International Perspectives on Bilingualism [1 ed.] 144389012X, 9781443890120

Citation preview

International Perspectives on Bilingualism

International Perspectives on Bilingualism Edited by

Lydia Sciriha

International Perspectives on Bilingualism Edited by Lydia Sciriha This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Lydia Sciriha and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-9012-X ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9012-0

To my father Pio, my first and most important mentor, and to my siblings Joseph, Pierre, Mario, Simone and Germaine, for their generous support

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .................................................................................... xi Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Lydia Sciriha Part I Code-Switching Chapter One ................................................................................................. 9 Multilayered Multilingualism: The Contribution of Recent Research to Understanding Code-Switching Penelope Gardner-Chloros Part II Linguistic Landscape Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 29 Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting: The Case of the Druze in Israel Martin Isleem Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 43 Linguistic Landscape of Macau: A Quantitative Analysis Ana Cristina Neves Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 63 Resistance on the Walls: The Linguistic Landscape of a French-Breton University Noemi Ramila Diaz Part III Language Policy Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 79 Language Policies and Internationalisation in Brazil: The Role(s) of English as an Additional Language Kyria Rebeca Finardi

viii

Table of Contents

Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 91 German-Polish Bilingualism: Bilingual Language Education and Language Policy - Polish Towns in the German-Polish Border Region Barbara Alicja JaĔczak Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 109 Policy versus Practice: A Study into the Current Status of Bilingual Policy in Sri Lanka Marie Perera and Suriya Arachchige Kularathne Part IV Bilingualism, Culture and Identity Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 129 ELF and Creativity: The Role of Idioms in International Students’ Interactional Exchanges via Social Networks A Case Study from Sapienza University, Rome Marina Morbiducci Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 143 Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions Ralf Heimrath Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 159 Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom Gabriela Scripnic Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 175 Humour and Bilingualism: Bilinguals’ Perception of Humour Alina Ganea Part V Bilingual Education Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 189 One Subject, One Language? To what extent can Curriculum Instruction be said to be Bilingual in Maltese Grade V Classrooms? Romina Frendo

International Perspectives on Bilingualism

ix

Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 209 The Impact of Bilingualism on Predominantly Maltese-Speaking College Students Damian Spiteri and Christiana Sciberras Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 221 A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria: The Case of the Department for Modern Methods of Education at the International University College Mariyana Todorova Part VI Trilingualism Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 239 Italian as Malta’s Third Language: Proficiency, Perceptions and Public Space Visibility Lydia Sciriha Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 259 Trilinguals in the Making: A Study on their Language Choices Fotini Anastassiou Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 275 Achieving Trilingualism in Sri Lanka: Issues and Challenges in the Teaching of Tamil as the Second National Language (2NL) Sabaratnam Athirathan and Markandu Karunanithy Editor and Contributors ........................................................................... 287 Author Index............................................................................................ 295 Subject Index ........................................................................................... 299

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The present volume contains a few of the papers which were presented at the Conference on Bilingualism in 2015. The success of the conference was undoubtedly the result of excellent teamwork by the organising committee members. To this end very many thanks go to Bernice Camilleri, Carmen Chirico, Romina Frendo and Marie Waldron for their hard work and good humour, and also to Lucienne Bugeja, the logistics and conference coordinator, whose organisational skills are second to none. Thanks are also due to Mrs Michelle Muscat for hosting a reception at the Auberge de Castille, thereby giving all delegates the opportunity to enjoy the architectural richness of this historic building going back to the period of the Knights of St John. Grateful acknowledgements are due, and indeed in no small measure, to Dr James Corby, the Head of the Department of English at the University of Malta, for his unflagging support and keen interest before, during, and after the conference. Though not a linguist by profession, nevertheless he strongly promotes the scientific study of bilingualism as one of the department’s key disciplines. Finally, heartfelt thanks go to Dr Elton Stivala for his invaluable support and joyful patience.

INTRODUCTION LYDIA SCIRIHA

Though the overwhelming majority of the countries accommodate more than one language, official bilingualism is not very common. Indeed, Malta is one of a small group of officially-bilingual countries in the twenty-eight member states of the European Union. Malta’s official bilingualism in Maltese and English guarantees the use of the two languages in the Maltese archipelago and also ensures that its people have the necessary linguistic tools to interact with international partners. Moreover, unlike much larger societies where knowledge of one other language, in addition to the official one, is sometimes perceived as unnecessary, there is a general consensus among the Maltese that they also need to be fluent in other non-official languages. This deeply-rooted belief that language learning is imperative for a small island state is clearly manifested at tertiary level. Since its inception in the late eighteenth century as a studium generale, the University of Malta has fostered the study of languages, especially in the Faculty of Arts, which offers courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in a kaleidoscope of languages – Maltese and English, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, as well as Italian, French, German, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. Language departments clearly form the backbone of this faculty and it was hardly surprising that in March 2015 the Faculty of Arts hosted the first International Conference on Bilingualism in Valletta – a city which in 2018 will be one of the two European Capitals of Culture. Language learning reflects the geo-political reality of Malta, a small island state, not only a member of the European Union but one which is also geographically close to North Africa. A country with two official languages has its strengths and weaknesses. Similar challenges are also faced by other unofficially bilingual countries. The seventeen chapters contained in this volume are a selection of papers presented at the International Conference on Bilingualism. The editor of this volume, who was also the convenor of this three-day conference, deemed it important to give a taste of the multifaceted

2

Introduction

research on bilingualism presented by a few of the two hundred delegates who hailed from no less than forty-five countries. Though Europe attracted the largest number of delegates, there were also participants from more distant countries such as Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United States of America, to mention a few. The international nature of this volume reflects diverse viewpoints from a varied selection of authors who analyse the linguistic situations in Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Macau, Malta, Poland, Romania, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom. This volume comprises six sections. Part I contains only one chapter on Code-Switching by Penelope Gardner-Chloros, one of the conference’s keynote speakers. Each of the subsequent five sections includes at least three papers by non-plenary participants on topics related to the Linguistic Landscape (Part II), Language Policy (Part III), Bilingualism, Culture and Identity (Part IV), Bilingual Education (Part V) and Trilingualism (Part VI). In her chapter, Penelope Gardner-Chloros reviews the ways in which research on the intriguing and challenging phenomenon of codeswitching has so far been conducted. She convincingly argues that the newer multilayered approach is necessary for a better understanding of the reasons why code-switching occurs. The Linguistic Landscapes of the Mount Carmel area in Israel, Macau on the China coast and the Brittany region of France are the focus of three chapters in Part II of the present volume. Martin Isleem investigates the presence of Arabic in a Druze public school in Israel. While his findings raise important questions on the importance of Hebrew in this area, Isleem suggests that the predominance of the Hebrew language is strong because of factors such as location, language contact and economic reasons. Ana Cristina Neves discusses the linguistic landscape of Macau by investigating the visibility of the three most important local languages, Cantonese, Portuguese and English, in the three largest pedestrian areas of the Macau Peninsula. Her research findings reveal the presence of changing linguistic patterns in the three languages as spoken there. The third chapter in this section homes in on the bilingual region of Brittany in France. Noemi Ramila Diaz analyses the linguistic landscape at the Department of Applied Foreign Languages where students are required to study two foreign languages, with English as

International Perspectives on Bilingualism

one of the compulsory languages. Her findings reveal that since the linguistic space comprises three levels – the institutional, the academic and the personal – there are tensions especially in spaces which are considered to be neither private nor public. Part III comprises three chapters discussing Language Policy in Brazil, the German-Polish border and Sri Lanka. In the first of the three chapters, Kyria Rebeca Finardi first reviews language policies and internationalisation programmes in Brazil and then shows that the varying roles of English result in a low uptake of scholarships of the Science without Borders internationalisation programme. She maintains the necessity for an alignment of language policies across the various educational levels. The second chapter in this section is by Barbara Alicja JaĔczak who considers bilingualism and multilingualism as quite common on the Polish side of the German-Polish border. After presenting the partial results of her ongoing research project being conducted in this geographic area, she questions the role of the administration of Polish border towns in supporting both bilingual education and intercultural communication of the inhabitants, and whether their children and adolescents stand to profit from the border location in terms of bilingual language education. Marie Perera and Suriya Arachchige Kularathne focus on one significant aspect of an ongoing study on bilingual education in Sri Lanka. Through the use of qualitative and quantitative data, they propose that there are no clear micro-level policies ensuring harmony amongst all the stakeholders in bilingual education. They suggest that existing policy documents be amended to accommodate present pedagogical, socio-political, economic and cultural needs. The four chapters included in Part IV of this volume focus on Bilingualism, Culture and Identity. Marina Morbiducci has studied the role of idioms which international students attending Sapienza University in Rome use during interactional exchanges via social networks. Her findings confirm that where grammar competence and correctness fail, effective communication and language creativity may still take place. In his chapter Bilingualism and Identity in Selected GermanSpeaking Regions, Ralf Heimrath first argues that it is inaccurate to assume that German is the mother-tongue of all inhabitants in Germanspeaking countries. In fact, by means of examples taken from the linguistic panorama and other sources, he shows the existence of

3

4

Introduction

bilingual communities in specific regions close to Germany and illustrates the role of societal bilingualism in these geographical areas. The third and fourth contributions in Part IV discuss aspects of bilingualism and culturalism in Romania. Gabriela Scripnic discusses how the European Union’s cultural policies have encouraged students to pursue their studies outside Romania. By means of several student testimonies, Scripnic shows the extent to which Romanian students studying in the United Kingdom manage to assume a bicultural identity. Furthermore, she highlights the importance of such an academic environment as one that fosters tolerance towards diversity amongst students. The last chapter in this fourth part discusses the use and practice of humour among bilingual Romanian students. In her study Alina Ganea presents the findings of the data she gathered after interviewing foreign students enrolled in Dunărea de Jos University of GalaĠi (DJUG) in Romania during the academic year 2014–2015. Ganea’s findings highlight the difficulties that bilinguals naturally encounter when faced with humour and how the Romanian language determines the bilingual’s linguistic command in the use and practice of humour. Bilingual Education is the theme of the penultimate section of this volume (Part V) with two chapters focussing on the Maltese educational scene, while the third highlighting the linguistic situation in Bulgaria. In her chapter Romina Frendo questions the extent to which one can accurately identify the language used to teach each of the subjects taught at primary level in Malta. In a survey of almost one thousand pupils hailing from state, church and private schools, Frendo finds a lack of conformity in the use of the two official languages during lessons. While Frendo focuses on primary-school children, Damian Spiteri and Christiana Sciberras concentrate on older students who are pursuing their studies at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST). This study explores perceived self-efficacy in terms of their linguistic performance, both within academic as well as work-based settings. The focus of Mariyana Todorova’s chapter is the way Content and Language Integrated Learning approach (CLIL) is implemented in classes of tourism and entrepreneurship taught in English to high school students at one high school in Bulgaria. Todorova presents the results of interviews with students who either intend to or are already conducting their studies in English both abroad and in Bulgaria.

International Perspectives on Bilingualism

Amongst other findings, she shows how the school represents an example of effective bilingual education. The final section in this volume (Part VI) homes in on Trilingualism with three chapters relative to three countries – Malta, Greece and Sri Lanka. In her chapter Lydia Sciriha questions whether Italian, which was an official language in Malta until 1934, is in reality the third language of the country. By providing Census data, MATSEC examination reports and research on the linguistic landscape, she confirms Italian’s third position though she predicts that, owing to the ever-growing non-Maltese residents who display different linguistic preferences from their Maltese counterparts, Italian’s position might in future be challenged. Fotini Anastassiou focuses on multilingual immigrant children in Greece who speak both Albanian and Greek and who also learn English as a third language at school. The findings of her study, in which forty-nine primary school children between the ages of nine and twelve were asked to narrate a picture story in English, evidence the prevalence of Greek code-switches over Albanian. The trilingual situation in Sri Lanka concludes this volume. Sabaratnam Athirathan and Markandu Karunanithy first discuss the trilingual scenario in Sri Lanka and later identify the issues and challenges faced by Sinhala-speaking students when learning Tamil as a Second National Language. Amongst others, their findings reveal that unfortunately teachers are not that qualified and there is no clearcut policy as to how suitably-qualified teachers are recruited. These are all issues that pose great challenges in the teaching of the Tamil as a Second National Language.

5

PART I CODE-SWITCHING

CHAPTER ONE MULTILAYERED MULTILINGUALISM: THE CONTRIBUTION OF RECENT RESEARCH TO UNDERSTANDING CODE-SWITCHING PENELOPE GARDNER-CHLOROS

1. Introduction As a first-time visitor to Malta on the occasion of the conference which gave rise to this volume, I was intrigued to find a high degree of awareness of linguistic issues among some of the (lay) people I encountered; one restaurant owner even explained to me, without any specific prompting on my part, that in Malta people code-switch a lot. A conference on bilingualism held in such a linguistic environment is clearly predestined to spark off stimulating discussions. There were indeed many such discussions at the conference, some of which concerned multilingualism and code-switching in Malta itself. Research (Sciriha and Vassallo 1998, 2006; Camilleri Grima 2013) evidences the importance of these topics for a small bilingual island. The purpose of this chapter will be, first of all, to briefly review some of the main ways in which code-switching research has been undertaken so far. I will then mention some of the newer approaches and discuss what further contribution they can make to our understanding of this phenomenon, which continues to intrigue and challenge linguists of many different theoretical persuasions. As traditionally studied, code-switching research has centred on three main areas: (i) the grammatical regularities within code-switched speech (MyersScotton 1993; Muysken 2000; Poplack 2000; MacSwan 2014);

10

Chapter One

(ii) the pragmatic motivations underlying the switches and the contribution of Conversation Analysis (Gumperz 1982; Auer 1998; Li Wei 2005); (iii) the underlying psycholinguistic factors, which are often investigated through experimental methods rather than using spontaneous natural data (references in Bullock and Toribio 2009; for an exception see Gardner-Chloros et al. 2013). As we will see below, more recent research considers code-switching (henceforth CS) as part of a dynamic process rather than as a static set of linguistic patterns. The trend is towards avoiding discrete, fixed or bounded constructs of community or identity, and towards considering instead the processes and dialectic interactions which generate such constructs and create meaning (Bucholtz and Hall 2005; Blommaert 2010). The overarching themes which emerge from this recent work are those of power, as exercised through discourse, language ideology, and identity.

2. Pinning down the object of study Generally acceptable definitions of CS have proved extremely elusive (Gardner-Chloros 2009), so the purpose of giving one here is mainly to specify how wide a field this chapter is attempting to encompass. To this end, a useful broad definition of code-switching is: “The alternating use of two languages in the same stretch of discourse by a bilingual speaker” (Bullock and Toribio 2009: xii). But like other definitions, this one begs various questions: Who exactly is bilingual? How proficient must a speaker be to be classed as bilingual? What of tri(+)linguals? What exactly is meant by two languages? Do dialects count too? Should we draw a clear dividing line between monolingual variation and bilingual speech knowing that language contact is one of the main sources of language change (Thomason and Kaufman 1992; Rampton 2011)? Researchers have subdivided the phenomena, which are commonly found in bilingual speech, over a large number of language combinations by using a variety of alternative terms and concepts, including for example code-mixing (Muysken 2000; Backus 2015), interference (Trask 2000), code-copying (Johanson 2002), transfer/transference (Clyne 2003) – not to mention borrowing. As regards the latter, Poplack, one of the bestknown researchers in the early days of CS research, has continued to claim, controversially, that borrowing represents a separate process to CS (Poplack et al. 2012), rather than a conventionalisation of code-switched elements. The purpose of the other terms, such as those mentioned above,

Multilayered Multilingualism

11

is in fact in many cases to distinguish a type of alternation where the two languages are simply juxtaposed, without either of them changing their character, from other cases where there is evidence of convergence or influence of one system on the other. According to Poplack, borrowing shows interaction between the two varieties, whereas code-switching preserves their monolingual character. Another school of CS research centres around the work of Myers-Scotton (1993) and her associate (Myers-Scotton and Jake 2000), who claim that the interaction between the varieties can be described in grammatical terms, with one variety being dubbed the “Matrix” and the other the “Embedded” language. I have discussed in detail elsewhere (Gardner-Chloros 2009) why these attempts to make hard and fast distinctions between borrowing and CS, between “Matrix” and “Embedded” languages, and between converging and nonconverging varieties are problematic: very few instances of CS can be unequivocally categorised as being in one or the other of these two camps. Auer and Muhamedova (2005) have argued that so-called “embedded language islands” are not necessarily well-formed according to the rules of the “embedded language” but can show grammatical and other influence from the so-called “matrix” language. Later research had added to our understanding of CS. One of the clearest ways to show this is by discussing an example from the data in some detail. The CS below will first be discussed in the light of some of the traditional methods of analysis. I will then try to provide further elements from some of the more recent approaches to CS which add to our understanding of the CS in this conversation.

3. Multiple approaches to the data The passage below is a transcription extracted from a discussion among a group of 20-30 year old second-generation London Greek Cypriots, here called Andy, Keti, Poly and Chris.1 Second-generation Greek Cypriot speakers in London are part of a 200,000-strong community, known for their abundant CS between Cypriot Greek and English (Gardner-Chloros et al. 2005; Georgakopoulou and Finnis 2009; Paraskeva 2012; Finnis 2014). In this lively informal conversation, Andy is discussing the difficulties of finding a restaurant which makes an acceptable version of his favourite Chinese take-away dish, roast noodle stew, after the place where he used to go closed down. The conversation flows rapidly, with no noticeable pauses whatsoever at the points of transition between the two languages.

Chapter One

12 Transcription

1. Andy: Tosin aȖonian toson po tuton na pamen they closed down! We were so excited and everything to go (but) they closed down! 2. Keti: Shut up man! 3. Andy: Yeah! So well now because evala to thamaȤin mu I want a roasted noodles stew I’m looking in all the shops you know they got their menus outside. Yeah! So well now because I was so determined I want a roasted noodles stew I’m looking in all the shops you know they got their menus outside. 4. Poly: Oh yeah yeah yeah. In China Town. 5. Andy: Yeah which one does roasted anyway ivramen enan. Yeah which one does roasted anyway we found one (shop). 6. Poly: Yeah. 7. Andy: Jie mbennumen mesa. Lalo tu you do roasted? He goes me yes. Lalo tu why did they close on the corner? And we get inside. I say to him you do roasted? He goes me yes. I say to him why did they close on the corner? (laughter) 8. Andy: Anyway ekamen ma - you know I could do like them. Ekamen mas roasted noodle stew but they can’t do it - efaan j’ i th- ji eȖo ji o Pambos jie o - but they can’t do it like eh the ones on the corner. Anyway he made u(s) - you know I could do like them. He made us roasted noodles stew but they can’t do it - we ate bo- and me and Pambos and X - but they can’t do it like eh the ones on the corner. 9. Chris: Why did they clo-(se)? 10. Andy: They closed down because they - the landlord doubled their rent. 11. Chris: Eh kapu enna pian allu kalo. Well they went somewhere else then. 12. Andy: No! Pu na pasin re. No! Where can (they) go mate (Paraskeva 2012).

Understanding the “why” as well as the “how” (Li Wei 1999) of the CS involves resorting to a number of different perspectives, only some of which can be mentioned here. From the point of view of speech rate and prosody for example, it is clear from listening to the passage that this is a normal, unremarkable way of speaking among this group (GardnerChloros et al. 2013). From the grammatical point of view, the transcribed version above indicates that some of the switches occur at clausal level, e.g. in utterance 1 or in the latter part of utterance 8. But there are midclausal switches in utterance 3 – “because evala to thamaȤin mu I want a roasted noodles stew”; in utterance 5 – “anyway ivramen enan”; and “Ekamen mas roasted noodle stew” – in utterance 8. In order to decide

Multilayered Multilingualism

13

which is the dominant pattern in these speakers’ CS it would be necessary to have access to a much larger corpus (Paraskeva 2012), and even then speakers’ CS can vary from time to time depending on their interlocutors and circumstances. At the functional analysis level, several of the well-documented conversational functions of CS are represented. For example, in utterance 1 the CS allows the two parts of the sentence to be contrasted – a classic function of CS. This is simultaneously marked orally by a rising pattern indicating excitement in the first part of the sentence (up to the inserted ‘but’), followed by a contrasting falling tone in the second part, indicating disappointment. In utterance 3, the Cypriot expression “evala to thamaȤin mu” is used for ‘mot juste’ purposes, as no exact equivalent exists in English. It covers the sense of “I set my heart on something”, as well as “I was completely determined to achieve something”. From the point of view of lexical choices, in utterance 7, the switches to English have a quoting function, since the original conversation took place in English. From a processing perspective, we see an instance of “triggering” in utterance 8 (Clyne 1967; Broersma 2009); the expression “Roast noodle stew” leads the speaker to complete the phrase in English. From a conversationstructuring angle, the insertion of a parenthetical phrase “- we ate bo- and me and Pambos and X” is marked by CS. Other functions are somewhat less obvious, but can be identified with the help of ethnographic knowledge external to the conversation itself. For example, one might wonder why Andy’s last intervention (12) is in Greek Cypriot? The explanation probably lies in the fact that CS allows the same speaker to have several “voices” (Meeuwis and Blommaert 1998), and here Andy is adopting the “voice” or “stance” of a typically laid back, contemptuous persona, associated with Greek Cypriots rather than English people (Jaffe 2009; Finnis 2014), as he mocks his friend’s naiveté for thinking that the restaurant owner could easily find another location and start again. This is reinforced by his use of “re”, translated here as “mate”, but in reality somewhat coarser and more familiar in tone than the English equivalent. While all of these are now fairly classic motivations for CS, the change back to Cypriot for utterance 11 may appear to lack any obvious justification. But such switches can plausibly be ascribed to a balancing effect which bilinguals often seek, whereby having used one language they revert to the other in a doubtless subconscious effort to balance out the amount of each language which they have used. Such an analysis helps us understand the rapid language changes in this passage, but even this only scratches the surface of the multilayered approach which is required to explain why switches occur exactly where

14

Chapter One

they do – or at all. Blommaert describes this as layered simultaneity: “Every utterance displays a wide variety of meaningful features which, each in isolation, are pretty meaningless but become meaningful through their simultaneous occurrence in an utterance” (2005: 126). The most productive recent approaches to CS are precisely those which try to view it in a more holistic manner and integrate different levels of explanation. It is for this reason that a straightforward Conversation Analysis (CA) approach to CS, with its rejection of explanations not derived from what is available in the transcription, is now less fashionable (Auer 1998; Li Wei 2005). In this passage, for example, different reasons for the switches, such as the triggering effect and the impulse to quote others in the language they spoke at the time, are likely to be operating in combination with the overall desire to use roughly equal amounts of each language. The complexity – and fascination – of CS lies precisely in the fact that we are dealing with several types of multilayeredness at the same time. As mentioned, alongside the multiple motivations which underlie the language choices themselves within any given passage, there is also the possibility of analysing the passage from yet further perspectives. It is in this latter respect that there are interesting new developments, to which we now turn.

4. Newer perspectives 4.1 Diachronic There have recently been several different attempts to integrate the synchronic study of CS with the study of diachronic language change through contact. As Auer (2014: 327) pointed out: Due to a curious division of labor, linguists who work on bilingualism are rarely interested in the long-term consequences bilingualism can have on the language systems of the two languages involved. On the opposite side, linguists working on language contact almost exclusively deal with structural outcomes, but show little interest in the question of how these structural changes have originated in bilingual talk.

Auer argues that language fusion or convergence, whether in the form of actual mixed languages or other types of language change, must result from a prior stage of discourse-based mixing, which in due course gives rise to conventionalisation and regularisation. Auer (2007) has even argued that there are frequent linguistic differences between the first, spontaneous code-switch in a conversation and subsequent uses of the

Multilayered Multilingualism

15

same word or set of words; for example, the first instance is often marked by a pause which signals that the speaker is about to change languages, whereas subsequent uses of the same terms in the same conversation may be quite unmarked. Over a longer period, and with the aid of large corpora, viewing CS in a diachronic framework as part of a historical process can lead to fruitful collaboration between contemporary sociolinguists and historical sociolinguists, whose work has developed exponentially since the 1990s and who have the advantage of being able to track both CS and language change over long periods in similar text types (Adams, Janse and Swain 2002; Braunmüller and Ferraresi 2003; Schendl and Wright 2011; Hernandez-Campoy and Conde-Silvestre 2012; Gardner-Chloros, forthcoming). The mixing of Greek with various languages in the ancient period and the mixing of English and French in medieval texts have now been extensively documented; in some cases it has been possible to make diachronic comparisons which show the progression of language contact. For example, in mixed-language texts dating from the 11th to the late 15th centuries, English nouns and verb-roots initially appeared in French texts, followed later by noun-phrase-modifiers, and later still English is found in the form of closed class function words (Trotter 2003). In this respect historical sociolinguists have a clear advantage over contemporary ones, who can only track changes over a very limited time-frame. Further to considering CS as a stageway within diachronic language, change comes from comparing switching in the same context over a period of time. This approach can be considered intermediate between the long term historical approach mentioned above and the moment-by-moment close-up view provided in much contemporary sociolinguistic work. In a study of changing patterns of French-Alsatian switching in Strasbourg carried out in 2011 (Gardner-Chloros 2013), I was able to return to similar settings and record how CS had changed over this period, and noted several features indicative of language shift and change in progress. Reflecting the decline in the number of Alsatian dialect speakers, which can be shown through large scale demographic surveys, there was a change in the proportion of different types of switches since 1985: there were fewer intra- and inter-clause switches but interestingly an increase in single word switches, including an increase of Alsatian words in a French context (overall the less common pattern). Whereas inter- and intra-clause switching requires a certain competence in both varieties, single-word switches are usually thought to fulfil a more symbolic and identity-related function. This corresponds well with the observation that even in the case of language decline and death certain symbolic gestures towards the

16

Chapter One

moribund variety continue to be found even in the discourse of younger speakers. Such observations provide one way of using CS to track ongoing change and shift in a bilingual context. But perhaps the main synchronic evidence of language change in progress, as observed by sociolinguists, has traditionally been variation between the speech of individuals forming part of the same community, or indeed (sometimes apparently motiveless) variation within the speech of individuals (Labov 1972). CS can be particularly useful in studying this (Hoi Ying Chen 2015). In the Strasbourg study, it became clear that there was variation within the speech of the same individuals between Germanic word-order and French word-order in following sentences containing CS: Germanic word-order: Pour me calmer muss ich noch lese (To calm down must I still read) Les symphonies de Beethoven kann i alli uswendi (The symphonies of Beethoven know I all by heart). French word order: A mon avis ich hab d's selwe problem (In my opinion I have the same problem) Ceci dit ich fend doch d'lit heutsodaej... (That said I find after all that people nowadays... Gardner-Chloros 2013: 171).

As this shows, at different points in the same conversation the same speaker produced sentences following either one model or the other with apparent indifference. This change has been held to be particularly indicative of language change in other situations involving Germanic languages. Yet another way of looking at language change in relation to language alternation is provided by studies of young people’s urban vernaculars which, whether or not they contain CS proper, show their multilingual sources. The phenomenon of “Crossing” (Rampton 1995), whereby speakers appropriate elements from varieties with which they have no family connection, has been observed in multiple contexts: In a fashion house in Zurich, I am served by a ca. eighteen-year-old shop assistant in Swiss-German. After about ten minutes, a group of young men, obviously friends of the shop assistant, enter the shop. All of them use the common Swiss-German/Italian CS style, which is certainly not surprising. There is nothing unusual about the scene. The group seems to me to be one of many second-generation immigrant peer-groups.

Multilayered Multilingualism

17

In order to exchange my purchase, I go to the same fashion house the following day. I am now served by the owner of the shop, a ca. forty-yearold Italian. In the course of our conversation, I am told that the shop assistant I overheard the previous day is not a second-generation Italian immigrant at all but a Swiss-German. She grew up in a linguistically strongly mixed area of the town and has had Italian friends since her school years (Franceschini 1998: 56-57).

The exact implications of such complex contact phenomena are still very much a subject of ongoing investigation (Nortier and Dorleijn 2008; Rampton 2011; Sharma 2011), but whatever the outcome, it seems unlikely that the local/indigenous/host country languages – the terminology is fraught because what can be termed local or indigenous in such complex situations – will remain unaffected.

4.2 Cognitive Another aspect of the multilayeredness of CS referred to above is addressed by recent approaches which seek to integrate a cognitive dimension into the understanding of CS. The “Usage-based Approach” (Croft 2000; Backus 2015) points out the significance of the fact that speakers are constantly selecting between competing alternatives, whether these appear overtly in the conversation or not. At each moment they have a choice between saying something new (“altered replication”) or something old (“normal replication”). A full utterance is almost always new – and this is evidence of our linguistic creativity – since we do not often store whole utterances with specific meaning. But many smaller units whether words or word combinations, are stored in the speaker’s mental representations, a process known here as “entrenchment”. In the passage discussed in detail above, the expression “roast noodle stew” is not untranslateable into Cypriot Greek, but because of the context in which the speaker lives, it is stored in his mental dictionary in English. For rather different reasons, the expression “evala to thamaȤin mu” is stored in his mind in Greek. Creativity is, of course, evident even at these lower levels and speakers sometimes select between competing alternatives. As we have already observed, Andy makes choices between the quotative expressions “he goes me” in English and “lalo tu” in Greek Cypriot. A number of factors determine the choice of one or the other form, and so the frequency of using one or the other fluctuates. A form in language

18

Chapter One

A may be chosen more often than the equivalent in language B for a number of reasons, for example because it is part of particular expressions or word combinations (what Backus 2015 terms “multimorphemic units” or “chunks”). This in turn leads to greater or lesser entrenchment of forms which appear frequently, and possible disuse of less frequent forms. In turn, this offers an explanation of how usage can change over time, and thus provides a bridge between synchronic and diachronic approaches. Backus considers that alternation between apparent alternatives is a window onto ongoing language change. As he puts it: “Every synchronic act is assumed to have diachronic implications” (Backus 2015: 21). Interestingly, this remark shows how this cognitive approach is ultimately connected with the diachronic research discussed in the previous section. There is also a long-standing tradition of experimental studies of CS. The reader is referred to volumes such as Bullock and Toribio (2009) and Isurin, Winford and de Bot (2009) in which such approaches are wellrepresented and structured tasks are used to investigate phenomena such as triggering, which occur in a natural context (examples were mentioned above). A summary of these approaches is given in Gardner-Chloros (2009). More recently, Green and Li Wei (2014) have offered a psycholinguistic model of the decision-making process involved in CS, which takes into account findings related to the dual activation of languages in bilinguals. This explains how, even when speaking monolingually, there is evidence that both languages are active in the brain. Among other aspects, they argue that a process of competing activation between possible items determines the exact form of CS utterances. What such approaches cannot deliver is, of course, an appreciation of why a particular item would be selected. Nevertheless, the processes they describe provide a further level of contribution and understanding of how patterns of choice found in CS contexts can lead, in due course, to sedimentation/fossilisation and ultimately to change.

4.3 Identity, discourse and power The third and last ‘newer’ approach to be discussed in this section is in fact a group of approaches which can be loosely tied together under the heading of identity, discourse and power. Despite the wide variety of work involved, their common thread is their emphasis on CS as an active process for the creation of meaning, rather than a way of combining meanings which are inherently – and statically – located within the varieties themselves. Taking their original inspiration from Bakhtin (1981), researchers in this tradition know how these more dynamic approaches often

Multilayered Multilingualism

19

centre around how power relations and identities are established within the interaction itself. The emphasis on a plurality of meanings and plurality of factors is consistent with Blommaert’s comments above; it is found for example in the work of Heller (2007), Kramsch and Whiteside (2008), Angermeyer (2010), Vandekerckhove and Nobels (2010), Bhatt and Bolonyai (2011), Wodak, KrzyĨanowski and Forchtner (2012), and numerous others. Heller (2007) and Stell and Yakpo (2015) contain useful selections. A couple of examples will be given to illustrate the differences between these approaches and the earlier ones centering on structural and functional aspects of CS. From the list above, Angermeyer (2010) and Wodak, KrzyĨanowski and Forchtner (2012) illustrate the complex interplay of power, control and linguistic policy which is exercised through various language choices in institutional settings, the first in EU meetings and the second in a New York arbitration court. Angermeyer, for example, shows how the unequal power relations between court interactants are reflected by asymmetry in the direction of CS and lexical insertions which are heavily in favour of switches into the language of the court. In Kramsch and Whiteside (2008), power is seen as a function of language choices in a non-institutional setting. The economic power of a Mexican immigrant in Los Angeles, deriving from her status as a customer negotiating a large purchase in a butcher’s shop, influences the language choices of the two butchers as they switch codes multiple times during the transaction in order to accommodate the client’s – deliberately ambiguous – language choices. Other work in this newer tradition concentrates on how the use of distinctive types of CS in specific contexts is used to resist a dominant ideology or construct a bespoke identity. Recent scholarship on “translanguaging” (Garcia and Li Wei 2014), flexible bilingualism and the so-called “Third Space” created in the context of bi/multilingual education (Garcia et al. 2012) reflects this by illustrating how CS can at once create new identities and serve as a resource to index affiliation to those new identities. This is the case, for example, with the online interactions of young Flemish speakers in West Flanders, Belgium, who code-switch in a novel way between various dialects of Dutch in order to distinguish themselves from the more usual ways of combining varieties in the Belgian context. Their behaviour serves to resist dominant norms of French/Dutch parallel bilingualism. Similarly Bhatt (2008) examines the use of English-Hindi CS in print newspapers in India, explaining that this variety speaks to an “In-between” or “Third Space” identity, accessible only to the educated

20

Chapter One

middle class. Bhatt does not consider that this “Third Space” is socially progressive in this instance: on the contrary, social inequalities are perpetuated by the unequal access to this CS variety. While these approaches differ considerably from the kind of analysis provided above, it is not difficult to see how they could be used to throw further light on the passage which we examined. First, it is clear that for this group of young Greek Cypriots, the mixed code is indeed an active identity-creating and bonding mechanism; we see this from the frequent balancing out of their use of Greek and English. Their CS carries covert prestige, which distinguishes them from other young Londoners. Indeed, it embodies a particular stance or the adoption of a particular persona. As for power, even from this short extract we can tell that the main speaker, Andy, dominates the floor and imposes himself not only as the rhetorically gifted story-teller but also as the ‘cool guy’ who makes the others laugh with his animated anecdotes.

5. Conclusion: Code-switching…where next? As we have seen, recent research on CS emphasises its more dynamic aspects compared with older approaches based on pinning down the CS grammar of a particular set of speakers, or listing the functions which CS can perform, turn by turn, within a conversation. This development ties in with a shift away from the idea of languages as static sources of meaning in interaction, towards how processes and interactions generate constructs and create meaning online. More recent themes which are emerging have to do with how speakers manipulate their repertoires to exercise power in discourse, to put across their language ideology, and to construct their identity by employing a very personal combination within the varieties which they speak. Second, we should no longer consider it a priority to treat CS as separate from monolingual variation. Cutting edge sociolinguistic work centres on such concepts as “translanguaging” (Garcia and Li Wei 2014) and contemporary urban vernaculars (Rampton 2015), which have significant multicultural or multilingual ramifications (Cheshire et al. 2008; Wiese 2009). Code-switching – with the internal variation which characterises it even within a single community – should be viewed as part of a dynamic process of change rather than as a static state of affairs. Further points could be made, if space permitted, about CS being seen in many quarters as a semiotic device with applicability in various areas of material culture as well as in the linguistic field, including archaeology, architecture, and literary and artistic works (Elsner 1998; Gardner-Chloros

Multilayered Multilingualism

21

2012; Osborne 2012; Weston and Gardner-Chloros 2015). This is not surprising in the light of the documented interactions between bilingualism and creativity (Kharkurin 2012; Pavlenko 2014). Such developments in the study of CS can be seen as an extension in the bilingual sphere of changes which have affected mainstream (monolingual) sociolinguistics, and which Eckert (2012) has described as the “third wave” in variation studies. These can be summed up as involving a much more active role for the speaker, who is no longer seen as passively drawing on available varieties but as making them up for him or herself. CS which also demonstrates considerable variation both between and within speakers in the same community is a particularly suitable vehicle for demonstrating this active involvement. The emphasis on stylistic practice in this “third wave” places speakers not as passive and stable carriers of dialect, but as stylistic agents, tailoring linguistic styles in ongoing and lifelong projects of self-construction and differentiation. Patterns of variation do not simply unfold from the speaker’s structural position in a system of production, but are part of the active stylistic production of social differentiation (Eckert 2012: 98). We may conclude that the study of CS remains a dynamic and productive field of study which is likely in the future, to give rise to many further important insights about language. The challenge for those who study it is to keep all the balls in the air, and to bear in mind that the new insights do not necessarily replace or invalidate the older ones. On the contrary, new forms of analysis may at least partly be judged on their compatibility with, and ability to enrich, the well-established findings.

Notes I

All names have been changed.

References Adams, J., Janse, M. and Swain, S. 2002. Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Angermeyer, P. 2010. Interpreter-mediated interaction as bilingual speech: Bridging macro- and micro-sociolinguistics in codeswitching research. International Journal of Bilingualism 14(4), 466-489. Auer, P. ed. 1998. Code-Switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and Identity. New York: Routledge.

22

Chapter One

—. 2007. Style and Social Identities: Alternative Approaches to Linguistic Heterogeneity. Berlin: Mouton. —. 2014. Language mixing and language fusion: When bilingual talk becomes monolingual. In Congruence in Contact-Induced Language Change: Language Families, Typological Resemblance, and Perceived Similarity, edited by J. Besters-Dilger, C. Dermarkar, S. Pfänder, and A. Rabus, 294-334. Berlin: Mouton. Auer, P. and Muhamedova, R. 2005. ‘Embedded language’ and ‘matrix language’ in insertional language mixing: Some problematic cases. Rivista di Linguistica, 17(1) 35-54. Backus, A. 2006. Units in code switching: evidence for multimorphemic elements in the lexicon. Linguistics, 41(1), 83-132. —. 2015. A usage-based approach to code-switching: the need for reconciling structure and function. In Code-switching between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, edited by G. Stell and K. Yakpo, 19-39. Berlin: De Gruyter. Bakhtin, M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. Bhatt, R. 2008. In other words: Language mixing, identity representations, and third space. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12(2), 522-546. Bhatt, R. and Bolonyai, A. 2011. Code-switching and the optimal grammar of bilingual language use. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(4), 522-46. Blommaert, J. 2005. Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Braunmüller, K. and Ferraresi, G., eds. 2003. Aspects of Multilingualism in European Language History: Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism, Vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Broersma, M. 2009. Triggered code-switching between cognate languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 447-462. Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. 2005. Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4/5), 585-614. Bullock, B. and Toribio, J. eds. 2009. The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Camilleri Grima, A. 2013. Challenging code-switching in Malta. Revue française de linguistique appliquée, 18, 45-61. Cheshire, J., Fox, S., Kerswill, P. and Torgersen, E. 2008. Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of dialect change: linguistic innovation in London. Sociolinguistics 22, 1-23.

Multilayered Multilingualism

23

Clyne, M. 1967. Transference and Triggering: observations on the language of assimilation of postwar German-speaking migrants in Australia. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. —. 2003. Dynamics of Language Contact: English and Immigrant Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Croft, W. 2000. Explaining language change: An evolutionary approach. Essex: Pearson Education. Eckert, P. 2012. Three Waves of Variation Study: The Emergence of Meaning in the Study of Sociolinguistic Variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 41(1)87-100. Elsner, J. 1998. Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire AD 100-450. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Finnis, K. 2014. Variation within a Greek-Cypriot community of practice in London: Code-switching, gender, and identity. Language in Society, 43(3), 287-310. Fitts, S. 2009. Exploring Third Space in a Dual-Language Setting: Opportunities and Challenges. Journal of Latinos and Education, 8(2), 87-104. Franceschini, R. 1998. Code-switching and the notion of code in linguistics. In Code-switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and Identity, edited by P. Auer, 51-74. London: Routledge. Garcia, O., Zakharia, Z. and Otcu, B. 2012. Bilingual Community Education and Multilingualism: Beyond Heritage Languages in a Global City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Garcia, O. and Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Gardner-Chloros, P. 2009. Code-Switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. —. 2012. Code-switching in Art: From Semiotics to Sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistic Studies, 4(3), 635-664. —. 2013. Strasbourg revisited: c’est chic de parler français. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 224, 143-177. —. (forthcoming) Historical & Modern Studies of Code-switching: a Tale of Mutual Enrichment. To appear in Multilingual Practices in Language History: New Perspectives, edited by N. Pahta, J. Skaffari and L.Wright. Gardner-Chloros, P., MacEntee-Atalianis, L. and Finnis, K. 2005. Language attitudes and use in a transplanted setting: Greek Cypriots in London. International Journal of Multilingualism, 2(1), 52-80. Gardner-Chloros, P., MacEntee-Atalianis, L. and Paraskeva, M. 2013. Code-switching and Pausing: An Interdisciplinary Study. International

24

Chapter One

Journal of Multilingualism, 10(1), 1-26. Georgakopoulou, A. and Finnis, K. 2009. Code-switching ‘in site’ for fantasizing identities: A case study of conventional uses of London Greek Cypriots. Pragmatics, 19(3), 467-488. Georgakopoulou, A. and Spilioti, T. 2015. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Digital Communication. Oxford: Routledge. Green, D. and Li Wei. 2014. A control process model of code-switching. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 29(4), 499-511. Gumperz, J. 1982. Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heller, M. 2007. Bilingualism: A Social Approach. Basingstoke Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Hernandez-Campoy, J. and Conde-Silvestre, J. 2012. The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. West Sussex: Wiley. Hoi Ying Chen, K. 2015. Styling bilinguals: Analyzing structurally distinctive code-switching styles in Hong Kong. In Code-switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, edited by G. Stell and K. Yakpo, 163-184. Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter. Isurin, L., Winford, D. and de Bot, K. eds. 2009. Multidisciplinary Approaches to Code Switching. Studies in Bilingualism, Vol. 41. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Jaffe, A. 2009. Stanceࣟ: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. USA: Oxford University Press. Johanson, L. 2002. Contact-induced change in a code-copying framework. In Language Change: The Interplay of Internal, External and ExtraLinguistic Factors, edited by M. Jones and E. Esch, 285-315. New York: Mouton. Kharkhurin, A. 2012. Multilingualism and Creativity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Kramsch, C. and Whiteside, A. 2008. Language Ecology in Multilingual Settings. Towards a Theory of Symbolic Competence. Applied Linguistics, 29(4), 645-71. Labov, W. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Li Wei. 1999. The ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions in the analysis of conversational code-switching. In Code-Switching in Conversation, edited by P. Auer, 156-179. UK: Routledge. —. 2005. How can you tell? Towards a common sense explanation of conversational code-switching. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(3), 375-389. —. 2011. Moment Analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain.

Multilayered Multilingualism

25

Journal of Pragmatics, Multilingual structures and agencies, 43(5), 1222-35. MacSwan, J. 2014. A Minimalist Approach to Intrasentential Code Switching. New York: Routledge. Meeuwis, M. and Blommaert, J. 1998. A monolectal view of codeswitching: Layered code-switching among Zairians in Belgium. In Code-switching in conversation: language, interaction and identity, edited by P. Auer, 76-99. London: Routledge. Muysken, P. 2000. Bilingual Speech: A Typology of Code-Mixing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Myers-Scotton, C. 1993. Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structure in Codeswitching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Myers-Scotton, C. and Jake, L. 2000. Matching lemmas in a bilingual language competence and production model: evidence from intrasentential code-switching. In The Bilingualism Reader, edited by Li Wei, 244–80. London: Routledge. Nicol, J. 2001. One Mind, Two Languages: Bilingual Language Processing. Massachusetts: Wiley/Blackwell. Nortier, J. and Dorleijn, M. 2008. A Moroccan accent in Dutch: a sociocultural style restricted to the Moroccan community? International Journal of Bilingualism, 12(1/2), 125-143. Osborne, R. 2012. Cultures as Languages and languages as Cultures. In Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds, edited by A. Mullen and P. James, 317-335. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paraskeva, M. 2012. Code-switching among London Greek Cypriots: a Study of Question-Response Pairs. Unpublished PhD, Birkbeck, University of London. Pavlenko, A. 2014. The Bilingual Mind: And What It Tells Us About Language And Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Poplack, S. 2000. Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y terminon en espanol: toward a typology of code-switching. In The Bilingualism Reader, edited by Li Wei, 213-44. London: Routledge. Poplack, S., Zentz, L. and Dion, N. 2012. Phrase-final prepositions in Quebec French: An empirical study of contact, code-switching and resistance to convergence. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(2), 203-225. Rampton, B. 1995. Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. Oxon: Longman. —. 2011. From ‘Multi-ethnic adolescent heteroglossia’ to ‘Contemporary urban vernaculars’. Language & Communication, 31(4), 276-94.

26

Chapter One

—. 2015. Contemporary Urban Vernaculars. In Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st century: Linguistic practices across Urban Spaces, edited by J. Nortier and B. Svendsen, 25-45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schendl, H. and Wright, L. 2011. Code-Switching in Early English. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Sciriha, L. and Vassallo, M. 1998. Images of Social Class through Language in Malta. Plurilinguismes: Des Iles et Des Langues, 15, 171199. —. 2006. Living Languages in Malta. Malta: Print IT Printing Services. Sharma, D. 2011. Style repertoire and social change in British Asian English. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15(4), 464-492. Stell, G. and Yakpo, K. 2015. Code-switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Thomason, S. and Kaufman, T. 1992. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. California: University of California Press. Trask, R. 2000. The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Trotter, D. 2003 Oceano vox: You never know where a ship comes from: On multilingualism and language-mixing in Medieval Britain. In Aspects of Multilingualism in European language history, edited by K. Braunmüller and G. Ferraresi, 15-35. The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Vandekerckhove, R. and Nobels, J. 2010. Code eclecticism: Linguistic variation and code alternation in the chat language of Flemish teenagers. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 14(5), 657-77. Weston, D. and Gardner-Chloros, P. 2015. Mind the gap: What codeswitching in literature can teach us about code-switching. Language and Literature, 24(3), 194-212. Wiese, H. 2009. Grammatical innovation in multiethnic urban Europe: New linguistic practices among adolescents. Lingua, 119(5), 782-806. Wodak, R., KrzyĨanowski, M. and Forchtner, B. 2012. The interplay of language ideologies and contextual cues in multilingual interactions: Language choice and code-switching in European Union institutions. Language in Society, 41(2), 157-86.

PART II LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE

CHAPTER TWO LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE IN THE SCHOOL SETTING: THE CASE OF THE DRUZE IN ISRAEL MARTIN ISLEEM

1. Druze in Israel The Druze doctrine is a strict monotheistic practice that shares many traits and principles with Islamic traditions, yet has much more in common with the Shi’a sect. Druze Doctrine was developed out of the IsmƗ’ilite teachings in Egypt in the 11th century and was led by the Al-Hakim bi Amr AllƗh, the sixth Fatimid caliph. The official Druze religious practices are limited to a very small elite group of initiates, called “uqqal” and who are the only ones permitted to have access to the Druze secretive religious scripture, which is written in Standard Arabic. Today most of the Druze people live in small communities in the Eastern Mediterranean area: Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan. The total number of Druze under Israeli sovereignty is 127,000, which constitutes about 1.7% of Israel’s total population and about 8.1% of the Palestinian minority in Israel. Most of the Druze people in Israel reside in the northern part of Israel, particularly in the Haifa and upper and lower Galilee areas. The Druze are native speakers of Arabic, and live in 18 different towns in Israel, some of which are exclusively Druze, while in other areas they live alongside Christians and Muslims, either as a majority or as a small minority. Since the early 1930s, prior to the establishment of the Israeli state, the Druze minority has been a subject of the Zionist movement’s dividing and segregation policy. The socio-political circumstances and religious identity of the Druze have provided fertile soil for Zionist leaders to reinforce their policies (Firro 1984, 1999), one of which is to strengthen the distinctive identity of the Druze.

30

Chapter Two

After the establishment of Israel, numerous official steps were taken to reinforce a clear distinction between the Druze and the rest of the Palestinians in Israel (Firro 1999, 2002, 2005; Hajjar 1996). One of the two major policy steps was the imposition of an obligatory conscription law on Druze males in 1956. To this day the law has evoked dissension among the Druze community. The Druze Initiative Committee, a committee that was primarily established to fight the obligatory conscription law, has led an ideological and nationalistic campaign against it. Some Druze intellectuals challenge the law, and their opposition extends beyond the ideological dimension, emphasising the imbalance of the two sides of citizenship – duties and rights. The Druze feel that they fulfil all their duties as Israeli citizens, including military service, yet Israel treats the Druze unequally, exactly as other Palestinians in issues such as education and expropriation of land (Firro 1999; Halabi 2006). The second major policy step was separating the Druze schools from the Arab schools and creating a new Druze curriculum. The desire of the Israeli policy makers to separate Druze schools goes back to 1949, when the director of the Muslim and Druze Section in the Ministry of Religions, Dr. Hirshberg, recommended it in one of the Ministry’s sessions: “[We] should give every [ethnic] community its own school system in order to prevent them from feeling as one [Arab] entity…We should be clear in our minds “what kind of education we want to give them”1 (Firro 1999: 226). In the late 1970s, the Ministry of Education started to prepare materials for a new curriculum (“Druze Heritage”). By 1983 the entire curriculum was completed and introduced into the Druze schools. Today, the general Druze curriculum includes Arabic for Druze, Hebrew for Druze, English for Druze, Mathematics for Druze, Physics for Druze, History for Druze and the Druze heritage curriculum.

2. Linguistic behaviour of Druze in Israel The Druze community in Israel experiences varying levels of interaction and language contact with both Hebrew and Arabic speakers depending on the town’s demographic structure, geographic location, and labour market. Owing to the geographical location of two Druze towns in Mount Carmel (DƗliyat al-Carmel and ‘Isifya) their inhabitants interact closely with Jewish Israelis and native speakers of Hebrew. Both towns are surrounded by Jewish-Israeli towns and typically receive a large number of visitors from the neighbouring Jewish towns. Jewish visitors from as far away as Tel-Aviv and central Israel also travel to these local markets, which offer them an authentic and traditional shopping

Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting

31

experience. The manifestation of the intensity of language contact with Hebrew is reflected accordingly in the linguistic markers of these two towns. Hebrew dominates the linguistic space of the main streets and shopping centres of these towns (Isleem 2015). One may argue that the prevalence of Hebrew in the Druze linguistic space corresponds with the fact that Hebrew is the national and majority language of Israel. It is also a key element in obtaining professional positions and in being accepted for training in institutes of higher education (Spolsky and Shohamy 1999a, 1999b; Talmon 2000; Amara 2002; Saban and Amara 2004; Duetch 2005; Shohamy 2006). However, Isleem’s studies (2015, 2014) indicate that the Druze linguistic landscape and linguistic behaviour in the Mount Carmel area are not limited only to economic motivations and functionality, but are also an indication of solidarity and identification with Hebrew and the Israeli culture. Moreover, the linguistic dynamics that favour Hebrew over Arabic may eventually lead to a shift to the second language, namely Hebrew, particularly in young Druze generations. Nonetheless, this shift can be redirected or reinforced as a function of the political, linguistic, and educational policy. This chapter aims to explore, through the lenses of the linguistic landscape, to what extent the Druze school setting supports the minority language and de-intensifies the process of language shift.

