“My language, my people”: language and ethnic identity among British-born South Asians
Date
2010Abstract
This study explores how a group of second generation Asians (SGA) understood and defined language, focusing upon the role they perceived language to have played in their identity. Twelve SGA were interviewed and the data were subjected to qualitative thematic analysis. Four superordinate themes are reported, entitled ‘Mother tongue and self’, ‘A sense of ownership and affiliation’, ‘Negotiating linguistic identities in social space’ and ‘The quest for a positive linguistic identity’. Participants generally expressed a desire to maintain continuity of self- definition as Asian, primarily through the maintenance of the heritage language (HL). An imperfect knowledge of the HL was said to have a negative impact upon psychological well-being. There were ambivalent responses to the perception of language norms, and various strategies were reported for dealing with dilemmatic situations and identity threat arising from bilingualism. Recommendations are offered for interventions that might aid the ‘management’ of bilingualism among SGA.
Description
The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Citation : Jaspal, R. and Coyle, A. (2010) “My language, my people”: language and ethnic identity among British-born South Asians. South Asian Diaspora, 2 (2), pp. 201-218.
ISSN : 1943-8192
Research Group : Psychology
Research Institute : Media Discourse Centre (MDC)
Research Institute : Mary Seacole Research Centre
Research Institute : Mary Seacole Research Centre
Peer Reviewed : Yes