ABSTRACT
Linguistic differences are often valued unequally in social interactions, institutional practices and policies, with ideologies about some languages being superior or correct used to create social hierarchies (Fairclough, 1989; Hymes, 1980). Discrimination against ways of speaking consequently creates or removes opportunities for certain speakers. Linguistic discrimination is often bound up in other forms of inequality, and its effects may be difficult to distinguish from among the various setbacks experienced by speakers of lesser-valued languages or dialects. Ethnography, often longitudinal and always attentive to contextual detail, is especially apt for noticing the dayto-day effects of discriminatory language ideologies, practices and policies. Ethnographic monitors can begin to counter unequal or exclusionary multilingual practices in a simple and immediate way through taking the time to notice and draw attention to them – and their opposite, inclusive multilingual practices – in the day-to-day moments in which they occur. As illustrated in the following vignette, noticing inequalities and possible ways to shift them emerges from interacting with and listening to the concerns and aspirations of local stakeholders.
