Deconstructing and reinventing the concept of multilingualism: A case study of the Mauritian sociolinguistic landscape

This article aims at deconstructing the conception of multilingualism developed in mainstream sociolinguistics by critically examining the assumptions underlying this trend of research, which is grounded in the scholarship of Labov (1972), Fishman (1984) and even Gumperz (1972). In order to engage in that discussion, we use the Mauritian sociolinguistic landscape, as described by researchers following that tradition, as a case. We, thus, carry out a meta-analysis of existing sociolinguistic research conducted in Mauritius, which serve to illustrate the extent to which knowledge produced bear the influence of the structuralist approach. Then, we critically discuss and reflect upon the assumptions underpinning such research, and in so doing, challenge key concepts such as language and diglossia. Finally, we open a discussion on the need to adopt an alternative epistemological position in order to construct a different type of interpretation of the phenomenon following the ground-breaking work of scholars such as Makoni and Pennycook (2007), Herdina and Jessner (2002), Blackledge and Creese (2010), Garcia (2009) and de Robillard (2005, 2007).Key words: Multilingualism, language, diglossia, linguistic ethnography, translanguagin

La distribution des fonctions des langues dans un contexte multilingue : cas de l’île Maurice

Dans ce mémoire de maîtrise, nous nous intéressons à la situation linguistique de l’Île Maurice d’un point de vue sociolinguistique. L’Île Maurice étant un État multilingue, dans lequel les langues viennent des origines diverses et n’assument pas de fonctions égales, des écarts considérables peuvent être observés entre les représentations que les Mauriciens font sur ces langues. L’imaginaire linguistique donne une image survalorisée à certaines langues alors que les locuteurs des langues dévalorisées éprouvent l’insécurité par rapport à leur langue. Étant donné que le créole mauricien est issu de la langue française, les frontières linguistiques ne sont pas toujours évidentes entre ces deux langues. Au moment où l’État mauricien souhaite, par les moyens de l’aménagement linguistique volontaire, améliorer le statut du créole mauricien, il est intéressant de faire la recherche sur les situations de communication pour voir quelle(s) langue(s) est/sont utilisée(s) dans quel contexte. Pour pouvoir répondre à cette question, nous avons analysé les résultats de notre questionnaire sur les contextes d’utilisation des langues à l’Île Maurice avec la théorie des cercles de la communication de Louis-Jean Calvet. En plus, l’observation d’un forum de discussion sur internet destiné aux Mauriciens, nous a permis d’étudier les caractéristiques du créole écrit dans une situation informelle. Contrairement à nos hypothèses, nous n’avons pas trouvé dans notre corpus des signes incontestables sur l’éventuel élargissement des fonctions du créole mauricien à l’Île Maurice aux dépens des autres langues de la société mauricienne mais une tendance fortement favorable au multilinguisme. Enfin, cette étude montre pourquoi, dans les recherches linguistiques des sociétés multilingues, il est nécesessaire de prendre en considération aussi le côté sociolinguistique.Siirretty Doriast

Multilingualism, social inequalities, and mental health: an anthropological study in Mauritius

This thesis analyses two different features of Mauritian society in relation to multilingualism. The first is how multilingualism appears in everyday Mauritian life. The second is how it influences mental health provision in this country. The sociolinguistics of Mauritius has drawn the attention of many linguists in the past (Baker 1972; Stein 1982; Rajah- Carrim 2004; Biltoo 2004; Atchia-Emmerich 2005; Thomson 2008), but linguists tend to have quite different views on Mauritian languages than many Mauritians themselves. Language shifts and diverse language games in the Wittgensteinian sense are commonplace in Mauritius, and have been in the focus of linguistic and anthropological interest (Rajah-Carrim 2004 and Eisenlohr 2007), but this is the first research so far about the situation in the clinical arena. Sociolinguistic studies tend to revolve only around a few other domains of language; in particular, there is great attention on proper language use – or the lack of it – in education, which diverts attention away from equally important domains of social life. Little has been published and is known about mental health, the state of psychology and psychiatry in Mauritius and its relationship with language use. This work demonstrates that mental health can provide a new viewpoint to understand complex social processes in Mauritius. People dealing with mental health problems come across certain, dedicated social institutions that reflect, represent and form an important part of the wider society. This encounter is to a great extent verbal; therefore, the use of language or languages here can serve as an object of observation for the researcher. The agency of the social actors in question – patients, relatives and staff members in selected settings – manifests largely in speaking, including sometimes a choice of available languages and language variations. This choice is influenced by the pragmatism of the ‘problem’ that brings the patient to those institutions but also simultaneously determined by the dynamic complexity of sociohistorical and economic circumstances. It is surprising for many policy makers and theorists that social suffering has not lessened in recent decades in spite of global technological advancements and increased democracy. This thesis demonstrates through ethnographic examples that existing provisions (particularly in biomedicine) that have been created to attend to problems of mental health may operate contrary to the principle of help. In the case of Mauritius, this distress is significantly due to postcolonial inequities and elite rivalries that are in significant measure associated with the use of postcolonial languages. Biomedical institutions and particularly the encounters among social actors in biomedical institutions, which are not isolated or independent from the prevailing social context, can contribute to the reproduction of social suffering

