Toward an Identity Stress: <i>Language and religious affiliations of an immigrant adolescent in Norway</i>

Abstract

This paper explores the usefulness of different languages in determining and shaping the notions of identity of a second-generation immigrant adolescent in Norway. This research is part of a doctoral study based on the sociolinguistic ethnographic method of inquiry on an Indian immigrant family. The verbal repertoire of the Norwegian informant includes many languages and each of the languages contributes to different meanings in the construction of the informant's identity. The informant's language practices are influenced by the language ideologies of his parents, who endeavor to maintain the culture and languages of their country of origin. One of the core issues for the family members is the perseverance of their religion and hence a religious identity is manifested in the narratives of the informant. Besides, a lack of adequate language competencies in parental languages and a desire to maintain the culture of origin in the family premises, the young adolescent shows signs of identity stress.

Discourses between the Public and the Private: Transnational Families at the Crossroads

“…Knowledge of the majority language is generally considered to be a responsibility of the educational system, and the politicians' interventions were received with strong opposition, yet also some praise by the right-wing electorate (cf. Lanza 2020a; see also Haque 2012). The example raises the issue of family language policy at the crossroads between private and public discourses, and the need to look at the involvement of state institutional services, particularly child welfare services.…”

Linguistic Landscape im Unterricht. Das didaktische Potenzial eines soziolinguistischen Forschungsfelds

“…die De nition des öffentlichen Raums) und die Zeichen werden in halb öffentlichen, klar abgegrenzten Räumen, beispielsweise innerhalb eines Schulgebäudes und auf dem Schulareal («schoolscape») oder in einem Laboratorium(Hanauer, 2009), erforscht. Auch der private Raum öffnet sich zunehmend durch die Untersuchung von Warnungsschildern wie «Beware of the dog» auf den Türen privater Grundstücke(Laihonen, 2014), schriftlichen Zeichen zu Hause in der «linguistic homescape»(Haque, 2012;Krompák & Jünger, 2017), Tätowierungen als «skinscapes»(Peck & Stroud, 2015) und Postkarten(Jaworski, 2010). Die Frage, inwieweit die Untersuchung der sprachlichen Landschaft im nicht öffentlichen Raum wie «linguistic homescape» der Auffassung von LL entspricht, könnte neue Diskurse eröffnen.Die sprachliche Landschaft wird zunehmend multimodaler und bezieht sich in ihrer breiten Auffassung von «Sprache» auf eine Vielzahl von Phänomenen.…”