A Narrative Account of a Multilingual Informant - Essay Example

?Multilingual Informant This essay will be analyzing the distinct features of Diaspora, native and transitional communities through a multilingual informant. This essay will look at the issue of the means by which the prevailing language has an impact with the communities. It will address the varying languages used for different functions and determine the distinction between a different language and a dialect language. In order to compile a comprehensive essay numerous resources will be utilized to assess the sociological explanation of language transitions and how languages evolve. Thus, this essay aims to utilize both primary and secondary sources and also online information to delineate comparisons, inconsistencies, gaps and flaws that are linked with blended communities. To begin the multilingual informant is known as Chinedu. He is multilingual speaker who practices at least three distinct languages within her community which is Igbo, Swahili and Pidgin. Beardsmore (2008) asserts that multilingual speaker communicate in divergent languages in their daily lives whether it’s in relation to their profession, education, family et cetera. This is because there is a special function of language they utilize, such as at home the distinct language mother tongue is most commonly used to communicate with their family, while if it concerns communication outside family life, especially at workplace they will speak in standard English as it is an official language used for internal an office administration. Chinedu was sent to Britain right after he graduated from college. But before he first came to Britain at that time, he had studied English for more than three, and yet he could not speak English at all. In order for him to speak English better, he was extremely fascinated about moving to the United Kingdom. He expected his teacher would teach him English so that he could how speak English. Although he never enjoyed English learning in Nigeria, he always adored his English teacher who had a lot of knowledge of English grammar and sentence structures that assisted him learn English. They taught him their secret skills in memorizing vocabularies is a systematic way, and they taught him how to asses sentences to right answers on a test without comprehending the meaning of the texts. There are many diverse multiplicities of diversity in the UK and Britain is now viewed as a multilingual community. A lot of individuals have come to this place for many sophisticated reason ranging from seeking asylum, employment chances, and education to support a better way of living. For that reason migration is transforming the linguistic landscape of Britain. The increase in immigrants coming from South Asian, Afro Caribbean and also Commonwealth countries has had a huge effect on what British speak, with languages from those areas seeing sharp increase in usage (Edwards, 2004). Most of the members of the communities are former British colonies. Those immigrants have immigrated to Britain and have created communities with other members with similar interests in connection to culture, religion and customs to fit and to have a sense of belonging. The community that Chinedu found himself in is a community which was created by individuals who migrated in search of better education or employment opportunities. Diasporas is seen as a community of individuals who are bound by some shared history, race or religion. Diaspora brings together communities which are not rather nation, not really religion, not really homesickness, yet they still have something to do with nation, religion, longings for homes which might not even exist. These are collectivities and communities which go beyond geological spaces and historical experiences. There are huge numbers of individuals who exist in one place and yet they feel closely related to each other. Thereby, there a lot of ways in which communities are created and this might be through language, music, culinary tastes, religion and so on (Lueng et al., 1997). Chinedu claims that he experiences a sense of belonging within his community as it reminds him of his identity, since he can connect to the cultural comparisons since his community is African based and they are people from his community and they commonly share the same ethnic history. Whilst Chinedu studied he came across a lot of Diaspora families that came from all around the globe which comprised Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, and Saudis within his community and his local community college; this presented diversity. But as Chinedu started adopting the life in Britain the community experienced a lot of transformation as the community is now more viewed as an African community According to Edwards (2011) linguistic diversity has always been an essential aspect of the Diaspora communities. During the present time of globalization, linguistic in Britain has presumed new scope. Population censuses are great importance because the only dialect involved is directly connected to Britain. In putting account the linguistic adoptions of minority’s communities in Britain, it is essential to remember that the communities in doubt are by no means homogenous. In many of the longer successful communities, for most part shifting to English is virtually complete. On the contrary, new arrivals are proficient in their home dialects. For instance, in African areas of Leytonstone, it is likely to find restaurants, travel agents and food and clothing outlets operated by and for the communities in question. New minority dialects also play a critical function in global market. Knowledge of other languages is now vastly acknowledged as offering business a competitive edge. However the adaptation of Diaspora communities has apparent advantages for the host community (Kenner, 2004). Global migration has promoted communities which may be described as transnational. Therefore Diaspora individual are regarded as transnational since they share common interest and references. These include territorial, religious and linguistic factors. Increased movement and the growth of development of communication have contributed to such connections, and generate a transnational space of