Talking like a ‘zerolingual’: Ambiguous linguistic caricatures at an urban secondary school

Jaspers, JÃ1⁄4rgen

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.05.012

Cited by 107 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The problematic relation with multilingualism and the monolingual attitude of the Flemings, especially in the educational system, is evidenced time after time (Van den Branden and Verhelst 2008;Jaspers 2004Jaspers , 2011 and presents itself in a Dutch-only language policy (e.g., Jaspers 2011; Moons 2010; Van Gorp 2012). From preschool through secondary school language rules like "When at school, speak Standard Dutch" apply (Jaspers 2011(Jaspers : 1267 or banners on the school fence call out to the parents of children to speak Dutch: "In het belang van uw kind spreken wij hier Nederlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From preschool through secondary school language rules like "When at school, speak Standard Dutch" apply (Jaspers 2011(Jaspers : 1267 or banners on the school fence call out to the parents of children to speak Dutch: "In het belang van uw kind spreken wij hier Nederlands. U toch ook?"…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Common sense ideas of competition between languages, time-on-task (or frequency of input) and possible negative transfer between languages seem to underpin the perception of educators that confronting children with Dutch as much as possible is of the utmost importance and in the best interest of the children. This "radical monolingualism" (Jaspers, 2011(Jaspers, : 1267 is furthermore supported by the Belgian language laws that apply to the official language used in specific situations: public authorities and administration, court cases, education and relations between employers and employees. The "Taalwet Bestuurszaken" ['Law governing the use of languages in administrative matters'] (1966) dictates that all official communication within the domain of public administration has to be performed in Dutch.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Creating rich language environments for more than one language: A work in progress in Flemish childcare

Gorp

Moons

2014

European Journal of Applied Linguistics

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This paper discusses language policy and practices in early educational settings in Flanders (Belgium). It describes the Flemish context and the challenges ECEC face. Stakeholders' beliefs and observed linguistic practices in ECEC in general and in the province of Flemish-Brabant are presented based on a small scale quantitative and qualitative study. We also discuss how major stakeholders have shaped language policy concerning language stimulation and multilingualism in recent years and how a new policy is being implemented in childcare. Finally, we describe additional initiatives taken by regional governments to provide childcare centres with the necessary materials and training to implement this new language policy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Creating rich language environments for more than one language: A work in progress in Flemish childcare

Gorp

Moons

2014

European Journal of Applied Linguistics

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“…Not only do we note the obvious problems and prejudices in ideas such as zerolingualism -a pernicious Belgian coinage suggesting inadequate profi ciency 'in either home or state languages, or more particularly of having an inadequate grounding in Dutch' (Jaspers, 2011(Jaspers, , p. 1267 -and semilingualism or 'double semilingualism' (Skutnabb-Kangas, 1981, p. 250) -suggesting that a person's linguistic competence might be made up of two half competencies -but we also want to suggest that all these accounts, from zerolingualism and semilingualism, via monolingualism, to bilingualism, trilingualism and multilingualism, stem from similar problematic approaches to language enumeration. Not only do we note the obvious problems and prejudices in ideas such as zerolingualism -a pernicious Belgian coinage suggesting inadequate profi ciency 'in either home or state languages, or more particularly of having an inadequate grounding in Dutch' (Jaspers, 2011(Jaspers, , p. 1267 -and semilingualism or 'double semilingualism' (Skutnabb-Kangas, 1981, p. 250) -suggesting that a person's linguistic competence might be made up of two half competencies -but we also want to suggest that all these accounts, from zerolingualism and semilingualism, via monolingualism, to bilingualism, trilingualism and multilingualism, stem from similar problematic approaches to language enumeration.…”

Section: Beyond Monolingualism: Niemand Ist Einsprachigmentioning

confidence: 92%

Metrolingualism

Pennycook¹

2015

455

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MetrolingualismThis book is about language and the city. Pennycook and Otsuji introduce the notion of 'metrolingualism', showing how language and the city are deeply involved in a perpetual exchange between people, history, migration, architecture, urban landscapes and linguistic resources. Cities and languages are in constant change, as new speakers with new repertoires come into contact as a result of globalization and the increased mobility of people and languages.Metrolingualism sheds light on the ordinariness of linguistic diversity as people go about their daily lives, getting things done, eating and drinking, buying and selling, talking and joking, drawing on whatever linguistic resources are available. Engaging with current debates about multilingualism, and developing a new way of thinking about language, the authors explore language within a number of contemporary urban situations, including cafés, restaurants, shops, streets, construction sites and other places of work, in two diverse cities, Sydney and Tokyo. This is an invaluable look at how people of different backgrounds get by linguistically.Metrolingualism: Language in the city will be of special interest to advanced undergraduate/postgraduate students and researchers of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.

