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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 657

Part of Session 130: Language in Multilingual Cities (Other abstracts in this session)

Language and Identity Positioning of Multilingual Southeast-Asian Sojourners in Hong Kong – Using Social Network Analysis to Highlight Concentric Communities of Practices

Authors: Tang, Yuen-Man
Submitted by: Tang, Yuen-Man (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China))

Modern transportation has given rise to mobility of population. Among this population, much has been studied on their permanent migration. Yet, in the field of sociolinguistics, very few have stressed the temporary movement of group who is named “sojourner”. In addition, previous research predominantly focus on non-English speakers sojourning to an English-dominant country (Haneda and Monobe, 2009; Lee, 2008; Own, 1999), but seldom conducted in Asian multilingual context. Adopting a qualitative and ethnographic approach, a small scale research is conducted in a higher education dance school in Hong Kong and three sojourn students who are from multilingual countries (two from Singapore and one from Malaysia) are recruited. This study examines talk-and-interaction between Hong Kongers and the sojourn students and identity positioning of the sojourners. In particular, it tackles a more complex language contact situation in which two lingua franca are available, namely English and Mandarin. Collaborating Social Network Analysis (Milroy, 1980) and Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992), it is found that there are three concentric communities of practices in this dance community: 1. three sojourn students are bound together by strong ties and English is the dominant language used among the three 2. weaker ties are extended to other overseas sojourn students and both Mandarin and English are adopted; and 3. they form relatively weakest ties with local students and in lieu of Mandarin and English, Cantonese is the lingua franca. In other words, the sojourn students have to acquire and accommodate the code choice of the majority, i.e. the locals. Instances of trilingual code-mixing and code-switching are found in the interaction among the sojourners and the Hong Kong locals. These two theories are complementary to accounting for social organization of concentric multilingual communities. Social Network Analysis helps to analyze the multiple clusters developed in this small community, while Community of Practice examines the negotiation and shared linguistic and non-linguistic practices of both the community and its clusters. Even though the sojourners may have weak ties with locals, it is found that the sojourners still conform to the community of practices including dress-code and English dancing jargons. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the complexity of concentric multilingual communities in which language in contact takes place in Hong Kong.

Reference

Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Think Practically and Look Locally:  Language and Gender as Community-Based Practice. Annual Review  Anthropology, 21, 461-490. 

Haneda, M., & Monobe, G. (2009). Bilingual and biliteracy practices: Japanese  adolescents living in the United States. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication,  19(1), 7-29. 

Lee, J.-s. (2008). Second language, intercultural experience, and identity: A case  study of Korean overseas students in Canada. Dissertation Abstracts  International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 68(10), 4246. 

Milroy, L. (1980). Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Blackwell.

Own, M.-C. E. (1999). Harmonizing the Tension of Opposites: Chinese Sojourner  Children's Experiences of Literacy Learning in the U.S. Dissertation Abstracts  International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 59(9), 3325-A-3326-A.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University  Press.