Sarah Van Hoof | Ghent University (original) (raw)

Papers by Sarah Van Hoof

Applied Linguistics

This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns he... more This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns hen and die on text comprehensibility and text appreciation in the context of newspaper reporting on non-binary persons. Moreover, it presents a first measurement of Flemish people’s familiarity with and attitudes towards this pronominal reform in Dutch in its early stage. In a survey experiment we compared the use of non-binary hen and die (both combined with hen as object and hun as possessive form) with established referential strategies. We also examined the potential mediating role of perceived awkwardness of the referential strategy used and tested the moderating effect of cueing, i.e. making readers aware of the fact that the person reported on identifies as non-binary and prefers non-binary pronouns. The results show that perceived awkwardness explains the lower comprehensibility and appreciation scores of non-binary hen and that cueing improves those scores. Overall, our findings suggest that especially the non-binary pronoun die has the potential to be successfully implemented.

Language Policy, 2023

This paper investigates an abortion clinic’s procedural choices regarding the management of lingu... more This paper investigates an abortion clinic’s procedural choices regarding the management of linguistic diversity. It focuses in particular on how language serves as capital for clients’ agency in decision-making regarding their abortion treatment. Based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a Flemish abortion clinic, we analyse the clinic’s institutional language policy, which states that clients should be able to speak Dutch, English or French in order to be eligible for a medical abortion—the alternative to a surgical abortion. We show how direct and smooth communication is considered a condition to ensure safety during the medical abortion treatment. We also discuss how, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the practical reorganisation of the clinic has led to more autonomy and empowerment for some clients, while it reinforced the already existing inequality for others. Finally, we discuss the clinic’s struggles with and lack of reflection on language support services. We conclude that the case of the abortion clinic can be considered as one of exclusive inclusion, and suggest that a higher awareness of language support and a critical rethinking of the safety procedure could strengthen this clinic further in its endeavour to help women confronted with an unwanted pregnancy.

Forum+, 2022

The guide Waarden voor een nieuwe taal presents recommendations, suggestions, guidelines and exam... more The guide Waarden voor een nieuwe taal presents recommendations, suggestions, guidelines and examples that should result in a widely supported use of inclusive language by all possible actors within the Dutch arts and culture sector. In this article, Sofie Decock and Sarah Van Hoof frame and comment on the guide based on their expertise as linguists.

Language & Communication, 2022

This study reports on a contextualized speaker evaluation experiment exploring the effects of lan... more This study reports on a contextualized speaker evaluation experiment exploring the effects of language variation (standard vs. colloquial), ethnic identity (Flemish vs. Maghrebi) and wearing a headscarf on students' evaluation of a female university instructor in Flanders. 314 participants evaluated a single lecture of the instructor on professionalism, comprehensibility, authority, standardness, social attractiveness and physical attractiveness. The results suggest that when measured indirectly, colloquial Dutch is no less acceptable than Standard Dutch in higher education. No general downgrading of the Maghrebi identity was observed. When wearing a headscarf, the standard speaking Maghrebi instructor was upgraded for professionalism.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE. 264. p.73-94, 2020

This contribution investigates the rationale and implementation of an employment policy that envi... more This contribution investigates the rationale and implementation of an employment policy that envisions the quick insertion of migrants in the labour market through short and intensive language learning. We present an ethnographic analysis of a short and intensive course of Dutch for migrant job seekers developed in the context of Flemish employment policy. Our data show that the policy is framed in a discourse of empowerment and efficiency, but in its implementation focuses strongly on surveillance, the punitive consequences of which are tacitly attenuated by the practitioners implementing it. The drive towards quick and efficient language learning could be seen to conflict with the unpredictable nature of language learning. A focus on short-term language learning and quick professionalisation trajectories moreover seems to push migrants into low-skilled, precarious employment and to have stratificational outcomes along gendered lines. While arguing for the need to raise awareness of the way gender intersects with issues of language learning and professional integration, this contribution also reflects on the limitations of language learning as a strategy for migrants’ empowerment and contends that an exclusive focus on language as the key to integration erases the structural factors that produce inequality on the labour market.

