Why embed multilingualism into university practices?

This paper draws on my experiences with language in English and non-English-speaking universities, minority language education research (Migge et al. 2010) and on a survey-based research project on linguistic diversity at a major Irish university (Lucek & Migge ms). • Universities worldwide are under pressure to internationalise but there is a lack of clarity about what it means. • Internationalisation is interpreted to mean exposure to diversity.• Universities generally try to achieve internationalisation by encouraging students to spend one or more semesters at a foreign institution and by hiring foreign staff. • In terms of language, internationalisation is generally limited to discussions about access to English and the role of English. • Local academic staff and students are traditionally not seen as playing an integral role in internationalisation when at home. • Recommendation: a socially sustainable approach to internationalisation requires a bottom up approach: it must involve raising awareness about local and global diversity & its multifaceted origins through the core curriculum. • Recommendation: language is a central ‘tool’ for raising awareness about diversity and experiencing diversity

Migrants and healthcare: investigating patient mobility among migrants in Ireland

Drawing on detailed interviews with 60 recent migrants to Ireland, we discuss the extent and nature of patient mobility. The paper is framed by the typology of patient mobility outlined by Glinos et al (2010), which highlights patient motivation and funding. We pay particular attention to four key areas: availability of health care for migrants living in Ireland; affordability of care as a push factor for patient mobility; how migrants’ perceptions of care affect their decision about where to avail of care; and the impact of familiarity on patient mobility. We provide empirical support for this typology. However, our research also highlights the fact that two factors – availability and familiarity – require further elaboration. Our research demonstrates the need for greater levels of awareness of culture specificity on the part of both migrants and healthcare providers. It also highlights the need to investigate the social and spatial activities of migrants seeking health care, both within and beyond national boundaries

Migrant mothers and the geographies of belonging

Much academic research on migrant mothers focuses on mothers who are separated from their children, often through their integration into global care chains, or on mothers within the context of family migration. This paper argues that co-resident migrant mothers’ experiences provide an important window on the complexities of the migration experience. Using a specific case study of Ireland, and drawing from a broader longitudinal research project that focuses on recent migrants, the paper explores migrant mothers’ understandings and experiences of belonging and not- belonging. We argue that structural obstacles and cultural understanding of care actively conspire to undermine migrant mothers’ potential to develop place- belongingness. Interviewees’ discussions of their status as full-time mothers were often framed through images of ideal motherhood, but equally highlighted how the absence of affordable childcare and family members isolates them and prevents them from creating a sense of belonging outside of the process of mothering and the home

Earlier Caribbean English and Creole in Writing

In research on Creoles, historical written texts have in recent decades been fruitfully employed to shed light on the diachronic development of these languages and the nature of Creole genesis. They have so far been much less frequently used to derive social information about these communities and to improve our understanding of the sociolinguistics and stylistic structure of these languages. This paper surveys linguistic research on early written texts in the anglophone Caribbean and takes a critical look at the theories and methods employed to study these texts. It emphases the sociolinguistic value of the texts and provides some exemplary analyses of early Creole documents

Putting Matawai on the Surinamese Linguistic Map

The creoles of Suriname have figured prominently in research on creole languages. However, one variety, Matawai, has to date remained completely unresearched. This paper attempts to address this lacuna. It discusses its history and selected areas of grammar in order to assess the place of Matawai among its sister languages and its development. The linguistic analysis draws on recordings from 2013 and the 1970s. The paper provides evidence to support the view that Matawai is most closely related to Saamaka. However, there are also features that are unique to Matawai and those that appear to be due to either patterns of language contact with the other creoles of Suriname or common inheritance. The paper argues that systematic corpus-based analysis of lesser-used varieties provides new insights into existing debates.University College DublinSeDyLOS

Functions and uses of now in the speech of newcomers to Ireland

The last roughly twenty years have seen a steady rise in research on varieties of English as spoken in Ireland. One line of research that has been particularly fruitful is the corpus-based investigation of pragmatic aspects of varieties of Irish English. While early work in this area dealt with hedging phenomena, more recent research has explored a range of issues such as politeness strategies and relational work in different interactional contexts, the uses, meanings and functions of silence and mitigation, vocatives, different types of questions and discourse markers

Language and colonialism: Applied linguistics in the context of creole communities

The literature on colonialism tends to focus on Europe’s economic exploitation of many regions and peoples around the world and Europeans’ use of excessive force towards the latter. While these issues are undoubtedly of great importance, it is equally important to understand the cultural and specifically the linguistic and discursive practices that came to be associated with European colonial rule. These practices played an instrumental role in assigning low prestige to non-European languages and cultures, including cultural and linguistic forms that emerged due to Europe’s colonial expansion, and in establishing the superiority of the coloniser’s language and culture

Getting On: From Migration to Integration - Chinese, Indian, Lithuanian and Nigerian Migrants' Experiences in Ireland

