ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the connections between language and identity in the discursive domains of news and social media. It demonstrates how language (here, Bangla and English) in the form of medium of instruction (MOI) may be a factor in the representation of self and other identity with reference to the notion of social class. Utilising the construct of language ideology and the concepts of capital and habitus, the study illustrates how social class identity is (re)constructed in the discursive space by two groups of Bangladeshi students educated in two different languages: Bangla, the national language, and English, the second language. Critical discourse analysis, a method of text analysis at linguistic, social, and ideological levels, provides the methodological tools to offer rich interpretations of the media and social media data revealing the writers' views about ‘elite’ and ‘non-elite’ identity. Although ‘affluence’ (or the lack of it) is an important resource in the construction of social class identity, the data also emphasise stigmatised dimensions of social class, including affordability, consumeability, sophistication, decency, status, and presentability. The study suggests that MOI/language divides in postcolonial societies such as Bangladesh may actually speak for social divides reflecting social power, capital, and habitus.
