Mela Sarkar

Multilingual Codeswitching in Quebec Rap: Poetry, Pragmatics and Performativity

Quebec rap lyrics stand out on the world Hip-Hop scene by virtue of the ease and rapidity with which performers in this multilingual, multiethnic youth community codeswitch, frequently among three or more languages or language varieties (usually over a French and/or English base) in the same song. We construct a framework for understanding ‘artistic code-mixing’ in Quebec Hip-Hop, which may involve languages rappers do not profess to speak fully and upon which they have no ethnic ‘claim’. Lyrics were analysed according to their functions in respect to pragmatics (rapper signature, vocative, discourse-marking), poetics (facilitating internal rhyme), and performing multiple identities. Analysis was by origin of lexical item, type of switch (lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonological), and discourse function (getting attention, rhyming). Language choices made involve both codeswitching and the choice of languages themselves. Switching strategies perform functions of both ‘globalisation’ and ‘localisation’, and is exploited by individuals in different ways, but are fundamentally linked by a positioning of multilingualism as a natural and desirable condition. This study is the first to explore Hip-Hop codeswitching in the linguistic-sociopolitical context of post-Bill-101 Quebec. It illuminates a new way in which Québécois youth are challenging official definitions of ethnic and speech communities.

Hybrid Identities in Quebec Hip-Hop: Language, Territory, and Ethnicity in the Mix

Montreal is the metropolitan hub of the province of Quebec, a French-speaking island in officially bilingual, but de facto majority English-speaking, Canada. The current youth generation represents a variety of ethnolinguistic backgrounds—French and English Canadian, but also many different immigrant-origin groups, including large Haitian and Hispanophone populations. Young adults and adolescents share French as a common language through schooling. In Quebec, hip-hop, a privileged literary–artistic and political medium for this generation, not only reflects its multilingual, multiethnic base, but also constitutes an active and dynamic site for the development of an oppositional community that encourages the formation of new, hybrid identities for youth. The authors draw on interviews with rappers of Haitian, Dominican, and African origin, and analysis of lyrics by these MCs, to highlight ways in which the discourses of “conscious” Quebec hip-hop promotes particular ideologies and identities in a context of migration/resettlement and globalization of youth culture.

Training 8-Year-Old French Immersion Students in Metalinguistic Analysis: An Innovation in Form-focused Pedagogy

Most research on language awareness in a second language (L2) has been carried out with adult learners. This research presents data showing that pedagogical techniques can be devised enabling children as young as 8 to develop metalinguistic awareness of their emerging L2 system. Building on existing work by Canadian researchers, this classroom-based study investigated tasks designed to encourage young learners to develop language awareness through repair and analysis of their errors. Forty-three 8- to 9-year-old children in a Montreal French immersion class were prompted by the teacher-researcher to correct their non-target-like utterances. Corrective feedback was provided on lexical, phonological and grammatical errors, and on uses of L1. While watching their videotaped oral presentations, participants were guided to notice and repair errors through group discussion. Results indicated that through group interaction, young children were able to notice and repair errors, to identify language features involved, to negotiate form and to do grammatical analysis of the errors.

Exploring English Language Needs in the Hotel Industry in Pakistan: An Evaluation of Existing Teaching Material

ABSTRACT The hotel industry in Pakistan makes up a very important part of the service sector. This industry demands highly developed communication skills from its employees, as 5-star hotels deal with guests from foreign countries as a routine matter. This study explored the specific language needs of students in the hotel industry in Pakistan and evaluated a textbook to determine its pedagogical value and suitability for subject-specific communicative needs. The sample consisted of 10 professionals and 40 students from Lahore and Gujrat (Pakistan), where the subject is being taught. A questionnaire was designed to explore the language needs of students, whereas the professionals were interviewed. The findings highlighted the communicative activities and language skills required by the students. Recommendations are made to consider these communicative activities and skills while designing English language courses for the hotel industry. Moreover, fostering autonomy through learning strategies is also accentuated to enable students to enter into the world of work.

