<div dir="ltr"> Multilingual Identities: New Global Perspectives<br><div id=":kb" class="">
Date:16-Mar-2014<br>
From:Zuzana Elliott <a href="mailto:zuzana.elliott@ed.ac.uk">zuzana.elliott@ed.ac.uk</a><br>
LINGUIST List issue <a href="http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-2362.html" target="_blank">http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-2362.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Announced at <a href="http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-5098.html" target="_blank">http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-5098.html</a><br>
<br>
SUMMARY<br>
<br>
Inke Du Bois and Nicole Baumgarten's volume brings new approaches in
understanding and analysing multilingual migrants' backgrounds and
identities. This collection of essays investigates migrants'
"linguistic-ethnic-national" (p. 8) identities performed in different
cultural societies. The studies shed new light on multilingualism around
the globe, focusing primarily on identity construction in urban
settings of less-documented languages in Europe, the United States, and
the Middle East.<br>
<br>
The chapters are organised thematically, where the first three chapters
deal with multilingual identity of children and adolescents and the last
four are concerned with multilingual identity construction of adults.
Each chapter includes a brief literature review and references, which
inspire opportunities for further research. In the introduction, the
editors combine the materials from subsequent chapters and apply them to
global perspectives.<br>
<br>
The first chapter in this volume ('Communicative practices among migrant
youth in Germany: "Insulting address forms" as a multi-functional
activity', by Susanne G�nthner) explores functions of insulting address
forms among 2nd and 3rd generation male youths of German and Turkish
origin residing in Germany. The data were collected in youth centres via
informal interactions between 17- to 23-year-old men of migrant
backgrounds in four different regions in Germany. The author analyses
adolescents' everyday interactions and identities in mixed-speech
communities to uncover the meaning of insulting terms and their usage.
Following the previous studies by Eckert & McConnel-Ginet (1998) and
Bucholtz (2007), G�nthner found that insulting forms are predominantly
used "as resources for asserting particular positions within the group
and for establishing hierarchy and status" (p. 26). In addition, G�nther
found that there are other purposes behind insult use, from creating
group !<br>
identity to forming (or breaking) social ideologies. The study suggests
that the use of insults is therefore not limited to any specific
purpose, and that their use varies according to the social functions
associated with each one.<br>
<br>
In the second chapter, 'Made in Berlin: Bilingualism and identity among
immigrant and German-background children,' Janet M. Fuller analyses the
concepts of ideologies and identities of pre-teen bilingual children in
Berlin. The chapter investigates how children perceive what it means to
'be German' when positioned between two or more languages with various
social backgrounds. This study was based on ethnographic research
conducted in Berlin's two English-German bilingual schools, the Charles
Dickens School and the John F. Kennedy School. More than 100 hours of
audio recordings of classroom activities were collected, along with
participants' observations and questionnaires, which examined
"children's backgrounds, language use, attitudes, self-identification,
and views on what it means to be German" (p. 37). The first part of the
methodology featured a survey exploring children's attitudes towards
their own bilingualism and choice in language use. The author argues
that while !<br>
policy changes define German-ness in terms of language and culture
instead of descent, there is some ambiguity about how the changes are
reflected in the bilingual classroom setting. The data for the second
part of the methodology were obtained through multilingual classroom
interactions, and revealed that code-switching was still prevalent among
immigrant students who identified themselves as German. The results of
this study showed that "'being German' is accessible to anyone who is
culturally part of Germany" (p. 48), demonstrating that language use was
not the sole factor involved in cultural identification. Particularly
interesting is the discussion of multilingual language ideologies and
self-representations through the eyes of children. As Fuller rightly
points out, the data collected were not objective, as they reflected
mere behaviours and feelings, of which children might not be well aware.<br>
<br>
A. Lane Igoudin's short chapter, 'Asian American girls who speak African
American English: A subcultural language identity', investigates
language use and attitudes among three first-generation Asian-American
teenage girls (two Filipino-American and one Cambodian-American) who use
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in their everyday speech.
Based on three recorded group interviews, the researcher observed that
the girls appeared to adopt "a wide variety of phonological,
morphosyntactic and lexical features of AAVE" (p. 54). Interestingly, as
Igoudin points, the results did not correlate with a previous study by
Wardhaugh (2002), who claimed that "the less standard the variety of
English spoken [is], the more successfully formal education appears to
be resisted" (p. 55). The academic performances of the girls were above
average, but they frequently switched between AAVE and Standard American
English (SAE) (and their home languages Khmer and Tagalog) based on
different!<br>
situations. The girls' code choices appeared to be very unconventional
because the AAVE dialect "more than any other dialect of American
English, has been stigmatized as a socially unacceptable code --
something, we learned, the girls were well aware of" (p. 60). The
chapter includes useful examples of phonological and morphosyntactic
AAVE features of the subjects' speech, thus providing a clear
understanding of the identity construction and sensitivity of the
subjects.<br>
<br>
Katharina Meng and Ekaterina Protassova's chapter, 'Deutsche or rusaki?
