The Italian diaspora throughout the world navigate and negotiate various complex and multidirectional language dynamics. In order to account for the sociolinguistic processes that have taken place, this book provides a detailed observation of these linguistic dynamics from the point of view of the Italian diaspora in Bedford, in the UK. This study on the language behaviour of three generations of Italian residents in Bedford provides empirical data on, and highlights the importance of, the sociolinguistic examination of English in service encounters. What comes to light in most of the cases analysed, is that audience design has a proven influence on the choice of language and repertoire within the speech of the Bedford Italian community. There are not only switches from one language to another, but also style shifts in the linguistic repertoire. Throughout this study, it becomes clear that speakers freely use the two languages available to their speech community, and, thanks to their active and passive repertoire, they apply a range of linguistic resources from both Italian and English. The volume also uncovers some especially interesting traits in 3rd generation speech, involving in particular a rather widespread use of mixed pronunciation. Upon moving past the initial assumption that the adoption of this mixed pronunciation is used to show the younger generation’s sense of belonging to the BI community, a quite different reason emerges. Closer analysis reveals that, due to an increasing feeling of ‘non-Britishness’, this linguistic choice may be linked to a deliberate and conscious attempt on their part not to accommodate to British culture, and in so doing to distance themselves further from it. Preface by David Britain.

This volume studies the literary voices of the Italian diaspora in Britain, including 21 authors and 34 pieces of prose, verse, and drama. This book shows how authors both recount the history of the migrant community in the period 1880-1980 while creatively experimenting with hybrid forms of expression and blending words with visuals. Literary Voices of the Italian Diaspora in Britain discusses topical issues like migration and social integration, cultures and foods in transition, as well as plurilingualism. The book pays special attention to discussions of the horrors of the Second World War – especially on the tragedy of the Arandora Star (2nd July 1940) – to show this literary community’s political commitments. More importantly, it will begin to fill the void left by a critical tradition which has only appreciated the northern American and Australian branches of Italian writing.

This volume brings together a collection of papers based on presentations given at the 10th and 11th Fora for Linguistic Sharing, organised by the Young Researchers Group of the Centro de Linguística da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (CLUNL) and held at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, on the 27th and 28th November 2015 and on the 25th November 2016, respectively. The papers are authored by young researchers in linguistics and present the results of original research in two broad areas, namely text and discourse linguistics and grammar. This volume also includes a brief history of the Forum for Linguistic Sharing written by its founders, Audria Leal, Carla Teixeira, Isabelle Simões Marques and Matilde Gonçalves; a keynote article on text linguistics by Matilde Gonçalves; and a keynote article on word formation by Maria do Céu Caetano. Given that it brings together contributions from different, yet complementary, subfields of linguistics, the book will appeal to a broad readership of linguists.

This series offers a wide forum for work on contact linguistics, using an integrated approach to both diachronic and synchronic manifestations of contact, ranging from social and individual aspects to structural-typological issues. Topics covered by the series include child and adult bilingualism and multilingualism, contact languages, borrowing and contact-induced typological change, code switching in conversation, societal multilingualism, bilingual language processing, and various other topics related to language contact. The series does not have a fixed theoretical orientation, and includes contributions from a variety of approaches.

Recently intensified global mobility has reinforced the interest for ethnolinguistic diversity and multilingualism in education and society. Interdisciplinary Research Approaches to Multilingual Education brings together current interdisciplinary perspectives in multilingual and second language education to examine research and language teaching in specific countries, as well as different aspects of multilingual education that include language policies and ICT applications. Containing context-specific practical interventions and relevant theoretical approaches, it considers the contemporary challenges of language policies and practices to inform teacher and curriculum development based on international empirical research. The chapters of this book are centered around the following themes: Educational programs and policies Teaching and learning Linguistic diversity ICT and language learning This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in language education, bilingual education, second/foreign language learning, CALL, and applied linguistics. It will also appeal to educational administrators and those involved with language education policies.

