'My language, my people': language and ethnic identity among British‐born South Asians

Jaspal, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8463-9519 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

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	South Asian Diaspora
Creators:	Jaspal, R. and Coyle, A.
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Date:	2010
Volume:	2
Number:	2
ISSN:	1943-8192
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/19438192.2010.491299 DOI 1315949 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	20 Apr 2020 07:55
Last Modified:	20 Apr 2020 07:55
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/39683

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