Transformation of the cultural self-conceptions after (r)emigration',
seeks to answer questions regarding 'cultural self-conceptions' of
immigrants in Germany. This interesting study provides insight into
Russia-Germans, or ethnic Germans who emigrated from the Soviet Union to
Germany. Using analyses from interviews, newspapers and internet
forums, the authors compared the complex societies' attitudes towards
Germans and Russians. They identified two terms which represent the
migrants' multilingual identities: Deutscher (German) and rusaki. Both
terms mark integration in Germany to varying degrees. While Deutscher
marks immigrants' German-ness through accepting their German ancestries
or names, or even decisions to be registered as Germans in their Soviet
passports (p. 70), rusaki defines "[a] group of Russians and underlines
its specific ethnicity, the Russianness, above all in its rural
appearance" (p.!<br>
73).<br>
<br>
In her chapter, 'Loving Bollywood and being Dutch: Language choice and
identity issues among Surinamese-Hindustani women in Amsterdam', Dipika
Mukherjee shares her findings of women with regard to their language
maintenance and loss, as well as the obstacles they face concerning
their own identity. The author observed twenty-two Surinamese-Hindustani
women enrolled in a Bollywood dance class in Amsterdam for the duration
of 16 months. These women used four languages in their daily lives;
however, in the class, they spoke exclusively Dutch. Mukherjee observed
that women who migrated into the country young had much stronger ties to
the Netherlands than to India, although they identified themselves as
'Hindustani' over the other categories of 'Dutch' or 'Indian'. The
author found that these women did not share any desire to consider India
as their home country; however, the notion of "Hindustaniness" was
perceived to be very high, as related to preserving the language for
their!<br>
children and community. Also, Suriname is "conceived as 'home,'
[though] they realise that there is no going back" (p. 95). The author
concludes that despite the cultural and language barriers, Bollywood
presents itself as "an accessible means for language retention of a
familiar tongue" (p. 96), thus preserving the strong sense of fellowship
among the Surinamese-Hindustani community.<br>
<br>
Heike Baldauf-Quilliatre's study, 'The role of public opinion in
argumentation: Immigrants in the French radio broadcast L�-bas si j'y
suis', seeks to answer how multiple identities shape the cultural
notions of speakers with migrant backgrounds in France. Public opinions
are often viewed in light of politics and culture; therefore, as the
author points, analysing them through the eyes of migrants often creates
debatable and controversial opinions on the acceptance and tolerance of
speakers' communities. In her study, Baldauf-Quilliatre aimed to
identify immigrants' opinions on immigration laws and their situation in
poor suburbs in relation to the arguments presented by Nicolas Sarkozy.
Her analysis was based on a one-hour French radio broadcast with a
"regular" audience, where she paid particular attention to radio
listeners and their complex contributions left on answering machines.
Although the study didn't allow for broad generalizations, in her
fifteen contributions,!<br>
the results seem to differentiate "between European and South-American
migrants on the one side, and African/North-African migrants on the
other" (p. 108). While the first group showed integration and positive
attitudes towards the host country and people, the second group seemed
to resist and instead, showed rather negative attitudes and
'resignation' toward problems faced in their communities. Each group
used unique tactics to add weight to their opinions on the radio show,
demonstrating multiple paths to immigrants' public integration.<br>
<br>
Inke Du Bois' study, 'And then I had to hold my first Referat on
Beethoven as a politischer Mensch: Multilingual identities and L1
language loss of US Americans in Germany', identifies sociodemographic
factors affecting lexical levels in immigrants' speech. This study
presents quantitative and qualitative analyses of a corpus of
multilingual interviews of thirty American immigrants who left America
for Germany between 1964 and 2001. Investigation of code-switching and
language attrition were analysed statistically. The results were
correlated with extralinguistic variables such as length of residency in
Germany, educational level, and social networks via a demographic
questionnaire. The results indicated that German-American code-switching
appeared more often when Americans were exposed to the society of other
Americans. Thus, Americans who used their first language (L1) tended to
experience fewer problems in retrieving English lexical items.
Interestingly, Du Bois' study sh!<br>
owed that education, length of residence and L1 social networks were
the main factors influencing the varying degrees of "L1 attrition and
the intercultural identities of speakers" (p. 134).<br>
<br>
The last chapter, 'Indigenous and immigrant identities in multilingual
Israel: Insights from focus groups and discourse analysis', by Dafna
Yitzhaki, Carmit Altman, Zhanna Feldman-Burstein, Leor Cohen and Joel
Walters, offers a variety of insights into indigenous and immigrant
minority languages. The chapter consists of a "linguistic taster" in
which the authors examine four studies that focus on identity
constructions among immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds in
Israel. The first study analyses a language policy interaction between
indigenous and immigrant language groups of Israeli and Arabic. The
study found that arguments supporting indigenous minority language
instruction rely on two recurring elements: that 'indigenousness' is
either irrelevant or hierarchical in deciding language instruction (p.
