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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 257

Part of Session 107: Minority and Majority Languages within State, Community and Family (Other abstracts in this session)

Family language policies and faith in a Tamil Hindu/Saiva community in London

Authors: Lytra, Vally; Ilankuberan, Arani; Gregory, Eve
Submitted by: Lytra, Vally (Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom)

Studies have shown that belonging to a faith may entail different degrees of access and fluency to sets of semiotic resources, including different languages and values attached to them (e.g. Baquedano-Lopez, 2004, 2008; Fader 2008, 2009; Rosowsky 2008). This presentation is part of an on-going research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council on children’s language and literacy learning in faith settings in London, UK (Gregory et al 2009).

In particular, we investigate language use in faith literacy activities taking place at home in a Tamil Hindu/Saiva community. Using field narratives, interviews, interactional data and still photography we examine the different sets of linguistic resources children and adults draw upon for praying, and the performance of key rituals associated with the faith. These include resources from modern Tamil, the minority language, old Tamil, the devotional language, English, the majority language, and Sanskrit, the liturgical language. We focus on participants’ interactions around oral, written and visual texts and the different values they attach to their different sets of linguistic resources. Inspired by Blackledge and Creese (2010), we explore to what extent two seemingly contradictory positions are at play: on the one hand, participants seek to keep their different sets of linguistic resources separate and on the other hand, they seek to combine them in flexible and creative ways. We show how children and adults engage in faith literacy activities at home as they seek to understand their faith, link it to their everyday lives and perform their religious, linguistic and cultural identities. Our analysis sheds light to the role of faith literacy and socialization in shaping family language use in a minority community in a European metropolis.