the problem of defining a multilingual repertoire

THE PROBLEM OF DEFINING A MULTILINGUAL REPERTOIRE Silvia Dal Negro (Free University Bolzano, Italy)

Silvia Dal Negro - Linee

• because students are multilingual?

• because several languages are spoken?

• because all share the same multilingual repertoire?

Why multilingual?


• the sum of the languages used by a speech community• the hierarchy of these languages• the distribution of domains

What is a linguistic repertoire?


a community of people sharing: a social organization territoriality a set of languages language use patterns language attitudes regular and frequent interac[Berruto, Ferguson, Kloss, Gumperz, Labov]

What is a speech community?


Kinds of speech communities

diglossic bilingual dilalic bidialectal

diacrolettictriglossic (b)triglossic (a)


• non territorial and diversified communities, typically migrants (Chini 2009);• communities of practice instead of territorially-bound speech communities (Jenkins 2007); • standard repertoires emerge empirically out of meaningful correlations between codes and domains of use (Dell’Aquila 2005); • patterns of language use constitute speech communities (Vietti 2007);• qualitative, ideological parameters contribute to the definition of a repertoire (Dal Negro / Iannaccaro 2003).

Some recent issues


Parameters to define a linguistic repertoire

in-group/out-group “ethnic” local “legitimate” language/ dialect glottonymes


SCHOOL

SOCIAL NETWORK

1

SOCIAL NETWORK

2

NEIGHBOURHOOD


The school as a speech community

• it has a definite social organization• it has a very clear territorial

definition• there are regular and frequent

interactions among its members

o is there a shared set of languages ?

o are there shared language use patterns ?

o are there shared language attitudes ?

LINEE – WP8a

Project: In search of multi-competence: Exploring language use

and language values among multilingual immigrant students in England, Italy and Austria.

Partners: Freie Universität Bozen: Gessica De Angelis, Enrica Cortinovis,

Silvia Dal Negro University of Southampton: Ros Mitchell, Amanda Hilmarsson-

Dunn, Elena Ioannidou Universität Wien: Marie-Luise Volgger

Research domains/methodologies: Subjects involved: students and teachers in a vocational

school in Bolzano Multilingualism: both local and migrant (working class) Objects of study: language use, attitudes and awareness Kind of data: questionnaire survey (160 students)


Multilingualism as a shared experience

differences between three European contexts

England

Austria

Italy

Italy is the only country in

which multilingualis

m is not necessarily linked to (or caused by) migration


Several potential communities

Countryof birth

Mothertongue

16 students gave a dialect as their mothertongue referring to it with a specific name (Calabrese, Lombardo, etc.).vs. very low ratings of dialect in other (also traditional) contexts DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE IN A MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT


A shared set of languagesPothuari

Tamil

Bulgarian

German Dialetcs

Dutch

Danish Turkish

Chinese

Bangla

Russian

Portuguese Hindi

Latin

Punjab Urdu Italian

English German

Italian Dialects

French Arabic

Albanian Spanish

Persian

Macedonian

Polish Kurdish

Serbian Finnish

Sinthi

Sinhala

Rumenian

Ladin

Südtirolerisch


Shared language use patterns

teachers during breaks school staff

Italian 100% 100%

Germ/SüT 35% --

Other l. -- --

grand-parents

father


Shared attitudes


Trying to sum up


the WP8 team

the Bolzano team

all of you for listening!

Lots of thanks to …

the problem of defining a multilingual repertoire

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