Event: Language Policy and Practice Lab Inaugural Event

November 8, 2021

The Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures would like to announce the launch of its new Language Policy and Practice (LPP) Lab. Please join us for our inaugural event: Dr. David Cassels Johnson (University of Iowa) will join us to give an overview talk on LPP this November, and subsequently conduct a LPP workshop in Spring 2022.

For more info please contact

ROBERT RANDEZ
Student Liasion Officer
randezro@msu.edu
Director: Associate Professor Peter De Costa
pdecosta@msu.edu
19, November 2021 AT 2-3 PM

David Cassels Johnson, Language Policy & Practice Lab

Conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundations in language policy and planning (LPP) research

In this talk, I review the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundations in language policy and planning (LPP) research. As in other areas of applied and educational linguistics, LPP scholars have drawn upon a broad constellation of research methods that have their roots in a range of disciplines, beginning with linguistics and sociolinguistics, but expanding to economics, political theory, and education. This interdisciplinarity was the inspiration for the publication of Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning (Hult & Johnson, 2015) and the advent of the Multidisciplinary Approaches in Language Policy and Planning Conference, first convened by Thomas Ricento. Increasingly, research methods have been taken beyond their disciplinary foundations and honed specifically for LPP investigations. Furthermore, what counts as “language policy” is continuing to evolve, from early language planning research that primarily considered macro-level intentional corpus and status planning to modern approaches that consider language policies and practices within families, businesses, and classrooms. I begin with a brief historical review of the field, then highlight current debates and trajectories in LPP research methods, and end with suggestions for innovative research projects.