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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 365

Part of Session 197: Urban multilingualism in a context of international mobility (Other abstracts in this session)

Desired versus Imposed Bilingualism? The Case of a Monolingual Country.

Authors: Vassileva, Irena Georgieva
Submitted by: Vassileva, Irena Georgieva (European Polytechnical University, Bulgaria)

Background:

In this study Bulgaria is taken as an example of a monolingual country where English has been ‘imposed’ as a second language, especially after 1990. Bulgarian is the official language of the country, which is also fixed in its Constitution (Chapter 1, Art. 3), and is spoken by 85.2% of the population; there are minorities who speak their own languages, the largest being Turkish (9.1%) and Roma (4.2%). The latter data was excerpted from the latest Census 2011 (http://www.nsi.bg/EPDOCS/Census2011final.pdf). At the same time, the influx of English becomes literally more and more visible, especially in the streets of larger cities.

Aims, data and expected results:

The investigation is based on data collected through photographing urban signs and inscriptions (street signs, restaurant names, various inscriptions, e.g. in offices, including ‘illiterate’ word-for-word translations from Bulgarian, etc.) and further supported by informal interviews with people who are involved with them both as producers and as consumers. The data will be statistically (quantitatively) and qualitatively evaluated in terms of appropriacy and relevance to the particular discursive environment, as well as in terms of linguistic correctness.

The interviews are expected to demonstrate the consumers’ attitude towards the use of a foreign language and a foreign alphabet in an otherwise monolingual social and urban context and the degree to which English is accepted (or not) as a lingua franca. It will also elicit the producers’ motivation for choosing to use English and the possible tensions that arise between the two parties.

The results of the study are expected to throw light upon the question of whether one could speak of ‘imposed’ or ‘desired’ bilingualism, as well as on the social and individual factors that determine citizens’ attitude towards the investigated phenomenon. An attempt will also be made to predict possible future trends and developments.

Methodology:

The methodological approach will follow the framework of Critical discourse analysis where ‘text’ is seen as resultative, as embedded in certain discursive practices which are themselves dependent upon social practices (Fairclough 1992:63-73). The focus will be on the “’sociocognitive’ dimensions of text production and interpretation, which centre upon the interplay between the members’ resources which discourse participants have internalized and bring with them to the text processing, and the text itself, as a set of ‘traces’ of the production process, or a set of ‘cues’ for the interpretation process” (Fairclough 1992:80).

References:

Fairclough, Norman 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Census 2011. http://www.nsi.bg/EPDOCS/Census2011final.pdf. Accessed on January 18, 2012.