3. This study This study aims to examine the linguistic markers of one of the Druze high schools in the Mount Carmel area. The study utilises the Linguistic Landscape theoretical framework and its methodological tools to investigate the Druze linguistic space markers in the educational setting. Landry and Bourhis (1997) were the first to introduce the term Linguistic Landscape, henceforth LL, and their pioneering research has become a milestone in this area of study. One of the fundamental contributions of Landry and Bourhis (1997) is that the marks of public linguistic space speak to us on two levels, one being informative and the other symbolic. For example, road signs are informative in that they indicate what languages people use to communicate with others in a specific territory (Landry and Bourhis 1997). Official public representations, such as road signs, may reflect the overt and covert language policies of a given state (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006; Shohamy 2006). Typically, the language that is directly tied to the policies of the state, obligatory in all official communications and used within all official spheres, is the dominant and legitimate language; it is the language that enjoys the highest capital in the linguistic market (Bourdieu 1991).

32

Chapter Two

Therefore, the sign-displayers of non-official signs may act according to their knowledge and expectations of the capital of the languages in that market, as well as the attainable benefits that may be gained by using a specific language in a specific market (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006). However, others may depict solidarity and identification with a presented code (Spolsky and Cooper 1991; Backhaus 2006). Through the lenses of the LL conceptual framework, this study seeks to investigate the linguistic markers in a Druze high school, the subject of this study. Although the field of LL study primarily involves investigating the linguistic markers of bilingual urban spaces, this study seeks to draw an analogy between urban linguistic spaces and school spaces in a bilingual community. Utilising the LL framework in a school setting will not only uncover the official language policy, it will also uncover the official educational language policy as well as the linguistic and cultural solidarity of the school community. Moreover, investigation into the linguistic markers of the Druze high school created by the local administration, staff and students is likely to reveal insights into the language attitudes and behaviours of the Druze in this area, particularly those of the younger generations of Druze in the Mount Carmel region. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the following questions: (a) Do the symbolic power relations between Hebrew and Arabic in the school setting resemble those found in the Mount Carmel area as reported in Isleem (2015)? (b) How is the language power relation different between official and non-official linguistic markers inside the school? (c) Do the linguistic markers signify any particular stance regarding the role of educational agents (administrators and teaching staff) to maintain, promote or change the official policy? (d) What are the implications of this study on the language behaviour of the young Druze community in the Mount Carmel area and on the maintenance of their first language, Arabic?

4. Methodology and procedure The data for this study was collected during the summer of 2014 from one of the two Druze high schools in the Mount Carmel area. The school is sponsored by a non-state educational Ort network (hereafter, the Network) that follows the guidelines and curriculum designed by the Ministry of Education of Israel. Students enrolled in this school are prepared for, and expected to obtain, the Israeli matriculation degree (Bagrut degree) at the end of the twelfth grade. The school consists of 450 students distributed into five classes in each grade – tenth, eleventh and twelfth. The vast majority of the student population (over 95%) are Druze

Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting

33

from the towns ‘Isifya and DƗliyat al-Carmel. The remainder are nonDruze. The LL corpus of this study includes individual photos of all linguistic markers presented on school property, inside the school building, classrooms and schoolyards. School signs were classified into two major categories. The first category comprises official signs that are designed by external designers and provided and funded by the Ministry of Education or the Network. All these signs are professionally designed. The other category is made up of signs that I call local signs; those designed by local designers, such as school administration, teaching staff and students. Sign 2.1 is an example of an official design and Sign 2.2 is an example of a local sign:

Sign 2.1: Example of an official sign

Sign 2.2: Example of a local sign

34

Chapter Two

All the linguistic markers were sorted into groups according to the number of languages they were presented in: monolingual, bilingual and trilingual (Arabic, Hebrew and English). To elicit information regarding the language power relation and language attitude, the bilingual and trilingual signs will be examined based on the frequency and order of each language in each sign. A language that was placed first in order or whose font was visibly bigger in a bi/trilingual sign was classified as the prominent language of this specific sign. For example, Sign 2.3 contains Hebrew and Arabic and was designed by the Network. In this sign, Hebrew is the prominent language since it is first in both vertical and horizontal orders:

Sign 2.3: Example of a Network sign

The corpus included a sample of bulletin boards, which were classified based on the prominent language. Monolingual linguistic markers that represent a particular item in a specific and designated space were considered as a single monolingual linguistic marker. For example, labels of teachers’ and classrooms’ names on the classroom cupboards and teachers’ mail boxes in the Teachers’ Lounge were considered as a single linguistic marker, though there was a large number of labels. These labels were in one single space, and the Teachers’ Lounge was represented by a

Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting

35

single language, Hebrew. This study also examines the purposes of the signs, with all signs being sorted into three categories (a) Informational signs that are designed to provide information such as factual information in a specific learning subject, acknowledgment, official certificates, awards and announcements; (b) Directional and Instructional signs, which may include items such as classroom labels, room labels, and instructions on how to use computers; (c) Principle signs, a category which includes linguistic markers that deliver moral, educational and inspirational messages. Signs 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 are examples of each sign category:

Sign 2.4: Information: Acknowledging donors and founders of the school

Sign 2.5: Direction: Directing toward the female restrooms

Sign 2.6: Principle: Praising education and spirituality

The data also contains an interview with the school principal who teaches the Arabic language at school. The interview with the school principal was conducted in Arabic at the principal’s office in the summer of 2014 during preparations for the new academic year of 2014 – 2015. All of the questions addressed to the principal were open-ended, and served to

36

Chapter Two

collect background information on the school, to learn about the general linguistic atmosphere in the school and in the community, to extract information about official language policy, to understand how the official language policy is managed de facto, to learn about Arabic and Hebrew curricula structures and to be more aware of student achievements in matriculation exams in both Arabic and Hebrew.

5. Findings 5.1 Linguistic Landscape findings A total of 122 linguistic markers were collected within the school premises, of which 56.56% (69) were locally designed by the students, staff and administration, 43.44% (53) were officially designed, meaning they were linguistic markers funded and provided by the Network. Monolingual linguistic markers make up the vast majority, 85.25% (104) of the LL data. Bilingual and trilingual linguistic markers together comprise 14.75% (18) of the total. The percentage of locally designed monolingual signs (89.86%) is higher than those that are officially designed (77.36%), as can be seen in Table 2.1. Table 2.1: Language presence by designer (% of each column’s total) Locally designed Officially designed Monolingual 89.86% 77.36% (n=63) (n=41) Bilingual 7.24% 18.87% (n=4) (n=10) Trilingual 2.9% 3.77% (n=2) (n=2) Total 100% 100% (n=68) (n=53)

Total 85.25% (n=104) 11.47% (n=14) 3.28% (n=4) 100% (n=122)

Examining the presence of Arabic, English and Hebrew reveals an interesting picture of the power relation between Arabic and Hebrew in that nearly 80% (50) of the locally-designed monolingual signs were in Hebrew and nearly 91% (39) of the officially-designed monolingual signs were in Hebrew. When this data was combined, nearly 86% (89) of the total monolingual signs were in Hebrew. Arabic only appeared on under 16% (10) of the locally-designed monolingual signs, and on about 9% (2) of the officially-designed monolingual signs. In total, Arabic only

Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting

37

appeared on 11.34% (12) of the monolingual signs. The presence of English on the monolingual signs was less than 3% (3) as shown in Table 2.2. Table 2.2: Language presence in monolingual signs by designer (% of each column’s total) Locally designed Officially designed Total Arabic 15.87% 8.88% 11.34% (n=10) (n=2) (n=12) English 4.76% 0% 2.88% (n=3) (n=0) (n=3) Hebrew 79.37% 91.12% 85.78% (n=50) (n=39) (n=89) Total 100% 100% 100% (n=63) (n=41) (n=104)

Hebrew was also found to be the preferred code on the bilingual and trilingual linguistic markers when examining the prominent code, as can be seen in Table 2.3. Table 2.3: Language prominent in bilingual and trilingual signs by designer (% of each column’s total) Arabic English Hebrew Total

Locally designed 16.67% (n=1) 33.33% (n=2) 50% (n=3) 100% (n=6)

Officially designed 8.33% (n=1) 0% (n=0) 91.67% (n=11) 100% (n=12)

Total 11.11% (n=2) 11.11% (n=2) 77.78% (n=14) 100% (n=18)

The total number of bilingual and trilingual signs was 18, of which nearly 78% (14) featured Hebrew as the preferred and prominent language, while surprisingly Arabic was as prominent as English in about 11% (2). Combining these results with the monolingual ones, Hebrew is overwhelmingly prominent in 84.5% (103) of the total number of signs. Arabic was found to be prominent in only 11.5% (14) of the grand total. With regard to the purpose of the signs, nearly 62.3% (76) signs were designed to give directions and instructions, 24.6% (30) were designed to provide moral, educational and inspirational principles, and nearly 13% (16) were informational signs. One of the most interesting features

38

Chapter Two

revealed from this specific data is that nearly 88% (67) of the total number of the directional and instructional signs were in Hebrew, while only 12% (9) of the signs were in Arabic. The majority of the directional and instructional signs presented in Hebrew, 61.2% (41) were designed locally and 43.3% of them were designed by an official designer. This finding indicates that Hebrew is not only a means of communication between the official authorities; it is also the main means of communication between the local actors within the school administration, teachers, staff and students. Hebrew also dominates the principle signs; about 73.34% (22) of the principle signs were in Hebrew, and only 20% (6) were in Arabic.

5.2 Interview findings The purpose of the interview with the school principal was to learn about the general linguistic climate within the school in particular, and in the Mount Carmel area, in general. Another goal was to elicit information about Arabic and Hebrew curricula. These two goals will shed light on the power relations between the Arabic and Hebrew languages inside the school as well as the de facto official language policy enacted in the school. Moreover, the information obtained will assist us in better understanding the linguistic landscape of the school as part of the larger linguistic context. The findings of the interview are sorted into two themes.

5.3 General linguistic climate From the principal’s opening statement and throughout the interview a deep concern about the linguistic climate within the Druze community in general, and among the students in particular, was inferred. The linguistic climate represents an “identity crisis” for the Druze in the Mount Carmel area. “Druze students are confused with regard to their identity, and it is clearly evident in their language use [since] we are unable to halt the invasion of Hebrew”, stated the principal. Druze families are supportive of the increased use of Hebrew and that Hebrew has become a major means of communication, surpassing Arabic even in Druze homes in the Mount Carmel area. The principal also confirmed that the Druze and Arab educational systems face a real challenge in preparing their students for higher education, and that since all formal higher education is conducted in Hebrew, schools should provide their students with adequate Hebrew scientific language skills. For this reason, the principal encourages teaching science subjects in both Arabic and Hebrew. Yet, in the current

Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting

39

stage Hebrew is the only medium of instruction in Biology and Chemistry classes, and Physics has only recently begun to be taught in both languages. As a mixed language is the dominant language of communication in most cases, it is evident that the students’ lack the ability to fully express their opinions in Arabic classes. The principal reported that Hebrew is by far the dominant language of newly-hired teachers, and that among the teaching staff there are only two, one History teacher and another Civics teacher, who use only Arabic in their classroom. As a teacher of Arabic, the principal blocks excessive use of Hebrew in the Arabic classes by enforcing the use of Standard Arabic, yet mixed language is still the prominent code in the classroom. Hebrew also dominates communication between the Ministry of Education, the Network and the school; all official documents provided by the Ministry of Education and the Network are in Hebrew only. Official communication and meetings that occur between the school administration and the teaching staff are also conducted in Hebrew. The principal explained the dominance of Hebrew within the school as having to do with the fact that there are two teachers among the staff who are native speakers of Hebrew and who do not speak Arabic. The principal concluded that “at this stage we are far from being in an Arabic cultural environment” despite efforts to change the linguistic reality in school

5.4 Arabic and Hebrew curricula Arabic and Hebrew curricula are designed to prepare students for the matriculation exams at the end of the 11th and 12th grades. Both curricula are part of the new Druze curriculum and contain classical texts, modern literature and poetry, and grammar and syntax. The principal affirms that the Arabic curriculum is more challenging than the Hebrew one, and that the Arabic curriculum resources are significantly more extensive than the resources of the Hebrew curriculum. Although Hebrew literary works are far from the students’ cultural background, they still find them much more interesting and relevant to their daily lives than the required Arabic literary works. Hebrew literary works are carefully selected and have thoughtful messages, and in fact, the Hebrew curriculum provides more opportunity to practise critical analysis and personal identification with the resources. Because of the size and structure of the Hebrew curriculum, students have more time to study and retain the required material for the matriculation exams. The differences between the two curricula are well reflected in the students’ accomplishments in the matriculation exams. In the academic

40

Chapter Two

year of 2013 – 2014, a total of 45 students were tested in the Arabic matriculation exams for four to five credits, with five credits being the highest credit per subject, while 85 students were tested in Hebrew. All the students who were tested in the Hebrew matriculation exam in the 11th grade for 3 credits were successful, while a large number of them did not pass the 3-credit Arabic exam and will be given a second opportunity in the 12th grade.

6. Conclusions The findings of this study indicate that Hebrew is the dominant language in the monolingual signs, whether they were designed locally or officially. Hebrew is also the predominant language in the bilingual and trilingual signs. These results are similar to those acquired in another study by Isleem (2015), where Hebrew was found to be the preferred and dominant language in the signs of the main streets, shopping centres and neighbourhoods of the two Druze towns in the Mt. Carmel area. These results confirm the findings of other studies regarding the de facto official status of Arabic in Israel (Amara 2002; Saban and Amara 2004). Combining the findings of the linguistic landscape of the official signs in the school with the Hebrew-only policy of communication between the Ministry of Education, the local school administration and the well-structured Hebrew language curriculum, this leaves no doubt that the Ministry of Education covertly empowers the status of Hebrew as the majority and national language of Israel. In other words, the official language policy of the Ministry of Education and the Network do not provide the ideal linguistic ecology necessary for Arabic to flourish as Hebrew does. This study’s findings confirm that Hebrew not only maintains a powerful status as the national language of Israel among the Druze in the Mount Carmel area; it has become the preferred means of communication among the younger Druze generation too. This finding is significantly important and may shed light on the decaying process of Arabic, the Druze’s native language, which will eventually lead to a shift to Hebrew, the second language. Moreover, the findings reveal that the local educational agents (administration and teachers) are far from able to stop or reverse the process of Arabic fading, since it is a structural challenge involving a covert educational language policy that empowers Hebrew, the positive attitude of young Druze toward the national language, and the overwhelming linguistic capital of Hebrew in every aspect of life in Israel.

Linguistic Landscape in the School Setting

41

This study raises major questions regarding the Arabic language curriculum objectives for Druze schools, an area that requires further investigation, particularly regarding the role that this curriculum plays in alienating the Druze students from their Arabic contemporary culture. This study also expands the scope of the field of linguistic landscape and its significance to uncover the role of the local educational agency in promoting the official educational and linguistic policy.

Notes 1 State Archive B/310/25, May 6 1948. Information in brackets and italic are Firro’s additions.

References Amara, M. 2002. The place of Arabic in Israel. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 158, 53-68. Backhaus, P. 2006. Multilingualism in Tokyo: A look into the linguistic landscape. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 52-66. Clevedon, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. and Trumper-Hecht, N. 2006. Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 7-30. Clevedon, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Bourdieu, P. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Duetch, Y. 2005. Language Law in Israel. Language Policy, 4(3), 261285. Firro, K. 1984. zihot hadruzim- hibet histori. Hadruzim biysrael (Druze identity – historical review. The Druze in Israel).idrat Iyunim Ba-chekr Ha-mizrach Ha-tichon, 6, 32-46. —. 1999. The Druzes in the Jewish State: A Brief History. Leiden, Boston and Koln: Brill. —. 2002. Reshaping Druze particularism in Israel. Journal of Palestine Studies, 30(3), 40-53. —. 2005. Druze maqƗmƗt (shrines) in Israel: From ancient to newlyinvented tradition. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 32(2), 217-239.

42

Chapter Two

Hajjar, L. 1996. Making identity Policy: Israel’s interventions among the Druze. Middle East Report, 200, 2-10. Halabi, R. 2006. Izrachim šave Chuvot: Zihot Druzit Vhamadina Hayahudit (Citizens Equal Duties: Druze Identity and the Jewish State). Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad. Isleem, M. 2014. Arabic-Hebrew codeswitching: The case of the Druze community in Israel. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, doi: 10.1111/ijal.12091. —. 2015. Druze linguistic landscape in Israel: Indexicality of new ethnolinguistic identity boundaries. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(1), 13-30. Landry, R. and Bourhis, R. 1997. Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49. Saban, I. and Amara, M. 2004. The status of Arabic in Israel: reflections on the power of law to produce social change. Israel Law Review, 36(2), 5-39. Shohamy, E. 2006. Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches. New York: Routledge. Spolsky, B. and Cooper, R. 1991. The Languages of Jerusalem. New York: Oxford University Press. Spolsky, B. and Shohamy, E. 1999a. The Languages of Israel: Policy, Ideology and Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. —. 1999b. Language in Israeli society and education. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 137, 93-114. Talmon, R. 2000. Arabic as a minority language in Israel. In Arabic as a Minority Language, edited by J. Owens, 199-220. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

CHAPTER THREE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF MACAU: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS ANA CRISTINA NEVES

1. Introduction Linguistic landscape is a relatively recent interdisciplinary field whose early beginnings, however, go back to the work of Rosenbaum et al. (1977) who referred to it as an environmental print, followed by the terms scriptorial landscape or human imprint as suggested and introduced by Gade (2003). Whilst discussing the terminology, Gorter (2006) puts forth the idea of linguistic cityscape, as this is a phenomenon limited to the cities. Linguistic landscape is inherently associated with the public sphere, as first defined by Habermas (1991, as cited in Coulmas 2009: 13-14) it is not necessarily an identifiable space, although it presupposes an urbanised society. Since the seminal paper by Landry and Bourhis (1997) with its focus on Canada, this field has attracted several scholars and other studies have been carried out in various locations, or better, cities, depending on the target languages and their statuses throughout the world. In Asia, such studies were carried out in Bangkok (Huebner 2006), Tokyo (Backhaus 2006), Taipei (Curtin 2009) and in Seoul, for pedagogical purposes (Sayer 2010). The scope of the term linguistic landscape gets another dimension by being expanded to other contexts than the public sphere, as postulated by Shohamy and Gorter (2009). In this sense, it is noteworthy to mention that the object of study of linguistic landscape might not necessarily be a city itself, but part of it such as its infrastructures. This is what happens in two papers we have come across on the linguistic landscape of the two Special Administrative Regions of China. Lu and Julien (2001), in their paper on Hong Kong’s linguistic landscape, refer to the decreasing usage of English

44

Chapter Three

and therefore the declining level of proficiency in English in a territory that supposedly has English as a second language. The fact is that, on the one hand, English does not play a role in the daily lives of common people and, on the other hand, English is the means of instruction at tertiary level, for which students are definitely not ready. In the case of Macau, Moody (2008) expands its linguistic landscape to websites and the social press, where he spots English as an additional working language having a de facto status among the government institutions. In terms of methodology, there are differences regarding what is considered to be a unit of analysis. Cenoz and Gorter (2006: 71) consider “each establishment but not each sign” whilst Backhaus defines it as “any piece of written text within a spatially definable frame” (2006: 55). Other differences one should be aware of relate to the typology of signs. BenRafael et al. (2006) refer to it as “flow” which could be either “top-down” or “bottom-up” signs. The former are official (Backhaus 2006) or government (Huebner 2006) signs, while the latter are the non-official (Backhaus 2006) or the non-government (Huebner 2006) signs. These are what Calvet (1990, as cited in Backhaus 2006) calls the “in vitro” and “in vivo” components of linguistic landscape. From studies carried out in other geographical areas, we know that there are differences regarding the language diversity present in public (top-down) and private (bottom-up) signs (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006; BenRafael 2009). Backhaus (2006) in Tokyo and Ben-Rafael et al. (2006) in Israel found that top-down signs show less variation across neighbourhoods and are more consistent with respect to displaying the same languages, especially the official ones. In Asia, more precisely in Bangkok, Huebner (2006) presents a linguistic framework that focuses on code-mixing due to the strong influence of English in Thai, showing that English is replacing Chinese as the major language of wider communication. However, there are differences regarding the number of signs being displayed in English, such as in the oldest neighbourhoods of Bangkok which show a comparatively lower presence of English. Backhaus (2006) demonstrates the high degree of multilingualism in Tokyo, where the increasing presence of English cannot be neglected. The author accounts for it as being an act of solidarity rather than a means of power. In other parts of the world, such as Ljouwert in Friesland and Donostia in the Basque Country (Cenoz and Gorter 2006), English signage is perceived as more prestigious and modern.

Linguistic Landscape of Macau: A Quantitative Analysis

45

2. The object of study: Macau With a growing population of circa 19,000 inhabitants per square kilometre, Macau represents one of the most densely-populated cities worldwide. Its geopolitical location, along with its economic growth and subsequent population mobility and migration movements, lead to the emergence of a salad bowl of languages and nationalities, even though Chinese varieties outnumber others. According to the 2011 Census, out of a total of 539,131 inhabitants, there are 449,274 Cantonese speakers, mostly from the surrounding areas such as Canton and Hong Kong, 27,129 Mandarin speakers, 19,957 speakers of the Chinese variety of Fujian, 10,633 speakers of another Chinese variety, 12,155 English speakers, 9,415 Tagalog speakers and 4,022 Portuguese speakers (Direcção de Serviços de Estatística e Censos 2011). Thus, although Portuguese is a coofficial language, it is outnumbered by English and Tagalog speakers. According to this data, it would be expected that English has a relevant role in the linguistic landscape of Macau. There are, however, differences regarding the languages spoken by civil servants. According to Moody (2008: 6), the ratio of Portuguese speakers in this stratum of society is about 43% with 8,333 speakers, against 11,329 or 58.6% of English speakers. Almost 98% of the civil servants speak Cantonese and over 68% master Mandarin. Moreover, 70% of the government institutions offer Internet services in English, besides Portuguese and Chinese. However, the same author emphasises that English does not offer a civil servant any career opportunities. This role is still assigned to Portuguese, which is the language that symbolises Macau identity. Once known as “the Eastern Vatican” due to its high number of churches, today Macau is considered to be the Las Vegas of the Far East (Cheng 2002: 65), being home to over 35 casinos which have brought in a total revenue of over 3 billion euros in January 2015, according to figures published by Macau’s regulator, Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau Macau SAR, 2015. In fact, gambling tourism attracts tourists mostly from mainland China. According to the Macau Tourism Office, there is a daily average of 1,300 tourists, which can easily reach 2,000 tourists per day during festivities such as the Chinese New Year. Macau tourist arrivals stem mainly from Asia, followed by a majority from English-speaking countries. In 2014, Macau received over 21,200,000 tourists from mainland China, 6,420,000 from Hong Kong, 950,000 from Taiwan, 550,000 from the Republic of Korea and almost 300,000 from Japan, followed by 180,000 tourists from the United States of America,

46

Chapter Three

105,000 from Australia, 70,000 from Canada and almost 61,000 from the United Kingdom (Macau Government Tourism Office 2014). Tourism also favours the English presence in Macau as the main Western language, right after Korean and Japanese. The school system in Macau is unique as each school develops its own curriculum. This also means that each school can decide which languages should be made compulsory in their curricula, although the government offers financial support to the ones which include Portuguese in their curricula. Nevertheless, there are currently eleven public schools, two of which have Chinese and nine have both Portuguese and Chinese as the media of instruction. In the private sector, there are fifty-one schools which have Chinese as the main medium of instruction and two that have Portuguese. It is also in this sector that one can find English as a medium of teaching with six schools teaching exclusively in English and seven others employing both English and Chinese (Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e da Juventude 2015). However, it is worth mentioning that most of the private Chinese schools make English compulsory in their curricula with a two-hour weekly lesson, though not in respect of the Portuguese language which is, at most, an optional subject. This means that the number of English speakers in Macau will certainly rise, just as they have been rising for the last five years. A further discussion on this and other topics can be found in Moody who argues that “there was clearly a time when Macau was the centre of English contact in China” (Moody: 2008: 13). The presence of Portuguese in this territory is explained by the fact that the Portuguese arrived in Macau in the middle of the 16th century, establishing the first trading post between the West and the Far East. They were allowed to remain there from 1557, although the territory was never under the possession of the Portuguese. In fact, the Chinese made several attempts to prevent the Portuguese from establishing themselves in other parts of Zhongshan Island, on whose southern tip Macau is located. The Chinese and Portuguese communities co-existed for a long time while having two different languages, traditions and even authorities; Mandarin for the Chinese and Portuguese for the governor. It was not until 1966, during the Cultural Revolution of China and after the People’s Republic of China was formally established, that the Portuguese administration was forced to vacate the territory once and for all. This was followed by a period of successive negotiations that culminated in the Joint Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and The Government of the Republic of Portugal on the question of Macao1, in 1987. The stipulations of this document came into force in 1999, when Macau

Linguistic Landscape of Macau: A Quantitative Analysis

47

became a Special Administrative Region of China, retaining its capitalist economic and political system, against the socialist system of mainland China. This is what Deng Xiaoping defined as “one country, two systems” (Deng 1984). The Basic Law reflects this constitutional principle of the central government’s policy by assigning the status of official languages to both Chinese and Portuguese; the former embodied in the local Cantonese variety and the latter for historical reasons. “In addition to the Chinese language, Portuguese may also be used as an official language by the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary of the Macao Special Administrative Region” (Macau Government 1999: Ch. I, Art. 9). The Constitution of China corroborates by allowing the use of the local languages, without specifying them: In performing their functions, the organs of self-government of the national autonomous areas, in accordance with the autonomy regulations of the respective areas, employ the spoken and written language or languages in common use in the locality (National People’s Congress 1982: Section 6, Art. 121).

The scene is set for the ongoing presence of Portuguese. However, one cannot neglect its geopolitical location. Being organised in three main areas – the Macau Peninsula being the most densely populated area, followed by Taipa and Coloane – with several borders to both Mainland China and Hong Kong, it is the Macau Peninsula that is particularly interesting. From a linguistic point of view, this is so not only because of its population density, but also because of its proximity to the mainland, having two land borders. It is also due to its connection to the other Special Administrative Region by one of the two sea borders that connect Macau to Hong Kong. Indeed, the fact that these two special regions share sociolinguistic and geographical bonds together with historical similarities could explain the increasing impact of English to such an extent that one wonders why English does not have an even stronger presence in Macau.

3. Methodology Taking into consideration the vast linguistic diversity encountered in Macau and the primacy of English as the Romanised language par excellence from the geopolitical, educational and tourist point of view, this study focuses on the three main pedestrian areas of the Macau Peninsula for both residents and tourists. As depicted in Map 3.1, the geographical area covers about four kilometres of the three largest and main pedestrian

48

Chapter Three

areas of thee Macau Peniinsula: 2km of o the surrounndings of the Ruins of Saint Paul aand Senado Square S (1), 50 00 m of the S Street of Happ piness (2) and 2 km off a part of the Reservoir R and d the Fishermeen’s Wharf (3)).

Map 3.1: Peddestrian Zone Legend: L 1. Ruin ns of Saint Pauul and Senado Square; 2. Street of Happpiness; 3. Waater Reservoir and a Fishermen ’s Wharf (Adaapted from Google Mapss).

These thhree parts of the city havee completely different bacckgrounds and were buuilt at differennt points in tim me. In this sennse, the first pedestrian p area includees the originaal Façade of the Church oof Mater Deii and the Church of S St. Paul built in the first half of the 17th ccentury. It also o features the ruins off what was onnce St. Paul’s College founnded in 1594, which is claimed to be the first western univ versity in Eaast Asia. Theese Jesuit constructionns, together with w the Mountt Fortress, forrm the main part p of the historical ceentre and are some s of the laandmarks of M Macau. Also, included in this area is Senado Sqquare, which has been Maacau’s urban centre c for centuries, haaving as its main m building, the Portuguesse Governmen nt House. The second pedestrian zone – Street off Happiness – was once Maacau’s red light districtt (which explaains its name in Portuguesee, although no ot related to its Chineese equivalentt), but is now w known as F Food Street due d to the various restaaurants and cuuisines that caan be found tthere. Finally, the third pedestrian aarea includes the t Water Resservoir and a part of the first theme park of Maccau, the Fisheermen’s Wharrf built in 20005. This is no ow one of the largest leeisure zones of o the city. Considerring the fact that t two of th he areas have a high daily influx of tourists, the data was colllected early one o morning iin 2013. Pictu ures were

Linguistic Landscape of Macau: A Quantitative Analysis

49

taken of all written imprints that a pedestrian could catch sight of. Every single written piece was considered as a single token or unit of analysis, following Backhaus’ (2006) definition. Six hundred and ninety-nine (699) tokens from a total of 494 pictures were collected, counted and categorised according to the flow, industry sector and the languages displayed. Included in these tokens are road signs, shop names, street names, direction signs, advertising billboards, commercial shop signs, building and institution names, private announcements and graffiti. The bottom-up flow allowed a subdivision of the establishments, according to their main business activity or industry sector, such as catering, lodging, law offices, physicians’ offices, transportation and telecommunications, private usually handwritten signs, religious centres, other associations and centres. The data was analysed using the software program Sofa Statistics. For this empirical study, a quantitative corpus analysis, both descriptive and inferential, was carried out, in order to answer the following research questions: 1. How present are English, Portuguese and Cantonese in the linguistic landscape of Macau? Are there differences according to: a. Flow? b. Pedestrian zones? c. Industry sector? 2. Is English replacing any of the official languages?

4. Descriptive analysis As one can see in Figure 3.1, there are more official or governmental signs in the third pedestrian zone (Water Reservoir & Fishermen’s Wharf). This is explained by the near absence of tourists on the one hand, and by the presence of public facilities on the other. The latter are generally accompanied by warning and direction signs, that is, infrastructural and regulatory signs. Other than that, there are also sport devices followed by instruction signs that were not assigned to a top-down flow. The Street of Happiness, being the most traditional area, is mainly represented by bottom-up signs created by the local businesses. The first zone – the Ruins of Saint Paul and surroundings – is located right in the middle when it comes to the proportion of top-down signage. The signs in this area are mainly related to the historic centre, building names and directions. In other words, the flow mirrors the descriptions of the pedestrian areas. The first pedestrian zone (Ruins of St. Paul & Leal Senado), which

50

Chapter Three

is also the oone with a laarge percentag ge of bottom-uup signage, represents r the most buusiness and touurism-oriented zone. The ssecond area, the t Street of Happinesss, stands forr the most traaditional zonee. The third zone, z the Water Reserrvoir and surroundings – with w its walkingg promenade and sport devices – reppresents the most m recreation nal area.

Figure 3.1: Fllow per pedestrrian area

As regarrds the presencce of Portugueese and Englissh in the signaage, there are marked ddifferences acccording to thee zone, as onee can see in Fiigures 3.2 and 3.3. Thee most busineess and tourism m-oriented peedestrian zonee displays the same proportion of both Portugu uese and Engglish signs. The T most traditional zzone displays more Portugu uese than Engglish signs. Lastly, L the recreational area displayss more Portuguese, but thhe presence of English cannot be neeglected. Thiss is mainly du ue to the fact tthat instruction ns for the previously mentioned sport s devices are exclusiively in Eng glish and Chinese. Dirrection signs and others rellated to publicc facilities also include English, bessides the officiial languages.

p area Figure 3.2: Poortuguese per pedestrian

L Linguistic Landdscape of Macaau: A Quantitatiive Analysis

51

Figure 3.3: Ennglish per pedeestrian area

5. Infeerential sta atistics anallysis In orderr to shed lighht on the presence of eaach language in every pedestrian aarea, we madee use of inferrential statisticcs. By consid dering the different feaatures of eachh pedestrian zo one, we wanteed to know iff a certain language is prone to be more m present in a pedestriaan area than any a of the other two lannguages. The chi-square test confirms thaat there is a relationship between pedestrian zzone and Engllish on the onee hand and Poortuguese on the t other. As one can ssee in Figure 3.4 the most business-orien b nted area tends to show a preferencee for English, unlike u the mo ost traditional area. The mosst recreationaal area is also o the area whhere the probability of Portuguese bbeing displayeed is higher, as a Figure 3.5 sshows. What abbout Cantonese? Is there a relationshipp between th he use of Cantonese aand a particullar zone? Yess, if Cantonesse is to be ussed at all, then the prrobability of being so is among the m most commercial and business-oriiented areas. It is indeed the only zonee where one can also come acrosss other languaages, namely English, E Japannese, Thai, Freench, and others (Figuure 3.6).

52

Chapter Three

p valuue: < 0.001 Pearsson's Chi Squaare statistic: 20.51 2 Degreees of Freedom (df): 2

Figure 3.4: Prresence of Engllish per pedestrian zone

L Linguistic Landdscape of Macaau: A Quantitatiive Analysis

p vallue: < 0.001 Pearsson's Chi Squuare statistic: 15.132 1 Degrrees of Freedoom (df): 2

P per pedestrian zonee Figure 3.55: Presence of Portuguese

53

54

Chapter Three

p valuue: < 0.001 Pearsson's Chi Squaare statistic: 24.845 2 Degreees of Freedom (df): 2

Figure 3.6: Prresence of Canttonese per pedeestrian zone

Howeverr, the proporttion of English signs is nott affected by the flow, which meanns that both official and non-official agents make use of English, as ddepicted in Figure 3.7.

L Linguistic Landdscape of Macaau: A Quantitatiive Analysis

55

p valuue: 0.021 Pearsson's Chi Squaare statistic: 5.345 5 Degreees of Freedom (df): 1

Figure 3.7: Ennglish per flow w

Howeverr, the same does d not apply y to Portuguesse. Official siigns (topdown flow) display a proportionally higher h usage of Portuguese (Figure 3.8).

Chapter Three

56

p valuue: < 0.001 Pearsson's Chi Squaare statistic: 186.243 1 Degreees of Freedom (df): 1

fl Figure 3.8: Poortuguese per flow

The Pearrson Chi-squaare test answers the questioon of whether there is a relationship between Ennglish and Cantonese C byy rejecting the t nullhypothesis, as one can seee in Figure 3..9. Cantonese does affect English E in the sense that, when the sign s is in Can ntonese, there is a higher prrobability that there is no English.

L Linguistic Landdscape of Macaau: A Quantitatiive Analysis

57

p valuue: < 0.001 Pearsson's Chi Squaare statistic: 54.584 5 Degreees of Freedom (df): 1

Figure 3.9: Iss there a relationnship between English E and Can antonese?

In the caase of a possibble relationship between Poortuguese and d English, the null-hyppothesis has to be accepted d. That is, whhether the sig gns are in English or nnot, the proporrtion of Portug guese is still tthe same, meaaning that there is no reelationship beetween the two o languages (F Figure 3.10).

58

Chapter Three

p vallue: 0.193 Pears rson's Chi Squuare statistic: 1.697 Degrrees of Freedoom (df): 1

n English and Poortuguese? Figure 3.10: IIs there a relatioonship between

Since Ennglish is not affected a by th he flow, but ddoes play a ro ole in the most busineess-oriented arrea, we wanteed to know iff there is a rellationship between Engglish and anyy specific indu ustry sector. A As highlighted d in Table 3.1, Englishh has a particuular presence in industry seectors such as banking, fashion annd telecommuunications with w 85.7%, 58.5% and d 53.8% respectivelyy out of the tootal number of English impprints found in n each of these sectors. In the case of Portuguese, it can especcially be foun nd among electronics and legal and a medical offices withh 66.7% and d 70.4% respectivelyy. Cantonese is definitely the languagee of the majjority, as confirmed bby its presencce in every single industryy sector at ov ver 84%. Fashion wass the only excception with 59.8%. The rattionale behind d this will be discussedd further on inn this section. Cateringg is the industrry sector wheere all three laanguages havee a strong presence whhen compared to other indu ustry sectors, aas the circled figures f in Table 3.1 shhow, with 38% % of the signss in Cantonesee, 23.7% in Po ortuguese and 26.7% in English. As A regards th he fashion secctor, English conquers with 58.5% while the preesence of Can ntonese is beccoming weak ker with a non-display in this lannguage of 40 0.2%, as shhown by the triangle

L Linguistic Landdscape of Macaau: A Quantitatiive Analysis

59

highlighted in the table below. b This is mainly expllained by the fact that many of thee shops in thiss business stem m from, and hhave their heaadquarters in, Hong Koong, but also by b the fact thaat many worlddwide and locaally wellknown brandds are Englishh words. Table 3.1: IIndustry sector per p language

6. Concllusion This studdy has examiined the lingu uistic landscappe of the threee largest pedestrian zones in thee Macau Pen ninsula. By doing so, itt focuses particularly on the role of o English in relation r to thee official lang guages. It also providees a picture of o the status of o the languagges in questio on within individual nneighbourhoodds and in the wider w communnity. All in aall, the preseence of Engllish in Macaau signage cannot be overlooked, especially in the most com mmercial and toouristic areas,, which is a relief to thhe visitor who is not familiaar with one off the official laanguages. The study sshows that thee presence off English is coo-related with h specific industry secctors. Fashion and banking seem to be m more willing to t display English signns, perhaps inn an attempt to o meet the moost urgent neeeds of the short stay vvisitors. Anothher industry sector that is aaffected by English E as well as Porrtuguese is the t catering industry, wheere the proportion of Cantonese signs is rellatively loweer. This is certainly hellpful for Portuguese-speaking residdents, who arre not proficieent in any of the other languages. So far aand based on the findings of this studyy, the presencce of the Portuguese language in the linguisticc landscape oof Macau is not n being

60

Chapter Three

directly affected by English, but this is mainly due to the official reinforcement, or the top-down flow. Industry sectors that comply more with the resident status, such as medical offices and law companies, are definitely more prone to make use of this language. The oldest and most traditional area shows a comparatively lower number of signs in English, as was reported in other cities in Asia. However, it must be admitted that a quantitative analysis is certainly not conclusive.

Notes 1

Both spellings (Macao or Macau) are used.

References Backhaus, P. 2006. Multilingualism in Tokyo: A look into the linguistic landscape. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 52-66. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ben-Rafael, E. 2009. A sociological approach to the study of linguistic landscapes. In Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery, edited by E. Shohamy and D. Gorter, 44-54. New York: Routledge. Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. and Trumper-Hecht, N. 2006. Linguistic landscape as a symbolic construction of the public space: the case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 5266. Cenoz, J. and Gorter, D. 2006. Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 67-80. Cheng, C. 2002. Cultural Significance: The Identity of Macao. The Conservation of Urban Heritage: Macao Vision. Conference Proceedings, Macao, SAR China, 10 – 12 September 2002, 23-69. Macao: Cultural Affairs Bureau. Coulmas, F. 2009. Linguistic landscaping and the seed of public sphere. In Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery, edited by E. Shohamy and D. Gorter, 13-24. New York: Routledge. Curtin, M. 2009. Languages on display: Indexical signs, identities and the linguistic landscape of Taipei. In Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery, edited by E. Shohamy and D. Gorter, 221-237. New York: Routledge. Deng, X. 1984. One country, two systems. Accessed January 8, 2016. http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol3/text/c1210.html

Linguistic Landscape of Macau: A Quantitative Analysis

61

Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e da Juventude (DSEJ). 2015. A Guide to School Enrollment. Macau: DSEJ. Direcção de Serviços de Estatística e Censos (DSEC). 2011. Census Findings. Macau: DSEC. Gade, D. 2003. Language, identity, and the scriptorial landscape in Québec and Catalonia. Geographical Review, 93(4), 429-448. Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau Macau SAR (GICB). 2015. Monthly Gross Revenue from Games of Fortune. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://www.dicj.gov.mo/web/en/information/DadosEstat_mensal/2015/ index.html. Gorter, D. 2006. Introduction: The study of linguistic landscape as a new approach to multilingualism. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 1-6. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Huebner, T. 2006. Bangkok’s linguistic landscapes: Environmental print, codemixing, and language change. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 31-51. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Landry, R. and Bourhis, R. 1997. Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality – An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49. Lu, D. and Julien, R. 2001. The delivery of EAP courses within the changing linguistic landscape of Hong Kong: A time for reassessment. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 32(1), 32-106. Macau Government. 1987. Joint Declaration of the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Portugal on the question of Macao. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://bo.io.gov.mo/bo/i/88/23/dc/en/default.asp. —. 1999. Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://bo.io.gov.mo/bo/i/1999/leibasica/index_uk.asp. Macau Government Tourism Office. 2014. Tourism Indicators. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://industry.macautourism.gov.mo/en/Statistics_and_Studies/list_sta tistics.php?id=39,29&page_id=10. Moody, A. 2008. Macau English: Status, functions and forms. English Today, 24(3), 3-15. National People’s Congress. 1982. The Constitution of the People of China. Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Constitution/node_2825.htm.

62

Chapter Three

Rosenbaum, Y., Nadel, E., Cooper, R. and Fishman, J. 1977. English on Keren Kayemet Street. In The Spread of English: The Sociology of English as an additional language, edited by J. Fishman, R. Cooper, and A. Conrad, 179-196. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Sayer, P. 2010. Using the linguistic landscape as a pedagogical resource. ELT Journal, 64(2), 143-154. Shohamy, E. and Gorter, D. eds. 2009. Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery. New York: Routledge.

CHAPTER FOUR RESISTANCE ON THE WALLS: THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF A FRENCH-BRETON UNIVERSITY NOEMI RAMILA DIAZ

1. Introduction Globalisation has changed not only the linguistic market (Bourdieu 1993; Heller 2003, 2005) but has also altered our linguistic landscapes. As a consequence, all around the globe, streets are full of inscriptions in all kinds of languages. Different linguistic landscapes show us the ethnolinguistic vitality of our cities (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006) and at the same time indicate the statuses of the different languages displayed in public (Cenoz and Gorter 2006). The majority of works related to the Linguistic Landscape (LL hereafter) are exterior studies as they focus on the analysis of public streets. Interior studies are less common (Hanauer 2009, 2010; Ramila Diaz 2015) and consequently more research needs to be done. My study falls into this category, as it concerns the analysis of the LL within the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at one university in French Brittany. My hypothesis is that interior landscapes will also reflect ethnolinguistic vitality and the statuses of the different languages. The research questions of the study are: (1) (2)

To what extent does the interior landscape at a university in a bilingual region reflect ethnolinguistic vitality? To what extent does this interior landscape reflect different languages’ statuses?

64

Chapter Four

In order to answer these questions, I have analysed the LL of the Department of Applied Foreign Languages where several foreign languages are offered to students as study areas. In this chapter, I shall firstly present the definitions and categorisations of LL. Secondly, French language policies will be explained. Finally, I shall offer the data and methodology as well as an adapted categorisation of the texts in this particular setting. The results indicate that although ethnolinguistic vitality exists, the presence of texts in French outnumbers that of texts in other languages, principally those in Breton which subsist in marginal or resistance forms.

2. Theoretical background 2.1 Linguistic Landscape In the seminal work by Landry and Bourhis LL “refers to the visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs” (1997: 23). They define LL in the following terms: “the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (Landry and Bourhis 1997: 23). This definition has known some variations and for example, Ben-Rafael et al. (2006), include the study of interior landscapes in the LL. Linguistic Landscape was defined as “any sign or announcement located outside or inside a public institution or a private business in a given geographical location” (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006: 14). According to some authors, LL not only reflects the ethnolinguistic vitality of a community (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006: 8), but also the prestige of the different languages present in that community.

2.2 Categorisations of LL studies Among the first studies on LL, the work by Landry and Bourhis (1997) is generally cited as the precursor, although we can find prior studies concerning LL such as Calvet (1990). LL studies have greatly progressed from the 1990s and today there are many attempts in the literature to categorise these studies. For example, Franco-Rodríguez (2007) distinguishes two types of studies – studies of LL and studies based on LL. The first category includes studies that focus on the relation between linguistic policy regulation and LL (Leclerc 1989); or studies on the impact of LL, such as the study by Hicks (2002) on the lack of clear and

Resistance on the Walls

65

coherent linguistic policies regarding signage in Scottish Gaelic. Concomitantly, the studies based on the LL category cover three different interests. The first subcategory includes those studies that analyse LL in relation to the linguistic communities that come into contact with it. This subcategory would include studies like the one conducted by Cenoz and Gorter (2006) in two different bilingual communities, in the Basque Country (Spain) and in Friesland (The Netherlands), or studies by BenRafael et al. (2006) and by Waksman and Shohamy (2010) in Israel. The second sub-group would address studies about globalisation and LL, for example the work by Calvet (1990) and his analysis of the linguistic signs found in Paris and in Dakar; or the study of Backhaus (2006, 2007) in Tokyo. The third sub-group concerns works which focus on the analysis of the linguistic features of the LL, such as the one by Franco-Rodríguez (2007) who analyses the signs in Miami. Another categorisation is made by Muñoz Carrobles (2010). He offers a classification of the LL looking at the causes for the development of such landscapes and lists four types. The first type of LL is a result of social bilingualism, as in Brussels or Barcelona where signs are written in the official languages of the cities. The second type of LL is one that has come into being as a result of immigration. Studies of this kind would analyse how some places have integrated the languages of migrants; this can mainly be perceived in urban areas such as particular streets in Madrid where shop signs can be found in Chinese. In third place, Muñoz Carrobles (2010) lists “LL caused by cosmopolitism or globalisation” where he refers to the presence and prestige of global languages (overall English) in cities all around the world. Finally, Muñoz Carrobles (2010) refers to “touristic LL” where signs are written in languages that tourists are supposed to understand. He adds that these categories are not mutually exclusive.

2.3 Linguistic policies in France The French system is considered by some authors as representative of monolingual, mainstream education countries, where even if a second language is studied as a subject, bilingualism is almost never accomplished (Baker 2006). As far as linguistic policies are concerned, France is a monolingual country, as established in the second article of the French constitution of 4th October 1958 stating that “la langue de la République est le français” (the language of the Republic is French). In fact, France is one of the few countries where the national and official language is protected by law; the Toubon law of 14th August 1994

66

Chapter Four

focuses on the use of the French language. The Toubon law is a powerful instrument because it mandates the use of the French language in many contexts, as, for example, in official government publications, in advertisements, in workplaces, in commercial contracts, and in all government-financed schools. Therefore, the language of education is French and no other language can be used at schools in most parts of France, with the exception of some regions where indigenous or minority languages are allowed at school. At university level, theses should be written in French, with very few exceptions (Costaouec 2013; also Fioraso law of the 22nd July 2013). On the other hand, in France, according to the Cerquiglini Report published in 1999, there were 75 languages, 56 in French overseas territories and the rest in mainland France. The Cerquiglini Report was written as a result of Article 3 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. As regards laws concerning regional languages, the Haby law of 1975 (Article 12) is the most important. It states that “Un enseignement des langues et des cultures régionales peut être dispensé tout au long de la scolarité” (Regional languages and cultures can be taught throughout compulsory education). As a result, in bilingual regions, students can learn regional languages at school, as is shown in the following section. 2.3.1 Brittany and Breton language My study was conducted in French Brittany, which is the westernmost region of France, bordered by the English Channel to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Brittany is divided into four départements: le Finistère, les Côtes d'Armor, le Morbihan, and Ille-et-Vilaine. It is a bilingual region where, as already mentioned, it is possible to study Breton at school. Although bilingual schools can be private or public, all of them are financed by the government, and therefore, French language policies apply. In 2014 – 2015, a total of 7000 students attended bilingual public schools and 4971 students attended bilingual private schools. In addition to bilingual schools, Breton Diwan schools, or immersion schools, are also important. Diwan schools are public and Breton (Breizh) is the medium of instruction. The 42 Diwan schools in the territory follow the official curricula. In 2014 – 2015, an overall 3984 students from kindergarten to high school attended immersion schools. Moreover, in the French education system, the study of two foreign languages is compulsory. The first foreign language is introduced from the age of 10 and the second one is introduced in high school. However, at

Resistance on the Walls

67

university, it is not possible to study Breton, although the study of Breton literature and culture is available.

3. Data The data collected in this study comprises 172 photos taken in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at a university in Brittany. Data was collected via digital cameras and was stored in digital format. The pictures were taken in the main entrance of the Department of LEA (Applied Foreign Languages) building, the department main area, the teachers’ lounge, in a teacher’s office, in seven classrooms and in five corridors. These areas incorporate all that students would typically encounter in their daily routine. The photos were taken in April 2014. The date is relevant as today the university is undergoing some renovation and such signage could change. The study was conducted at the aforementioned Department of Applied Foreign Languages, where students are given the opportunity to learn two languages, with English being compulsory. The other languages offered by the department are German, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. Students in this programme study to become translators or international commercial agents. A number of difficulties were encountered in the process of collecting and analysing the data. The first difficulty was access to the texts, as students and teachers were constantly passing by. The second difficulty concerns the fact that LL is very dynamic. As a consequence, the analysis presented here reflects the LL of April 2014; LL is dependent on both context as well as time. Finally, deciding the unit of analysis also posited some problems. In the literature review, two main methods can be found. On the one hand, Backhaus takes “any piece of text within a spatially definable frame” (2006: 55), while Cenoz and Gorter (2006) took the larger whole of each establishment in the street analysed as a unit of analysis. For this study, the system adopted by Backhaus (2006) is followed and every text in the pictures was taken as a unit. A total of 430 texts were analysed.

4. Methodology All items were first categorised according to the producer of the message. Then these same items were divided into practical functions. In order to understand my categorisation, I offer an explanation in the following sections.

