Search

Sociolinguistics has seen an emergence of new theoretical perspectives that somehow cater for the, according to Li, 'complex linguistic realities of the twenty-first century' (2017, p.14). Thus 'overwriting' conventional ways of understanding language/language use and its relation to identity construction. Taking these changes as a starting point, this paper expands research into complex identity construction of students attending a complementary language school and investigation of linguistic repertoires of German language learners through language portrait work. The motivation for the research presented in this paper is to explore the relationship between linguistic repertoires and complex identities of young people attending a complementary language school in a multilingual city. It suggests an organic approach to investigating the relationship between young people as social beings, that are more than 'just' language learners per se, and the ways they use organic linguistic repertoires (OLRs) to construct their complex linguistic identities. The findings presented in this paper highlight the complexities of young people's identities in relation to their OLR. The term OLR points towards the dynamic nature of 'languages'. Although these terms point toward a dynamic understanding of language and identity the term OLR seems to foreground the changing nature of these, pointing toward their 'aliveness'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long critiqued points of view in which monolingual perspectives are seen as normative in research on multilingualism. In relation to this monolingual orientation, however, in which monolingualism is perceived to be the implicit norm, less work has been dedicated to methodological challenges. As disciplinary perspectives on language in Linguistics and related fields move further towards the de-emphasizing and deconstructing of the boundaries between named linguistic varieties, this paper addresses some issues that come up in operationalizing this in our research. It does so through self-reflexivity, from a primarily Sociolinguistic and Applied Linguistic point of view, by addressing monolingual perspectives found in data on a project on multilingual practices in India. It focuses more narrowly on the ethnographic field notes from the research context. With discourse analysis, these are looked at through the lens of the monolingual orientation, with a particular focus on language ideologies and the compartmentalization of named-language varieties. Ideologies in the data are discussed in relation to their bearing on methodology in transcribing, coding, and the framing of research questions. This paper explores the tensions between evolving theoretical perspectives and on-the-ground research practice, concluding by proposing questions for reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From January 2017 until January 2020, the Stormont assembly in Northern Ireland was suspended, with the Irish language being cited as the main stumbling block to the restoration of government. The continued debate around the necessity of an Irish Language Act (ILA) for Northern Ireland is bound up with more general divisions in society surrounding national identity, and as such, it divided political parties and the nationalist and unionist communities from which they draw their support. Through the analysis of ethnographic interviews conducted in various language learning centres across Belfast, I explore how this debate around legislating for the language impacted on the engagement of learners with the language in the city. By considering the role played by the media in the engagement of interview participants with the Irish language in Belfast, I aim to examine how the policy delay and political discourse affects those engaging with the language. This paper aims to address changing attitudes to the Irish language in Belfast in a period of political crisis, and what it means for those who use the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines diasporic language ecology based on a sociolinguistic study of a Chinese complementary school (CCS) in Birmingham, England. The study applies a historical perspective to investigate local multilingual practices in relation to language ideology and identity. The discussion in this paper draws on heteroglossia to investigate language stratification in the CCS. It documents the impact of global mobility and socio-economic changes on shifting power relations among two Chinese language varieties (Putonghua and Cantonese) and English. Data for the discussion includes audio-recordings of interaction and interview as well as fieldnote vignettes. Findings show that (1) a stratified ideological ecology including 'separate bilingualism', 'translanguaging', 'a preferred school-wide monolingualism', and 'a standard language ideology' is dynamically constructed and negotiated in the school as a local heteroglossia; (2) At the intra-Chinese level, the Chinese language shift from Cantonese to Putonghua at global level is seeing its power in the local discourses of Putonghua becoming 'the new diasporic standard'. This standardisation towards Putonghua, on one hand, is claimed and celebrated in the school by some Putonghua-speaking members as 'practical' and 'useful' for better communication; on the other side, it is also contested – sometimes silently – in tension-filled local interactions by groups of Chinese people who lack the resource of Putonghua in their repertoires. This complex and tension-filled standardisation of diasporic Chinese language provides new local discourses of global mobility and the ongoing conversion from linguistic standardisation to social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although W.E.B. Du Bois' impact on race theory is well-known among social scientists; his work is not widely incorporated into the sociolinguistic canon on racial identity through language. Moreover, one pervasive feature in sociolinguistic discourses is the paucity of literature exploring the Afro-Portuguese language. In addressing these shortcomings, we utilise Du Bois' double consciousness theory and the raciolinguistic perspective to discuss the process of racial identity experienced by Afro-Brazilians. DuBois' work demonstrates that context and standpoint theorising provides a deeper understanding of racial identity. This paper explores the dyadic relationship formed between linguistics and racial identity through the lens of Du Bois' double consciousness. This sets the benchmark for double linguistic consciousness in which this article explains is the awareness of self is understood not only by race but also by language. The aim is to add to the racializing discourse by exploring the connection between the racialisation process for blacks and the racial significance of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a focus on an under-studied group of immigrants in the UK, this paper examines Iranian families' language ideologies and practices at home in relation to Persian acquisition and maintenance for their children. Working within a family language policy (FLP) framework, we draw on sociolinguistic data from semi-structured interviews with eighteen mothers to understand how parental beliefs, their everyday language practices and the attempts they make to maintain, improve, or alter their language use will lead to their children's heritage language acquisition and maintenance. The results of the study