Language policy and ideology in the United States :
[Thesis]
Lawton, Rachele
a critical discursive analysis of the "English only" movement
Lancaster University
2010
Ph.D.
Lancaster University
2010
This thesis is a critical discursive investigation of the English Only movement in the 'United States of America. 'English Only' is a political movement whose aims are the following: to amend the U.S. constitution so that English becomes the official, national language; to restrict or eliminate Bilingual Education; and to restrict or eliminate the ability of the U.S. government to provide services in languages other than English. This research project can be described as a critical language policy (CLP) study whose overall framework is critical discourse analysis (CDA). More specifically, it follows the discourse historical approach (DHA) to CDA (Wodak et al. 1999, Wodak 2001,2006, Reisigl and Wodak 200112009), an interdisciplinary, multi- methodological approach that is useful in analyzing the positive construction of the 'self and the negative construction of the 'other' as they are manifested in discourse. Thus, this research examines the discursive construction of the English Only movement through the analysis of 'official' public texts produced by proponents and opponents of English Only, and of the attitudes of ordinary people toward the range of issues encompassed by English Only. It examines selected texts in detail and emphasizes various levels of context, with a particular emphasis on the socio-political and historical dimensions of texts produced. The overall aims of this thesis are: to contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the contemporary English Only movement, to explore the ideological dimension of the English Only movement and to expose its discriminatory, anti-immigrant and especially anti-Latino nature, and to expand the range of possible applications of CDA.