68

Chapter Four

4.1 Perspectives in LL Calvet (1990) points out a very important distinction between signs written by the authorities (“in vitro”) as opposed to signs written by citizens (“in vivo”). The results of his study show how depending on who is marking the territory, the list and salience of languages would be different (see also Landry and Bourhis 1997). In line with Calvet’s distinction, Ben-Rafael et al. (2006) in their study of the three settings in Israel and East Jerusalem, distinguish between “top-down” (or institutional signs) and “bottom-up” (or individual inscriptions), which lead to the “symbolic construction of the public space” (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006: 10). Backhaus (2006) proposed the use of the terms “official” versus “nonofficial” while a distinction between “governmental” and “nongovernmental” was made by Huebner (2006). In this study, the dichotomy as presented by Ben-Rafael et al. (2006) is followed and texts were divided into “top-down” when the origin was governmental and “bottomup”, when texts were written by individuals.

4.2 Functions of LL According to Torkington (2009), the type of discourse represented in every text is linked to the producer of the message. The most cited distinction in the literature is the categorisation made by Landry and Bourhis in 1997. For them, texts perform two functions: informative and symbolic. Texts are informative when they signal the territorial or linguistic limits of a community. The symbolic function is linked to the value and prestige of the different languages in the landscape. Moreover, Scollon and Scollon (2003) divided the texts according to the different discourses. They categorised discourses into regulatory discourses (as in, car park signs), infrastructure discourses (for example, street name plates), commercial discourses (for example, when referring to commercial goods) and transgressive discourses (such as, graffiti). As this study was conducted only at one university, the functions of the texts reflect this fact. Texts have been divided into the following categories: normative, informative, pedagogic, contesting and playful. In the next section, a description of every category is provided along with the results.

Resistance on the Walls

69

5. Results As previously mentioned texts were first divided into top-down and bottom-up categories. Some examples of the former are the signs indicating the exit or fire instruction signs. The latter category refers to texts written by individuals or non-governmental organisations such as dance academies offering dance courses. In this study, governmental texts outnumbered bottom-up texts (76% and 24% respectively). The reason could be linked to the fact that at university, texts are mainly displayed by authorities (such as professors and secretaries) and little place is left for individual texts. As regards the functions of the texts, the normative sub-category would be linked to the regulatory function as stated by Scollon and Scollon (2003). Examples of this category are instruction panels, such as in the case of fire. Normative texts can only be linked to the top-down category, and they constituted 20% of that category (Photo 4.1).

Photo 4.1: Example of top-down normative text

The informative sub-category can pertain to both, top-down or bottomup categories. These texts’ main function is to give information. Some examples of informative bottom-up texts are the ones written by students seeking lessons in Spanish or music academies offering guitar lessons on bulletin boards (Photo 4.2). Examples of informative top-down texts would be signs showing how to get to a particular laboratory or office (Photo 4.3). Informative texts are very common with 20% of top-down texts and 80% of bottom-up texts.

70

Chapter Four

Photo 4.2: Example of bottom-up informative texts

Photo 4.3: Example of top-down informative texts

The pedagogic category has also been considered in this study because some of the texts go beyond being merely informative; indeed, they have a pedagogic purpose. These texts are related to university matters such as students’ grades (Photo 4.4). Pedagogic texts were only found in the topdown category (51%).

Resistance on the Walls

71

Photo 4.4: Example of top-down pedagogic texts

The final categories include texts which are either contesting or playful. All these texts belong to the bottom-up category. Examples of contesting texts are the pamphlets or posters hung on the door of the trade union office in the main area of the department (Photo 4.5). The content of these is always clearly contesting language policies and favouring a stronger presence of the Breton language. In addition, playful texts include, for example, graffiti written by students on tables, which may convey no particular message and whose only purpose may be entertainment (Photo 4.6). These texts represent 15% and 5% respectively of the bottom-up category. Finally, the presence of languages, other than French is not very high: indeed 95% of the texts were written in French and only 5% were shown in other languages. Many of the latter were bilingual texts belonging to the bottom-up category and informative sub-category. These texts were mainly written by students looking for or offering language lessons or linguistic exchanges. Other examples of texts in different languages are indeed the bilingual texts in Breton and in French by the trade unions or vindictive graffiti by students.

72

Chapter Four

Picture 4.5: Example of bottom-up contesting texts

Picture 4.6: Example of bottom-up playful text

6. Conclusions This study offers an analysis of the LL of the Department of Applied Foreign Languages at a university in French Brittany. Firstly, texts were categorised into two types, top-down or bottom-up, depending on the producer. Secondly, texts were categorised depending on their main function: normative, informative, pedagogic, contesting and playful.

Resistance on the Walls

73

The results show that the large majority of texts are written in French, leaving other languages for informative or contesting purposes. Texts pertaining to the top-down category are mainly pedagogic texts, thus linked to the main function of the university. In the bottom-up category, the majority of texts are informative and consist primarily of advertisements written by individuals or by organisations. All in all, my hypothesis has been confirmed, as the LL of this particular university shows the statuses of the different languages, with French holding top position and vernacular or foreign languages having a marginal or contesting presence. However, although a certain linguistic vitality is achieved, as the texts found in other languages were bilingual texts in Breton, English, Spanish or Portuguese, these texts do not fully reflect all the languages offered by the department.

References Backhaus, P. 2006. Multilingualism in Tokyo: A Look into the Linguistic Landscape. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 52-67. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. —. 2007. Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon-Buffalo-Toronto: Multilingual Matters Baker, C. 2006. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. and Trumper-Hecht, N. 2006. Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 7-31. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Bourdieu, P. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. Calvet, L. 1990. Des mots sur les murs: une comparaison entre Paris et Dakar. In Des langues et des villes. Actes du colloque international, edited by R. Chaudenson, 73-183. Paris: Agence de coopération culturelle et technique. Cenoz, J. and Gorter, D. 2006. Linguistic Landscapes and Minority Languages. In Linguistic Landscapes: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by J. Cenoz and D. Gorter, 67-80. New York: Routledge.

74

Chapter Four

Cerquiglini, B. 1999. Les langues de la France, rapport au Ministre de l’Education Nationale, de la recherche et de la technologie et à la Ministre de la culture et de la communication: Avril 1999. Accessed February 8, 2015. http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapportspublics/994000719.pdf Costaouec, D. 2013. Politiques Linguistiques: Le cadre légal en France. In Politiques Linguistiques en Europe, edited by J. Herreras, 131-156. Valenciennes: PUV. Fioraso Law. LOI n° 2013-660 du 22 juillet 2013 relative à l'enseignement supérieur et à la recherche. Accessed January 10, 2016. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT00 0027735009 Franco-Rodríguez, J. 2007. El español en el Condado de Miami-Dade desde su paisaje lingüístico. Lingüística en la Red 5. Accessed January 10, 2015. http://www.linred.es/articulos_pdf/LR_articulo_28112007.pdf Haby Law. 1975. Loi n°75-620 du 11 juillet 1975 relative à l'éducation. Accessed June 22, 2000. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT00 0000334174 Hanauer, D. 2009. Science and the linguistic landscape: A genre analysis of representational Wall space in a microbiology laboratory. In Linguistic Landscapes: A New Approach to Multilingualism, edited by J. Cenoz and D. Gorter, 287-301. New York: Routledge. —. 2010. Laboratory identity: A linguistic landscape analysis of personalized space within a microbiology laboratory. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 7(2/3), 152-172. Heller, M. 2003. Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 473-492. —. 2005. Language, skill and authenticity in the globalized new economy. Noves S.L. Revista de Sociolingüística, Winter 1-7. Accessed January 3, 2015. http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/noves/hm05hivern/docs/heller.pdf Hicks, D. 2002. Scotland’s linguistic landscape: the lack of policy and planning with Scotland’s place-names and signage. Paper presented at World Congress on Language Policies, Barcelona 16-20 April 2002. Accessed December 6, 2015. http://www.poileasaidh.celtscot.ed.ac.uk/hicksseminar.htm Huebner, T. 2006. Bangkok’s linguistic landscapes: Environmental print, codemixing and language change. In Linguistic landscape: A new

Resistance on the Walls

75

approach to multilingualism, edited by D. Gorter, 31-51. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Landry, R. and Bourhis, R. 1997. Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16, 23-49. Leclerc, J. 1989. La guerre des langues dans l’affichage. Montreal : VLB Editeur. Muñoz Carrobles, D. 2010. Breve itinerario por el paisaje lingüístico de Madrid. Ángulo Recto. Revista de estudios sobre la ciudad como espacio plural, 2(2), 103-109. Ramila Diaz, N. 2015. El paisaje lingüístico o la construcción de un espacio híbrido en el Instituto Cervantes de París. Estudios Interlingüísticos, 3, 89-104. Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. 2003. Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. Shohamy, E. and Gorter, D. 2009. Linguistic landscape: expanding the scenery. Oxford: Routledge. Torkington, K. 2009. Exploring the linguistic landscape: the case of the ‘Golden Triangle’ in the Algarve, Portugal. Papers from Lancaster University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics and Language Teaching, 3, 122-145. Toubon Law. 1994. LOI no. 94-665 du 4 août 1994 relative à l'emploi de la langue française. Accessed August 4, 2014. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT00 0000349929&dateTexte=20110513 Waksman, S. and Shohamy, E. 2010. Decorating the City of Tel AvivJaffa for its Centennial: Complementary Narratives via Linguistic Landscape. In Linguistic Landscape in the City, edited by E. Goldberg Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, and M. Barni, 57-73. New York: Multilingual Matters.

PART III LANGUAGE POLICY

CHAPTER FIVE LANGUAGE POLICIES AND INTERNATIONALISATION IN BRAZIL: THE ROLE(S) OF ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

KYRIA REBECA FINARDI

1. Introduction Though many people outside Brazil would imagine it as a country of many cultures and only one language, that image is only partially correct, for there are many Brazilians and immigrants in Brazil whose native language is simply not recognised. Despite the many cultures and languages found in Brazil, Portuguese is the only official language there. Brazil is the only country that speaks Portuguese in Latin America notwithstanding the fact that many people might be under the impression that Brazilians speak Spanish like the rest of Latin America. However, Brazilian Portuguese is very different from other varieties of Portuguese that spread with the Portuguese colonisation of Africa and Asia. Brazilians tend to think of Portuguese as a fairly universal language spoken in many countries. This belief somehow strengthens the myth that Portuguese is both a national language (for Brazilians) and an international language (for it is spoken in many other countries). As will be discussed in this chapter, both beliefs are wrong for Portuguese is neither the native language of all Brazilians, nor an international language as English and Spanish which respectively occupy the first (1) and fourth (4) positions in the rank of the most spoken languages in the world. Indeed, Portuguese occupies the eighth position after Russian (7), French (6), Arabic (5), Hindi (3) and Mandarin (2). Among the countries that speak Portuguese as an official language are Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, East Timor, Macau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. Portuguese also has a

80

Chapter Five

strong influence in Goa, Daman and Diu in India, although it is not an official language there. Despite the number of countries that speak Portuguese as an official language and the misguided and perpetuated belief that all Brazilians speak Portuguese as a first language (L1) and can use this language in many international contexts, there are many people in Brazil who do not speak Portuguese as L1 and even more people in Brazil who do not speak any other language besides Portuguese. In short, Brazil is mostly a monolingual country with only one official language and many unofficial ones. This simple observation has two implications: (i) Brazilians who do not speak Portuguese will be socially excluded and prevented from participating in most civic actions in Brazil, including education which is only carried out in Portuguese, and (ii) those Brazilians who feel they do not have to learn any other language (L2) besides Portuguese because their language (Portuguese) is international, will be excluded from most civic global actions and will be prevented from developing a global citizenship. Unlike many countries which have no official language, or where there is tolerance for other languages besides the official one, Portuguese is the only language allowed in official documents and actions in Brazil. As the official and majority language in Brazil, Portuguese threatens other minority languages, such as the indigenous languages, while it also feels threatened by other majority languages, such as English. These perceived threats have serious consequences for the use of other languages in Brazil, be they majority languages held suspicious for their heterogeneity or colonisation bias such as English, or other minority languages for their resistance to the ‘integration’ in the Brazilian national myth, such as the indigenous ones. With a population of over 200 million people and inhabited by thousands of European immigrants and descendants, geographically surrounded by Spanish speakers and ideologically and economically pressed to learn English as a foreign and/or international language, the situation of the official language and other additional languages in Brazil is not an easy one, as can be inferred from this picture. The issue of which culture and/or language to privilege is never easily resolved, but the fact that there are no simple answers to this thorny issue does not exempt us as linguists from attempting to provide a few avenues of resolution, especially when it concerns the roles of languages in this conflict. This chapter seeks to address this matter. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians need to fight against the indifference, the omission and the discrimination against linguistic minorities by attempting to learn minority languages spoken in Brazil, while also fighting against ideological barriers in learning majority

Language Policies and Internationalisation in Brazil

81

languages, such as English, as an international language (Finardi 2014), or Spanish as the language of our neighbours. This can only be done through a reflection on, and the elaboration of, language and internationalisation policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures and languages. Given the need to discuss and reflect upon this linguistic panorama, this chapter offers a review of language policies and internationalisation programmes in Brazil, focusing on the role(s) of English as an additional language there. The term additional language (L2) is used to refer to any language except the first or native language (L1), used or learned in a given context so as to differentiate it from the term foreign language (FL), which is used to refer to a language being used or learned in a place where it is not used or spoken as a first language (L1). In order to start this reflection on language policies in Brazil I shall borrow (and translate) Rajagopalan’s definition of language policy as “the art of conducting reflections on specific languages, in order to drive concrete actions of public interest into language(s) that matter to the people of a nation, a state or even larger transnational bodies” (2013: 21). Language policies are discussed because I agree with Lagares (2013) and Rajagopalan (2006) that the teaching of additional languages is clearly a political issue since many aspects that affect language use and teaching in a particular context arise from decisions made elsewhere, usually by legislators who are not linguists. In Brazil language policies are elaborated at the national level and, though there are state and city policies as well, they are subjected to the higher national law. In the case of education, the highest law in Brazil is Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação (National Law of Education Parameters), which will be reviewed later on in this chapter. The very decision of which additional language to teach is the result of social debates that arise in concrete geopolitical and economic contexts, which is why a reflection on language policies is an issue which interests everybody, especially linguists. As put forward by Lagares (2013), the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component, with its teaching being outsourced to private language institutes which focused on the development of the instrumental role of foreign languages only. The spread of different views of English (Finardi and Ferrari 2008; Finardi 2014) and the practice of offering English as a foreign language in private language institutes is a consequence of the teaching of foreign languages in general, and of English in particular, as an extracurricular component. This is also related to the common belief held by some Brazilians that it is not possible to learn a foreign language well in regular schools in Brazil.

82

Chapter Five

The belief that schools do not have to produce fluent speakers of foreign languages has been discussed by Tilio (2014), who suggests that just as the school does not have to produce mathematicians, historians and physicists it should not have the responsibility to produce fluent speakers of foreign languages. Yet, and as this chapter intends to show, Brazilians feel they need to speak English fluently and will try to do so, if they can afford to, despite language policies and the view held by some that English is a threatening, colonising language. According to a survey reported by Gimenez (2013: 202), Brazil was ranked 46th for proficiency in English from a list of 54 countries in 2013. Gimenez (2013) also comments that the newspaper O Globo reported that only 5% of Brazilians speak English fluently. These figures are only speculative since there is no actual data on the percentages of Brazilians who speak English fluently and even less so for the number of Brazilians who speak English at different proficiency levels. This is in spite of efforts made by the Ministry of Education to provide the TOEFL ITP Test for free to all university students and staff as a way of diagnosing the English proficiency level in higher education and predicting the internationalisation potential of Brazilian universities. Despite these inferential numbers in respect of the percentage of Brazilians who speak English fluently, there seems to be a general consensus that Brazilians need and want to learn English, as shown by the many private English language courses that abound in the country and by the internationalisation programmes proposed more recently by the Ministry of Education to boost internationalisation in Brazil, such as the Science without Borders and the English without Borders programmes, which will also be reviewed. If on the one hand, it is true that most Brazilians want to speak English fluently and, on the other hand, it is true that only a small percentage of the population achieves this goal, there seems to be a chasm between wishes and realities. This chapter was motivated by the assumption that this gap can be at least partially explained through the analysis of the opposing views on the role of English as an additional language in Brazil and the lack of consensus between language policies and internationalisation programmes. Another motivation for this chapter is the relatively recent observation in Brazil that the lack of policies that reflect people’s wishes can have serious social consequences, as became evident in the several protests that broke out in Brazil in 2013 with the Free Pass Movement which spread to other movements, including some during the 2014 World Cup and the 2014 Presidential Elections. One of these consequences in the case of language policies for the internationalisation and the teaching of additional

Language Policies and Internationalisation in Brazil

83

languages in Brazil, is the larger and more efficient offer of English courses in private language institutes rather than in public regular schools, increasing social inequality since only those who can afford to pay will learn English (or any other additional language for that matter) well. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) reviewed the role of English and the Internet in the globalised and ever more connected world scenario we live in today to suggest that some knowledge of English and some digital literacy are necessary skills to guarantee access to information and social inclusion of citizens in the global village. These authors suggest that in a world where most of the information travels online, undeterred by geographical boundaries, to arrive almost instantly on your screen in a simple click, English and digital literacy skills are passports to globallyproduced information and discourse. Perhaps Brazilians agree with these authors for they seem to want to learn English as an international language, despite Brazilian language policies which resist the teaching of English as an international language, as will later become evident in the review of language policies. What is worse is that only those who can afford to will get their ‘passports’, even though most Brazilians would like to learn English as an additional language. Another consequence of the mismatch between language policies and people’s ambitions is related to the internationalisation potential of Brazilian universities. In that sense, Finardi and Ortiz (2015) analysed the internationalisation process of two Business Administration courses in two Brazilian universities, one public and one private, assuming that private and public universities would have different motivations to become international. It was presumed that the motivations of the private university would be more related to economic rewards of international student recruitment, whereas the public university’s motivations would be more related to the promotion of international academic standards. Their analysis showed that only public universities are motivated (though not engaged) in becoming international. Private universities’ lack of motivation to go international was explained in a study by Finardi and Ortiz (2015) in respect of the size of the Brazilian academic market and the offer of public courses there. Though public universities are non-profit and completely free of charge in Brazil, only one-fourth of all university students manage to get in, with the result that about 75% or three-fourths of Brazilian university students end up having to go to private universities. In a country with more than 200 million people, the domestic market is a considerable and comfortable one for private universities. In respect of the internationalisation potential of the universities analysed by Finardi and Ortiz (2015), most of the internationalisation

84

Chapter Five

programmes found in their study were of the academic mobility type OUT (such as the Science without Borders reviewed later on in this study), which means that Brazilians are sending more academics abroad than receiving foreign academics. The number of Brazilian academics who go abroad and the number of foreign academics who come to Brazil, in turn, portrays an imbalance in the academic mobility plan picture. In the specific case of the academic mobility type IN programmes analysed by Finardi and Ortiz (2015), the very few programmes found in their study were implemented in Portuguese-speaking countries and so Finardi and Ortiz (2015) concluded that since the foreign universities which were part of these programmes were in a worse position than the Brazilian universities in the international ranking, those programmes were more conducive of social capital development in the partner countries than in Brazil. In a nutshell, the internationalisation programmes analysed in Finardi and Ortiz (2015) are fairly imbalanced and need to be reviewed so as to become more egalitarian and fair for all parties involved. Findings by Finardi and Ortiz (2015) led them to conclude that the lack of English courses and courses in English in Brazilian universities represented a serious obstacle for internationalisation in Brazil. It also translated in a lack of academic mobility programmes type IN with countries which speak other languages apart from Portuguese. I agree with Finardi and Ortiz (2015) that English is needed to boost internationalisation type OUT but add that the offer of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) course is also needed to boost internationalisation type IN. Additionally, the inclusion of other languages (both minority and majority languages) in the national curriculum is also necessary to reflect a multicultural and multilingual country. As previously stated, so as to reflect on how language policies can be implemented to show more tolerance and justice, the next section sets off to review language policies in Brazil in relation to the role of English as an additional language there. This review aims to provide a glimpse of how the role of a given language can affect social development in a given country and be reflected in language policies and internationalisation programmes.

2. Language policies in Brazil The Brazilian National Education Law (Brasil 1996) and in particular, Article 15 of the National Education Resolution (Brasil 2010), states that a modern foreign language is a compulsory component in the curriculum of basic education in Brazil. In Article 17, the same Resolution states that the

Language Policies and Internationalisation in Brazil

85

elementary school curriculum will include, necessarily, the teaching of at least one modern foreign language from the 5th grade onwards and that the choice of which foreign language to offer will be made by the school community. Yet, a little further on, the same document stipulates that among the modern foreign languages that can be chosen, Spanish may be the option, pursuant to Law 11.161 (Brasil 2005). This law cited by Graddol (2006) when commenting that Brazil, one of the most important economies of the BRICS group and unlike other members which recognise the role of English as an international language, suggests the teaching of Spanish, and not English, in the curriculum. Whatever the reason behind this explicit suggestion to include the Spanish language at the expense of other possible foreign languages in the national curriculum of basic education in Brazil, the underlying ambiguity and bias in language policies for basic education are clearly out of tune with internationalisation policies. The latter favour the teaching of English as an international language and, having been proposed a little late and in a disorganised fashion in Brazil, they were not coordinated and integrated with educational and language policies at their base. This justifies the need to examine language policies at all educational levels so as to have a clear picture of the role(s) played by English. As this analysis aims to show, Brazilian language policies treat English as a foreign language, like any other foreign language in lower levels of education, whereas in higher education English is seen as an international language with a different status from other languages, as will become clear in the analysis of internationalisation programmes. As previously stated, the fact that the Brazilian Law of Education determines the compulsory teaching of one modern foreign language whose choice will be made by the school community, coupled with the suggestion made by the same law to include Spanish in the curriculum, is at the very least, contradictory. Either the schools have a choice and may select any foreign language they deem fit for their context or they follow the legal suggestion to include Spanish. Another ambiguity observed with regard to the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil is found in the suggestion made by the National Curriculum Parameters for Basic Education (Brasil 1998) that the focus in the teaching of foreign languages should be on reading skills when, on the other hand, the Guidelines for Secondary Education Curriculum Development – the OCEMs (Brasil 2006) suggests that besides reading skills, other skills such as speaking, listening, writing and critical and digital literacy, to name but a few, should be developed. As can be seen in this review of Brazilian language policies, the focus of foreign language teaching at primary school level

86

Chapter Five

should be on reading, while the focus at secondary school level should be on the development of all skills. Yet, despite the OCEMs orientation towards multi skills, most foreign languages in Brazil are taught with an exclusive focus on the development of the reading skill, as if Brazilians require foreign languages only to access written information and not to participate actively in the production of international discourses. From the above scenario of policies and guidelines for the teaching of foreign languages in primary and secondary education in Brazil we can conclude that the role of English is to be kept at the level of a foreign language which can be taught from 5th grade onwards and with a specific focus on reading skills. Given the explicit mention of Spanish in the documents reviewed, we can also infer that Spanish has prevalence over English as the international language in that context and that English has the same status as any other foreign language in basic education in Brazil, since it can be taught or not, depending on the school community choice. Moreover, the analysis of language policies within the educational domain shows that there is more than one language policy regarding the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil – one for primary school and another one for secondary school – and as we shall see in the review of internationalisation policies enacted in programmes such as the Science without Borders and English without Borders programmes, there is yet another language policy for higher education. This clearly demonstrates the need for philosophical and educational alignment among language policies and internationalisation agendas regarding the teaching of English and other additional languages in Brazil. In order to demonstrate the disparity of language policies as regards the teaching of English as a foreign or international language in Brazil, we turn now to the review of internationalisation programmes.

3. Internationalisation programmes Similar to the resolutions and guidelines that make up the official documents governing the teaching of languages in Brazil, another type of language policy that also impacts on education and economy as a whole is the internationalisation policy for higher education embodied in programmes such as the Science without Borders (SwB) and the English without Borders (EwB) programmes in Brazil, reviewed below. The Science without Borders programme1 is an international mobility type OUT programme launched on December 13, 2011 with the aim of sending 101,000 Brazilian university students abroad, through the concession of scholarships, in the areas of science and technology. The

Language Policies and Internationalisation in Brazil

87

programme ran into a series of difficulties, mostly in the implementation of these scholarships, the most serious of which was the lack of English proficiency of Brazilian students who applied for the programme. So as to correct this perceived linguistic deficiency, the Ministry of Education launched the English without Borders programme the following year, on 18th December. The English without Borders programme2 was created with the objective of developing the overall English proficiency level of Brazilian academics through the offer of three main actions, all of which were free of charge namely: (i) English classes that resemble the classes taught in private language institutes and that are offered to about 3% of university students, professors and administrative staff; (ii) an online English course3 for all university students, professors and administrative staff; (iii) an English test – the TOEFL ITP, for all university students, professors and administrative staff. Finardi, Prebianca, Schmitt and Andrade (2014) investigated one of the English without Borders programme actions, namely the MEO online course, and concluded that though English without Borders is a relevant internationalisation programme and an important step towards the development of English language proficiency to boost internationalisation in Brazil, it must be improved in at least three ways: (i) offer the actions of the programme sooner for basic education, and not only for university population; (ii) expand the offer of face-to-face English classes for all the university population; (iii) improve the MEO online course so as to provide pedagogic feedback and the possibility for the development of productive skills. Furthermore, since the internationalisation programmes are not aligned with language policies, this scenario tends to persist and increase the social gap created between those who have access to language courses and international discourses and those who do not. The analysis of internationalisation programmes in Brazil shows that English has prominence over other foreign languages in higher education since the investment in the teaching of English is much higher than the investment in other foreign languages. Moreover, given the role of English in the Brazilian internationalisation agenda, embodied in programmes like Science without Borders and English without Borders, it is clear that English has the status of an international, rather than a foreign language in higher education in Brazil.

88

Chapter Five

4. Conclusion This chapter aimed to reflect on the role(s) of English as an additional language in Brazil. So as to foreground this discussion, Brazilian language policies and internationalisation programmes were reviewed. The analysis of language policies revealed that English is viewed as a foreign (and perhaps threatening) language in basic education, where the decision of whether to teach it or not rests on the school community, and even if it is taught it should start from 5th grade on and mainly focus on developing the reading skill. Regarding the role of English enacted in internationalisation programmes proposed for universities, it is clear that English has a different status than other foreign languages, as shown by the Ministry of Education’s decision to opt for the English (and not any other language) without Borders programme. Analyses of language policies and internationalisation programmes in Brazil suggest that while English plays the role of a foreign language in basic education, it might play the role of an international language in higher education (Finardi 2014). These results suggest that language policies and internationalisation programmes have different views on the role of English and must be aligned so as to prevent a disjointed and uncoordinated education and internationalisation agenda.

Notes 1

More information may be obtained from this website: http://www.cienciasemfronteiras.gov.br/web/csf 2 More information may be obtained from this website: http://isf.mec.gov.br/ingles/ 3 More information on My English Online may be obtained from this website: http://www.myenglishonline.com.br

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the Brazilian Commission for the Development of Higher Level Personnel (Capes) for the Post-Doctoral Scholarship BEX 6837-14-0.

References Brasil. 1996. Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional. Accessed January 30, 2015. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9394.htm

Language Policies and Internationalisation in Brazil

89

—. 1998. Parâmetros curriculares nacionais: Ensino fundamental. Accessed January 30, 2015. http://portal.mec.gov.br/seb/arquivos/pdf/pcn_estrangeira.pdf —. 2005. Lei 11.161 de 5 de agosto de 2005 about the Spanish Language in Brazil. Accessed January 30, 2015. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato20042006/2005/Lei/L11161.htm —. 2006. Orientações Curriculates nacionais: Ensino médio. Accessed January 30, 2015. http://portal.mec.gov.br/seb/arquivos/pdf/book_volume_01_internet.pdf —. 2010. Resolução que fixa normas para ensino fundamental. Accessed January 30, 2015. http://portal.mec.gov.br/dmdocuments/rceb007_10.pdf Finardi, K. 2014. The slaughter of Kachru’s five sacred cows in Brazil and the use of English as an international language. Studies of English Language Teaching, 2, 401-411. Finardi, K. and Ferrari, L. 2008. Reflecting on the English(es) taught in Brazil. Crop, 13, 205-214. Finardi, K. and Ortiz, R. 2015. Globalization, Internationalisation and Education: What is the Connection? IJAEDU – International EJournal of Advances in Education, 1, 18-25. Finardi, K., Prebianca, G. and. Momm, C. 2013. Tecnologia na Educação: o caso da Internet e do Inglês como Linguagens de Inclusão. Cadernos do IL, 46, 193-208. Finardi, K., Prebianca, G., Schmitt, K., and Andrade, D. 2014. Technology, English language teaching and internationalization at a crossroad: Insights from the analysis of a virtual learning environment in Brazil. International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Sevilha: ICERI2014 Proceedings 1, 1-12. Madrid: IATED. Gimenez, T. 2013. A ausência de políticas para o ensino da língua inglesa nos anos inciais de escolarização no Brasil. In Política e Políticas Linguísticas, edited by C. Nicolaides, K. Silva, R. Tílio, and C. Rocha, 199-218. Campinas: Pontes Editores. Graddol, D. 2006. English Next: why global English may mean the end of English as a foreign language. The English Company (UK) Ltd. British Council. Accessed January 30, 2016. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf Lagares, X. 2013. Ensino do espanhol no Brasil: uma (complexa) questão de política linguística. In Política e Políticas Linguísticas, edited by C. Nicolaides, K. Silva, R. Tílio, and C. Rocha, 181-198. Campinas: Pontes Editores.

90

Chapter Five

Leffa, V. 2013. Prefácio. In Política e Políticas Linguísticas, edited by C. Nicolaides, K. Silva, R. Tílio, and C. Rocha, 7-10. Campinas: Pontes Editores. MEC. 2012. Programa Idiomas sem Fronteiras. Accessed January 30, 2016. http://isf.mec.gov.br/ —. 2011. Programa Ciências sem Fronteiras. Accessed January 30, 2016. http://www.cienciasemfronteiras.gov.br/web/csf Rajagopalan, K. 2013. Política linguística: do que é que se trata, afinal? In Política e Políticas Linguísticas, edited by C. Nicolaides, K. Silva, R. Tílio, and C. Rocha, 19-142. Campinas: Pontes Editores. —. 2006. O ensino de línguas estrangeiras como uma questão política. In Espaços Linguísticos: resistências e expansões, edited by K. Mota and D. Scheyerl, 15-24. Salvador: EDUFBA. Tilio, R. 2014. Língua Estrangeira Moderna na Escola Pública: possibilidades e desafios. Educação & Realidade, Porto Alegre, 39(3), 925-944.

CHAPTER SIX GERMAN-POLISH BILINGUALISM: BILINGUAL LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE POLICY – POLISH TOWNS IN THE GERMAN-POLISH BORDER REGION BARBARA ALICJA JAēCZAK

1. Introduction .

The main challenge for the support of bilingualism and bilingual education seems to be the need to have a reasonable language policy that establishes legislative frameworks and supports language acquisition processes at the administrative level. The question of what constitutes an optimal foreign language policy gains importance especially in border regions, which more than any other regions can benefit from transborder cooperation. A special category of border locations are ‘twin towns’ or ‘divided towns’ which experience linguistic diffusion as a consequence of intensive transnational movement of people. The chapter analyses the regional policy of Polish borderland municipalities on the German-Polish border. The question is how the municipalities located in border regions create and implement their language policies in a period of globalisation and the unquestioned predominance of English as the global lingua franca. The analysis will be made on the basis of an empirical study1 carried out in 2014 in eight Polish border towns and villages, located directly on the German-Polish border, with over 1000 inhabitants and a direct neighbour on the German side.

92

Chapter Six

2. Polish policy in terms of foreign language acquisition The years (1945 – 1989) – the communist period in Poland – led the country towards educational isolation in terms of the learning of foreign languages (apart from Russian, which was rejected by the majority of society as a symbol of Soviet power). Pawáowski (2012) stresses that educational policy after the collapse of the communist system is becoming more proficient, and social communication is becoming its major aim. The languages on offer in school curricula do not only depend on the legislative regulations given by the Polish Ministry of Education on the number of foreign language lessons, but also to some extent, on the parents’ decisions regarding the choice of a first foreign language. The local authorities may have some influence on this matter, but the role of society, especially in smaller locations, seems to be crucial. The decision as to which foreign language is to be the first one is made not only on the basis of instrumental and integrative motivations2 or the economic and social value of the language, but also on the basis of attitudes towards the languages offered by the schools. These attitudes are deeply-rooted in Polish history. The acceptance of the German and Russian languages is still particularly problematic at the social level. The partitions of Poland (18th century) over 100 years of the non-existence of the Polish state – accompanied by simultaneous attempts to preserve Polish nationality and language – and two World Wars in the 20th century, have taught Poles to be careful in terms of foreign influences3 (Pawáowski 2012). These factors have an influence on the foreign languages offered in Polish schools. The general languages on offer in Polish educational institutions and the general policy of the Ministry of National Education reflected in the legislation on foreign language education do not differ from other European countries. The dominant and preferred foreign language by students, parents and sometimes also by municipalities in most types of Polish schools is English. The overwhelming predominance of English is confirmed by the statistical data obtained from the Centrum Informatyczne Edukacji (CIE) in 2014 with over two million primary school pupils who attended English classes as an obligatory subject, compared to only 127,000 who had German as an obligatory subject. For 92.5% of primary school pupils, and in consequence, through the continuity rule, for 94.4% of junior high school pupils, English is the first foreign language (Ellis et al. 2014: 11).

German-Polish Bilingualism

93

3. Borderlands – places of transition Borderlands have recently become the focus of research in many disciplines such as political, cultural and economic sciences, and also linguistic studies. As areas of transition, they experience the processes of globalisation more intensively than interior areas. Graciá Canclini (1999) and Gasparini (1999, 2000) compare borderlands to “laboratories” where the processes of multiculturalism and multilingualism are experienced more intensely at the micro level. Nevertheless, the analysis of the research done into borderlands is conducive to forming generalisations on the subject at the macro or supranational level. This theory makes possible the assumption that borderlands are a sort of language laboratory, in which the linguistic patterns of language contact and use taking place between two or more neighbouring nations, at the local level, constitute a basis for general conclusions. According to many researchers, borderlands are places of transition that are involved in the creation of new worlds (cf. Mezzadra and Neilson 2013: 30). Perera (2007: 206) calls these places “borderscapes” – zones where time and space interact. The idea of the creation of new qualities from old ideas resembles the concept of the “Third Space” by Bhabha (2007). Although this theory does not refer directly to border regions it can be implemented to explain many processes taking place “in-between” two worlds, where social and linguistic phenomena result from hybridisation (JaĔczak 2016, in press).

4. Method The research for this study was carried out from January to December 2014 using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative study consisted of surveys conducted by means of questionnaires in Polish educational institutions (schools and kindergartens). A total of 71 schools and kindergartens participated in the survey, constituting 74% of all educational institutions teaching German and/or cooperating with a German partner in the Polish border region. The qualitative study was based on eight guided interviews with Heads of Educational Departments of municipal councils (in eight towns) relating to the local language policies. In addition, recordings of the greeting forms of Polish vendors in eight border markets (bazaars) were made. Moreover, small talk with the inhabitants of these towns (380 audio recordings) in the form of short questions in German (such as, asking directions) was conducted and recorded. The evaluation of the data from the questionnaires was carried

94

Chapter Six

out using the SPSS statistical program while the interviews were fully transcribed using the Extensible Markup Language for Discourse Annotation software (EXMARalDA). The subject of this analysis focuses on quantitative data from schools and kindergartens and select results from interviews which comprise only a part of the whole study.

5. Local language policy in the Polish borderlands Raasch emphasises the importance of the acquisition of “linguisticcultural competence” for the inhabitants of border regions which leads to the development of “border competence” (2008: 14). An important issue is language acquisition and language teaching adapted to local conditions. In the Euroregions, he recommends the learning of a neighbour’s language rather than the most popular language. The regional policy should support “lingua culturalis”4 and not a (cultureless) “lingua franca” (Raasch 2008). What is the general impression of the language policy adopted in the German-Polish borderland? When analysing the information given by the Heads of Educational Departments, two possible positions towards the education of the neighbour’s language can be determined: 1. Support of English as first foreign language 2. Support of German as first foreign language Generally, all the local authorities are willing to offer German as a foreign language. There is a certain pressure felt to maintain good German-Polish relations at the level of local cooperation. However, in the examined locations there are towns (for example, Kostrzyn nad Odrą) and villages (Porajów), where English pushes German aside and possible cooperation – at least as far as language acquisition is concerned – is very limited. In these cases, the acquisition of German is still possible, but either as an additional subject (mostly privately) or not until the onset of primary school education though even then, in many cases, as an additional subject. What are the reasons for the wide support of English in the language education of German-Polish borderlands? As is evident in the selected dialogue below (32-48), according to the Head of Educational Department in Kostrzyn, the main explanation is the role that parents have in choosing which foreign language their children will study in kindergarten but also sometimes in their later years of schooling as well:

German-Polish Bilingualism

95

[32] .. Interviewee [v] [trans In]

19 [02:57.9] Bo w Because the

[33] Interviewee [v] [trans In]

.. przedszkolach rodzice Īyczą sobie angielskiego. parents want English in kindergartens.

20[03:00.9]

[44] Interviewee [v] [trans In]

.. Natomiast oferta zajĊü takich z jĊzyka obcego zaleĪy od rodziców. Rodzic The foreign languages on offer depend on the parents. The parent, when

[45] Interviewee [v] [trans In]

.. wypeániając kartĊ do przedszkola to on podaje jakiego jĊzyka chce siĊ uczyü, filling the application for kindergarten states, which language they want to be taught,

[46] Interviewee [v] [trans In]

czy chce uczyü Īeby dziecko siĊ uczyáo, tak? I wówczas jest tak, Īe to or his child to be taught, you see? And then that means that the Head of the

[47] Interviewee [v] [trans In]

.. dyrektor przedszkola, tak? Oferuje taką, takie zajĊcia jakie Īyczą sobie rodzice Kindergarten, you see, offers the classes that the parents want.

[48] Interviewee [v] [trans In]

.. Rodzice są partnerami teraz. The parents are partners now.

(Interview Kostrzyn nad Odrą, 2014, led by B. JaĔczak)

22 [04:23.8]

Chapter Six

96

Additionally, some of the interviewees underline the positive role of English as a lingua franca in creating balanced communication between German and Polish speakers. As shown in the dialogue (160-165) with the Head of the Educational Department in Bogatynia, she describes the aim as securing communicative equality mostly among young people: [160] .. No bo przypuszczam, Īe jĊzyk angielski tu, na tym terenie, nie specjalnie jest do Because I suppose that English here, in this region, is not really

BJ [v] [trans BJ]

[161] ..

BJ [v] [trans BJ] Interviewee [v]

[trans in]

44 [16:11.1] 45 [16:13.1] 46 [16:15.1] czego kolwiek potrzebny. A to nie needed for Wouldn't it anything. Jest potrzebny máodymi Īeby siĊ Niemcami kontaktowaü z It is needed to young Germans. communicate with

[162] BJ [v] [trans BJ] Interviewee [v] [trans in]

.. proĞciej byáoby wtedy nauczyü siĊ niemieckiego? be easier to learn German?

47 [16:20.0]

No bo, chyba áatwiej, áatwiej Well, because, maybe it’s easier, easier

[163] Interviewee [v] [trans in]

.. teĪ... MáodzieĪ siĊ lepiej czuje, bo zawsze to jest drugi jĊzyk równieĪ too... The young people feel better, because it is still a second language

[164] Interviewee [v] [trans in]

.. Niemców, wiĊc to jest mniej wiĊcej podobny poziom, chociaĪ uwaĪam, Īe w for the Germans, too, so it is more or less the same level, although I think, that the level

German-Polish Bilingualism

97

[165] Interviewee [v] [trans in]

.. Niemczech wyĪszy poziom jest znajomoĞci jĊzyka angielskiego. of knowledge of English in Germany is higher.

(Interview Bogatynia, 2014, led by B. JaĔczak)

This fact was also confirmed by the Head of the Educational Department in Kostrzyn, who claimed that in the opinion of many inhabitants of the border region, English equalises all speakers, which is especially important in cases of asymmetric language contact, as it is in the case of German-Polish. Regarding support for foreign language education and strengthening German as the local “lingua culturalis” many activities organised by the local administration in the examined towns and villages are similar to those of other towns, not necessarily located in the border region. These include making agreements with the German neighbour, or finding new cooperation partners for schools that cannot manage to do so themselves, offering financial support to ensure foreign language lessons, or facilitating education for Polish pupils in bilingual schools or classes. However, the border location provides opportunities to strengthen the German education on offer and the transborder cooperation, through the Polish and German local authorities initiating joint projects. These forms of cooperation support the interspatial phenomenon of linguistic and cultural hybridisation through work on the development of common educational strategies and common educational institutions. Since this could suggest the successive creation of a “Third Space”, how can the local authorities support the creation of the bilingual borderscape? First of all, it can be done through support or even active participation through the creation of common binational educational institutions. Due to legislative differences and the difficulties resulting from the quite strict German federal system of education, which does not permit German children to gain compulsory education outside their state of residence, it is easier to find these institutions on the German side. Polish legislation, or its interpretation by Polish executives, seems to be more liberal (permitting Polish children to attend schools in Germany to comply with compulsory education). Many interviewees indicate the more understanding position of the Polish legal system and the Polish authorities about the problem of compulsory education undertaken in a country different than the one of permanent residence. Up till 2014 all the binational educational institutions (kindergartens in Frankfurt an der Oder and Ostritz and several German-Polish high schools in Frankfurt Oder, Neuzelle, Görlitz) existed only on the German side. Since September 2014 a binational and bilingual

98

Chapter Six

kindergarten in Sáubice has been operating,5 and there are serious plans for establishing another binational kindergarten in ĝwinoujĞcie. A brilliant example of a well-functioning transborder educational institution is Collegium Polonicum (CP) located in Sáubice. Collegium Polonicum (CP) is a joint German-Polish academic institution of the European University Viadrina (Frankfurt Oder, Germany) and Adam Mickiewicz University (PoznaĔ/Sáubice, Poland). Since 1998, CP has offered several common fields of study for students of both universities, offering them the possibility of studying on both sides of the border and obtaining two diplomas. It hires academic staff from both universities, enabling them to use the administrative supply base of both universities.6 Secondly, municipalities support cooperation between schools in Germany and in Poland to organise common lessons for both German and Polish pupils. The cooperation functions between two cooperating classes (composed of half-German and half-Polish pupils) that attend classes in Poland and in Germany on a rotational basis (two mixed groups taking turns in classes). In Porajów such classes take place once a month; in Zgorzelec, Sáubice and ĝwinoujĞcie they occur once a week. Thirdly, municipalities enable and support teacher exchange. This form of school cooperation, practised, for example, in Gryfino, allows not only teachers to gain new teaching experience, but students to participate in CLIL-programmes,7 enabling them to reach CALP-level8 in their future foreign language education. These innovative types of cooperation, which are possible only in a border area, indicate the existence of a “Third Space” in the educational field of German-Polish border policy.

6. Bilingual education in the Polish borderlands in light of the statistical data What is the result of the local policy presented above? The statistical data shows that in most of the examined locations, the German classes are offered in examined Polish border towns from the early educational stage. Altogether, there are 110 educational institutions (kindergartens and schools) in the examined eight border towns, of which 96 offer German language lessons in their curriculum and/or cooperate with a German (mostly educational)9 partner. As many as 71 schools and kindergartens (74%, of which 87% are public) took part in the survey. The examination of the German language lessons provided in kindergartens indicates that most kindergartens have German lessons in their curriculum (Figure 6.1). Over a half of all kindergartens (62%) – the

German-Polish Bilingualism

99

percentage also refers to the kindergartens that did not participate in the survey – in the Polish border area provide German classes. 5 4 3 2 1 0 1/2 h

1h

20 h

40 h

_winoujƑcie

Gryfino

Sųubice

Gubin

Bħknica

Zgorzelec

Figure 6.1: Number of German hours in kindergarten per week (n=11).

The examined kindergartens offer half an hour of German per week. This is comparable to the usual foreign language provision in other public kindergartens, if the classes are offered at all. The number of kindergartens offering foreign language classes has fallen after changes to the financial rules in September 2013. Due to the new law, the additional activities secured by the public kindergarten, such as foreign language teaching, for example, should now be decided by the local authorities and not by parents. Hence, according to interviews with kindergarten heads, since September 2013 many municipalities have resigned from early language education. Two locations are not represented at all. At the time of conducting the survey, none of the four kindergartens in Kostrzyn, nor the one in Porajów, offered German lessons. In both cases, this might be the result both of parental choices and also of local policy focused on symmetrical relations. Porajów is a small village (1,500 inhabitants) located in the Polish-German-Czech triangle; its location between two borders tends to ensure the local symmetry. Worth noting is the fact that German lessons are provided in Porajów from the primary school level. Kostrzyn, with almost 18,000 inhabitants, is located in the middle of the German-Polish border with a small German village, Küstrin Kietz (800 inhabitants) as its direct neighbour. In both cases, the local authorities underline the need for symmetrical relations between Poles and Germans. This also applies to language use. The symmetry should be based on simultaneous bidirectional translations, or English as a language of communication. Since September 2014 Sáubice has a binational kindergarten, but so far it only offers one hour of German per week.10 In the whole border region there are two kindergartens, in Sáubice and àĊknica, offering early immersion

Chapter Six

100

programmes with 40 and 20 hours of German per week, respectively. In àĊknica it is a public institution whereas in Sáubice it is non-public. In the case of one kindergarten in Sáubice that offers no regular German classes, there is intensive cooperation with a German kindergarten, facilitating regular contact with the neighbour’s language and culture for the children. The German curricula in the examined schools show that the greatest number of German lessons is offered in medium-sized towns of 20,000 – 30,000 inhabitants (Zgorzelec – max. 9 hours German/week, followed by Gubin and Gryfino – max. 6 hours German/week) as seen in Figure 6.2 and Tables 6.1 and 6.2. 8 6 4 2 0

1h

2h

3h

4h

5h

6h

9h

Figure 6.2: Maximum number of German hours per week by location

These numbers show the maximum number of German lessons and should not suggest that this is the case for the curricula of entire schools and classes. On average, in 44% of the examined institutions, the schools offer a maximum of three hours of German per week. In all the examined towns, there are several schools offering an extended number of German lessons per week, and in five of the eight towns there are schools (26% of the institutions examined) in which the number of German lessons is four hours per week or more. This is a very good result, considering the fact that German is not the first foreign language in many of the examined schools, and confirms the general trend of foreign language policies. It has to be stressed that Tables 6.1 and 6.2 present the available hours which only some pupils take advantage of. In most cases, the schools offer different curricula for different class types. The data should be interpreted as the provision of an option to learn German and not the general choice of all the pupils. It is also important to stress that, thanks to the efforts of local authorities, German lessons are guaranteed in early school education. Altogether, there are 24 primary schools in the examined locations and all of them have German lessons in their curricula.

German-Polish Bilingualism

101

Table 6.1: Maximum number of German hours at school per week by location Maximum number of German hours in the school / week 1 2 3 4 5 6 9 Educational institution

ĝwinoujĞcie

Location Primary school

1

1

2

0

4

Junior high school

0

2

0

1

3

High school

0

1

1

1

3

0

2

0

1

3

0

1

0

0

1

1

7

3

3

14

Technical school Vocational school

Educational institution

Gryfino

Total Primary school Junior high school High school

Educational institution

Primary school Junior high school High school

Total

1

0

1

2

0

2

0

1

1

3

1

4

1

0

0

1

0

0

2

2

0

1

0

1 4

1

1

2

Primary school

0

2

0

0

1

3

Junior high school

0

0

1

1

0

2

High school

0

0

0

0

1

1

Technical school

0

2

0

0

0

2

Vocational school

1

0

0

0

0

1

Total

1

4

1

1

2

9

Grand Total

3

12

9

4

2

Educational institution

Kostrzyn nad Odrą

Total

Sáubice

Total

1

0

31

Chapter Six

102

Table 6.2: Maximum number of German hours at school per week by location Maximum number of German hours in the school / week

Location

6

2

0

0

2

0

2

0

0

2

0

1

1

1

3

0

1

0

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

1

6

1

1

9

Primary school

1

0

1

Junior high school

0

1

1

1

1

2

Educational institution

High school Technical school Vocational school Total

3

0

Primary school

Educational institution

Zgorzelec

Total

2

Junior high school High school Technical school Vocational school

Educational institution

Porajów

Total Primary school Junior high school Total Grand Total

0

2

4

Total

5

Primary school Junior high school

Educational institution

àĊknica

Gubin

1

9

3

0

0

0

0

3

3

0

2

0

0

5

0

1

0

1

0

2

0

1

0

0

1

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

7

2

2

1

1

13

1

1

1

1

2

2

16

2

3

2

1

26

German-Polish Bilingualism

103

Out of the 16 schools taking part in the survey, 11 (69%) of them offer German classes in the first year of education (Table 6.3). Table 6.3: Number of German hours per week in primary school classes IIII) by location

Sáubice

Gubin

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

2

2

1

0

1

2

3

9

5

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

Total

2

1

1

2

2

3

11

Porajów

Kostrzyn nad Odrą

Primary school

Number of German hours per week: Classes IIII

Zgorzelec

Gryfino

1

Educational institution

àĊknica

ĝwinoujĞcie

Location Total

Almost half the primary schools have three hours of German per week. In those primary schools offering only one hour of German per week, English is usually the first foreign language and German lessons are secondary. The new legal ordinance of the Ministry of National Education determines the total number of foreign language classes in the first three years of education in primary schools at 190 hours (making on average two hours/week over three years). The teaching of a second language in primary schools is not guaranteed and it depends on school policy, local policy and access to funds (cf. Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych). The access to German classes has to be considered, therefore, as a real achievement of local policy, demonstrating the attempts of local authorities at establishing new dimensions of transborder cooperation. Moreover, this statement confirms the regular and broad cooperation of the educational institutions examined. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of these institutions generally cooperate with an educational partner in the neighbouring town. This cooperation consists particularly of joint excursions or workshops (71% of cooperating institutions, and at the same time 40% of those taking part in the survey), festivities (38% of cooperating institutions, and 21% of those taking part in the survey) and joint lessons with Polish-German pupils attending courses both on the Polish and German side (in almost all the towns examined – with the exception of Kostrzyn).

