Empowering Multilingual Learners Through Critical Liberating Literacy Practices in English-Dominated Speech Communities

This chapter explores the nuances of critical literacy reviewing the influence of the sociocultural context and the critical element that arises from the individuals who negotiate their identities as they interact with others in a variety of settings. The perspective adopted here focuses on multilingual learners as they engage in literacy practices in English, the dominant language, within schooled environments resulting in hybrid productions within a Third Space, which is a metaphorical setting that promotes expansive learning. Such literacy productions consider the lived-in experiences of the individuals and their personal histories as tools for learning with the potential to liberate themselves from the dominant literacy practices. The chapter includes a discussion of the role and status of English to empower non-dominant groups within English-speaking settings.

(Non)fuzziness of Identity in the Spanish-Portuguese Borderland: The Case of the Linguistic Community of A Fala de Xálima (Spain)

(Non)fuzziness of Identity in the Spanish-Portuguese Borderland: The Case of the Linguistic Community of A Fala de Xálima (Spain)This article analyses the social dynamics observable in a conversation with a minoritized language activist about the neighbouring speech communities. The study demonstrates that the local variety, along with its socially meaningful context, can be an important factor for the interactionally constructed local identity. The interviewee is a member of the community of practice of A Fala de Xálima, a Galician-Portuguese Romance minoritized language with about 5,000 speakers; they live in the Spanish province of Cáceres (on the border with Portugal). The analysis applies the ontological and epistemological principles of sociocultural linguistics in order to identify some indexical interactional orientations, such as stance and ideology. (Nie)ostrość tożsamości na pograniczu hiszpańsko-portugalskim – przypadek społeczności językowej A Fala de Xálima (Hiszpania)Celem artykułu jest analiza dynamik społecznych, które można zaobserwować w konwersacji z aktywistą na rzecz języka mniejszościowego, prowadzonej na temat sąsiednich społeczności językowych. W dalszej kolejności, celem jest ukazanie, że lokalna odmiana językowa, brana pod uwagę wraz ze swoim społecznie znaczącym kontekstem, może znacząco wpływać na lokalną tożsamość językową, budowaną w sposób interakcjonalny. Rozmowa została przeprowadzona z członkiem wspólnoty praktyki A Fala de Xálima – języka mniejszościowego należącego do galicyjsko-portugalskiej grupy języków romańskich – która liczy ok. 5000 użytkowników mieszkających w hiszpańskiej prowincji Cáceres (na granicy z Portugalią). W analizie autor posługuje się zasadami ontologiczno-epistemologicznymi tzw. językoznawstwa społeczno-kulturowego i przy ich użyciu opisuje wybrane orientacje indeksykalne o charakterze interakcjonalnym, takie jak pozycjonowania społeczne (ang. stance) i ideologie.

Multilingualism and Language Choice in Domains

Experts know that multilingualism is not the so-called minority phenomenon as many people think it to be. Although it is difficult to provide the exact statistical data on the multilingual speakers and distribution of multilingualism in the world, sociolinguists and linguists estimate that there are roughly around 6000 languages in the world. The focus of this book chapter is to succinctly present the sociolinguistic aspects of language choice and use of multilingual speakers in various domains. Besides, concepts such as bilingualism and multilingualism and their dynamics in the field of sociolinguistics have been critically been reviewed and presented from the theoretical and empirical perspectives. Further, some of the relevant issues related to language choice and use in multilingual speech communities in different parts of the globe are reviewed and included. Furthermore, factors inducing multilingualism among different speech communities and individuals have been reviewed and finally, recent developments and dynamics toward the spread of multilingualism in various parts of the world are also presented in the chapter.

Hyperbole in English and Arabic Selected Poems: A Contrastive Study

Hyperbole is one of the most important figurative devices that are used in most languages, it can be found in literary works whether they are spoken or written. its main purpose is to exaggerate point of views, emotion, feelings, attitudes and thoughts by the author or even the speakers, since it can be found in everyday language of various speech communities. This study investigates hyperbole in order to figure out the way in which it is involved in poetry, also the study aims to show the definitions, uses, ways in which hyperbole is used as well as to search what are the purposes behind using this device. The study shows different views and strategies concerning hyperbole in English and Arabic, then it analyses the occurrences of hyperbole within the selected data which is four poems in two different languages, English and Arabic.

