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Local Language Policy: Shifting Scales in the English-Only Movement

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Local Language Policy: Shifting Scales in the English-Only Movement LOCAL LANGUAGE POLICY: SHIFTING SCALES IN THE ENGLISH-ONLY MOVEMENT BY KATHERINE S. FLOWERS DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English with a concentration in Writing Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Paul Prior, Chair Professor Dennis Baron Associate Professor Spencer Schaffner Associate Professor Michèle Koven Abstract This dissertation examines how language policymakers in the United States write, discuss, and resist local English-only policies. By tracing the trajectories of four interconnected, local campaigns to make English the official language, I show that such policies are not static texts or abstract impositions, but rather a kind of writing, one that emerges through local action, collaboration, revision, uptake, and other literate activities. As one of the few studies to examine how politicians and other policymakers write, and the first to focus on the writing practices of people in the English-only movement, this dissertation sheds light on the broader question of how people create and change policies, particularly ones that reflect and affect people’s understandings of language and communication. In order to analyze how and why people enact such policies, I conducted audio- and video-recorded interviews with 24 activists, writers, and politicians; analyzed public government records, videos, and digital discourse; and visited the archives of John Tanton (who founded the organizations ProEnglish and U.S. English), former US Senator Paul Simon, and the National Council of Teachers of English. I argue that local policies in schools, workplaces, and, increasingly, governments have played a crucial role in shaping how people learn, use, and view language. At the same time, the local scale is an ideological, discursive concept that is constantly open to further entrenchment or renegotiation, and it is always still connected to other scales. Local language policies thus provide opportunities for people to (re)write not only their stances towards language, but also their definitions of community. The opening chapter, “Local Language Policy,” introduces these arguments; provides a history of such policies in the US; introduces an analytical framework that combines work on language policy, situated studies of writing, and research on local language practices; and describes the stakes of this project for writing studies and related fields. In Chapter 2, I move ii into the “Methodology and Methods” of the study. Chapter 3, “Networked Localism,” focuses on how people write and circulate local English-only policies, through text histories of four policies that were based on the same template. In Chapter 4, “Upscaling and Downscaling,” I turn from writing practices to language ideologies, in order to show that, rather than adhere to a “one nation-one language” ideal, people in the English-only movement flexibly align across, and distance themselves from, various scales. The fifth chapter, “Resisting and Rewriting,” focuses on the experiences and strategies of people opposed to the English-only movement. Through a case study of a group of participants who successfully repealed their county’s language policy, this analysis offers a model for future language advocacy by showing the possibilities of meshing multilingual, translingual, and raciolinguistic orientations towards language. Ultimately, this dissertation opens up the worlds of policymaking, prescriptivism, and English-only activism to more situated, discursive analysis, and the field of writing studies to a kind of writing that has significantly shaped American identity, education, and citizenship. iii Dedication To Ben, Otero, and Jamie Flowers iv Acknowledgments To begin, thank you to my interview participants for giving their time and sharing their perspectives. Thank you, too, to the National Council of Teachers of English, Paul Simon, and John Tanton, for archiving and donating their papers. Thank you to my dissertation committee. My chair, Paul Prior, has been the ideal advisor. His approach to researching writing has been instrumental to my work, and this project would not have been possible without his generosity and patience. Dennis Baron gave me countless insights into language policy and archival research, and I aspire to write as engagingly, publicly, and prolifically as he does. Spencer Schaffner’s courses on Writing Studies and the Rhetoric of Social and Environmental Movements offered an excellent introduction to the field, and his perspectives on rhetoric and discourse have significantly shaped how I think about how people take action, and why, and to what