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Volume 37, Issue 1, 2023
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Tangible traces of language ideologies
Author(s): Esther Baiwir, Janine Berns and Marie Steffenspp.: 6–11 (6)More LessAbstractAs the last issue of the Belgian Journal of Linguistics (BJL), this volume delves into linguistic ideologies. Language usage and the evaluations we make about it are intricately intertwined: even in the absence of visual cues of the speaker or writer, we intuitively develop perceptions about the sociolinguistic context of our interlocutor. The language employed often offers subtle hints about their age, gender, or social and regional origins. Particularly in spoken discourse, we find ourselves assessing not just their accent, but also forming impressions about the individual’s likability, perceived arrogance or intelligence, and various other attributes. Similar to its predecessors spanning 36 volumes, the content of this ultimate issue of the BJL is diverse, encompassing historical sources that shed light on language ideologies of bygone eras, insights from the language classroom, and perspectives from everyday language users.
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Marking the sources of knowledge, asserting the epistemic stance
Author(s): Franz Meierpp.: 12–36 (25)More LessAbstractAt the beginning of the 20th century, the Jesuit priest Joseph Deharveng (1867–1929) was one of the main representatives of a language correction movement based essentially on the standard Parisian model of French. Deharveng’s goal was to clear the practices of French-speaking Belgians of everything which seemed to deviate from this supposed ‘good usage’ of French. Under the evocative title Corrigeons-nous!, Deharveng published six anthologies from 1922 to 1928 reproducing the articles published in his language column “Récréation philologique et grammaticale” in the Brussels newspaper La Jeunesse. The present study addresses how Deharveng makes use of evidential markers, that is, linguistic features to express the sources of knowledge in his language column. The distribution of evidential markers in Deharveng’s column is compared to those in two other Franco-Belgian language columns published by Albert Doppagne (1912–2003) from 1960 to 1987 in the Brussels newspaper Le Soir and by Michel Francard (1952–) from 2018 to 2022, also in Le Soir. The aim of this comparison is to discern author-specific and language ideology-driven similarities and differences in the patterning of evidential strategies in language columns.
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“Wel iet wat verschelende, maar zó niet óf elck verstaat ander zeer wel”
Author(s): Machteld de Vos and Ulrike Voglpp.: 37–73 (37)More LessAbstractThis paper delves into language differentiation in the 16th and 17th-century Low Countries, focusing on how vernacular languages were labeled and framed in grammatical descriptions. We examine both monolingual grammars as well as grammatical descriptions in multilingual textbooks for foreign language learners. By comparing these two corpora, we gain insights into the differences between monolingual and multilingual approaches to language differentiation and uncover language ideologies that shaped the Language-Making process during this early stage of standard languages. An example of language differentiation is the evolving relation between ‘Dutch’ and ‘German’. In the monolingual grammars, Dutch is explicitly positioned along the lines of an ‘ours’ versus a ‘theirs’, but what is considered ‘ours’ differs between the grammars and changes over time. In the multilingual textbooks, the direct juxtaposition between Dutch and German on the title page leads to distinct labels (‘Nederduits’ vs. ‘Hoogduits’) whereas there is no consistent distinction in the body of these textbooks until the late 17th century. Overall, we conclude that a ‘Dutch language’ was certainly being ‘made’ during this period, in name and in reference to other vernacular languages. However, its boundaries were still fuzzy, reflecting the multilingual reality of the early modern Low Countries.
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“Well-educated people speak English,but better educated people speak Frenchas well”
Author(s): Leyla Tielemanspp.: 74–98 (25)More LessAbstractWith the possibility to enroll in courses in nineteen different languages, the free university of Brussels (ULB) has opted for a linguistic offer that reflects the city’s highly multilingual character. In the faculty of languages and literature, students interact in and with multiple languages on a daily basis. In a study which interrogated these students on their linguistic representations, representations related to prestige were shown to be an important part of the collected responses. This paper aims to provide an overview of the different manifestations and interpretations of the ‘language of prestige’ linguistic representation in this sample of participants regarding the languages taught at the faculty. It also explores various implications that this representation has for language learning, as well as questions raised by the possible interpretative bias of the researcher trying to observe and study linguistic representations. In addition, this paper written in English relating research conducted in French addresses the issue of ‘epistemological translation’ and the challenges it poses.
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Some ‘circulating’ doxic ideas about multilingualism in French-speaking schools
Author(s): Deborah Meunierpp.: 99–117 (19)More LessAbstractDespite the inclusive nature of recent educational reforms in French-speaking Belgium, few teachers implement multilingual approaches in their classrooms. On the contrary, the education system perpetuates a monolingual doxa by ignoring the home languages of newcomer or immigrant pupils, or even by prohibiting the use of these languages in school. We propose a discursive analysis of some ‘circulating’ doxic ideas (Charaudeau 1997; Paveau 1999) in the school environment: multilingualism is often associated with images of mixing, confusion or degeneration; didactic gestures are based on stereotyped student figures (so-called ‘vulnerable’, ‘eager’ students) which reproduce a homogeneous and (de)classifying discourse; the deficient vision of the pupils’ language skills serves the argumentation in a doxic causality where the explanation of cause (such as the pupils’ bilingualism) to effect (their poor school performance) is based on authoritative discourses with evidential value. The data analyzed are based on semi-structured interviews and informal exchanges with secondary school teachers in French-speaking Belgium.
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The native speaker ideal in FL pronunciation teaching practice
Author(s): Janine Berns and Sanne van Vuurenpp.: 118–143 (26)More LessAbstractLanguage teaching practice is known to come with more or less implicit views on what ‘good pronunciation’ sounds like. However, over the past decades, frameworks such as the communicative approach to language learning and the wish for social inclusion have led to a gradual shift in normative thinking, with intelligibility becoming increasingly valued over the acquisition of a native-like accent, especially at lower levels of proficiency. This contribution traces the evolution of pronunciation norms, ideologies and teaching practices for French and English. We zoom in on the past 150 years, a period in which the relative importance of English and French in international communication was gradually reversed and foreign language learning became a school subject, readily accessible to all pupils. We will supplement our historical overview by an exploratory investigation of current foreign MA foreign language teacher trainees’ experiences and attitudes. While a near-native accent is still seen as a sign of academic success for language students, this new generation of language professionals is very much aware of the fact that pupils who start learning languages in secondary school should first and foremost be sensitized to the target language pronunciation in a safe environment, with feasible and communicatively-relevant norms.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 37 (2023)
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Volume 36 (2022)
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Volume 35 (2021)
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Volume 34 (2020)
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Volume 33 (2019)
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Volume 32 (2018)
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Volume 31 (2017)
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Volume 30 (2016)
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Volume 29 (2015)
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Volume 28 (2014)
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Volume 27 (2013)
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Volume 26 (2012)
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Volume 25 (2011)
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Volume 24 (2010)
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Volume 23 (2009)
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Volume 22 (2008)
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Volume 21 (2007)
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Volume 20 (2006)
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Volume 19 (2005)
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Volume 18 (2004)
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Volume 17 (2003)
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Volume 16 (2002)
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Volume 15 (2001)
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Volume 14 (2000)
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Volume 13 (1999)
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Volume 12 (1998)
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Volume 11 (1997)
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Volume 10 (1996)
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Volume 9 (1994)
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Volume 8 (1993)
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Volume 7 (1992)
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Volume 6 (1991)
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Volume 5 (1990)
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Volume 4 (1989)
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Volume 3 (1988)
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Volume 2 (1987)
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Volume 1 (1986)
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