Tracing the Ideologies of State Language Roadmaps: A Discursive Analysis of Education, Economics and Equity in Language Policy

Abstract

Over the last fifteen years, the Language Flagship, an initiative of the National Security Education Program (NSEP), has been working with education, business, and government partners to draft state language roadmaps in support of advancing multilingualism. So far, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Rhode Island, Hawai‘i, Wisconsin and Indiana have published roadmaps with the support of NSEP. While these language roadmaps ostensibly position multilingualism as a benefit to society, there has been limited research on the language ideologies that undergird the policy proposals present in these documents. This research study draws on several qualitative data sources, including the text of current language roadmaps, ancillary artifacts related to each state roadmap initiative, and interviews with key state actors who participated in the drafting of these roadmaps to conduct a critical discourse analysis of how particular language ideologies are reproduced in language education policy. The findings of this study demonstrate convergence across several themes, including sense-making around language awareness and conscientization, the reproduction of neoliberal discourse through the language of economics and the positioning of equity within the language roadmaps. The language ideologies and orientations present in these findings provide a point of reference for interpreting the policy proposals put forth in each roadmap. Ultimately, the recommendations offered by each state roadmap establishes a particular vision of multilingualism, including who is expected to benefit from specific policy efforts. This study is significant for its potential to guide language policy actors across multiple levels in drafting, revising and implementing state policies that respond to evolving discourse on equity and attend more directly to issues of language access and opportunity.