suggest that the success in heritage language development and maintenance boils down to parental pro heritage language ideologies and their everyday small-scale practices. It was also found that the interrelationship between language and cultural values and a successful FLP was further reinforced by the parents' migration trajectory and proficiency in English as the societal language. This research also showed that the large size of this diaspora in the UK (particularly in London), their close-knit social network, availability of heritage language weekend schools and the possibility of frequent visits to the home country create a conducive situation for the Iranian diaspora to raise their children bilingually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The many permutations of spoken English have called for an interrogation into the notions of 'standard English' and 'native accents'. Despite their problematic nature, these terms remain commonly used, and familiarity with 'standard', inner-circle varieties of English is typical among L2 English speakers, differences in education and language policy notwithstanding. This paper inquires into student language attitudes in Alsace, a region with a long and complex language tradition. A mixed-methods model was used to gather seven students' reactions towards four inner-circle Englishes (Received Pronunciation, Standard American English, Glaswegian English, African American English). Findings revealed student preference for the two American speakers as well as preferential ratings linked to comprehensibility of speakers and a range of past experiences. Other findings favour those of previous language attitude studies in which RP and SAE outperform other samples in areas of education and prestige. GE and AAE samples were associated with both positive human characteristics and a lack of education. Overall, results indicate the need for future empirical research of this population as well as the necessity for linguists, researchers and teachers to make room for the spectrum of speakers and Englishes that lie outside of traditional reference accents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the role of family micro-Language Policies (LP's) in the context of the Moroccan Diaspora in urban and semi-urban areas in Spain by examining and contrasting different cases of language transmission within transnational migrant families of Moroccan origin. The paper answers the following questions: How are heritage languages constructed by transnational Moroccan families and in what context and under what sociolinguistic regime(s) are families' LPs developed, negotiated and decided upon? How can LPs develop a functional and practical status of heritage languages or linguistic varieties as well as increase children's opportunities to construct multilingual repertoires? What proactive agency do parents display for these purposes? Data were collected in three projects using a qualitative, ethnographic sociolinguistic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the necessary complementarity between a translanguaging and named language-perspective by critically examining risks of 'overshooting' when a translanguaging view is theoretically posited as the ultimately superior (sociolinguistic) theory of language use and learning in today's multilingual world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research has focused on how Western schools contain or silence the increasing multilingualism of their pupils, this paper investigates how a Dutch-medium school in Brussels has decided to take a different approach by branding itself as multilingual. Based on sociolinguistic-ethnographic fieldwork, it will show that teachers invested in a multilingual school policy and that they recruited, and allowed pupils to speak, other languages for didactical purposes, as well as in more informal conversations. Nevertheless, as its curriculum remained predominantly Dutch-medium, the school was a site for contradictory behaviour: teachers problematised pupils' flexible language practices and limited proficiency in Dutch, and restricted their use of other languages out of a concern with pupils' acquisition of Dutch, access to curricular knowledge, and future educational and professional success. So, despite the school's attempts to transcend the struggles that arise in schools which are more averse to multilingualism, similar tensions emerge in this setting, as teachers need to find a balance between their pedagogical goals and concerns about monolingualism in the wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the relevant data has revealed continuous growth in knowledge of Basque. Formal education has played a significant role in this advance, in which young speakers have been front and centre. Yet the levels of Basque-use, especially in regard to informal and relationship contexts, have not mirrored this increase. Expanding our understanding of this phenomenon is an urgent priority at present. But not the only one. One such concern focuses not only on accessing data and describing the situation, but also on creating understanding from within, by means of young people themselves. Specifically, this paper attempts to go more deeply into the topic via such approaches and reflect on the possibilities that the concept of 'community of practice' (CofP) offers in this regard. An idea that, as demonstrated in the 'D ereduko kirola' project, allows for a research model along the lines of what J.K. Gibson-Graham (2008) terms a 'performative ontological project'. The present work seeks to document the process that led us from analyzing different CofPs to conceiving them as safe spaces in which young people could try out modifications in their linguistic practices at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experience and impact of participation in afterschool oral improvisation workshops – bertso workshops – for young Basque speakers. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews among young people in the Northern Basque Country, the researcher, a practicing improviser, bertsolari, herself, argues that the bertso workshop is best understood as a community of practice wherein they create relationships of trust and empathy, take the floor in front of their peers and debate and think together, where individual's identities are constructed in mutual influence, and where linguistic identity is built in conjunction with youth identities. Hence, for these young people, the community of practice at the bertso workshop is a place in which to develop their youth identities in Basque and their Basque-speaker identities within youth culture. This case study also explores tensions that arise between the egalitarian ethos of the bertso workshop on the one hand, where all speakers are equal, and the entrenched language ideologies that, on the other, attribute greater authenticity to improvisers from Basque-speaking families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weiner (1988. "On Editing a Usage Guide." In Words for Robert Burchfield's Sixty-Fifth Birthday, edited by E. G. Stanley, and T. F. Hoad, 171–183. