Abstract:

A perennial issue in language planning and policy theorization concerns the tensions between policy and practice, since people quite simply seldom act in accordance with government design vis a vis language and multilingualism. In this paper, we suggest that these tensions may comprise the very essence of the modus operandi of language policies in the heterogeneous and ever changing communities that constitute the sites of language policy in late modern societies. We adopt the concept of actors’ participation strategies in multiple linguistic markets and illustrate our reasoning with the narrative voice of Ping, a Chinese female adolescent, about 15 years old, whose self-reports of language practices in leisure and school-based activities make up the bulk of our data. Ping demonstrates that a young Singaporean can (i) accept the state’s bilingual policy while (ii) privileging English over the mother tongue and (iii) being highly aware that she is unable to attain the level of proficiency in each of her languages that educational institutions and the state deem acceptable.

Author: Christopher Stroud, Lionel Wee