Achieving a synthesis of ethnomethodological and critical approaches to discourse analysis in critical discursive psychology: Reflections on a personal methodological journey

This refection paper explores some specific ways of implementing critical discursive psychology (CDP) – a combination of ethnomethodological and critical approaches to discourse analysis with a focus on the dilemmatic nature of discourse. I employed CDP as the methodology in my recent research project on the social meanings of language ideologies for students in internationalizing higher education. I am therefore interested in reflecting on my implementation of the methodology. With the help of discursive psychology, I systematically examine the findings and discussion sections of the three articles comprising the project. My systematic reflection identifies a two-layer structure of data analysis and argument development in each paper. The local construction processes of language ideologies are first unpacked through ethnomethodological analysis, and then the intersections between locally constructed and societal language ideologies are addressed through critical analysis grounded on ethnomethodological analysis. My specific practices may provide valuable insights into the implementation of CDP.