Language practices and language ideologies in Ukrainian-Danish classrooms

In this presentation, our focus is directed towards the sociolinguistic aspects of the teaching of Ukrainian children in Danish schools. On policy level, special provision for Ukrainian newcomers to Danish primary and lower secondary schools has been made. While other groups of newcomers are taught in Danish only, special legislation allows for both Danish, English and Ukrainian to function as medium of instruction for Ukrainian children. Furthermore, new evaluation material and capacity building courses have been developed to support teachers of Ukrainian children. But how are these special provisions managed and negotiated in the classroom? In our presentation, we apply a critical sociolinguistic perspective (Blackledge & Creese, 2010; Blommaert; 2010) and drawing on classroom observations, interviews with teachers and language assistants and children’s production of language portraits (Busch 2018; 2012), we point to language ideological tensions in everyday school encounters between teachers, language assistants and children.

References:
Blackledge, A. & A. Creese (2010). Multilingualism. A critical perspective. Continuum. Blommaert, J. (2010). The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge University Press.
Busch, B. (2018). The language portrait in multilingualism research: Theoretical and methodological considerations. Working papers in Urban Language & Literacies, 236.
Busch, B. (2012). The Linguistic Repertoire Revisited. Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 503–523.