Affiliation:
1. Lancaster University, UK
Abstract
Abstract
The 2011 UK Census was the first ever to ask a question about language in England. The period during which the census was planned coincided with a period of intense politicisation of the language issue, which had previously not been a major point of controversy.
The census results showed that 98.3% of the adult population either spoke English as their ‘main language’, or could speak it well or very well. In 4% of households no adults spoke English as a main language. These statistics produced an intense media reaction focussed on the number of people who supposedly could not speak English, with some high-level misunderstandings about what the figures meant.
This paper discusses the pervasiveness in the census process of ideologies about language, and how an apparently honest attempt to collect information for service providers was used to justify anti-immigration discourse and the reduction of services for non-speakers of English.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Sociology and Political Science,History
Reference46 articles.
1. Language categories in censuses: backward or forward-looking?;Arel,2002
2. Labour can afford to push harder on immigration;Ashley;The Guardian,2012
3. Why the next census needs to ask about language
Cited by
13 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献