Communicative Competence and Institutional Affiliation: Interactional Processes of Identity Construction by Immigrant Students in Catalonia

Abstract

The growing presence of children of immigrant families in the public school system in the bilingual region of Catalonia provides us with an opportunity to study how young multilingual and multicultural speakers construct their social competencies and their identity within the specific context of a gate-keeping social institution such as the school. The study reported in this paper approaches language learning as a process of socialisation that involves not only learning how to make sense of linguistic signs but also learning how to enact different social roles in particular institutions. The analysis focuses on the interactional profiles of two immigrant students in two types of communicative activities that are representative of the school context: responding to questions from an adult and cooperating with a peer in the resolution of a learning task. By shifting the focus of analysis from a decontextualised notion of communicative competence to the notion of ‘institutionally affiliated communicative competence ’ and concentrating on issues such as the (1) the relationship between knowledge and participation, (2) language choice inside and outside school and (3) definitions of correctness in language use, the study reveals how the two students construct a highly ‘affiliated ’ identity. doi: 10.2167/ijm059.

Commentary on Copp Mökkönen dissertation summary

“…Nevertheless, the complex negotiation of identity on the part of multilingual speakers may be best developed by taking into account Creese The use of more than one language in the classroom is also linked to the construct of identity. As reported by existing research (Cots and Nussbaum, 2008;Gumperz and Cook-Gumperz, 2005), bilingual learners make use of their verbal repertoire in the classroom to signal out their own identity. In these cases, code-switching does not refer to lack or deficient linguistic knowledge.…”

Contact, attitude and motivation in the learning of Catalan at advanced levels

“…A case study of two immigrant students in Catalonia conducted by Cots and Nussbaum (2008) highlights the weight of language use and its influence on language learning. For new arrivals to the region"s all-Catalan public education system, they state, the school represents a gate-keeping institution that socializes students through language classes.…”

Plurilingual resources for ‘welcoming’ at a university service for international students

“…The term language socialisation "refers to the process by which novices or newcomers in a community or culture gain communicative competence, membership, and legitimacy in the group" (Duff 2007, 308). This process, mediated by language, aims at developing the command of a repertoire and the contextual conventions to use it appropriately, as well as the adoption of appropriate identities, ideologies, and other behaviours associated with the target group and its normative practices (Schieffelin & Ochs 1986;Bayley & Schecter 1997;Garrett & Baquedano-Lopez 2002;Duff 2008;Cots and Nussbaum 2008;amongst others. ).…”