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 173) describes usage guides as being 'as broad as the English language, covering spelling, punctuation, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexis, and involving sociolinguistic considerations'. This paper focusses on these 'sociolinguistic considerations', to try and answer the question of why people like greengrocers, sports commentators, estate agents and television presenters are stigmatised for certain perceived linguistic errors. The greengrocer's apostrophe is well known (Beal, Joan C. 2010. "The Grocer's Apostrophe: Popular Prescriptivism in the Twenty-First Century." English Today 26 (2): 57–64), but the other three categories, the sports commentators' adverb (the flat adverb), the estate agent's pronoun (yourselves for you) and the television presenter's demonstrative pronoun (these/those ones), I first encountered in Caroline Taggart's Her Ladyship's Guide to the Queen's English (2010), one of the three most recent and most prescriptive publications in the HUGE database of usage guides and usage problems. Discussing Taggart's usage guide as a case study, I will go into the question of why certain groups of speakers are made into the object of prescriptivism and will argue that the British class system plays an important role in this. As a case study, this article highlights the need for more linguists to view usage guides as a genre that needs to be treated critically rather than be ignored, as is generally the case at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mainland China, most ethnic minority students today face the challenge of learning three languages in schools, namely, their home language (L1), Mandarin Chinese (L2) and a foreign language, usually English (L3). Research into trilingual education for minority groups has been most active since the turn of the twenty-first century. This paper offers an overview of recent research, depicting major models adopted by minority schools and the contextual factors leading to the models in various minority regions in China. The paper begins with an account ofstatepolicies relevant to language provision for minority groups in China, which is followed by a discussion of the outcomes and models of trilingual education. A critical analysis is then made of contextual factors such as ethnolinguistic vitality, history, economy, geopolitics and the changing status of the three languages that affect trilingual education for minority groups. The paper argues that language policymaking in different domains includingfamilies, schools, regions and the stateshould be informed by research evidence on practical models that are effective in meeting the cognitive and affective needs of children from ethnic minority backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports how authors use Spanish in award-winning Latinx children's picturebooks in the USA. Teachers, families, and librarians use these books to support heritage language and culture or to broaden children's understanding of cultures other than their own. Thus, how these books use Spanish matters because of the potential of these books to promote cultural and linguistic diversity to children. This study investigated how authors used Spanish, which characters spoke Spanish, and what language ideologies texts explicitly communicate. Across 9 books (award winners between 2010 and 2015), there were 78 instances of Spanish use, and 21 of these were complete sentences or exclamations. The books provided a high level of support for understanding Spanish. Supports include immediate translation, appositive explanations, contextual cues, and picture cues, with little use of fluid translanguaging, which more approximates the communicative practices of bilingual communities. The paper concludes with implications for teachers to develop critical language awareness among students in response to literature and suggestions for authors and publishers to represent Spanish-speaking communities in children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a promising methodology for multilingualism studies that was trialled at the National Institute of Education (NIE) on the campus of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2018. The methodology named the Aural-Oral Transect (AOT) is a systematic, easy-to-implement, unbiased way of collecting quantitative data on spoken language use in multilingual settings, and the data arising from its application provides a snapshot of the aural-oral landscape, that is, the landscape of 'heard speech', a landscape that is available to the ears rather than the eyes. With its ability to provide easy access to data on the actual speech habits of members of a multilingual community, the wide employment of the AOT could bring forth a revolution in multilingual studies. The AOT is not intended to supplant or obviate tried and tested data collection approaches, rather it is promoted here as an additional tool for gathering data that has hitherto remained out of reach, another arrow for the researcher's quiver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates language practices, language attitudes and identity belongings of East Timorese in the Netherlands. Data were gathered through a limited orally conducted sociolinguistic questionnaire and two in-depth interviews on the sociolinguistic trajectories of our participants. The questionnaire shows that second-generation East Timorese all shifted to Dutch. Also the first generation shifted to Dutch and many in addition acquired mainly English and some Portuguese, Spanish or Polish. They did, however, not lose their home languages (mainly Tetum and Indonesian) with the exception of some regional languages (that are, however, still used on social media). Irrespective of the importance of Dutch in their day-to-day language practices, participants reported Tetum to be their most preferred and used language and the language of their East Timorese identity. The in-depth interviews show that the ensemble of linguistic resources of the East Timorese in the Netherlands constitutes the community of practice and knowledge they are part of. Their individual choices from these repertoires, irrespective of how they were acquired and irrespective of their proficiency, constitute their sociolinguistic profile. In this profile Tetum no doubt played and still plays a major role as the main language of East Timorese identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a database composed of 1500 pictures, belonging to 401 analytical units from the Linguistic Landscape (hereafter: LL), and representing mainly the signs on the shop of migrant traders in two multi-ethnic neighbourhoods in Milan, this paper will describe the positioning strategies of Latin American (hereafter: LA) communities in a multilingual urban space, and the processes of identity negotiation in which they are engaged. We will use a scale-sensitive and contextualised interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of LL (Vandenbroucke, Mieke. 2015. "Language Visibility, Functionality and Meaning Across Various TimeSpace Scales in Brussels' Multilingual Landscapes." Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36 (2): 163–181), combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The aim is to show how the presence of Spanish in the LL indexes the collective identities, as well as the language and social attitudes of the LA communities living in Milan. We will analyse the emerging practices of flexible multilingualism, or translanguaging (García, Ofelia, and Ricardo Otheguy. 