Umeå University's logo

This paper explores the construction of language ideologies and language learning within English-language education in a Language Introduction Program (LIP) in Sweden. LIP is an individual transitional program for newly arrived migrant students that seeks to quickly transition adolescents into further education or the job market. High proficiency in English is important in Swedish society and insufficient knowledge of English might lead to consequences for individuals, but also long-term consequences for society regarding inequality and inequity. The methodology is based on linguistic ethnography, with observations and interviews at two schools. Data from interviews with English teachers and principals at LIP are analyzed using Foucauldian perspectives to discuss power and individualization. Our results show that LIP is organized in a manner that reduces teachers' possibilities to cooperate and assist each other in planning, assessing, and in developing teaching practices. To a certain extent, principals withdraw from their responsibility and place a significant amount of organizational responsibility on individual English teachers. Furthermore, monolingual ideologies are prominent in educational practices, and LIP is often positioned as different from the rest of the school which increases isolation.

Vår samtid präglas av stora utbildningsklyftor mellan olika grupper. Skolans kompensatoriska uppgift är att överbrygga sådana utbildningsklyftor. I kapitlet lyfter jag behovet av en andraspråksdidaktik som utgår från elevers och lärares flerspråkiga resurser. Genom att ta tillvara elevers språkliga resurser kan man bidra till ökade möjligheter till lärande och därigenom stärka tillgången till utbildning också för de elever som inte har svenska som förstaspråk. Jag ger också förslag på hur transspråkande som pedagogisk praktik kan komma till uttryck som ett sätt att arbeta för social rättvisa och likvärdighet.

This epilogue considers how an increased focus on mobility influences the theoretical development of the term literacies. How we understand the concept of literacies has consequences not only for what we focus on in studies about literacies, but also for the pedagogical implications and possibilities that these studies can offer. Reflections about how to unthink, rethink and reinvent literacies in mobility are developed throughout the epilogue by discussing the concept of language, the multilingual turn (May, 2014a), literacies as translingual practice (Canagarajah, 2013a) and various power aspects in relation to literacies in mobility, e.g. issues of social inequality and social justice. The chapter shows how translingual, translocal, multimodal, and embodied perspectives open up for new understandings of literacies.

The thesis examines local and global functions of code-switching and code-mixing in Chicano theater, i.e. in writing intended for performance. The data of this study consists of three published plays by Chicana playwright Cherríe Moraga.

Distinguishing between code-switching and code-mixing, the investigation explores local and global functions of these phenomena. Local functions of code-switching are functions that can be seen in the text and, as a consequence, can be regarded as meaningful for the audience of the plays. These functions are examined, focussing on five loci in which code-switching is frequent and has clear local functions. The loci are quotations, interjections, reiterations, ‘gaps’ and word/language play.

Global functions of code-switching and code-mixing operate on a higher level and are not necessarily detected in the actual texts. These functions are discussed, focussing on two main areas, namely power relations (addressing questions of domination, resistance and empowerment) and identity construction (addressing questions of how identity can be reflected by use of language and how identity is constructed and reconstructed by means of language).

The study suggests that code-switching fills creative, artistic and stylistic functions in the plays and that code-switching and code-mixing can serve as responses to domination in that they can be used to resist, challenge and ultimately transform power relations.