A comparative ethnographic study of students' experiences and perceptions of language ideologies in bilingual Welsh/English education: Inclusive policy and exclusionary practice

This study investigates the interplay of linguistic practices, linguistic representations, language ideologies and social inclusion between students in three related research sites in south west Wales;a designated English medium school,a designated Bilingual school and a Youth Club,as a point of contact between students from both schools. It identifies how students experience and interpret the language ideological content of their education. The following questions underpin the current research: 1. How are the institutional arrangements within this community(or locality)understood by the students? Do school students see themselves operating within language ideological structures?!Do students resist or affirm school based ideologies and school based practice? 2. How do students understand, interpret and live out what language policy and planning documents in Wales refer to as ‘true bilingualism’? Is ‘choice’ experienced as such at institutional, individual and community levels? 3. Is the Welsh language accounted to be an obstacle to social integration for young people within the ‘community’ and into the school environment, or a positive resource? Ethnographic research as been carried out in both schools and at the Youth Club,with three principle methods characterising this research; ethnographic observational fieldwork, ethnographic chats, and audio recordings of spontaneous interaction. vi This study sets out to investigate how the young people at two contrasting (and ideologically polarised) secondary schools in an ‘community’ traditionally thought of as a heartland area understand and orient to the language ideological content of their education. In the school based data language choice results in boundaries being put up around language and language users, both inter school and intra school, with students forming language hierarchies, positioning themselves and others as more or less Welsh, English or bilingual, ‘better’ or ‘worse’ at speaking Welsh and/or English, and more or less authentically Welsh. Schools serve to reinforce and reproduce social divisions, leading to issues of social exclusion. Contrastingly,the Youth Club data highlights that,when freed from the ideological constraints of the school, the young people reflect, sometimes critically, on their school based practice and school based ideologies. This study adds to our knowledge about Welsh medium/bilingual education in Wales; it helps us better understand ‘multilingual’Wales