2014. "Spanish and Hispanic Bilingualism." In The Routledge Handbook of Hispanic Applied Lingusitics, edited by Manuel Lacorte, 639–658. New York: Routledge), as a creative response to linguistic differences and potential conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an example of how immigration is constructed by receiving societies as a comprehension or language problem that requires special solutions. It focuses on the application of Easy-to-Read, a simplified register currently in expansion which addresses different groups of people with intellectual disabilities, to immigrants in Spain. Following a general introduction on the glottopolitical approach to migration processes and a historical overview of tendencies of discursive simplification in Europe and the Americas, the co-text of the term 'immigrants' in a corpus including drafting guides of Easy-to-Read, newspapers and websites of the supporters of this variety is analysed in the empirical part. Methods of semantic discourse analysis (semantic relations and prototype theory) allow to identify new meanings and categories that are constructed in the selected texts ('immigrant' as a co-hyponym of 'person with a disability'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translanguaging involves communication through available semiotic resources, including embodied action. In this paper, we report research in which we observed communication in a volleyball team. We also show how we found conventional academic writing to have limited scope in the representation of embodied communicative practice and came to ethnographic drama as a viable alternative. In the theatre, the enaction of everyday communication is laid out before the audience, inviting reflection, and critical evaluation. We discuss theatre techniques that steer the audience away from emotional involvement and towards intellectual judgement. We propose that techniques introduced in Bertolt Brecht’s [1978. Brecht on Theatre. London: Bloomsbury Academic ] theatre of estrangement have the potential to expand the range and scope of ethnographic analysis, offering a creative means of critical reflection on translanguaging as embodied communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mandarin Chinese is the fastest growing foreign language by number of students in the world [Ding and Saunders 2006. "Talking up China: An Analysis of China's Rising Cultural Power and Global Promotion of the Chinese Language." East Asia 23 (2): 3–33], but little is known about how it is taking hold in compulsory education in different countries. This paper examines the institutionalisation of Mandarin in an elite school located near Barcelona, Spain, which, due to stagnant enrolment rates, was rebranded as 'international' in 2008. Data on the evolution and shifting legitimation of the Chinese programme was gathered through a two-year critical sociolinguistic ethnography. It included observations, visual materials, institutional discourses, questionnaire data and in-depth interviews with key social actors. The results show that Chinese has been highly instrumental for the process of re-elitisation of the school through multilingualisation (and internationalisation), because it allows institutional agents to mobilise both the discourse of cognitive/attitudinal benefits and forms of linguistic capitalisation avant-la-lettre. Yet, among most families and students, there is sharp awareness of the speculative nature of Chinese as capital whose returns in the present can only be guaranteed in the logic of accumulation and as providing an index of students' embodiment of neoliberal subjectivities. For the school, Chinese symbolises its zeal to constantly search for new sources of (potential) distinction and academic excellence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociolinguists have adopted the concept of 'super-diversity' from cultural anthropology to analyse multidimensional changes in ethnolinguistic identities resulting from recent mass migration. Sociolinguistic super-diversity is thus understood as a central aspect of shifts in migration patterns that have increased the complexity of cultural identities beyond traditional, more static 'multicultural' diversity, both in Britain and globally. How is the presence of more complex and diverse linguistic identities viewed by the public? This paper explores attitudes towards perceived increased multilingualism and multiculturalism expressed in the BBC's Have Your Say Internet forum. The majority of postings blame immigrants for communication problems with the British 'home' community and allege their unwillingness to learn English; many also assume that (only) a monolingual national community guarantees social coherence and they are dismissive of any language mediation services. In view of these 'folk-sociolinguistic' assumptions and linguaphobic attitudes, the notion of super-diversity needs to be reconfigured so as to include the (unintended) adverse impact of the migration-induced increase in the diversity and complexity of imagined ethno-linguistic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the complex multilingual linguistic landscapes (LLs) of three strategically-chosen areas in global city Brussels by examining how language displays on public signage in these areas are used for different purposes, functions or intentions. The focus will be on meaning-construction in the post-Fordist globalised era as shaped by different contextual scales. By drawing on a systematic corpus of linguistic landscape data indicative of language visibility and functionality patterns in each of these three areas and by drawing on a small selection of interviews with shop-owners, this study will discuss the ‘landscapes’ and diverse displays of Brussels' three ‘big’ languages (French, English and Dutch) and ‘ethnoscapes’ (Appadurai 1990) of their attendant transnational communities of tourists, immigrants and expats. In order to assess these differences in functionality and meaning, the geographical notion of TimeSpace scales is applied as an analytical and interpretative concept and as a metaphor most apt to study sociolinguistic processes and phenomena of globalisation. This more interpretative, scale-sensitive and contextualised approach to LL and language meaning is also in line with recent arguments in favour of qualitative, interdisciplinary approaches to linguistic landscape research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Socio-psychological research has frequently reported low correlations between explicit and implicit attitude measures for a range of socially sensitive topics. There is mounting evidence that implicit and explicit evaluations do not change at the same rate and thus any implicit-explicit attitudinal discrepancy (IED) may indicate attitude change in progress. However, researchers have yet to investigate whether differences between implicit and explicit attitudes towards language use can determine the direction of any language attitude change underway; somewhat surprising given recent evidence indicating that community language attitude change can result in micro-level language change over time. The present study employed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and self-report attitude scale to measure the relationship between 90 English nationals’ implicit and explicit ratings of Northern English and Southern English speech in England. Multivariate analysis demonstrated significant IED, providing evidence of language attitude change in progress, led by younger females, with explicit attitudes changing more rapidly towards a greater tolerance of the English spoken in the north of England. The paper discusses the potential contribution of