Negotiating the politics of language

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

Since 2001, political concerns over social and ethnic cohesion have stimulated new debates over citizenship and belonging in the UK. A central feature of which has been a civic requirement of new citizens to learn English. Such a debate however coincides with concerns around in-migration in Wales, and the highly contested notion that non-Welsh speakers have a civic responsibility to learn Welsh. This article aims to explore the contradictions between these two cases via research with adult language learners in Wales — a group often ignored within literature on language, identity and citizenship. In analysing learners' discourses, the article identifies the ways in which learners come to terms with such notions of responsibility. However, the article argues that by positioning language learning in Wales in relation to the development of Welsh civic institutions, and by locating learning itself as a means of expressing such civic identification to place, so the demands for linguistic accommodation by monolingual English speakers may be increasingly articulated.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch
• Umfang: Seite(n): 208-224
• Anmerkungen: Status: Postprint; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Ethnicities, 7(2)

Klassifikation und Themen

• Thema: adult language learning; civic responsibility; linguistic accommodation; Welsh Language;

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Mann, Robin
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wann): 2007

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796807076845
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-230502
• Rechteinformation: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 21.06.2024, 16:26 MESZ