Abstract
ABSTRACTThis article explores language use and investment among Somali-speaking children and adolescents in Sweden, through group interviews and survey data. Our findings indicate that there are incentives to invest in Somali language learning considering the reported language use patterns and the expressed positive attitudes towards Somali mother tongue instruction. The Somali language was perceived to be ‘naturally’ linked to Somali identity and to being able to claim ‘Somaliness’, not only by the adolescents but also by the surroundings. Thus, advanced Somali language proficiency was perceived as necessary for being able to pass as ‘culturally authentic’ (Jaffe, A. [2012]. “Multilingual Citizenship and Minority Languages.” In The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, edited by M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge, and A. Creese, 83–99. London: Routledge). Furthermore, being perceived as unproficient in Somali or unable to transmit the language to future generations was experienced as guilt-provoking. Nevertheless, the adolescents articulated a compliance with the dominant linguistic order in Sweden, and their school’s assimilatory language rules (‘Swedish-only’). This compliance was associated with good manners and moral behaviour, thus reflecting the potentially harmful and pervasive nature of assimilatory language ideology and policy for individual students. The findings exemplify in many ways the struggles it entails to maintain and develop a minoritised language in a majority language context and the complex ‘ideological enterprise’ of language learning with its educational and ethical dilemmas.
Highlights
Many studies have shown the struggles it can entail to maintain and develop a minoritised language in a majority language context. These studies have shown that the degree, frequency, and quality of use of a minoritised language are good predictors of the kind of proficiency young speakers will develop in the language (e.g. Kim and Pyun 2014; Lü and Koda 2011)
We explore language use patterns and the incentives to invest in different languages among young individuals of Somali-speaking heritage in Sweden
Reported language use with siblings and friends showed the opposite pattern, that is, the large majority reported that they speak ‘mostly’ or ‘only’ Swedish with their siblings and friends, some that they use Swedish and Somali much, and only a few that they speak ‘mostly’ or ‘only’ Somali with their siblings and friends. These reported language use patterns are similar to those reported in many other studies, that is, comparatively more use of the minoritised language with parents, and comparatively less use of the minoritised language with siblings and friends, with whom the language of the wider society tends to dominate (e.g. Aitsiselmi 2004; Boyd 1985; Gregory 2001; Obied 2009; Yamamoto 2001)
Summary
Many studies have shown the struggles it can entail to maintain and develop a minoritised language (cf. heritage language) in a majority language context (for an overview, see e.g. García 2009). These studies have shown that the degree, frequency, and quality of use of a minoritised language are good predictors of the kind of proficiency young speakers will develop in the language We explore language use patterns and the incentives to invest in different languages among young individuals of Somali-speaking heritage in Sweden. This includes an exploration into the language ideological enterprise that language learning and use encompasses for them (cf Harris and Rampton 2003), the relative worth they ascribe to different languages, and their experiences of, and beliefs about the role of so-called Somali ‘mother tongue instruction’ ( MTI), i.e. the subject teaching of Somali as offered within the Swedish national curriculum (see further below)
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