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Chapter 3 New speakers: New linguistic subjects

  • Joan Pujolar
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The Changing Face of the “Native Speaker”
This chapter is in the book The Changing Face of the “Native Speaker”

Abstract

In this chapter, I take up the exercise of analyzing the experience of “new speakers” from the perspective of studies on subjectivity. “New speakers” constitutes a new social category that emerged in the last decades in contexts where regional minority languages were spoken in Europe. The category designates those speakers of the minority language that have acquired it through formal learning and, therefore, are seen as different from the traditional community of native speakers. I argue that studies on subjectivity are relevant to understand the new speakers’ phenomenon because these perspectives provide a critique of the ideologies of modernity that constituted the category of “native speaker” besides the conventional hierarchies of race, gender and sexuality. As such, the study of speaker identities arguably makes a distinct contribution to intersectionality studies. To develop this argument, I discuss the implications of Thomas Bonfiglio’s (2010) history of the native speaker concept and I point at the connections with the debates on “non-native” speakers and varieties in Applied Linguistics. After this, I bring in some biographies from new speakers of Catalan that experience the process of adopting their new language as being in tension with their other language-based identities. These tensions emerge much more acutely with new speakers who can be constructed as racially different. This shows, I argue, that the processes of subjectification associated with modernity still favor durable and consistent forms of identity in which becoming and hybridity find no space. However, today’s increasing mobility and diversity fill the social landscape with these in-between subjects that must constantly travel across boundaries and categories.

Abstract

In this chapter, I take up the exercise of analyzing the experience of “new speakers” from the perspective of studies on subjectivity. “New speakers” constitutes a new social category that emerged in the last decades in contexts where regional minority languages were spoken in Europe. The category designates those speakers of the minority language that have acquired it through formal learning and, therefore, are seen as different from the traditional community of native speakers. I argue that studies on subjectivity are relevant to understand the new speakers’ phenomenon because these perspectives provide a critique of the ideologies of modernity that constituted the category of “native speaker” besides the conventional hierarchies of race, gender and sexuality. As such, the study of speaker identities arguably makes a distinct contribution to intersectionality studies. To develop this argument, I discuss the implications of Thomas Bonfiglio’s (2010) history of the native speaker concept and I point at the connections with the debates on “non-native” speakers and varieties in Applied Linguistics. After this, I bring in some biographies from new speakers of Catalan that experience the process of adopting their new language as being in tension with their other language-based identities. These tensions emerge much more acutely with new speakers who can be constructed as racially different. This shows, I argue, that the processes of subjectification associated with modernity still favor durable and consistent forms of identity in which becoming and hybridity find no space. However, today’s increasing mobility and diversity fill the social landscape with these in-between subjects that must constantly travel across boundaries and categories.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction: The changing face of the “native speaker” 1
  4. Part one: Conceptual discussions
  5. Chapter 1 Why the mythical “native speaker” has mud on its face 25
  6. Chapter 2 The multilingual and multicompetent native speaker 47
  7. Chapter 3 New speakers: New linguistic subjects 71
  8. Part two: Practices and representations
  9. Chapter 4 Is there a native speaker in the class? A didactic view of a problematic notion 103
  10. Chapter 5 On the paradox of being native speakers of two “competing” languages: Turkish as the mother or the father tongue of Greek nationals 133
  11. Chapter 6 What kind of speakers are these? Placing heritage speakers of Russian on a continuum 155
  12. Chapter 7 The out-of-sight of “native speaker”: A critical journey through models of social representations of plurilingual identities 179
  13. Chapter 8 Practice-proof concepts? Rethinking linguistic borders and families in multilingual communication: Exploiting the relationship between intercomprehension and translanguaging 209
  14. Part three: Policies and controversies
  15. Chapter 9 Provenance and possession: Rethinking the mother tongue 233
  16. Chapter 10 The pluricentricity and ownership of English 253
  17. Chapter 11 “I want to be bilingual!” Contested imaginings of bilingualism in New Brunswick, Canada 285
  18. Chapter 12 Questioning the questions: Institutional and individual perspectives on children’s language repertoires 315
  19. Afterword 347
  20. Index 353
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501512353-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction: The changing face of the “native speaker” 1
  4. Part one: Conceptual discussions
  5. Chapter 1 Why the mythical “native speaker” has mud on its face 25
  6. Chapter 2 The multilingual and multicompetent native speaker 47
  7. Chapter 3 New speakers: New linguistic subjects 71
  8. Part two: Practices and representations
  9. Chapter 4 Is there a native speaker in the class? A didactic view of a problematic notion 103
  10. Chapter 5 On the paradox of being native speakers of two “competing” languages: Turkish as the mother or the father tongue of Greek nationals 133
  11. Chapter 6 What kind of speakers are these? Placing heritage speakers of Russian on a continuum 155
  12. Chapter 7 The out-of-sight of “native speaker”: A critical journey through models of social representations of plurilingual identities 179
  13. Chapter 8 Practice-proof concepts? Rethinking linguistic borders and families in multilingual communication: Exploiting the relationship between intercomprehension and translanguaging 209
  14. Part three: Policies and controversies
  15. Chapter 9 Provenance and possession: Rethinking the mother tongue 233
  16. Chapter 10 The pluricentricity and ownership of English 253
  17. Chapter 11 “I want to be bilingual!” Contested imaginings of bilingualism in New Brunswick, Canada 285
  18. Chapter 12 Questioning the questions: Institutional and individual perspectives on children’s language repertoires 315
  19. Afterword 347
  20. Index 353
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