Russian in the multilingual environment of three Asian countries

This article provides a comparative analysis of the sociolinguistic situation in three Asian countries, India, Japan, and South Korea, which are relatively less known as countries where the Russian language is used. The aim of the study is to assess the significance of the Russian language in these countries Russian-speaking diasporas, business sphere, and education, as well as to define the characteristics of its teaching in the cultural contexts under discussion. In all these domains processes of language commodification are intensifying. The countries chosen for analysis differ in the history of language contacts, political relations with Russia, language policy, language attitudes, and as a result, residents motivation for maintaining and learning the Russian language. We discuss similarities and differences in the development of Russian speech communities. We also reflect upon linguistic and cultural hybridity, and in particular, its effect on the evolution of multilingual identities on the basis of interviews, fieldnotes, internet resources, and published data. The results show that in Japan and South Korea, the number of immigrants, students, businesspeople and mixed families using Russian is growing, and Russian language schools are popular; in India, the established relationship of peace, friendship and cooperation through various treaties continues to have its effect on the popularity of the Russian language in various spheres of life. In all the three countries Russian serves as a lingua franca for immigrants from different post-Soviet countries, which increases its value for the diasporans. The study argues that realities of diasporic life contribute to the pluricentric trends in the development of Russian.

Playing platformized language games: Social media logic and the mutation of participatory cultures in Chinese online fandom

This study discusses the shifting dynamics of fan participatory cultures on social media platforms by introducing the concept of “platformized language games.” We conceive of a fan community as a “speech community” and propose that the language and discourses of fan participatory cultures are technological practices that only make sense in use and interactions as “games” on social media platform. Based on an ethnography of communication on fan communities on Weibo, we analyze the technological-communicative acts of fan speech communities, including the platformized setting, participants, topics, norms, and key purposes. We argue that the social media logic (programmability, connectivity, popularity, and datafication) articulates with fans’ language games, thus shifting the “form of life” of celebrity fans on social media. Empirically, fan participatory cultures continue to mutate in China, as fan communities create idiosyncratic platformized language games based on the selective appropriation of the social media logics of connectivity and data-driven metrics.

Microplanning and Language Policy in Morocco

Language policy and planning (LPP) has undergone an epistemological turn. Early LPP works approached linguistic diversity as a problem; especially for the newly independent states, but in today’s globalized world, multilingualism is the norm. A major issue that characterizes contemporary LPP in Morocco and needs further investigation is the interaction between macro-policies and local practices. Most top down language policies face resistance from speech communities. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the role of micro-planning and local agents in implementing a workable language policy. The aim is to reduce the gap between LPP research and local practices by using an ethnographic approach. Ruiz orientational model and Spolsky’s management theory provide a rich theoretical framework. Micro-planning can translate central policies into local practices.

“All the people who live in Auckland”: A study of subject and non-subject relative clauses in Auckland English

<p>This thesis is a study of the variation in relative marker choice by speakers of Auckland English. The data used in this study was collected as part of “Breaking Babel – Rethinking Language Change in a super-diverse city” (Meyerhoff et al. 2015). The thesis investigates the syntactic and social conditioning on the variation of the complementisers used to introduce relative clauses in the speech of a diverse group of Aucklanders. As a super-diverse city with a rapidly changing sociolinguistic profile, Auckland offers a rich source of data. This research explores how syntactic variation marks speakers of “Auckland English”. This work addresses several key research questions which centre on whether there is evidence of language change for this variable, and if so where has the change been initiated and by whom is it lead. Further, how does the variation in Auckland English compare other communities studied, both in terms of studies of relative clause variation and variation in super-diverse cities. These questions derive from an exploration of the history of relative clauses in English. In chapter 2, I review how the current variable system of relative markers developed and how they have been treated both by syntacticians and variationists in previous literature. The purpose of a (restrictive) relative clause is to delimit the denotational reference of an antecedent head nominal that it post-modifies (Huddleston & Pullum 2002: 1034–1035). As such, variation in the choice of complementiser that introduces relative clauses tells us a great deal about how speakers specify information. The variability of relative markers is highly circumscribed (Ball 1996, Levey 2014). Nevertheless, the syntactic and social factors governing their distribution vary between speech communities and can offer insight into the linguistic profiles of these communities (Tagliamonte et al 2005, D’Arcy and Tagliamonte 2010). This study analyses over 2000 tokens of relative clauses, coded for syntactic environment and speaker age, sex and community. Three communities, chosen for their differing demographic profiles, are sampled across Auckland. Significant predictors of relative marker choice are then compared to other studies of relative clause variation. This thesis then explores (i) which factors are universal or common predictors of relativiser choice, (ii) which factors index Auckland English and (iii) which are markers of specific communities within Auckland. Previous studies of superdiverse cities (cf. Cheshire et al. 2015) have shown that the input of many diverse language varieties into a community can lead to large scale innovation and change. I explore the variation in relative markers in Auckland English in this context. Little evidence of language change taking place is found in this study and in fact, social factors such as age-grading patterns may suggest stable variation. There is some evidence of levelling (Trudgill 2004) in the most diverse of the three communities surveyed. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the significance of these results, both to the study of relative clauses and linguistic variation in general.</p>