This volume explores the complex relationship between language and identity from various critical perspectives and by means of different research methodologies. Following the earlier collection, Languaging Diversity: Identities, Genres, Discourses, this book provides further insights into the multifaceted process of identity construction through language. The choice of dealing with the broad concept of ‘diversity’ underlines the inclusiveness of this text, which was conceived to analyse how identities are linguistically and socially construed, maintained and challenged in a vast array of sociolinguistic contexts. The choice of collecting papers concerning the thorny issue of language and diversity is grounded on the idea that individual identities are dynamic and socially negotiated in interaction and discourse, with language choices being true acts of identity (Le Page and Tabouret-Keller, 1985) by means of which people’s selves are performed and defined. To offer wide yet accurate descriptions of how identities are variously conveyed linguistically, this volume offers a varied approach to diversity, by covering different fields of research, from the investigation of ethnic minorities’ identities to the socio-linguistic and cultural status of Scots, to mention but two examples. The book consists of nine selected papers dealing with professional, cultural, ethnic and social identities, gender ideologies and national stereotypes built and negotiated in language practices and discourse .In particular, this work tackles a wide set of key topics: the construction and legitimation of ESOL teachers’ identities in their community of practice, multidimensional research on Italian immigrants’ distinctiveness, the negotiation of self in bilingual families, Scottish national belonging and attitudes towards the Scots language, the correlation between sexism and gender categories, and the development of a positive approach to diversity via enhanced critical awareness of culture-bound stereotypes.

This book presents an original empirical study on the linguistic repertoires of post-2008 Italian migrants living in London. The author interrogates how migrants’ trajectories and their relation with their homeland’s migration history are displayed through the engagement of new multilingual practices, such as translanguaging, and how new identities are negotiated during conversational acts. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Sociolinguistics and Migration Studies.

This volume explores the issue of social class from the point of view of its linguistic articulations. Indeed, as Machin and Richardson (2008) stated, “discourses may be variously approached as (often simultaneously) reflecting class structures, as a site of class inequalities, as expressive of class identities or class consciousness and/or as a constituent part of more performative class action.” Some of the contributions that make up the volume were presented at a conference held at Cagliari University, Italy, in 2017 and responded to the call for analyses on the role of language in reflecting, maintaining, enacting, and inculcating ideas on social class in literary and non-literary texts and discourses in any cultural or linguistic setting. This volume aspires to encourage scholars in disciplines and academic fields that have shied away from reflections on structural inequalities in favor of studies on ethnic, gender, and cultural identities in the last decades to take back on board the concept of social class and to engage with it in a novel way. The variety of approaches – ranging from the more traditional sociolinguistic one, anthropology, to literary and discourse studies – and cultural settings – with case studies coming from 3 continents – represented in the chapters show that social class is a productive and illuminating concept for trying to (re)make sense of social reproduction and change.

This edited volume brings together original sociolinguistic and cultural contributions on food as an instrument to explore diasporic identities. Focusing on food practices in cross-cultural contact, the authors reveal how they can be used as a powerful vehicle for positive intercultural exchange either though conservation and the maintenance of cultural continuity, or through hybridization and the means through which migrant communities find compromise, or even consent, within the host community. Each chapter presents a fascinating range of data and new perspectives on cultures and languages in contact: from English (and some of its varieties) to Italian, German, Spanish, and to Japanese and Palauan, as well as an exemplary range of types of contact, in colonial, multicultural, and diasporic situations. The authors use a range of integrated approaches to examine how socio-linguistic food practices can, and do, contribute to identity construction in diverse transnational and diasporic contexts. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of translation, semiotics, cultural studies and sociolinguistics.

This book explores the transnational practices of migrant groups in global London, illustrating the complex relations between migrants and the city in the context of globalisation. The chapters offer a starting point to examine migrants and the city from a comparative perspective by bringing together case studies of diverse migrant communities. They use ‘languaging’ as the central concept in the development of an interdisciplinary framework that creates an opportunity to ‘talk across disciplines’ to engage with key issues crisscrossing migration, cities and language. The book promotes ‘language-based’ or ‘language-sensitive’ research, drawing on the plurilingual repertoires and the language and translanguaging practices of migrant communities as the tool for data collection and ethnographic fieldwork. This approach generates fresh insights into the complex issues of diasporic identities, belonging and place-making, which have broad implications for migration studies in post-Brexit Britain and beyond.