Research on transnational Yucatec Maya-speakers negotiating multilingual California
Issued Date: 14 Sep 2015
Abstract
This project combined methodologies from linguistic anthropology, participatory action research and interactional sociolinguistics. Data was collected from participant observation, four case studies, extensive interviews and a language and literacy survey. Multilingual conversations were recorded and analyzed with Conversation Analysis, with a focus on actions and identities as they emerge through enacted stance. The analysis was informed by concepts taken from the anthropology and sociology of transnationalism.
The study shows four Maya-speaking individuals negotiating highly multilingual social worlds, where English, when it appears, is more often lingua franca than dominant code, and where participants use their various languages strategically and contingently to accomplish their various goals. These choices are constrained by their status as workers at the bottom rung of a social field characterized by undocumented status and the persistence of colonial discourses.
Recommendations for research and practice based on research findings:
-reconsideration of second language pedagogies for such immigrant populations
-the use of stance in the analysis of multilingual conversations
-more research on undocumented status and how it contributes to the silencing of minority language populations
-the use of participatory research methods in studies of undocumented and indigenous communities
The study shows four Maya-speaking individuals negotiating highly multilingual social worlds, where English, when it appears, is more often lingua franca than dominant code, and where participants use their various languages strategically and contingently to accomplish their various goals. These choices are constrained by their status as workers at the bottom rung of a social field characterized by undocumented status and the persistence of colonial discourses.
Recommendations for research and practice based on research findings:
-reconsideration of second language pedagogies for such immigrant populations
-the use of stance in the analysis of multilingual conversations
-more research on undocumented status and how it contributes to the silencing of minority language populations
-the use of participatory research methods in studies of undocumented and indigenous communities
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References
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Duranti (ed.) Linguistic Anthropology: a reader 343–58. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power (G. Raymond and M. Adamson Trans.)
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. New York: Longman.
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States. La Jolla: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and Center for Comparative
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Gardner, R. and Wagner, J. (eds) (2004) Second Language Conversations. New York:
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continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 339–61.
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migrants, multilingualism, and murder. Working Papers and Proceedings for the Center
for Psychosocial Studies. Chicago. Retrieved on 17 November 2007 from http://www.
anthro.ucsd.edu/%7Ejhaviland/Publications/MixtecsMigrants.pdf
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Mulilingual and Multicultural Development 13: 123–42.
Heller, M. (1995) Language choice, social institutions and symbolic domination. Language
and Society 24: 373–405.
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numbers grow, immigrants from Yucatan getting higher profile. San Francisco
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Kearney, M. (1991) Borders and boundaries of state and self at the end of empire. Journal
of Historical Sociology 4: 52–74.
Kearney, M. (1994). Desde el indigenismo a los derechos humanos: Etnicidad y política
mas allá de la mixteca. Nueva Antropología, 14(46), 49-67.
Kearney, M. (1995) The local and the global: anthropology of globalization and transnationalism.
Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 547–65.
Kearney, M. (1998). Transnationalism in California and Mexico at the end of empire.
In T. M. Wilson & H. Donnan (eds), Border Identities (pp. 117-142): Cambridge
University Press.
Kramsch, C. & Whiteside, A. (2007) Three fundamental concepts in SLA and their relevance
in multilingual contexts . Modern Language Journal, Focus issue 91: 907-922.
Levinson, S. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, H. M. (2001) Participatory Research and Education for Social Change:
Highlander Research and Education Center. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (eds),
Handbook of Action Research (pp. 356-362). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Minkler, M. and Wallerstein, N. (eds) (2003) Community-based Participatory Research for
Health. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ochs, E. (1993) Constructing social identity: a language socialization perspective.
Research on Language and Social Interaction 26: 287–306.
Ochs, E. (1996) Linguistic resources for socializing humanity. In J. Gumperz and S.
Levinson (eds) Rethinking Linguistic Relativity 407–37. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Ochs, E. (2002) Becoming a speaker of culture. In C. Kramsch (ed.) Language Acquisition
and Language Socialization: ecological perspectives 99–120. New York: Continuum.
Park, P. (2003) Knowledge and participatory research. In P. Reason and H. Bradbury (eds)
Handbook of Action Research: participative inquiry and practice 81–90. Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
Passel, J. S. (2005) Unauthorized migrants: numbers and characteristics. Retrieved on 10
November 2005 from http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=46
Pfeiler, B. (1996). “Yan difereensia waye’ yeetel maaya yukataan” (un estudio dialectal).
In U. Hostetler (ed.), Los Mayas de Quintana Roo: Investigaciones antropologicas
recientes (Vol. 14, pp. 7-13). Bern: Arbeitsblatter des Instituts fur Ethnologie der
Universitat Vern.
Portes, A. (1995) The Economic Sociology of Immigration: essays on networks, ethnicity and
entrepreneurship. NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
Rampton, B. (1995, 2005) Crossings: language and ethnicity among adolescents. London:
Longman.
Rouse, R. (1991) Mexican migration and the social space of postmodernism. Diaspora 1
(Spring): 8–33.
Sassen, S. (1995) Immigration and local labor markets. In A. Portes (ed.) The Economic
Sociology of Immigration 87–127. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Sassen, S. (1998) Globalization and its Discontents: essays on the new mobility of people and
money. New York: The New Press.
Wilson T. M. and Hastings, D. (eds) (1999) Borders: frontiers of identity, nation and state.