This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic d... more This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic diversity in a neoliberal climate. We focus on the public service provider Kind & Gezin (K&G), the agency that monitors the wellbeing of young children on behalf of the Flemish authorities in Belgium. We demonstrate that the organisation has taken various multilingual measures that go against the government's preference for monolingual service provision. This is particularly the case for 'bottom-up' bilingual practices, where bilingual family support workers and medical staff developed bilingual routines in service provision, much in line with the 'client-centered communication' which K&G professes. Whereas these practices were initially endorsed by K&G's management, a further diversification of K&G's clientele, along with budgetary restrictions, prompted management to restrict these practices and explore alternative ways of providing multilingual services that do not require the recruitment of extra staff. Drawing on ethnographic data we explore the rationale underlying the organisation's decision to restrict its multilingual policy and the way this decision is influenced by neoliberal principles which foreground effectiveness, efficiency, flexibility and entrepreneurialism. We conclude that the policy shift leads to ideological reconceptualisations of 'lan-guage' and 'language difference' that sit uncomfortably with the reality of language discordant service encounters, as well as to redefinitions of the professional identity of bilingual family support workers.

Language policy, 2018

In the globalized economy, old metadiscursive regimes have been challenged by new conditions whic... more In the globalized economy, old metadiscursive regimes have been challenged by new conditions which are often considered to be more favourable to heteroglossic practices. In Flemish Belgium, the liberalization of the TV market is said to have transformed the broadcaster VRT from a public service aiming at educating viewers into a competitive corporation eager to commodify nonstandard language use to attract viewers. The broadcast media, traditionally a stronghold of the standard language, thus appear to have become a key site for the valorization of traditional vernaculars and hybrid linguistic practices drawing on both standard and vernacular speech forms. This paper confronts these impressions with empirical data and investigates the sociolinguistic impact of the deregulation of the Flemish TV market in detail. It does so by analyzing the discourses produced by the VRT’s policy makers and the actual linguistic practices on the VRT during the monopolist and the commercial era. It points out how during the monopolist era the genre of comedy already provided a discursive space where the VRT’s standard language policy could be subverted, and shows how a market discourse may have colonized the VRT’s current language policy, but has left its original standardization ambitions by and large intact. The VRT is shown to nowadays commodify both standard and nonstandard speech forms, but in ways that do not fundamentally challenge the traditional order of high (standard) and low (nonstandard) speech styles. New corporate logics can thus be seen to reproduce rather than drastically alter linguistic hierarchies traditionally attributed to state actors.

Applied Linguistics

This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns he... more This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns hen and die on text comprehensibility and text appreciation in the context of newspaper reporting on non-binary persons. Moreover, it presents a first measurement of Flemish people’s familiarity with and attitudes towards this pronominal reform in Dutch in its early stage. In a survey experiment we compared the use of non-binary hen and die (both combined with hen as object and hun as possessive form) with established referential strategies. We also examined the potential mediating role of perceived awkwardness of the referential strategy used and tested the moderating effect of cueing, i.e. making readers aware of the fact that the person reported on identifies as non-binary and prefers non-binary pronouns. The results show that perceived awkwardness explains the lower comprehensibility and appreciation scores of non-binary hen and that cueing improves those scores. Overall, our findings suggest that especially the non-binary pronoun die has the potential to be successfully implemented.

