From burden to threat
A diachronic study of language ideology and migrant representation in the
British press
This chapter focuses on the ways in which non-native English
speakers living in Britain are represented in the British press, and in particular on
how these representations have changed between 2005 and 2017. Using a corpus-assisted
approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, collocation patterns of the phrase
speak English reveal that migrants are represented in different ways
across the 13-year period, which sees the levels of blame, threat and exclusion levelled
at migrants increase and change shape over the years. This chapter builds on previous
work by the authors, and emphasizes the importance of re-visiting and adding to corpora
when analyzing dynamic discourses, and identifies two different ways in which change can
manifest in collocation analysis: through the identification of occasional ‘seasonal’
collocates, and via consistent collocates being part of different representational
patterns.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction and background
- 2.Data and approach
- 3.Analysis
- 3.1Proficiency
- 3.2Multilingualism
- 3.3Learning English and integration
- 3.4From public to private services
- 4.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
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Cited by (3)
Cited by 3 other publications
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