Getting students to challenge identity constructs during the process of documenting linguistic diversity in secondary schools in Catalonia.

MASATS, DOLORS ; UNAMUNO, VIRGINIA

Cummins, Jim & Margaret Early (eds.): Identity Texts: The Collaborative Creation of Power in Multilingual Schools Stoke-on-Trent, England: Trentham Books.

Trentham Books

Año: 2011; p. 83 - 96

Catalonia, an autonomous region within the Spanish state, has experienced a rapid population growth in the last decade due to migration movements. In such context, it seemed relevant to investigate and document the emerging multilingual practices of both the local population and of the new citizens. Thus, our project aimed at exploring the continuities and discontinuities between school and non-school communicative practices by describing and analysing the processes of language socialisation undertaken by two groups of secondary students. It was our view that by taking into account students’ particular interpretation of what are the socially accepted procedures of language use (Unamuno, 2009) in their various communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and by tracing the emergence of new linguistic repertoires and new identities (Codó & Patiño, 2010), we could shed new light into how language education might be carried out in multilingual milieus such as ours.