ERIC Number: EJ1440010
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1367-0050
EISSN: EISSN-1747-7522
Available Date: N/A
Young Turkish Cypriots' Perceptions of Non-Standard Varieties and Their Speakers: Learning 'Posh' Turkish in Complementary Schools
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v27 n9 p1199-1211 2024
The current study aims to provide an understanding of how the relationships between standard and non-standard varieties of the Turkish language are perceived by young people of Turkish Cypriot descent within the context of Turkish complementary schools in London. These schools are set up by diasporic communities to fight/reverse language shift and loss. They are also political spaces where cultural and linguistic practices are legitimised and delegitimized to help create an imagined community. Hence they provide rich contexts to investigate young people's perceptions of standard and non-standard varieties of languages. This study specifically draws on interview data of eight UK-born Turkish Cypriot young people, collected through a 13-month ethnographic study in a London-based Turkish complementary school. The results of the thematic analysis of the participants' discourses showed that the participants thought that the role of the Turkish school was to teach the 'proper' variety, i.e. standard Turkish. Through the lens of Bourdieu's capitals, the results indicated that the participants believed that acquiring this variety would make them become more 'educated.' However, some participants problematised the seemingly straightforward association between standard varieties and positive perceptions of their speakers, which raises important questions about rethinking the position of non-standard varieties in education.
Descriptors: Language Variation, Turkish, Community Schools, Ethnography, Discourse Analysis, Foreign Countries, Native Language Instruction, Language Attitudes, Standard Spoken Usage, Nonstandard Dialects, Social Capital, Cultural Capital, Immigrants, Language Maintenance, Adolescents, Heritage Education, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Cyprus; United Kingdom (London)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A