Summary and conclusion

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. However, as a result of its success, the research tradition now faces an entirely new challenge: Where to from here? How can research in code-switching continue to be relevant and interesting now it has largely achieved its original purpose? This book has argued that, in order to overcome this challenge, the notion of bilingualism itself must be redefined. Bilingualism must be seen as consisting of diverse interactional practices and be investigated as such. This book has made the case for this new approach, outlined a methodology for investigating bilingualism as interactional practices and illustrated it by means of three case studies. This concluding chapter wraps up the argument and invites other researchers to contribute to this new research direction.

Language choice and appositive structures in written texts in Rwanda

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. Now that code-switching has been rehabilitated, the research tradition faces an entirely new challenge, namely that of its continued relevance. This book argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, research should aim to describe specific interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages and outlines a methodology for doing so. This chapter illustrates this methodology by means of a specific case study. It describes the language choice practice of translinguistic apposition as observed in written texts in Rwanda. In Rwanda, authors often construct appositive structures in two languages. In turn, this possibility raises a theoretical as well as a practical issue. At the theoretical level language alternation is observed in “highly regulated texts” and, at the practical level, readers are assumed to be competent in all the languages involved. The chapter argues that the first issue does not actually arise as language alternation is oriented to as deviance and the second is resolved by reference to notion of ascribed linguistic competence in context.

Language choice and conversational repair in bilingual interaction

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. Now that code-switching has been rehabilitated, the research tradition faces an entirely new challenge, namely that of its continued relevance. This book argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, research should aim to describe specific interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages and outlines a methodology for doing so. This chapter illustrates this methodology by means of a specific case study. The chapter describes the interactional practice of conversational repair in bilingual interaction. Two research questions are raised: (a) where in the repair sequence can language alternation occur and (b) what does language alternation do when it occurs in repair sequences. It is shown that language alternation interacts with repair organisation in two ways. Either language alternation is the focus of conversational repair or it is an additional resource for the organisation of conversational repair.

The rehabilitation of code-switching

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. This chapter discusses in some detail the research effort which has led to the rehabilitation of code-switching, with a special focus on studies conducted from a socio-functional perspective. Key paradigms in this perspective are covered, including Gumperz’ interactional sociolinguistics model, Myers-Scotton’s markedness (rational choice) model and Auer’s and Gafaranga’s conversation analytic model of code-switching. In turn, this overview of existing research serves as a context for the challenge the study of code-switching is face with, namely that of its continued relevance.

Language choice and speech representation in bilingual interaction

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. Now that code-switching has been rehabilitated, the research tradition faces an entirely new challenge, namely that of its continued relevance. This book argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, research should aim to describe specific interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages and outlines a methodology for doing so. This chapter illustrates this methodology by means of a specific case study. In the chapter, the interaction practice of speech representation in talk in two languages is described. It is shown that, in talk in two languages, language choice in the interactional site of speech representation follows a three-path map: language choice may be an incidental aspect, it may be as a supportive aspect and it may be the depictive element in speech representation.

Introduction

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. However, as a result of its success, the research tradition now faces an entirely new challenge: Where to from here? How can research in code-switching continue to be relevant and interesting now it has largely achieved its original purpose? This chapter outlines the case for a new direction in research in code-switching, foregrounds the need for mainstreaming bilingualism studies and suggests an inductive perspective, based on Conversation Analysis, as the right methodology for this new research direction. The chapter also outlines the organisation of the book as based on the notion of text as colony.

An inductive perspective on bilingualism as interactional practices

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. Now that code-switching has been rehabilitated, the research tradition faces an entirely new challenge, namely that of its continued relevance. This book argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, bilingualism must be seen as consisting of diverse interactional practices and be investigated as such. This chapter outlines a methodology, described as an inductive perspective, which can be used in describing interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages and illustrates it initially by means of a monolingual example. The monolingual practice described in the chapter is the use of ‘how are you?’ by doctors to elicit patients’ presenting concerns.