Medium Request: Talking Language Shift into Being

Joseph GafarangaLinguistics and English Language

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

The University of Edinburgh

Extract 1Talk takes place in A’s home. B is a visitor and E is A’s child, aged 6.

1. B: Alors E, washushanyije iki?‘So E, what have you drawn?)

2. E: Quoi?‘What?’

3. B: Ça c’est quoi?‘What is this?

4. (.)5. B: Qu’est ce que tu as dessiné? ‘What have you drawn?’6. A: Il avait dit qu’il va dessiner un bonhomme

‘He had said he was going to draw a man’7. B: Ah! Je vois un bras

‘Ah! I can see an arm’

1. B: Nta bandi utateguriye? [Nta ba-‘Haven’t you missed out anybody? Haven’t you-

2. A : [abandi barahari?‘is everybody here?’

3. C : Quoi?‘What?’

4. A : Abadahari ni bande? ‘Who’s not here?’

5. C : Quoi?‘What?’

6. A : Abadahari hano.‘Who’s not here ?’

7. C : Ah oui ! deux trois quatre cinq-‘Ah yes ! two three four five’

8. A : Qui?‘Who ?’

9. C : cinq‘five’

10. B : Qui et qui?‘Who and who ?’

11. C : [Deux‘Two’

12. A : [Qui- qui ne sont pas ici?‘Who- who’s not here ?’

Aims of the paper:

• Describe medium request as an instance of language/medium negotiation (Auer, 1995, Gafaranga and Torras, 2001)

• Describe the various medium request strategies• Relate this interactional order to the wider

sociological order, i.e. show how the conversational pattern is “shaped” by language shift currently in progress in the community and, conversely, how, through the conversational pattern, language shift is talked into being.

Why bother?

It is noteworthy that in the face of that threat (ever fast disappearance of the world languages) professionals (…) are doing what they can to counter language shift. Not least of these concerned professionals are those who research the reasons for language shift and who hope to foster language maintenance by studies which shed light on how and why such efforts work or fail.

(Garcia, 2003: 23)

Why bother?

• …RLS (reversing language shift) cannot be accomplished at all if it is not accomplished at the intimate family and local community levels.

• …face-to-face, small-scale social life must be pursued in their own right and focussed upon directly, rather than merely being thought of as obvious and inevitable by-products of ‘higher level’ (more complex, more encompassing, more power-related) processes and institutions.

(Fishman 1991: 4)

Why bother?

Language shift takes place out of sight and out of mind

The subtlety and complexity of this process is the reason why adult villagers do not understand it or are not really conscious of what is happening. Adults are doing nothing new, as far as they can see, when they raise their children…As far as linguistic input is concerned, parents do not appreciate that the bulk of their direct speech to children is not in the vernacular (…) So adults are genuinely surprised when they notice that their children only speak Tok Pisin and their own explanation is that their children are strongly autonomous, stubborn, and simply unwilling to speak Taiap (…)

(Kulick, 1992: 257)

The community: Rwandans in Belgium• 1990-94 civil war and Genocide• Pre-settlement bilingualism because of pre-1994/5

language policies• On-going language shift as a very visible phenomenon

(e.g. community organisations)• Diverging attitudes towards language shift (language as

a core value ideology; claiming / rejecting the Rwandan identity in the face of overwhelming threat to self).

• Continuum of proficiency from “preference” (Auer, 1984) of Kinyarwanda to preference of French

Data collection• Fieldworker: Dr J. Munyandamutsa• ESRC funding (res-000-22-1165)• Participant observation• Recording of naturally occurring conversations in family

settings (25 families)• Interview with participating families

Data analysis: Sequential Analysis

a. A turn by a child following a turn by an adult, the two showing language contrast;

b. Inspect subsequent talk to see if initial language contrast is consequential for the organisation of the sequence at the level of language choice.

c. 31 relevant sequences identified.

d. Two possible outcomes: either adoption of a French ‘monolingual medium’ or adoption of a ‘parallel Kinyarwanda-French bilingual medium’ (Gafaranga and Torras, 2001).

Some themes in language shift research• Ascertaining whether indeed language shift is or

is not in progress (e.g. Bills, Hudson and Hernadez-Chavez, 2000 and Slavik, 2001);

• Correlating degrees of language shift and sociological categories, gender in particular (e.g. Gal, 1979 and Herbert, 1992);

• Social “determinants” (Gal, 1979) of language shift, social networks in particular (Gal, 1979, Wei, 1994, Lanza and Svendsen, 2007, etc.);

• The importance of language attitudes and ideologies in language shift (Slavik, 2001, Papapavlou and Pavlos, 2001, Lanza and Svenden, 2007, Smolicz, 1981, Kulick, 1992).

Interactional patterns in language shift

• Paugh (2005): language shift from Patwa to English in Penville (Dominica); children’s choice of Patwa repaired both at school and at home;

• Bani-Shoraka (2009): language shift from Azerbaijani to Persian in Teheran; adults reformulating their talk in Persian supposedly for the benefit of children;

• Rindstedt and Aronsson (2002): language shift from Quesha to Spanish in San Antonio; adults using either Spanish or Quesha among themselves and Spanish only to children; unidirectional medium repair against Quesha.

Two main problems in language socialisation research:

• The role of children as agents in socialisation (Luykx (2005) and Lanza (2007));

• Noticing interactional patterns in language shift vs.

describing them.

Medium request and /as language/medium negotiation

a language negotiation sequence “begins with a disagreement between two or more parties about which language to use for interaction, and ends as soon as one of them ‘gives in’ to the other preferred language” (Auer, 1984: 20-21).