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“…As we will demonstrate in this paper, the speech styles are debated in the media in both countries; and those language debates are interwoven with ideological viewpoints on language deficiencies, low professional potential and low prestige, which might lead to linguistic and, hence, social exclusion of the purported speakers (cf. Androutsopoulos 2010; Cornips et al 2015;Jaspers 2011;Milani 2010;Stroud 2004;Svendsen 2014). Another important aim we have set ourselves in our paper is to unravel, and denaturalise, the media-constructed links between alleged ways of speaking and the values, personal characteristics and/or (in)activities ascribed to a purported group of speakers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A ‘new’ speech style is born

Svendsen

Marzo

2015

European Journal of Applied Linguistics

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A 'new' speech style is bornThe omnipresence of structure and agency in the life of semiotic registers in heterogeneous urban spaces Abstract: The aim of this paper is to contribute to the sociolinguistic discussion about the need for a unified sociological theory, by applying realist social theory (RST) (Carter and Sealey, this volume) to the total linguistic fact (TLF) (Silverstein 1985) or to the semiotics of 'new' speech styles in heterogeneous urban spaces. We explore, with data from Belgium (Flanders, Limburg) on Citétaal and Norway on so-called kebabnorsk, the ways structure and agency are omnipresent in the enregisterment of these semiotic registers. Through media discourse analyses, we investigate essential parts of this enregisterment process, in particular the invention and diffusion of labels and the assignment of stereotypical indexical values to these speech styles and to their alleged speakers. We demonstrate, in line with other studies, that media in interplay with scholars is a key force in the enregisterment of these speech styles. In the analysed media discourse, kebabnorsk and Citétaal are constructed as a 'mixed language', as a countable and uniform entity, the use of which inevitably results in unemployment. The alleged language users are constructed as a homogeneous group, namely 'young people with migrant backgrounds'. It is shown that social structure, including asymmetric power relations and language hegemonies, are omnipresent in the valorisation of these registers and that media discourses rely on language ideologies of unity and purity, ideologies central to a monolingual orientation. We advocate a translingual orientation towards language and communication in which communication transcends languages and involves negotiation of mobile resources. This orientation captures the ontology of language and communication and has, as such, the potential to empower the language users' individual agencies. Bente A. Svendsen: Professor of Norwegian as a second language and Scandinavian linguistics and the Deputy Director of MultiLing Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, MOUTONBrought to you by | Harvard University Authenticated Download Date | 6/29/15 10:28 AM grijke schakel vormt in het enregisterment van de deze omgangsvormen. Zo blijkt dat kebabnorsk en Citétaal worden geconstrueerd als 'mengtalen', als telbare en uniforme entiteiten, waarvan het gebruik onvermijdelijk leidt tot werkloosheid. De vermeende gebruikers van deze registers worden ook beschouwd als een specifieke en homogene groep, namelijk de 'jongeren met een migratie-achtergrond'. We tonen aan dat de sociale structuur, waaronder asymmetrische machtsverhoudingen en taalhegemonieën, fundamenteel is in de valorisatie van deze taalregisters en dat het media discours gebaseerd is op taalideologieën van eenheid en zuiverheid, die typerend zijn voor een monolinguale visie op taal. Ten slotte pleiten we voor een translinguale visie die de ontologie van taal en communicatie dekt en meer aandacht schenkt aan de agency...

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Talking like a ‘zerolingual’: Ambiguous linguistic caricatures at an urban secondary school

Cited by 107 publications

References 24 publications

Creating rich language environments for more than one language: A work in progress in Flemish childcare

Creating rich language environments for more than one language: A work in progress in Flemish childcare

Metrolingualism

A ‘new’ speech style is born

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