The discursive and ideological construction of elite multilingualism in the national language policy in Sweden

This study examines the discursive and ideological construction of elite multilingualism in the national language policy regarding Swedish for Immigrants (SFI), using the theoretical frames of discourse, language orientations and language ideologies. Informed by a poststructurally-informed critical perspective on language, this study is methodologically framed within critical discourse analysis. The results of this study show how elite multilingualism is constructed as a result of discursive struggle, wherein some languages are positioned as problems in order to position other languages as rights and/or resources. In spite of the complexity manifested in this discursive positioning, an essentialized view of languages as bounded entities prevails as an expression of monolingual nationalist ideologies. Further, an instrumentalized view of language is expressed in a partly neoliberal sense. Considering that a bounded view of language, alongside monolingual nationalist ideologies, implies the hierarchization of languages, it is important for educational stakeholders, such as policy authorities, to understand who are systematically excluded by what languages in what ways. This should be undertaken at the intersection of competing discourses associated with languages that are simultaneously, yet differentially positioned as problems, rights and/or resources.