Oxford: Berg.
Baquedano-Lopez, P. (2001) Creating social identities through doctrina narratives. In A.
Duranti (ed.) Linguistic Anthropology: a reader 343–58. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power (G. Raymond and M. Adamson Trans.)
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Capps, R., Fix, M. E., Passel, J. S., Ost, J., & Perez-Lopez, D. (2003). A Profile of the
Low-wage Immigrant Workforce: Brief #4. The Urban Institute. Retrieved Nov. 12, 2005,
from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310880_lowwage_immig_wkfc.pdf
Chavez, L. R. (1992) Shadowed Lives: undocumented immigrants in American society. New
York: Harcourt Brace.
De Fina, A. (2003) Identity in Narrative: a study of immigrant discourse. Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
Duranti, A. (ed.) (2001) Linguistic Anthropology: a reader. London: Blackwell.
Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. New York: Longman.
Fox, J. and Rivera-Salgado, G. (eds) (2004) Indigenous Mexican Migrants in the United
States. La Jolla: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and Center for Comparative
Immigration Studies, University of California San Diego.
Gardner, R. and Wagner, J. (eds) (2004) Second Language Conversations. New York:
Continuum.
Garrett, P. and Baquedano-Lopez, P. (2002) Language socialization: reproduction and
continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 339–61.
Hanks, W. F. (1996) Language and Communicative Practices. Boulder Co: Westview Press.
Haviland, J.B. (1989) What words did the defendant say in your presence? Mixtecs,
migrants, multilingualism, and murder. Working Papers and Proceedings for the Center
for Psychosocial Studies. Chicago. Retrieved on 17 November 2007 from http://www.
anthro.ucsd.edu/%7Ejhaviland/Publications/MixtecsMigrants.pdf
Heller, M. (1992) The politics of codeswitching and language choice. Journal of
Mulilingual and Multicultural Development 13: 123–42.
Heller, M. (1995) Language choice, social institutions and symbolic domination. Language
and Society 24: 373–405.
Hendricks, T. (2003, November 25). From southern Mexico to Northern California: As
numbers grow, immigrants from Yucatan getting higher profile. San Francisco
Chronicle.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática (INEGI). (2000) Censo general
de población y vivienda. Retrieved on 12 November 2005 from http://www.inegi.gob.
mx/inegi/default.asp
Jaworski, A. (1993) The Power of Silence. (Vol. 1) London: Sage.
Kearney, M. (1991) Borders and boundaries of state and self at the end of empire. Journal
of Historical Sociology 4: 52–74.
Kearney, M. (1994). Desde el indigenismo a los derechos humanos: Etnicidad y política
mas allá de la mixteca. Nueva Antropología, 14(46), 49-67.
Kearney, M. (1995) The local and the global: anthropology of globalization and transnationalism.
Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 547–65.
Kearney, M. (1998). Transnationalism in California and Mexico at the end of empire.
In T. M. Wilson & H. Donnan (eds), Border Identities (pp. 117-142): Cambridge
University Press.
Kramsch, C. & Whiteside, A. (2007) Three fundamental concepts in SLA and their relevance
in multilingual contexts . Modern Language Journal, Focus issue 91: 907-922.
Levinson, S. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, H. M. (2001) Participatory Research and Education for Social Change:
Highlander Research and Education Center. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (eds),
Handbook of Action Research (pp. 356-362). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Minkler, M. and Wallerstein, N. (eds) (2003) Community-based Participatory Research for
Health. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ochs, E. (1993) Constructing social identity: a language socialization perspective.
Research on Language and Social Interaction 26: 287–306.
Ochs, E. (1996) Linguistic resources for socializing humanity. In J. Gumperz and S.
Levinson (eds) Rethinking Linguistic Relativity 407–37. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Ochs, E. (2002) Becoming a speaker of culture. In C. Kramsch (ed.) Language Acquisition
and Language Socialization: ecological perspectives 99–120. New York: Continuum.
Park, P. (2003) Knowledge and participatory research. In P. Reason and H. Bradbury (eds)
Handbook of Action Research: participative inquiry and practice 81–90. Thousand Oaks:
Sage.
Passel, J. S. (2005) Unauthorized migrants: numbers and characteristics. Retrieved on 10
November 2005 from http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=46
Pfeiler, B. (1996). “Yan difereensia waye’ yeetel maaya yukataan” (un estudio dialectal).
In U. Hostetler (ed.), Los Mayas de Quintana Roo: Investigaciones antropologicas
recientes (Vol. 14, pp. 7-13). Bern: Arbeitsblatter des Instituts fur Ethnologie der
Universitat Vern.
Portes, A. (1995) The Economic Sociology of Immigration: essays on networks, ethnicity and
entrepreneurship. NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
Rampton, B. (1995, 2005) Crossings: language and ethnicity among adolescents. London:
Longman.
Rouse, R. (1991) Mexican migration and the social space of postmodernism. Diaspora 1
(Spring): 8–33.
Sassen, S. (1995) Immigration and local labor markets. In A. Portes (ed.) The Economic
Sociology of Immigration 87–127. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Sassen, S. (1998) Globalization and its Discontents: essays on the new mobility of people and
money. New York: The New Press.
Wilson T. M. and Hastings, D. (eds) (1999) Borders: frontiers of identity, nation and state.
Oxford: Berg.
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