investigating implicit and explicit language attitudes to help account for the persistence of deeply embedded linguistic prejudice, as well as to measure language attitude change in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the phenomenon of linguistic mudes or transformations in linguistic practices, in the case of highly proficient speakers of Irish, Basque and Catalan and we investigate the extent to which speakers in the three contexts share ideologies and experiences related to the process. Such an investigation will deepen understanding of the triggers behind the mudes and what it means to successfully become a new speaker of Irish, Basque or Catalan. This is necessary in order to develop a better understanding of how new speakers respond to the linguistic repertoires that they encounter in the various social milieus in which they navigate. The study relates to broader questions of policy towards the three languages in question: as all are operating within a revitalisation framework it is essential to understand the experiences of new speakers who have adopted the languages in order to guide future policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notion of speaker authenticity in the context of obsolescent ‘Francoprovençal’: a highly fragmented grouping of Romance varieties spoken in parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland by less than 1% of the total regional population. While Francoprovençal has long been losing ground to the dominant language(s) with which it is in contact, new speakers have begun to emerge within the context of revitalisation movements and activities geared more favourable language planning policies and increased literacy. The emergence of these new speakers has polarised native-speaker communities, and has blurred the lines associated with the traditional view of sociolinguistic authenticity. Through an analysis of qualitative data collected in 2012, this article argues in particular that it may not be sufficient to simply examine contested authenticities from a native-non-native perspective, but rather it is important to consider how new speakers might themselves form a complex spectrum of speaker types with new sets of tensions as has been argued elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers need a conception of linguistic disadvantage to supply guidance about the relative priority of inequalities with a linguistic dimension and to inform decisions about whether such inequalities require correction or compensation. A satisfactory conception of linguistic disadvantage will make it possible to compare the situations of speakers of different languages and to assess the normative significance of a range of linguistic inequalities. This paper evaluates four rival conceptions and asks whether they satisfy these criteria. Respectively, these conceptions associate linguistic disadvantage with inadequate communicative opportunities, with being unable to do the things that one cares about, with lacking (access to) important resources, and with capability deprivation. It is argued that a conception of linguistic disadvantage derived from the capabilities approach is the most promising option available to policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines Hong Kong major stakeholders’ (secondary students, university students, teachers and professionals) perceptions of language variation, English language teaching (ELT) and language use in their everyday communication via a large-scale questionnaire survey (N = 1893). Based on principal components analysis of the questionnaire statements, 10 factors were identified that corresponded with the stakeholders’ knowledge and recognition of inner-circle vis-à-vis outer-/expanding-circle English varieties, real-life English use (e.g. exposure to language variation in contexts, interlocutor identity and difficulties in English communication), preferences of English varieties, perceptions of English teaching/learning and local cultural identity. Although the findings indicate an overall Anglophone-centric attitude among the participants, particularly in terms of the choice of teaching model, they also reveal differences in the participants’ views and experience of language use depending on their education level, age and occupational background. One important discovery is the potential effect of one's academic ability on his or her perceptions of English varieties and learning. By comparing the responses of the various participant groups based on the sociolinguistic setting in Hong Kong, the paper discusses the implications of these findings for contemporary ELT and directions for future attitudinal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we first explore the trends in the maintenance of migrant community languages among the first generation migrants and then the socio-economic variation in the shift in use of community languages. Our analysis showed that language shift to English among first generation migrants has not been uniform, with some migrant groups adopting English as a home language at a much faster rate than others. Gender and duration of residence had strong association with language shift; languages of migrant groups of the pre-1980 period have not been maintained as well as that of later arrivals. Place of residence and the distribution of a linguistic community also provided opportunities for language maintenance as migrants residing in major capital cities in Australia tended to better maintain their community language. Finally, higher level of education was associated with lower likelihood of speaking a community language at home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), developed by Lewis and Simons and based on work by Fishman, provides a means of rating ‘language vitality’ – the level of development or endangerment – where ‘development’ is understood as adding or preserving functions and ‘endangerment’ as loss of function. In its original form, it did not take sign languages into account. This paper explains what adjustments are needed to accommodate signed and spoken languages on an equal basis, recognising and generalising over the sociolinguistic differences in the two types of language communities. Besides minor wording changes made to avoid giving the impression that EGIDS applied only to spoken languages, we offer substantive changes to accommodate different patterns of intergenerational transmission; to better reflect the role of literacy, education, literature, institutional support, and standardisation in language development; and to reflect factors other than classic language shift which can undermine a language’s vitality. Clarifications are made to the role of interpreters in rating a language’s vitality, and in the definition of a language of wider communication. Several of these changes provide further insights into factors that affect the vitality of spoken languages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing from a 2.4-year ethnography with Korean Early Study Abroad (ESA, pre-college-aged study abroad) students in Toronto high schools, I examine the intersections among race, class, language, culture and citizenship (including immigrant status) in the identity construction and language learning of these students. Conceptualising race as a social construct and racism as systemic and institutionalised, I employ sociolinguistic analysis of the data to link issues of race and class together and point out how the ESA