Language ideology and identity construction in public educational meetings

ABSTRACT

The study explores educational meetings that have a goal of promoting the Belarusian language and providing a platform for people who want to interact in this language. These meetings are not like any traditional language courses; they are rather a public discussion space for a community of people who speak Belarusian, try to speak this language, or are interested in it. Findings demonstrate how the identity of a Belarusian-speaking Belarusian is interactionally constructed and speaking Belarusian is framed in relation to identity formation and language ideology.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture
• discourse analysis
• identity
• institutional talk
• language ideology