Language Ideology in Vietnam from Linguistic Landscape Perspective

• Author / Creator

  Tran, Tu

• In light of scarce research on language ideology in post-reform Vietnam and the field’s current literature which shows excessive focus on top-down ideologies (the view from above) indicated in state-sponsored language policies and inadequate attention to bottom-up ideologies (the view from below) embedded in actual language practice, this dissertation sets out to investigate language ideologies of Vietnamese people as constructed and mediated through signage and interview interaction. The combination of these two types of data renders a simultaneous identification of ideologies in both language practice and metalinguistic talk.
  The first dataset has been collected from three neighbourhoods in the city of Hanoi and analyzed using a triangulation of ‘geosemiotics’ (the framework that studies meaning of signs in the material world) (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) and ELLA (the ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis) (Blommaert, 2013; Blommaert & Maly, 2016, 2019). The second dataset, which includes interviews with local shopkeepers and residents in these neighbourhoods, has been analyzed using the ‘language attitudes in interaction’ approach (Dailey-O’Cain, 2017; Liebscher & Dailey-O’Cain, 2009) supported by the ‘positioning’ theory (Davies & Harré, 1990).
  The results indicate that language ideologies become entangled with two reversing ideological propensities in Vietnamese society defined respectively by a promotion of reform and a revitalization of tradition. The findings demonstrate that language ideologies of Vietnamese people mediate their endeavours to reconcile an embrace of regional modernity with an awareness of upholding and renegotiating national and cultural identity. This dissertation contributes to knowledge on the multiplicity of language ideologies and realizes the potential of using linguistic landscape as an effective interdisciplinary approach to language ideology and identity construction. Moreover, it provides further insightful understanding of global English and cultural flows in the globalizing Southeast Asia.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Language ideology
  • Language attitude
  • Linguistic landscape
  • Vietnam

• Graduation date

  Fall 2021

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-thyk-hw72

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.