Multilingualism, citizenship and identity
Subtitle: voices of youth and symbolic investments in an urban, globalized world
By: Julie Byrd Clark.
Publisher: Continuum Logo; Continuum
Published: 2010
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
ISBN-13: 9781441168245
Subjects: Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- Canada; Second language acquisition -- Canada; Language and culture -- Globalization -- Canada; Bilingualism -- Canada; Linguistic minorities -- Education -- Canada
Description: "Through an innovative and interdisciplinary approach that combines critical sociolinguistic ethnography, multi-modality, reflexivity, and discourse analysis, this groundbreaking book reveals the multiple (and sometimes simultaneous) ways in which individuals engage and invest in representations of languages and identities.

This timely work is the first to consider the significance of multilingualism and its relationship to citizenship as well as the development of linguistic repertoires as an essential component of language education in a globalized world. While examining the discourses and interconnections between multilingualism, globalization, and identity, the author draws upon a unique case study of the experiences, voices, trajectories, and journeys of Canadian youth of Italian origin from diverse social, geographical, and linguistic backgrounds, participating in university French language courses as well as training to become teachers of French in the urban, multicultural and global landscape of Toronto, Canada. In doing so, Byrd Clark skilfully illustrates the multidimensional ways that youth invest in language learning and socially construe their multiple identities within diverse contexts while weaving in and out of particularistic and universalistic identifications.

This invaluable resource will not only shed light on how and why people engage in learning languages and for which languages they choose to invest, but will offer readers a deeper understanding of the complex interrelationships between multilingualism, identity, and citizenship. It will appeal to researchers in a variety of fields, including applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, language acquisition and linguistic anthropology."--Pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Overlapping identities, symbolic investments, and new discursive spaces; title: Exploring interconnections between globalization, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and identity; title: An "ethnographie à géométrie variable": theoretical and methodological considerations; title: Voices of youth and symbolic investments: a unique case study; title: Appropriating and negotiating symbolic investments: strategies across, between, and within multiple spaces.