“All the people who live in Auckland”: A study of subject and non-subject relative clauses in Auckland English

<p>This thesis is a study of the variation in relative marker choice by speakers of Auckland English. The data used in this study was collected as part of “Breaking Babel – Rethinking Language Change in a super-diverse city” (Meyerhoff et al. 2015). The thesis investigates the syntactic and social conditioning on the variation of the complementisers used to introduce relative clauses in the speech of a diverse group of Aucklanders. As a super-diverse city with a rapidly changing sociolinguistic profile, Auckland offers a rich source of data. This research explores how syntactic variation marks speakers of “Auckland English”. This work addresses several key research questions which centre on whether there is evidence of language change for this variable, and if so where has the change been initiated and by whom is it lead. Further, how does the variation in Auckland English compare other communities studied, both in terms of studies of relative clause variation and variation in super-diverse cities. These questions derive from an exploration of the history of relative clauses in English. In chapter 2, I review how the current variable system of relative markers developed and how they have been treated both by syntacticians and variationists in previous literature. The purpose of a (restrictive) relative clause is to delimit the denotational reference of an antecedent head nominal that it post-modifies (Huddleston & Pullum 2002: 1034–1035). As such, variation in the choice of complementiser that introduces relative clauses tells us a great deal about how speakers specify information. The variability of relative markers is highly circumscribed (Ball 1996, Levey 2014). Nevertheless, the syntactic and social factors governing their distribution vary between speech communities and can offer insight into the linguistic profiles of these communities (Tagliamonte et al 2005, D’Arcy and Tagliamonte 2010). This study analyses over 2000 tokens of relative clauses, coded for syntactic environment and speaker age, sex and community. Three communities, chosen for their differing demographic profiles, are sampled across Auckland. Significant predictors of relative marker choice are then compared to other studies of relative clause variation. This thesis then explores (i) which factors are universal or common predictors of relativiser choice, (ii) which factors index Auckland English and (iii) which are markers of specific communities within Auckland. Previous studies of superdiverse cities (cf. Cheshire et al. 2015) have shown that the input of many diverse language varieties into a community can lead to large scale innovation and change. I explore the variation in relative markers in Auckland English in this context. Little evidence of language change taking place is found in this study and in fact, social factors such as age-grading patterns may suggest stable variation. There is some evidence of levelling (Trudgill 2004) in the most diverse of the three communities surveyed. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the significance of these results, both to the study of relative clauses and linguistic variation in general.</p>

Intensifying and downtoning in South Asian Englishes

As studies on socio-pragmatics in South Asian Englishes and – more generally – postcolonial Englishes are still rare, the present study analyses how age, formality of context, gender, topic of the conversation and type-token ratio of a given speaker influence intensifiers and downtoners in spoken Indian, Sri Lankan and British English as represented in the International Corpus of English. Central research interests cover (a) differences in the frequencies of intensifiers/downtoners regarding these factors and across the varieties studied and (b) variety-specific intensifiers/downtoners in these regional varieties. Two random forest analyses highlight that, while topic and type-token ratio are more important predictors than age and gender, all variables are – to different degrees – sensitive to variety. Possible explanations for a higher incidence of intensifiers/downtoners in British English than in Indian and Sri Lankan English include intensification strategies transferred from indigenous languages or high degrees of uncertainty avoidance in the South Asian speech communities.