When language mixing is the norm: documenting post-muda language choice in a state school in Barcelona

Adriana Patiño-Santos

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2019-2022

Article

When language mixing is the norm: documenting post-muda language choice in a state school in Barcelona

Adriana Patiño-Santos

Published/Copyright: May 4, 2019

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From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2019 Issue 257

Abstract

This article studies the language uses of a group of new speakers of Catalan at a secondary school in a metropolitan working class area of Barcelona, who have experienced their linguistic mudes as a consequence of having being schooled in the Catalan education system from an early age. As shown in previous research on children of economic migrants in Catalonia, these students internalize and reproduce the language distribution of Catalan and Spanish that they are exposed to in their immediate environment. This will vary according to the locality in which they find themselves, in our case, a working class neighborhood in which Catalan is reserved as the vehicular language of instruction, while Spanish dominates as the language of social relations. The article adopts a language socialization perspective to give account of the linguistic competences these multilinguals display when carrying out an academic task. Translanguaging, in the form of language alternation and language mixing from the various repertoires that these students have at their disposal, emerges as the norm among them and their teachers in this school. This article embraces the idea that documenting the linguistic practices of new speakers can shed light on actual linguistic uses and trajectories after the linguistic muda takes place.

Keywords: linguistic muda; language socialization; language mixing; language repertoire

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editors of this issue and Joan Pujolar for their comments. They all helped me to think of various issues related to language choice and social class in Catalonia. I would also like to thank Mireia Trenchs-Parera and Celia Esquerra. Conducting the fieldwork and exchanging impressions with them was a gratifying learning process, as was sharing with the teachers and the students of Year 4 at El Parc.

Appendix: Symbols used in transcripts

PART: participant
fragment in Catalan
fragment in Spanish
AA: loud talking
a:: lengthening of vowel or consonant sound
/: short pause (0.5 seconds)
//: long pause (0.5–1.5 seconds)
XXX: incomprehensible fragment
?: question
-: self interruption
=: continuation of utterance after overlapping
↓: descending intonation
↑: rising intonation
→: continuing intonation
( )°: low voice/whisper
[ ]: turn overlapping with similarly marked turn
Ital: direct speech

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Published Online: 2019-05-04

Published in Print: 2019-05-27

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2019-2022

Keywords for this article

linguistic muda; language socialization; language mixing; language repertoire