CODE-SWITCHING AS A COMMUNICATION

Code-Switching as a Communication tool in Conversation among Kurdish-English Bilinguals in the UK

ABSTRACT

This project is the first socio-linguistic investigation of language use in a bilingual Turkish/ English Maths lesson in secondary schools in the UK. The focus is to investigate how a cognitively demanding, context embedded National Curriculum subject can be made more accessible to students from a particular linguistic via a bilingual medium. The ethno linguistic group concerned is Turkish, one of the four largest linguistics groups in England. The project builds on existing work on language attitudes and use of L1 with an emphasis on its use in a bilingual classroom environment.

ABSTRACT2

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION4

Project Aims4

Language in the multicultural state4

Language and Identity: The Turkish speaking communities in London5

The Turkish Cypriots5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW6

The uses of Turkish and its varieties in the UK8

Mainland Turks8

Turkish speaking Kurds9

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY11

Data collection and analytical tools11

Data Analysis13

REFERENCES14

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Project Aims

To analyse students' naturally occurring conversations during classroom activities by investigating possible correlations between patterns of code-switching/borrowing and the acquisition of Mathematical concepts.

To explore cognitive strategies used by children as bilinguals while tackling Mathematical tasks.

To systematically log student responses as we investigate and assess attitudes to Maths curriculum delivered through a bilingual medium.

Language in the multicultural state

Language practices are subject to their social, political and historical contexts. That is language practices are linked to ideologies of language, which are not necessarily stable or unchanging. Rather, they are multiple and influenced by changes at local, national, state and global levels (Adalar, 1997, pp.96). There is often a dynamic tension between identities asserted and chosen by the self and identities asserted and chosen for the individual by the state, nation or institution. We understand multilingual young people's identities as emergent, multiple and shifting and linked to relations of power in society and for the purpose of this study, the school. The assumption that one language equals one national or cultural identity ignores the complexity of multilingual societies. Schools are the institutional representations of society.

Current Government policy and debate constructs an ideological context which is characterised by contradiction in relation to the value of languages other than English. Whilst the DfES strategy document Languages for All: Languages for Life (2002) makes a positive argument for language learning and bilingualism, Government policy statements link the use of some non-European languages with negative factors such as school underachievement and social segregation (Alkan, 1982, pp.45).

Language and Identity: The Turkish speaking communities in London

Contrary to common assumptions about its homogenous nature, the Turkish speaking communities are made up of three distinct groups: (i) Turkish Cypriots who were the earliest settlers, (ii) Mainland Turks and (iii) Turkish speaking Kurds from Turkey. More recent sources estimate mainland Turkish and Cypriot Turkish speaking population to be around 150,000. The number of Kurdish speakers in London is estimated to be around 15.000.

The Turkish Cypriots

This group is the earliest of the three groups to settle in Britain. Because of the lack of separate data on Turkish Cypriot migration and similarities between Turkish and ...