economic, cultural and political engagement. Transnational organization permits the migrant populations to escape national policies, and creates a new space of socialization for Diaspora people who are involved in creating networks within the communities they occupy. The cultural and political specificities of Diaspora societies are combined with emerging multilevel and multinational events in a new space beyond territorially delimited nation-states. In the UK a significant number of transnational networks of Diaspora workers have emerged to claim recognition of a collective society. The networks are either informal or formal, based upon interest or identity. Thereby it can be argued that communities can be created if there is an underlying common factor amid ethnic groups who are united by the same ideological ideas (Edwards, 2004). Chinedu thinks of himself as a multilingual who is competent in all the three dialects as he is capable of reading and writing. After reviewing his own language learning experience, he realized that what he had learned in Senegal was just the knowledge and factual information of the language itself. He never acquired the English at all. The English learning condition in Senegal was detached from the situation in the actual world. Since Chinedu settled in the UK there have been a lot of transformations over through the years within his present community as there have been transformations and growth that has occurred. He has witnessed his community grow in a place which once used to be westernized and there was restricted culture. However his community has experienced tremendous diversity and multiculturalism is everyplace. Today Britain has been transformed into a multicultural society. Chinedu is part of a Diaspora community who immigrated to Britain for a better education prospects. This provided him with the opportunity to learn his third English and in college years he transformed into fluent English speaker, as it is the prevailing language spoken in Britain today. He encountered several challenges during his first couple of years of college study in the UK. First, since he was new to British education system, he was often nervous and did not understand how to participate in Class. Since he was NNES college student, he was often frustrated and angry with himself when he was incapable of participating fully in discussion or expresses his thoughts in front of his peers. In my situations, he had to observe events or assess any decision before he spoke. He had to deal with events and procedures that were different from his cultural background and cognitive system. Schumann (2000) explains social distance, the cognitive and effective closeness of two cultures that interact together within an individual, as a productive construct to offer descriptive influence to the position of cultural learning in second language learning. Chinedu’s experiences as an NNES college student endorsed Schumann’s argument of socio-cultural aspects in language learning which assess second language acquisition with consideration of the learner’s home culture. His learning experience in Nigeria had been changed into his belief system about what learning something new is, and this belief became part of his identity. In comprehending identity, Watkin-Goffman (2001) asserts that an individual’s experiences play a critical duty in identity formation. The students who leave their native country and migrate to a new country may experience have a more sophisticated sense of identity since they frequently struggle to pursue new identity in a new perspective whilst they are in the process of learning a new language and adopting a new culture. During the first semester of his college study, he was the only international student in the entire class, and majority of his classmates were White. Thus, being a minority, he was embarrassed to address his personal issues, so he chose to remain quiet. Students from Africa are stereotyped as model minorities. This stereotyping brands students from Africa as a hardworking, self-adequate and self-dependent group (Bourdieu, 2002). Without acknowledging specific ethnic and cultural differences, such stereotyping created cultureless presumptions about African people. Just like her mother who always felt ashamed to let other know her illiteracy, Chinedu felt embarrassed to share his own difficulties. The chief function of education in Nigeria was to teach students to get higher graders in National Entrance Exam for college. In such task-devised education system, teachers frequently used nation-wide curriculum to push student into exams, without putting into consideration the students’ needs. Nevertheless, it was later on his studies while being at last year of college that Chinedu became proficient in English since all the subjects that were founded in the curricula were founded in English. He mostly read novels to improve his grammar. And all through his learning process in school he was capable of reading and writing in both Igbo and English. This way he was capable of becoming a balanced bilingual. Once Chinedu noticed he has acquired this knowledge she started speaking in Standard English at home with his siblings but mostly choose to speak in Igbo since it was his mother tongue. Igbo is the only language that gave Chinedu his identity and culture. Thereby, it was essential for Chinedu to be capable of speaking his mother tongue with his counterparts since he didn’t want to forget his roots. On the surface of it, Chinedu claims that his community had swiftly transformed into his home-away-from-home. There are many individuals just like him British Nigerians, Ghanaians and Senegalese staying in the same community promoting their culture and heritage who have immigrated here for any cause such like searching for employment opportunity, better way of living, asylum issues and so on. In general the issue of Diaspora is viewed as a sophisticated thing as there are many essential features that are connected to it. Transnationalism has given the chance for many individuals to create communities where they share resemblances whether it is founded in their culture, religion or historical accounts (Kenner, 2004). References Aspinall, P. 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