Language Policy, 2023

This paper investigates an abortion clinic’s procedural choices regarding the management of lingu... more This paper investigates an abortion clinic’s procedural choices regarding the management of linguistic diversity. It focuses in particular on how language serves as capital for clients’ agency in decision-making regarding their abortion treatment. Based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a Flemish abortion clinic, we analyse the clinic’s institutional language policy, which states that clients should be able to speak Dutch, English or French in order to be eligible for a medical abortion—the alternative to a surgical abortion. We show how direct and smooth communication is considered a condition to ensure safety during the medical abortion treatment. We also discuss how, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the practical reorganisation of the clinic has led to more autonomy and empowerment for some clients, while it reinforced the already existing inequality for others. Finally, we discuss the clinic’s struggles with and lack of reflection on language support services. We conclude that the case of the abortion clinic can be considered as one of exclusive inclusion, and suggest that a higher awareness of language support and a critical rethinking of the safety procedure could strengthen this clinic further in its endeavour to help women confronted with an unwanted pregnancy.

Forum+, 2022

The guide Waarden voor een nieuwe taal presents recommendations, suggestions, guidelines and exam... more The guide Waarden voor een nieuwe taal presents recommendations, suggestions, guidelines and examples that should result in a widely supported use of inclusive language by all possible actors within the Dutch arts and culture sector. In this article, Sofie Decock and Sarah Van Hoof frame and comment on the guide based on their expertise as linguists.

Language & Communication, 2022

This study reports on a contextualized speaker evaluation experiment exploring the effects of lan... more This study reports on a contextualized speaker evaluation experiment exploring the effects of language variation (standard vs. colloquial), ethnic identity (Flemish vs. Maghrebi) and wearing a headscarf on students' evaluation of a female university instructor in Flanders. 314 participants evaluated a single lecture of the instructor on professionalism, comprehensibility, authority, standardness, social attractiveness and physical attractiveness. The results suggest that when measured indirectly, colloquial Dutch is no less acceptable than Standard Dutch in higher education. No general downgrading of the Maghrebi identity was observed. When wearing a headscarf, the standard speaking Maghrebi instructor was upgraded for professionalism.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE. 264. p.73-94, 2020

This contribution investigates the rationale and implementation of an employment policy that envi... more This contribution investigates the rationale and implementation of an employment policy that envisions the quick insertion of migrants in the labour market through short and intensive language learning. We present an ethnographic analysis of a short and intensive course of Dutch for migrant job seekers developed in the context of Flemish employment policy. Our data show that the policy is framed in a discourse of empowerment and efficiency, but in its implementation focuses strongly on surveillance, the punitive consequences of which are tacitly attenuated by the practitioners implementing it. The drive towards quick and efficient language learning could be seen to conflict with the unpredictable nature of language learning. A focus on short-term language learning and quick professionalisation trajectories moreover seems to push migrants into low-skilled, precarious employment and to have stratificational outcomes along gendered lines. While arguing for the need to raise awareness of the way gender intersects with issues of language learning and professional integration, this contribution also reflects on the limitations of language learning as a strategy for migrants’ empowerment and contends that an exclusive focus on language as the key to integration erases the structural factors that produce inequality on the labour market.

This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic d... more This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic diversity in a neoliberal climate. We focus on the public service provider Kind & Gezin (K&G), the agency that monitors the wellbeing of young children on behalf of the Flemish authorities in Belgium. We demonstrate that the organisation has taken various multilingual measures that go against the government's preference for monolingual service provision. This is particularly the case for 'bottom-up' bilingual practices, where bilingual family support workers and medical staff developed bilingual routines in service provision, much in line with the 'client-centered communication' which K&G professes. Whereas these practices were initially endorsed by K&G's management, a further diversification of K&G's clientele, along with budgetary restrictions, prompted management to restrict these practices and explore alternative ways of providing multilingual services that do not require the recruitment of extra staff. Drawing on ethnographic data we explore the rationale underlying the organisation's decision to restrict its multilingual policy and the way this decision is influenced by neoliberal principles which foreground effectiveness, efficiency, flexibility and entrepreneurialism. We conclude that the policy shift leads to ideological reconceptualisations of 'lan-guage' and 'language difference' that sit uncomfortably with the reality of language discordant service encounters, as well as to redefinitions of the professional identity of bilingual family support workers.

