Research on transnational Yucatec Maya-speakers negotiating multilingual California

Authors

  • Anne Whiteside City College of San Francisco

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v3i1.103

Keywords:

Multilingualism, transnationalism, conversation analysis, stance, sociolinguistics, identities, indigenous Mexicans, Yucatec Maya, migration, discourses of colonialism

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

Author Biography

  • Anne Whiteside, City College of San Francisco

    Anne Whiteside teaches at City College of San Francisco. Her areas of study are early first and second language literacy, informal second language acquisition, cognitive linguistics, and transnationalism. She and Claire Kramsch co-authored a paper for the Modern Language Journal (Kramsch and Whiteside 2007), and another for Applied Linguistics (forthcoming). Her chapter, entitled “‘We don’t speak Maya, Spanish or English’: transnational Yucatec Maya speakers and the social construction of competence” will be included in a anthology edited by Neriko Doerr on the Native Speaker Revisited

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Published

2009-02-20

Issue

Section

Research Notes

How to Cite

Whiteside, A. (2009). Research on transnational Yucatec Maya-speakers negotiating multilingual California. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 3(1), 103-112. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v3i1.103