ends. Michèle Koven introduced me to many of the people, theories, and fields that have become most central to my work, and her mentorship has made me a better interviewer, transcriber, and discourse analyst, and a more interdisciplinary scholar. I would also like to thank other scholars who offered me key questions, suggestions, or encouragement on aspects of this project along the way, including Jonathan Alexander, Robert Asen, Deborah Brandt, Nelson Flores, John Gallagher, Gail Hawisher, Julie Hengst, Francis Hult, Gordon Hutner, Douglas Kibbee, Gesa Kirsch, Irene Koshik, Adrienne Lo, Joseph Lo Bianco, Kristi McDuffie, Catherine Prendergast, Eric Pritchard, Kelly Ritter, Lindsay Rose Russell, Siobhan Somerville, John Swales, Marina Terkourafi, Amy Wan, Scott Wible, and Kate Vieira. v Thank you to my writing group, Coral Lumbley and Annie Kelvie, as well as to Carolyn Wisniewski for sponsoring the Writers Workshop’s write-a-thons, which were some of my most productive days ever. Thank you to my fellow University of Illinois graduate students for their friendship and insights, particularly María Carvajal, Melissa Forbes, Evin Groundwater, Annie Kelvie, Coral Lumbley, Kaitlin Marks-Dubbs, Michelle Martinez, Tom McNamara, Andrea Olinger, Jenn Raskauskas, Pamela Saunders, Martha Sherrill, Kaia Simon, and Maggie Shelledy. My weekly meetups with Annie and my conversations with Andrea were particularly vital. Thank you to the University of Illinois for financial support. My work benefitted particularly from a fellowship through the Graduate College’s INTERSECT “Global Cultures of Law” program, a Dissertation Travel Grant, and English Department fellowships. Thank you to the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library for a Bordin Gillette Researcher Travel Fellowship. Thank you to those who aided me with my research. In particular, research assistant Shelby Gordon located, sifted, and sorted through many of the news, social media, and government sources, and gave feedback on an early draft of Chapter 5. Thank you, too, to the archivists who helped me with my historical research. At the Bentley Historical Library, thank you to Nancy Bartlett, Malgosia Myc, Joni Rosenthal, Corinne Robertson, Karen Jania, Caitlin Moriarty, Diana Bachman, Cinda Nofziger, and others. At the Morris Library Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University, thank you to Walter D. Ray. At the University of Illinois NCTE Archives, thank you to Ellen Swain and Anna Trammell. vi Thank you to Teresa Bertram, Lauri Harden, Stephanie Shockey, Deb Stauffer, Gail Trent, and Debbie Carrier, for making my work in English and the Center for Writing Studies go so smoothly. Thank you to my friends and family, especially to the people I was able to visit or host while I was in graduate school: Jean Luchi, Garner Vogt, Patty Vogt, Alex Vogt, Victor Vogt, Lisa Vogt-Wolfgang, Madelyn Liddell, Marie Poage, Kearstyn Takemoto, Anna Knutson, Anastasia Schemkes, and Jessica Anderson. Finally, thank you to Ben Flowers, Otero Flowers, Jamie Flowers, and Mike Black. vii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Local Language Policy………………………………………………………………...1 Chapter 2: Methodology and Methods…………………………………………………………..40 Chapter 3: Networked Localism…………………………………………………………………79 Chapter 4: Upscaling and Downscaling………………………………………………………...130 Chapter 5: Resisting and Rewriting…………………………………………………………….161 Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..210 References……………………………………………………………………………………....229 Appendix A: Policy List………….…………………………………………………………….260 Appendix B: Transcription Conventions………….……………………………………………263 Appendix C: Policy Texts………….…………………………………………………………...264 Appendix D: Recruitment Flyer……..……………………………………………...…………..310 Appendix E: Consent Forms……………………………………………...…………..………...311 Appendix F: Sample Interview Questions………………………………...…………………....314 viii Chapter 1 Local Language Policy In a March 18, 1982 thank you letter to a donor, activist John Tanton began with an update on his recent work: I’ve just returned from 11 days on the road in California, trying to get people organized at the grass roots. People are really hot on the immigration issue out there! And bilingualism too. Tanton learned two lessons during this period, both of which helped make him one of the leading figures in what would become the modern English-only movement. First, he realized that there was significant overlap among people who viewed “the immigration issue” as a problem, and people who viewed “bilingualism [as a problem] too.” He was used to framing immigration as a threat to the natural environment or to racial purity (the thank-you letter was to someone at the Pioneer Fund, a eugenics organization). Now, though, he was encountering people who saw immigration as a threat
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