Research Anne-Sophie Bafort

Abstract

This project examines the linguistic construction of elite multilingualism in an IB international school. International schools are exclusive educational institutions which typically provide transnational education for expat children. To address the lack of knowledge on how language-based elitism manifests itself and how it is legitimized in an educational institutional context, this project specifically looks at (i) how teachers and students hierarchize linguistic forms in and through observable linguistic practices; and (ii) how they legitimize such a hierarchization of language use as a valuable, respectable and justifiable educational asset. To investigate these processes on the basis of real-life data this project proposes a linguistic-ethnographic case study which allows to analyze small-scale linguistic interaction processes as well as their social-ideological contextualization in adequate detail. In this way, the project sets out to generate (i) innovative descriptions of everyday linguistic hierarchization and legitimation at an international school; (ii) a more tangible, concrete understanding of elite multilingualism as an observable, on-going practice; and (iii) increased awareness among stakeholders of these subtle linguistic processes.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vandenbroucke Mieke
• Fellow: Bafort Anne-Sophie

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project examines the linguistic construction of elite multilingualism in the international school. International schools are expensive and exclusive educational institutions which typically provide transnational education for expat children. In answer to the lack of academic knowledge on how language-based elitism manifests itself in/through concrete language use and on the legitimation of elite multilingualism, this project specifically looks at (i) how language-centered elitism is produced in observable linguistic practices in the school and in its policy-making; and (ii) how a hierarchization of language use is meta-pragmatically legitimized by social actors as a valuable, respectable and justifiable educational asset, in spite of its contributions to social stratification processes and the wider inequities it perpetuates in society at large. For this case study, a linguistic ethnographic and interactional sociolinguistic approach is adopted, which implies the triangulated analysis of a comprehensive dataset including but not limited to interviews, recordings of classroom interaction, policy documents, school signs, pupils' diaries on language use and language portraits. In this way, this project sets out to generate (i) empirically innovative insights on the linguistic construction and legitimation of language-based elitism and, as a result, (ii) a conceptually refined and enriched understanding of language-centered elitism in education.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Vandenbroucke Mieke
• Fellow: Bafort Anne-Sophie

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project