Critical linguistics and the teaching of language

Abstract

The more smoothly ideology functions the more natural and inevitable it seems. Where groups in society have achieved a dominant position their meanings are likely to be heard more frequently and to have greater power. Their meanings become more established, fixed and naturalized than those of subordinated groups. Linguistic analysis can provide tools to deconstruct the language of any existing practices and it tends to be described as ‘critical’ when it seeks to deconstruct the language of dominant groups. Such deconstruction attempts to show that meaning is not fixed or given but constructed. The recognition that meaning has been constructed from a particular ideological perspective makes room for the recognition of alternative meanings from different positions. Meaning is thus plural not singular. No discourse is neutral. All language is a selection of words and structures and a linguistic analysis of surface-forms is able to show what is revealed and concealed by the selections that have been made.