104

Chapter Six

7. Conclusion A border location gives an opportunity not only to spread the idea of multilingualism, but to support the bilingual education of the lingua culturalis based on the bilingual and bicultural potential of transborder regions. The efforts to encourage the acquisition of the neighbour’s language, resulting in the creation of a linguistic and cultural “Third Space” (even if not intended) are visible on the German-Polish border. To sum up, it can be confirmed that schools use the border location to support German education, even in the form of additional classes. German language lessons are offered by the vast majority of public and non-public schools and by about a half of kindergartens. Even if English is the first foreign language in many of these institutions, there is still an extensive offer of German classes for pupils who are motivated to learn more. Along the border, there are bilingual kindergartens and schools for German and for Polish children offering an extended curriculum of German/Polish language lessons or/and some courses taught in these languages. With reference to the educational policy, local authorities primarily create and develop the opportunities for transnational cooperation and financial support of educational institutions. There is no single, predominant policy to be found in the GermanPolish borderland. However some transnational solutions for bilingual language acquisition have been developed namely: (i) bilingual and binational kindergartens located in Poland; (ii) exchange lessons regularly offered on a rotational basis; (iii) teacher exchange. All of these forms of cooperation between educational institutions consolidate a transnational German-Polish education and shall contribute to the further development of a linguistic “Third Space” or a GermanPolish borderscape in the future.

Notes 1

The research project on language contact and use in the German-Polish borderland is financially supported by the German-Polish Science Foundation. 2 For more about the influence of motivation on language acquisition processes cf. Klein (1992). 3 For more information about the attitudes of Poles regarding German, and Germans regarding Polish see JaĔczak (2013, 2014). 4 Raasch uses the word “kulturleer” which means culturally empty and is an antonym of the word “kulturell” – culturally. 5 Due to the fact that it is the first year of functioning of the Sáubice kindergarten, it has not been possible to implement all the principles of bilingual education.

German-Polish Bilingualism

105

According to the Head of the Educational Department in Sáubice, the kindergarten is attended by children living in Frankfurt or in Sáubice, but in most cases by children of Polish, or German-Polish origin. The communication language is now Polish, and German is provided once a week (one hour) as a foreign language class. It is necessary to stress that the employees are able to take care of German speaking children if parents decide to choose the kindergarten. 6 More information may be obtained from www.cp.edu.pl 7 Content and Language Integrated Learning (cf. Marsh 1994). 8 Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (cf. Cummins 1979). 9 In the case of vocational schools, the cooperation applies also to the service sector (for example cooperation with German hotels, hairdressers or enterprises). 10 The inhabitants of Frankfurt Oder view the idea of a binational and bilingual kindergarten located in Poland with some mistrust. Hence, only a few children from Frankfurt Oder (mostly with a Polish) binational background attend the place. Therefore, German is offered there as a foreign language and not as a language of communication. A further three public kindergartens in Sáubice do not offer German lessons.

References Bhabha, H. 2007. Die Verortung der Kultur. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. Centrum Informatyczne Edukacji (CIE). JĊzyki obce - wg stanu na 30 wrzeĞnia 2012. Accessed January 8, 2015. http://www.cie.men.gov.pl/index.php/dane-statystyczne.html. CIE. Centrum Informatyczne Edukacji. Accessed March 5, 2015. http://www.cie.men.gov.pl/index.php/dane-statystyczne/140.html Collegium Polonicum. Accessed April 15, 2015. http://www.cp.edu.pl. Cummins, J. 1979. Cognitive/academic language proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the optimum age question and some other matters. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 19, 121-129. Deutsch-Polnische Wissenschaftsstiftung. 2015. Accessed April 3, 2015. http://www.dpws.de Ellis, M., Gajewska-Dyszkiewicz, A., Kutyáowska, K., Paczuska, K., Szpotowicz, M., and Szpotowicz, M. eds. 2014. JĊzyk angielski w gimnazjum. Raport cząstkowy z I etapu. Badania uczenia siĊ i nauczania jĊzyków obcych w gimnazjum. Warszawa: Instytut BadaĔ Edukacyjnych. EXMARalDA. Accessed April 15, 2015. http://www.exmaralda.org/en. Gasparini, A. 1999/2000. European Border Towns as Laboratories of Differentiated Integration. ISIG Quarterly of International Sociology, 4, 2-3. Gracía Canclini, N. 1999. La globalización imaginada. Mexico City: Paidos.

106

Chapter Six

Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych. Zaáącznik 1 do rozporządzenia Ministra Edukacji Narodowej z dnia 7 lutego 2012 r. (poz. 204) w sprawie ramowych planów nauczania w szkoáach publicznych. Accessed January 8, 2015. http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20120000204 JaĔczak, B. 2013. Deutsch-polnische Familien: Ihre Sprachen und Familienkulturen in Deutschland und in Polen. Frankfurt Main: Peter Lang. —. 2014. Obraz wroga i obraz bloku wschodniego w narracji maáĪeĔstw polsko-niemieckich. In Konstrukcje i destrukcje toĪsamoĞci. Narracja i pamiĊü, edited by E. Golachowska and A. ZieliĔska, 559-580. Warszawa: Slawistyczny OĞrodek Wydawniczy PAN. —. (2016 in press): German Language Acquisition and Regional Policy towards Bilingual Education in the Polish-German Borderland. Klein, W. 1992. Zweitspracherwerb. Eine Einführung. Frankfurt am Main: Hain. Lenz, I. and Schwenken, H. 2003. Feminist and Migrant Networking in a Globalizing World – Migration, Gender and Globalisation. In Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries. Gender on the Move, edited by I. Lenz, H. Lutz, M. Morokvasic-Müller, C. Schöning-Kalender, and H. Schwenken, 147-178. Opladen: Leske and Budrich. Marsh, D. 1994. Bilingual Education and Content and Language Integrated Learning. International Association for Cross-cultural Communication, Language Teaching in the Member States of the European Union (Lingua). Paris: University of Sorbonne. Mezzadra, S. and Neilson, B. 2013. Border as Method or the multiplication of labor. Durham: Duke University Press. Pawáowski, A. 2012. Warunki historyczne i cele promocji zagranicznej polszczyzny. In Wyzwania polityki jĊzykowej za granicą: kontekst, cele, Ğrodki i grupy odbiorcze, edited by A. Dąbrowska, W. Miodunka, and A. Pawáowski, 7-26. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych. Warszawa: Departament Dyplomacji Publicznej i Kulturalnej. Perera, S. 2007. A Pacific Zone? (In)security, Sovereignty, and Stories of the Pacific Borderscape. In Borderscapes: Hidden Geographies and Politics at Territory’s Edge, edited by P. Rajaram and C. GrundyWarr, 201-227. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Raasch, A. 2008. Grenzkompetenz – von der Definition zur Evaluation zur Anwendung. In Frühstart in die Nachbarsprache. Handbuch für den Spracherwerb in der deutsch-polnischen Grenzregion, edited by M. BieĔ-Lietz and T. Vogel, 9-15. Frankfurt (Oder): Europa-Universität Viadrina.

German-Polish Bilingualism

107

Shin, S. 2013. Bilingualism in Schools and Society. Language, Identity and Policy. London: Routledge.

CHAPTER SEVEN POLICY VERSUS PRACTICE: A STUDY INTO THE CURRENT STATUS OF BILINGUAL POLICY IN SRI LANKA MARIE PERERA AND SURIYA ARACHCHIGE KULARATHNE

1. Introduction This chapter aims to investigate how bilingual policy facilitates Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in bilingual education in Sri Lankan schools. It is based on an ongoing study on developing a CLIL model for Sri Lanka. The main premise of this chapter is that a welldesigned policy is instrumental in achieving the desired objectives of bilingual education. For this reason, the specific objectives are: (i) to trace the historical development of bilingual education in Sri Lanka; (ii) to identify the policy framework of bilingual education in Sri Lanka; (iii) to examine how bilingual education is implemented in relation to policy objectives.

2. Background Introducing bilingual education in the Sri Lankan curriculum was one of the measures taken to revitalise English language education in the country since English language proficiency was claimed to be unsatisfactory (World Bank 2011). The reasons for this situation can be illustrated by briefly tracing the history of English education in Sri Lanka. Owing to various socio-economic and socio-political changes that occurred in Sri Lanka during the recent and remote past, English education has undergone numerous changes. During the British rule in Sri Lanka,

110

Chapter Seven

then known as Ceylon, there was a dual system of education. The administrators wanted a cadre of middle-level officers who could converse in English. Hence, they established a few schools, mainly in the metropolitan areas, where the medium of instruction was English. However, these schools charged tuition fees and only economicallyprivileged parents could afford to send their children to such schools. On the other hand, there was already a system of education where the medium of instruction was in the two main languages of the people – Sinhala and Tamil. Children who attended these schools had no access to English. Thus, English became a contentious factor dividing the same nation into two social classes. Jayasuriya (1969) claims that English education in Sri Lanka during colonial times was confined to only 6% of the total population and only the elite class was literate in English. Radical reforms in education, which had a direct impact on English language education, were brought about in pre-independent Sri Lanka on account of the first indigenous Minister of Education. Three of the main proposals in the Kannagara education reforms in 1943 were: (1) Free education from the first grade up to university level; (2) Change of medium of instruction from English to the mother tongue; (3) English available for all by making it a compulsory second language to be taught in all schools from Grade 4 onwards. (Report of the Special Committee on Education 1943). With the decision to teach English in all schools from Grade 4 onwards, a heavy responsibility fell on the state to provide the necessary facilities. Although the government embarked on this new policy, it seems to have done so without the full realisation of the problems involved. No concrete proposals were made as to how to teach English as a second language (De Lanerolle Committee Report 1973). In 1947, 15.8% of the student population attended English-medium schools and the rest were in the vernacular schools where English was often not taught at all (Udagama 1999). According to the Department of Census and Statistics, the number of people literate in English in 1946 was only 6.3%. However, with the new policy, English had to be taught in all schools. Yet, the number of competent teachers available was not sufficient to cater for this demand, with the result that English classes were started and teachers who had the most basic qualifications were recruited. This created a new problem – the supply of teachers (De Lanerolle Committee Report 1973). According to the report of the committee

Policy versus Practice

111

appointed to look into the teaching of English in schools, one of the chief causes identified for the deterioration of standards was that English was not taught by specially-trained teachers (De Silva Committee Report 1960). A specialist training college was established to train teachers of English. However, this was not sufficient to cater for the demand, as evidenced by various reports (De Lanerolle Committee Report 1973; National Education Commission Report 1992) which continued to point out that teacher training was inadequate. Even though there were adequate numbers of teachers in the former English-medium schools, another problem emerged. Due to nationalisation, these schools were now available to the masses. As a result, students who had not studied English earlier and those who had not been exposed to English at home, were in the same classes as those who knew English. Therefore, these schools had to face the problem of severe heterogeneity among the student population. Along with the lack of teachers there were also problems related to methodology and syllabus. The ambiguity of the role of the second language was another reason for this situation. When English was a first language or the language of instruction, there was a need to learn English as getting educated was a necessity. However, when the national language took over this role, English was no longer necessary to gain a basic education. Yet those who knew English continued to benefit from better employment and higher education opportunities. On the other hand, the belief among the masses that the ‘place’ given to English would be assigned to the national languages in all spheres of life persisted. It is said that colonial rule generates a reaction against the colonial culture and those who represent it in the indigenous population (Wriggins 1960). Although most people realised the instrumental value of English, there was still resistance to a language which was associated with colonial dominance and later the language of a westernised social elite. The attitude of most people towards English could be seen in the way reference was made to English as ‘kaduwa’ (sword), symbolically expressing the power it yields. As a result, a nationalistic movement began and it started to force the government that came to power in 1956 to adopt a “Sinhala-only” policy. This resulted in Sinhala, the language of the largest ethnic group, becoming the official language (Official Language Act No. 3 1956). According to this Act, every person engaged in a state job had to be proficient in Sinhala. This move further affected the learning of English and also resulted in disharmony between the two main ethnic groups – the Sinhalese and the Tamils – which gradually developed into an ethnic war in the 1980s.

112

Chapter Seven

3. Emergence of bilingual education 3.1 Liberalisation of the economy and its impact on language Liberal economic policies introduced in Sri Lanka in the 1970s transformed an agriculture-oriented mixed-economy into a marketoriented free economy where skilled human resources were a strong necessity and created new avenues for English. The sudden establishment of private enterprises all over the country, for instance, demanded a workforce skilled in many ways. English language proficiency too became essential in order for people to cope with the needs and challenges of the changing world. Responding to this timely need, the Ministry of Education issued a circular (No. 2001/5) instructing schools to use the English medium in the science stream of the General Certificate of Examination (GCE) Advanced Level in 2001, while the rest of the subjects in the curriculum were to be taught in the first language. This introduction, which was not driven by any theoretical support or policy framework, was abrupt.

3.2 Bilingual education in the context of ethnic conflict The need for English as a link language was strongly felt when ethnic conflict emerged in Sri Lanka in the late 1950s and escalated into a civil war in the 1980s, threatening the peaceful existence among its ethnic groups. This consequently gave rise to the notion that a link language could be used as a catalyst to re-establish endangered peace and harmony in the country and sustainable social cohesion. These factors compelled the government to rethink the language policy in education in Sri Lanka. Consequently, the possibility of making use of a link language to bring about racial integration was sought. This resulted in the National Amity Project, which was introduced to the curriculum in 2002 (Circular No. 2002/12), recommending English medium education from Grade 6 onwards so as to expose the pupil population in Sri Lanka to English by teaching a few selected subjects in the English medium. The recommended subjects were mathematics, environmental studies, health and physical education initially in Grade 6. Science was added to the curriculum in the subsequent year, widening the scope of subjects. One of the objectives of this introduction was to overcome a major obstacle in skill development in English and to make amends to the lack of exposure to the second language.

Policy versus Practice

113

Although different labels, such as ‘teaching subjects in the English medium’ and ‘English-medium education’ were used, in practice it was noted that the curriculum changes in 2001 and 2002 had some salient features of bilingual education. One is the use of two media of instruction; the first language and the second language in education and simultaneous bilingual education (Hornberger 1990). By the time pupils reached junior secondary level, they would have received their education fully in their mother tongue. The provision of teaching a few selected subjects in the English medium is available only from Grade 6 onwards. This is consecutive bilingual education. This curriculum provides opportunities for the pupils to receive education in two languages; learning some prescribed subjects in English, while the rest of the subjects in the curriculum are learned in the mother tongue.

4. Bilingual policy Language policy is defined as “the deliberate choices made by governments or other authorities with regard to the relationship between language and social life” (Djite 1994: 63). According to Lambert, language policy refers to “rules set by authorities to govern the acquisition and use of languages” (2005: 21). As previously discussed, up to 2002 the introduction of bilingual education was based on Cabinet circulars. Thus the bilingual policy in Sri Lanka seems to be in line with the definitions of Djite (1994) and Lambert (2005). However, Spolsky (2005: 21) argues that language policy does, in fact, go further than this. For him, it includes not just the regular patterns of choice, but also beliefs about choices and the values of varieties and of variants, and also, most saliently, the efforts made by some to change the choices and beliefs of others. If you want to find out about the language policy of a speech community, of whatever size or nature, the first step is to study its actual language practices.

Therefore, it is necessary to examine the only available proposed policy framework of the National Education Commission (2003) which goes beyond rules.

114

Chapter Seven

4.1 Recommendations of the National Education Commission (2003) The term bilingualism was first introduced in a policy framework in 2003. The National Education Commission (NEC) in its Policy Framework on General Education in Sri Lanka proposed that “bilingualism should be promoted by using English as the medium of instruction in selected subjects such as mathematics, science, technology, including computer literacy and social science in the junior secondary grades” (NEC 2003: 116). The report further stresses that its expected outcome is that: Students will reach an acceptable level of English proficiency at the end of junior secondary education without jettisoning Sinhala and Tamil which will continue to be the medium of instruction in selected subjects.

The National Education Commission (NEC) rightly recognises this new education initiative to be bilingualism which however, was mislabelled as English-medium education. The aim of the NEC in introducing bilingualism was to enable the learner “to acquire a level of English proficiency adequate for higher education and career advancement” (NEC 2003: 178). This commission also recommends that bilingual education should be introduced at first in a few schools that have the teachers to teach in English. Consequently, by 2008, it should be extended to all secondary and senior secondary schools by equipping the schools with the physical and human resources necessary to teach the selected subjects through the English medium. The National Education Commission in this report refers to “the bilingual policy” and its “objective” namely: The objective of the bilingual policy introduced in junior secondary classes to provide an enabling environment to ensure that all students, irrespective of socio-economic and/ or regional disparities have the opportunity to acquire a level of English proficiency adequate for higher education and career advancement (NEC 2003: 178).

As is evident from the above extract, the National Education Commission aims to provide an enabling environment for the learner to gain English language proficiency ensuring equity in bilingual education. However, achieving these aims has been challenging due to various reasons. For instance, equity in bilingual education, which was to be

Policy versus Practice

115

achieved by 2008, has not yet been achieved. It is more than a decade since bilingual education was introduced in the Sri Lankan national curriculum, yet the total number of bilingual schools by 2014 was 17.5%, according to the Ministry of Education data.

5. Present state of bilingual education Problems and challenges to accommodate the rest of the 82.5% schools in Sri Lanka is an area that needs attention. Reasons for this slow progress in bilingual education are many, according to the preliminary observations made. One of the foremost reasons for this is the absence of a clearlydefined bilingual model which caters for the Sri Lankan context. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been an extensively-used approach in other countries where bilingual education is in progress (Spanos 1989; Snow 1998; Stoller 2004). This is a permeable approach that can be adapted to the context where bilingual education is in practice. The Ministry of Education, with the collaboration of the National Institute of Education (NIE), is in the process of adapting a CLIL model in keeping with the socio-economic and socio-cultural needs of the country. A CLIL model compatible with the Sri Lankan needs, therefore, is a goal to be achieved.

5.1 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is “a dual focused approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language” (Mehisto et al. 2008: 9). The additional language in the Sri Lankan context is English. This definition explains that the learner’s English Language competency is a prerequisite in bilingual education. ESL curriculum is the path that equips the learner with the necessary second language proficiency enabling the learner to study the subjects specified in bilingual education. The English language curriculum should scaffold the learners’ Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency Skills (CALPS) since these skills are instrumental in pursuing highly cognitive content in bilingual education (Cummins 1984).

5.2 Policy and theory in practice The teaching-learning process in bilingual education involves two languages – the first language and the second language. Presently, ESL

116

Chapter Seven

curriculum and bilingual curriculum at junior secondary level, that are integral parts of one continuum, function as two discrete bodies. Literature in particular by Garcia (1997), reveals that in other countries ESL curriculum is organised in such a way that it facilitates bilingual education. The significance of this partnership can be explained in relation to Cummins (1984). When the ESL curriculum supports the bilingual learner’s second language skills, both Basic Interpersonal Communication skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency skills (CALPs), the bilingual learner will be able to apply them in learning the prescribed content according to the subjects specified in the syllabus. This can be realised only through a learning-teaching approach capable of language transfer through language and content integration. The approach used extensively in the world in this regard is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). A CLIL model to suit the Sri Lankan context is essential in Sri Lanka, particularly to realise the objectives of bilingual education as stated by the National Education Commission report (2003).

6. Research findings 6.1 Lack of coordination among stake holders In a preliminary survey conducted by the present researchers it was evident that there was no coordination among the key stakeholders in bilingual education. Some of the data collected from a questionnaire distributed to bilingual teachers is given in Tables 7.1 and 7.2. The main focus of teacher education programmes in bilingual education is to improve the participants’ content, or the subject knowledge, and the second language. Making the teachers aware of a workable learning-teaching approach has not been the focus. Though Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been a component, teaching about it was confined only to an introduction. Thus, it is clear that teacher education programmes have not been determined by a bilingual philosophy or a rationale based on its applications. Although teacher-training workshops on second language improvement have been conducted and have helped to improve the bilingual teachers, English language teaching competency has not been emphasised in teacher education programmes conducted provincially. According to the instructions given by the National Institute of Education (NIE), bilingual teachers are expected to write both content learning outcomes as well as language outcomes in their lesson plans.

Policy versus Practice

117

However, the questionnaire data (Table 7.2) reveals that the writing of language objectives in bilingual lesson plans is minimal. Table 7.1: Components in Teacher Education Programme for Bilingual Teachers Components Frequency % Bilingual Education 52 25.12 Second Language 85 41.06 Subject related themes 70 33.81

Table 7.2: Analysis of Objectives in Bilingual Lesson Plans Approach Language related Competencies Subject related Competencies Subject related Competencies and Language related Competencies No Reply

Frequency 2 43 8

% 1.0 21.5 4.0

147

73.5

Not emphasising the language objectives in the learning/teaching process of bilingual education was also evident in the classroom sessions observed. In all the lesson plans studied and the lessons observed, only content objectives were emphasised. The second language objective was not an objective in the teaching process E5 system, in which the teachers follow five steps namely, engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation. The constructivist approach presently recommended by the NIE is a learner-centred approach which is expected to accommodate self-directed learning through interactive activities. The teachers observed however, could not implement this approach to facilitate the use of second language in exploring information and sharing information explored by the learner. This finding was confirmed in informal interviews held with the bilingual teachers of the sample who made the following comments (examples 1 – 3):

118

Chapter Seven (1) Teaching English is not our duty. (2) Our job is not to teach English but science. (3) [It is] true [that] pupils have many language problems but how can we teach science and English at the same time?

The extracts quoted above illustrate the bilingual teachers’ lack of insight into the teaching-learning process in bilingual education. The bilingual teachers are also not professionally competent in integrating second language into the content being taught. Teachers have not been educated about this aspect of bilingual education in the teacher education programmes held. The extracts (examples 4 – 6) from the interviews held also reveal the bilingual teachers’ inadequate professional skills in CLIL: (4) It is difficult for us to locate sentence structures and language functions in lessons without the help of the teachers of English. (5) How can we combine science and English? (6) Is it possible to teach science and English at the same time?

Thus, it is evident that Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English Language Teaching (ELT) have not been components in the teacher training programmes conducted in the province, even though it is an essential component in teacher education. This inadequate emphasis on reaching language objectives in bilingual education is evident at bottom-up level institutions, like schools, as well as top-level institutions, such as the National Institute of Education and Education Publication Department (EPD). This was revealed in the interviews held at these institutions with the key decision-making officers. The National Institute of Education is the key institution in charge of curriculum development in Sri Lanka. As specified in the Gazette notification 14,715/3 issued on September 30, 1966, the Department of Educational Publications is in charge of “translating, publishing, distributing, buying copyright permission of text books for primary secondary and for higher education” (EPD). Producing and publishing dictionaries and reference materials and encouraging supplementary reading materials are other duties. It is categorically stated that from 2001 onwards, EPD is responsible for translating and publishing textbooks for English-medium education. In an interview held with the Assistant Commissioner of EPD, it was revealed

Policy versus Practice

119

that the term ‘English-medium education’ but not ‘bilingual education’ is used. The EPD obtains the expertise of the English language experts only to translate the textbooks that are designed to teach subjects like science, mathematics, geography, and citizenship education for monolingual students. A word-for-word translation of the above-mentioned textbooks takes place. Selecting and appointing the translating team is done by EPD without consulting the Department of English within the National Institute of Education. Thus, it is evident that there has not been a shared vision on bilingual education in the case of designing instructional materials and textbooks for bilingual education to accommodate CLIL. The EPD is unaware of the following facts: x The bilingual learner in Sri Lanka studies English as a second or foreign language and his or her knowledge and skills in the second language are lower than those in the first language. The bilingual learners’ degree of exposure to the second language is minimal when compared to that of the first language. x The bilingual teacher’s linguistic competency, strategic competency and discourse competency in the second language are comparatively low. x The instructional materials, the textbooks, follow-up activities and the layout should be specifically designed to facilitate second language learning in bilingual education. Furthermore, an interview held with the Head of the Department of English within the National Institute of Education revealed that it is not mandatory for the Department of English at the National Institute of Education to get involved in designing textbooks for bilingual education. This lack of collaboration is a hindrance in achieving the language objective of bilingual education. The data collected from the questionnaire administered to the teachers of bilingual education and the teachers of English revealed that this dual collaboration between them is minimal too. Table 7.3 illustrates the reasons behind this lack of partnership between second language teachers and bilingual teachers. One of the questions which bilingual teachers were asked was if there was a partnership between the bilingual teachers and the English language teachers in the teaching-learning process in bilingual education. Responses given to this question are presented in Figure 7.1.

120

Chapter Seven

Figure 7.1: Partnership between bilingual teachers and English Language teachers (N=207)

Section Two of the questionnaire suggested areas where such a partnership was evident. Responses given to this question are illustrated in Table 7.3. Table 7.3: Activities done in collaboration N = 99 Area Frequency (for yes) Organising activities 27 relating to learning teaching process in Bilingual classes Organising co-curricular 72 activities

Percentage 27.55

72.45

Data in Table 7.3 indicated that there is minimal collaboration between bilingual teachers and English Language teachers in the system, in relation to the learning-teaching process. Affirmative responses to the question were categorised under the following headings: 1. Vocabulary-related issues 2. Pronunciation-related issues Identifying language functions incorporated into content related to subjects and identifying language outcomes, however, were not seen among responses. Collaboration for these teachers meant organisation of co-curricular activities like trips and tours, study circles and camps. Interviews held with a sample of teachers also confirmed that there is no collaboration between bilingual and English language teachers guided

Policy versus Practice

121

by a CLIL philosophy. The reason for this could be the absence of a bilingual policy that makes this partnership mandatory. The present teaching approach in bilingual education does not demand this participation.

6.2 School policies in bilingual education The findings of the data collected by interviewing the principals of schools, the teachers of bilingual education and the teachers of English who teach English to bilingual classes pertaining to the school policies are discussed here. Programmes to create a partnership between the second language teachers and the bilingual teachers in schools have not been identified as an essential requirement. Although there are isolated incidents where the two categories of teachers work collaboratively, the collaboration has not been determined by any rationale or policy. All bilingual programmes focus on the subject development of the bilingual learner. Schools have not understood the fact that the bilingual teacher’s task in the learning-teaching process is different from that of the monolingual teacher. In the interviews and the classroom observation sessions held with the teachers, it was found that bilingual teachers encounter challenges and problems in reaching the second language objectives in bilingual education.

6.3 Enhancing the teacher quality in the bilingual teacher It was revealed that there has not been a specifically-designed recruitment policy when recruiting bilingual teachers to the system. The same policies applied in recruiting monolingual teachers to teach science, mathematics and information and communication technology (ICT) were applied to bilingual teachers too. Their second language proficiency is evaluated in the selection interview. English Language Teaching (ELT) has not been a requirement in the selection criteria. This was found in the analysis of the questionnaire administered to the bilingual teachers as well as in the findings of classroom observations. Teachers found it difficult to locate syntactic structures and language functions incorporated into the lessons in bilingual texts. Also, they found it even more challenging to apply Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the learningteaching process in bilingual education as this component has not been adequately emphasised in the teacher education programmes.

Chapter Seven

122

6.4 Enhancing the teacher quality in the ESL teacher There has not been a mechanism in bilingual education to utilise the potential of the second language teacher to the optimum in the learningteaching process of bilingual education, in short in implementing CLIL. This occurs as the learning-teaching process is still without a proper approach or methodology since no macro level or micro level policies define the role of the second language teacher in bilingual education. Responses given in the questionnaire reveal that the ESL teacher has not been educated about the bilingual pedagogy and its application. Hence, the English language teacher remains a discrete item in the learning-teaching process in bilingual education. This discreteness prevents the bilingual teacher and the second language teacher from working collaboratively in organising the learning-teaching process.

6.5 Quality teacher education programmes on bilingual education As was revealed through the questionnaire responses and the interviews held with the Head of the Bilingual Unit within the Ministry of Education, teacher education programmes conducted island-wide as well as provincially, focused on bilingual theory, second language improvement and subject development. Components included under bilingual education were theoretical, bilingual models and CLIL. Presentation skills in the second language were the focus of the second language component. English Language Teaching (ELT) has not been a component in these programmes. Second language teachers were not involved in these programmes and this prevents a dialogue between the second language teacher and the bilingual teacher about second language related issues in bilingual education.

6.6 Instructional materials in bilingual education Richards and Rodgers (2001) describe the role of instructional materials as: x x x x

primary function of materials form of materials relation of materials to other input assumptions made about teachers and learners

Policy versus Practice

123

The instructional materials available in bilingual education are translated versions of monolingual textbooks and the respective Teachers’ Instructional Manuals. Supportive materials like audio-visual materials, supplementary reading materials, glossaries and dictionaries are not in the package, although these are essential supportive materials in bilingual education.

7. The role of macro level and micro level policies in developing the teacher competencies in bilingual education Up to now, three cabinet papers and ten circulars have been issued on bilingual education. All papers except one regarded administrative issues. These documents did not specify criteria for teacher requirement concerning the second language element in bilingual education. This lack of emphasis on pedagogical issues in relation to the second language element in bilingual education is a hindrance when formulating the rationale behind syllabi for teacher-training courses for bilingual education. As a result ad hoc programmes implemented island-wide and provincially, in particular. Also, there are no specific policies on designing textbooks to accommodate CLIL in bilingual education. This makes the quality of textbooks low in exploitability in developing the bilingual learner’s second language competencies making use of the content specified in the syllabi.

7.1 Macro level and micro level policies The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the National Institute of Education (NIE) is in the process of formulating a bilingual framework. Until then the following should be formulated and implemented: x There is need for policies defining the role of the Department of English within the NIE when designing the second language curriculum in line with the needs of bilingual education. x Policies relating to the components of teacher education programmes on bilingual education where the English Language Teaching (ELT) component should be included. x Policies relating to teacher recruitment in bilingual education should be implemented. Here the bilingual teacher’s second

124

Chapter Seven

language competency and ELT competency should be made essential qualifications. x There should be policies related to monitoring and supervision in bilingual education. A special cadre should be appointed to monitor the teaching-learning process in bilingual education. x The Education Publication Department should formulate policies relating to compiling bilingual textbooks. This should involve language experts and content experts. x Schools should be empowered to formulate their own policies in line with the macro level policies. All bilingual schools should have policies for partnership between bilingual teachers and second language teachers when designing the learning process in bilingual education.

8. Conclusion This chapter attempted to understand how the existing policy framework on bilingual policy in Sri Lanka is practised. It was found that there are no clear policy documents, either at macro and micro levels. On the other hand, as Spolsky (2005: 2163) states that: Real language policy of a community is more likely to be found in its practices than its management. Unless the management is consistent with the language practices and beliefs, and with the other contextual forces that are in play, the explicit policy written in the constitution and laws is likely to have no more effect on how people speak than the activities of generations of school teachers vainly urging the choice of correct language.

The findings of this study also revealed that the management is inconsistent with the language practices and with other contextual forces. Therefore, even if explicit policy is written, it may not have an effect on bilingual education unless the management is consistent with practices. This is the challenge that Sri Lanka faces in identifying a suitable CLIL model to achieve the objectives of bilingual education.

Policy versus Practice

125

References Cummins, J. 1984. Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon England: Multilingual Matters. De Lanerolle Committee Report. 1973. Report of the committee of Inquiry into the teaching of English in the schools of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Government Printing Press. De Silva, F. 1960. Report of the committee of inquiry into the teaching of English in Ceylon schools. Sessional Paper V. Colombo: Government Publication Bureau. Djite, P. 1994. From language policy to language planning: An overview of languages Other than English in Australian Education. National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia, Deakin: A.C.T. Garcia, O. 1997. Bilingual Education. In The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, edited by F. Coulmas, 405-420. Oxford: Blackwell. Hornberger, N. 1990. Creating successful learning contexts for bilingual literacy. Teachers College Record, 92 (2). Jayasuriya, J. 1969. Education in Ceylon before and after Independence 1939-1968. Colombo: Wesley Press. Lambert, R. 2005. Language policy around the world. In. An international perspective on language policies, practices and proficiencies. Festschrift for David E. Ingram, edited by D. Cunningham and A. Hatoss. 21-37. Australia: FIPLV. Mehisto, P., Frigols, M. and Marsh, D. 2008. Uncovering CLIL. Oxford: Macmillan Education. Ministry of Education. 2002. Circular No. 12/2002. Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. National Education Commission. 1992. Sessional paper V. Colombo: Government Education Press. —. 2003. Proposals for a National Policy Framework in General Education in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka: Government Education Press. Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Report of the Special Committee on Education. 1943. Sessional Paper xxiv, 243 -267. Colombo: Government Printing Press. Snow, M. 1998. Trends and issues in content-based instruction. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 243-267. Spanos, G. 1989. On the integration of language and content instruction. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 10, 227-240. Spolsky, B. 2005. Language Policy. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, edited by J. Cohen, K. McAlister, K.

126

Chapter Seven

Rolstad, and J. MacSwan, 2152-2164. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts. 1956. Official Language Act, No. 33 of 1956. Accessed December 20, 2015. www.commonlii.org/lk/legis/num_act/tlpa28o19568381 Stoller, F. 2004. Content-based instruction: Perspectives on curriculum planning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 264-283. Udagama, P. 1999. Rhetoric and Reality: Education in Sri Lanka after Independence. Colombo: Amal Publishers. World Bank Colombo Office. 2011. The World Bank Report, 2011. Colombo, Sri Lanka Wriggins, W. 1960. Ceylon: Dilemmas of a new nation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

PART IV BILINGUALISM, CULTURE AND IDENTITY

CHAPTER EIGHT ELF AND CREATIVITY: THE ROLE OF IDIOMS IN INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ INTERACTIONAL EXCHANGES VIA SOCIAL NETWORKS A CASE STUDY FROM SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY, ROME

MARINA MORBIDUCCI

1. Introduction The present chapter aims at combining the vantage point of different areas of investigation namely, language creativity, ELF, international and intercultural communication, social networks, as well as idioms and metaphors. I am aware that each of these areas is individually quite vast in itself and abundant literature pertains to each area. Nevertheless, the multiple perspectives offered proved to be congenial to my analysis. Seidlhofer views ELF users as “languagers” since English is “being shaped, in its international uses, at least as much by its non-native speakers as its native speakers” (Seidlhofer 2011: 7). I also fully embrace the suggestion that English, viewed as the truly global language with its unprecedented spread, should be re-conceptualised, researched, and taught under such light. This notion is reinforced by trends described in the latest issue of Textus. English Studies in Italy with its focus on perspectives of English as a Lingua Franca. Guido and Seidlhofer (2014: 1) remark that: In using English for international and intercultural communication, people from different lingua-cultural backgrounds appropriate the resources of the language and exploit its virtual meaning potential as required in different contexts and purposes.

Furthermore, “any ELF-user with different native lingua-cultural backgrounds can appropriate and authenticate ELF as a means to express

130

Chapter Eight

his/her own culture” (Guido and Seidlhofer 2014: 14). This is made crucially viable through the contribution of the new media of communication among which social networks play a priority role. My interest in the use of idioms and metaphors in ELF exchanges originates from the concept so clearly presented in Pitzl’s research paper “‘We should not wake up any dogs’: Idiom and Metaphor in ELF” (2009). Since there are no reasons why we should obliterate the natural linguistic resource of creativity in ELF exchanges, the “appropriated” use of idioms and metaphors in ELF usage within the present scenario appears to be a profitable one and worthy of investigation, even for more localised contexts. Drawing on previous contributions in this specialised discourse domain of idiomaticity and metaphorisation, as in studies by M. L. Pitzl (2009, 2012) and others by V. Franceschi (2013), I suggest observing the relevant phenomena as realised in local academic settings. This study also juxtaposes previous stages which have mapped the research since November 2013. The initial impetus can be considered the article “Idioms and metaphors from an ELF perspective” (Morbiducci 2014). The first operative step was represented by the initial results of the questionnaire launched in October 2014 which, as a second step, are now being added to the answers provided by the still ongoing “Idioms and Metaphors in ELF at ISO, Sapienza” SurveyMonkey questionnaire.

2. Idioms and metaphors My view of idioms and metaphors draws on Dilin Liu’s (2008) work. His exhaustive book Idioms, Description, Comprehension, Acquisition, and Pedagogy (2008) comprises three different sections: (i) idiom definition, classification, usage patterns, and functions; (ii) idiom comprehension individual understanding, and the usage of idioms in both L1 and L2; (iii) idiom acquisition and the teaching and learning of idioms, with a special focus on strategies and techniques to help students learn idioms. Liu convincingly shows that “idioms are problematic especially for L2 speakers” (2008: 13). He also points out that: Fortunately and interestingly, the properties of idioms most scholars have agreed upon as key criteria for defining idioms, such as opaqueness in meaning and frozenness in structure, also appear to be most appropriate criteria for defining and identifying idioms from the perspective of L2 learners (Liu 2008: 13).

Elf and Creativity

131

Despite that, an idiom is still viewed as “an expression with a fixed composition and an idiomatic meaning [which] is extremely difficult for L2 learners to process and understand” (Liu 2008: 15). In the case of sememic idioms – that is, idiomatic expressions longer than phrasal or lexemic idioms – they often form complete utterances. Liu (2008: 18) distinguishes eight major subcategories, among which are: (a) Idioms of institutionalised politeness (Could you please? Would you mind?) (b) Idioms of institutionalised detachment of indirectness (It seems that…) (c) Idioms of proposals encoded as questions (How about? Would you like to?) (d) Idioms of institutionalised greetings (How do you do? So long!) (e) Proverbial idioms with a moral (Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched; Birds of a feather flock together.) (f) Familiar quotations as idioms (‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ – Shakespeare’s Hamlet; ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country’ – J. F. Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address) (g) Idiomaticity in institutionalised understatement (I wasn’t too crazy about it; it wasn’t the smartest move) All of these can be included in my analysis of the results of the survey carried out with my local students. Needless to say these classifications, like many others that can be envisaged in the case of idioms, call for an eclectic approach where lexico-grammar, semantics, and most of all, pragmatics, are fused together. Just to quote one example, in 1998 Moon classified idioms (or what she calls FEIs, meaning Fixed Expressions and Idioms) into three major categories: anomalous collocations, formulae, and metaphors. Therefore, here we come full circle with the choice of “Idioms and metaphors in ELF, at ISO Dept., Sapienza” as our survey title. Obviously, the major macro functions of idioms are ideational, interpersonal, relational or textual. Idioms are culture-specific since: Research has shown that most figurative idioms (arguably the largest type of idioms) are metaphorically based and conceptually motivated […]. A metaphorical concept that is noticeable in one culture may, however, be relatively inconspicuous in another, due to cultural differences (Liu 2008: 19).

132

Chapter Eight

3. ELF As for the identification of a linguistic frame of reference, it can be said that in the present sociolinguistic scenario and worldwide language dispensation, English is increasingly being observed from an English Lingua Franca perspective and as an intercultural communication phenomenon. Important findings and developments – in works such as those by Anna Mauranen, Jennifer Jenkins, and Barbara Seidlhofer in Europe, Suresh Canagarajah and Sandra McKay in the USA, Andrew Kirkpatrick and Joseph Lo Bianco in Australia, Gao Yihong and Liu Xun in China and the recent book by Ian Mackenzie, English as a lingua franca. Theorizing and teaching English – prove that effectiveness in pragmatic performance and communicative negotiation tends to replace grammatical correctness and native speakers’ enforcing norms. The different stances and research in ELF cannot be analysed in detail here; therefore let us assume as a starting point the definition of ELF provided by Alan Firth where ELF is described as a “contact language […] between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication” (Firth 1996: 240). Furthermore, “ELF interactions are defined as interactions between members of two or more different lingua-cultures in English, for none of whom English is the mother tongue” as noted by Juliane House (1999: 74). Both definitions are reported in Sandra Lee McKay and Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng’s International English in its Sociolinguistic Contexts. Towards a Socially Sensitive EIL Pedagogy (2008), as well as in Barbara Seidlhofer’s Understanding English as a Lingua Franca (2011), for which reason we can assume these are two ‘canonical’ definitions. Once again Seidlhofer (2011) points out that EIL today becomes necessarily “globalised EIL” – it takes place in non-ENL countries; it is not localised as a World English variety and more often than not it is not localised in learning settings. According to Seidlhofer what goes under the name of ELF is “any use of English for communication among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice and often the only option” (Seidlhofer 2011: 7). Moreover, Seidlhofer (2011: 8-9) convincingly clarifies that: Non-native speakers use the language for a wide range of public and personal needs […] so it would seem reasonable and uncontroversial that they should be accorded the right to take an active role in the development of the language, and to be taken seriously as legitimate users, not just learners or speakers of an interlanguage in need of improvement towards

Elf and Creativity

133

the norms of a standard native variety. However, while the international nature of English in the first sense as locally diverse forms in Outer Circle settings (localised EIL) has been the subject of mainstream linguistic enquiry for some time now, the same cannot be said of the global spread of the language in the second sense (globalised EIL, i.e. ELF).

In the same landmark book, Seidlhofer refers to ELF users as the speakers of English who are now shaping the language, more than those for whom English is an L1: ELF users too are seen to be languagers. They exploit the potential of the language, they are fully involved in the interactions, whether for work or for play. They are focused on the interactional and transactional purposes of the talk and on their interlocutors as people rather than on the linguistic code itself (Seidlhofer 2011: 98).

In their introduction to “English as a Lingua Franca: Theory and Practice” – in the aforementioned Textus issue, Maria Grazia Guido and Barbara Seidlhofer openly support the view that “people from different lingua-cultural backgrounds appropriate the resources of the language” (2014: 7). Therefore they subscribe to the opinion that “ELF usage develops syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics which need to be acknowledged as autonomous and endonormative variations, rather than to deviating and exonormative variants” (Guido and Seidlhofer 2014: 9). Therefore: The blossoming of ELF should no longer be disregarded by ELT professionals as a defective form of interlanguage, but should be considered as the manifestation of a complex evolutionary process that is quite similar to the way all natural languages have been historically shaped and adapted by their speakers. Hence, languages are shared symbolic mediational artifacts that respond to the users’ ever-changing communicative needs (Lantolf and Thorne 2006, as cited in Grazzi 2014: 156).

We agree that the focus should now be more on appropriation, identity, self-expression, accommodation, and co-construction of meaning and that categories such as hybridity, fluidity, and of course, creativity (this last drawing on various communicative resources and linguistic repertoires including L1), should be taken more into account in our sociolinguistic view and pedagogic approach. So we share Widdowson’s suggestion when he recommends that the “underlying resources” of the non-native speakers should be considered and valued, not only the native speakers’

134

Chapter Eight

“conventional encodings” (Widdowson 2003). This stance was recently reinforced by the formula “capability beyond competence”, which Widdowson proposed in his talk during the international symposium English, Globally. State of the Art and Changing Scenarios held at Sapienza University, Rome, on April 3 – 4, 2014.

4. Idioms and Metaphors in ELF It is at this point that the connection with Pitzl’s previously-mentioned work is triggered since “[t]he recurrent patterns of language that are revealed in the corpus analysis of naturally-occurring native speaker English show how idioms and idiomaticity contribute to effective communication in these native speakers contexts” (Pitzl 2009: 298). One might expect the same in ELF interactions, which are “naturally-occurring and communicatively effective” since this means that ELF should be expected to be “idiomatic, i.e. to make use of the conventionalized preconstructed phrases that are conducive to understanding in L1 contexts” (Pitzl 2008: 298). As we know, the naturally-occurring talk of English native speakers operates through the idiom principle to a large degree. In its broadest definition, the ‘principle of idiom’ relates to the fact that “a language user has available to him or her, a large number of semi pre-constructed phrases that constitute single choices” (Sinclair 1991: 110, as cited in Pitzl 2009: 299). “Thus, in employing the ‘principle of idiom’, language users do not construct phrases and expressions bottom-up or ‘from scratch’, but utilize an already existent repertoire of semi-fixed chunks” (Pitzl 2009: 299). In view of the fact that the idiom and idiomaticity appear to be so central to English native speakers, it is not surprising that ELF researchers have also turned their interest to them. Amongst these researchers we find the paper by Seidlhofer and Widdowson “Idiomatic Variation and Change in English. The Idiom Principle and Its Realizations” (2009). Looking at the idiom principle and its realisations in ELF “suggest[s] that ELF users probably exhibit a greater reliance on the open-choice principle” (Pitzl 2009: 299) and “construct what they have to say more atomistically, in a bottom-up fashion” (Seidlhofer and Widdowson 2007: 365, as cited in Pitzl 2009: 299). As we could expect, “although idiomatic expressions occur in ELF, these expressions often display considerable non-conformity in reference to native speaker (NS) norms” (Pitzl 2009: 298). Idiom building is a

Elf and Creativity

135

prerequisite to the idiom principle, and we should not be surprised to notice that even in ELF utterances, newly constructed idiomatic expressions “do not necessarily conform to the particular wordings of ENL speakers” (Seidlhofer and Widdowson 2007: 373, as cited in Pitzl 2009: 300). According to Pitzl (2009) another important issue that Seidlhofer and Widdowson (2007) raise is that in ELF communication there is not the socalled “territorial imperative” namely: The need to establish and protect one’s own social space as a member of a particular speech community. And one way of performing this territorial imperative is the use of idioms. In ENL contexts, idioms are heavily ‘culturally loaded’ for the members of a speech community. They serve as ‘territorial markers of social identity and group membership’ (Seidlhofer and Widdowson, 2007: 362, as cited in Pitzl 2009: 300).

So idioms are used in ELF just for any “other communicative purpose [rather] than marking one’s cultural territory” (Pitzl 2009: 300). For this reason, in her study Pitzl observes the phenomenon of idiomaticity in ELF from another angle namely by focusing on their metaphorical function. Worth noting is Section 3 of Pitzl’s paper, which is significantly entitled “The Chicken or the Egg? On the relationship between Idiom and Metaphor” as it analyses the relationship between idiom and metaphor, pointing out the difficulty of defining and delimiting both concepts, and making us appreciate how the metaphorical origins of idiomatic expressions might resurface in ELF: What we might find in EFL is that the possibly dormant ‘sleeping’ metaphors ‘contained’ in idioms are actually quite active and thus allow for a considerable degree of flexibility in the formal use of an idiom, while still maintaining intelligibility through the (re-)activated metaphor. In other words, idioms might undergo a process of what I shall call “remetaphorisation” in ELF, where metaphoricity is reintroduced into otherwise conventionalised idiomatic expressions (Pitzl 2009: 302).

Pitzl’s (2009) analysis is quite convincing especially when she tries to identify the sources of origin, from a formal point of view, of the idiosyncratically used, or freshly created, metaphorical expressions from the part of the non-native speakers (NNS): At the formal textual level, deliberate metaphors in ELF arise from three different sources; they might be entirely novel with a metaphorical image being created ad hoc by a speaker; secondly, metaphors may be

136

Chapter Eight formally related to existing English idioms, re-introducing metaphoricity often via formal variation of the expression; and thirdly, metaphors may be created with other language idioms being transplanted into English (Pitzl 2009: 317).

Pitzl remarks that “[r]esearch on ELF has shown that several general processes seem to motivate linguistic innovations in ELF, among these being enhancing prominence […], increasing clarity […] and increasing transparency […]”(2009: 317). She enhances the pragmatic effectiveness that idioms and metaphors can perform when it comes to interpersonal exchanges, especially when criticalities in intercultural communication might interfere with the process of mutual negotiation occurring between NNSs using ELF. Resorting to creativity in forging newly invented expressions may solve the difficulty of the communicative process when the formal or conventional support is somehow inadequate or ineffective. Finally, she concludes by saying that metaphors: can be used to further interpersonal rapport in dealing with a tricky situation, making a sensitive proposition, bringing in your own culture, and adding humor to the interaction. All these different functions are fulfilled via idioms ‘gone wrong’, or in other words, via the remetaphorisation of idioms. To deprive speakers of this creative linguistic potential by devaluating these expressions simply as errors best avoided would seem to be counter-productive – it would seem (metaphorically speaking) to be ‘pouring the child out with the bathwater’ (Pitzl 2009: 317).

5. The ISO Case As mentioned earlier, a specific questionnaire was planned and distributed to our students in order to gather genuine statistical data. The questionnaire, supported by the SurveyMonkey platform was entitled “Idioms and metaphors in ELF at ISO, Sapienza” and its first preliminary results were presented in our talk “ELF and creativity: idioms and metaphors as language boosters,” at the international conference Living Roots/Living Routes held in Naples, L’Orientale University, 26 – 27 November 2014. Here we suggested that one of the ‘living routes’ we might wish to track down in our didactic research and pedagogical agenda is the pursuit and enhancement of language creativity, particularly that kind of dynamic linguistic empowerment that may take place among our students, that is, a community of learners acting within the sociolinguistic framework provided by ELF.

