18.3551, Diss: Socioling: Gogonas: 'Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Ma...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-3551. Tue Nov 27 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.3551, Diss: Socioling: Gogonas: 'Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Ma...'

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1)
Date: 27-Nov-2007
From: Nikolaos Gogonas < nikgog at hotmail.com >
Subject: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in Athens

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:33:27
From: Nikolaos Gogonas [nikgog at hotmail.com]
Subject: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance in Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and Egyptian pupils in Athens
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Institution: University of Sussex 
Program: DPhil Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2007 

Author: Nikolaos Gogonas

Dissertation Title: Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Language Maintenance  in
Second-generation Migrants: a study of Albanian and
Egyptian pupils in Athens 

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Russell King
Nicola J. Woods

Dissertation Abstract:

In this study I investigate the factors affecting language maintenance 
among second-generation Albanian and Egyptian migrant pupils in 
Greece. Using a combined quantitative and qualitative methodology, I 
explore the influence of three sets of variables on language 
maintenance. These are a) ethnolinguistic vitality, defined by the 
demography, status and institutional support of each group in Greece, 
as well as migrant and indigenous pupils' perceptions regarding these 
factors; b) migrant parents' attitudes to language maintenance and 
their role in language transmission in the home; and c) the attitudes of 
teachers and the institutional approaches of mainstream Greek 
education to linguistic and cultural diversity. 

As regards the ethnolinguistic vitality component of the study, findings 
indicate that numerical strength is not a factor that accounts for 
language maintenance: this is illustrated by the fact that despite the 
numerical superiority of the Albanian group vis-à-vis the Egyptian 
migrant community, the latter fares better in terms of language 
maintenance. The main reason for this was found to be the Egyptians' 
better social status ascribed by the Greek society as compared to the 
Albanians who have been suffering stigmatisation.

Regarding the role of the family in language maintenance, I found that 
religion and language form core values for Egyptian parents, a fact 
that leads - especially Muslim Egyptians - to a higher mobilisation for 
the transmission of the ethnic language to their children compared to 
the Albanians. On the other hand, the lack of a 'religious tradition' in 
combination with a general 'fluidity' of ethnic identity that characterises 
the Albanian parents, leads them to embrace the Greek language at 
the cost of ethnic language maintenance and its transmission to the 
next generation. 

Finally, the role of mainstream Greek education in language 
maintenance was found to be determining. The emphasis placed on 
Ancient Greek and Western European languages and the 
simultaneous undervaluation of all other languages and cultures leads 
to the marginalisation of languages such as Albanian and Arabic. In 
this exclusionary context, migrant pupils' linguistic capital is considered 
as a deficit; as a result, migrant pupils internalise the negative 
attitudes to their languages and the possibilities of language 
maintenance are minimised. 





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