Language Ideologies in Language Education and Beyond: Social Perspectives

What does language have to do with race, class, gender, sexuality and other social identities? What is the relationship between linguistic structures and sociocultural institutions? How does one construct deficit/asset-based orientations to multilingualism and minoritized languages? Such questions can be answered in applied linguistic research on language ideologies by applying social theories. Serikbolsyn will start his talk by inviting attendees to reflect on their understanding of language and ideology, which will be brought together to discuss the complexity of language ideologies. In doing so, he will touch upon ideological structures, identity and interaction as well as social dimensions of second language development. Drawing on theory and research in language and literacy education, he will provide examples of various language ideologies, their interpretations (and ask for yours), and how they can be constructed. The talk will culminate in a brief description of his proposed doctoral study, which concerns disrupting oppressive language ideologies and developing an inclusive stance toward multilingualism among Canadian in-service English teachers.

Serikbolsyn Tastanbek is a Qazaq PhD student in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of British Columbia. Before coming to Canada, he earned his degrees in Foreign Language Education (BEd) and Multilingual Education (MA), and worked as an English language instructor in private schools and universities across Qazaqstan. His main research interests are translanguaging theory and pedagogy, English language teacher education, language ideologies and curriculum design. Through his teaching, research and activism, he hopes to make English language education more equitable in multilingual contexts such as Canada and Qazaqstan.