Making English Official: Writing and Resisting Local Language Policies - Hardcover

Flowers, Katherine S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1009278029 ISBN 13: 9781009278027

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2024

Synopsis

In communities across the US, people wrestle with which languages to use, and who gets to decide. Despite more than 67 million US residents using a language other than English at home, over half of the states in the US have successfully passed English-only policies. Drawing on archives and interviews, this book tells the origin story of the English-only movement, as well as the stories of contemporary language policy campaigns in four Maryland county governments, giving a rare glimpse into what motivates the people who most directly shape language policy in the US. It demonstrates that English-only policies grow from more local levels, rather than from nationalist ideologies, where they are downplayed as harmless community initiatives, but result in monolingual approaches to language remaining increasingly pervasive. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

About this title

About the Author

Katherine S. Flowers is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She specializes in language policy, writing studies, and the English language.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2024
• ISBN 10: 1009278029
• ISBN 13: 9781009278027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 226