Acceso usuarios
Xiaoyong Liang
Language Ideologies and L2 Speaker Legitimacy have long been significant and complex issues in academia given their role in establishing one’s language attitudes, linguistic capital, and intercultural communication (Bacon, 2020; Barrett et al., 2022). Additionally, these concepts shape the accepted language norms of societies and their legitimacy across educational and occupational sectors (Ramberg, 2016). Despite attempts to make ideology and legitimacy the focal point of research and practice, many educational contexts still suffer from challenges and dilemmas considering second language (L2) legitimacy (Constantin-Dureci, 2022; Spolsky & Shohamy, 2000). As a timely and eye-opening effort, this monograph entitled “Language ideologies and L2 speaker legitimacy: Native speaker bias in Japan” presents a nuanced analysis of “speaker legitimacy” and the ownership of language for L2 Japanese speakers in Japan. Moreover, Takeuchi clarifies how and why Japanese L2 speakers should be simply seen as speakers rather than objects of judgment. She used ethnographic interviews to collect empirical evidence on the language ideologies and legitimacy of L2-Japanese speakers’ outputs when interacting with their L1-Japanese-speaking peers. Thanks to its data-driven approach, this monograph is a significant endeavor that explains how speaker legitimacy is achieved in language specific ways (e.g., L1). The book is insightful for language practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers in that they can realize the importance and manifestations of language ideology and legitimacy in multilingual contexts.
