WAR in the Media: Metaphors, Ideology, and the Formation of Language Policy

Abstract

In 2000, the Arizona Proposition 203 campaign gained overwhelming public approval by claiming that Arizona's bilingual education programs impeded English-language learning of language-minority students. Established within a context of educational and social antipathy, it is necessary to look at the impetus for language policies like Proposition 203 and how they are promoted to the public. This project is based on Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) work with metaphor theory to uncover the rhetorical strategies applied in the media by the English for the Children campaign to position Proposition 203 in a favorable light. Grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis, Santa Ana's (2002) metaphor analysis model is applied here to unveil the most prominent metaphors used to degrade bilingual education in public discourse. While many metaphors were applied in this debate, this work concentrates on the multivalent metaphor PROPOSITION 203 AS WAR to expose the underlying ideology of Proposition 203 and its supporters. The metaphor of WAR was purposely implemented to construct a context of violence and heroism. This study exposes the rhetorical strategies used by opponents of bilingual education and highlights the nature of metaphor as a tool of persuasion.

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