Defining the new speaker: theoretical perspectives and learner trajectories

Abstract

This article addresses the concept of the new speaker from both a theoretical/definitional perspective and from the standpoint of a situated, ethnographic analysis. The more general and theoretical focus addresses some of the presuppositions and entailments of the new speaker concept, both as an “on-the-ground” concept that gets operationalized by social actors and as an analytical category used by researchers. In particular, it considers how the new speaker concept elucidates criteria in relation to which minority language-speaking communities of practice are conceptualized and enacted. The ethnographic focus, on Corsican adult language classrooms, explores how new-speakerness is invoked implicitly in Corsica, where the term “new speaker” itself is not in circulation, but is a target of language planning strategies. This ethnographic research reveals complex identity and language ideological issues that are raised about the legitimacy, authority and authenticity of Corsican language learners in a sociolinguistic context in which both formal/institutional and informal/social use of the minority language is quite restricted.

The role of linguistic ideologies in language contact situations

“…Acknowledging and confronting this ideological multiplicity, along with the inherent nature of linguistic variation, are especially crucial for the examination of linguistic contact situations because it provides a more nuanced understanding of how different ideologies may shape different patterns of linguistic variation among speakers of the same language. An example is shown in Lantto's (, ) work on the Basque‐Spanish code‐switching patterns of two social groups: native and “new speakers.” The notion of “new speakers” is a newly established framework aimed at helping us understand the ideologies and linguistic practices of minoritized language speakers who have learned the language by a means other than family transmission (Jaffe, ; O'Rourke & Pujolar, ). While the majority of new speakers are second language speakers, this model seeks to move away from the evaluative constraints that our current understanding of “L2 speaker” may suggest.…”

“…An example is shown in Lantto's (2014Lantto's ( , 2018 work on the Basque-Spanish code-switching patterns of two social groups: native and "new speakers." The notion of "new speakers" is a newly established framework aimed at helping us understand the ideologies and linguistic practices of minoritized language speakers who have learned the language by a means other than family transmission (Jaffe, 2015;O'Rourke & Pujolar, 2013). While the majority of new speakers are second language speakers, this model seeks to move away from the evaluative constraints that our current understanding of "L2 speaker" may suggest.…”

Language educators’ regard for variation in late modernity: Perceptions of linguistic variation in minority contexts

“…Language ideologies feature prominently in investigations of perceptions of variation in minority contexts (e.g. Jaffe ; chapters in Lane, Costa and De Korne ). As in many majority contexts, a standard language ideology (SLI) (e.g.…”

“…Innovative forms of variation in minority languages, especially those perceived to result from contact and shift, are frequently stigmatised and indexed as performance deviations from competence rather than as alternative competencies (in Niedzielski and Preston's 2000 terms). While there is evidence that ideologies on new language varieties are undergoing renegotiation in minority languages (Gal ), ideologies that overtly denigrate innovative varieties are described in research in many minority contexts, including Basque (Urla ), Breton (Hornsby ), Corsican (Jaffe ), Giernesiei (Sallabank and Marquis ) and Welsh (Robert ). This is in some ways similar to the context of world Englishes, where practices that do not conform to the conventions of prestige varieties are sometimes overtly downgraded.…”

Non‐Negative Word Order In Breton: Maintaining Verb‐Second

“…In the minority language context, such speakers are sometimes termed ‘new speakers’; that is, speakers who have attained proficiency in the language by means other than intergenerational transmission (see, e.g. Hornsby ; Jaffe ; O’Rourke, et al. ).…”