Creative methods in transforming education using human resources / Kūrybiniai metodai pertvarkant švietimą pasitelkus žmogiškuosius išteklius

Language teaching has become more learner-centered for last three decades. Teachers with a potential of being change-agent received considerable attention of researchers. Teachers need to reconsider their traditional role in helping learners control their learning. Present study investigated viable autonomy-supportive teaching role and creative practices teachers can follow to aid their learners in becoming autonomous. Data were collected from 16 university teachers teaching English communication skills at Bachelor of Science level in public sector universities of the Punjab, Pakistan. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather teachers’ perceptions. Results revealed that teachers perceived their role vital in developing learner autonomy but they considered a meaningful change in present role with a gradual shift of learning responsibilities from teacher to learner. Moreover, 11 autonomy-supportive teaching practices were suggested to enable learners to control their learning. Study proposed teachers to be trained for their new role, and must have teaching autonomy to materialize autonomy-supportive practices. Santrauka Per pastaruosius tris desimtmecius kalbos mokymas tapo labiau orientuotas į besimokantįjį. Dėstytojai, galintys skatinti pokycius, sulaukė didelio tyrėjų dėmesio. Dėstytojai turi is naujo apsvarstyti savo tradicinį vaidmenį, besimokantiesiems padedant valdyti jų mokymąsi. Dabartiniuose tyrimuose imamasi perspektyvaus savarankisko mokymo vaidmens ir kūrybinių metodų, kuriuos gali taikyti dėstytojai, siekiantys padėti savo studentams tapti savarankiskiems. Duomenys surinkti is 16 universiteto dėstytojų, ugdancių anglų kalbos komunikacijos gebėjimus bakalauro studijose Pandžabo (Pakistanas) viesojo sektoriaus universitetuose. Siekiant issiaiskinti dėstytojų nuomones, buvo surengta individualių pusiau struktūruotų interviu. Rezultatai atskleidė, kad, plėtojant besimokanciojo savarankiskumą, dėstytojai savo vaidmenį suprato kaip svarbų, taciau jie laikėsi nuomonės, jog dabartinis vaidmuo labai pasikeitė mokymo(si) atsakomybių atžvilgiu palaipsniui pereinant nuo dėstytojo prie besimokanciojo. Dargi buvo pasiūlyta 11 savarankiskų mokymo metodų, kurie teikia besimokantiesiems galimybes valdyti savo mokymąsi. Tyrime dėstytojams siūloma rengtis naujam vaidmeniui, be to, mokymosi savarankiskumą privalu įgyvendinti taikant savarankiskumą ugdancius metodus. Reiksminiai žodžiai: savarankiskumą ugdanti aplinka, bendradarbiavimo veikla, vadovas, mokymosi savarankiskumas, dėstytojo vaidmuo.

Language Education and Canada’s Indigenous Peoples

This chapter presents an overview of the language situation of Canada’s Indigenous peoples and their educational struggles. The authors situate policies, programs and pedagogical strategies in the complex historical and socio-political Canadian context. After an outline of the historical and socio-political context for the language education of Indigenous peoples in Canada, contemporary Indigenous policies, programs and pedagogical strategies around language education are presented, in the aftermath of the Indigenous struggle for self-determination and increasing mainstream awareness of Indigenous language and education issues. A surge in Indigenous population growth resulting in an increasingly youthful population profile, a pull towards urbanization, and the rise of new technologies are all factors that are affecting the landscape of language and education in Indigenous (or Aboriginal) Canada. Drawing on data from a language maintenance project in a Quebec Innu community and a language revitalization project in a Mi’gmaq community in the Maritimes, the gamut of Indigenous responses to the challenge of not one but two colonizing languages is demonstrated. These initiatives are placed in the wider Canadian context.

Translanguaging in the Multilingual Montreal Hip-Hop Community: Everyday Poetics as Counter to the Myths of the Monolingual Classroom

This chapter explores the possibilities multilingual hip-hop offers for language instruction within multiethnic classrooms in Montreal shaped by multiple discursive practices. The authors review current research on multilingualism and teaching and propose strategies for overcoming the French prescriptivist monolingual mindset in education in Quebec. They also turn to poetics, and in particular the literary theory of Edouard Glissant (Caribbean discourse, 1989; Poetics of relation, 1997) and the Martinican school of Creolite, offering possibilities for rethinking relationships between oral and written, vernacular and standard language forms and for igniting language teachers’ pedagogic imaginations.