Code-switching in computer-mediated communication (CMC): an exploratory study of linguistic factors underpinning the role of English in Seychelles Kreol web-writing

The aim of this study was to gain a comprehensive insight into the nature and functions of language alternation between Kreol Seselwa and English, in social media writing in Seychelles

Contemporary perspectives on language standardization: the role of digital and online technologies

There is plenty of evidence indicating that the rise in usage and influence of digital and online forms of communication is having an effect on language norms and processes of standardization. Some examples are the shifts in writing norms in digital spaces, the diversification of language norm authorities and the impact of crowdsourcing on dictionaries and reference works. Whereas existing research has predominantly centred on the consequences of digital and online technologies for developments ‘from below’, this chapter focuses instead on their significance for standardization and policies ‘from above’. With reference to the most recent official revisions to the Luxembourgish language orthography, the chapter examines efforts by state institutions and private organizations to implement language standards and create greater awareness of written norms for Luxembourgish. The analysis encompasses the Schreiwen.lu online resources and spelling campaign, digital Luxembourigish dictionaries and spellcheckers, as well as the rtl.lu online news platform. The findings indicate that such technological developments enable multiple approaches for creating, negotiating and disseminating language standards. Online and digital media not only affect bottom-up language practices, but also have an increasingly influential role in the norm implementation and standardization effected by the state and by private entities

Re-imagining the nation

This thesis examines young people’s constructions of nationhood in Mauritius. In 2008, the Mauritian government instituted a Truth and Justice Commission (TJC), set up to investigate the consequences of slavery and indentured labour. Through the Truth and Justice Commission, the Mauritian government indicated its desire to achieve social justice and national unity. Drawing on developments in studies of national identification practices in the 21st Century, this thesis addresses the question of young Mauritian’s locally and globally informed identification practices and asks how their unofficial narratives of nationhood challenge, or divert, or relate to official state narratives of nationhood. The basis of the study emerges from data collected from 132 participants during fieldwork in multiple fieldsites from May to September 2010 as well as research on Mauritian youth on-line from 2011-2014. The advent of the TJC offers an ideal moment to evaluate the dynamics of post-colonial nation-building and nationhood in a selfstyled multi-cultural state. Nationhood, does not exist apriori to the constructions of narratives of the nation, thus the stories told about the nation, imagine the nation into being. By situating the Truth and Justice Commission and other official state narratives alongside young people’s narratives, I argue that contemporary narratives of nationhood in Mauritius represent an intergenerational struggle to define the meaning of the past in the present and consequently outline the future. Reflecting on the ideas and socio-economic and political processes that induce national consciousness, I argue that young people’s narratives of everyday lived experiences are vital for an interpretation of how nationhood is produced in everyday life. The cultural projects of young people – often rendered as liminal or marginal – offer a critical vantage point from where to read constructions of nationhood. Far from being growing pains or childish games, young people’s identity making practices are what Sherry B. Ortner has called “serious games.” This research suggests that official state government narratives of multicultural nationhood in Mauritius narrowly define national identification along communal loyalties, overlooking the dynamism of interculturality and transnationalism in daily practice on the island. Although communalism and rigid colonial interpretations of ethnicity attempt to police and limit the possibilities of alternative modes of being in Mauritius, young people’s identification practices question, challenge, and threaten to disrupt official discourses of ethnic identification in Mauritius Scholarly investigations of young peoples’ lived experiences of nationhood extend theoretical and methodological frames for the study of nationalized subjects and deepen the understanding of the construction of national consciousness. The construction of nationhood always involves narratives of some sort – scholarship on this area has usually focused on official state narratives from social theorists, state governments, and state elites. I argue for the importance of considering subjectivity and lived experience in conceptions of nationhood. In contemporary post-colonial societies, young people are the numerical majority, however, their voices are seldom represented in theories and narratives of nationhood. Whilst young people may appear in state policies (especially education) and official narratives about the future of the nation, their creative imagining and reimagining of narratives of selfhood is often ignored. I examine how young people increasingly are aware of their transnational connections, through participation in transnational youth cultures, and they are consequently increasingly multi-lingual and multicultural. Fixed notions of ethnic identification and discourses of trauma are not at the forefront of young people’s identification of selfhood, rather their ability to take advantage of their multiply situated identification processes allows them new means to evade and transform these narratives. Their identification of selfhood is characterised by a greater degree of dynamism than previous generations had access to, and thus they do not only identify themselves through officially sanctioned national forms of identification. Loyalty to nationhood is thus less predictable, and young people represent a potential threat to the continuation of older forms of nationhood. While official narratives of nationhood may manipulate ethnic and racial cleavages to secure old loyalties, not all young people are persuaded by these notion

