The multilingual literacy practices of Mirpuri migrants in Pakistan and the UK: Combining New Literacy Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis Anthony Vincent Capstick BA (Hons), PG Dip (TESOL), LTCL Diploma (TESOL), MA This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Lancaster University, Department of Linguistics and English Language October 2014 ProQuest Number: 11003450 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11003450 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract The multilingual literacy practices of Mirpuri migrants in Pakistan and the UK: Combining New Literacy Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis Anthony Capstick This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2014 This thesis is part of a four-year study of a Mirpuri family’s migrations, as seen through the lens of New Literacy Studies. This means understanding literacy as a social practice, applied in different contexts to meet different purposes, in this case for the purposes of migration. This focus meant exploring many different activities involving reading and writing in the everyday lives of migrants and relating these to those individuals’ migrations embedded in the histories of specific Pakistani communities, their literacies and their migration trajectories, as well as the development of immigration policies in the UK. The study draws on the experiences of many family members but centres on one individual who migrated to the UK from Pakistan during the course of the fieldwork. Taking an ethnographic perspective implied taking part in many of these activities as well as observing them and asking about them in interviews. This generated a range of data from many different community locations in Mirpur and Hillington. These data were analysed by combining New Literacy Studies with Sociolinguistics and Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), specifically the 1 Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA). What this meant was that the insider perspective that is so central to NLS was integrated with CDS’s critical perspective on society and the social problems related to literacy and migration, as well as with detailed and systematic text and genre analysis. The central concern was how Mirpuri migrants gained access to the dominant literacies of migration at a time when the UK government was increasingly moving towards a more textually mediated immigration regime. The study looked at what literacies were drawn on as prospective migrants and their families engaged with the bureaucracies of immigration when, for example, filling in visa application forms. However, the scope of this study went beyond an analysis of the texts of immigration and explored the literacy practices that link texts with institutions, social structures and discourses about migration. The thesis shows that these literacy practices are part of the broader language practices that multilingual migrants from Mirpur draw on in their everyday lives, that English is only one of many resources in their repertoires, and that in order to understand how Mirpuris build ties with those around them, all the languages that they use must be considered. 2 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my supervisor, Uta Papen, for her time and effort when reading the many drafts that I wrote before the thesis started to take shape, as well as for her attention to detail throughout the whole process. If I have found my voice as an ethnographer it is largely thanks to Uta. Secondly, I would like to thank my second supervisor Ruth Wodak for the generosity with which she looked at drafts at short notice and the expertise she brought to my understanding of many of the sub-disciplines in linguistics which has helped me develop the integrated framework I attempt in this thesis. I would also like to thank fellow literacy researchers Virginie Theriault and Margarita Calderon. Talking about my study to them and listening to them talk about their studies helped me think through my thesis a great deal. I would also like to thank the members of the literacy research group (LRDG) and the literacy research centre at Lancaster University. Special thanks to Karin Tusting, David Barton and Johnny Unger for their insights during my confirmation panels as well as to Julia Gillen, Mark Sebba, Mary Hamilton and Diane Potts with whom I discussed my research at various points along the way. Similarly, Ami Sato, Jiang Huang, Pamela Olmos Lopez and Tasneem Sharkawi, thank you for your questions and comments on my study at our informal meetings. Also at Lancaster, thank you to Joao Nunes de Almeida for reminding me of the importance of our research beyond academia and to Elaine Heron and Marjorie Woods for their help during my time in the Linguistics department. Elsewhere in the world, my thanks go to Hywel Coleman for his keen interest in my study of English language teaching in Mirpur and then working so enthusiastically with me on our survey of language in education in Pakistan. These research experiences consolidated what I then look at in this thesis. Also important in shaping this study was the time I spent with researchers at Birmingham as part of the multilingualism Research Development Initiative. 3 Special thanks to Marilyn Martin-Jones, Adrian Blackledge and Angela Creese for their time and thoughts during my visits to Birmingham, as well as to the many other participants I met at these events including Kathryn Jones, Mukul Saxena and Monica Heller. I would also like to thank other scholars and friends who have been with me on my journey since the beginning: Yvonne Prefontaine, Muhammad Ali Khan and Caterina Guardamagna, and also Joanne Thistlethwaite who came along just after but who has often shown the way. Zubeida Ahmed, Kamran Khan, Tahira Amin and Naveeda Haq deserve a special thank you for their help translating the online data for this study. The job of thanking the people in Pakistan who helped me during my time there is much bigger than I have space for here. I would like to say a special thank you to: the staff of the British Council in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, in particular Salman Shehzad, Nabeel Alvi and Sunil Iqbal, for their friendship and thoughtful comments; David Martin for encouraging me to pursue the organisational research agenda which has greatly influenced my understanding of the country described in these pages; and Martin Daltry and Siobhan Berkley for helping with access to Azad Kashmir. Also in Pakistan, thank you to Nadeem al Rehman, Zakia Sarwar, Tariq Rehman and Bushra Khurram for their wonderful hospitality and the time and effort they put into granting me access to their offices, schools and universities. In Mirpur, thank you to all the people who acted as translators; for reasons of anonymity I cannot mention you by name but your contributions went far beyond interpreting my words for research participants. Thank you to Rashid Pervez and Mr Mazhar for your logistical expertise, negotiation skills and friendship. Finally, thank you to Usman, Nadia, Shakeel, Rakshanda and all of their family and friends across Azad Kashmir and northwest England who welcomed me into their homes and spoke candidly about their lives. To you I owe the greatest acknowledgment. I would also like to thank my family. I see this research as the culmination of years of working away from England. My family has never been anything other than supportive of this decision, so I would like to thank my mother, Theresa 4 Capstick, my sister, Jane Gardiner, my nieces, Amy and Alice Gardiner, and my aunt, Mary McHugh, for their support during my time at home as well as my time away. Similarly, to my friends Maribel de la Fuente, Ceyhun Elci, Teresa Mitchell, Maria Beddoe, Rob Kellner and Amanda Topson, thank you for the encouragement and laughter. Finally, I would like to say a special thank you to Steve Topson, Mark Stephens and Sarah Mattin. This would have been a different study without their friendship and generosity. In particular, I am most grateful to Sarah for all of her help, not least by quietly listening to my explanation of the difference between ‘genre’, ‘field’ and ‘domain’ at 7 o’clock in the morning while she was trying to get ready for work. Thank you for your patience. 5 Declaration I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due acknowledgement is made, and that it is not been previously included in a thesis or a report submitted to this University or to any institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification. 6 Contents ABSTRACT................................................................................................................1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................... 3 DECLARATION......................................................................................................... 6 CONTENTS................................................................................................................7