nature of language, all of which belie the ethnographic evidence, seem to prevail.
This one-day workshop aims to bring together people from different disciplinary perspectives to share experience and understandings, both ethnographic and theoretical, in order to discuss these paradoxes, identify others, and explore related questions.
The workshop will begin with two key note discussion papers from invited speakers, one from the perspective of linguistic anthropology and one from that of critical sociolinguistics. These will be followed by contributions from the workshop participants, in the form of case studies or further theoretical reflections, or a mix of both.
Sponsored by Open World Research Initiative (OWRI), Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), University of London; Newcastle Institute for Social Science; CLACS; and School of Modern Languages. With many thanks to all for their support.