143). The contradictory nature of these elements makes for highly
complex and volatile debates. The second study focuses on identity
formation in four Russian immigrant!<br>
adult parents and their six adolescent children, all of whom are
second language (L2) speakers with high proficiency in Hebrew. The
authors offer two excerpts from interviews of two of the adolescents
with different backgrounds. The first adolescent, Faina, demonstrated a
strong attachment to her host country, including near-total integration
into Israeli and secular Jewish culture. Though she preserved her
Russian roots for 'practical' reasons and did not hide her Russian
background, she distanced herself from similar immigrants who
self-identified as Russian. The second adolescent, Rina, showed more
attachment towards her Russian identity, but demonstrated a keen
awareness of the complexity of her immigrant identity. Both of these
girls held their opinions without antagonising differing opinions. The
third study presents the complexity of Ethiopian-Israeli identity
display, as characterised through self-perception and ethnicity. Four
Ethiopian-Israeli college students we!<br>
re recorded, showing how their soldier identity conflicts with but als<br>
o ascends beyond other social norms. In this way, these students use
their soldier identity to break through or remove limitations imposed by
other social identities (e.g., gender, nationality, religion) and to
become more socially mobile as a result. The fourth study focuses on
analysing relationships between code-switching and identity among twelve
English-Hebrew participants who immigrated to Israel in adulthood from
the United States. The research questions focused on motivations behind
code-switching between L1 and L2 narratives, and identifying discourse
markers that reflect a variety of aspects of motivation for
code-switching across different identities.<br>
<br>
EVALUATION<br>
<br>
Researchers interested in discourse analysis and L2 acquisition will
certainly find this small collection of essays to be an interesting and
inspiring resource. This volume investigates new approaches towards
global multilingual migrant identities while addressing various topics
in the fields of language loss, discourse analysis, and code-switching.<br>
<br>
Overall, the book provides invaluable reading for anyone interested in
the growing development of global multilingualism, where the primary
focus applies to immigrants' national and ethnic backgrounds and
cultural identities. As a student who does extensive research on
multilingualism and immigrants' identities, I find this book to be a
great contribution to my research. When compared with similar sources,
this volume presents the most recent studies in a well-structured and
cohesive manner, taking into account different communicative and social
interactions of global personae.<br>
<br>
Despite the small number of chapters, this book identifies different
concepts of children's and adults' multilingual identity constructions
while focusing primarily on lesser-researched languages, such as
Israeli, French, or Dutch. The volume is also highly inclusive, as it
considers lesser-known national and ethnic identities such as
Surinamese-Hindustani, German-Croatians, and German-Americans, among
others.<br>
<br>
As a researcher focusing on immigrants and their identities, I found
Fuller's 'Made in Berlin' and Igoudin's 'Asian American girls who speak
African American English' particularly poignant; both chapters examine
first-generation immigrant children who identify themselves as part of
their local community as a result of strong ideologies and perceptions
towards their peers and cultures. In contrast, Yitzhaki et al.'s
'Indigenous and immigrant identities in multilingual Israel' reviewed
four separate studies. Although I found the section 'Identity
construction in the discourse of Russian-Israeli immigrant adolescents'
intriguing, I would have appreciated more information, in general, in
each of the sections. This chapter felt constrained, primarily due to
its covering four separate studies in the space of one chapter.<br>
<br>
In sum, Du Bois and Baumgarten provide a measured and effective analysis
of increasing global multilingualism, and their book acts as an
excellent source of cutting-edge social research to stimulate discussion
in classrooms and research centres alike.<br>
<br>
REFERENCES<br>
<br>
Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1998). Communities of practice.
Where language, gender, and power all live. In J. Coates (Ed.) "Language
and gender: A Reader" (484-494). Mass.: Blackwell.<br>
<br>
Bucholtz, M. (2007). Word up. Social meanings of slang in California
youth culture. In L. Monaghan and J. E. Goodman (Eds.) "A Cultural
approach to interpersonal communication. Essential readings" (244-267).
Malden, MA: Blackwell.<br>
<br>
Wardhaugh, R. (2002). "An introduction to sociolinguistics." Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.<br>
<br>
Zuzana Elliott is a doctoral student of Linguistics and English Language
at the University of Edinburgh. Her previous research experience
examined literacy in children across five European languages. She is
interested in multilingualism, language identity, and acquisition of
linguistic variation in migrant second language learners. Her current
research is investigating sociolinguistic aspects of long-term Slovak
and Czech immigrants who reside in Scotland.<br><br><br></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br>
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