Until very recently, debate about immigration policies in Ireland has focussed on questions of who, how many and what kinds of migrants can come. In Ireland, we are now seeing a shift in the discussion to concerns about how people can ‘integrate’ into an increasingly diverse Irish society. We are beginning to consider what our integration policies and framework should focus on. We are starting to realise that, when immigrants settle in a country, they have to find opportunities to ‘belong’ and participate in that country. We realise that this is as true in the practical sense (for example, in relation to employment) as in the social, political, and cultural sense. The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has been working directly with migrants in accessing their social and legal rights since our inception. Through our work, we see the barriers that migrants face in relation to economic, social, political and cultural integration in Ireland. We see on a daily basis how our immigration system can assist or prevent a migrant’s capacity to integrate or participate in Irish society at varying levels. Last year, 10,000 migrants sought information and support from the ICI. They shared experiences of problems and challenges, arising through navigating Ireland’s immigration system. Their experiences show how access to secure residency, access to family life, adequate healthcare, housing, education and employment are so often linked to one’s immigration status. Their stories demonstrate how all of these factors can act as barriers or facilitators of integration. The Irish Government is presently developing an ‘integration strategy’ for immigrants. It is in this context that the ICI wanted to further explore issues that arise through our services and work in supporting migrant communities. The ICI commissioned this study to further document the immigration and integration experiences of four nationalities, working with members of the Chinese, Indian, Lithuanian and Nigerian communities. We wanted to explore how the immigration experience of the research participants influenced their integration experience. We wanted to look at key indicators for measuring integration internationally and how these could be adapted to the Irish context. We wanted to investigate how these proposed indicators could be measured against the experiences of these key migrant communities living and contributing to Irish society. In this report, Chinese, Indian, Lithuanian and Nigerian nationals tell their migration stories. We see clearly how their migration experiences and outcomes influence their integration experiences in Irish society. Whilst the stories are different, there are common threads throughout, highlighting key considerations for us in this work in the future. For all of us, the test of the success of Ireland’s developing migration system and integration framework will be our cohesiveness as a society, with opportunity for full participation and equal outcomes for all its members. This is the right moment for Ireland to develop comprehensive integration policies and procedures to ensure that the positive migration experience is sustained. Although as a society we are new to the migration experience, we can benefit from promising practices in countries with a history of migration. To be successful in our integration policies, we must ensure that we take a holistic approach and consider the impact of related immigration and social policies. The ICI would like to thank the Migration and Citizenship Research Initiative’s researchers, the postgraduate researchers, and the community researchers for their work, and the participants who shared their experiences. In conclusion, we invite the Minister for Integration and the Office of the Minister for Integration to consider the findings and recommendations as they develop an integration framework for Ireland

The Northern Cities Shift in the Heartland? A Study of Radio Speech in Columbus, Ohio

Variation in vowel height and diphthongal/monophthongal character of the vowels /æ/ and /a/ are studied in the speech of two speakers from central Ohio in order to measure their participation in the sequence of vowel system changes commonly referred to as the Northern Cities Shift (Labov, 1994). The data were gathered from radio shows for which the speakers served as announcers. Determinations of vowel height and diphthongal nature of vowels were made by auditory judgment of the researchers and were correlated with acoustic measurements of F1 and F2 frequencies. The results suggest that the vowel system of the central Ohio dialect is undergoing change, but are inconclusive as to whether this change indicates participation in the Northern Cities Shift. Detailed analyses of social and linguistic factors correlated with the tensing and raising of /æ/ are offered

Creole learner varieties in the past and in the present: implications for Creole development

Second language (L2) acquisition is widely assumed to have played a role in the emergence of creole genesis. However, the impact of L2 acquisition may not have been restricted to its genesis. In Surinam, newcomers outnumbered locally-born speakers of the Creole throughout the 18th century. To date we know little about the effects that this disproportion of non-native vs. native speakers may have had in the initial and subsequent stages of development of these Creoles. In this paper we combine historical and contemporary data in order to investigate the impact of L2 acquisition and use on developing creoles. We examine several linguistic features in contemporary native (L1) as well as non-native (L2) creole speech in order to reveal the differences in the underlying L1 and L2 systems. These are then compared with their equivalents in the available historical sources. The findings suggest that L2 acquisition affected the development of some linguistic subsystems while others appear little influenced.La contribution des processus d’acquisition d’une langue seconde (L2) à l’émergence des créoles est largement reconnue. Cependant, l’impact de la langue seconde ne pourrait se limiter à la genèse du créole. Au Suriname les nouveaux arrivés étaient plus nombreux que les locuteurs natifs du créole pendant tout le 18e siècle. À ce jour, les effets éventuels de la disproportion entre les locuteurs natifs et les non-natifs sur le créole, pendant sa genèse et ultérieurement, sont à peine connus. Dans cet article nous avons combiné des données historiques et contemporaines afin d’étudier l’impact de l’acquisition et de l’utilisation de la L2 sur l’évolution des créoles. Nous examinons plusieurs aspects linguistiques de discours contemporains dans le créole de locuteurs natifs et non-natifs afin d'éclairer les différences sous-jacentes du système de la langue première et seconde. Celles-ci sont ensuite comparées à leurs équivalents provenant de sources antérieures. Cette comparaison nous a permis de conclure que certains sous-systèmes du créole ont davantage été influencés par l’acquisition de la langue seconde que d’autres