Elf and Creativity

137

A tailor-made questionnaire was created, inquiring about their view and use of metaphors, idiomatic expressions and figurative language, more broadly, in English, when they interact in conversational exchanges, either in written or spoken forms, via social networks with their international peers. The questionnaire was distributed to a group of students attending first and second year of English at the Department of Asian Studies at Sapienza at bachelor’s level in the degree course of Asian Languages and Literatures. The set of questions were primarily aimed: (i) to investigate the use of idioms and metaphors in their conversational exchanges and their frequency; (ii) how this specific discourse is qualitatively shaped and represented. The questionnaire comprised a set of 10 questions and was built on the idea of graduality – from general to particular – making the approach to the theme of idioms and metaphors mediated by ELF in a user-friendly way. The data for the 10 questions is presented in Tables 8.1 to 8.10 with the percentage of preference indicated in each of the four options, out of a total of 100 answers. Questions 1 and 2 (Tables 8.1 and 8.2) are meant to prepare the ground and provide a statistical aim. Question 3 (Table 8.3), with reference to the length of questions, enquires into the level of confidence and self-esteem of the users. Question 4 (Table 8.4) is a direct question regarding the overt agenda. Question 5 (Table 8.5) introduces the notion of the linguistic variation taken into account as a frame of reference, that is ELF. Question 6 (Table 8.6) investigates their selfawareness as ELF-users. Question 7 (Table 8.7) diverges into practical things so as to allow students to describe their use in more detail. Question 8 (Table 8.8) creates a connection between the metaphor – as a stylistic device – and their personal experience. Question 9 (Table 8.9) is a direct question on the use of idioms. Question 10 (Table 8.10) is the core of the questionnaire and openly asks for personal examples. Table 8.1: Do you ever chat with friends abroad? Yes, I frequently do Yes, but only rarely No, never No, but I wish I could

46.0% (46) 41.0% (41) 2.0% (2) 11.0% (11)

138

Chapter Eight Table 8.2: Can you list the media, social network, email account you chat through? Facebook 50.55% (46) Twitter 4.40% (4) Flicker 0% (0) WhatsApp 35.16% (32) Skype 7.69% (7) Google+ 2.20% (2) Table 8.3: When you chat with your international friends, do you prefer long or short sentences? Longish sentences, with questions and statements 30.61% (30) Medium length sentences, primarily with questions 39.80% (39) Short sentences, so that I don't make mistakes 27.55% (27) Very short sentences, I can't use English properly 2.04% (2) Table 8.4: When you chat with your international friends, do you ever use metaphors and/or idioms? Yes, sure, it's fun 28.29% (28) Yes, a lot, but I also use Italian expressions 18.18% (18) Yes, a bit, primarily in English 20.20% (20) Not so much, I'm afraid of misunderstandings 33.33% (33) Table 8.5: Do you know what the acronym ELF stands for? What is its expanded meaning? Yes, I do, it means English as a Lingua Franca 86.60% (84) Yes, I do, it means English Language for Free 0% (0) No, I don't, perhaps it means English as a Foreign 6.18% (6) Language No, I don't, I'm not interested in definitions, I only 7.22% (7) care about learning how to speak the language Table 8.6: When you chat with your friends, using English, do you feel at ease with your language competence? Sure, I do 26.00% (26) Sometimes, it depends 65.00% (65) Very rarely, I feel tongue-tied 5.00% (5) Not at all, I don't know the grammar well 4.00% (4)

Elf and Creativity

139

Table 8.7: When you chat in English, do you tend to describe your daily events, your actions, or feelings? I tend to talk about everything which happens to me, 63.27% (62) and I also try to express my emotions I tend to describe what happens to me, without getting 30.61% (30) into personal feelings I avoid talking about myself, I like hearing about them, 5.10% (5) so I ask a lot of questions only I prefer talking about politics or social issues, or sports 1.02% (1) Table 8.8: When you talk about yourself, do you ever create personal metaphors? Yes, frequently, it's fun 17.17% (17) It might happen, it depends 54.55% (54) Rarely, I don't like taking risks with a foreign language 23.23% (23) No, absolutely not, I don't even know what a metaphor 5.05% (5) is, something outdated, I suppose Table 8.9: When you chat with your friends abroad, do you ever use idioms? Yes, I do, it's amusing and colourful 26.80% (26) Sometimes, but I'm not sure I'll be understood 42.27% (41) I don't know idioms in English, only in Italian 30.93% (30) I'm afraid of using idioms, they are stuff for old people 0% (0) Table 8.10: When you chat with your international friends, do you ever create new metaphors or expressions? Can you give some examples? Yes, it may happen, I have many examples 8.42% (8) Yes, it may happen, I can give a couple of examples 29.47% (28) Yes, only once, I can give one example 12.63% (12) No, never, I cannot create anything new with 49.47% (47) English

Some of the comments and interesting examples collected from Question 10 (Table 8.10) have been selected. Enrico P. used the metaphorical expression ‘A golden girl’ and commented on its use in this way: I was paraphrasing to Violet what a friend of mine had told me earlier that day about his girlfriend, and I wrote, He said that he likes the girl he’s currently going out with, and that she’s a golden girl. I can definitely second that. After writing this, I realised that the meaning might not have been as transparent as I had imagined; as per dictionary definition, a

140

Chapter Eight ‘golden girl/boy’ is someone who is successful or destined for success, which is not at all what I meant. Due to interference from the Italian expression ‘ragazza d’oro’ (which the original speaker had used), the intended sense was she’s a kind and gentle girl. Instead of replacing the expression, however, I decided to add a small explanatory aside.

The case of D. Zhou, with Chinese-Italian parents is emblematic. She used the following Italian idiomatic expression with Chinese speaking interlocutors in China, and in order to negotiate meaning she adopted a form of literal word-for-word translation of the expression: “Chi ha il pane non ha denti, chi ha i denti non ha il pane” with the equivalent of ‘He’s got the gravy, but not the spoon’ in English. Apparently, even though the idiom does not exist in Chinese, she was understood. Communication broke down, however, when she translated the expression “Mica sto giocando alla lotteria” (I’m not playing bingo). On the other hand, the expression ‘Fresh as a rose’ which was the translation adopted by Alessia P. on the Italian saying “Fresco come una rosa” intended to convey a sense of freshness, delicacy and elegance. Good transfer of meaning was achieved between Spanish students and herself; whereas the expression “I have made a hole in the wather (sic!)” is what another student confessed to have used freely. A very peculiar case is represented by Eleonora D. who was generous in her comments and even provided amendments or an alternative set of questions to the ones asked. In addition to this, her contributions to Question 10 are quite rich. However, owing to space limitations, only a short selection is given here. From a phonetic point of view, she puts the case of her coinage “easy breezy” which does not exist in English, but creates appropriate associations in Italian, due to its assonance. In her jargon it means something which happens in a fluid way, apparently in connection with something pleasant and enjoyable. The case of “lemmi nou” which is the Italian alphabetic transcription for the expression ‘let me know’ is presented in the same phonetic line of creativity. It is therefore used half in English (as for the meaning) and half in Italian (as for the spelling). A similar case is the expression “aim zory” (I’m sorry) which displays some sort of playfulness, leading one to perceive English as the language of amusement. Finally, many cases of code-switching, within online or spoken conversations with Italian peers, are provided. For instance, “Becchiamoci some time” shows how the first part, which is underlined, is in youth and local jargon. In Rome young people say “becchiamoci” to mean let’s meet, let’s have a date while the addition of “some time” which is in English and is in bold, is probably due to the fact that English is perceived as the language of young people. Another

Elf and Creativity

141

expression “Non sono proprio nel mood oggi” is used by Eleonora and friends. It is evident that these students are somehow incorporating some bilingual traits which would be interesting to investigate further.

References Firth, A. 1996. The discursive accomplishment of normality. On lingua franca English and conversation analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 26, 237-259. Franceschi, V. 2013. Figurative language and ELF: idiomaticity in crosscultural interaction in university settings. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2, 75-99. Grazzi, E. 2014. The Sociocultural Dimension of ELF in the English Classroom: A Case Study on Web-Mediated Activities. Textus. English Studies in Italy. Perspectives on English as a Lingua Franca, 26(1),155-171. Guido, M. and Seidlhofer, B. 2014. English as a Lingua Franca: Theory and Practice. Textus. English Studies in Italy. Perspectives on English as a Lingua Franca, 26(1), 7-16. House, J. 1999. Misunderstanding in Intercultural Communication: Interactions in English as a lingua franca and the myth of mutual intelligibility. In Teaching and learning English as a global language, edited by C. Gnutzmann, 73-89. Tübingen: Stauffennburg. Liu, D. 2008. Idioms: Description, Comprehension, Acquisition, and Pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge. Mackenzie, I. 2014. English as a lingua franca. Theorizing and teaching English. London and New York: Routledge. McKay, S. and Bokhorst-Heng, W. 2008. International English in its Sociolinguistic Contexts. Towards a Socially Sensitive EIL Pedagogy. London and New York: Routledge. Mauranen, A. and Ranta, E. eds. 2009. English as a Lingua Franca. Studies and Findings. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers. Moon, R. 1998. Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: a Corpus-based Approach. Oxford University Press. Morbiducci, M. 2014. Idioms and metaphors from an ELF perspective. In Crossroads: Languages and (E)motions, edited by L. Landolfi, 105112. Naples: Photocity University Press. Pitzl, M. 2009. ‘We should not wake up any dogs’: Idiom and Metaphor in ELF. In English as a Lingua Franca. Studies and Findings, edited

142

Chapter Eight

by A. Mauranen and E. Ranta, 298-322. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers. —. 2012. Creativity meets convention: Idiom variation and remetaphorization in ELF. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 1(1), 127-55. Seidlhofer, B. 2004. Research Perspectives on Teaching English as a Lingua Franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 209-239. —. 2011. Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press. —. 2014. ELF research: key issues and recent developments. Paper presented at the International Symposium English, Globally. State of the Art and Changing Scenarios. Rome, Sapienza University. Seidlhofer, B. and Widdowson, H. 2007. Idiomatic Variation and Change in English: The Idiom Principle and Its Realizations. In Tracing English through Time: Explorations in Language Variation, edited by U. Smit, S. Dollinger, J. Hüttner, G. Kaltenböck, and U. Lutzky, 359374. Wien: Braumüller. Widdowson, H. 2003. Defining Issues in English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

CHAPTER NINE BILINGUALISM AND IDENTITY IN SELECTED GERMAN-SPEAKING REGIONS RALF HEIMRATH

1. Introduction The book Germany: Memories of a Nation, edited by Neil MacGregor, features a chapter with the title “A Language for all Germans” (MacGregor 2014: 91). This refers to the significance of Martin Luther‘s translation of the Bible and his other religious texts from 1517 onwards. The famous reformer contributed very much to the development of a unified German language through the distribution of his writings. However, it would be wrong to conclude from this that all Germans at that time spoke German. The German realm of the 16th century was a multiethnic state which stretched from Trieste (in today‘s Italy) to the Atlantic in Belgium or Breslau (today’s Wroclaw in Poland) or Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in Poland). It would also be just as wrong to think that German is today the mother-tongue everywhere in German-speaking countries. There are some regions where the communities are characterised by bilingualism. These are the kind of regions which I should like to introduce in this chapter. My focus shall therefore be social bilingualism or multilingualism. However, I shall not delve into individual bilingualism, where individual speakers communicate in different languages depending on the situation, for example as with people of migrant backgrounds (Barbour and Stevenson 1998; Crystal 2010; König 2011). The first region that will be discussed is Flensburg which shares a border with Denmark.

144

Chapter Nine

2. Flenssburg At the top of Germ many (Map 9.1), 9 borderinng with Den nmark, is Flensburg annd the surrouunding area wh here an indigeenous Danish minority of around 500,000 people lives l (Daeniscche Minderheeit 2009). Thesse are not to be confuused with the Danish citizens there. As with other ethnic minorities inn Germany, they t enjoy thee protection oof national law ws which cover the ppreservation of o Danish as their native llanguage. Th he region, known as ““South Schleswig” is thus officially biliingual, in reaality even multilinguall. The town off Flensburg itsself, which be longed to Den nmark for centuries annd to Germanny only since 1864, is aw ware of the language situation andd uses bilinguual road signss in public arreas. There arre Danish nursery schoools, a library, churches, clu ubs and a bilinngual daily neewspaper, the Flensburrg Avis.

Map 9.1: Gerrmany and surroounding countriies

Strictly sspeaking, the region should d be considerred multilingu ual, as the oral forms used there include i not only o High G German, Low German

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions

145

(Plattdeutsch), Standard Danish and the Jutland variant of Danish, but also ‘Petuh-German’ which is a particular hybrid language. This is a mixed language with elements of all the languages and dialects which occur there and this hybrid only exists in Flensburg. Its grammar is a mixture taken from Low German and Danish, while its vocabulary is mainly High German (Bock 1933; Christiansen 2003; Daenische Minderheit 2009; Faatz 2011) as shown in the following examples: English: You shall see to it that you can learn something from it. High German: Sie sollen mal zusehen und davon etwas lernen. Danish: Du skal sørge for og lære lidt af det.(Du sollst dafür sorgen und lernen etwas davon. /You shall take care of it and learn something from it). Petuh: Sie soll´n mal zusehen und lernen da ´n büschen von (Die Welt 2008). English: I become giddy so fast. High German: Mir wird so schnell schwindelig. Danish: Jeg bliver svimmel så hurtigt. (Ich nehme an Schwindel so schnell). Petuh: Ich schwindel so leicht (Die Welt 2008).

The word order in the sentence follows Danish, whereas the lexis is High German. The passive sentence in High German is given in Petuh as an active sentence, like in Danish. The term ‘Petuh’ comes from the fact that many, mostly female inhabitants of this border region liked to take cruises into international waters in order to benefit from tax-free shopping (‘Butter trips’). In Flensburg’s middle class, many ladies used to hold season tickets (‘Partout-Billets’) for these boats. The ladies with such season tickets were jokingly called ‘Petuh-Tanten’ (‘Petuh-Aunts’) and their language mix was accordingly called ‘Petuh-Deutsch’ (‘Petuh-German’). This slang is a linguistic mixture used by a group of bilingual or trilingual individuals. In such cases, linguists today no longer use the term code-switching, but rather speak of language-mixing (Yumoto 1996: 6; Tracy and Latey 2009). Petuh is seldom heard nowadays. The eventual membership of Denmark and Germany in the European Union caused the decrease of the Butter Trips.

3. Lausitz (Lusatia) The second region which shall be focused on is Lausitz, which is divided into Upper and Lower Lausitz, and which is situated in the East of

146

Chapter Nine

the German federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony on the border with Poland and the Czech Republic. The people in this area speak German or Sorbian, or both. Sorbian is a western Slavonic language in the neighbourhood of Polish and Czech (Bräuer 1961; Hannusch 1998; Lameli 2010). This area has been the home of the Sorbs since the year 631 (Kusternig et al. 1982) and has been bilingual since the 12th century, due to the arrival of German settlers. After 1933, during the German fascist era, the use of Sorbian in public was strictly forbidden; after 1949 in the German Democratic Republic, however, it was protected and supported as a national minority language. Despite this, relatively few Sorbs still speak their language today. Sorbian has decreased significantly as a characteristic feature. Many people, especially in the Lower Lausitz, still understand Sorbian, but no longer, or seldom, speak the language. The Sorbian identity, by contrast, has found continuance in several traditions and is cultivated in these fields (Barbour and Stevenson 1998).

4. Austria There are two bilingual zones here: one in the Burgenland region of Austria on the Hungarian border and the other in the federal state of Carinthia on the Slovenian border (Barbour and Stevenson 1998). Besides bilingualism, diglossia also exists in the area concerned near Hungary. Before the Second World War, Hungarian was the dominant language of the resident population and German the minority language of immigrants, which was used as a language of communication for external contacts. However, after the Second World War when the Hungarian state was politically part of the Warsaw Pact, German gained the higher prestige of progress and possibly also of freedom. Since then, the autochthonous population has found itself in transition from Hungarian to German. In Gailstal in Carinthia the situation is different. Until the 19th century, diglossia dominated here in close relation to the social structure. The members of the upper class in the larger communities spoke German with one another and Slovenian with the mostly rural population. Traditional language structures became more and more dissolved due to the social changes of the 19th century. Towards the end of the 19th century the originally monolingual speakers of Slovenian had almost all become bilingual. Besides this, the neighbouring country of Slovenia was integrated into the state of Yugoslavia after the Second World War and was separated politically from Austria. Today the Slovenian communities

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions

147

concerned are almost completely made up of monolingual German speakers.

5. South Tirol The reason for the name of this federal state is that it previously belonged to Austrian Tirol, but it was given to Italy by the Peace Treaty of Saint Germain in 1919. The language of the autochthonous population is South Bavarian (Freudenberg 1980). Bolzano is now a politically autonomous Italian province – South Tirol and the province of Trento together form the autonomous region of Trento-South Tirol. This political association is very important with regard to languages as shown in Table 9.1. Table 9.1: Language distribution in South Tirol Year % German % Italian % Ladin 1921 76 10.5 1953 62 33 2013 64 24 4

% Others 13.5 5 8

(Source: Adapted from Barbour and Stevenson 1998: 272; Oberhuber 2015)

For almost 100 years now, three languages have existed in the area and for most of that time developments were not peaceful. During the period of Italian fascism under Mussolini, German was forbidden in public life and only allowed within the family and in church. In the government’s programme of industrialisation in South Tirol, German speakers were excluded from factory jobs. This led to a marked immigration of Italians. In 1939, Mussolini signed a treaty with Hitler to which Hitler agreed that all South Tiroleans who did not want to become Italian should emigrate. Hitler wanted to settle these people in Eastern Europe and in fact, 80% of German-speaking South Tiroleans emigrated. Only a few of them returned after the Second World War. A further wave of industrialisation in the 1950s brought another influx of Italians. Almost three quarters of public sector positions were held by Italians. Fierce protests, culminating in bomb attacks, were the reactions in the 1960s. The composition of the staff in public administration (Table 9.2) is a clear indicator of the imbalance between the state’s interest in language policies and the actual ethnic structure.

148

Chapter Nine

Table 9.2: Composition of staff in public administration Year % German % Italian 1971 25.8 72.5 (Source: Adapted from Barbour and Stevenson 1998: 273)

% Others 1.7

With only a few exceptions, bilingualism without diglossia dominates this province. And even then, one can only really speak of bilingualism in the settlements along the rivers Eisack and Adige and in Bolzano and Merano. There are also some mixed speaking families, but this is not the norm. The ethnic groups are living mostly separated from the rest of the community. It is more precise to say that the region is bilingual but people do not mingle much. The mountain people are German almost without exception, and in a small area of the Dolomites, Ladin is spoken. In the 1972 Statute of Autonomy, bilingual status was recognised by the government. Among other things, this statute states that all local names and official signs in South Tirol have to be written in Italian as well as in German (Photos 9.1 and 9.2). Within 30 years, all civil service positions were to be occupied according to quotas for language proportions and citizens would be able to communicate with local authorities in their native languages. Since then, disputes have no longer been so intense. Today, all public employees must show proof of sufficient knowledge of the relevant other language before being appointed. These regulations are, however, still all written in Italian. In schools both German and Italian are taught by native teachers as a matter of principle (Egger 1977; Kramer 1981; Barbour and Stevenson 1998; Eichinger 2002; Romeo 2013).

Photo 9.1: Official bilingual sign in South Tirol.

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions

149

Photo 9.2: Official bilingual sign in South Tirol.

6. Switzerland The multilingual scenario of Switzerland is well known. It is regulated by the constitution and divides the country into German, French and Italian-speaking areas. Within the German part of Switzerland there is also a small area in which Rhaeto-Romanic, also called Bündnerromanic or Romansch, (cf. Haarrmann 2002) is spoken. All three languages are official and national, while in the Rhaeto-Romanic area the latter language is also recognised as a national language. Depending on the part of the country, the Swiss speak one of the languages as their native language and the others as foreign languages which they learn in school. Only 4 out of 26 cantons are officially bilingual. The proportionally largest language in Switzerland is German, followed by French and Italian as can be seen in Table 9.3. A very small group speaks Rhaeto-Romanic as well as German. German-speaking Swiss persons are essentially bilingual, in that they use High German as a written language and one of the many dialects in the vernacular. The Swiss only communicate with strangers in standard German; with each other they use ‘Schwizerdütsch’ and they recognise where their conversational partners come from on the basis of their dialect. The spoken language is one of the most important identifying characteristics of the country (Sieber 2010).

Chapter Nine

150

Table 9.3: Distribution of the Swiss population according to Main Language Main Language % Proportion % Proportion Total 1990 2000 2000 German

63.6

63.7

4,640,359

French

19.2

20.3

1,485,056

Italian

7.6

6.5

470,961

Rhaeto-Romanic

0.6

0.5

35,095

9.0

656,539

Non-national 8.9 Languages (Source: Adapted from Sieber 2010: 373)

7. Rhaeto-Romanic linguistic enclaves Rhaeto-Romanic is a distinct Romance language which is named after the area in which it occurs, that is in the antique Roman province of Rhaetia. Although the language area within the canton of Grisons is very small, five distinct idiomatic groupings can be identified, which again can be divided into their own local dialects. Each idiomatic group has its own written form. The language is on the decline. There used to be one connected linguistic area, but today the language is fragmented into various islands which are surrounded by German or by Italian in the South. Between the language islands there are bilingual transition zones (König 2011) as is evident in Photo 9.3 and Table 9.4.

Photo 9.3: Sign in a public park in Chur, Switzerland.

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions Table 9.4: Translation of Photo 9.3 Igl auto Das Auto (translated by (P. Alexander Lozza) Duri Loza) Corra, corra, antipatic bau, ampestond e sdivirond. Quants ast gio struptgia, smardatgea, an tia furia tras igl mond! – Igl carstgang duvress betg tanta prescha, betg tant correr, tant sgular! Tar la mort el reiva anc ad ouras, sainca correr scu en nar!

Renne, renne, widerlicher Käfer, mit viel Lärm und mit Gestank! Wieviel Krüppel, wieviel Tote hast gemacht mit Raserei! Doch der Mensch bedarf mitnichten solcher Eile, wie im Flug. Früh genug kommt er zum Tode, muss nicht rennen wie ein Narr!

151

The Car

Run, run, nasty beetle, with much noise and with fetidness! How many cripples, how many dead people Did you make with fury! But the human doesn´t need at all such rush, like in flight. He will get to death early enough, and needs not run like a fool!

8. Alsace Alsace is still a distinct area in France, on the border with Germany. The name of this region comes from German and has been documented since the 5th century. In 1633 the region fell into the hands of France during the Thirty Years War and has been passed back and forth between France and Germany a number of times. This historical development explains the bilingualism in the region and as in Tirol, it can be observed that the state follows a pro-active language policy which is not always accepted by the population. Thus, German was forbidden in schools and banished from public areas after the Second World War, against the strong protests of the inhabitants. This measure has not been without effect. Although German is heard in the public sphere, it has been declining considerably, both in the standard form and in its dialect forms, since the 1980s. Alsatian can now mostly be heard in the home domain. In the 1990s various initiatives were started to revitalise the language and to characterise a regional identity. Since 1993 German has been on an equal footing with French in the department of Alsace. It is

152

Chapter Nine

tolerated byy the state, buut not supported. There aree no structures such as radio, televiision or univeersity institutio ons for the suupport of the language (Barbour annd Stevenson 1998). 1 The survvey findings conducted c by the Office poour la Langu uage et la Culture d´Allsace in 2012 reveal that: ood Alsatian ((dialect speakeers); x 43% declared that they spoke go od it a x 33% declared that they spoke a little Alsatiann or understoo little (basic knowleedge); n Alsatian (noo knowledge). x 25 % declared thatt they spoke no This surrvey questionnnaire also in ncluded exam mples of the Alsatian dialect obtaained from Offfice pour la Language ett la Culture d´Alsace. Photo 9.4 bbelow shows both the Alssatian dialectaal word ‘Gerrwerstub’, (High Germ man: ‘Gerberstuube’ ‘tanners room’), and F French ‘dif Maison M des Tanneurs’ aas the title foor a restauran nt. The officcial sign in Photo P 9.5 commemoraates the old Alsatian A formu ulation for a pplace ‘Am Verbrennte Hof’ (High German: ‘Am m verbrannten n Hof’ ‘at the burnt yard’) while the French namee ‘Place du marché m Gayot’ refers to a surrname.

Photo 9.4: Puublic bilingualissm in Strasbourg.

Photo 9.5: Puublic bilingualissm in Strasbourg.

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions

153

The latest developments will further deplete the Alsatian minority because, under an Act of Parliament, the 22 departments in France will be restructured to create a total of 13 departments in 2016. The department of Alsace will then be dissolved and amalgamated with two neighbouring regions (Spiegel 2014). The overwhelming pressure of French will then lead to the demise of German in Alsace.

9. Luxembourg The indigenous population in Luxembourg is bilingual. All inhabitants speak French and Luxembourgish. Many Luxembourgers also speak standard German. Linguistically speaking, Luxembourgish is a central German dialect. However, because it is synonymous with the state of Luxembourg, it has the sociolinguistic status of a distinct language (Barbour and Stevenson 1998).

10. Eastern Belgium On the Eastern Belgian border there is a German language area to the north of Luxembourg. The indigenous population speaks various central German dialects besides French. This is why Belgium is overall, trilingual: the North is Flemish, the South, Walloon and the East, German. Important official information is published in all three languages (Barbour and Stevenson 1998).

11. Frisia Ethnographically there are three Frisian regions: West Frisia is in the Netherlands, and bordering that there are East Frisia in the German state of Lower Saxony and North Frisia in the state of Schleswig-Holstein on the Atlantic coast. Linguistically, West Frisian, East Frisian and North Frisian each count as individual languages within the West Germanic group of languages. The differences between the three languages are so great that their speakers cannot understand each other. Although the language areas are very small, Frisian has several dialects. Almost every island and every part of the mainland area has its own dialect (Table 9.5).

154

Chapter Nine

Table 9.5: Numbers of Frisian speakers in 2011 West Frisian East Frisian 400.000 1500 (Source: Adapted from Fittkau 2015)

North Frisian 5000

The existence of all three languages is endangered and they are being replaced by neighbouring dialects and the standard languages of the respective countries. Their speakers do not form a homogeneous group. They are restricted to isolated communities and exposed to the strong pressure of the standard speakers (Barbour and Stevenson 1998). The number of East Frisian speakers is so small that the language is already referred to as extinct. It is reported that in the North Frisian island Föhr, many speakers are mixing their North Frisian language with High German and Low German (Gemeinhardt 2015).

12. Conclusion Can regional or social bilingualism survive in the regions presented, and for how long will it do so? In the ethnic minorities presented – the Danes, Sorbs, Hungarians, Slovenes, Rhaetians and North Frisians – the languages are protected by conventions and diverse efforts are being made to keep their idiom alive. In most cases, the language is the characteristic which distinguishes their identity most clearly from that of others in their societies. Other characteristics such as familial customs, traditional dishes, and so on, are seen less often in public. Only the Sorbs also demonstrate their identity with their own traditional dress and public festivals. At the moment, most members of these minorities are going through the codeswitching phase. The German language is used for communicating with members of the majority, and often also in dealings with the public authorities. In South Tirol and in Alsace the dominant languages in the administrations are Italian and French respectively. We know from research on language islands that often code-switching is followed by gradual death. The speakers of the minority languages become fewer and fewer, use of the language decreases, and it eventually ceases altogether. The clearest example of this is Frisian. It can be assumed that the languages of Danish in the area around Flensburg, Luxembourgish in Luxembourg, German in East Belgium and South Bavaria in the Italian province of Bolzano have a relatively safe future. Here there are enough contacts across the political borders within a common language area. An important role is also played here by media such as radio and television. Their programmes can be received beyond

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions

155

the state borders, with the result that the loss of language is decisively counteracted in the areas concerned. Alsatian has no support in this respect. Rhaeto-Romanic, North Frisian and Sorbian are at the highest risk. These are true language islands without any connection to another region. All the inhabitants of the neighbouring geographical areas use a different language or dialect. The following is valid for all three language areas; despite globalisation they have no possibility of connecting with another region which uses the same language. Thus, they are in the greatest danger of being smothered by the predominance of the German language. The ethnic identity of the Sorbs will one day be maintained by their folklore, but not their language.

Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the adapted royalty free image used in Map 9.1 (© Copyright Bruce Jones Design 2009); Axel Stein for Photos 9.1 and 9.2; Franz Heimrath for Photos 9.3 and 9.4.

References Autonomie Provinz Bozen-Südtirol. 2015. Sprachgruppen. Accessed January 20, 2015. http://www.provinz.bz.it/729212/de/autonomie/sprachgruppen.asp Barbour, S. and Stevenson, P. 1998. Variationen im Deutschen. Soziolinguistische Perspektiven. Translated from English by K. Gebel. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter. Bock, K. 1933. Niederdeutsch auf dänischem Substrat. Studien zur Dialektgeographie Südostschleswigs, No. 299. Kopenhagen Universitæts-Jubilæets danske Samfund: Levin and Munkgaard. Bräuer, H. 1961. Slavische Sprachwissenschaft. Vol. 1. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter and Co. Bundesministerium des Inneren 2009. Die Dänische Minderheit. Accessed September 29, 2015. http://www.bmi.bund.de/cln_144/SharedDocs/Standardartikel/DE/The men/MigrationIntegration/ohneMarginalspalte/Daenische_Minderheit. html?nn=258014 Christiansen, W. 2003. Petuh – ABC. Goldbeck: Mohland Verlag D. Peters.

156

Chapter Nine

Crystal, D. 2010. Die Cambridge Enzyklopädie der Sprache. Translation and editing of the German edition, by S. Röhrig, A. Böckler and M. Jansen. Frankfurt: Tolkemitt Verlag bei Zweitausendeins. Die Welt. 2008. Petuhtanten haben mitnichten Petuhneffen. Accessed February 7, 2015. http://www.welt.de/welt_print/article2871714/Petuhtanten-habenmitnichten-Petuhneffen.html Egger, K. 1977. Zweisprachigkeit in Südtirol. Probleme zweier Volksgruppen an der Sprachgrenze. Schriftenreihe des Südtiroler Kulturinstitutes Band 5. Bozen: Athesia. Eichinger, L. 2002. South Tyrol: German and Italian in a Changing World. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 23(1/2), 137149. Faatz, J. 2011. Petuhtantendeutsch - die Flensburger Stadtsprache. Awer unse Sprak is nich gut un warn klok ut…. Eine Untersuchung zum Gebrauch des Petuhtantendeutsch in der heutigen Flensburger Alltagssprache. München: GRIN. Fittkau, S. 2015. Friesisch. Accessed February 10, 2015. http://www.uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet/nl-wissen/literatur/ vertiefung/niederlaendisch/friesisch.html Freudenberg, R. 1980. Ostoberdeutsch. In Lexikon der Germanistischen Linguistik 2, vollständig neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage, edited by H. Althaus, H. Henne and H. Wiegand, 3, 486-491. Niemeyer: Studienausgabe Tübingen. Gemeinhardt, J. 2015. Auf Föhr spricht man Fering. Accessed February 10, 2015. http://www.foehr.de/urlaubswelten/kultur/friesische-traditi onen/friesische-sprache Haarrmann, H. 2002. Kleines Lexikon der Sprachen. Von Albanisch bis Zulu. 2, überarbeitete Auflage. München: Beck. Hannusch, E. 1998. Niedersorbisch praktisch und verständlich. Bautzen: Domowina. König, W. 2011. dtv-Atlas Deutsche Sprache. Mit 155 Abbildungen in Farbe. 17., durchgesehene und korrigierte Auflage. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. Kramer, J. 1981. Deutsch und Italienisch in Südtirol. Heidelberg: Winter. Kusternig, A., Haupt, H. and Wolfram, H., eds. 1982. Die vier Bücher der Chroniken des sogenannten Fredegar (Buch 2, Kapitel 53 bis Buch 4, unwesentlich gekürzt). Quellen zur Geschichte des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. Lameli, A. 2010. Deutsch in Deutschland: Standard, regionale und dialektale Variation. In Deutsch als Fremd-und Zweitsprache. Ein

Bilingualism and Identity in Selected German-Speaking Regions

157

internationales Handbuch. 1, Halbband, edited by H. Krumm, H. Faudrych, B. Hufeisen and C. Riemer, 385-398. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter. MacGregor, N. ed. 2014: Germany: Memories of a Nation. London: The British Museum. Oberhuber, P. 2015. Land und Leute in Südtirol. Accessed April 21, 2015. http://www.suedtirol.info/Wissenswertes/Land-Leute/ZahlenFakten.html Office pour la Langue et la Culture dÀlsace. 2012. Der Dialekt in Zahlen. Accessed June 14, 2015. www.olcasace.org/de/der-dialekt-in-zahlen Romeo, C. 2013. Tirol – Südtirol – Trentino. Ein historischer Überblick. Bozen: Romeo. Sieber, P. 2010. Deutsch in der Schweiz: Standard, regionale und dialektale Variation. In Deutsch als Fremd-und Zweitsprache. Ein internationales Handbuch. 1, Halbband, edited by H. Krumm, H. Faudrych, B. Hufeisen and C. Riemer, 385-398. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter. Spiegel online 2014. Frankreich schafft das Elsass ab. Accessed December 17, 2014. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/frankreichreduziert-zahl-der-regionen-von22-auf-13-a-1009151.html. Tracy, R. and Latey, E. 2009. ‘It wasn´t easy but irgendwie äh da hat sich´s rentiert, net?’ A linguistic profile. In Dimensionen der Zweitsprachenforschung/Dimensions of Second Language Research. Festschrift für Kurt Kohn, edited by M. Albl-Mikasa, S. Braun and S. Kalina, 53-73. Tübingen: Narr. Yumoto, K. 1996. Bilingualism, Code-switching, Language Mixing, Transfer and Borrowing: Clarifying Terminologies in the Literature. Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign Studies Working Papers, 17, 49-60.

CHAPTER TEN BICULTURALISM REVISITED: ROMANIAN STUDENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM GABRIELA SCRIPNIC

1. Introduction The face of European higher education has been radically transformed after the implementation of the Bologna process. Not only have old higher education structures been modified, but new infrastructures have also emerged – such as quality assurance systems or mobility facilitating structures – whose aims are meeting and serving “an increasing range of societal demands” (Bologna Process Implementation Report 2012: 7). This social dimension of the Bologna Process focuses on increasing “the number and diversity of the student population” by providing them with “equitable access to and successful completion of higher education” (Bologna Process Implementation Report 2012: 8). Romania joined the Bologna process in the early stages of its development in 1999. However, the legal framework allowing Romanian universities to implement the Bologna process was adopted between 2004 and 2006. Since that period of time, universities in Romania have welcomed students from foreign universities to come and study in our country and, on the other hand, structures have been set up in order to encourage Romanian student mobility in all three cycles. In the context of the free movement of the student population, this study deals with a social phenomenon that has become increasingly manifest in the last five years – high school graduates who enrol for higher education in a university outside Romania in western and northern Europe. This phenomenon, disconcerting as it is for the whole society which has to witness the departure of its elite, threatens to affect Romanian universities

160

Chapter Ten

which face a decrease in the enrolment of students coming from urban areas. If large university centres, namely those in Bucharest or ClujNapoca, are presently not affected by this trend, regional universities, such as Dunărea de Jos University of Galati, have to cope with a decrease in the number of local candidates and are continuously searching for potential candidates coming from surrounding urban areas and from local rural ones. The top and the medium Romanian high school graduates, as well as the ones coming from rich families, do not consider pursuing their studies in their native city. Their option is either to attend university in the country’s capital or, more often than not, to move to a foreign university. Numerous educational consultancy companies have emerged, providing students not only with assistance concerning the application process, but also with the appropriate financial scheme in order to facilitate access to the foreign university that best fits the candidates’ academic profile and needs for further development. The present study takes into account several testimonies from students who are already enrolled in a study programme in British universities. More precisely, the author dwells upon interviews published, on the one hand, in the IQool magazine (whose name is a portmanteau word between IQ and cool) during 2013 and on the other, on the blog Plec la studii (I’m leaving to study). The former is a student magazine meant to highlight, “students’ ability to be cool by combining entertainment with academic and cultural knowledge”.1 According to its overt self-presentation, the second source of testimonies is represented by a blog which addresses students, their parents and teachers with the intention of directing the candidates towards an education outside Romania.2 Both sources are written in Romanian and the parts selected to back-up the comments have been translated into English by the author of this chapter. By means of qualitative investigation, the present author aims at providing a synchronous perspective on social issues such as job availability, as well as educational matters, such as university systems and levels of difficulty in studies. Each and every issue tackled by students is put forward by means of an overt or implicit comparison between the native country, Romania, and the host one in the UK. These interviews grant the students the opportunity to express themselves on more sensitive aspects, such as tolerance towards diversity among university students, and allow them to bring to the fore their newly acquired bicultural identity, as well as the advantages they have from belonging to two distinct societies. This chapter is structured as follows: the first part gives a brief account of Romanian students’ migration, a phenomenon triggered more by economic reasons, and to a lesser extent, by the educational offer. Official

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

161

documents issued by the European Commission constitute the legal ground of this chapter, while high school students’ opinions establish the reasons behind the current situation. The second part approaches the interviews with the aim of identifying the inner perspective of the British educational system as it is perceived by students hailing from a different cultural background. The assessment of their bicultural identity hinges on the students’ awareness of their cultural heritage which can and should be put to good use in the new societal environment. Studies on biculturalism help to point out the “acculturation attitude” (Berry 1997; Berry et al. 2006) adopted by the students under focus and it also helps to show how well they have psychologically and socio-culturally adapted to the intercultural situation they face on a daily basis.

2. A social phenomenon: Romanians enrolling for tertiary education in the United Kingdom Studying outside the Romanian territory has always been deemed desirable among the youth of any generation. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Romanian intellectual elite used to go to countries such as France and Germany in order to pursue their education, and more often than not, on returning to their native country they would become promoters of a different culture and assume the role of educating the masses, through their work as writers, politicians and teachers. At present, the same desire pushes high school graduates to study abroad, but for different reasons. The social role that animated the past generation and motivated it to study abroad has been replaced by a more pragmatic aim, since nowadays graduates are generally centred on the self and their personal and financial accomplishment. Between 2003 and 2009, Romania was ranked by the European Commission among the few countries which registered a considerable growth in student numbers, with an increase of over 40% compared to previous years (Bologna Process Implementation Report 2012: 20). However, starting from 2009, more and more graduates have decided to pursue their education in a foreign university. Therefore, what used to be the attribute of the intellectual elite has now become common practice, especially among students coming from urban areas. According to the statistics published by the British organisation HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency),3 the number of Romanians choosing to study at universities in the UK has continued to increase since 2008. During the academic year 2012 – 2013, this number has witnessed the biggest rate of growth due to all the international students hosted by the

162

Chapter Ten

country, 9% more when compared to the academic year 2011 – 2012. According to the agency, the UK is ranked first among students’ preferences for studying abroad, owing to the quality of the British education on the one hand and the various funding possibilities provided by the state, on the other hand. Every year Romanian universities organise The Day of the Open Gates where high-school pupils accompanied by their main teacher visit certain faculties according to their intentions for tertiary education. This event is an opportunity for pupils to familiarise themselves with higher education programmes and with university campuses, and for the academic staff to find out where these pupils envisage to study as far as their tertiary education is concerned. These informal talks allow us to understand the reasons behind pupils’ choices. The main reason is that foreign universities ensure a higher level of employability compatible with their studies and specialisation. Romanian students aim at getting a well-paid job not necessarily in the same country where they have studied, but definitely not in Romania. Furthermore, it can be noticed that Romanian students make their choice fully aware of what a specific university has in store for them. They thoroughly research via the internet each university’s rankings, they read important newspapers that offer reliable information on institutions, they read fora where former students share knowledge and experience, they attend educational fairs and appeal to specialised companies to assist them with the application process. Consultants at these educational companies accredited by the British Council individually assess each student, including academic record, abilities, interests, and needs, in order to direct him/her towards several universities where he/she is likely to be admitted. Candidates choosing the UK are believed to have adopted a long-term perspective on life. Statistics made public every year by QS World University Rankings4 show that all over the world employers consider British university graduates among the most worthy of being hired. The main reason is the fact that these universities place a great emphasis on developing the skills required by and within the professional environment. In addition, the financial aid granted by the British government proves to be another stimulating factor for students to define their choices. By means of educational consultancy companies which act as intermediaries not only between the candidate and the university, but also between the candidate and the state, Romanians benefit from a loan meant to cover the tuition fees for their entire tertiary education. They are supposed to pay back the loan once they are hired in the work market, irrespective of the country where they will perform their activity. Moreover, the rate and the

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

163

interest withdrawn from their monthly income are calculated so as to allow them to lead a decent life. In an article published in University World News (2014), Professor S. Margison pointed out the United Kingdom’s ability to turn education into an income-generating activity, just like any other commercial business. Therefore, British universities are interested in keeping the inflow of students as high as possible at a moment when, at the political level, pressure is put on the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government to enforce policies to reduce immigration. According to Margison (2014), internationalisation seems to be under threat by the anti-immigration populism targeted mainly towards Eastern European students who aim to settle in the UK permanently and thus, they take the jobs normally meant for the British population. Nevertheless, this study does not go deeper into the political measures likely to be adopted, since it does not deal with a prospective view of internationalisation within British universities. After this brief overview of an educational phenomenon with deep social, economic and even political implications, in the second part of this chapter, the author shall focus on a series of snapshots of students’ testimonies in order to highlight the degree to which they embrace their bicultural/multicultural identity.

3. Bicultural / multicultural identity: Romanians studying in the United Kingdom The information analysed stems from two different sources. On the one hand, the magazine IQool deals with students’ life in general, by publishing articles on various topics such as entertainment, cultural activities and events, presentation of student role models and business ideas. Its headings are Opportunities, Where we go out, Interviews, Student Associations, IQoolture, Sports and Health and Fashion. This project is put entirely into practice by students through the Youth Association of Bucharest whose overall purpose is to define “student” in a new way. On the other hand, the second source of information is more study-centred since Plec la studii (I’m leaving to study) is a blog whose main aim is to grant assistance to students wishing to study abroad. Therefore, it gives information on all the countries open to accept Romanian students. Alongside with factual information about universities, testimonies of those students who ‘made it’ are presented, as well as those who fulfilled their dreams of studying in a foreign university that best fitted their needs. The two sources were selected because of the relevance of the information provided for the present study. This study includes interviews

164

Chapter Ten

in which candidates describe their life as international students in the UK, the difficulties they encountered as far as the educational system and social adaptation are concerned, as well as the reasons behind their choices. Moreover, the interviews published belong to students who are enrolled in the second or third year of tertiary education in various fields, such as computer science, business, graphical design, electronics, journalism and media or philosophy, which means that their opinions are not based on rumour, prejudices or first impressions, but on a two-year or a three-year experience as students and members of the social community. This period entitles them to speak with full knowledge and allows the author of this chapter to consider the data gathered in the interview as a reliable source of information. Since the interviews were published in 2013, the conclusions drawn later will display a synchronous perspective on social and educational issues. This inquiry is not directed towards deriving any statistics, but the present author is interested in highlighting the way in which students articulate their own perspective on education and life in a multicultural society. These perspectives are worth paying attention to, not only by other candidates who think of taking the same path, but also by Romanian society and the political actors who need to reshape and reconsider their priorities. In this study, the author endorses the notions of biculturalism and multiculturalism seen not at the macro scale of society, which fosters two or several cultures socially and politically acknowledged, but at the micro scale of the individual who is assumed to have developed skills to psychologically and socio-culturally adapt to living in “culturally plural societies” (Berry et al. 2006: 305). In this context, biculturalism is closely related to the notion of bicultural identity; if identity may be defined as “the characteristics determining who or what a person is”5 that give us the “sense of who we are” (Kanno 2003: 3), then bicultural identity refers to the “sense of membership” (Vedder and Phinney 2014: 336) in two groups, each with their heritage and features. Specialised literature in biculturalism envisages bicultural identity as permanently under development, highly influenced by one’s experience and resulting from the subject’s interaction with the educational, social and cultural contexts (Kanno 2003; Vedder and Phinney 2014; Cook 1999). The qualitative analysis performed is centred on three main axes derived from the questions which the journalists asked their subjects:

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

165

1. Why have you chosen to study abroad and, more precisely, why have you chosen the United Kingdom? 2. Do you consider coming back to Romania after graduation? 3. How are Romanians perceived in your community? These general questions generate answers that also tackle other related aspects, such as the level of difficulty of studies or the degree of adaptation to living in that specific community. Furthermore, the answers provided by the students to the above-mentioned questions will be taken into account.

3.1 Why have you chosen to study abroad and, more precisely, why have you chosen the United Kingdom? The disappointment they felt with the Romanian educational system is frequently mentioned as a main cause. However, this answer is not always explained or exemplified, which may point to the fact that sometimes this statement functions as a “passe-partout” formula as evident in examples 1 – 3:6 (1) I was in the 7th grade and I still believed in a fair world. But I took 8.30 (out of 10) at the national test (Romanian language and literature) and for my parents, for my teachers and even for me, this grade was a tragedy. My ‘fair’ world collapsed then. There is lack of correctness when correcting the paper and lack of correctness when teaching or assessing pupils (the eternal 10 given during the whole school year). After I wrote a kilometre-long letter to the Ministry of Education, I told myself: this happened while I was a child. If this is the world where I am supposed to live as adult, I don’t want to live here. I’m going abroad. So I followed my ambition and I left (LB).7 (2) 40% desire to get rid of the curse of the Romanian educational system and to get a fair education, based on quality that will allow me to get the training necessary for my future job; 30% desire to experience another culture; 30% attachment to my girlfriend at the time, who wanted to study there (X).8 (3) It wasn’t such a difficult decision to make at the time, I was disappointed with the Romanian educational system and I wanted to go abroad (CL). 9

166

Chapter Ten

On the other hand, the disappointment with the Romanian system may stem not only from a negative personal experience or from a general public opinion, but from the awareness of the marginal place that the students’ specialisation occupies within the entire system as evident in examples 4 and 5: (4) It seemed like the field I had chosen to study (graphical design) was underdeveloped in Romania, while abroad a real culture has developed around it. I had a lot to learn (CL). (5) Ever since high school, I was very fond of philosophy, but in Romania there is some bias thinking concerning a subject like philosophy. There is no future in it, as they say (MG).10

Another reason for the students’ choice is the quality of higher education implemented in the United Kingdom. The opinion they had about the British system before actually experiencing it (from mass-media, consultancy companies or friends already enrolled) is more nuanced, and therefore more centred on relevant aspects significant to their future career (examples 6 – 9): (6) I have chosen the United Kingdom because it ranks the first in the top of the European educational system, according to QS World University Rankings (LB). (7) [...] to get a fair education, based on quality that will allow me to get the training necessary for my future job (X). (8) Their university is considered top for the field I intended to study, media and journalism (IZ).11 (9) The United Kingdom was the only country about which there was enough information as far as the application process was concerned, and with some excellent references in all media (X).

At this point, it is clear that most answers stem from an outright comparison between Romania and the UK such as differences in the curricula; in Romania, the emphasis is placed on research and on extensive knowledge of the subject, while in the United Kingdom the focus is on practice, while taking into account the work market demands which universities always attempt to meet through internships stipulated in the curricula and partnerships with important companies as in examples 10 – 12:

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

167

(10) In Romania, the focus is on scholarly knowledge of mathematics, redundant for IT. The British curriculum is modelled after its market requirements […] In essence, the faculty is more industry oriented, both in terms of curriculum and programmes – if you choose a master programme, you are forced to work for three months but you also have the possibility to do a three-year study program plus a year in industry (MA).12 (11) In Romania, the whole system is based on research […] In the United Kingdom the university becomes a place where you prepare yourself for the job (MG). (12) The curriculum is very well structured. Emphasis is placed on practice rather than theory. We are taught for half an hour things that should never be learnt by heart because then we spend the rest of the day in the studio using them (IZ).13

The level of difficulty of studies – the perception is that there is the same level of difficulty of studies or they are even less difficult in the United Kingdom, since, as seen in examples 13 and 14, the emphasis is on practice and not on theory: (13) I took my courses seriously. If you learn them in due time, do all your homework, labs and projects, the difficulty level is about the same as in Romania (MA). (14) Courses here certainly have a low level of difficulty compared to our educational system (IZ).

Moreover, although diplomas issued by Romanian universities are acknowledged in European countries, in practice, both graduates and employers consider them as ‘provincial’ while British diplomas are deemed more ‘European’ as clearly stated by respondent in example 15: (15) Comparing documents received after graduation from these two countries, a certificate from abroad is a European one, while a certificate issued in the country is just…Romanian (IZ).

As regards job opportunities, both British universities and society are concerned with ensuring jobs for the students even before graduation (example 16):

168

Chapter Ten

(16) Exposure is better. More fairs with employers, a labour placement agency within the faculty and a more developed work market for students (MA).

As far as mobility opportunity is concerned, as a student one can easily benefit from study or placement mobility all over the world as in example 17: (17) Moreover, from here one can very easily go to any corner of the world, anytime. And this is only due to being a student (IZ).

The desire to see the world is more often than not intermingled with the need to experience another culture and this is evident in examples 18 to 21: (18) 30% desire to experience another culture (X). (19) […] and I wanted to go and see the world (CL). (20) In addition, I never liked Romania, I always wanted to move and travel a lot, so England was the perfect opportunity (MG). (21) Since I was a child, going abroad has seemed something great, not because I had something against the country where I was born, but when you are given the opportunity to explore other cultures and see on a virtual world map more countries marked in red and you are told that you can easily get there, it seems absurd not to take advantage of it (IZ).

Living and studying in a country where English is spoken by natives is another reason that influences students in making their final decision (examples 22 and 23): (22) I chose England because I was always fond of English and I wanted to live where English is the local language (IZ). (23) It was very important for me to master the subtleties of the host country language, so English was the first choice. (CL)

Other reasons mentioned by students for choosing the United Kingdom include extensive knowledge of the application process, reasonable tuition fees as well as friends or relatives already enrolled there who were willing to facilitate their adaptation in a new country.

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

169

3.2 Do you consider coming back to Romania after graduation? Even when students answered this question in the affirmative, it was often followed by an explanation whose meaning ended up being a negative one; they are willing to come back either for holidays or for an internship or if there is equal job opportunity as in the United Kingdom as in examples 24 – 26: (24) Yes, I want to go back to Romania. If there are relatively equal opportunities in the United Kingdom and Romania, it is most likely that I choose Romania (MA). (25) I'll be back for holidays, however, not permanently. I find that there is no point in going back, although there’s nothing set in stone. I want to go farther, however. Maybe, the United States of America maybe (IZ). (26) During holidays, it’s a pleasure for me to go back to Romania, to visit my loved ones and spend time with them. After graduation, I would like to practice what I have learned, here or in the United States of America. For this summer, I’m considering an internship/job in Romania (LB).

Other students have answered with a definite ‘no’ followed by the explicit intention of leaving Romania for good and to put their knowledge into practice in a different country as in example 27: (27) I left Romania knowing that I don’t want to come back and the three years spent here haven’t made me change my mind. However, I intend to move to another country in a year or two; in France, the United States of America, Canada, you never know, it’s a big world (MG).

In some cases, as in example 28, despite the ambiguity of the answer, it can still be understood as an implicit refusal to come back to Romania: (28) I haven’t made up my mind yet. For the time being, I’m considering moving to another country (CL).

There is also the possibility of coming back to Romania, but this possibility is subject to so many conditions and restrictions that it becomes very remote (example 29):

170

Chapter Ten

(29) For the time being, no. Professional development is much easier here. The beginning is much easier than in Romania. But once I master enough my job, I will think of the prospect of a well-paid job in the country (X).

3.3 How are Romanians perceived in your community? The interviewees frequently point out that they live in an extremely multicultural community where people are used to differences. For this reason they have never experienced any discriminatory attitude in any context, be it at the university, in the community or when applying for a job. They are aware that the English people’s reserved attitude should not be considered as displaying prejudicial behaviour towards Romanians who are appreciated for their academic performance and work skills, as shown in examples 30 – 32: (30) We are the dominant minority in IT, followed by Indians, Chinese students and Bulgarians. We are treated OK. I haven’t had any incidents of racial hatred or discrimination (MA). (31) No one has discriminated me at the university or when I tried to get a job. Most things here are obtained on merit, not because you come from a place or another. The community in Essex and England in general is incredibly multicultural, so sometimes it feels that this entire thing with discrimination is nothing but Romanians’ paranoia (MG). (32) It is well known that Romanians and Bulgarians don’t have the best reputation. Most Englishmen are very reluctant regarding immigration in general. Fortunately, the new generations are more open-minded and in the faculty there is no question of discrimination. Romanian students are among the most appreciated (IZ).

