This volume seeks to add to our understanding of how language is constructed in late capitalist societies. It is key reading for researchers and advanced students of critical sociolinguistics, language and economy and other areas within linguistics, applied linguistics and language teacher education.

John E. Petrovic is Professor of Social and Cultural Studies in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Technology Studies at The University of Alabama. He teaches in the areas of philosophy of education and educational policy, with focus on language policy in education. His recent books include A Post-Liberal Approach to Language Policy in Education and Unschooling Critical Pedagogy, Unfixing Schools.

Bedrettin Yazan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research focuses on language teacher learning and identity, collaboration between ESL and content teachers, language policy and planning, and World Englishes. Methodologically he is interested in critical autoethnography, narrative inquiry, and qualitative case study.

List of Illustrations

List of Contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: Confronting Language Fetishism in Practice

Chapter 2: Language as Instrument, Resource, and maybe Capital, but not Commodity: A Marxian Clarification

Chapter 3: Language, Context, and Economic Value: An Interactionist Approach

Chapter 4: Misconceptions of Economics and Political Economy in Sociolinguistic Research

Chapter 5: Between Voice and Voices: Negotiating value among interpreters in Toronto

Chapter 6: "A breathtaking English": Negotiating what counts as distinctive linguistic capital at an elite international school near Barcelona

Chapter 7: Language, ethnicity, and tourism in the making of a Himalayan Tamang village

Chapter 8: When linguistic capital isn't enough: personality development and English speakerhood as capital in India

Chapter 9: Ideologies of multilingualism as an investment and as a marketable commodity among Greek expat families in Luxembourg

Chapter 10: Names as linguistic capital

Chapter 11: Ideologies of French and commodification: What does meaning making imply for multilinguals in transnational times?

Coda: Issues arising around conceptual and empirical work on the commodification of language

Index