Connections worth keeping?–Language and sociocultural practices in the imagined future of Polish teenagers in Norway

peer reviewedLanguage and sociocultural practices in transnational families have attracted considerable scholarly attention over the last decade. Adding to this research, the present article explores the perspectives of two Polish teenage siblings living in Norway on the projected language and sociocultural practices in their future families. The data for this article stem from individual, in-depth qualitative interviews with the two siblings and were collected as part of a larger research project investigating multilingualism among Polish families in Norway. A micro-interactional analysis of the interview excerpts shows that the siblings construct their future families as very different spaces, where different languages and sociocultural practices are of importance and different identity options are available. In the ensuing discussion, the participants’ perspectives are considered in the context of their migration experiences, their belonging to imagined communities and in relation to wider societal discourses

Digital media as language and literacy learning spaces in multilingual families – survey results from Luxembourg

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What works to facilitate displaced and refugee-background students’ access and participation in European higher education: results from a multilingual systematic review

This article reports the results of a systematic review on displaced and refugee-background students’ transitioning and (re-)integration into European higher education (HE). A total of 7082 studies have been assessed for eligibility in six languages. Forty-four empirical studies conducted in 14 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) between 2014 and 2021 met the inclusion criteria. Evidence from these studies has been extracted, appraised for quality, and synthesised to advance our understanding of how best to support refugee-background students’ HE aspirations. The main contribution of this article is a comprehensive review of support measures and recommendations in nine key areas that were identified as having particular relevance for successful HE participation: recognition of qualifications, entry requirements, reach and relevance of educational offer, costs, precarity and vulnerability, language, transitioning and skills mismatch, resource poverty, and (un)welcoming environments. The reviewed evidence is relevant in varying degrees to higher education institutions across the EHEA and can inform the delivery of targeted responses to refugee-background students’ needs on both HE entry and throughout their educational journey. The article also exposes important knowledge gaps that should be prioritised in future research and highlights some common lessons regarding cross-sector collaboration, long-term planning and support, and the need for a continuous monitoring of student pathways. A novel aspect of this systematic review is also its multilingual search strategy which was designed to correct for the geographical bias toward research produced in Anglophone countries which is often a by-product of English-only search strategies in education research

biochemical bases for a widespread tolerance of cyanobacteria to the phosphonate herbicide glyphosate

Possible non-target effects of the widely used, non-selective herbicide glyphosate were examined in six cyanobacterial strains, and the basis of their resistance was investigated. All cyanobacteria showed a remarkable tolerance to the herbicide up to millimolar levels. Two of them were found to possess an insensitive form of glyphosate target, the shikimate pathway enzyme 5-enol-pyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase. Four strains were able to use the phosphonate as the only phosphorus source. Low uptake rates were measured only under phosphorus deprivation. Experimental evidence for glyphosate metabolism was also obtained in strains apparently unable to use the phosphonate. Results suggest that various mechanisms may concur in providing cyanobacterial strains with herbicide tolerance. The data also account for their widespread ability to metabolize the phosphonate. However, such a capability seems limited by low cell permeability to glyphosate, and is rapidly repressed when inorganic phosphate is available

What’s in a name? Identity, indexicality and name-change in an immigrant context

The present study explores the case of a transnational Polish family in Norway in which one of the care givers as well as the teenage son underwent a name change after their initial experiences of migration. Drawing on the audio-recorded interactions in the interview situation, the article investigates the identity constructions of the focal participant in his narrative about the name change. To this end, first, the indexicalities of the social identity category Pole as constructed in Norwegian media and the participants’ accounts are outlined. Then, against this backdrop, the focal participant’s identity claims as occasioned in the narrative on the name change are discursively analyzed. The analysis shows that the identity claims the focal participant makes aim at dissociating himself from the powerless, stigmatized position of a migrant, in which he was cast upon his arrival in Norway. Furthermore, the study suggests that migrant identity constructions need to be considered against the participants’ lived experiences of migration, larger societal discourses and against participants’ constructions of belonging to imagined communities

‘Ikke snakke norsk?’ – Transnational adolescents and negotiations of family language policy explored through family interview