Moreover, the interviewees are all aware of the multicultural environment they live in as clearly evident in examples 33 and 34: (33) I live among people from all over the world, we study and party together, we learn from each other (LB). (34) A friendly community, a course that excited me from the first moment and I’ve had a full cultural experience (X).

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

171

The feeling of considering the United Kingdom as ‘home’ proves that the adaptation has been made, despite the difficulties they had to overcome as stated by one respondent in example 35: (35) It isn’t a very large city…I feel like home. I may come across one of my friends in the street, just as when I was at home (LB).

Students’ testimonies sometimes point either to an extremely difficult process of adaptation or to the excitement of succeeding in living the sensation of belonging to the new place as in in examples 36 and 37: (36) Finally, I’ve managed to get attached to this place, I found people with whom I relate (CL). (37) I found a place where I can say that I feel at home, it suits me and this makes me very happy (MG).

Their words prove that during their two- or three-year stay in the United Kingdom, they have attempted to get involved with the host society while never hiding their Romanian identity (anyway, this could never have happened since they are enrolled in an official programme). In other words, they have been “seeking to acculturate” (Berry et al. 2006: 306) all along, aware of the fact that this attitude will allow them to build a positive ethos of themselves as students, community members as well as fellow co-workers. From the four possible acculturation attitudes likely to be adopted by students – assimilation, separation, marginalisation and integration – our subjects display an attitude of integration as “both cultural maintenance and involvement with the larger society are sought” (Berry et al. 2006: 306). One of the reasons behind this statement is because they live in a multicultural society where ethnic identity is highlighted not only by social or cultural events (national songs, gastronomic exchanges and others), but also by the positive competition that occurs between them when it comes to performance in a certain field as is evident in comment: “We are the dominant minority in IT, followed by Indians, Chinese students and Bulgarians” (MA). Here we are dealing with “sociocultural (behavioural) adaptation,” according to the terminology used by Ward and Kennedy (1999: 660). Another reason is that the repetition of the phrase “it feels like home here” points to the state of well-being that everybody dreams of when living in another country and suggests the highest degree of adaptation“psychological (emotional/affective) adaptation” (Ward and Kennedy

172

Chapter Ten

1999: 660). This adaptation has not occurred without encountering difficulties: “It gets better as time goes by” (CL). These students have not developed a bicultural identity, but a multicultural one due to the contact with various cultures. They reach the point where they “identify with a group, mimicking group behaviours and sharing attitudes, but lacking an ancestral relationship” (Jiménez 2010, cited in Vedder and Phinney 2014: 335). They have developed an “optimal” (Vedder and Phinney 2014: 346) multicultural identity which sets the ground for further exploration. The contact with the ‘otherness’ mainly contributes to the definition of one’s own identity, both as a human and as a social being as stated by MG in example 38: (38) I’ve discovered so many great things, strong friendships, philosophical concepts, precious moments – a very powerful life experience that opened my mind and soul in a special way. I think I found myself more than anything (MG).

The above testimony clearly shows that identity is “constructed over time, is situated in a particular time and place and changes with experience” (Vedder and Phinney 2014: 336).

4. Conclusion The enrolment of Romanian students in tertiary education in the United Kingdom has witnessed a steady increase in the past few years. Students choose the United Kingdom based on thorough research on European universities, placing a special emphasis on the chosen university’s qualitative performance (its rankings) and on the financial aspect (a possible tuition fee loan). The testimonies analysed revealed the inner perspective of what it is to be a foreign student living in a multicultural society. A number of issues have been addressed, such as the reasons behind the choice of studying abroad, eagerness to come back home after graduation and the issue of adaptation to the new environment. In respect of the reasons for studying in the United Kingdom the disappointment in the Romanian educational system is brought to the fore as the triggering factor. The quality of higher education in the United Kingdom is also mentioned, with a focus on its formative perspective, on diploma recognition and on job and mobility opportunity. Moreover, students refer to the need to explore the world and other cultures as another reason for their choice.

Biculturalism Revisited: Romanian Students in the United Kingdom

173

More often than not they intend to start a career in another country rather than the United Kingdom. Romania is included in their plans either for temporary visits, or in case the economic situation strongly improves, so as to provide them with an equal life standard as in western countries. None of the interviewees mentioned any discriminatory attitudes. Romanians are generally appreciated at the university and outside it. They have tried to benefit from the full cultural experience in order to forge themselves as European and international human beings who are proud of their national heritage, but who are also open to diversity. They have aimed at integrating in the new society while maintaining their national identity. The sociocultural adaptation is completed by the psychological adaptation – two processes which required patience and compromise. They seem to have acquired a multicultural identity seen as a sense of belonging to the host society, but also fruitfully interacting with other minority groups existing in the academic environment and outside the university.

Notes 1

More information may be obtained from www.iqool.ro More information may be obtained from https://pleclastudii.wordpress.com/ 3 The data provided by the agency is available at http://www.hotnews.ro/stiristudenti_strainatate-18595508-aleg-studentii-romani-marea-britanie.htm. The information has been translated from Romanian by the author. 4 http://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings 5 This information has been obtained from the Oxford Dictionary. Accessed February 15, 2016. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/identity 6 The letters given between brackets at the end of each example point to the initials of the student’s name. When there is the letter X, it means that the students wanted to remain anonymous. 7 More information may be obtained from https://pleclastudii.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/la-studii-in-anglia-5-themanchester-of-university-larisa-barbu/ 8 More information may be obtained from https://pleclastudii.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/la-studii-in-anglia-3-sheffielduniversity/ 9 More information may be obtained from https://pleclastudii.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/la-studii-in-anglia-4-birminghamcity-university-cristina-lavinia/ 10 More information may be obtained from https://www.iqool.ro/student-abroadinterviu-cu-madalina-glavan-universitatea-essex-liverpool/ 11 More information may be obtained from https://www.iqool.ro/interviu-cu-ioanazaraf-despre-studiile-britanice/ 2

174

Chapter Ten

12 More information may be obtained from https://www.iqool.ro/student-anglia-itdracula/ 13 More information may be obtained from https://www.iqool.ro/interviu-cu-ioanazaraf-despre-studiile-britanice/

References Berry, J. 1997. Immigration, acculturation and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5-68. Berry, J., Phinney, J., Sam, D. and Vedder, P. 2006. Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 55(3), 303-332. Cook, V. 1999. Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33(2), 185-209. Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency. 2012. The European Higher Education Area in 2012: Bologna Process Implementation Report. Brussels: EACEA Eurydice. Accessed February 10, 2015. http://www.ehea.info/uploads/(1)/bologna%20process%20implementat ion%20report.pdf Jiménez, T. 2010. Affiliative ethnic identity: a more elastic link between ethnic ancestry and culture. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33, 1756-1775. Kanno, Y. 2003. Negotiating Bilingual and Bicultural Identities: Japanese returnees betwixt two worlds. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Margison, S. 2014. Internationalisation under threat from antiimmigration populism. University World News. Accessed January 12, 2015. http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140501102 653421 Vedder, P. and Phinney, J. 2014. Identity Formation in Bicultural Youth: A Developmental Perspective. In The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity, edited by V. Benet-Martìnez and Y. Hong, 335353. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ward, C. and Kennedy, A. 1999. The measurement of sociocultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23(4), 659-677.

CHAPTER ELEVEN HUMOUR AND BILINGUALISM: BILINGUALS’ PERCEPTION OF HUMOUR ALINA GANEA

1. Introduction Against the generally-acknowledged assumption that bilinguals possess communicative skills similar to monolinguals, enabling them to express themselves efficiently at all discourse levels in the two languages, this study aims to prove that certain discourse practices are not easily managed by bilinguals for the simple reason that they do not have an equal and perfect command of the two languages (Grosjean 2003). The interference of the cultural aspect may pose a further difficulty in the bilinguals’ understanding and use of discourse productions such as irony, humour, or any other forms of allusions which require the knowledge of cultural conventions shared within a community (Pavlenko 2006). Obviously, this limitation is not to be seen solely in relation to the level of linguistic proficiency, but also with the bilingual’s limited capacity to recognise cultural or social cues in one language and to process the right meaning of the discourse act accordingly. In order to support this assumption, an experiment was conducted by the present author at Dunărea de Jos University of GalaĠi using two different categories of foreign students. The experiment consisted of a survey questionnaire which focused on the perceptions and the decoding of humour by foreigners, thus leading to the question: Why is understanding humour challenging? Most specialists agree with the idea that humour is different from one culture to another. Specialists speak about humour competence in order to underline the complex mix of linguistic and cultural knowledge that is activated when decoding humour (Vaid 2006). In other words, since

176

Chapter Eleven

humour is about everyday life, its decoding involves understanding common knowledge and shared norms of living. Walter Nash shares the same view when stating that jokes draw on “a fund of common knowledge and recollection” and therefore, in order to rightfully decode the humorous effect “there is much to be apprehended about cultural and social facts, about shared beliefs and attitudes, about pragmatic bases of communication” (Nash 1985: 90). In this respect, Ziv (1988) states that the greatest differences among cultures are to be found in the contents and situations of humour. For example, whereas “one can find many jokes about drinking and fist fighting in Irish humour, jokes on these topics are practically nonexistent in Israel” (Ziv 1988: xi). In the same way, while jokes about Gypsies are common in the Balkans, they might appear as nonsense in African or Canadian communities. Weller, Amitsour and Pazzi state that these differences are due to “habits of thought and mental attitude rooted in cultural backgrounds” (1976: 163). Gulas and Weinberger (2006) refer to the cultural factors which interfere with the perception of humour as commonalities and the successful decoding of humour depends on the extent to which the agent (namely the author of the joke), the object of the joke and the audience share commonalities. In line with these statements, humour appears to be a social act or, in Partington's (2006) words, laughter is part of the ongoing stream of social interaction, which according to Nash (1985), characterises interaction between people in certain cultural situations. Therefore its interpretation is supposed to take place in the respective cultural context. These preliminary remarks account for the challenge bilinguals have to deal with when involved in decoding humour. While using two languages for different purposes, bilinguals’ linguistic proficiency is rarely equal in the two languages since the linguistic mastery of one language is relevant to bilinguals’ need to use that language in everyday life (Grosjean 2003). Accordingly, understanding humour is not confined solely to understanding the language, but involves understanding the world and the humorous act it refers to. In this respect we consider that testing the humour competence accounts for bilinguals’ level of proficiency in that language.

2. The experiment The experiment conducted consisted of administering a questionnaire to two distinctive categories of foreign students enrolled at Dunărea de Jos University of Galati, Romania during the academic year 2014 – 2015. In both cases, the students use Romanian as a means of communication and

Humour and Bilingualism: Bilinguals’ Perception of Humour

177

interaction in their social and professional environment, although they acquired it in totally different circumstances.

2.1 The questionnaire The questionnaire comprised three sections. The first set of questions had an evaluative scope and was meant to gather data concerning the perception of Romanian humour. In the form of either multiple choice questions or open questions, these questions required an evaluation of Romanian sense of humour. They also invited the respondents to identify recurrent content in jokes and to refer to the causes which led to the failure in decoding the punch line. Interviewees were also expected to provide examples or accounts of personal experiences to support their answers. The second and the third sections of the questionnaire were aimed at testing the humour competence of the respondents by having them identify the punch line in several jokes, as well as the comic elements in two advertisements. While the jokes mainly draw on linguistic humour, the advertisements included linguistic and visual allusions, which, along with cultural cues, turn the advertisements into complex creations which heavily draw on encyclopaedic knowledge.

2.2 The subjects As stated above, two categories of subjects were recruited for this research. The first category consisted of 30 students from the Republic of Moldova, who have a very good command of both Romanian and Russian. Many of them use Romanian as a means of communication in social and professional interaction, but they can easily switch to Russian in the same contexts. Secondly, a questionnaire was administered to 7 foreign students attending a preparatory year at Dunărea de Jos University of GalaĠi in order to learn Romanian before admission to a university study programme in Romania. By the end of the preparatory year they are expected to reach a B2 level, attesting the level of an independent speaker of Romanian. Two reasons underlie the choice of these respondents. First of all, the Moldovan students live in a geographic area that used to be part of the Principality of Moldavia (the eastern part of Romania nowadays). The history of the Republic of Moldova (also referred to as Bessarabia) has been marked by several episodes of separation and annexation to the Principality of Moldova and later, to Romania. The area belonged to the Principality of Moldavia until 1812 when this area was given up by the

178

Chapter Eleven

Ottoman Empire in favour of the Russian Empire. Consequently, the area experienced a vast process of russification which implied excluding Romanian from official and ecclesiastical use.1 A hundred years later, in February 1918, Bessarabia proclaimed itself independent from Russia. This was never accepted by the Soviet Union. As a result of the MolotovRibbentrop pact in 1939, Bessarabia was again annexed to the Soviet Union. With the aim of asserting the Moldovan identity as distinct from the Romanian one, one of the measures taken was to introduce the Cyrillic alphabet instead of the Latin one in writing (which Romania had given up in 1860). However, in 1989 a law was promulgated according to which “Moldavian SSR supports the desire of the Moldovans that live across the borders of the Republic, and considering the existing linguistic MoldoRomanian identity – of the Romanians that live on the territory of the USSR, of doing their studies and satisfying their cultural needs in their native language” (Law on languages 1989). Therefore the Moldovan respondents were, in their majority, not only perfectly fluent in Romanian, but they also shared common basic cultural conventions with Romanians. However, the annexation to the Soviet Union and the subsequent russification process led to the contamination of the Moldovans’ language with Russian linguistic and cultural elements. This, in turn, contributed to diluting their perception of today’s cultural practices within Romania’s geographical area. As a result of the massive impact of the Russian culture and language, the language spoken in the Republic of Moldova has developed as a variety of the language spoken in Romania. In this light, while the Moldovan students are allegedly capable of decoding humour drawing basically on language, they might encounter difficulties in decoding allusive humour that draws on cultural elements. The second category of students comprised 7 foreign students coming from Albania (3), Ukraine (2), Turkey (1), and Italy (1). At the time of the experiment these respondents had spent four or five months in Romania. These foreign students attend a one-year university study programme (Romanian as a foreign language) and are expected to reach the B2 level of proficiency in Romanian by the end of the preparatory year. At the time that the survey was being conducted, they had reached a B1 level of proficiency in Romanian. However, having been immersed in the Romanian context upon arrival, their interaction with the Romanian environment helped them gather, besides linguistic information, extensive cultural knowledge. Generally speaking, the linguistic barrier may certainly limit the foreign students’ access to the cultural stock, yet the unmediated life experience within the Romanian context enhances their access to cultural elements. Our survey provides data in this respect.

Humour and Bilingualism: Bilinguals’ Perception of Humour

179

3. Results of the experiment and discussion The foreign students’ answers show inconsistency in their evaluation of Romanian humour, which is neither surprising nor deceiving since their answers relate to the respective individual experience of each student with respect to Romanian humour since their arrival. This explains their difficulty in providing an answer in some cases and the impossibility to gather coherent data in this respect. The situation was not very much different in the case of Moldovan students who could not provide value judgments concerning the quality of Romanian humour. This can be accounted for by the fact that since they were not being directly exposed to the Romanian environment, they could not critically analyse Romanian discourse and cultural practices so as to identify the specific traits of the Romanian humorous vein in a comparative approach. However, the second section of the questionnaire provided more interesting data. Four jokes combining text and image were included in the survey in order to test, at a primary level, the respondents’ competence in decoding the punch line, not only when the comic effect arises from linguistic tools, but equally when cultural competence is solicited. The first joke displayed a plain contradiction between the concept of voluntary work and compulsory attendance and appears on a handwritten board notice: Joke 1 10:30 Voluntary work Attendance is compulsory The second and the third jokes use polysemy and pun in order to create jocular effects: Joke 2 Bulă către tatăl său: - Tată, mi-e frig! - Du-te în colĠ, că-s 90 de grade! (English literally) Bulă, to his father: Dad, I'm cold. Go in the corner, as it's 90 degrees. Joke 3 Cu adâncă durere în suflet anunĠăm dispariĠia, dintre noi, a celui ce a fost úi nu mai e... Doru D. Muncă

180

Chapter Eleven (It is a great sorrow to announce the passing away of the one who used to exist and does not anymore... Mr Longing II Work).

In the case of the joke starring Bulă (Joke 2), humour is suggested in the double use of the word degrees as a measurement unit for both heat and angles. In the last joke (Joke 3), the humorous effect stems from the use of a common noun as a proper one, namely “Muncă” (work) which is used as a family name. Furthermore, the preposition de introduces the attribute in Romanian, which comes to be read as a nobiliary particle, denoting the family the individual belongs to. The majority (80%) of the Moldovan students (24 out of 30) could correctly interpret the punch lines and also explain the source of humour in the three jokes. The remaining 20%, who could not comprehend the double meanings in the joke, had Russian as a mother tongue and had learnt Romanian as a foreign language at school for a few years. This explains their difficulty in comprehending not only the punch line, but also the denotative linguistic message. The last joke (Joke 4) included in the questionnaire was different from the previous ones since the humorous element could not be inferred unless reference was made to the social phenomenon of Romanians’ migration to western European countries, a massive process which intensified in the last decade. The joke depicted a group of people queuing in front of a UFO when a green, strange-looking alien emerges. The first man in line attempts to hand the alien a $500 banknote, saying: Joke 4 Uite 500 vrem să emigrăm din România! (Here are 500 bucks, we want to emigrate!)

There was one unique correct answer coming from an Italian foreign student who immediately decoded the element around which the joke revolved, namely Romanians’ eagerness to leave their country, which comes at a high price. We can explain this genuine situation by noting that the student comes from a country where the Romanian community of migrants is significantly large. Therefore, access to certain cultural cues may have unveiled the punch line. It was however very surprising that none of the Moldovan students could go beyond the literal meaning of the anecdote, and the denotative interpretation neutralised the entire jocular effect. The awkward appeal to aliens, as an ultimate intermediate in finding a way to emigrate, the ironic gesture of offering a high sum of money as a bribe despite poverty being the main reason for migration, the

Humour and Bilingualism: Bilinguals’ Perception of Humour

181

fact that many people are eager to resort to this alternative – all these nonsensical actions were not perceived as sarcastic, if not humorous, by the Moldovan students. Considering that emigration is a pervasive phenomenon in the Republic of Moldova too, this lack of perception proved to be rather surprising. The third section of the questionnaire represented the most challenging part of the experiment since it implied, first of all, isolating advertisements which contained comic allusions to Romanian culture, which were not so specific as to be inaccessible. Two advertisements were used, both of which advertised two typically Romanian brands of brandy and chocolate. Both clips stage a plot which is based on connotative Romanian aspects, both present and past, and are, in this respect, demanding not only at the level of image, but also discourse. The first clip was an advertisement for the Romanian brandy Unirea (The Union) which stages the well-known story of the apprentice being made a fool of by the older employees at work.2 The central figure is a young man called Dorel, a derivative from Doru, constructed with the diminutive affix –el. The name Doru derives from the common noun dor, which is listed among the untranslatable genuine Romanian nouns, similar, in some respects, to the French ‘spleen’, and having as an English approximate equivalent ‘longing’. The noun dor is used to describe a state of mind and designates the vein that animates a specifically Romanian folk literary genre, namely doina. The concept of dor is subject to profound philosophical reflections in Romanian literature, philosophy and aesthetics, and is one of the ingredients of Romanians’ art de vivre. Certainly, all these sophisticated connotations are neutralised when the term is used as a proper noun, the more so when it is a diminutive such as Dorel. In our case, the name obviously communicates the innocence, even the naïveté of the apprentice who becomes the victim of the senior employees of a team of builders. The plot consisted of several scenes all having Dorel as the target of his elder colleagues’ mockery. The story takes place at a building site where a truck loaded with sand suddenly appears. Dorel is brutally woken up by one of his mates who pulls out his pillow from beneath his head, while he is still sleeping. The reply accompanying the act is Treci Filimoane la muncă! (Filimoane, get to work!). The name Filimon, which is a name with religious and archaic connotations, is used in this advertisement as a nickname for fool. The young apprentice is urged by his older mates to discharge the sand from the rear-discharge truck all by himself, an action which could easily be achieved by pushing a button which makes the container rise. Nonetheless, Dorel is made to shovel the sand out of the truck alone, a useless and exhausting task, while his mates

182

Chapter Eleven

laugh at him scornfully. Moreover, in order to make the mockery more painful, he is sarcastically urged to move more fervently in order to finish the work faster (Dorele, shall we move more skilfully?). When his coworkers lose their patience (because by the time he finishes the job, the shop, which is open around the clock, will close), they show him how easily the job could have been done and use the automatic command to make the container rise. In the end, the whole team gathers around a glass of Unirea drink, still making fun of young Dorel, who, because of having sand in his hair after rolling down from the container full of sand, is ironically asked if he has been sunbathing. The mates achieve their derision in a common act of mischievous complicity. Several linguistic aspects are involved in constructing the comical and ironic effect of the advertisement. First of all, there is the choice of the name Dorel which depicts the figure of a naïve, frail man and an easy target for his colleagues. The rhetorical question, Shall we move more skilfully? is not to be ignored since skilfully represents a highly-trained activity where proficiency is also reached due to innate ability. In the case of this advertisement, shovelling does not imply any artistic skill. The ironic use of the pronoun we, which is meant to signify solidarity, has a reversed effect which ridicules the idea of communion and community. The nonsensical phrase because by the time he finishes the job, the shop, which is open around the clock, will close emphasises the hopeless expectations in respect of poor Dorel's work efficiency and augments the sarcastic value of the reply. Throughout the advertisement, everything contradicts the message associated with the label of the brandy The Union and the slogan the more, the stronger since Dorel experiences, in every respect, the very opposite. There are important cultural connotations associated with the brand name and the slogan. First of all the concept of union arouses emotions since Romania has experienced several episodes of union throughout its history, which led to the existence of the present day state. Moreover, the full slogan ‘Where there are more people, power is stronger’ is a verse from the poem The Dance Unity, which revolves around the notion of unity and union.3 This is sung every year on the 24th of January when Romanians celebrate the union between the Principality of Moldavia and Walachia. As outlined above, there are numerous cultural aspects combined in this clip, which reach the borderline of sarcasm. Humour arises from the situations staged in the clip (the abrupt wake-up, Dorel’s useless efforts), but also draws on language – the nonsensical sentence, the ironic use of proper names, the irony created by the hiatus between the name of the brand and its slogan and the situation Dorel finds himself in, which shows

Humour and Bilingualism: Bilinguals’ Perception of Humour

183

that the much acclaimed unity is yet to be longed for when it comes to sharing work. The second clip advertises a brand of chocolate that has been produced in Romania since the 1960s and is still sold nowadays.4 The name is Rom (Rhum) as the chocolate has a nice savour of rum. The advertisement that was presented to the interviewees is part of a cycle. The common thread in all the advertisements is the idea that this chocolate is one of the genuine Romanian products which bridges past and present and which can cause the experience of some truly strong Romanian sensations. Every clip of the series depicts a typically Romanian experience from the past (during the communist era, when it started being initially produced) or the present. The advertisement chosen for the survey relates to the present as decoding past historical references would have been more challenging for the respondents chosen for this experiment. The advertisement presents a good-looking young lady who is waiting for the bus at the bus-stop on a gloomy day. Out of monotony and boredom, she takes a bite from a bar of Rhum chocolate and falls in a daydreaming state. She pictures herself lying on a comfortable deckchair, enjoying the exotic beach landscape and the sound of the waves and seagulls. This perfect atmosphere collapses when a half-naked man intrudes the scene, carrying a boom box which plays loud music. It is important to stress that the music played by the boom box is a musical genre of poor artistic quality and with vulgar lyrics familiar within the marginal social milieu. It is not only the musical genre itself which is aggressive, but also the disturbingly loud way it is played by fans. Upon hearing the music, the woman stands up looking perplexed at the man carrying the boom box, who in turn confidently heads to the deckchair and sits in her place. He even winks at her in complicity while tapping to the rhythm of the music on his belly. The shock of the young woman wakes her from her reverie only to find herself at the bus-stop in grey weather. She resolutely takes a new bite of chocolate willing to plunge in the reverie scene again. The clip wants to place emphasis on the virtues of the chocolate which, following the same recipe and combining the same ingredients since the 1960s, can help people escape their immediate reality. The clip presents a situational incongruity (the young lady’s elegance vs. the man's rudeness; the calm landscape versus the noisy and vulgar intrusion) and makes implicit reference to the adversity between people who want to experience a calm stay at the seaside and the ones who antagonise the former with loud music without any reticence or sign of embarrassment. The disgraceful physical appearance of the man and his

184

Chapter Eleven

insolence are meant to intensify the shock of the young woman whose act of standing up and stepping backwards communicates her instinctive reaction to withdraw in front of the brute. This sight is the cause of the young lady’s sudden wake-up from the reverie, which makes the meaning of the slogan strong Romanian sensations explicit and emphasises the contrast between the promise of a superlative experience and the risible scene illustrating it. In the case of this advertisement, unlike the previous one, the comic effects stem from the situation that is displayed, since the only linguistic component is represented by the slogan Strong sensations – Romanian ones. Numerous cultural aspects are referenced in the clip, namely the package of the chocolate which resonates the Romanian national flag (blue, yellow, red), the summery marine scene reminiscent of the Black Sea environment which many Romanians choose as a holiday destination, the piece of music played by the boom box, the conflictual situation between the lady’s desire and the man's intrusion which is quite common on the most crowded Romanian beaches, and the characters who embody prototypical Romanian figures. As stated above, the humour arises from the ironic message of the slogan, whose effect gets even more hilarious as the story unfolds and reaches its end. The interviewees’ reaction was similar in the case of the two clips. The foreign students were able to decode the comical effects related to the situation in both clips, albeit they were incapable of decoding the language-related humour and the cultural references which come together to create the message of the advertisement. For instance, the students jocularly reacted to the way Dorel is abruptly woken up and to the mockery he is made to suffer. In the same way, as regards the chocolate advertisement, the foreign students could decode an important cultural element which triggers the humorous effect of the clip, namely the music played and the man carrying the boom box. This is due to the fact that they are familiar with all the cultural connotations implied by this type of music and they could decode the contradiction staged in the clip. However, they could not interpret it in the larger context of the clip in relation to the slogan and the history of the brand. In the same way, with respect to Dorel, the identification of certain isolated comical elements throughout the clip proved to be insufficient for the interviewees to entirely decipher the message of the clip, which combines plenty of linguistic-based humour and many cultural references. This obviously proves that a satisfactory command of a certain language does not provide easy access to the cultural contents generated by the language and that encyclopaedic competence is paramount in acquiring proficient communicative skills.

Humour and Bilingualism: Bilinguals’ Perception of Humour

185

As regards the Moldovan students, the survey results are only slightly different. Their answers show a fragmentary comprehension of the humorous elements of the two clips. All the disgraceful moments of Dorel’s story and the embarrassing moments created by the appearance of the boom box man were correctly decrypted by the students, along with some elements of linguistic-based humour such as the ironic sentences: because by the time he finishes the job, the shop, which is open around the clock, will close; Dorele, shall we move more skilfully?; Dorele, have you been sunbathing? It was yet impossible for them to explain the meaning of the slogan the more, the stronger in relation to the clip and the name of the brand. The same goes for the first clip which had no comical effect on them. This is explained by the fact that, not being familiar with the brand’s history, the Moldovan students were not able to comprehend the hiatus between the situation and the message of the slogan, which would, in turn, have led them to infer the jocular intention of the advertisement. All in all, this survey reinforces the idea that while the literal input, whether linguistic or iconic, is rightly interpreted across both groups of bilinguals, the non-literal one is less transparent since it massively appeals to encyclopaedic competence and calls for solid cultural knowledge. The Moldovan students’ experience of the Romanian culture (within the historical context referred to above) increased their responsiveness to humour and irony without granting them complete access to the whole meaning.

4. Conclusion Data emerging from this study shows that decoding humour is a complex process since, despite its universality in inevitably pertaining to human nature, it also varies across cultures. The data emerging from the survey stresses the importance of the hearer’s cooperation in constructing the non-literal meaning of the humorous act, with the act of cooperation being the successful declination of both linguistic and cultural knowledge. Against the widely-acknowledged idea that bilinguals’ mastery of these two components is equal in the two language-cultures they command, this study proves that satisfactory or good linguistic proficiency does not necessarily involve an equally proficient cultural competence. The cultural component is certainly conveyed by language, yet solid encyclopaedic knowledge is necessary in order to successfully perceive the jocular intention of a humorous act. The data emerging after interviewing the Moldovan students plainly proves that even if language does not create variance, to use Gonzales and Wiseman's words (2005), different history

186

Chapter Eleven

and implicitly, different cultural traditions give rise to differences in the perception and interpretation of humour.

Notes 1

More information may be obtained from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/63021/Bessarabia 2 More information may be obtained from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwwn00j-yGs 3 Taken from http://www.lyricstranslate.com/ro/hora-unirii-dance-unity.html-0 4 Taken from www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKoQbzn1q1c

References Gonzales, E. and Wiseman, R. 2005. Ethnic identification and the perceived humor and rudeness of ethnic jokes. Intercultural Communication Studies, 14, 170-183. Grosjean, F. 2003. Le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme – Essai de définition. In Le bilinguisme aujourd’hui et demain. Actes de la journée d’études et de recherches sur la surdité du 23 novembre 2003, 17-50. Paris: CTNERHI. Gulas, C. and Weinberger, M. 2006. Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Law regarding the use of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. 1989. Veútile no. 9/217, 1989. No o. 3465-XI/01.09.89. Nash, W. 1985. The Language of Humour: Style and Technique in Comic Discourse. London: Longman. Partington, A. 2006. The Linguistics of laughter. A corpus-assisted study of laughter-talk. London and New York: Routledge. Pavlenko, A. ed. 2006. Bilingual Minds: Emotional Experience, Expression and Representation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Vaid, J. 2006. Joking across languages: Perspectives on humor, emotion, and bilingualism. In Bilingual minds: Emotional experience, expression, and representation, edited by A. Pavlenko, 152-182. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Weller, L., Amitsour, E. and Pazzi, R. 1976. Reactions to absurd humour by Jews of Eastern and Western Descent. The Journal of Social Psychology, 98, 149-163. Ziv, A. 1988. Teaching and learning with humor: Experiments and replication. Journal of Experimental Education, 57, 5-15.

PART V BILINGUAL EDUCATION

CHAPTER TWELVE ONE SUBJECT, ONE LANGUAGE? TO WHAT EXTENT CAN CURRICULUM INSTRUCTION BE SAID TO BE BILINGUAL IN MALTESE GRADE V CLASSROOMS? ROMINA FRENDO

1. Introduction At the age of five, all Maltese children start receiving formal education based on a curriculum delivered through Maltese and English. Indeed, these children receive a full eleven years of compulsory schooling. The Director General for Quality and Standards in Education and the Minister of Education and Employment launched The National Curriculum Framework in December 2012. This National Curriculum Framework, hereafter referred to as the NCF, is the document that outlines the national minimum conditions for all schools. It also replaces the earlier National Minimum Curriculum (NMC), which had considered “bilingualism as the basis of the educational system” (NMC 1999: 37). The NCF establishes the “knowledge, skills, competences, attitudes and values that a learner is expected to have” (Ministry of Education and Employment 2012: xiv) at the end of the Early Years Cycle, at the end of the Junior Years Cycle (Y6) and at the end of the Secondary Years Cycle (Year 11/Form V). The NCF Outcome 1 for the Junior Years Cycle specifies its goal for children to “competently use the range of age-appropriate language skills in both Maltese and English” (Ministry of Education and Employment 2012: 21). The specified Outcome 1 for the Secondary Years Cycle is to ensure that: “Young people are able to communicate effectively in at least three languages, including Maltese and English” (Ministry of Education and Employment 2012: 39).

190

Chapter Twelve

Large-scale scientifically-representative sociolinguistic surveys (Sciriha 1993, 1996, 1999), which investigated bilingualism in Malta, have repeatedly shown rather worrying traits in the standards of spoken and written English. In another two scientifically-representative language surveys, Sciriha and Vassallo (2001, 2006) have yet again confirmed Maltese as being the language spoken overwhelmingly by the majority of respondents, therefore immediately according Maltese the L1 status. However, it is interesting to note that as strange as it may seem, despite the fact that Maltese is favoured as a spoken medium of communication, it is not used as frequently in the written medium. One would therefore be inclined to think that this would lead to greater proficiency in spoken Maltese and greater competence in written English. In Malta, formal education begins at the age of five. There is the choice offered by a tripartite education system which comprises 56% state schools which cater for the majority of Maltese children, 31% which are composed of schools run by the Catholic Church (henceforth referred to as church schools) and the third school type, which is the private school sector standing at 13%. Whilst state schools offer free tuition, church schools only request a donation, following a State-Church agreement in the 1980s that eliminated the payment of tuition fees as was the case in the past. Nowadays, the parents of children attending church schools contribute to the school through the payment of a donation. Private schools are the only institutions that require parents to pay for the tuition received by their children. Although all schools should be following the guidelines as specified by the National Minimum Curriculum (1999), not all schools follow the same recommendations in the same way, as schools adapt these guidelines to their specific needs and realities.

2. The use of Maltese and English in education Passes at Secondary Education Level in both Maltese and English are compulsory for entrance into post-secondary academic institutions where students in turn prepare to sit for their Advanced Level examinations. This would allow access to tertiary education at the University of Malta. This fact alone highlights the importance of a very good knowledge of both languages, if one is to progress up the educational and academic ladder. The University of Malta Secondary Education Certificate Board sets the SEC (Secondary Education Certificate) Maltese language and literature examination paper in Maltese. Students do have a choice between Maltese

One Subject, One Language?

191

and English when sitting for their religious studies, social studies and environmental studies. All other SEC examinations are set in English. Students must pass the SEC examination in Maltese if they wish to pursue tertiary education. In fact, in the statutes, bye-laws and regulations of the University of Malta, Statute 1.2 states that: Maltese and English shall be compulsory subjects for admission for degree or diploma courses of the University: Provided that the Senate may by regulations allow candidates in special circumstances to offer other subjects instead” (Chapter 327, Laws of Malta).

Additionally, Advanced Level examination papers are almost all set in English with the exception of Maltese language and literature which is set entirely in Maltese, while papers in religious studies and systems of knowledge are set in either Maltese or English, depending on the candidate’s choice of language. “Moreover, if one is to seek entry into the University of Malta, one requires passes in Maltese and/or English at Intermediate or Advanced Level in order to follow undergraduate courses leading to particular degrees at the University of Malta” (Sciriha 2013a: 36). Sciriha (1998) also conducted a qualitative study among eleven state primary schools and five private schools. Having videotaped sixteen teachers during English, Maltese and mathematics lessons, the findings of a total of 48 lessons revealed that despite the fact that mathematics is supposed to be taught in English, it transpired that the L2 is not “uniformly used as the medium of instruction for Mathematics in most of the state schools and code-switching occurs, at times, quite heavily” (Sciriha 2013b: 154). The same study revealed that whilst some schools are indeed using Maltese and English as stipulated by the National Minimum Curriculum for Maltese, English and mathematics, the construction of the sentences as uttered by teachers during the English lessons was often a “word-for-word back translation from Maltese” whilst “some teachers’ pronunciation of English is incorrect and often students’ mistakes are overlooked” (Sciriha 2013b: 155). This is of course a very worrying fact, particularly when one takes into account the fact that the majority of the 500 respondents interviewed by Sciriha (2012) declared English as useful (79.8%: ‘very useful’ and 17.8%: ‘useful’). The most recent action undertaken by the Government of Malta was the launch of the policy document – The National Literacy Strategy for All in Malta and Gozo (2014 – 2019) – a document published by the Ministry for Education and Employment in June 2014 which has served to highlight

192

Chapter Twelve

the fact that the government is indeed concerned with attainments in literacy. It discussed the findings of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) regarding the performance of Maltese ten-year-old school children: The mean reading score (477) of Maltese ten year-olds was significantly lower than the international average (500) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2009+) (Ministry of Education and Employment 2014: 17).

This same study showed how students scored higher in Maltese and English tasks that required the retrieval of information and the making of straight-forward inferences, rather than in tasks that required the interpretation, integration and evaluation of information (PIRLS 2011). In another study, PISA (2009+) scores obtained showed students attending Area Secondary schools and boys attending Junior Lyceums scoring more than 100 points less on the reading literacy scale than their counterparts (Ministry of Education and Employment 2014: 17). In 2010, the then shadow Minister for Education Evarist Bartolo, summed up the general concern of many a preoccupied teacher in an article when he stated that: Thousands of Maltese children are being brought up in families and educated in schools where English is not used regularly. We also have thousands of children whose first language at home, in the school, and in their community is not Maltese (Bartolo 2010).

Sciriha (2013b) raises the most apposite concern in her paper, Which Languages for which schools? when she states that although the National Minimum Curriculum does stipulate that lessons in English and mathematics are to be delivered through English as the medium of instruction and Maltese is to be used to deliver the Maltese lesson, there is also the inclusion of a proviso for teachers to resort to code-switching during these lessons. Whilst it is understood that a certain degree of codeswitching is to be expected at this level, since Maltese is the L1 for the majority of school children, there is not much further detail about the extent to which code-switching is to be actually allowed. Such very present and tangible concerns lead one to believe that a factor governing the failure to raise bilingual children does not centre around: the type of school that a child attends, but the language policy of the individual school – and even more important is the implementation of the

One Subject, One Language?

193

language policy by the teacher. Though a school may have a specific language policy for each subject, the management of this school policy rests with the teacher (Sciriha 2013a: 157).

Maltese and English are both official languages; both are taught throughout the years of compulsory education. The Ministry for Education has even recently voiced concern at the fact that at the end of secondary education there is quite an alarming percentage of students who either do not pass their SEC examination in Maltese and English or else do not even attempt to sit for their exams in the first place. It is quite evident that Maltese is not only used as a medium of instruction in most schools, particularly in state schools, but it is also the language of communication and interaction. On the other hand, in some church and private schools, the preferred medium for instruction, communication and interaction is English. Textbooks and examinations in most subjects in the curriculum are in English. Such a decision cannot be deemed as being unwise since after all, English remains the dominant language of the economy and is still very widely regarded as being the passport to the rest of the world. However, it is also a fact that exposure to English has changed over the years. Even the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE) has gone as far as stating that the variety of English spoken by “most Maltese adults has crystallised into a post-colonial, increasingly localized ‘Maltese English’” (Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education 2011: 73). The previous National Minimum Curriculum (1999) had stated in no uncertain terms that: It considers bilingualism as the basis of the educational system. This document regards bilingualism as entailing the effective, precise and confident use of the country’s two official languages: Maltese the national language and English. This goal must be reached by the students by the end of their entire schooling experience (NMC 1999: 37).

However, the new National Curriculum Framework (2012) specifies the need for students to possess: “listening, speaking, reading, writing and presentation skills,” as well as having the ability to, “organise thoughts, ideas, feelings and knowledge; communicate with others and respond to how others communicate,” becoming, “competent users of both Maltese and English who are able to appreciate and enjoy the literary heritage of both languages” (Ministry of Education and Employment 2012: 39). It goes on to state in unequivocal terms the importance of an education system that “equips tomorrow’s future adults with knowledge, skills,

194

Chapter Twelve

competencies, attitudes and values to make the transition to employment – [and] more likely to secure a state of play which allows them to enjoy a quality of life based on their self-worth” (Ministry of Education and Employment 2012: 29). To date, the NCF does not outline a specific language policy which is to be adopted in view of Malta’s official bilingual context, regardless of the fact that as mentioned earlier on, the National Minimum Curriculum (1999) did delineate Maltese as being the language of instruction for some subjects, while reserving English for other subjects. The NCF recognises the need for a clear direction and to that effect, a ministerial committee on language policy was set up with the intention of drafting recommendations that would be integrated in the working of the Learning Outcome Framework Board (Ministry of Education and Employment 2012). The Director General of the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, will then “integrate the recommendations of the language policy committee in the working of the Learning Outcome Framework Board” (Ministry of Education and Employment, 2012: 26). Although the previous National Minimum Curriculum (1999) had addressed the issue of Maltese and English as media of instruction and had gone on to recommend that Maltese, Social Studies, History, Religion and Personal and Social Development (PSD) be taught in Maltese, whilst the other subjects are to be taught in English, it is clear that schools are not all following these guidelines to the same degree. It is quite uncertain to which degree, “teachers tend to switch from Maltese to English in a complementary way during explanations in class” (Directorate for Quality and Services in Education 2011: 73). On the other hand, in a seminar held jointly in December 2009 by the DQSE and Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti (the National Council for the Maltese Language) promulgated the notion that the idea to have (what is presumed to be) the majority of subjects taught through the medium of English, has reinforced the idea that the language of prestige is English (December 2009). It is a fact that despite the 1999 NMC recommendation for all schools to formulate a language policy and give this issue importance in the individual School Development Plans, this has not been followed consistently by all schools. Sciriha (2013b) raises this same issue when she rightfully questions: Do primary school teachers, who are ultimately the managers of a linguistic policy, follow the National Minimum Curriculum’s language guidelines? What do qualitative and quantitative studies conducted in

One Subject, One Language?

195

state, church and independent schools reveal about what actually happens in such schools? (Sciriha 2013b: 150)

3. The present study The data which is being analysed in this chapter is but one of a number of research questions posed to primary students. The survey carried out over two scholastic years, 2013 and 2014 is part of ongoing research on bilingualism amongst primary students in Malta. Making use of both qualitative and quantitative triangulation research methodologies, the main study takes into account the views of students, parents and teachers – three of the major stakeholders in the field of education. In order to obtain insight into current attitudes towards and the use of the two co-official languages used in Malta, the researcher would have liked to make use of a random sampling technique, however, once the research commenced, it became all too apparent that this would not be possible, because schools that were selected via a random sampling technique cited reasons for refusal to participate in the study. Hence the researcher had to resort to inviting all primary schools to participate in the study and visit only those schools that accepted to have the research conducted with their students. It is apposite to mention that being granted permission by the local Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education does not automatically grant access into schools. This permission is just a pre-requisite after which permission from Heads of Schools and even College Principals must be obtained if data collection is to take place in state schools. The target student-respondents were given a questionnaire which sought to trace their exposure and use of the two languages, amongst other questions asked. As far as was feasibly possible, the researcher endeavoured to try and collect data from as many of Malta’s six regions as was possible. Table 12.1 and Figure 12.1 show that distribution by district. Table 12.1: Sample Distribution by District Frequency Southern Harbour 290 Northern Harbour 299 South Eastern 154 Western 104 Northern 117 Gozo 23 Total 987

Percent 29.4 30.3 15.6 10.5 11.9 2.3 100.0

Chapter Twelve

196

2.30% 11.90% 29.40%

10.50%

15.60%

30.30%

Southern Harbour

Northern Harbour

South Eastern

Western

Northern

Gozo

Figure 12.1: Sample distribution by District

The sample distribution shows the greatest percentage of students interviewed as attending schools in the Northern Harbour area (30.3%). This is followed by a representation of 29.4% attending schools in the Southern Harbour area. A total of 15.6% of the respondents attended a school in the South Eastern area, whilst 11.9% and 10.5% came from schools located in the Northern and Western regions respectively. Two point three percent of the students came from Gozo. Once in the classroom and after having asked for the students’ cooperation, respondents (who were mostly all willing to take a break from their regular time-table) were asked in which language they preferred to answer the questionnaire. The majority of the student respondents (68.7%) opted for a Maltese-based questionnaire, whilst the remaining 31.3% opted for the English version of the questionnaire. The overall sample consisted of 987 students all attending Grade V classrooms. This particular grade was chosen because this is the penultimate class in the first phase of primary schooling. It would have been desirable to interview Grade VI students, however, due to the fact that Grade VI students already have to cope with an intense syllabus and

One Subject, One Language?

197

end-of-year benchmarking examinations, finding a free slot for interviewing purposes was not possible. In all, there was an almost equal representation of boys and girls with 453 boys and 534 girls (Table 12.2) and as may be seen in Figure 12.2, the age distribution was in the greater majority students aged 9 years (50.5%) and 10 years (43.5%). Only 4.1% and 1.9% were aged between 8 and 11 years respectively. As regards the type of school, the majority of students hailed from state schools (46.71%), this is closely followed by church schools (41.13%) and of course students hailing from the private school sector (12.16%). In total there were 461 students from state schools, 406 students from church schools and 120 students from private schools. The data that follows was analysed through the use of a Chi-square test in which the differences between the proportions are significant since the p value is less than the 0.05 level of significance, hence the allowance for certain generalisations to be made. The subsequent data analyses the response given by the 987 Grade V primary students who were asked about the medium of instruction for each of the individual lessons. Students were asked if these lessons were conducted in either of the official languages ‘Maltese’; ‘English’, or in varying degrees of use of the language(s) (‘Mostly Maltese’, ‘Mostly English’ or ‘Maltese and English equally’). The young respondents were asked which of these languages were used in the following nine subjects, namely: Maltese, English, mathematics, science, social studies, religion, physical education, art and drama. Table 12.2: Sample Distribution by Gender Frequency Male 453 Female 534 Total 987

Percent 45.9 54.1 100.0

Chapter Twelve

198

1.9% 4.1%

43.5%

50.5%

8 years

9 years

10 years

11 years

Figure 12.2: Sample distribution by Age

4. The Maltese lesson Indeed, as is evident in Figure 12.3, it is rather significant that whereas 87.6% or 403 students coming from state schools, reported Maltese as the language that is mostly used in class during the teaching of Maltese, a slightly smaller percentage of 80.5% of students coming from church schools claimed that this was so. An aspect of notable significance is the fact that this was so for 45.7% of students coming from private schools, with an additional 38.8% of students in private schools. They claimed that the Maltese lesson was conducted ‘Mostly in Maltese and Some English’ and this contrasts sharply with the figures of 7.4% (state) and 9.4% (church) schools.

One Subject, One Language?

199

100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Maltese

English

State

Mostly Maltese

Church

Mostly English

Maltese & English used equally

Private

Figure 12.3: The language most used in class during the teaching of Maltese

5. The English lesson When students were asked about the language mostly used during the English lesson (Table 12.3), a total of 80.9% of the sample reported exclusive use of English during the English lesson. However it is very apposite to note that it is private school children, with a staggering 94.2%, that report exclusive use of English during the English lesson. Noteworthy is the fact that 72% of students hailing from state schools report exclusive use of English during the English lesson and this is followed by 87.1% of the church school population who claim that this is so. Moreover, a significant factor to note is that whereas 100 students (21.7%) from state schools reported use of ‘Mostly English and Some Maltese’ during the English lesson, only a mere 4.2% of private school respondents claimed that this happens. Another fact worthy of note is that whereas 3.7 % in state schools report the use of ‘Maltese and English being used equally’ and this is closely followed by 3% of respondents in church schools, only an

Chapter Twelve

200

insignificant 0.8% from private schools claimed that Maltese and English were used equally in the classroom during the delivery of their English lesson. Table 12.3: The language most used in class during the teaching English by Type of School Type of School State Church Private Total N/A Maltese English Mostly Maltese /Some English Mostly English /Some Maltese Maltese and English used equally Total

1

0

0

1

3 0.7% 332 72.0% 8 1.7% 100 21.7% 17

1 0.2% 352 87.1% 5 1.2% 34 8.4% 12

1 0.8% 113 94.2% 0 0.0% 5 4.2% 1

5 0.5% 797 80.9% 13 1.3% 139 14.1% 30

3.7%

3.0%

0.8%

3.0%

461 100.0%

404 100.0%

120 100.0%

985 100.0%

6. The Mathematics lesson A number of significant differences are to be noted here. Firstly it has to be said that the NMC traditionally instructed teachers to use English as a medium of instruction during the mathematics lessons. It is significant to note as shown in Table 12.4 that whereas no private school student reported use of Maltese during the mathematics lesson, 11.5% of students hailing from state schools named Maltese as the language used during their lesson. The trend for the greater likelihood of English being used during the mathematics lesson is the greatest in private schools with 86.7% reporting the use of English, whilst only 34.5% of students in state schools stated that English is used during this lesson. It needs to be noted at this stage that mathematics papers are always set in English for all schools. Therefore, it might be significant to co-relate this in a future study, gauging the performance of students in mathematics when these students come from state schools, versus the performance of students hailing from private schools.

One Subject, One Language?

201

Table 12.4: The language most used in class during the teaching of Mathematics by Type of School Type of School State Church Private Total N/A 0 1 0 1 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% Maltese 53 26 0 79 11.5% 6.4% 0.0% 8.0% English 159 178 104 441 34.5% 44.1% 86.7% 44.8% Mostly Maltese 37 21 1 59 /Some English 8.0% 5.2% 0.8% 6.0% Mostly English 88 70 9 167 /Some Maltese 19.1% 17.3% 7.5% 17.0% Maltese and English 124 108 6 238 used equally 26.9% 26.7% 5.0% 24.2% Total 461 404 120 985 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Furthermore, a significant difference in percentages was noted when it transpired that whereas only 5% of student respondents hailing from private schools reported that ‘Maltese and English were both used equally’ in class during the mathematics lesson, there is also a significant 26.9% (from state schools) followed by an equally high 26.7% (from church schools) who stated that in their school this subject was taught through the use of both Maltese and English, each used to an equal extent. This would effectively mean that essentially, when one does the mathematics (no pun intended) there is a significant 19.5% (11.5% + 8%) of state school students exposed to a significant dose of Maltese during the mathematics lesson, even though books are in English and the exam papers they will eventually be answering during Half-Yearly and Annual examinations are invariably in English. This is creating a situation that is going to prove rather challenging for these students in the long run. Another noteworthy fact is that when looking at the situation in church schools, 61.4% (44.1% + 17.3%) stated that English is used or mostly used during the mathematics lesson – yet this leaves a worrying 38.6% of students who receive instruction in Maltese. All in all, when one takes into account the total of 24.2% who stated that Maltese and English are used equally, the situation is overall rather disquieting.