Discourses of Tension in a Rainbow Nation: Transcultural Identity Formations among Hakka Mauritians

Identity formation happens at a crossroads of that which people believe they are and are not. Acknowledgment, reification, or subversion of identity frictions form powerful communicative patterns that I call ‘discourses of tension’. I argue in this dissertation that discourses of tension are foundational to the formation of transcultural identities—positionalities that emerge between or beyond perceived cultural boundaries—because they enable people to identify and express cultural complexities and expectations. Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork and research in other relevant sites, this argument is supported by my analysis of how Hakka Chinese Mauritians express agency and identity within the affordances and constraints presented by historical relations, ideologies, policies, and sociopolitical developments in postcolonial Mauritius. This small Indian Ocean island state is lauded for its peaceful multicultural society while imposing restrictive ethnic classification into four groups (Hindu, Muslim, Chinese, and ‘General Population’) onto its citizens. Mauritian identity formation is anchored in raciolinguistic ideologies which view language and race as naturally linked. These ideologies produce expectations of people’s language use and identity expression, which often conflict with social realities in Mauritius. Within this field of tension, Hakka Mauritians often find themselves having to reassert their identities as ‘authentically’ Mauritian, Chinese, or Hakka. This is further complicated by the recent ‘rise’ of China, which promotes Mandarin language education (instead of Hakka) and affects local perceptions of what it means to be ‘Chinese’. I present three key contexts in which discourses of tension become salient for Hakka Mauritian expression: Mauritian discourses of nation-building and ethnolinguistic community formation Shifts from Hakka to Mandarin in Chinese Mauritian heritage language classrooms Ideologies of ‘Chineseness’ in the semiotic landscape of Mauritian Chinatown My research shows that Hakka Mauritians occupy constant ‘in-between’ spaces and engage in discourses of tension to (re-)examine their identities. My dissertation thus contributes to anthropology an account of individual agency in expressing fluidity and complexity in transcultural identities against the backdrop of discursive tensions

Being rooted and living globally:A critical approach to the (re)presentation of history in Social and Modern Studies textbooks

This research engages with history curriculum in the Social and Modern Studies (SMS) school textbooks in Mauritius as part of the Nine Year Continuous Basic Education (NYCBE) reform that was introduced in January 2017. I will examine the inclusion of an alternative narrative moving away from a colonial-centric education as a structured attempt (Sternhouse,1975) to investigate how history is (re)presented in the Social and Modern Studies (SMS) textbooks. This research situates the dominant discourses in the teaching of history within a postcolonial and decolonial dialogue (Bhambra 2014) in juxtaposition with critical literacy. This theoretical commitment and philosophical assumption engage with history as they challenge the inheritances of the imperial institution. I argue how we think and engage with the history is marked by our colonial past (Mazama 2003; Wane 2008) that continues to have an impact on present-day practices. I examine how history teaching ought to disrupt the process of coloniality (Maldonado Torres 2016) by confronting stories of tragedy and oppression, of imperialism and colonisation, to reconstruct alternative stories of strength and resilience. Drawing of these theoretical intersections, history is explored conceptually and reflected empirically with Fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis. By using a critical discourse analysis as a method of analysis to critically engage with the meaning systems embedded within the text, this research recognizes the subaltern voices and reinstates the possibilities for recognition (Fukuyama 2018). This thesis advocates a liberating perspective (Wa Thiong’O 1986) to decolonise historical knowledge and imagine alternative possibilities in an era of global interconnectedness. The findings indicate how the new historical narrative nurtures specific dispositions as part of a neoliberal agenda that affirms a colonial subtext. I offer an alternative way of reading history with strategies to cultivate a space for historical understanding for students to become creators and owners of their own history

Acquisition du kreol mauricien et du français et construction du discours à travers l'analyse de productions orales d'enfants plurilingues mauriciens (la référence aux entités)

