Critical discourse-ethnographic approaches to language policy

Wodak, Ruth and Savski, Kristof (2019) Critical discourse-ethnographic approaches to language policy. In: The Oxford Handbook of Language Policy and Planning :. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190458898

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the synergy that researchers in language policy have developed by integrating two other subfields of sociolinguistics: critical discourse analysis and critical ethnography. The chapter begins by discussing the meanings of the three key concepts used in these approaches, albeit sometimes in significantly different ways: critique, ethnography, and discourse. It then examines how these concepts are relevant to contemporary analyses of language policy, focusing particularly on their potential to open new and innovative avenues of research. To demonstrate how an integrated critical discourse and ethnographic approach can be applied in concrete empirical research, the chapter presents an analysis of language policy and practice in the European Union before providing an overview of other relevant studies in the area.