202

Chapter Twelve

7. The Science lesson Science textbooks, like those for mathematics, are also in English. However, this data shows (Table 12.5) that the majority of state school respondents (32.1%) declared that the science lesson is conducted solely in Maltese, 15.2% maintain that it is ‘Mostly in Maltese and some English’ with yet another 25.4% stating that Maltese and English are used to an equal extent during the science lesson. The figures put together reflect an overwhelming majority of 72.7% of Maltese language content-instruction during the science lesson. Conversely, church school students reported a greater percentage of English language use during the science lesson (49%), whilst some respondents claimed that the lesson was held ‘Mostly in English’ (16.2%). Nonetheless once again, it is the private schools that return the highest percentage of English language use (‘English’: 80.7%; ‘Mostly English’: 16%) during the science lesson. Table 12.5: The language most used in class during the teaching of Science by Type of School Type of School State Church Private Total N/A 3 2 0 5 0 .7% 0.5% 0.0% 0.5% Maltese 148 40 1 189 32.1% 10.0% 0.8% 19.2% English 66 197 96 359 14.3% 49.0% 80.7% 36.6% Mostly Maltese 70 15 1 86 /Some English 15.2% 3.7% 0.8% 8.8% Mostly English 57 65 19 141 /Some Maltese 12.4% 16.2% 16.0% 14.4% Maltese and English 117 83 2 202 used equally 25.4% 20.6% 1.7% 20.6% Total 461 402 119 982 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Overall, it is clear that despite the fact that there are obvious advantages to be received if science were taught via the English medium, the stark truth is that an ‘English’ only medium of instruction is only a reality for 14.3% of students in state schools – whilst 49% of students in church schools and 80.7% in private schools receive science instruction in English.

One Subject, One Language?

203

8. The Social Studies lesson There is a further anomaly in the teaching of social studies which imparts primary students with knowledge on selected topics ranging from geography to history. As shown in Figure 12.4, a staggering 86.8% of all state school respondents claim that the medium of instruction is Maltese, whilst 74.6% of all church school respondents claim this is so. One wonders why an almost negligible figure of 2.6% stated that Maltese is the language used for social studies instruction in private schools. Conversely, we note that it is only 1.1% of state school respondents that cite English as the medium of instruction for this subject. 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Maltese

English

State

Mostly Maltese

Church

Mostly English

Maltese & English used equally

Private

Figure 12.4: The language used in class during the teaching of Social Studies

Eight point four percent of church school respondents cited English as the medium of instruction, but interestingly a whopping 70.9% of private school respondents, in addition to 21.4% who cited a ‘Mostly English’ medium of instruction show that there are indeed great discrepancies between the medium of instruction used in the three school types.

204

Chapter Twelve

9. The Religious Studies lesson A similar situation occurs during the teaching of religious studies. A total of 65.9% of all respondents stated that Maltese is the medium of instruction for religion, whilst a few stated that it was ‘Mostly Maltese’ (6.9%). It was only 13.8% of students (from the total sample of 976 students who actually studied religion) who stated that the medium of instruction was English. Of these 13.8%, 71 students and 61 students who hailed from church and private schools respectively identified English as the medium of instruction. Indeed, Maltese seems to dominate in the teaching of religious studies in church schools as well, with some 56.3% citing exclusive use of Maltese in addition to another 8.4% who report a ‘Mostly Maltese’ medium of instruction.

10. The Physical Education lesson As regards Physical Education, Maltese stands out once again as the main language used, with a total of 39.1% of all respondents citing Maltese as the medium of instruction. English medium instruction during PE lessons is only a fact for 74.2% of private school students, whilst it is a mere 27.2% of church school students that maintain this too. If one takes into account the fact that in total, 73% of all state school children receive PE instruction in Maltese, when only 40.4% of church School students reflect this reality (Maltese used as medium of instruction), then it is amply evident that once again, the language which children are exposed to, depends on the type of school attended as well as other factors. Only 17.5% of all private school respondents stated that instruction was either in ‘Maltese’ or ‘Mostly Maltese’ during their PE lesson.

11. The Art lesson Maltese once again reigns supreme in the subject of Art as graphically shown in Figure 12.5, with a total of 43% citing Maltese as the medium of instruction. If one includes the percentage of those claiming ‘Mostly Maltese’ as the medium of instruction, then this figure rises to 57.1% (43% + 14.1%). Interestingly, out of the 159 students who stated that Maltese and English are used to an equal extent in art lessons, the majority of these hail from church schools (100 respondents), followed by state schools (59 respondents) and none from private schools, where art instruction is definitely conducted through the use of the English medium.

One Subject, One Language?

205

100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Maltese

English

State

Mostly Maltese

Church

Mostly English

Maltese & English used equally

Private

Figure 12.5: The language most used in class during the teaching of Art

12. The Drama lesson The exclusive use of English dominated drama lessons in private schools (94.2%), as well as church schools, even if the percentage in the latter was not as high as that in private schools. Indeed 45.3% of church school respondents claimed that the language most used during the drama lesson was English. This situation does not prevail in state schools where, on the contrary, 60% of state school respondents reported exclusive use of ‘Maltese’ or ‘Mostly Maltese’ during their drama lesson.

13. Conclusion The overall summary of the data therefore shows that in seven (7) out of nine (9) subjects, Maltese is used overwhelmingly as the medium of instruction in state schools, except during the mathematics and English lessons.

206

Chapter Twelve

In church schools, Maltese seems to be becoming the language used mostly during five (5) out of nine (9) subjects which include Maltese, social studies, religion, art and physical education, whilst English is used to teach drama, science, mathematics and English. In private schools however, the reverse is true. English is overwhelmingly the language used in all the eight (8) subjects. Maltese is used to a great extent during the Maltese lesson. This data therefore has shown that currently the amount of exposure to Maltese and English that Grade V primary students receive does depend on the type of school as one factor. Far from having a One Subject – One Language approach, the individual school’s unofficial language policy, and most importantly the management and implementation of that policy, plays a significant role in determining which of the two official languages students ultimately end up being proficient in at the end of the Primary Years Cycle. If bilingual proficiency is to be gained through the administration of a bilingual curriculum, then the data presented here shows that whereas state school children will be more proficient in spoken Maltese, since this is the main language of instruction used during the majority of the school day, a different reality applies to private school students who will turn out to be more proficient in English, leaving church school students, somewhere in between. More exposure to one language rather than another must play a significant role in determining whether students will eventually be benefitting from the advantages that bilingual competence can offer. As it is, an imbalanced exposure to the country’s two official languages deprives students from the advantages that a bilingual world has to offer.

References Bartolo, E. 2010. Need for overhaul in the way English and Maltese are taught. Accessed January 11, 2015. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101024/education/needfor-overhaul-in-the-way-maltese-english-are-taught.332748 Department of Curriculum Management. 1999. Creating the Future Together. National Minimum Curriculum. Floriana: Ministry of Education. Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education. 2009. National policy and strategy for the attainment of core competences in primary education. Malta: Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

One Subject, One Language?

207

—. 2011. The National Curriculum Framework Towards a Quality Education for All. Malta: Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti. 2009. Il-bilingwiĪmu fl-edukazzjoni ta' pajjiĪna. Accessed January 11, 2015. http://kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/newsdetails?nwid=133&ctid=16&ctref=se minars Ministry for Education and Employment. 2011. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study PIRLS, Malta Report. Malta: Ministry of Education and Employment. —. 2012. A National Curriculum Framework for All. Accessed January 11, 2015. https://curriculum.gov.mt/en/Resources/The-NCF/Pages/default.aspx —. 2013. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2009+) Malta Report. Malta: Ministry for Education and Employment. —. 2014. A National Literacy Strategy for All in Malta and Gozo. Accessed June 14, 2014. http://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/Literacy/ENGLISH.pdf Sciriha, L. 1993. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Maltese Islands I. Cyclostyled. Malta: University of Malta. —. 1996. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Maltese Islands II. Cyclostyled. Malta: University of Malta. —. 1997. One Country, Two Languages. In Malta: A Siege and a Journey, edited by R. Pascoe and J. Ronayne, 69-90. Victoria: Victoria University Press. —. 1998. Language Use Amongst Children in Malta. Seminar on Language Planning. Malta. —. 1999. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Maltese Islands III. Cyclostyled. Malta: University of Malta. —. 2012. Profiling English Language Use in Malta. Unpublished report. Malta: University of Malta. —. 2013a. The Maltese Language in Education. Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning. Fryske Akademy: Leeuwarden. —. 2013b. Which Languages for which Schools? Issues in Language Policy in Bilingual Malta. In Language Policy and Planning in the Mediterranean World, edited by M. Karyolemou and P. Pavlou, 144159. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Sciriha, L. and Vassallo, M. 2001. Malta – a linguistic landscape. Malta: Socrates. —. 2006. Living Languages in Malta. Malta: Print IT Printing Services.

208

Chapter Twelve

University of Malta. 2016. Extract of Statute 1 – General. Accessed January 11, 2015. https://www.um.edu.mt/registrar/regulations/general/extstatute1

CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE IMPACT OF BILINGUALISM ON PREDOMINANTLY MALTESE-SPEAKING COLLEGE STUDENTS DAMIAN SPITERI AND CHRISTIANA SCIBERRAS

1. Introduction This chapter contributes to current literature on bilingual teaching. It shows how course developers and lecturers in colleges can design and adapt courses, resources and teaching strategies to students’ particular learning needs. These colleges operate in the context where two languages are widely spoken in the same country. In effect, the focus of this study is language use and comprehension amongst Maltese students who are following a foundation course in Health and Social Care at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST). Though the native tongue of the overwhelming majority of the Maltese population is Maltese, some claim to be more competent in English. Though some individuals can only speak one of these languages fluently, others can easily be classified as balanced bilinguals, as they can communicate in both Maltese and English equally well. Moreover, the Maltese also employ an interlanguage – a language that has elements of both Maltese and English. The use of an inter-language is not restricted to Malta but to other countries where more than one language is spoken. For instance, Latino students in the USA use informal, everyday language, metaphors, gestures, and codeswitch in Spanish and English so as to articulate more their ideas (Moschkovich 2008; Turner et al. 2013). In Malta, students are sometimes constrained to using English words for technical terminology as the Maltese lexicon simply does not incorporate these words. This may be considered necessary, and thereby somewhat justified and excusable. However, at other times, the inter-language surfaces for no logical reason.

210

Chapter Thirteen

This can be seen when students use English words and Maltese syntax. For instance, instead of saying ‘I will wash Mary’ which translated into Maltese is Jiena ser naƫsel lil Mary Maltese students say, Jien ser nagƫmlilha washing lil Mary (translated literally as ‘I am going to do her a washing to Mary’). While this utterance can be interpreted in other ways, such as not having sufficient proficiency in the language or experiencing some form of inhibition in expressing themselves, it shows how the syntax of one language can be superimposed on another. García (2009) believes that boundaries between the languages of bilinguals tend to be blurred since they tend to intersperse the use of one language (usually words extracted from the language they are more competent in) with words from the other. This leads to the question that Cummins (2014) asks namely: If students make cross-linguistic connections throughout the course of their learning in a bilingual programme, why not nurture this learning strategy and help students to apply it more efficiently? It has been suggested that ideally lecturing should be focused on “what students know and can do instead of what they do not know” (Moschkovich and Phakeng 2013: 125). Having said that, despite the cognitive benefits associated with the ability to speak two or more languages, unless students are fluent in both languages, they are increasingly prone to making what are known as transfer errors in their language use. These errors are made when students apply Maltese principles to English, or vice-versa, without reflecting on whether what is being said is syntactically and contextually correct. Like all other students, they can also make developmental errors when they are still in the process of learning a language. They may fail to choose the appropriate words or the clearest way in which to express themselves if they have not yet learnt the language well. It is therefore of fundamental importance that lecturers discern the underlying reasons why students fail to express themselves clearly in the language(s) they are using. This discernment enables them to form accurate education plans so as to address those errors. A failure to recognise learning difficulties can easily lead to students becoming disengaged (Everatt and Reid 2010). If these mistakes are not rectified, there is a risk that these classes of errors will become fossilised. This all further points to the importance of generating meta-linguistic awareness in the learning process (Ó Duibhir and Cummins 2012). For instance, in Maltese English, the variety of English which is mainly used by Maltese speakers of English, ordering errors are particularly common. This is somewhat understandable, considering the different way in which sentences are constructed in Maltese and in English. While this can be analysed on a morphological level, when students translate the imperative Maltese qum into ‘get

Impact of Bilingualism on Predominantly Maltese-Speaking Students

211

upping’ rather than ‘get up’, it is important to recognise that it can take place on both a syntactical and lexical levels. A case in point is Dak huwa persuna speƛjali gƫalija which students translate into English as ‘He is a person special to me’ (instead of ‘He is a special person to me’). The syntax used reflects an incorrect application of what one thinks in one language to what one says or writes in another language. There is also a lexical issue here as the use of the words person special is roughly comparable (grammatically) to saying key car instead of car key. Language is not stable but it develops over time, as shown in the way code-switching is practised and how inter-language is used and developed. The types of errors referred to above may also vary. Tarone (1988) goes so far as to say that inter-language acquisition is comparable to native language acquisition since in both cases the way the language is employed shows that one has had previous exposure to this particular type of language use. Tarone (1988) sees inter-language as a process between the native language and the second language. Both transfer and developmental errors become fewer and farther between as the person’s linguistic competence increases, particularly in the second language. Naturally, particularly from the viewpoint of lecturers, the extent of the errors is worth noting here. If the errors are such that communication can still take place, they are not perceived in the same way as an utterance that is totally unintelligible. MCAST operates a policy whereby lecturers lecturing in subjects other than languages are asked to disregard minor mistakes in English in their students’ assignments. Thus, it can safely be assumed that they are asked to be tolerant of particular difficulties experienced by some of the students from a Maltese speaking background, or foreigners whose levels of Maltese and English are low. To some extent, it can also rightly be assumed that, since the majority of the lecturers are Maltese, they would be aware of these errors and also of their origins. This phenomenon is by no means particular only to Malta. Lakkis and Malak (2000) examined the positive and negative transfer errors in the production of English as a second language of a number of students whose native language is Arabic. They concluded that a teacher of English whose native language is Arabic understands the students’ errors better as he/she is more familiar with them. An issue that also merits due attention is that of pronunciation which, unless corrected, may lead to errors becoming “fossilised” and also accepted culturally (Yule 2006). This can be clearly discerned at MCAST, and elsewhere in Malta, where Maltese speaking students lack proficiency in the pronunciation of the phonemes /ș/ and /ð/. These students are generally not corrected when they make such mistakes, and lecturers, if

212

Chapter Thirteen

they are Maltese speakers themselves, may also make the same mistakes, thereby reinforcing the mispronunciation rather than correcting it. It must be noted that /ș/ and /ð/ (which are the voiceless and voiced dental fricatives respectively) as found in such words as ‘thing’ and ‘then’ are produced with the tongue being placed between the lower and upper teeth, and not just against the back of the upper teeth, as with the dental consonants. Students using Maltese English tend to say ‘ting’ or ‘tree’ (rather than ‘thing’ or ‘three’). In fact, these two phonemes are widely mispronounced not only by MCAST students but also by many Maltese speakers of English as shown in Sciriha’s (2010) report on the findings of a quantitative scientifically-representative language survey on the use of English in Malta. She states that: In general there is awareness among the Maltese that “three” should not be pronounced as “tree”. Nevertheless, awareness does not necessarily mean that the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives are pronounced regularly. In fact, the survey findings reveal that the Maltese find it somewhat easier to pronounce the voiceless dental fricatives in word-final positions (for example, youth: 33.4%) than in word-initial positions (for example, three: 26.0%) (Sciriha 2010: 12).

Moreover, these errors can be traced to wider cultural considerations. Hagège (1999) argues that after a child grows beyond a critical age, usually assumed to be during the pre-pubescent period of life, it is very difficult for a person to acquire a sound that is not present in his/her native language. A case in point regards the complex French vowels, certain consonantal sounds in Arabic and also Chinese tones. After this critical age, the acquisition of these sounds becomes increasingly challenging. All of this points to the importance of analysing where the errors are coming from in language teaching. Corder (1973) stresses the importance that both teacher and learner are aware when errors take place, know what the errors are, and be in a position to rectify them. For instance, if a student writes ‘womens’ (instead of ‘women’), the lecturer may interpret this as a developmental error since the student affixes the regular plural –s suffix to an irregular plural.

2. Methodology The research undertaken for this chapter mainly consisted of direct observations during the students’ work placements and appraisals of the classwork that they produced during a few English lessons. One of the authors not only lectured students in Health and Social Care, but was also

Impact of Bilingualism on Predominantly Maltese-Speaking Students

213

their lead tutor. He also visited them on placement in various settings in Malta, namely Mater Dei Hospital and the Day Care Centres for the Elderly. The second author of this chapter taught these students English. As lecturers, they are already part of the college community at MCAST which gave them easier access to exploring the insider, or “emic” perspective of students’ lives at college, thus ensuring that the study is both in-depth and reflexive (Roper and Shapira 2000). Of particular relevance is the language used during both English and health care lectures. In reality, during their English lectures students are normally required to address the lecturer in English. However, since all the students are probably aware that the lecturer’s first language is Maltese, at times they tend to switch to Maltese. They persist in doing so even when the lecturer attempts to redirect the class to using English. During their health care lectures, students are not required to speak English since the lecturer offers explanations in both English and Maltese, first saying something in one language (usually Maltese) and then in the other (usually English). Through code-switching in this way, he also indirectly engages in language teaching, particularly since he is aware that, when on work placement, students will need to speak Maltese, rather than English, in order to communicate; they use English for their written reports. The students, who are the participants in this study, mainly attended state primary and secondary schools, where Maltese is predominantly used as the language of instruction, unlike those who would have attended private schools where the medium of instruction is English (Sciriha 1997, 2013). Another common aspect in the educational background of the students is that, since they are all studying to obtain a foundation certificate in care, they did not satisfy the requirements to enrol for a higher level of studies at MCAST. Generally, a higher proficiency in English is expected at these levels, since all textbooks are in English.

3. Results This research shows that the participants are prone to making two types of errors when communicating in English, namely developmental and transfer errors. As previously-mentioned, developmental errors usually occur because the learner is still in the process of learning a language. Usually, these errors are corrected over time since the student still has time to rectify them while at MCAST. Transfer errors come about due to an imposition of Maltese sentence structure on English phrases, leading to errors of syntax. In the data analysis process, particular attention was paid when it came to categorising these errors since certain types of

Chapter Thirteen

214

developmental errors can be relatively universal and may also feature among native English speakers. This is, in contrast to transfer errors, which tend to feature more amongst people who speak more than one language. Certain developmental errors were evidenced in the incorrect use of prepositions; for example, students sometimes say that they ‘arrive to the placement’ (rather than ‘arrive at the placement’). They would also say ‘at the break’ or ‘at Friday’ (rather than ‘during the break’ or ‘on Friday’). The above examples indicate that the learners still confuse some of the prepositions. It is likely that, as their studies in English progress, they will correct these errors and master the use of prepositions. Interestingly, none of the prepositions used derive from a literal Maltese translation. Thus, one would say in Maltese, ‘Waslu fuq il-post fejn qegƫdin jagƫmlu lplacement’ (literally translated as ‘They arrived on the place where they are doing their placement’); ‘fil-break’ (literally translated as ‘in the break’) and ‘nhar il-Ƥimgƫa’ (literally translated as ‘the day the Friday’). This infers that they are unlikely to be transfer errors, but rather show inadequate knowledge of English, making it more likely that these are developmental errors. Table 13.1 shows spelling errors that are likely to be associated with the way these words sound in Maltese English, while Table 13.2 gives examples of spelling errors and suggests possible reasons why students make them. Table 13.1: Spelling Errors *advertisment

*immidately

*imigitly

*hygeine

*brest feeding

*helth

*sandwitches

*leflet

*turist

*unfortnetly

*immediatly

*kindergarden

*happened

*X-trays

*wile (instead of while)

Table 13.2: Spelling Errors and possible reasons for such errors *panicing *lucily *noting (instead of nothing) *thirthy *chouldn’t *whene *throwe *activite *preety *occassions *rossary

The error of these two words is that the learners missed the letter ‘k’ after the letter ‘c’. The reason for this error might be that the learners confuse these words with other words. Here the learners confuse the use of the letters ‘th’. This might be because in Maltese English the phonemes /ș/ and /ð/ are pronounced as /t/ and /d/ respectively. It might also be because the strings ‘th’ and ‘ch’ occur a number of times in English and so students tend to overuse these strings. These three erroneous words are due to the ‘e’ at the end. This error might be due to the ‘e’ that is commonly present at the end of words in English, and so students overgeneralise this structure. The errors in the spelling of these words are because the learners confuse the use of double letters. These errors suggest that the learners are aware that there should be double letters in these words, but they are not sure where the double letters should be.

Impact of Bilingualism on Predominantly Maltese-Speaking Students *disabelled

*choise *consentration *demensia *imprestion *prescripted *uncontrable *colligue *collegue *collegues *colleagous *Ourselfs *thiefves *theifs

215

Similar to the above examples, errors are committed when double letters are concerned. It might be that the learner spelled the word ‘disabled’ like the word ‘labelled’ and so s/he produced the double l. This is over generalisation of the double l. The errors in these three words indicate that the learners use c instead of s and s for t in the spelling of a number of words. These errors might be because the learners confuse the spelling and the pronunciation of certain words. These words are erroneously spelled most probably because the learners do not know how to spell and how to pronounce the words impression, prescribed and uncontrollable. These erroneous spellings of the word colleagues indicate that the learners do not know how to spell this word correctly.

These three errors in spelling suggest that the learners do not know that the suffix –ves is used to pluralise nouns that end with f.

When learners learn to spell words, they tend to form mental pictures of the letters of the word in association with one another, implying that recall would normally be instant and accurate. It is only if one knows the sound-letter correspondence in the English spelling system that it would then be possible to recognise words by sight. Correct spelling, in other words, requires an informed adeptness in English. However, the situation is made even more complex when students attempt to transpose Maltese spelling onto English. This is most clearly seen since in Maltese there are other consonants like ƫ and the digraph gƫ. Some students believe that a word such as thought is spelt with both ƫ and gƫ (tƫougƫt). This reveals that linguistic boundaries between the two languages are sometimes unclear and provoke the simultaneous occurrence of transfer and spelling errors. In effect, it also shows that these students do not realise that the Maltese digraph is not found in English. Conversely, as shown in Table 13.3 when it comes to errors of syntax, there were also developmental and transfer errors. Table 13.3: Inter-language Errors Grammatical English utterances and phrases that are appropriate instead of the ones the students produced *Help the service users getting down the van *We gave them to eat *They began to fight with words *Money is really few *We spread the money *A service user who is demented *You spend a lot of money in nothing

Help the service users as they get off the van We gave them food They had a row

Maltese sentences that learners translated literally in order to produce the erroneous English utterances and phrases Ngƫinu lil dawk li juĪaw is-servizz x'ƫin jinĪlu minn fuq il-vann Tajniehom x’jieklu Bdew jiƥƥieldu bil-kliem

There isn’t enough money We share the money A service user who suffers from dementia You spend a lot of money in vain

Ftit hemm flus Naqsmu l-flus Persuna li juĪa s-servizz li jbati mid-dimensja Tonfoq ƫafna flus fix-xejn

Chapter Thirteen

216 *At last, we went to the beach *One of the service users had the birthday *A man has 70 years *They start going *Accidents which they can happen *We stayed a bit with him *After when the service users came to the day centre *She stays on diet *It was for nothing *I entered a pencil in a plug

Finally, we went to the beach

Fl-aƫƫar, morna l-baƫar

It was the birthday of one of the service users He is 70 years old They leave Accidents that can happen

Waƫda minn dawk li juĪaw isservizz gƫalqet sninha Raƥel li gƫandu 70 sena Jibdew jitilqu Inƛidenti li jistgƫu jiƥru

We accompanied him for some time

Qgƫadna ftit miegƫu

After the service users arrived at the day centre

Wara li dawk li juĪaw is-servizz waslu fiƛ-ƛentru.

She’s dieting It was all in vain I inserted a pencil in a socket

Toqgƫod fuq id-dieta Kien kollu gƫalxejn Daƫƫalt lapes fi plakka

Table 13.3 illustrates inter-language errors, and also gives the translation of the English words into Maltese, so as to offer a clearer exposition. Moreover, the following examples indicate that the students in this study confuse the use of has, have and had. Example 1: *He didn’t had something serious. Example 2: *I had work at a day care centre.

The first example is erroneous because the verb didn’t already indicates the past and so a verb in the present (have) should have been written. The second example points to the learner’s deficiency in form and use of the past participle and also in the use of tenses. This could be due to developmental errors attributable to lack of knowledge of tenses. Alternatively, it could be due to an effort to translate the tenses from one language to another which might prove problematic to some students.

4. Conclusion The data presented above shows the particular difficulties that some students face when expressing themselves in what they experience as the relatively more foreign language in a country where more than one language is used. Although this study has been conducted in a Maltese context and refers to the use of English with students who evidently lack certain skills in expressing themselves in the language, it is also applicable to other bilingual contexts where some people are non-balanced bilinguals. The findings of this study could very easily indicate that students fail to understand the grammatical structures that are used in either language.

Impact of Bilingualism on Predominantly Maltese-Speaking Students

217

The study points to the fact that just as it may be necessary for MCAST, as a key stakeholder in further vocational education in Malta, to develop grammar paradigms wherein students can be exposed to the different grammatical structures employed in both languages, other countries which are not monolingual may benefit from doing likewise. In this way, colleges and universities would be encouraging students to widen their linguistic horizons and thereby enjoy a more congenial atmosphere as students relate to one another by communicating across linguistic divides. This is in line with previous studies that have indicated that “when teachers encourage this transfer explicitly they make learning more efficient for the learners and reinforce effective learning strategies” (Ó Duibhir and Cummins 2012: 12). Just as immersion programmes that were firstly employed in Canada to teach French to English-speaking children gave these children ample exposure to the language and led to the input of French to be reduced as the child grew older, so it is advisable that students at MCAST benefit from a meaningful exposure to both languages. Such immersion programmes contrast submersion programmes that have traditionally been designed for immigrant children, where generally, those in power discourage immigrants from preserving the language and culture of their home country, so as to make the language and culture of the host country their own. Romaine (2000: 231) refers to submersion programmes as “subtractive or disruptive bilingualism” since they lead to the creation of contexts wherein these children are not allowed to develop their knowledge of their native language. What is certain is that if the Maltese language were to be submerged, Malta would face several disadvantages. This is true despite the fact that historically, when Malta was a British colony, particularly until just before the beginning of the Second World War, Maltese was actively suppressed, and various elderly people today claim that, as children, they were forbidden from speaking Maltese in certain schools. This points to how perceptions about language can be influenced by political factors and language ideology, particularly since some of the more educated Maltese of the time effectively looked down on the Maltese language. This language ideology, which can be defined as “a set of beliefs about language articulated by the users as a rationalization of perceived language structure and use” (Silverstein 1979: 193) is often associated with a distorted reflection of the reality and its rationalisation, and “does not simply reflect social structure, but also reproduces it” (Choi 2013: 58). Particularly after the Second World War, and especially after Malta was granted independence in 1964, attitudes towards Maltese

218

Chapter Thirteen

changed considerably. In fact, according to Sciriha and Vassallo (2006), ever since Malta joined the European Union in 2004, Maltese has also been perceived as important for international communication since it is now one of the official languages of the European Union. This notwithstanding, it is unlikely that English will ever be suppressed in Malta. Crystal (2003) explains that English is an international lingua franca that one could use to communicate with anyone, practically anywhere in the world. It thereby serves to locate the island's economic and other activity in a wider, more global context much more than the use of Maltese alone could ever do.

References Choi, J. 2013. Language Ideology as an intervening process in language shift: the case of bilingual education in Guatemala. Asian Journal of Latin American Studies, 26(3), 55-73. Corder, S. 1973. Introducing Applied Linguistics. UK: Penguin. Crystal, D. 2003. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J. 2014. To what extent are Canadian second language policies evidence based? Reflections on the intersections of research and policy. Frontiers in Psychology. Accessed January 31, 2015. http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00358/full Everatt, J. and Reid, G. 2010. Motivating children with dyslexia. In Motivating Literacy Learners in Today’s World, edited by J. Fletcher, F. Parkhill and G. Gillon, 67-78. Wellington: NZCER Press. García, O. 2009. Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Hagège, C. 1999. L’enfant aux deux langues. Greece: Polis Editions. Lakkis, K. and Malak, M. 2000. Understanding the Transfer of Prepositions. FORUM, 38(3), 26-33. Moschkovich, J. 2008. I went by twos, he went by one: Multiple interpretations of inscriptions as resources for mathematical discussions. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(4) 551-587. Moschkovich, J. and Phakeng, M. 2013. Mathematics education and language diversity: A dialogue across settings. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 119-128. Ó Duibhir, P. and Cummins, J. 2012. Towards an integrated language curriculum in early childhood and primary education (3 – 12 years). Research Report, 16, 1649-3362. Dublin: National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

Impact of Bilingualism on Predominantly Maltese-Speaking Students

219

Romaine, S. 2000. 2nd Edition. Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Roper, J. and Shapira, J. 2000. Ethnography in Nursing Research. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications. Sciriha, L. 1997. One Country, Two Languages. In Malta: A Siege and a Journey, edited by R. Pascoe and J. Ronayne, 69-90. Victoria: Victoria University Press. —. 2010. Survey on Maltese English – a preliminary report. Unpublished report. University of Malta. —. 2013. Which Languages for which Schools? Issues in Language Policy in Bilingual Malta. In Language Policy and Planning in the Mediterranean World, edited by M. Karyolemou and P. Pavlou, 144159. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Sciriha, L. and Vassallo, M. 2006. Living Languages in Malta. Malta: Print It Printing Services. Silverstein, M. 1979. Language Structure and Linguistic Ideology. In The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels, edited by P. Clyne, W. Hanks and C. Hofbauer, 193-247. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. Tarone, E. 1988. Variation in Interlanguage. Great Britain: Edward Arnold. Turner, E., Dominguez, H., Maldonado, L. and Empson, S. 2013. English learners’ participation in mathematical discussion: Shifting positionings and dynamic identities. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 199-234. Yule, G. 2006. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN A CLIL MODEL IN BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN BULGARIA: THE CASE OF THE DEPARTMENT FOR MODERN METHODS OF EDUCATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE MARIYANA TODOROVA

1. Introduction 1.1 Review of the bilingual situation in Bulgaria Bilingualism and bilingual education have existed in the world for thousands of years. Bulgaria has a multilayered history due to a great number of tribes that passed through or settled in the present territories of the country. Linguistic and archaeological evidence prove the existence of Celtic and Roman settlements as well as the Thracian kingdoms. Furthermore, the Proto-Bulgarians struggled to form a strong union with the local Slavic tribes in order to build a new kingdom. In view of these historic facts, it is no wonder that contemporary historical books depict Bulgaria as a country in which bilingualism and even multilingualism have always formed part of ordinary people’s everyday lives. The centuries of domination by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires left not only a variety of Greek and Turkish place names on the topographic map of Bulgaria, but also created numerous communities of bilinguals speaking one language at home with the members of the family and using another one, namely Bulgarian, as the official language at school and work. This is also the case with many families in the north-eastern part of Bulgaria for whom, after years of Romanian rule, Romanian became the home language, the language used in religious church ceremonies and the language of

222

Chapter Fourteen

education between 1913 and 1940, when the Bulgarian language was forbidden. Being a person of mixed nationality, the author of this chapter still remembers some childhood episodes when her grandparents would secretly whisper in Romanian, as the open usage of that language was not much accepted by the Bulgarian authorities of the time. Luckily, with the European borders now easily crossed and the intensive development of travel and tourism, knowledge of minority languages is now considered a valuable skill in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, some local secondary schools even include Romanian in their curriculum, which can now be chosen as a second foreign language by the students. In the last decade, there has also been a revival of interest in the Russian language, at both secondary state schools and private language schools. The reason behind this is not only to ensure better communication with Russian tourists, but also because mixed families in which Russian is spoken as a mother tongue, have existed in Bulgaria since the end of the Second World War owing to closer economic and cultural partnerships that emerged from the state’s political affiliation to the former Soviet Bloc. Also, in recent times Bulgaria has started to attract more Russian-speaking families from Russia and Ukraine as its climate, similar language and people’s friendliness appeal to them. Indeed, many buy local property which is used seasonally or year round. In a few better-developed towns and cities, Russian neighbourhoods have been formed and during the autumn of 2014, a Russian school opened in the seaside city of Bourgas where students will be awarded two certificates of secondary education based on the combination of two systems – Russian and Bulgarian. However, some negative aspects of the situation in certain bilingual families, especially those living in poor rural regions whose children have limited knowledge of the official Bulgarian language, should be mentioned too. Unfortunately, some parents refuse to contribute to the process of their children’s education and frequently stop them from attending school. At the moment, several programmes financed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education are in operation, together with various projects to attract and keep the children of Roma/Gypsy ethnic groups at school. Projects of this type combine teaching pupils basic primary school subjects that are on the school curriculum and some optional subjects, like Folklore and Ethnic Varieties, as well as Computer Skills in multi-ethnic groups (when possible), so as to engage pupils in school activities for a longer period of time (as many of them cannot afford to buy home computers), and to teach them tolerance and solidarity with people of different ethnic minorities. Even though, according to the official statistics, only 5% of the population claims that their mother tongue is the Romani language, the real number is

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria

223

much bigger. It is interesting that there are even some multilingual Roma minority groups speaking Turkish, Romani and Bulgarian depending on the region where they live. The same statistics show that about 10% of the population in Bulgaria speaks Turkish as a mother tongue. In view of the changes in the political system in 1989, ethnic Turkish people in Bulgaria are not prohibited from using their language or names in public. Nowadays, the younger generation of this minority group successfully use their good Turkish language skills for business relations and trade contacts with enterprises in Turkey. Another far smaller group of bilingual or in the majority of cases, multilingual Bulgarians, consists of younger people or students who return to the country after having spent years abroad, mainly in European countries, and having proficiency in one or more of the following European languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian or Greek.

1.2 Bilingual education in Bulgaria In the second half of the 19th century the first foreign language schools opened. The first American school was opened in 1860 (later the American College), closely followed by French and German schools offering the respective languages of instruction for their students. In 1950 the first language state secondary school for bilingual education was set up in the town of Lovech, where a variety of subjects were taught in German, English and French, and the intensive study of a foreign language in the 8th grade was introduced. At present in Bulgaria there are no regional and/or minority languages with official status in addition to Bulgarian. Pupils whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian are entitled to study their mother tongue (Turkish, Romani, Armenian and Hebrew are the traditional ethnic minorities in Bulgaria) from the 1st to the 8th grade, in addition to the compulsory study of Bulgarian. The mother tongue is taught 4 hours a week and the respective textbooks are provided for free with the teaching financed by municipal budgets. Students begin to learn their first foreign language as an obligatory subject at the age of 8, and the second foreign language at 15. Some schools put more emphasis on foreign languages. According to the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science regulations, those secondary schools which offer intensive foreign language programmes for their students are allowed to have a foreign language of instruction for some subjects on the school curriculum. However, the subject teachers’ foreign language level requirement needs

224

Chapter Fourteen

to be at B2 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Subject teachers are provided with programmes of the subject content and topics, and in some cases with textbooks written in the language of instruction. At present, bilingual education is offered in the 9th, 10th and/or 11th grades in about 120 mostly government-funded high schools (predominantly foreign language schools and a few vocational ones). Bilingual education here is provided by about 500 teachers, half of whom teach subjects in English, and the rest of them in German, French, Spanish, Russian and Italian. The curriculum of these schools offers an intensive study (18 – 21 classes a week) of a foreign language for the 8th grade students (who are usually 14 years old and are selected for admission after sitting end-of-level exams in the Bulgarian language and mathematics at the end of the 7th grade). Subjects like history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, IT and philosophy are mainly taught in a foreign language for one or two academic years. There are specially-written books for only some of the subjects and in some cases the original Bulgarian textbook in a definite subject is translated into the foreign language needed, which often gives rise to unprofessional practice with respect to the amount of the written material and the suitability of the activities done in a non-native language. Over the last ten years, after studying in the so-called leistungsklasse (advanced studies class) at foreign language schools where German is taught, and after a final exam, the successfully graduated students obtain a certificate which allows them to enter German universities without any other special language test in German. In May 2015, as a result of an agreement between the French Institute and the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, the first classes of Bulgarian students in 10 state foreign language schools where curricular subjects are taught in French, were awarded a certificate after obtaining a pass in an exam on bilingual Francophone training. Ten foreign language schools in the country have classes in which Spanish is the language of instruction and if their students would like to graduate with the Spanish bachillerato (Spanish certificate of secondary education), they have to sit written and oral exams in the Spanish language, literature and culture, plus an exam on a choice subject taught in Spanish. The exams are arranged on the basis of an agreement between the ministries of education of Spain and Bulgaria.

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria

225

2. CLIL education 2.1 Methodological principles CLIL, which stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning, was created in the 1990s as an innovative approach to the teaching of curricular subjects by means of a foreign language so as to enhance both the content knowledge of the subjects and the development of the students’ foreign language skills. A team of educators and university lecturers contributed to the CLIL Compendium, supported by the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission, by carrying out a research project to define the major dimensions and principles of this widely-spread approach nowadays. Their efforts and the final result of their work correspond to the fulfilment of the EU requirement for every European citizen to speak two more languages, in addition to their native language. A number of important aspects like culture, environment, language, content and learning, as well as a variety of specific features such as the learners’ age and their experience with CLIL, have been taken into consideration. One of the main principles of CLIL is that the additional languages are used as means of learning and communicating; thus knowledge of the language becomes the means to learning content. Learners develop fluency in the foreign language by using it to communicate for a variety of purposes, so fluency is more important than accuracy. In a well-developed bilingual programme, five to seven years of study are necessary for the students to become proficient in the language as they can improve their language skills in real-life situations. The approach itself is called “integrated” because apart from the integration of the subject and language knowledge, sometimes the use of two languages is involved in CLIL classes. CLIL is viewed as an approach to encourage and promote linguistic diversity. Two types of CLIL have been distinguished and the distinction between them is based on the languages in which the non-language subjects are taught: Type A includes non-language subjects that are taught through a foreign language, while Type B includes non-language subjects that are taught through a regional and/or minority language, or a second/another official language. Another distinction is based on the organisational structure, which in some cases means teaching curricular topics as part of a language course (soft CLIL or language-led CLIL). In other cases it means almost half of the curriculum being taught in the target language (hard CLIL or subject-

226

Chapter Fourteen

led CLIL), or covering only parts of a subject syllabus in the target language (modular CLIL). A CLIL lesson should address both subject content and the language in which it is taught. Although one can draw some comparisons to an integrated skills foreign language lesson which focuses on the four language skills, the CLIL lesson is neither a language lesson nor a subject lesson taught in a foreign language. According to the 4Cs curriculum created by Coyle, Hood and Marsh (2010), a successful CLIL lesson contains the following four components, which are interrelated: x Content – developing knowledge, skills and understanding based on specific elements of the curriculum; cross-curricular links among the subjects are developed, which lead to a better analysis; x Communication – using language to learn while learning to use language and both oral and written production of the subject knowledge; integration of the subject knowledge and language skills and classroom meaningful interaction that increase student talking time (STT) and reduce teacher talking time (TTT); x Cognition – linking the development of thinking skills with the formation of concepts, understanding and language; challenging learners’ reasoning, creative thinking and evaluating; teaching them the language necessary for their thoughts and ideas development; x Culture (citizenship or community) – boosting deeper awareness of otherness and self through exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings; a greater number of cultural contexts can be introduced through CLIL; responsibility and positive attitude are boosted in communication with or about other cultures. In addition to the main concepts of the teaching theory of CLIL, the importance of some other core elements should be stressed as well: x Synchronisation between the language and content learning objectives in order to boost both the language and subject content in every single lesson; x Selection and adaptation of input in terms of both spoken and written language, style, etc., so that CLIL students can communicate effectively;

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria

227

x Stimulation of output for students to show their knowledge of both subject matter and language; x Multimodality which contributes to an easier application of different learning styles opens up multiple opportunities for input and output production in a variety of ways using different resource materials; x Support from the teacher also comes in a variety of ways, through teaching various learning strategies to activate students’ prior knowledge, to facilitate by either a cooperative learning environment or scaffolding techniques.

2.2 Challenges and benefits Undoubtedly, the flexibility of the CLIL approach creates variable class/group dynamics and encourages diverse teaching/learning styles. Additionally, it is often seen as a powerful booster for learners’ motivation to develop foreign/second/minority language skills and confidence as well as knowledge of a curricular subject. Making good use of students’ drive and parents’ ambitions, some schools decide to improve their school profiles by adding CLIL subjects to the curriculum. This has its positive effects since it ensures these schools’ popularity and students’ enrolment, which is of great importance considering the much lower birth-rate in Bulgaria which has caused an increasing number of secondary schools to close down in the last decade and has caused unemployment among teachers in the country. Many TEFL teachers confirm that CLIL intensifies and gives more chances to students’ successful international certification. Students’ CLIL education builds their linguistic and intercultural awareness in relation to their future studies, as well as their personal and working lives. In fact, while studying at university many of them will undertake exchange mobility to a foreign partner institution or apply for undergraduate or postgraduate programmes abroad or even settle permanently in a new social environment as migrants. There are still challenging problems in CLIL education concerning organisation, insufficient provision of teaching materials/textbooks and lack of special teacher-training programmes in some regions. Nevertheless, the unique experience of bilingual education with CLIL goads students and teachers alike to constantly use creativity and be fired with enthusiasm.

228

Chapter Fourteen

3. A CLIL case study 3.1 CLIL tourism and entrepreneurship subjects in the school curriculum Rayko Tsonchev High School of Tourism and Entrepreneurship is a small private school affiliated with the Department for Modern Methods of Education at the International University College in Dobrich, Bulgaria, founded in 2007. The course of studies covers five academic years and new students are enrolled after they finish 7th grade, having successfully passed the national end-of-level exams in the Bulgarian language and mathematics. The admission procedure also includes an interview with a panel of teachers, plus at least one senior student. In their first year (8th grade), students study English for 18 academic hours a week, which is the practice in other high schools of the country as well. The advantage of this school is the smaller number of students in class (not more than 15), and the possibility to study English in different level groups as some of the students come from rural areas where they have studied German as a foreign language. This is not the case at state or government-funded schools where larger groups of not less than 25 to 26 students start having intensive classes of a foreign language at the same level. Another advantage is the fact that English is not only the language of instruction in some subjects, but it is also the language of communication among some of the students who are of mixed nationalities. The interaction with IUC international students, who use the same facilities, library and premises, as well as the common events and projects, inevitably influences the creation of an English language environment for the high school students. The two programmes or profiles of secondary education as shown in Table 14.1, namely Tourism & Entrepreneurship, include a certain number of speciality subjects taught in English. While referring back to the distinction made in one of the previous parts of this chapter, in Table 14.1 we can see that the Hard or Subject-led CLIL is practised at the High School of Tourism and Entrepreneurship. In Appendix I and Appendix II at the end of this chapter, the syllabus for the subject of Ecotourism has been included, in order to give a clearer vision of the topics covered in a CLIL-taught subject. The syllabus has been translated from the topical programme provided by the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgarian.

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria Table 14.1: Speciality Subjects Grade / Student’s Age Speciality Subject

9th grade / 15 - 16 years old

For Both Tourism & Entrepreneurship Students Basics of Market Economy

10th grade /16 - 17 years old

For Tourism Students Geography of Tourism and Cultural Studies Basics of Tourism

11th grade / 17 - 18 years old

Language of Instruction

Lessons per week

Bulgarian

4

English English

2 3

For Entrepreneurship Students Entrepreneurship Geography and Economy

English English

3 1

For Tourism Students Geography of Tourism and Cultural Studies Tourism Management Marketing and Advertising in Tourism

English English English

1 3 3

English English English

3 3 1

Bulgarian

4

English English

3 6

Bulgarian English

4 2

English

3

For Entrepreneurship Students Entrepreneurship Marketing & Advertising Geography and Economy

12th grade / 18 - 19 years old

229

For Both Tourism & Entrepreneurship Students Accounting For Tourism Students Tourism Management Ecotourism For Entrepreneurship Students Company Law Geography and Economy Business English & Communication

3.2 Students’ motivation for higher education Business Studies The average level of the students’ English language skills when they finish 8th grade is B+, as measured by the end-of-year foreign language exam for all 8-graders at a national level. In the previous years all high-school graduates, forty-three in number, were involved in bilingual education. Concomitantly, in the first two years the lack of materials for this age group was highly problematic. Nowadays, teachers have gained practical and methodological experience in many aspects of organising and teaching a subject in a foreign language.

230

Chapter Fourteen

There are four teachers teaching CLIL subjects at present; three of them are TESOL teachers with qualifications in tourism and geography, and one native speaker, an International Business and Management graduate reading for his degree (MBA) in Cardiff Metropolitan University run by International University College, Bulgaria. Last year, an English language Comenius programme assistant from the United Kingdom worked at the high school and the year before that, an American volunteer from the Peace Corps organisation joined, which undoubtedly influenced not only students’ fluency, but also their motivation to participate more enthusiastically in class activities. The present author’s research on the topic of students’ motivation to study Business, Economics and Tourism has been organised mainly around recent interviews with 70% of the high-school graduates, as well as by means of discussions and observations in the previous school years. The interviews investigated whether CLIL lessons contributed to an improvement in the English language, so much so that some of the students decided to choose English-taught Bachelor’s programmes. Fiftythree percent of the students (23 in number) have also decided to study Business, Economics and Tourism in Bulgarian universities and other institutions abroad. Seventeen students (40%) chose English-taught programmes related to Business, Economics and Tourism at International University College, Bulgaria, Newcastle University, University of Surrey, and Goldsmiths College at the University of London. The other preferred programme was Computer Technologies, for which proficiency in English is also needed. There are, of course, some talented exceptions to the rule such as one student studying International and European Law at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, another student at the Academy of Contemporary Music in the United Kingdom and another student studying Primary School Foreign Language Education. Interestingly, these students firmly believe in the value of intensive English classes and CLIL subject teaching for their present successful studies. The CLIL implementation in the school system has been measured over the last academic year and some direct observations were carried out in the previous years. At the beginning of 9th grade, students start with Basics of Market Economy and they are not entirely convinced that their future studies and career will be in the field of Business and Economics. Then, continuing in the 10th grade with two other special subjects which are taught in English, students gain confidence in their own abilities, and at the beginning of the second term of the 10th grade, one third of them are determined that they will choose the same subjects in Higher Education. The students’ decisions are supported or explained by a few major and

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria

231

equally important factors. In the first place some of the families run their own businesses, so at the age of sixteen the majority of the students get involved in some duties. According to half of them, Business and Economics are popular and frequently chosen because, even when taught in a foreign language, they are easier to tackle and do not require a specific skill or talent as it is the case with arts, for instance. Practicality is an additional reason that extensively contributes to their determination in choosing such a career. Last but not least, students feel they are prepared and have better prospects since in special subject classes, most of which are taught in English, they are exposed to a creative working environment and to realities achieved through learning-by-doing strategies. The firsthand experience of organising a field trip, analysing a case study, or writing a business plan in a non-native language for instance, definitely forms self-assured business people with strongly participative attitudes.

4. Department for Modern Methods of Education 4.1 MME structure Modern Methods of Education (MME) is a new department whose aim is to develop innovative methodology and training programmes on a variety of aspects of contemporary education for high school teachers, managers of educational institutions and university lecturers. The structure consists of the following sections: Foreign Languages, Methodology and Specialised Education, and the affiliated High School of Tourism and Entrepreneurship. Participating in a number of projects organised by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission, the lecturers and teachers of the Department develop their own expertise in educational technologies. Some recent innovative contributions made by the Department have been directed towards facilitating dialogue between Management and Pedagogy. The following training programmes have been designed: x A two-semester pre-service teacher-training programme for graduate and undergraduate students in economics, business and tourism; x In-service training courses for teachers and managers of schools in the field of managerial competence in two aspects – effective management of educational institutions and management of the classroom;

232

Chapter Fourteen

x In-service training courses for foreign language teachers and CLIL teachers.

4.2 In-Service teacher training The main form of the previously-mentioned dialogue between Management and Pedagogy is Masterclass which has these characteristics: x Participants as educators for whom achievement and success come through innovation; x Practically oriented training in real-life school and classroom situations; x Thematically defined setting depending on the subject of the course; x The opportunity for Masterclass students to develop their innovative idea and contribute to the Yearbook of IUC. In the previous academic year, 143 participants took part in six Masterclass editions. They work in various types of educational institutions on different levels of education – kindergarten, middle school, high school and vocational school. Masterclass training teams also include students from pre-service teacher training programmes who are involved as facilitators or moderators. A group of participants in the Masterclass edition for CLIL teachers consists of: x Curricular subject teachers from foreign language high schools (they have traditions and serve as a good example of bilingual education) and comprehensive schools, who are on the way to boosting their school profiles by introducing CLIL; x Foreign Language teachers from vocational schools who teach the subject Foreign Language for Specific Purposes in the 12th grade; x Foreign Language teachers who help subject teachers to organise extra-curricular activities for their students. A major advantage of such a group is that both good practice models and challenges are discussed, and solutions for difficulties and drawbacks are offered.

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria

233

4.3 Pre-Service teacher training CLIL teachers’ education in Bulgaria is run by teacher training centres, which are sometimes part of universities and which offer courses for practising subject teachers who teach in a foreign language. University teachers’ education for subject teachers does not include CLIL methodology or practice. That is why the MME Department developed a course for the pre-service teacher training programme consisting of six main topics plus a system of observation and teaching practice. The topics include: x Bilingual education – basic concepts of CLIL; x CLIL teaching techniques for the subjects of business and economics; x Textbooks and materials development; x Usage and adaptation of Internet resources: films, music and songs in CLIL; x Evaluation of students’ achievement tests development; x Professional development for CLIL teachers. The course is part of the subject Methodology of Secondary School Teaching and has incorporated the basic topics for Initial Teacher Training for CLIL. However, it is the belief at the MME Department that all subject teachers should be better trained in order to learn how to “integrate content and language teaching and become language-sensitive in their approach” as stated by Wolff (2012: 110), because of the serious responsibility that rests on the shoulders of non-language subject teachers to promote the foreign/non-native language. The European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education devised by Marsh et al. (2010) develops the concept of language sensitive content teaching and focuses on “defining the expertise a student is expected to attain when enrolling in such a programme” (Wolff 2012: 110). The Framework is an extremely useful tool when constructing a modular Teacher Training course for future CLIL educators comprising both professional competences and professional development.

