Conversations of Intercultural Couples

✍ Scribed by Kellie Gonçalves

• Publisher: Akademie Verlag
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 236
• Series: Diskursmuster / Discourse Patterns; 4
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Auf der Grundlage empirisch erhobenen Sprachmaterials untersucht die Studie das diskursive Aushandeln von Sprache und Identität innerhalb der intimsten "Community of Practice (CofP)", der Ehe zwischen interkulturellen Sprachpartnern. Die Studie ist in die sozialpsychologischen Konzepte von Identität und "Positioning" eingebettet. So wird am Beispiel von Interviews mit interkulturellen Paaren - genauer: englische Muttersprachler/innen, die mit deutschsprachigen Schweizer/innen verheiratet sind, in einer diglossen Sprachregion in der Zentralschweiz leben und über drei Jahre interviewt wurden - die Verhandlung und Performanz hybrider Identitäten analysiert und gezeigt, wie "doing Swiss" diskursiv ko-konstruiert und ausgehandelt wird. This book presents an empirical study that examines intercultural couples' reasons for specific language practices and investigates the negotiation and performances of hybrid identities within the marital unit, the most intimate community of practice (CofP). The theoretical framework adopted draws on the sociocultural linguistic approach to identity and the social psychological theory of positioning. The data stem from ethnographic observation and recordings carried out over a three-year period with intercultural couples, namely Anglophones married to native German-speaking Swiss, who reside in central Switzerland, where a diglossic situation prevails. The positionings individuals take up or refute indicate that the performance of "doing Swiss" is not only discursively co-constructed, but a site where the negotiation of meaning emerges within the context of social interaction.

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Transcription conventions
1. Introduction
1.1 Conducting qualitative research
1.2 Research questions
1.3 Theoretical framework
1.4 Previous work on intercultural couples in linguistics
1.5 Outline of book
2. Data collection and participants
2.1 In search of participants
2.1.1 Gaining access
2.1.2 Reasons for not participating
2.1.3 Recording procedures
2.2 Conversations as method
2.2.1 Transcribing and analysis
2.2.2 Ethnographic observation and field notes
2.3 The researcher as positioned
2.4 Data description
2.5 The participants
2.5.1 Thorsten and Dale
2.5.2 Peter and Conny
2.5.3 Timo and Clara
2.5.4 Simon and Cathy
2.5.5 Chad and Ulrike
2.5.6 Hans and Susan
2.5.7 Ray and Tanya
2.5.8 Michael and Glenda
2.5.9 Clive and Samantha
3. Socio-historical and sociolinguistic background
3.1 Linguistic composition of Switzerland
3.2 Diglossia within German-speaking Switzerland
3.3 English in Switzerland
3.3.1 English in the workplace
3.4 Overview of Interlaken
3.4.1 Geographic and demographic facts
3.4.2 Impact of tourism within Interlaken and surrounding municipalities
3.5 English as a lingua franca within Interlaken
3.5.1 Interlaken survey and results
3.5.2 Growing presence of English in Interlaken
3.5.3 Language contact in Interlaken: English in a Swiss-German-speaking area
3.5.4 English as the language of choice in intercultural couples
3.6 Summary
4. Identity
4.1 Conceptualizing Identity
4.1.1 Social constructionist views of identity
4.1.2 Identity categories
4.1.3 Post-structuralist approaches to identity
4.2 Language and identity within the social sciences
4.2.1 Social identity theory, self-categorization theory and ethnolinguistic identity theory
4.2.2 Variationist sociolinguistics: linguistic approaches to language and identity
4.2.3 Interactional studies
4.3 Social practice
4.3.1 Performance, performativity, and doing
4.4 Sociocultural linguistic model: identity in interaction
4.5 Summary
5. Modes of positioning
5.1 Positioning theory
5.1.1 Positioning in conversations
5.2 Different modes of positioning
5.2.1 Positioning of self and other
5.2.2 First and second order positioning
5.2.3 Tacit and intentional positioning
5.2.4 Forced self-positioning and forced positioning of others
5.2.5 The negotiation of identities
5.3 Additional linguistic features
5.4 Summary
6. Language learning in a diglossic area
6.1 Power
6.1.1 Symbolic power and symbolic resources
6.1.2 Identifying investment
6.2 Language ideologies
6.2.1 Language learning strategies
6.2.2 Access to Bernese dialect-speaking CofPs
6.3 Summary
7. Doing Swiss and performing hybridity: positioning of self and other and negotiating meaning
7.1 Re-conceptualizing identity
7.1.2 The categorization of identities
7.2 Culture
7.3 Merging identity categories
7.3.1 “I fight to have my own identity”
7.3.2 “I still feel like a total foreigner”
7.3.3 “I actually came here to see the Alps, I did not plan on stayin here”
7.3.4 “I took more on of the Irish way”
7.4 Embracing a Swiss identity
7.4.1 “All these junk stores, you don’t need that anymore”
7.4.2 “When I go back to California, I don’t do it either”
7.4.3 “My personality is still American”
7.4.4 “Yes, she’s Swiss isn’t she?”
7.4.5 “We eat still the regular, traditional Swiss way”
7.5 Summary
8. Conclusion
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Theoretical implications
8.3 Situated and situational identities
8.4 Research implications and perspectives for the future
9. Appendices
9.1 Appendix 1: Informed Consent & Release of Information Form
9.2 Appendix 2: Personal Information Form
9.3 Appendix 3: Questionnaire
9.4 Bibliography
9.5 Tables, figures, and maps
9.6 Index of authors
9.7 Index of subjects