Two main types of language/medium negotiation: explicit

vs. implicit negotiation (Gafaranga and Torras, 2001)

Implicit language/medium negotiation

REC: bon dia senyora.%eng: good morning madamEN2: mire quería hacer una pregunta # a ver # para

inscribir al niño al instituto de aquí?%eng: I Would like to ask you a question # let’s see # how

do I register my son for the secondary school here?REC: directamente al instituto # está empandronado

aquí el chico?%eng: just at the secondary school # was the boy

registered here?

(Gafaranga and Torras, 2001)

Explicit language negotiation

Talk takes place in an English pub in Barcelona.

AAA: hola.

‘hi’

BBB: hola (.) can I order in English (.) yeah

‘hi’

AAA: Sí

‘yes’

BBB: uh: I’d like to have a pint of blonde beer

AAA: mmm mmm

(Codo, 1998)

Medium request as implicit negotiation

1. B: uzi gukora sport se burya?‘So you know how to do sports?’

2. C: Oui.‘Yes’

(insertion sequence omitted)6. B: Ni nde wakwigishije?

‘Who taught you to do it?’7. C: Moi toute seule.

‘(I learned) all by myself’8. B: Toute seule?

‘(you learned) all by yourself?’9. C: Les copines qui m’ont montrée.

‘Some friends showed me (how to do it).’10. B: K connait? K peut faire ça?

‘Does K know (how to do it)? Can K do it?’

The specificity of medium request

• Who initiates the would-be negotiation: children and never parents;

• Directionality: always in the direction of French;

• Outcomes: Either a French monolingual medium or a Kinyarwanda-French parallel medium; Kinyarwanda never adopted as the medium as a result;

• The term ‘medium request’ adopted so as to highlight children’s agency (position 2 in the sequence).

En example of the parallel medium

Talk takes place in A’s home. B is a visiting adult and C is A’s daughter (9 years)

1. A: Icara hasi uganirize monsieur.‘Sit down and talk to mister.’

2. C: Puis-je m’amuser? 'Can I go to play?’

3. A: Wamubwiye se ko wagiye muli Ardennes?'Did you tell him that you went to the Ardennes?’

4. C: Oui (.) j’ai été aux Ardennes avec mes amies- j’ai dormi là-bas- j’ai dormi avec mes amies.

‘Yes, I went to the Ardennes with my friends- I slept there- I slept with my friends.’

5. B: Wamaze yo iminsi ingahe?'How long were you there?’

6. C: Une nuit‘One night’

7. A: Umm8. B: Warahakunze?

‘Did you like it?’

Medium request strategies

• Embedded medium repair

1. A: D, ngaho mujye gutegura ameza (.) ((talking to herself)) n’uko nta kintu gihari

‘D, go and get the table ready (.) ((talking to herself)) unfortunately there is nothing (to eat)’

2. D: On va manger quoi maman?

‘What are we going to eat mummy?’

3. A: Rien (.) on va manger les assiettes.

‘Nothing (.) we’re going to eat plates.’

Medium request strategies

• Generalised content repair1. A: Ngaho D mujye gushyiraho- mujye gutegura ameza.

‘Go D go and prepare the table.’

(Talk omitted)

2. B: Urashyiraho iki D?‘What are you going to put on it D?’

3. D: Quoi?‘What?’

4. B: Wowe urashyiraho iki?'What are you going to put on it?’

5. D: Le couvert (.) on est combien (.) un deux trois quatre cinq‘Plates (.) how many are we (.) one two three four five’

6. A: Abadahari ni bande D? Ni bande badahari? Qui et qui?‘Who is not here D? Who is not here? Who and who?’

• Targeted medium repair3. B: Ufite inshuti zingahe?

‘How many friends do you have?’4. C: Au Rwanda j’ai aussi des amis.

'I have friends in Rwanda too.’5. A: Yakubajije hano- (…) Yakubajije umubare w’inshuti zawe.

‘He asked you about here- (…) He asked you the number of your friends.’

6. C: La soeur?‘The sister?’

7. A: Umubare.‘The number.’

8. C: C’est quoi ça?‘What’s that?’

9. A: Le chiffre.‘The number’.

10. C: ((lists names))11. B: A peu près combien? Dix?

‘Roughly how many (friends) do you have? Ten?’12. C: Non plus, Marie, Andrea-

‘No more, Mary, Andrea-‘

• Understanding check

1. A: Uzi kubara?

‘Do you know how to count?’

2. C: Je sais compter?

‘Do I know how to count?’

3. E: Tu sais compter?

‘Do you know how to count?’

4. C: Oui.

‘Yes.’

5. E: Jusqu’ à combien?

‘Up to how much?’

Talking language shift into being

A. Macro sociological order• Adult members known in common to be bilingual in

French in Kinyarwanda;• Children known in common not to be proficient in

Kinyarwanda.B. Micro-conversational order• Children initiate medium request;• The request is for the adoption of French;• The outcome is never monolingual Kinyarwanda

mediumC. Theory of interaction• Language preference as a membership categorisation

device (Gafaranga, 2001);• In actual situations of language choice, participants

take account of each other’s preference.

Talking language shift into being (more detail)

• Different language-based categories along the language proficiency continuum

• “Interactional relevance” (Schegloff, 1991) of language-based categories

• In medium requests, the relevant categories seem to be: a. ‘Kinyarwanda-French bilingual adult’ with strong preference for Kinyarwanda (hence initiation of sequences in Kinyarwanda)

b. ‘passive Kinyarwanda-French bilingual children’ with strong preference for French (hence initiation of sequences in Kinyarwanda and strategies such as embedded medium repair, targeted content repair and understanding check)

In lieu of a conclusion

Rwandans in Belgium to be advised to resist children medium requests even if this means adopting the parallel mode (knowledge transfer).

THANK YOU