5. Conclusion As has already been stated, one of the key principles on which CLIL education is based is building students’ linguistic and intercultural awareness for their successful future studies and careers. The opinions and interviews with high-school students presented here confirmed this by

234

Chapter Fourteen

outlining a more than adequate completion of the students’ educational profile. It would be a rewarding task for the team of the MME Department and the author herself to undertake a research project on the most effective CLIL strategies and techniques whose efficient usage contributes to raising the above mentioned linguistic and intercultural awareness. The detailed knowledge of these strategies will be of primary importance in designing the solid foundation of a thorough and comprehensive teacher training programme covering a few modules leading to better implementation of the CLIL methodology and training of CLIL teachers as innovators. Trainee students’ general opinion is that the present course should be extended in time and enriched with additional topics on good CLIL pedagogy, classroom discourse and networking. These ideas could be fully exploited by commencing a combined project initiative with other/another educational institution(s) to create a professional development programme in which student-led research activities will be a highly beneficial boost to the programme and students alike.

References Coyle, D., Hood, P. and Marsh, D. 2010. CLIL. Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. EACEA/Eurydice 2012. Key Data on Education in Europe 2012. Brussels: EACEA P9 Eurydice. Kamenova, D. and Todorova, M. 2014. The Role of International University College for the Development of Managerial Competence in Education, Yearbook of IUC, Vol. VII. Bulgaria: International University College. Marsh, D., Mehisto, P., Wolff, D. and Frigols, M. 2010. European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education: A framework for the professional development of CLIL teachers. Graz: European Centre for Modern Languages. National Statistical Institute. 2013. Education and Lifelong Learning. Education in the Republic of Bulgaria. Accessed February 3, 2015. http://www.nsi.bg/en/content/4769/education-and-lifelong-learning Wolff, D. 2012. The European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education. Synergies Italie, 8, 105-116.

A CLIL Model in Bilingual Education in Bulgaria

235

Appendix I Table 14.2: Ecotourism Syllabus for the 12th grade of High School PROFILE: Tourism A. Introduction: The present syllabus comprises topics, whose purpose is to enable students to acquire indepth specialist knowledge and professional competences in the main types of alternative tourism, specifically ecotourism, rural tourism, agritourism, etc. In the process of teaching a strong relation with other curricular subjects like geography, psychology, ethics, law, IT, etc. is developed. It is required that students apply the theoretical concepts in practice by visiting various places of interest and organizing specialised tours. B. Modules: Module One. Origin and Development of Ecotourism x Characteristic features: mass and alternative tourism, nature tourism x Ecotourism definitions; the concept of ecotourism x Ecotourism as a market segment Module Two. Nature of Ecotourism and Special Features x Sustainable ecotourism x Elements of ecotourism x Requirements and tasks of ecotourism x Urban ecotourism Module Three. Marketing of Ecotourism x Ecological and social marketing x Steps of ecotourism marketing x Strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of ecotourism marketing Module Four. Status and Prospects of Ecotourism Development in Bulgaria x Prerequisites for the development of ecotourism x Definitions and specifics of ecotourism in Bulgaria x Conditions and strategies for development x Biological diversity in Bulgaria

236

Chapter Fourteen

Appendix II Table 14.3: Ecotourism Syllabus for the 12th grade of High School PROFILE: Tourism Module Five. Ecotourism Destinations x Three national parks – Rila, Pirin, Central Balkan x Eleven natural parks x Reserves, biosphere reserves and protected areas x Eco paths x National tourist sites of Bulgaria: the movement ‘100 Tourist Sites’ – caves, lakes, falls, monasteries, etc. Module Six. Specialised Tours x Plant watching routes and tours x Bird watching routes and tours x Mammal tracking routes and tours x Walking routes and tours x Cycling routes and tours x Horse riding routes and tours Module Seven. Rural Tourism x Definitions, origin, development x Elements and characteristics x Rural tourism and agritourism x Customer’s profile x Customer service x Rural tourism destinations C. Expected Results: At the end of their course of study in Ecotourism, 1. students will have knowledge of: x basic notions of ecotourism x ecotourism resources, factors and tendencies x development of ecotourism in Bulgaria 2. students will be able to: x use the specific terminology of ecotourism x research specialised materials x analyse tourism resources in Bulgaria x prepare reports and essays on a definite ecotourism topic

PART VI TRILINGUALISM

CHAPTER FIFTEEN ITALIAN AS MALTA’S THIRD LANGUAGE: PROFICIENCY, PERCEPTIONS AND PUBLIC SPACE VISIBILITY LYDIA SCIRIHA

1. Introduction Malta is not a big island. It has a total surface area of 246 square kilometres and its distance from the north-west to the south-west is about 27 kilometres. Its greatest width is 14 kilometres in an east-westerly direction. It is only 93 kilometres from Sicily and 288 kilometres from the North African mainland. Despite its small size, Malta’s strategic position at the centre of the Mediterranean Sea was coveted and fought-over by a long succession of rulers. Some of the more recent conquerors in Malta’s turbulent history who left an indelible mark on the languages which are spoken nowadays were the Arabs (870 – 1090), the Normans (1090 – 1266), the Aragonese (1283 – 1410), the Castilians (1412 – 1530), the Knights of St John (1530 – 1798), the French (1798 – 1800), and the British (1800 –1964).

2. The vicissitudes of Italian in Malta The expulsion of the Arabs by Count Roger the Norman in 1090, and the subsequent arrival of the Knights of the Order of St John in 1530 ensured that Malta came in contact with the Tuscan variety of Italian (later present-day Italian), which was used for administration, commerce, education and cultural purposes. This however, was not the only language spoken by the Order since the Knights hailed from different parts of Europe and French, Spanish, German and English were also spoken. Even so, Italian was the dominant language, despite the fact that the majority of the Knights were of French and Spanish origins. The position of Italian

240

Chapter Fifteen

was further consolidated from the 17th century onwards; the geographic proximity to Italy encouraged Maltese intellectuals who spoke and wrote in Italian, to further their studies in Italy (Marshall 1971; Brincat 1992). In 1780 Italian became Malta’s official language. Italian still retained its important role during the brief French interlude. Both French and Italian were the languages of the law courts. However, the fate of Italian changed with the arrival of Malta’s last colonisers. The British, who were no different from previous rulers, did their best to enforce their language, even though they knew that it would neither be swift nor smooth as they were acutely aware of the “thoroughly Italianate culture” (Frendo 1979: 2) present in Malta. During British rule, the linguistic situation was that of diglossia without bilingualism (Fishman 1967), since Maltese intellectuals spoke and wrote in Italian while the overwhelming majority of illiterate Maltese spoke the indigenous language which according to Aquilina (1972: 29) “mhux minn dejjem kienet illingwa tal-koltura” (it was not always the language of culture). In fact, during the first decades of British rule the language situation present in Malta did not undergo major upheavals. Italian was retained as the language of the law courts. Moreover, educated Maltese who were mostly professionals continued using Italian. Though the British acknowledged Italian as a useful language in view of Malta’s close geographic proximity to Italy, yet they did not want Italian to dominate Malta’s linguistic scene. Maltese lawyers strongly opposed the introduction of English because, as Bianca Fiorentini (1966: 52) in her book Malta rifugio di esuli e focolare ardente di cospirazione durante il Risorgimento italiano, aptly remarks “l’atteggiamento ostile assunto dai legali maltesi verso l’inglese era dovuto principalmente a motivi di carattere economico” (the Maltese lawyers’ hostile attitude towards English was principally due to motives of an economic nature) and “Il cambiamento della lingua nelle procedure giudiziarie avrebbe messo l’amministrazione della giustizia a disposizione degli inglesi; e gli avvocati maltesi si sarebbero trovati nell’alternativa di sottomettersi o di rimanere tagliati fuori dalla loro professione” (The change of language in judicial proceedings would have placed the administration of justice under the control of the British, and the Maltese lawyers would have been faced with the option of either ceding or being forced out of their profession). Nevertheless, it was Patrick Keenan’s Report on the Educational System in Malta in 1879 which brought about language changes. In this report, he highlighted the fact that only a small fraction of children between the ages of 5 to 10 knew Maltese. “Of those aged 10 and 15 only about one-sixteenth of the general population was supposed to know – or

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

241

actually did know – any language other than Maltese” (Marshall 1971: 35). Keenan’s recommendations ensured a reform in the educational system, wherein both Maltese and English would play an important role in the schools’ syllabi (Marshall 1971). Needless to say, such proposed changes triggered fierce debates in the Council of Government. However, reform did occur because it was patently untenable for Italian to retain its supremacy in a country ruled by the British and whose overwhelmingly illiterate population spoke Maltese only. By 1868, Maltese children received their elementary education in a government school, while those belonging to the middle and upper classes attended private fee-paying church schools. After having completed the first two school years in Maltese, students had the choice of studying either Italian or English. This was in reality Hobson’s choice, since choosing Italian meant as Cini rightly remarks, “a sure way to die of hunger”, while students studying English received “honours, nominations for positions and jobs” (1901: 22, as cited in Barnaba 2004). Such educational measures diminished the importance of Italian even though the 1921 Constitution of Malta had granted it official status with English. A few years later Maltese replaced Italian as an official language. In 1964 Malta attained its independence from Britain and Malta’s bilingual status is inscribed in Article 5 of the Constitution of Malta. While Maltese is both the national and official language as well as the language of the law courts and of parliament, English is co-official with Maltese. The importance of Italian had rapidly declined not only because it ceased to be an official language in 1934, but especially so during the Second World War, when the Maltese islands were bombed by Italy. Understandably so, the Maltese for some time harboured bitter sentiments towards the Italians and by extension Italian. However, a reversal in the fortunes of Italian occurred with the advent of television in Malta in the late 1950s, and especially later on in the 1970s and 1980s when most Maltese households possessed at least one television. Since public and private Italian channels were also easily accessible, the Maltese enjoyed watching Italian programmes and this improved their knowledge of the Italian language. Studies by Caruana (2003, 2006, 2009), Marmarà (2004) and Audino (2008) show these programmes’ positive effects on language learning in Malta. Maltese children had at least an incipient knowledge of Italian on entering primary school; and by the time Italian was formally taught at secondary level, their knowledge of Italian as a foreign language was already quite good. In fact:

242

Chapter Fifteen Some students even sit for the SEC examination of Italian without ever having studied the language. Some of these students sit for this examination after attending private lessons or even classes for a few months, whereas others sit for the examination relying exclusively on the competence that they may have obtained after watching Italian television programmes for many years (Caruana 2000: 31, as cited in Caruana 2013).

Moreover, he contends that at times students did not opt for Italian as a foreign language because they felt that they knew it already and chose other more demanding languages such as German and Spanish. Caruana (2013) acknowledges the predictions by Brincat (1998) that the introduction of cable television in the 1990s would have had a deleterious effect on the learning of Italian. This linguistic overview has provided the backdrop on the vicissitudes of the Italian language in Malta. Is Italian a third language in Malta? This question will be answered by taking into account three aspects: (i) proficiency levels of the Maltese in respect of Italian which are given by means of the Census data and data from the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) results; (ii) perceptions of the Maltese towards Italian through data obtained from a scientifically-representative language survey; (iii) visibility of Italian in the linguistic landscape.

3. Proficiency in Italian - Census and SEC examinations The Maltese consider knowledge of languages as useful as is clearly evident in the findings of a language survey by Sciriha and Vassallo (2006) which reveal that an impressive total of 97.2% of the Maltese consider knowing at least one foreign language, in addition to the two official ones, as either ‘very useful’ (62.8%) or ‘useful’ (34.4%). Language learning is a worthwhile cause since it enables the Maltese to obtain better work opportunities, especially since proficiency in a number of languages is important in a country where tourism is one of the three pillars of its economy. The Maltese mostly want to learn foreign languages for instrumental and not integrative reasons. In view of the overtly-positive attitudes by the Maltese towards languages and language learning, is Italian one of the languages in which they are proficient? What do the Census findings reveal in this regard? Unlike the Census (2005) questionnaire, which contained two questions on language use, the most recent Census (2011) questionnaire included only one question regarding language proficiency by (i) Maltese, and (ii) non-Maltese populations. From a total of six languages – the two official languages – Maltese and English – and another four foreign

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

243

languages (Italian, French, German and Arabic), respondents were asked to self-evaluate their spoken proficiency along a four-scale continuum (‘well’, ‘not bad’, ‘a little’ and ‘none at all’). Unfortunately, no possibility was given to those respondents who knew other languages to list them in the questionnaire. A breakdown of the Census (2011) findings as presented in Table 15.1 shows that of the Maltese population, 93.2% noted that they know Maltese ‘well’, while at the same proficiency level, lower percentages were registered in respect of English (65.8%) and Italian (24.7%). At the highest proficiency level, the disparity between Italian and French stands at 21.6%, and when Italian is compared to German and Arabic, the differences are 23.65% and 23.66% respectively. Noteworthy is the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Maltese (59.2%) claimed to speak Italian at different proficiency levels, even if 17.9% of the respondents can only speak ‘a little’. The chasm between Italian and the other non-official languages is indeed striking especially with regard to Arabic, the language which is genetically closest to Maltese – a mere 1.04% of the Maltese population claimed to speak the language well. This extremely low percentage is rather surprising since Arabic was a compulsory language for twelve years (1975 – 1987) at secondary level in all Maltese state schools and an entry requirement for both sixth form and university. In view of its then obligatory status, one would have expected the Maltese to return much higher percentages in Arabic. Italian sits comfortably in third position among the other languages. Table 15.1: Spoken Language proficiency in six languages by the Maltese aged 10 and over (Census 2011) Well

Average

A little

Not at all

Ranking

%

%

%

%

Maltese

93.2

1.5

2.2

3.1

1

English

65.8

16.3

9.4

8.5

2

Italian

24.7

16.6

17.9

40.8

3

French

3.1

5.0

13.5

78.4

4

German

1.05

1.05

3.7

94.2

5

Arabic

1.04

0.65

2.96

95.35

6

(Source: National Statistics Office)

When the non-Maltese population is taken into consideration, Italian, the uncontested third language of the Maltese, relinquishes its position to

Chapter Fifteen

244

French (Table 15.2). In fact, the non-Maltese residents in Malta during the Census day in November 2011 overwhelmingly stated that they speak English ‘well’ (75.2%) but indeed, very few claimed to speak Maltese equally ‘well’ (9.6%); in fact, the majority of them (55.8%) do not speak Maltese ‘at all’. French is the third spoken language, even though it is mostly spoken at the lowest level (‘a little’: 13.2%) by the non-Maltese and when compared to the other non-official languages, it registers the lowest percentage of those who cannot speak it ‘at all’ (French 74.8% vs. Arabic: 87.7%). However, it is important to add that compared to the Maltese residents (n = 352,121) aged 10 years and over, the number of non-Maltese residents is extremely small (n = 19,028). To this end, one needs to be careful when interpreting the Census findings for the nonMaltese population. Table 15.2: Spoken Proficiency in Six Languages by Non-Maltese (Census 2011) Final Ranking based on those who cannot speak the language ‘at all’

Well

Average

A little

Not at all

%

%

%

%

Maltese

9.6

5.5

29.1

55.8

2

English

75.2

11.4

9.6

3.8

1

French

7.6

4.4

13.2

74.8

3

Italian

8.6

2.6

9.8

79.0

4

German

7.7

2.8

7.8

81.7

5

Arabic

8.7

0.9

2.7

87.7

6

(Source: National Statistics Office)

Though the Census provides us with a wealth of data on spoken language proficiency in six languages by both the Maltese and nonMaltese populations, a caveat needs to be posited regarding such findings. As Romaine (1994) rightly contends, self-reporting is not always accurate since some respondents tend to find it difficult to assess their own linguistic proficiency. Moreover, this difficulty was further compounded by the fact that since respondents were not given definitions of what each proficiency label actually meant, both over-reporting and under-reporting could have taken place.

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

245

3.1 Proficiency at SEC level The Census data provided a snapshot of the linguistic situation in November 2011, but as mentioned earlier, self-evaluations are not always accurate. On the other hand, examinations which objectively assess both the spoken and written language skills are more precise indicators of candidates’ actual language proficiency. As a former British colony, Malta’s educational system is patterned on the British one; in their final secondary school year 16 year-old students who would all have studied at least one foreign language, in addition to the two official languages, sit for their nation-wide examinations set by the University of Malta’s MATSEC examining board. How do these students fare in Italian and other languages? Data for this section has been obtained from published MATSEC reports on the performance by candidates at the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examination. Over the years there have been some changes in the format of the examination papers. In fact: Since the introduction of the SEC examination with the new format of differentiated papers, [there is] more emphasis on listening comprehension and oral skills in language examinations, and school based coursework in a number of subjects. With the system of differentiated papers having a common Paper I and a choice of Paper IIA or IIB, the new SEC examination became closer to the GCSE system offered by UK examination boards and a more equitable system than the GCE, which it replaced and which was originally intended for about 20% of the 16 yearold cohort (MATSEC report, 2014: ii).

Table 15.3 gives the results of a total of 10 languages during the May 2014 session. It is apt to remark that as noted in the MATSEC statistical report, [t]he results for Paper IIA and IIB are given separately in order to give a comprehensive picture. The percentages of the different categories are worked out of the total registrations for the particular subjects (MATSEC report, 2014: 25).

During this examination session, the number of candidates sitting for Italian SEC is the highest of the non-official languages (Table 15.3) followed by French and German. As one would expect, the percentages of passes from Grades 1 – 5 (70.0%), which enable candidates to continue studying the subject at sixth form level, are lower than those for Grades 1 – 7 (85.0%); Greek and Latin (each at 0.0%) and Arabic (35.7%), register the lowest pass rates.

246

Chapter Fifteen

Of note is the fact that the percentages of candidates who obtained passes in Italian (Grades 1 – 7: 85.0% and Grades 1 – 5: 70.0%) are not the highest; those for Russian are indeed the highest (Grades 1 – 7: 100.0% and Grades 1 – 5: 95.2%) but the number of candidates sitting for this examination is extremely small (21) when compared to Italian (1924). Table 15.3: SEC passes in 2014 in 10 Languages Registered Passes (Grades 1 - 7) N= % Maltese 4502 76.9 English 5146 80.6 Italian 1924 85.0 French 1325 88.8 German 378 78.6 Spanish 301 80.7 Arabic 28 35.7 Russian 21 100.0 Greek 1 0.0 Latin 1 0.0

Passes (Grades 1 - 5) % 66.1 62.4 70.0 77.7 66.4 67.8 35.7 95.2 0.0 0.0

Furthermore, in order to provide a picture of student performance over a number of years, Tables 15.4 and 15.5 give a breakdown, only of the passes (Grades 1 – 5) which would enable students to continue studying the subject at sixth form level, in ten languages for a five-year period (2014 – 2010). What transpires from these tables is that when compared to the previous four years (2013: n = 2026; 2012: n = 2025, 2011: n = 2035; 2010: n = 2220) the lowest number of candidates sitting for Italian occurs in 2014 (1924). Moreover, this year also registers marginally lower passes in Grades 1 – 5 (70.0%) than in the previous four years (2013: 72.7%; 2012: 73.2%; 2011: 71.9%; 2010: 71.6%) Notwithstanding these differences, SEC examination results clearly show that Italian is robust in passes and especially in the number of candidates sitting for the language. Clearly, Italian stands in third position, only preceded by the two official languages.

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

247

Table 15.4: SEC Passes only in Grades 1 – 5 in 10 languages (2014 – 2012) 2014 N=

2013 N=

Pass %

2012 N=

Pass %

Pass %

Maltese

4502

66.1

4691

68

4950

64.2

English

5146

62.4

5121

64.5

5326

64.5

Italian

1924

70

2026

72.7

2025

73.2

French

1325

77.7

1402

76.7

1539

76.9

German

378

66.4

346

58.4

378

56.6

Spanish

301

67.8

311

71.4

257

71.2

Arabic

28

35.7

26

69.2

30

63.3

Russian

21

95.2

15

80

13

69.2

Greek

1

0

-

-

2

0

Latin

1

0

1

0

2

0

(Source: MATSEC statistical reports 2014 – 2012)

Table 15.5: SEC Passes only in Grades 1 – 5 in 10 languages (2011 – 2010) 2011

2010

N=

Pass %

N=

Pass %

Maltese

4940

56.7

5236

55.3

English

5371

59.8

5692

57.1

Italian

2035

71.9

2220

71.6

French

1663

76

1713

75.7

German

469

55.9

473

44.8

Spanish

288

71.2

304

67.1

Arabic

13

30.8

16

37.5

Russian

19

94.7

12

66.7

Greek

-

-

-

-

Latin

2

0

-

-

(Source: MATSEC statistical reports 2011 – 2010)

248

Chapter Fifteen

4. Perceptions on Italian – Survey on Language Ranking As is evident from the previous section, data from both Census 2011 and SEC statistical examination reports (2014 – 2010) clearly show that Italian occupies the third position. Yet, do the perceptions that the Maltese people have towards Italian tally with such findings? Do the Maltese perceive Italian as Malta’s third language? Though linguists believe all languages to be important and worthy of study, not everyone holds such open-minded views. For most people, languages are important because they provide good working opportunities and also because they are widely-spoken. In this regard noteworthy is the fact that Hammond (2012) provides different classifications of the top 10 languages. He cites the language classification by Ethnologue which provides data on the most widely-spoken languages by native speakers. In this classification, Mandarin is the top language, followed by Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese and Javanese. Another classification retrieved from the Encyclopaedia Britannica but which also includes non-native speakers, places English in first position, followed by Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Malay, Portuguese and Japanese. Interestingly, if one were to adopt the classification of languages by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, then Maltese state schools teach three of the top 10 mostwidely spoken languages (English, Spanish and Arabic). Seminal research on language attitudes and perceptions include Lambert et al. (1960), Tucker (1968), Bentahila (1983) Luhman (1990), and others. While the socio-psychological approach to language perceptions and attitudes obtains its information regarding views and reactions towards languages using an indirect method, the sociolinguistic approach obtains data in a direct way, by means of a questionnaire as the instrument used. In their scientifically-representative survey on language perceptions, Sciriha and Vassallo (2006) adopted the sociolinguistic approach. The perceptions of the Maltese on some languages was obtained through a structured questionnaire, where respondents were asked to rank the two official languages and another five languages Italian, French, German, Spanish and Arabic – which are the languages on offer in state schools – in order of importance as: (i) citizens of Malta and (ii) citizens of the world. Perceptions were obtained through ranking which can be, [o]bjective when it is based on the real value a language has because of the number of persons using it, or it can be subjective when based on the perceived importance it has for the individual, or because of emotional ties a person has with it (Sciriha and Vassallo 2006: 67).

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

249

Interestingly, as shown in Table 15.6, in answer to the first question, the Maltese in this study rank Italian in third position, while notably Italian improves to second position when the same languages are ranked by the Maltese as citizens of the world. The Maltese accord Italian second position status just behind English, even though according to both Ethnologue and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Italian does not rank among the top 10 languages. Table 15.6: Ranking of Different Languages for Maltese as (i) citizens of Malta and (ii) citizens of the world Final Ranking as Languages Final Ranking as citizens of Malta citizens of the world 1st Maltese 5th nd 2 English 1st rd Italian 3 2nd th 4 French 3rd 5th German 4th th 6 Spanish 6th th 7 Arabic 7th (Adapted from Sciriha and Vassallo 2006: 72-73)

Languages Maltese English Italian French German Spanish Arabic

It is abundantly clear that the perceptions of the Maltese towards Italian are indeed very positive (both as ‘citizens of Malta’ and as ‘citizens of the world’). Interestingly, when the findings are further analysed in respect of the number of respondents who assigned 7th position to particular languages as ‘citizens of Malta’, only 3 of the 500 respondents in the survey placed Italian in final position; a higher incidence of the respondents placed the other foreign languages in 7th position (French: 7; German: 42; Spanish: 67; Arabic: 379). Moreover, when the respondents ranked the seven languages as ‘citizens of the world’, only one respondent ranked Italian in 7th position (French: 7; German: 24; Spanish: 31; Maltese: 154; Arabic: 283). In the eyes of the Maltese, the status of English as a global language is clear and in both questions nobody ranked it in final position. These findings are clear pointers that though languages may occupy top positions in the league of the most widely-spoken languages in the world, the Maltese do not always rank such languages on the number of speakers. The language classifications clearly show that Italian is not one of the top 10 spoken languages, yet the Maltese consider it to be important enough to be ranked as the third language, following Maltese and English,

250

Chapter Fifteen

as ‘citizens of Malta’, while as ‘citizens of the world’, the Maltese place Italian as the second most important language.

5. Public space visibility of Italian The position of Italian as Malta’s third language is endorsed not only in the Census and SEC findings but also in the way the Maltese perceive it. This third section of this chapter checks whether Italian’s third position is also confirmed in Malta’s linguistic landscape namely, the “visibility and salience of languages in the public and commercial signs in a given territory or region” (Landry and Bourhis 1997: 250). To date only a handful of studies have focused on the linguistic landscape of Malta and Gozo. Kremer (2012) analysed German in street names and place names in Malta’s capital city, Valletta, while three undergraduate students studied the presence of Italian in Malta and Gozo in two particular contexts: house names and shop names. The findings by Camilleri (2007) and Pace (2007) on house names, and those by Buttigieg (2011) on shop names evidence the robustness of Italian in both contexts, but particularly in house names. Camilleri’s (2007: 115) findings on house names in Gozo, place Italian in second position, only preceded by English: “2817 nomi di case sono in inglese, 1244 in italiano e anche 115 in francese” (2817 house names are in English, 1244 are in Italian and 115 are also in French). Nevertheless, in another study of house names (Pace 2007), this time in ĩurrieq, Malta, Italian occupies third position (189 names), preceded by English (832 names) and Maltese (354 names). In respect of shop names in Gozo (Buttigieg 2011), Italian occupies second place. From a total of 1361 shop names, 979 are in English, 47 in Italian and 42 in Maltese. Italian is more popular in Gozo than in Malta, its sister island. Since the above-mentioned four studies focus on merely four contexts (street names, place names, house names and shop names) we do not have a comprehensive picture of the linguistic landscape in other contexts and in both the official and non-official domains. For this reason a quantitative study was conducted by Sciriha and Vassallo (2015: 125-126) in which a scientific sample of the residential streets in Malta and Gozo was drawn and these localities were systematically surveyed for all the signs which are found in these streets in the 25 chosen localities: Valletta, Qormi, ĩebbuƥ, ĩabbar, ĩejtun, Attard, B’Kara, B’Buƥia, Fgura, Gƫarb (Gozo), ƪamrun, Lija, Wied il-Gƫajn, Mellieƫa, Mosta, Munxar (Gozo), Naxxar, Qala (Gozo), Safi, San Ƥwann, San Pawl il-Baƫar, Sta Luƛija, Sliema, ĩebbuƥ (Gozo) and Tarxien, starting from the first number of each street

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

251

in each locality. In this sampling exercise, some of the chosen localities (Valletta, Sliema, ƪamrun, Naxxar, Mellieƫa, Mosta) are also considered to be commercial ones, but the streets selected for the first part of this study belonged to the residential areas; the choice of these streets does not however, exclude any commercial activity, since most streets also have small convenience shops, stationeries and pharmacies. For this reason, though localities such as Sliema and Valletta were also included in the sample, the selected streets were residential ones and did not include shopping arcades or those with many commercial outlets. The data was collected by a team of twenty-five university students during the month of December 2012. They digitally photographed all the signs in different contexts in their assigned locality. These signs were later all categorised according to language choice (English, Maltese, Bilingual (M/E; E/M), English + Other Language (E+OL), Other Language (OL) and domain (government/non-governmental) and the data was subsequently entered into the computer using the IBM SPSS programme. Since the street sample was systematically selected through a two-stage random sampling procedure, the findings should be fairly representative of the total array of signs in all Malta and Gozo.

The survey findings on autonomous languages on signs revealed that overwhelmingly, monolingual signs were in English in both residential (68.6% vs. Maltese: 31.4%) and commercial localities (90.2% vs. Maltese: 9.8%). However, of note is the fact that other non-official languages (OL), notably Italian, are visible in particular contexts especially with regard to house names/names of flats (Photo 15.1), names of shops (Photo 15.2) and names of restaurants (Photo 15.3).

Photo 15.1: House name

252

Chapter Fifteen

Photo 15.2: Shop Name

Photo 15.3: Name of Restaurant

Moreover, what clearly transpires from these findings (Table 15.7) is that the Maltese and Gozitans have a predilection for languages – a staggering 23 languages, in addition to the official languages, were captured in the linguistic panorama of the two islands; some languages are more visible than others as is the case for Italian. A total of 429 and 414 signs were found in the residential and commercial localities respectively and in addition to other languages, all the foreign languages which are taught at secondary school inhabit the linguistic landscape. It is indeed striking that among the non-official languages, Italian ranks first in Malta’s linguistic landscape in both residential and commercial localities. However, when the official languages are taken into consideration, Italian occupies third place. Furthermore, in order to highlight the position of the languages in both residential and commercial localities, Sciriha and Vassallo (2015) collapse the entire survey findings (Table 15.8) and rank the languages according to their frequency on signs. The official languages hold first and second positions in both residential and commercial scenarios, while Italian surpasses the other foreign languages and sits comfortably in third position in both types of localities. As in Pace (2007) but not Camilleri (2007) and Buttigieg (2011), of all the languages that inhabit the linguistic landscape, Italian ranks third in this scientific survey of the signs in the public space.

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

253

Table 15.7: Frequency of Other Languages (OL) in Residential and Commercial localities Residential Commercial N= % N= % Italian 206 48.2 205 49.5 French 72 16.6 92 22.2 German 25 5.8 20 4.8 Arabic 6 1.4 5 1.2 Latin 52 12.1 26 6.1 Greek 19 4.4 5 1.2 Spanish 30 7.0 28 6.7 Russian 1 0.23 4 0.9 Chinese 5 1.2 12 2.8 Polish 2 0.5 3 0.7 Portuguese 2 0.5 1 0.2 Hawaiian 1 0.23 3 0.7 Indian 3 0.7 3 0.7 Dutch 1 0.23 3 0.7 Korean 3 0.7 Danish 2 0.4 Turkish 1 0.2 Lithuanian 1 0.2 Esperanto 1 0.2 Japanese 1 0.23 1 0.2 Hungarian 1 0.23 Indonesian 1 0.23 Irish 1 0.23 Total Number 100 429 414 100

(Source: Sciriha and Vassallo 2015: 131)

Table 15.8: Top 7 Languages in the Linguistic Landscape by Residential and Commercial Localities Residential Commercial N= Rank N= Rank Maltese 914 2 306 2 English 1997 1 2813 1 Italian 206 3 205 3 French 72 4 92 4 German 25 7 20 7 Latin 52 5 26 6 Spanish 30 6 28 5 (Source: Sciriha and Vassallo 2015: 132)

254

Chapter Fifteen

6. Conclusions It is an undisputed fact that Italian is Malta’s third language in all three aspects discussed in this chapter – proficiency in the language, the Maltese population’s perceptions regarding Italian, and its visibility in signs in the public sphere. In the linguistic landscape, Italian as the first foreign language is also clearly reflected in names of restaurants which owners proudly give to signal their allegiance to Italian cuisine and perhaps also to show off their knowledge of the language. It is patently obvious that the Maltese like the Italian language – its musicality and mellifluousness – and also its people, and they show this in a very tangible manner by also naming their home – one of their hard-earned and treasured possessions – in Italian. Though Malta is officially bilingual in Maltese and English, the Maltese government does not impose restrictions as to which languages are to be used in the public non-official domain sphere as is the case for French in Quebec wherein Bill 101 (Charter of the French Language) lists: A total of 214 Articles [which] provide regulations on virtually every facet of language use in public life, including legislation and the courts, civil administration, health and social services, instruction, work, commerce and business…[and] a huge number of Articles directly concerned the linguistic landscape issues (Backhaus 2009: 159).

The Maltese are given the freedom to express themselves in any language in the non-official domain and certainly they are not afraid to show their love of particular languages and cultures. Historically, for centuries Italian has had a strong foothold in Malta and it is hardly surprising that the British did not have an easy time to spread English, since Italian was deeply-rooted in Maltese culture. “Its importance was such that six newspapers were published in Italian” (Gullick 1974: 6). Even when it ceased to be an official language, Italian did not die a natural death because as Fishman (1970: 1) remarks: Language is not merely a carrier of content whether latent or manifest, language itself is content, a referent for loyalties and animosities, an indicator of social status and personal relationships, a marker of situations and topics as well as of societal goals and the large scale value-laden arenas of interaction that typify every speech community.

The Italian language is an expression of Italian culture with its connotations of literary excellence, magnificent architecture, breath-taking

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

255

art, exquisite cuisine, Christian values and a European lifestyle; the Maltese are only too happy to associate with such a culture and publically do so by opting to learn Italian at school and by using Italian in public signs. As such, the importance of language as an essential aspect of culture cannot be underestimated. Language reflects the fears, hopes and desires of people who use it as a means of interaction. It is specifically within this context that this chapter goes beyond the pure descriptive facets of language proficiency and language use. In their choice of languages persons do not simply select an instrument to understand one another and to communicate with each other. “Language is used to define world-views and construct meanings by the speakers about themselves and about their understanding of the geopolitical reality around them” (Sciriha 1996: 12). With this in mind, the relevance of the data given in the previous three parts of this chapter would be somewhat limited if it did not refer to the deeper processes at play. The position of Italian as a third language in Malta might change in the future due to outside forces. As shown in the Census 2011 findings, the ever-growing non-Maltese population resident in Malta displays different linguistic preferences from their Maltese counterparts. Moreover, the fiveyear cohort of passes in Italian at SEC level shows a slight drop in Italian. This confirms Brincat (1992, 2011) who had predicted a decline in Italian spoken and written proficiency levels which he attributes to the advent of cable television in Malta. In truth, in their language choices: Contemporary Maltese are effectively defining social reality and creating a universe of meaning about themselves and their visions for their country. The link between language and culture is not a fortuitous one; language is at one and the same time a microcosm and a macrocosm, a mirror of, and a motor for the development of reality much wider than the sounds that compose it and the rules that support it (Sciriha 1996: 12).

References Aquilina, J. 1972. L-Ilsien Malti. Malta: Malta University Press. Audino, M. 2008. L’acquisizione dell’italiano L2 tramite la television italiana a Malta. Unpublished BA dissertation. University of Malta. Backhaus, P. 2009. Rules and Regulations in Linguistic Landscaping: A Comparative Perspective. In Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenary, edited by E. Shohamy and D. Gorter, 157-172. New York and London: Routledge.

256

Chapter Fifteen

Barnaba, P. 2004. Italian and English. Unpublished study. University of Malta. Bentahila, A. 1983. Language Attitudes among Arabic-French Bilinguals in Morocco. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Brincat, J. 1992. La Lingua Italiana a Malta: Storia, Scuola e Società. Msida: Malta University Press. —. 1998. A Malta l’italiano lo insegna la televisione. Italiano e Oltre, 13, 52-8. —. 2011. Maltese and other languages. A Linguistic History of Malta. Malta: Midsea Books. Buttigieg, D. 2011. Il plurilinguismo nei nomi dei negozi a Gozo. Unpublished BA dissertation, University of Malta. Camilleri, A. 2007. Il plurilinguismo nei nomi delle case di Gozo. Unpublished BA dissertation, University of Malta. Caruana, S. 2003. Mezzi di communicazione e input linguistico. L’acquisizione dell’italiano L2 a Malta. Milano: Franco Angeli. —. 2006. Trilingualism in Malta – Maltese, English and italiano Televisivo. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(3), 159-72. —. 2009. ‘The Italian Job’: The impact of input from television on language learning. In Exploring the Maltese Media Landscape, edited by J. Borg, M. Lauri, and A. Hillman, 173-85. Valletta: Allied Newspapers Ltd. —. 2013. Italian in Malta: a socio-educational perspective. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 16(5), 602-614. Fiorentini, B. 1966. Malta rifugio di esuli e focolare ardente di cospirazione durante il Risorgimento italiano. Malta. Fishman, J. 1967. Bilingualism with and without diglossia. Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), 29-38. —. 1970. Sociolinguistics: A Brief Introduction. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Frendo, H. 1979. Party Politics in a Fortress Colony: The Maltese Experience. Malta: Midsea Books. Gullick, C. 1974. Language and Sentiment in Malta. New Community, 3, 92-103 Hammond, A. 2012. The Most Widely Spoken Languages. World of Languages Blog. Accessed August 22, 2012. http://blog.esllanguages.com/blog/esl/most-spoken-languages-world Kremer, A. 2012. Namen schildern: Straßennamen und andere Namensfelder im Deutsch als Fremdsprache-Unterricht. In Historische Quellen im DaF-Unterricht. Materialien Deutsch als Fremdsprache, edited by Marc Hieronimus, 135-176. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag.

Italian as Malta’s Third Language

257

Lambert, W., Hodgson, R., Gardner, P. and S. Fillenbaun. 1960. Evaluative reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60, 44-51. Landry, R. and Bourhis, R. 1997. Linguistic Landscape and EthnoLinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49. Luhman, R. 1990. Appalachian English stereotypes: language attitudes in Kentucky. Language in Society, 19, 331-348. Marmarà, E. 2004. Nuove considerazioni sulla popolarità della televisione italiana tra gli alunni delle scuole elementari. Unpublished BEd dissertation, University of Malta. Marshall, D. 1971. History of the Maltese Language in Local Education. Malta: Malta University Press. MATSEC Examinations Board. SEC Statistical Reports 2014. Accessed August 15, 2015. https://www.um.edu.mt/matsec/reports/statisticalreport —. SEC Statistical Reports 2013. Accessed August 15, 2015. https://www.um.edu.mt/matsec/reports/statisticalreport —. SEC Statistical Reports 2012. Accessed August 15, 2015. https://www.um.edu.mt/matsec/reports/statisticalreport —. SEC Statistical Reports 2011. Accessed August 15, 2015. https://www.um.edu.mt/matsec/reports/statisticalreport —. SEC Statistical Reports 2010. Accessed August 15, 2015. https://www.um.edu.mt/matsec/reports/statisticalreport National Statistics Office. 2014. Census of the Population and Housing 2011: Final Report. Accessed August 21, 2015. https://nso.gov.mt/en/publicatons/Pages/Publications-by-Date.aspx Pace, L. 2007. I nomi delle case di ĩurrieq. Unpublished BA dissertation, University of Malta. Romaine, S. 1994. Language in Society. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sciriha, L. 1996. A Question of Identity: Language Use in Cyprus. Nicosia: Intercollege. Sciriha, L. and Vassallo, M. 2006. Living Languages in Malta. Malta: Print It. —. 2015. Insular Malta: Self Expression of Linguistic Identity through Public Signs. In Insularity, Small Worlds in linguistic and cultural Perspectives, edited by R. Heimrath and A. Kremer, 123-135. Wurzburg: Konigshausen und Newmann. Tucker, R. 1968. Judging personality from language usage: a Filipino example. Philippine Sociological Review, 6, 30-39.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN TRILINGUALS IN THE MAKING: A STUDY ON THEIR LANGUAGE CHOICES FOTINI ANASTASSIOU

1. Introduction Over the past decades, there has been an increase in migration and mobility of populations which has led to cultural diversity among people. This has brought about the phenomenon of multilingualism (Cruz-Ferreira 2006; Rothman and Niño-Murcia 2008). Also, families whose members come from different ethnic and/or national backgrounds are globally increasing (Tokuhama-Espinoza 2000, 2001; Cruz-Ferreira 2006). Children growing up in multinational families often come into contact with more than one language through their parents, and in some cases, these heritage languages are supported by the linguistic system of the wider community’s language, such as the Basque language in Spain. In Greece there is one official language, Greek, and the linguistic minorities that exist in the country, mainly through immigration, are confined within the family environment, as well as the specific language community. Their status is perceived by its own speakers as a lower one, especially in view of their immigrant mentality and assimilation to their host country (Anastassiou and Andreou 2014). Multilingualism has been a natural phenomenon in several societies. However, there are still many societies in which multilingualism has only recently been acknowledged and therefore has become the focus of more research. This also applies to Greece since the vast and rapid advent of immigrants has now created a versatile linguistic environment within public schools. Nowadays, a great number of children are being raised as bilinguals (they speak their heritage language and Greek, which is the official language of the community they are growing up in) and they are introduced to their third language, namely English, when they are around

260

Chapter Sixteen

the age of seven. Therefore, these children are more experienced in terms of language learning, when compared to their Greek classmates who only speak Greek and who are being taught English as their second language, with a foreign language learning methodology. Moreover, children growing up in a multilingual family own unique qualities and have diverse needs which have been the focus of recent literature (Tokuhama-Espinoza 2000, 2001; Barron-Hauwaert 2004; Cruz-Ferreira 2006).

2. Code-mixing and code-switching of multilinguals The terms code-switching and code-mixing have been the research focus of language contact for more than fifty years, and they have been defined by Haugen (1956) and Gumperz (1982) as the alternating use of two languages. Code-switching and code-mixing have often been used interchangeably. Code-switching (for example, Poplack 1980; Sankoff and Poplack 1981; Zentella 1997; Bullock and Toribio 2009) is a structurally constrained combination of two (or more) languages and can take place either in a single sentence (intrasentential), or from one sentence to another within a conversation (intersentential). Meisel (1995) argued that the term “language-mixing” in general terms refers to all occasions where elements of the two languages are mixed within a clause or across a clausal boundary, while on the other hand “code-switching” is a specific subdivision of mixing that relates to the bilingual’s actual abilities. These abilities refer to the speaker’s capacity to select the language in accordance to the interlocutor, the context or the topic of conversation, without breaking any syntactic rules. In this study however, the previously-mentioned terms will be used according to Muysken (2000: 1) who uses the term code-mixing for “all cases where lexical items and grammatical features of two languages appear in one sentence” (intrasentential), and the term code-switching for a “rapid succession of several languages in a single speech event” (intersentential). So, the term code-mixing refers to the mixing of different linguistic units (words, phrases, sentences, modifiers) usually from two participating grammatical systems within one sentence. In other words, code-mixing is governed by grammatical rules and can be prompted by social and psychological motivations. Code-switching refers to the combination of different linguistic units (phrases, words, clauses, sentences) mainly coming from two participating grammatical systems in a single speech event. Thus, code-switching is intersentential and can be subject to some conversation principles.

Trilinguals in the Making: A Study on their Language Choices

261

Code-switching and code-mixing are phenomena that have been given a lot of importance in the literature on bilingualism, with the main focus being intrasentential instances (code-mixing). Concomitantly, the attention on language-mixing in trilingualism is more recent compared to that of bilingualism, and that is also the case with trilingual data. According to existing studies, mixes that involve a combination of all three languages are rare since trilingual speakers usually combine elements of two languages out of the three they have at their disposal (Edwards 1994; Klein 1995; Hoffmann 2001). However, there is no advantage for a specific subgroup of the three languages. Although speakers usually combine only two languages in their code-mixes, in a broad sense this happens with any potential combination of the three language systems. In our study trilingual utterances were found in our data and they will be presented and discussed further on.

3. Types of Trilingual Settings Multilinguals may use several languages due to their different social, cultural and economic backgrounds. They may also use specific languages in specific fields or domains. They might live in multilingual or bilingual communities, or they might be in contact with several monolingual communities during their everyday routines or social life. Their proficiency in each of their languages might differ and might change over time (Herdina and Jessner 2002). The multilinguals’ languages can have distinguished roles and functions; they may use them separately or codeswitch and code-mix. Last but not least, they are still seen as multilinguals whether they use three or six languages. The ability of a person to speak more than one language can occur under a variety of conditions. Edwards states that “in most instances, multilingualism arises, and is maintained, through contact and necessity” (1994: 39). The emergence of three languages can exist when in each language there is both a source of input and the necessity for communication. Cases of trilingualism can be subdivided into four interrelated variables: (a) age of the speaker when he made his first important contact with the language; (b) input received (type, modality and quantity); (c) level of proficiency in each language; (d) order in which the languages were learnt. It is not compulsory that the previouslymentioned variables should be independent, although this may also be the case. For example, the time the speaker made his first contact with the specific languages could have a close correlation with the input. Younger speakers are expected to have a more natural way of acquiring their

262

Chapter Sixteen

language than older speakers, although this correlation may be a generalisation. Apart from that, when three languages are involved, there are many inherent variations in each learner, within each variable, as is the case in all situations of language acquisition. It needs to be clarified that the manifestation of the previouslymentioned variables leads to various possibilities, each of which may outline different types of trilingual speakers, and such situations can be further divided according to the age of the speakers, the type and amount of input they receive, the proficiency in each language and the order of acquisition. According to Hoffmann (2001: 3) the following classification can be suggested: (a) trilingual children who grow up having adopted two home languages in addition to the one spoken in the wider community; (b) trilingual children who grow up in a bilingual community and their home language (either spoken by one or both of their parents) is different from the language spoken in the community languages; (c) third language learners, i.e. bilinguals who learn a third language in the context of school education; (d) bilingual individuals who have turned into trilinguals through immigration and, (e) individuals who belong to trilingual communities. The present research focuses on children who have acquired their L1 and L2 (semi) simultaneously and are currently learning their L3 within the school context. Specifically, this research surveys the language of interaction of children who come from an Albanian background, but who were born and raised in Greece. They have learnt Albanian from their family, Greek from their family and their social environment, and they have also received formal instruction in Greek at school. Moreover, they are currently being taught English (L3) at school. It should be noted that their L1 may be either Greek or Albanian, according to our participants’ statements, and that Greek is of a native-like proficiency since they have been using it since early childhood (along with Albanian) within their family environment. Specifically, this study addresses the following research questions:

Trilinguals in the Making: A Study on their Language Choices

263

1. What is the influence of these children’s L1 on their L3 speech production? 2. Which is the main source language of transfer (their L1 or L2) during oral production of English as an L3? 3. What is the distribution of the three languages involved within the code-mixes found in the corpus and in the code-mixed sentences produced?

4. Methodology of the study The methodology chosen for this study was initially based on a research study conducted by Cenoz (2001). Bilingual primary school children were asked to narrate the picture story A boy, a dog and a frog by Mayer (1967), in English, their third language and the one that they were being taught as a foreign language at school. Then their narrations were transcribed and instances of code-switching and code-mixing were identified and analysed. Their free narration provided us with information regarding cross-linguistic influence, such as code-switching and codemixing, every time their L1 and/or L2 would come up during the narration.

4.1. The participants The 49 children who took part in this study came from Albanian immigrant families who were born and raised in Greece. Their ages ranged from 9 to 12 years. Their parents migrated to Greece about twenty years ago. The participants’ first two languages were Albanian and Greek and they were learning their third language (English) within the school context. The children were first asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to obtain information about their language biographies. Although the participants in this study were synchronic bilinguals, they were asked to point out if they considered either Greek or Albanian as their L1. In all, there were 19 children who stated that they perceived Albanian as their L1 and 30 children who stated that they perceived Greek as their L1. English is a third language for these children, although for the majority of their classmates English is the second language learnt with a foreign language methodology. Therefore, our participants are more experienced language-learning-wise when compared to their classmates, since they are learning their third consecutive language.

264

Chapter Sixteen

4.2. Texts analysis Each one of the 49 texts was transcribed and analysed and the instances of code-switching and code-mixing were identified. The target language of the narration was English; therefore code-switches were identified as whole utterances in Greek or Albanian. Also, code-mixes were identified as those utterances in which Greek, Albanian and/or English were used in the same utterance, according to Muysken (2000).

5. Results The texts derived from the children’s narrations and the results were the following: x 8% of the children used only English (the target language) to narrate the picture story. x 80% of the children used both English and Greek during their narrations. x 12% of the children used English, Greek and Albanian – all of the languages they know in order to succeed in communicating their narration. Then the utterances the participants produced were analysed and from a total of 875 utterances in our corpus the results were as follows: x 51% of them were in English (the target language and their L3). x 38% were code-mixes in Greek and English. x 7% of them were code-switches in Greek. x There were very few code-switches (2 sentences) in Albanian. x 1.4% of the code-mixed sentences were in all of the 3 languages known by the children. Moreover, we proceeded with the analysis of the words produced in the entire corpus consisting of 8993 words, and the results were as follows: x 76% of the words were English (the target language and their L3). x 23% of the words were Greek.

Trilinguals in the Making: A Study on their Language Choices

265

x 1% of the words were Albanian. Code-mixes are actually present in 45 of the 49 texts of our corpus. This means that in effect, 45 out of 49 children of our study code-mixed during their narrations. There are 364 code-mixed sentences in our corpus which comprises a total of 875 sentences. As far as the code-mixed sentences were concerned, an internal analysis revealed that there were four different sets of code-mixed sentences in the corpus: 1. English – Greek code-mixes occurred in 45 texts comprising 332 sentences (3663 words); 2. English – Albanian code-mixes took place in 5 texts and 16 sentences (131 words); 3. Greek – Albanian code-mixes were found in 4 sentences of 2 texts (total of 35 words) ; 4. Trilingual English – Greek – Albanian code-mixes occurred in 12 sentences of 3 texts (131 words). This data is presented in Table 16.1 below: Table 16.1: Presentation of the set of the code-mixed sentences Texts Sentences Greek – English code-mixes Greek – Albanian – English code-mixes Greek – Albanian code-mixes Albanian – English code-mixes Total number of code-mixes

Words

45

332

3663

3

12

131

2

4

35

5

16

131

45

364

3960

Furthermore, in Table 16.2 we can see the sets of code-mixes (languages) and the analogy of the words within the code-mixed sentences in a more analytical way. In Greek – English code-mixed sentences (which made up the vast majority of the code-mixes) English, which is the target language of the narration, outstrips Greek (approx. 60% – 40% respectively).

Chapter Sixteen

266

In the Greek – Albanian – English code-mixes, the percentages of English and Greek words are approximately 37% and 39% respectively, while Albanian words are 24% of the total words of these particular codemixes. In the Greek – Albanian code-mixes (none of which was the target language of the narration), the majority of the words used are Greek (approximately 69%) while in the Albanian – English code-mixes the majority of the words were English (approximately 55%). We also assessed the effect of the specific L1 and the language of transfer (L1 vs. L2) on the degree of language transfers. We found that there was a statistically significant effect of L1 language on the difference between L1 and L2 transfer: F (1, 41) =18.203, p