Language ideologies and language legitimisation in reception classes in Denmark

Beskrivelse

This presentation focuses on language ideologies and language legitimisation in a specific pedagogical context, namely reception classes in Denmark. ‘Reception classes’ are introductory classes targeted at newly arrived refugee and migrant children and youth with the primary aim of building basic Danish language competences before transition to regular classes. The children and youth come to the reception classes from all over the world with complex linguistic repertoires influenced by their life trajectories, current life situation and personal preferences and interests, and the reception classroom thus constitutes a highly and inherently linguistically diverse educational space. The presentation draws on a multi-sited linguistic ethnography investigating language practices in and around reception classes in three different primary and lower secondary schools in a large city in Denmark. The empirical material includes fieldnotes, photos, audio and video recordings and interviews based on language portraits. The empirical point of departure for this presentation is two specific reception classes located in a so-called ‘production school’ and targeted at 16-20 year old youth, many of them refugees from Syria, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Drawing on Bonacina-Pugh’s notion of practiced language policy (2012, 2017) and Bloome and Brown’s (2012) comparison of teaching to jazz, the presentation outlines the language ideological work among teachers and students in the reception classroom and describes language legitimisation as a multi-layered and sometimes ambivalent process in which teachers and students seamlessly move between different and seemingly contradictory language ideological positions.

Periode	21 jun. 2019
Begivenhedstitel	Sociolinguistics, Diversity and Action (SODIAC) Symposium
Begivenhedstype	Seminar
Placering	Hillerød, DanmarkVis på kort
Grad af anerkendelse	International