students adopt class-based consumption of Korean language and products as a strategy for dealing with the racial and linguistic marginalisation they experienced in Canadian contexts as well as its consequences in their language learning. The paper concludes with the story's implications for discussing race and alternative ways of talking about privilege among racial minorities regarding transformation of the value of the linguistic capital across different linguistic markets in today's world of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the introduction to the special issue 'Elite Multilingualism: Discourses, practices, and debates', we focus on 'elite multilingualism' as a means to provide a window into the complex layers and nuances of today's multilingual, mobile and global society. Our aims here are to provide an empirical and conceptual discussion of a growing language-centred elitism. We also aim to expand current scholarship on the construction, valuation and instrumentalisation of multilingualism, and its consequences for the formation of social boundaries and inequalities. We first discuss major concepts such as the notion of elite/ness and multilingualism, commodification, authenticity and hierarchies and the linguistic market in a global knowledge economy. We also discuss the critical sociolinguistic, discourse and ethnographic approaches that frame this special issue and go on to outline the diverse manifestations of elite multilingualism in different educational and social settings. Finally, we conclude by reflecting on the value of the concept of elite multilingualism as a social practice, and argue for the importance of examining the lived experience of multilinguals on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the extent to which linguistic globalisation and the ever increasing dominance of English shapes the perceptions of linguistic diversity in traditional sociolinguistic milieus. We set out to investigate the attitudes of 142 respondents from Vorarlberg, an Austrian province, towards their home dialects, High German, a local standardised variety, and English. While drawing on a verbal guise test (VGT) and a questionnaire as the main methods of study, we show that local dialects are viewed as badges of local identities, whereas standard German is appreciated for its utilitarian value. Remarkably, English emerges as a language of enormous social prestige with high levels of social attractiveness. English is further seen as a language allowing the inhabitants of Vorarlberg to connect to the larger world and become part of the global dialogue. We argue that rather than eroding the local cultures, English adds to the sociolinguistic fabric of traditionally diglossic societies, rendering their linguistic texture even more complex and enriched, not impoverished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article attempts to characterise the current changes in the communication of people living in the area of Polish-Czech borderland based on the results of the study conducted in 2018 and 2019. The aim is to determine the dominant mode of supranational communication, as well as the reason behind its prevalence by analysing the language skills of the interviewed Poles and Czechs, along with their language preferences and selected personal experiences. The multilingual modes known as English as a lingua franca and lingua receptiva as well as their combination, constitute a platform of reference. The analysis proves that in more peripheral areas of the globalised world where different languages and cultures cross, postmonolingual practices have been developed. They maintain the leading position of the first language but they also adapt other multilingual modes. It is suggested that these practices should not be treated as a transitional phase on the way to rich multilingualism but rather as a specific glocalisation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the multidialectal (i.e. diglossic) practices in the sociolinguistic repertoire of speech productions of 28 L2 Arabic learners who went through training using the integrated approach to learn two varieties of Arabic at the same time: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Levantine Arabic. Specifically, the study investigated learners' ability to draw on their sociolinguistic repertoire to prepare and perform end-of-semester presentations (where MSA is the main expected variety) and informal skits (where Levantine Arabic is the expected variety). The findings show participants' awareness of sociolinguistic expectations and their ability to employ their sociolinguistic inventory to meet those expectations, making predominant use of MSA in the formal presentations and of Levantine Arabic in the informal skits. The benefits of integrated training were manifested in multidialectal lexis distribution, multidialectal features, and multidialectal repair practices. Participants' awareness and ability to utilise multidialectal resources were apparent in their greater use of MSA lexis, conjunctions and syntactic and morphosyntactic features in the presentations in contrast to the skits. Learners also demonstrated their ability to engage in multidialectal repair practices, a finding that illuminated the regulatory control of their rich productive repertoire in the assigned contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a small-scale study on the linguistic landscape in the two terminals of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Thirty-one digital photos of non-identical signs out of a total of 368 'top-down' signs identified in the public space were collected, and questionnaires were administered to airport users to gauge their attitudes towards the languages used on the multilingual signs in the two airports. The findings showed that (1) Malay, which is the sole national and official language of the country, is displayed in the dominant position in all the multilingual signage. (2) English, which is displayed below Malay, indexes English as the second most important language after Malay besides being the language for international communication. (3) The display of Japanese, Arabic, and Chinese at the same level and in the same-sized font indicates that these languages are given equal priority in a top-bottom system. (4) Most of the two airport users agreed that a combination of Malay and English should be used on the signage in Malaysian airports and are happy with its multilingual environment. However, some local Malaysians strongly feel that Tamil should be added to the signage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the various ways that 'languages at risk' in the Yukon Territory, Canada, are imagined and managed across a range of 'stakeholders.' Predicated on a history of oppression and the management of risk in the U.S. and Canada, aboriginal language endangerment has arisen from insecurities about communicative diversity. Conversely language revitalization has arisen from insecurities about the loss of diversity. As this article demonstrates, ideologies of loss and the insecurities entailed therein resonate differently across different speakers, language activists, and institutions, resulting in different perceptions of loss, different experiences of risk, and different approaches to recovery. Moving from policy and the institutionalization of aboriginal languages to people's reflections and concerns about their own welfare, this article argues that insecurities about