Multilingual Living: Explorations of Langua Subjectivity

227 Pages·2005·0.56 MB·English

by  Charlotte Burck

Multilingual Living
Explorations of Language and Subjectivity
Charlotte Burck
Multilingual Living
Also by Charlotte Burck
GENDER AND FAMILY THERAPY (with Gwyn Daniel)
GENDER, POWER AND RELATIONSHIPS (co-edited with Bebe Speed)
Multilingual Living
Explorations of Language and Subjectivity
Charlotte Burck
© Charlotte Burck 2005
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First published 2005 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN 1–4039–3965–9 hardback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burck, Charlotte, 1948–
Multilingual living : explorations of language and subjectivity / Charlotte
Burck.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–3965–9 (cloth)
1. Multilingualism. 2. Multilingualism—Research. I. Title.
P115.B87 2004
306.44′6—dc22
2004053757
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
Structure of the book 2
1 Researching Multilingualism and Multilingual Identities 9
Children’s language acquisition 10
Language, thought and experience 12
Supporting children’s bilingualism and multilingualism 13
Effects on children of speaking several languages 15
First and subsequent languages 16
Contextual factors and language use 18
Migration, gender, generation and language 19
Racialized identities, ethnicities, culture, class
and language 21
Narrative, discursive practices and identity 23
Biculturalism and transculturalism 25
Positioning in and between several languages 26
Language signified as carrier of identity 27
Bilingualism as an interactional resource 28
Researching bilingual/multilingual speakers’ views 30
Summary and conclusion 30
2 The Research Framework 32
Research questions 33
Epistemology and research framework 34
Conducting the research interviews 35
Research participants 36
Transcription 37
A synthesized approach to analysis 41
3 Childhoods in Several Languages 46
Growing up in multilingual colonial contexts 46
Growing up in bilingual/trilingual contexts 54
Growing up with a minoritized language 56
v
vi Multilingual Living
Fleeing from one’s country of origin 66
Concluding discussion 73
4 Adulthoods in Several Languages: Constructions
of Self and of Language 76
Constructing oneself anew 76
Inarticulacy 79
Performance 80
Coming to own a language 84
A sense of doubleness 85
Constructions of language 91
Concluding discussion 99
5 Language Identities and Power Relationships:
Strategies of Hybridization 101
Racialization processes and language speaking 101
Second-language communications and misunderstandings 105
Strategies of hybridization 108
Concluding discussion 121
6 Language Use and Family Relationships 122
Language and power in family relationships 122
Parenting and language use 131
Using language to claim identity and alliances in families 148
Complexities of speaking several languages within families 156
7 Positioning the Researcher 158
Personal contexts and researcher hypotheses 159
Co-constructing the research accounts 161
Constructions of new meanings 163
Similarities and differences in the research relationship 164
Evaluative aspects of the research interview 165
Self-reflexivity throughout the research process 166
Recursive influences of the research and personal context 166
8 Concluding Discussion 169
Living with multiplicity 171
Constructions of self 173
Doubleness as trope 175
Performing linguistic identities and owning language 177
Languages and family relationships 179
Contents vii
Contextual resources 181
Relationship to language and place 182
Advantages of speaking several languages 184
Implications for individuals, families and professionals 187
Concluding implications 192
Appendixes
1 Protocol for Research Interview 194
2 Transcription Notations 197
References 198
Index 213
Acknowledgements
This book owes a great deal to Ann Phoenix and Margaret Wetherell,
whose intellectual rigour, interest, and generosity have profoundly
informed my thinking during the research on which this book is based.
A number of friends have most generously supported me during the
research and writing, especially Gwyn Daniel, Avi Shlaim, Sara Barratt,
Judy Hildebrand, Christine Peters, Marilyn Leask, Nick Kettle, Elaine
Bander, Gerrilyn Smith, B. Loader and Elsa Jones.
This book is dedicated to the research participants who have been so
interested and willing to discuss these issues with me, and to my son,
Ben Dalton, who offered support and sensitive consultation at key
moments, and whom, regretfully, I did not bring up multilingually.
viii
Introduction
Why should it be important to research and write of issues of living in
several languages?
Over half of the world’s population are thought to be either bilingual
or multilingual (Grosjean 1982). Sometimes it is difficult to keep hold
of this fact while looking through some of the British and North American
linguistics literature where negative connotations about bilingualism
were prevalent until thirty years ago, and which continue to exert
a considerable degree of influence. Many writers, Pinker (1994) and Abley
(2003) among others, are urgently drawing to our attention that we are
in danger of losing 90 per cent of the estimated 5,500 languages in the
world in the next hundred years. There is also growing evidence that loss
of language involves not only loss of cultural knowledge and histories,
but also loss of biodiversity, because of invaluable environmental
knowledge embedded in language (Maffi 2000). This is fuelling efforts
to find ways to maintain languages and to disrupt language loss.
Speaking several languages is valued very differently in different soci-
eties. In Britain, despite the fact that London is the most linguistically
diverse city in the world (Baker and Mohieldeen 2000; TES 2003), there
is more antipathy towards other languages than elsewhere in Europe
(Zeldin 1997), and there is considerable pressure for those who speak
other languages to assimilate by speaking English. This context poses
enormous challenges to individuals and families who want to continue
to live in several languages.
This book explores the ways in which bilingual and multilingual indi-
viduals living in Britain experience and use their languages, and their
perceived effects. It is based on a research study which has aimed to
contribute to our knowledge of bilingualism and multilingualism and
whose focus has been to invite individuals to be reflective about their
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