Search

Although not often discussed, complementary ('mother tongue') classrooms comprise participants who differ substantially in a number of ways. Differences comprise, e.g. participants' orientations to and understandings of the indexicalities of linguistic registers, which may have been brought along from the presupposed country of origin. It has local consequences when students and teacher do not share normative models, and students refuse the teacher as an expert authority. For instance, it may disrupt the classroom order and complicate processes of classroom language socialization. The societal context of the complementary classroom also has a potential influence on the local effect of valorized differences. In this paper we illustrate how pronunciation differences are made salient in a Turkish mother tongue classroom in Denmark, and how pronunciation feeds into negotiations of expertise, authority and the keying of classroom activities. Situated humorous performance is juxtaposed and intertwined with practices that conventionally index learning. We compare the case study to the wider societal context to discuss how dominant ideologies of language and education contributed to the teacher's challenges in the specific classroom setting.

This article investigates mother tongue instruction (MTI) in Sweden and Denmark in a historical, comparative perspective, with a view to accounting for key differences in language policy enacted in educational fields. Whereas in Sweden, MTI is offered to linguistic minority children irrespective of their linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, in Denmark the right to state-sponsored MTI has been abolished for children of non-European descent. Moreover, while the policies of both states devalue skills in mother tongues other than the legitimate language of each society, this position is more pronounced in the Danish context. The article explores the two state's position on MTI, as expressed in policy as well as in discourse produced in the political and academic field of each state. It subscribes to Pierre Bourdieu's framework, within which state policy is conceived as the product of historical struggle and cross-field effects. The analysis shows that the national differences in MTI exist because of the differing ways in which agents from the academic vis-à-vis the political field have succeeded in imposing their visions in the bureaucratic field from which policies are produced. Ultimately, this circumstance explains why the Swedish discussion on MTI may be characterized as having been academically founded, while the Danish discussion has remained a matter of political consideration. In the latter case, we argue, it is particularly tangible that MTI is a politicized object of struggle, where agents seek to control the exchange rate of linguistic resources and, in effect, the social worth of different speakers.

Abstract With a functional grammatical approach this paper explores how codeswitching data manifest iconicity and structure. Codeswitching is here considered a linguistic mode, and thus a semiotic process. The objective [...]

Copyright of Langage & Societe is the property of Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines socialization into healthy food practices in a culturally heterogeneous kindergarten class in Denmark, The study uses linguistic ethnography an interpretive research approach in which ethnography is combined with micro-analysis of interactional sequences, and both dimensions are compared with macro-social issues. "Healthy food" and "healthy eating practices" are categories embedded in a particular cultural understanding but I demonstrate that teachers orient to these categories as natural, neutral and self-evident. Teachers treat food items considered healthy as obligatory lunch-box contents, and such healthy food items are associated with traditional majority food culture. Additionally, teachers hold specific expectations regarding the healthiest order in which to consume food. Overall, as healthy food and eating practices are normative and cultural issues, minority culture children are put under institutional pressure to assimilate into the dominant (food) culture, and by so doing demonstrate their respectability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]