language are ultimately insecurities about other vulnerabilities, including the shifting political-moral terrain of the nation-state and First Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students' attitudes towards native English speaking teachers (NESTs) and local English teachers has been a fertile area of research for many years, but the commonly used surveys focusing on students' explicit attitudes have been criticised because of the influence of prejudice. An alternative is to use social psychology instruments such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to investigate both explicit and implicit attitudes as in Watson Todd and Pojanapunya (2009. "Implicit Attitudes Towards Native and Non-native Speaker Teachers." System 37: 23–33. doi:10.1016/j.system.2008.08.002). This article is a direct replication of Watson Todd and Pojanapunya (2009), but, because the sociolinguistic context in Thailand has changed with greater use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) since the original study, we aim to look for differences between the findings of the original study and those of the current study rather than confirm the original, a process we term elaborative replication. Using an IAT with 439 Thai university students, the results show that, in contrast to our expectations, students' implicit and explicit attitudes towards NESTs have become more positive in the ten years since the original study, a finding that casts doubt on the wider social impact of the ELF movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether consensus-based test translation review procedures can be used effectively in cultural contexts with high social stratification. We staged two test translation review panels in China – where social stratification may potentially inhibit individuals' ability to express opinion and disagreement. We adapted a consensus-based test translation review procedure in ways intended to ensure that all panellists could express their thinking. With the adapted procedure, we facilitated two panels charged with identifying errors in Chinese translations of items from PISA (OECD's international test on skills for life). While social interactions during the panels reflected social status differences, the adaptations made it possible to capture the thinking of all panellists. The panels identified similar numbers of translation errors, but different sets of translation errors. We conclude that cultural adaptation addressing social stratification is critical to successfully implementing consensus-based procedures for test translation review in contexts with high social stratification. Ultimately, it contributes to ensuring fair, valid testing for culturally and linguistically diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language practices and attitudes among young minority language speakers in Thailand, focusing on the Kui language, are examined. Sociolinguistic data obtained from three months of fieldwork in the northeastern provinces of Surin, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani and in Bangkok provide insights into the language competence, language attitudes and linguistic awareness of young Kui speakers. We found that young speakers use language differently in various settings. Males and females use minority and majority languages differently and with varying confidence. Internal and external motivations such as language prestige and identity condition may foretell the future of the Kui language in Thailand. The dynamics of minority language use and the preservation and transmission of threatened and shifting languages are highlighted. This study reveals the current speaking preferences of young Kui speakers and allows for predictions regarding their prospective short- and long-term language use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Russian speakers in Ireland delimit and describe (their/the) Russian language in relation to representations of standard Russian. It is based on analysis of discussions conducted between speakers of Russian living in Ireland, facilitated by the Our Languages (2008–2011) research project, investigating multilingualism and sociolinguistic dispositions amid Ireland's Russian-speaking population. Three metalinguistic orientations are foregrounded: (1) participants affirm the naturally and normatively discrete identity of 'the' Russian language; (2) despite this unitary identity, participants distinguish between registers and levels of relative purity in Russian; (3) participants relate generalised linguistic form to a concept of community. The interplay of these orientations – toward an essentially unitary and unifying Russian language, away from 'improper' forms of that language, and into reflection on collective identity – reveals a model culture of standard language within the polyglossic context of Irish society, combining the routinely claimed characteristics of generality and authenticity. The article interprets the contradictory dynamic between these characteristics in relation to a Bakhtinian concept of monolingualism and a critical conceptualisation of language community. Participants configure Russian as one among 'our languages' through the iterative negotiation of a tension between ideological monolingualism and actual heteroglossia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores language repertoires, attitudes, and practices amongst members of the East Timorese diaspora in Australia. It relies on quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a recent sociolinguistic survey, ethnographic observation, as well as on general observations of online language use. Our study reveals a complex multilingualism that reflects in the first instance specific sociolinguistic conditions and changing language policies in East Timor, leading to a reshaping of language repertoires over generations in that country. Participants, mostly raised in East Timor, are more multilingual than their parents, but their children raised in Australia show signs of shift to English, as well as evidence of reduced multilingualism. An increasing emphasis on English is coupled with a rise in the importance assigned, more generally, to Tetum amongst most East Timorese at the expense of Portuguese and other languages. Tetum is most strongly linked to East Timorese identity whilst Portuguese and other languages show signs of restricted use and status, if not decline, in the Australian context. At the same time, the Hakka Chinese sub-group of East Timorese maintain in Australia, as in East Timor, a different linguistic patterning coupled with a strong sense of their own ethnic and linguistic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to find out more about how the immigrant community is being integrated socio-linguistically into the city of Madrid. It takes as its premise that integration is a bi-directional process conditioned directly by the beliefs, values and attitudes of both the immigrant and the host communities (Moreno Fernández, Francisco. 