L Ile Maurice est une société complexe où se côtoient un grand nombre de langues : l anglais et le français, langues administratives, sont apprises dès la première année du cycle primaire tandis que le kreol mauricien (KM), L1 de plus de 85% de la population, n y joue aucun rôle à ce jour. C est dans ce contexte que nous avons choisi d analyser des productions orales en français et en KM d enfants de deux groupes d âge (6-7 ans et 8-9 ans), nos enquêtes ayant été faites dans des zones géographiques présentant des contextes socioculturels et linguistiques différents. Notre corpus est ainsi constitué d environ 200 récits dans ces deux langues, obtenus à partir de la planche connue comme Les oisillons . Nous proposons ainsi une analyse détaillée des moyens mis en œuvre dans la référence aux entités, y compris des constructions possessives. Ceci nous mènera à constater avant tout qu il existe une grande variabilité dans les productions, autant entre les langues que les zones géographiques. Nous remarquerons que l acquisition du français est plus aboutie en zone urbaine que rurale tandis que le constat inverse s appliquera au KM. Cette analyse mettra à jour deux conceptualisations de la tâche à accomplir (description et récit) qui montreront des degrés de variation concernant l acquisition du genre et du nombre, ainsi que de l utilisation du démonstratif, des pronoms, des noms nus, des possessifs et des compléments du nom. L acquisition du français se révèlera alors tributaire d un manque d exposition à cette langue, de même qu à l influence du KM et de la variété locale de français.Mauritius is a complex society where a wide range of languages are in compétition : whereas English and French, the administrative languages, are learnt from the first year of primary education, Mauritian Kreol (MK), the L1 of almost 85% of the population, has no part whatsoever to play in the system. Our analysis is focused on oral productions in French and MK from children of two age-groups (6-7 and 8-9 years old), coming from different sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. 200 oral productions constitute our data, both in French and MK, collected from the task of retelling a story from drawings, known as Les oisillons . We have produced a detailed analysis of the means used by these children in the reference to entities including possessive structures. This has brought us to acknowledge that there is a huge variability in the productions, between the two languages as well as between the geographical zones. We have noticed that children in urban context reach a higher level of acquisition in French than those living in rural areas, whereas it is exactly the opposite when it comes to MK. This analysis also shows two conceptualisations of the tasks (description and narrative), which bring to light a high degree of variability as regards to the acquisition of gender and number, as well as that of demonstratives, pronouns, bare names, possessive determiners and constructions. The acquisition of French then appears as highly influenced by a lack of exposure to that language, as well as the influence of MK and the local variety of French.NANTERRE-PARIS10-Bib. élec. (920509901) / SudocSudocFranceF

A pedagogically-informed model of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) for Mauritian higher education

The purpose of this research was to determine how MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) can be introduced and implemented in Higher Education institutions in Mauritius. The study explored the perspectives of students, teachers and educational leaders using an exploratory case study approach, and involved the implementation of short MOOC-based courses in three areas of higher education in Mauritius. While much of the existing literature on MOOCs has used quantitative data to explore patterns of enrolment and retention, this study explicitly focused on student experience, and used Garrison, Anderson and Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry (COI) model to explore patterns of ‘presence’ and pedagogical preferences and needs of learners. In order to explore how these preferences, together with other contextual factors might affect the adoption of MOOCs in Mauritius, Venkatesh and Davis’s (2000) Technology Acceptance Model2 (TAM2) was used. The COI and TAM2 models were used both as analytical frameworks, but also to develop a new composite model that also can function as a boundary object (Bowker and Star, 1999; Fox, 2011) enabling different stakeholders to understand each other’s needs and expectations and communicate better with each other. For Mauritian learners, teaching presence in online environments is of critical importance: this is reflected in different scenarios of MOOC implementation identified, and in a proposed staged model for MOOC adoption across the HE sector in Mauritius. This involves further pilots and preliminary research (stage 1), integration of MOOCs into practice (stage 2), customisation and development of MOOCs (stage 3) and a MOOC for Mauritius (stage 4), with each stage informing the implementation of subsequent stages as part of a broad action research framework. The original contributions made by the research to the knowledge base of its possible audiences include: providing models of practice for teachers and educational leaders; informing the educational leaders and policy makers about how MOOCs can be successfully implemented in Mauritius; providing detailed case studies on MOOCs to the academic audience interested in MOOCs specifically; and proposing a new composite, pedagogically-informed, technology acceptance model to those academics who are interested in online pedagogy and technology acceptance. The results of this PhD research can also inform the introduction and effective implementation of MOOCs in other less-economically developed countries