Language policy, 2018

In the globalized economy, old metadiscursive regimes have been challenged by new conditions whic... more In the globalized economy, old metadiscursive regimes have been challenged by new conditions which are often considered to be more favourable to heteroglossic practices. In Flemish Belgium, the liberalization of the TV market is said to have transformed the broadcaster VRT from a public service aiming at educating viewers into a competitive corporation eager to commodify nonstandard language use to attract viewers. The broadcast media, traditionally a stronghold of the standard language, thus appear to have become a key site for the valorization of traditional vernaculars and hybrid linguistic practices drawing on both standard and vernacular speech forms. This paper confronts these impressions with empirical data and investigates the sociolinguistic impact of the deregulation of the Flemish TV market in detail. It does so by analyzing the discourses produced by the VRT’s policy makers and the actual linguistic practices on the VRT during the monopolist and the commercial era. It points out how during the monopolist era the genre of comedy already provided a discursive space where the VRT’s standard language policy could be subverted, and shows how a market discourse may have colonized the VRT’s current language policy, but has left its original standardization ambitions by and large intact. The VRT is shown to nowadays commodify both standard and nonstandard speech forms, but in ways that do not fundamentally challenge the traditional order of high (standard) and low (nonstandard) speech styles. New corporate logics can thus be seen to reproduce rather than drastically alter linguistic hierarchies traditionally attributed to state actors.

This book presents an empirical account of how neoliberal ideas are adopted on the ground by diff... more This book presents an empirical account of how neoliberal ideas are adopted on the ground by different actors in different educational settings. It aims to produce a complex understanding of how neoliberal rationalities are articulated within locally anchored and historical regimes of knowledge on language, education and society. Review A rich collection of empirical studies showing how important language education and language of education are as terrains for struggles around neoliberal governmentality, and illuminating debates about what neoliberalism is, how it works for individuals, groups, corporations and states, and where its contradictions lie.

Het taalgebruik op televisie is in Vlaanderen geregeld voer voor verhitte debatten. Terwijl men o... more Het taalgebruik op televisie is in Vlaanderen geregeld voer voor verhitte debatten. Terwijl men op de monopolistische openbare omroep van weleer vaak terugblikt als een baken van volksopvoeding, wordt de huidige VRT ervan beschuldigd opvoedend ABN steeds meer in te ruilen voor een taalvorm die het midden houdt tussen standaardtaal en dialect. Vooral in fictie lijkt die ‘tussentaal’ terrein te winnen – niet voor niets wordt ze ook weleens smalend ‘soap-Vlaams’ genoemd. Dit boek onderzoekt of het taalgebruik in fictie sinds de jaren 1980 inderdaad veranderd is, en gaat op zoek naar verklaringen door fictietaal te kaderen binnen de context van standaardisering in Vlaanderen en het veranderende omroepbeleid. Daartoe wordt een kwantitatieve analyse van het taalgebruik in fictie van vroeger en nu gecombineerd met een gedetailleerde kwalitatieve analyse van de rol van taalvormen in fictionele interacties en de manier waarop hun sprekers ge(stereo)typeerd worden. Ook makers en acteurs komen aan het woord over hun taalkeuzes. Op die manier toont dit boek aan dat het gebruik van tussentaal in fictie inderdaad is toegenomen, maar ook dat het fictionele verleden van de openbare omroep minder standaardtalig is dan vaak wordt gedacht. Fictie draagt vandaag nog steeds sporen van oude standaardiseringsdiscoursen, terwijl er ook in de hoogdagen van de volksverheffing op de openbare omroep in fictie al ruimte was voor speelse tegengeluiden.

Along with the onset of the age of late capitalism within the globalized new economy (Appadurai 1... more Along with the onset of the age of late capitalism within the globalized new economy (Appadurai 1996; Gee et al. 1996; Giddens 1991; Harvey 1989; Pujolar 2007), scholars engage in the study of language as a commodity.