M. Sidury Christiansen

Mexicanness and Social Order in Digital Spaces: Contention Among Members of a Multigenerational Transnational Network

This article explores how younger members of a multigenerational social network of transnational Mexicans of ranchero background construct their ethnic identity both in offline and online contexts. By using traditional ethnography and discourse-centered online ethnography (DCOE), this study found that members of this network use four emic criteria (language, color, transnationality, and display of culture) to construct their ethnic identity as Mexican. In the online context, members use these criteria to challenge each other’s degree of Mexicanness. By challenging other members’ degree of Mexicanness, members are indirectly re-constructing their social order, not based on age and gender but based on a hierarchy that conforms to a place of influence in the network grounded in centrality, which correlates to their perceived degrees of Mexicanness. Facebook serves as a catalyst for change, as it allows members to interact in more direct ways, slowly influencing interactions carried out in offline contexts.

‘¡Hable Bien M’ijo o Gringo o Mx!’: language ideologies in the digital communication practices of transnational Mexican bilinguals

ABSTRACT This article examines Facebook conversations between members of a transnational social network of US- and Mexico-born English/Spanish bilinguals. Extending Bourdieu’s theory of language and symbolic power, the article uses the framework of language ideologies to explore how members establish identity and membership differently depending on whether they communicate primarily in Spanish or English. I argue that they use commonly held ideologies of language as tools to contest identities and establish membership. For example, US-born English-dominant members use Spanish to index language ideologies of standardization, correctness, and separation with other English-dominant members to bolster Mexicanness. However, when faced with Spanish-dominant and Mexico-born members, English-dominant members use an ideology of language elitism to position their English-Spanish bilingualism as more highly valued within their transnational network. The findings of this study also reveal that Facebook is an empowering space where bilingualism is the linguistic capital necessary for full membership in their transnational community.

You Know English, so Why Don't You Teach?" Language Ideologies and Returnees Becoming English Language Teachers in Mexico.

ABSTRACT Return migration from the United States to Mexico has been increasing in the last decade. Research reports that many returnees, who are English dominant, drop out of school to look for work in call centers and transnational companies (Anderson, 2015). Others pursue higher education in English-based programs such as those for becoming English language teachers (Rivas Rivas, 2013). This article explores what role language ideologies have in the decision making of three returnees to pursue a degree in English language teaching (ELT) and how such language ideologies inform the participants’ bilingual identities and teaching practices. Findings suggest that while some ideologies held by participants and hiring entities in Mexico, such as linguistic imperialism and linguistic purism, give students an advantage in the workforce, they also generate a sense of otherness that can create barriers to social integration and implicit effects on how they view their language teaching capacities and practices.