Social inclusion and metrolingual practices

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the implications of metrolingual language practices for how we understand social inclusion. A vision of social inclusion that includes bi- and multilingual capacities may comprise an appreciation of a diversity of languages other than English, and the skills and capabilities of multilingual language users, yet it is all too often premised on an understanding of language use that cannot escape its origins in statist understandings of language ideologies where a particular language is associated with a particular cultural, ethnic or geographical configuration. Recent studies show the creative ways in which language users cross linguistic and cultural boundaries to form new linguistic and cultural possibilities. In this paper, we therefore ask how we can open up an understanding of social inclusion to include not only the recognition of bilingual capacity but also the fluidity and flux of the metrolingual workplace where creative language use beyond static linguistic boundaries are present. Such a move, however, raises important questions for what is included and excluded in any model of social inclusion since it renders the boundaries of difference more fluid than in other approaches to language diversity. We conclude by suggesting to the extent that social inclusion has become the ‘new multiculturalism’, it can, if broadly conceived and allied to metrolingualism, present a new way forward in understanding language and social disadvantage.

Keywords:

• social inclusion
• metrolingualism
• workplace communication
• Australia
• Japanese
• language ideologies

Notes

1. This is to show disfluencies in Osman's language. (madeni) means ‘by’ and (made) means ‘until’. (made) would have been more appropriate in this case.

2. See Otsuji and Pennycook (2010) for more examples of Osman's deliberate language choices.