Migration, Languages & Cultures Group Meeting

Second meeting of the FHI Migration, Languages and Cultures Working Group:

Language Practices in Migrant Communities.

Following on from our discussions of the theoretical issues around language and globaliza- tion, this month we focus on the actual use of language in migrant communities. Zentella (1997) and Wei (2011) examine two very different contexts—Puerto Ricans in New York and Chinese youth in the UK, respectively. Rampton (2011) explores the interactions be- tween the dynamics of ‘native’, class-based London varieties of ‘posh’ vs. ‘Cockney’, and migrant varieties of ‘Creole’ and ‘Asian’ English.

Readings (available on request):

• Zentella, Ana Celia (1997) Growing Up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Li, Wei (2011) Moment Analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics. 43: 1222–1235.
• Rampton, Ben (2011) Style contrasts, migration and social class. Journal of Pragmatics. 43: 1236-1250.

To register, please email dominika.baran [at] duke.edu