Social identity and language ideology : challenging hegemonic visions of English in Brazil.

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the social identities connected to English in Brazil by connecting these to linguistic ideologies, and reflecting on how they may be challenged. It is based on first-person narration of “critical moments” from the perspective of an English language “native speaker” migrant to Brazil. The reflections identify how race is intimately connected to the “native speaker” category, theorised through the notions of “racial acceptability” and “racial capital”, drawing on a Bourdieusian theoretical framework. The article concludes with examples of challenges to the “native speaker” model in the hybrid linguistic practices of Brazilian youth.