Educators’ beliefs about English and languages beyond English: From ideology to ontology and back again

• Published in: Linguistics and education 2020-06, Vol.57, p.100817-14, Article 100817
• Main Authors: Hall, Christopher J, Cunningham, Clare
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beliefs; Cultural capital; Cultural identity; Development programs; Educational systems; Elementary education; Elementary school students; English as a second language learning; English as an Additional Language; English language; Habitus; Hegemony; Ideology; Language attitudes; Language ideology; Language ontology; Languages beyond English; Monolingual habitus; National identity; Ontology; Teacher development; Teachers
• ISSN: 0898-5898; 1873-1864
• DOI: 10.1016/j.linged.2020.100817

•Ontological interpretation sheds light on the nature of educators’ ideological beliefs.•Ideological beliefs involve the attribution of values to ontological categories.•EAL educators hold and shift between different ontological beliefs.•EAL educators conceptualize language primarily in terms of national identity.•EAL students lacking English can be conceptualized by educators as lacking language.•Ontological clarity should be included as an important goal of teacher development. In this paper we propose that careful analysis of educators’ ontological beliefs concerning English and other languages can be interpreted from their attitudinal discourse and can shed light on how potentially harmful ideological beliefs persist in educational systems. We explore the relationship between ideological and ontological beliefs about language(s) and argue that the ontological dimension has been overlooked in previous work on educator ideologies. Analysis of interview data from educators working with English as an Additional Language (EAL) students at seven primary schools in the north of England suggests a pervasive hegemonic ideological belief, consistent with the ‘monolingual habitus’, in which English is commonly positioned as ‘language itself’ and other languages are associated with stratified levels of cultural capital. From this analysis, we infer shared conceptualizations of English and other languages, and of nation and national identity, separately from the values associated with them. We address how a process of ontological interpretation can potentially be used in teacher development programmes to allow educators to understand and reassess their own ideologies and professional practices, challenging and more effectively resisting unhelpful narratives from those in positions of greater power.