Multilingualism in Dubai
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Multilingualism and occluded diversities within the superdiverse conditions of the United Arab Emirates: A study of the multiple language resources, practices and ideologies of young Emirati women. Gary Thomas O’Neill BSc (Hons), University of Bradford, UK, 1981 M.App. Ling., Macquarie University, Sydney Australia 1998 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Department of Linguistics Macquarie University i ii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................................ III LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................................. VIII ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................................................. IX DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................................................... XI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................................................XII CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 RESEARCH CONTEXT .................................................................................................................................................................. 13 1.2 RESEARCH TRAJECTORY ............................................................................................................................................................ 16 1.2.1 Literacy............................................................................................................................................................................... 17 1.2.2 Language in Daily Speech ........................................................................................................................................... 19 1.2.3 Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice ................................................................................................................................... 20 1.2.4 Language Ideology and Indexicality ....................................................................................................................... 21 1.2.5 Latour’s Actor-Network Theory ................................................................................................................................ 23 1.2.6 Linguistic Ethnography................................................................................................................................................ 24 1.2.7 Superdiversity .................................................................................................................................................................. 26 1.2.8 Research Lacuna ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 1.3 RESEARCHER POSITIONALITY................................................................................................................................................... 28 1.4 THESIS BY PUBLICATION ........................................................................................................................................................... 37 1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS ........................................................................................................................................................ 39 PREAMBLE TO CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 43 CHAPTER 2 ‘JUST A NATURAL MOVE TOWARDS ENGLISH’ – GULF YOUTH ATTITUDES TOWARDS ARABIC AND ENGLISH LITERACY (O’NEILL, 2014A) ................................................................................................ 46 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................ 46 2.2 NEW LITERACY STUDIES ........................................................................................................................................................... 48 iii 2.3 METHOD ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 51 2.4 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 55 2.4.1 Attitudes to Free time Literacy ................................................................................................................................. 55 2.4.2 Preferred Language of Undergraduate Study ..................................................................................................... 62 2.5 TWO CASE STUDIES .................................................................................................................................................................... 66 2.5.1 Afra (EMPrS Background) .......................................................................................................................................... 66 2.5.2 Amna (AMPuS Background) ...................................................................................................................................... 69 2.6 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................................................................. 72 2.7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................................................ 75 PREAMBLE TO CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................................ 77 CHAPTER 3 HERITAGE, HETEROGLOSSIA & HOME – MULTILINGUALISM IN EMIRATI FAMILIES (O’NEILL, 2016)...................................................................................................................................................................... 80 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................ 80 3.2 THEORY OF PRACTICE, INDEXICALITY, LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY AND HETEROGLOSSIA ................................................... 82 3.3 METHOD ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 84 3.4 LINGUISTIC CHANGE ACROSS THREE GENERATIONS ........................................................................................................... 86 3.5 LANGUAGES IN CONTEMPORARY EMIRATI HOMES .............................................................................................................. 91 3.6 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................................................. 106 PREAMBLE TO CHAPTER 4 ..............................................................................................................................................108 CHAPTER 4 ‘IT’S NOT COMFORTABLE BEING WHO I AM’ : MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN SUPERDIVERSE DUBAI (O’NEILL, 2017) .....................................................................................................................110 4.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 110 4.2 THEORY OF PRACTICE, LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY AND THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF IDENTITY ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 111 4.3 METHOD ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 114 4.4 BIRTH FAMILY IN CHILDHOOD ............................................................................................................................................... 115 4.5 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION............................................................................................................................... 119 iv 4.6 WORKPLACE............................................................................................................................................................................... 120 4.7 BIRTH FAMILY IN ADULTHOOD 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