Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T12:40:19.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

35 - A Reflection on Generational Diaspora and Resulting Linguistic Acclimatization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

Gail Prasad
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
Nathalie Auger
Affiliation:
University of Montpellier
Emmanuelle Le Pichon Vorstman
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

I come from a family that has experienced three generations of migration across the subcontinent, North America and Europe, with relocation and displacement, in some cases marked by necessity and in others by choice. Some of my earliest memories emerge from my upbringing in a trilingual environment in Shiraz, Iran. My individual multilingualism grew as a direct consequence of having parents who spoke to me mixing Urdu and English. My grandmother only spoke to me in Urdu, I attended a strictly Farsi school and I also spoke to my neighbours in this language. In effect, I began to unconsciously practise translanguaging at a very young age, using my personal repertoire of language skills to develop a hybrid form of communication and establish myself as a default communicator between community and family members. This resulted in a deep understanding, both linguistically and culturally, of the community around me as I continually transitioned back and forth between community and family languages. I learned very quickly how to engage plurilingualism in my daily activities, easily switching between languages, depending on with whom I was conversing at the time.

Type
Chapter
Information
Multilingualism and Education
Researchers' Pathways and Perspectives
, pp. 290 - 297
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baluja, T. and Bradshaw, J. (2012). Is bilingualism still relevant? The Globe and Mail. A.12. www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/is-bilingualism-still-relevant-in-canada/article4365620/Google Scholar
Cummins, J. (2017). Teaching minoritized students: Are Additive Approaches Legitimate? Harvard Educational Review 87(3), 404425. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-87.3.404Google Scholar
Fraser, S. (2005). Grandma’s Saturday Soup. London: Mantra Lingua.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, K. and Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher 32(5), 1925.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, K., Morales, P. L. and Martinez, D. (2009). Re-mediating literacy: Culture, difference, and learning for students from non-dominant communities. Review of Research in Educational Research 33, 212245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, K. D., Bien, A. C., Selland, M. K. and Pierce, D. M. (2011). Polylingual and polycultural learning ecologies: Mediating emergent academic literacies for dual language learners. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 11(2), 232261. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798411399273CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, K. (2004). The ethnography of imagined communities: The cultural production of Sikh ethnicity in Britain. ANNALS 595, 108120.Google Scholar
Jimenez, T. C., Filippini, A. L. and Gerber, M. (2006). Shared reading within latino families: An analysis of reading interactions and language use. Bilingual Research Journal 30(2), 431452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naqvi, R., Thorne, K., Pfitscher, C. and McKeough, A. (2012). Dual language books as an emergent-literacy resource: Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and learning. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 13(4), 501528. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798412442886CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naqvi, R., Thorne, K., Pfitscher, C., Nordstokke, D. and McKeough, A. (2013). Reading dual language books: Improving early literacy skills in linguistically diverse classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Research 11(1), 315. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X12449453CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orellana, M. F. (2017). Solidarity, transculturality, educational anthropology, and (the modest goal of) transforming the world. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 48(3), 210220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senechal, M. and LeFevre, J. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading skill: A five-year longitudinal study. Child Development 73(2), 445460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Statistics Canada (2015). Proportion of the school-age population (aged 5 to 24) with non-official home language, Canada and jurisdictions, in and out of census metropolitan areas (CMAs), 2011 [Data table]. www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-582-x/2015002/tbl/tbla2.3-eng.htmGoogle Scholar
Statistics Canada (2017). Linguistic diversity and multilingualism in Canadian homes. www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016010/98–200-x2016010-eng.pdfGoogle Scholar
Zaidi, R. (2017). Anti-Islamophobic Curriculums. New York: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaidi, R. (2020). Dual-language books: Enhancing engagement and language awareness. Journal of Literacy Research 52(3), 269292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X20939559CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaidi, R. and Rowsell, J. (2017). Literacy Lives in Transcultural Times. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×