A Critical Look at the Bigger Picture: Macro-Level Discourses of Language and Technology in the United States

Abstract

Despite its numerous benefits and potentialities for language learning and teaching, digital technology can also play a role in creating and and maintaining inequality. While critical critical CALL often focuses on micro-level issues and contexts, macro-level perspectives, including discourses, are also essential to consider: From ecological and language-as-discourse perspectives, macro-level discourses have the potential to impact and shape CALL practices and contexts. Using critical discourse analysis methods, this article takes the 2017 American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) report, America's Languages: Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century, as a window into macro-level discourses of language and technology in American society today. Findings reveal a series of interrelated frames and scales that, taken together, suggest a neoliberal discourse that positioned language, technology, and ultimately CALL as tools to enhance national competitiveness on a global marketplace. The article concludes with implications of these findings for the CALL field.