ABSTRACT
This chapter presents various language ideologies, from standard English, World Englishes, to English as a lingua franca and translanguaging. These language ideologies may have influenced people’s attitudes towards the English language, including their identity construction. The concept of language ideology should be viewed from a broader perspective as ‘sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalisation or justification of perceived language structure or use’. Language ideology is related to both ‘unconscious assumptions about language and language behaviour’ and the ways by which human beings communicate, which ‘reflect and shape fundamental assumptions about individuals as members of collective identities’. The traditional language ideology of standardisation or the notion of purifying a language ‘reveals a profound misunderstanding of the dynamics of all natural languages’. Language ideologies are historically, socially and culturally constructed language beliefs or belief systems of language structure and language use that add a geopolitical twist within and across various contexts.