2009. "Integración sociolingüística en contextos de inmigración: marco epistemológico para su estudio en España." Lengua y Migración / Language and Migration 1 (1): 121–156). At its different structural levels, the host community can be regarded as a glottopolitical agent which shapes and explains the attitudes and behaviour immigrants might adopt when resolving inter-group conflicts. We present here the preliminary results of a study of the sociolinguistic attitudes of Madrilenians living in the city of Madrid to the immigrant population within their community. Our aim is to explore how immigration is perceived by the host community and thereby to determine how that community is conditioning the process of social, and therefore linguistic, integration of the immigrant population, with particular attention to the role of language as a key component in that process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this contribution is to analyze the linguistic practices of a migrant collective, speakers of a minoritized language, from a glottopolitical perspective. This will be illustrated by the description of the communicative practices of the migrant workers from Galicia (Spain) in Hanover (Federal Republic of Germany) in the 1960s and beyond. In order to do so, the articulation of two specific ideologemes held by German and Spanish institutions will be examined, namely the 'myth of return' that surrounded the Spanish migration to the FRG and the 'one nation, one language, one State' triad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian linguistic space has radically changed through the onset of the new millennium due to the presence of innovative multiple linguistic practices that have taken place as a consequence of deterritorialization processes. Furthermore, Latino diaspora in recent years have fostered the appearance of new forms of Global Spanishes (García and Otheguy 2014. "Spanish and Hispanic Bilingualism." In The Routledge Handbook of Hispanic Applied Linguistics, edited by Manuel Lacorte, 639–658. London: Routledge) in many contexts of Northern Italy where Hispanic communities are numerous. In spite of the global sociolinguistic changes, the forms of minority bilingual practices are submitted to ideological stigmatisation by many public institutions. This is the case of educational settings, where the presence of not-vernacular repertoires can be considered an obstacle for transnational students although the expansion of all the codes that make up the bilingual repertoire is a key element towards students' proper sociocognitive development. With this background in mind, I will offer the results of the action research Mi(s) lengua(s), an educational project inspired by a glottopolitical perspective, aimed at the inclusion of home language and culture in the educational paths of a group of middle school Hispanic students in Milan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution examines the linguistic perceptions and ideologies of an individual of Latin American origin, Jorge, based in the German-speaking region of Switzerland, through narratives to analyse how pre-existing normative linguistic discourses influence (linguistic) identities. Connecting the micro-level of Jorge's narrative to the macro glottopolitical level is a way of showing how languages are charged with different values and are arranged hierarchically, proving that they respond to an ideological framework in which purist ideologies of national and colonial discourses are interwoven with other discourses that reveal the influence of late capitalism. Thanks to these linguistic values, Jorge is able to position himself closer to certain ethnic groups than to others. Thus, through the languages in question – German, Swiss German, English and French – Jorge reveals an identity that draws him towards the German collective, distancing him not only from the Swiss German collective but also from his own Latin American collective. This also demonstrates that the Latin American ethnic category cannot be analysed as a homogeneous group, and that in order to understand the identity dynamics of this group in Switzerland we must necessarily address their own life histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses which seek to position different speakers/users of Breton through the use of labels such as 'traditional', 'new', 'learner', 'néo-bretonnant', 'brittophone', etc. draw on persistent essentialist ideologies of language and create, in the process, contested elites and counter-elites in Breton-speaking networks. These discourses can be counter-productive towards projects which aim at producing multilingual citizens in Brittany at the present time. This article examines how stances of different speakers towards other speakers of Breton can involve jostling for positions of power within the Breton-speaking community and how attempts at creating elites and counter-elites seem to be a defining feature of contemporary revitalisation efforts in Brittany. This characterisation may, however, miss a 'third space' which some social actors may seek to engage with. These discourses are examined in this article through a critical sociolinguistic exploration of how (elite) multilingualism is constructed, maintained and contested by different actors in the Breton language community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children that grow up bilingually often interpret naturally between their two languages. This has been shown to be so in a variety of language pairs, regardless of children's social and family situations and both within the family context as well as between the family and society (e.g. Álvarez de la Fuente and Fernández Fuertes 2012. "How two English/Spanish Bilingual Children Translate: In Search for Bilingual Competence Through Natural Interpretation." In Interpreting Brian Harris. Recent Developments in Translatology, edited by M. A. Jiménez Ivars and M. J. Blasco Mayor, 95-115. Viena: Peter Lang; Angelelli (2016). "Looking Back: A Study of (ad-hoc) Family Interpreters." European Journal of Applied Linguistics 4 (1): 451-431. doi:10.1515/eujal-2015-0029). This study analyses different contextual and linguistic variables that define the natural interpreting instances produced in spontaneous interactions by 19 young bilingual children (average age: 3;7) with different language pairs. In particular, we aim at characterising the bilingual practice used by these children and (i) involve the consecutive use of their two languages and (ii) are shaped by the communicative strategies used by parents at home. The analysis is based on freely available corpora in CHILDES (MacWhinney 2000. The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved from http://childes.psy.cmu.edu) (i.e. FerFuLice, Pérez-Bazán, Ticio, Vila, Deuchar, ; GNP) and diary annotations (i.e. Ronjat 1913. Le developpement du langage observe chez un enfant bilingue [The development of the language observed in a bilingual child]. Paris: Librairie Ancienne H. Champion; Leopold 1939-1949; Lanza 1988. "Language Strategies in the Home: Linguistic Input and Infant Bilingualism." In Bilingualism and the Individual, edited by A. Holmen, E. Hansen, J. Gimbel, and J. N. Jørgensen, 69-84. Clevedon, UK: Multingual Matters, Lanza 1997. Language Mixing in Infant Bilingualism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Lanza 2001. "Bilingual First Language Acquisition: A Discourse Perspective on Language Contact in Parent-Child Interaction." In Trends in Bilingual Acquisition, edited by J. Cenoz, and F. Genesee, 201-229. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/tilar.1.10lan) that comprise the spontaneous and longitudinal production of these children. Our results show that the language strategies followed by parents at home in combination with the linguistic communities where they live play a key role on this bilingual practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]