ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author examines Bamberg and Georgakopoulou's three levels of positioning in the small stories: character positioning, interlocutor positioning, and positioning of the narrator in relation to master narratives. As adults talked about language policy change, they often told a small story—or a very brief narrative—about the changing meaning of being a Guarani speaker. Adult participants in this study lived in a context of major educational language policy change over the course of their lifetimes. In Paraguay, a major language policy change in 1992 represented a substantial change in Paraguayan education. Small stories analysis is a useful tool for language policy research where we want to understand how policy positions speakers and how speakers position themselves in relation to policy. If language policy is to work as a tool for more inclusive education, it will need to take into account speakers' possibilities for trajectories of identification.