Exploring language choice and identity construction in ‘in-between’ sites

Abstract

Australian research on immigrant languages has paid little attention to interactional approaches to language alternation as identity construction, and sites other than the family and the mainstream school. We argue for the need of studies that take into account a wider range of sites, in particular ‘community’ sites, and adopt fine-grained approaches through micro-level data, to provide more linguistic evidence and support for findings identified using other strategies. Drawing on micro-sociolinguistic research conducted in Australia in the ethnic media and the community languages schools, we show how in these ‘in-between’ sites (Tsolidis & Kostogriz, 2008) language choice is often a matter of negotiation, and the issues of language use and identity tend to be foregrounded. We also address the questions of why these sites have been less researched and the value of findings from them in terms of language and identity research in multilingual contexts.