Multilingual families and their language policies have attracted considerable attention in recent sociolinguistic work. Adding to this line of research, this article focuses on a case study of a transnational Polish family living in Norway and investigates the role adolescent children may play in the formation of family language policies. To this end the article analyses stances towards language practices at home taken in an interaction between the father and one of the adolescent daughters of the family. The article argues that the perspectives of adolescent children may be of crucial importance for the establishment of family language policies and thus deserve scholarly attention. Methodologically, the article draws attention to family interviews as a useful tool in generating sociolinguistic data for studies of Family Language Policies and advocates an interactional approach to interview data

Trilingual repertoires, multifaceted experiences: multilingualism among Poles in Norway

This article examines the multilingual repertoires of adult and adolescent Poles living in Norway. The study draws on language portraits and interviews conducted with 14 adults and 12 adolescents living in and around Oslo. The article first discusses multilingualism of the research participants through an analysis of the 26 portraits and then zooms in on the drawings and interview data provided by one family in order to shed light on the ways the participants experience and construct the roles of their different linguistic resources. The study demonstrates that, in general, the research participants are multilingual and that three languages in particular – Polish, English and Norwegian – form an important part of their repertoires. The findings suggest that these linguistic resources and the roles they take on in the individual repertoires, however, might be experienced very differently by the participants. Furthermore, the analysis points to the existence of competing language ideologies among the researched cohort

Between duty and neglect: Language ideologies and stancetaking among Polish adolescents in Norway

Recent political and economic changes in Europe have resulted in an increased mobility of many central and eastern Europeans, including Polish nationals. This article examines how adolescent Poles living in Norway construct their own and other people's Polish language use and maintenance. Basing on a qualitative content analysis of 10 interviews with young Polish transnationals, the article first identifies four common categories of constructing Polish that emerged in the data set: Polish as intent, Polish as obligation, Polish as utility and Polish as unimportant. Secondly, employing stance as an analytical heuristic, interview excerpts illustrating the four categories are analysed accounting for the interactional processes of evaluation, alignment and positioning embedded in the stancetaking act. Finally, the ideological implications of the stances constructed towards Polish are discussed and a methodological issue regarding the treatment of the sociolinguistic interview data and the interviewer's role is raised. The findings suggest that competing language ideologies are at work in the researched cohort and show that boys and girls participating in the study construct Polish language use and maintenance differently. © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

“Are you so ashamed to come from Poland and to speak your mother tongue?” – metalinguistic talk, identities and language ideologies in teenagers’ interactions on ASKfm

This article applies the concept of metasociolinguistic stance specifically to investigate and analyse how identities and competing discourses can be (re)constructed in metalinguistic talk. In particular, the article analyses how stancetaking can serve as a vessel for constructing language ideologies and identities in metalinguistic talk between a Polish teenager based in Norway and her followers on a social media platform. Inspired by online ethnography, this study combines the observation of online activities, the analysis of screendata, as well as data obtained through direct online and offline discussions with the profile owner. The study showed that the focal participant and her predominantly Polish followers took different metasociolinguistic stances towards the use of Polish and Norwegian in communication between people of Polish origin. While the homeland-based followers constructed an indexical link between ethnic origins and obligatory practice of speaking Polish, the focal participant contested these ideological assumptions and oriented towards a more flexible understanding of the relationship between language and belonging. This contribution shows how social media can serve as a rich research site where the members of diasporic communities and the members of the homeland societies come into contact and interact with each other bringing in different discourses and ideologies into the conversations

'And all of a sudden, it became my rescue': language and agency in transnational families in Norway

This article examines, how agency is constructed by members of two transnational families living in Norway in biographically oriented interviews. We understand agency as realised on the intertwined levels of grammar and meta-agentive discourse. Reports of speakers’ lived language experience and their experiences with family language policies are analysed to demonstrate how speakers use different approaches to realise agency in their narratives. Drawing on data collected through Language Portraits and semi-structured interviews, we focus on how family members perceive and construct their agency when it comes to language learning, maintenance and management