Ethnography in linguistic perspective: Understanding school processes1

Abstract

This paper explores perspectives and methodologies that linguistics, via sociolinguistics, brings to ethnographic research in schools. In reviewing work of the last thirty years in the ethnography of communication, interactional sociolinguistics, and microethnography, as applied to school settings, it identifies the methodological contributions arising from linguistics that these approaches have in common, such as the emic/etic dialectic, the use of naturally occurring language data, the consultation of native intuition, and the tool of discourse analysis. Woven through the discussion are fundamental perspectives these approaches hold in common—the focus on situated discourse, or language use in context, and the recognition of multiple and alternative social roles and identities. Differences among the approaches in both methodology and perspectives are also brought out.