What is Linguistic Anthropology

This chapter discusses the theoretical frameworks that guide research on educating secondary school immigrant students. Three theoretical lenses, namely Bourdieu's theory of practice, assimilation theory, and linguistic anthropology of education, are reviewed and discussed regarding their epistemological, ontological, and methodological implications. The chapter first briefly discusses the status of the immigrant population and the conceptual framework used in the study. Next, it reviews the key tenets of each theoretical lens and discusses their applications in the discipline of education. These three frameworks, with their contemporary theoretical extensions and developments, are also compared and contrasted based on their similarities and differences in providing guidance for the empirical studies of the chosen research topic. Finally, the conclusions and implications are presented for further discussion.