2 HUMA3060 L&M Week 1 Lecture Slides - B - 070922

Welcome to
HUMA 3060
Language and Migration
Your tutor
Professor James Simpson

[email protected]
Teaching assistant
Anish Mishra
[email protected]
Week 1
Language and Migration
(Concepts I)
Wednesday
7 September
Outline
Key concepts
Language
Migration
Reading activity: Horner and Weber Ch 3
A migration narrative
Recap
Badwan, K. (2018). Don’t assume language
or dialect is locked to a particular place. The
Conversation, August 29th.
https://theconversation.com/dont-assume-
language-or-dialect-is-locked-to-a-particular-
place-92374
By departing from traditional views that lock
language or dialect in a particular place, we
can start to treat linguistic diversity as the
norm that it is, rather than the exception.
Doing so fosters hospitality and acceptance
of difference rather than hostility and fear of
diversity.
(Badwan 2018: online)
Polezzi, L., Angouri, J. & Wilson, R. (2019).
Language has become a tool for social
exclusion. The Conversation, February 21st.
https://theconversation.com/language-has-
become-a-tool-for-social-exclusion-112028
Languages, in their plurality, enrich our
experience of the world and our creative
potential. Multilingualism opens up new
ways of being and of doing, it connects us
with others and provides a window into the
diversity of our societies.
[…]
A different approach is urgently needed, one
that moves away from multilingualism as
deficit and towards a recognition of linguistic
and cultural diversity as a creative engine of
civic participation and social well-being.”
(Polezzi et al 2019: online)
Language: you said …
• Medium of communication between
people in the forms of verbal, non-verbal,
and symbols
• The way/medium of communication which
can be expressed in different forms (i.e.
text, verbal, image, audio, etc.).
• Language is a medium to exchange ideas
and thought, which contain diverse form of
grammar, structure and accent.
• Tool to communicate ideas in a verbal and
non verbal manner influenced by a certain
setting and time period
• A way of encoding and decoding
information to communicate accepted by a
group of people
• A common way of expressing and
communicating thoughts between people,
that sometimes reflects our origins
• Tool to communicate and define the social
identity of one's self
Language is…
Language (n.)
a. The system of spoken or written
communication used by a particular country,
people, community, etc., typically consisting of
words used within a regular grammatical and
syntactic structure.
b. The vocal sounds by which mammals and
birds communicate; (in extended use) any
other signals used by animals to communicate.
c. A means of communicating other than by the
use of words, as gesture, facial expression, etc.;
non-verbal communication.
(OED online)
A language is …
A ‘common understanding’:
– Standard language
– Regional dialects
Dialect = systematic variation in language
associated with a region. Compared (often
unfavourably) with a ‘Standard’ (e.g. a
Yorkshire dialect of English).
A linguistics joke
What is a language?
A language is a dialect with an army and a
navy.
Variety
Variety = broad, neutral term referring to a
set of linguistic forms used under specific
situational variables such as geographic
country or region, or social class, or domain
of practice.
Geographical variation
A northern accent (pronunciation)
Yorkshire English (pron, lexis, grammar)
Standard British English
Indian English
Hong Kong English
Style
Style = variation in language (mainly
grammar & vocabulary) according to context
and social setting
Formal / informal register (= style)
“I’m off to the chippy”
Academic, legal, medical genre (= style)
“In this article I argue that …”
Language and repertoire
A communicative repertoire of languages,
dialects, registers, non-linguistic
communicative resources …
Linguistic repertoire
= The totality of distinct language varieties,
dialects and styles employed in a community
(Gumperz 1982: 155)
Hi honey, would you
like to come home
for bacon sandwich?
You can leave me

some because v--- is
making us pancakes
Migration: you said
• Movement from one place to another.
• Relocation for a prolonged period of time.
• An act of crossing the border due to
various reasons such as education,
economics and also perhaps not
intentionally.
• When people relocate to other places
including emigration and immigration not
necessarily crossing (inter)national
borders
Migration and language: you
said …
• Flow of people from a place to another
affected by sociopolitical matters with a
longterm mindset
• Moving of individuals/groups of people
from an original region to another place
with different social practices and culture.
• Permanent relocation of people/objects
from one place to another which involves
and promotes cultural exchange and
diversity.
Migration, flows and immobility
‘Scapes’ – flows of people, things and ideas
across national boundaries:
• Ethnoscapes
• Technoscapes
• Financescapes
• Mediascapes
• Ideoscapes
(Appadurai 1996)
Flows and immobility
A disease that has spread

through expansive human travel
and unconstrained human
interaction has now been tackled
everywhere with immobility and
social lockdown within tightly
bounded national units.
(Favell & Recchi, 14 April 2020)
Migration and mobility
Around ??? million people in the world are migrants from one
country to another, representing approximately ???% of the world’s
population (United Nations 2017), and many more are on the move
internally, within national borders.
Between 1993 and 2015 the UK population born outside the country
more than doubled, from ??? million to ??? million (ONS 2017)
In 2016 the non-Hong Kong born population of Hong Kong was

around ?.? million (??%) (Gvt of HK SAR 2016)
Migration and mobility
Around 258 million people in the world are migrants from one
country to another, representing approximately 3.3% of the world’s
population (United Nations 2019), and many more are on the move
internally, within national borders.
Between 1993 and 2015 the UK population born outside the country
more than doubled, from 3.8 million to 8.7 million (ONS 2017)
In 2016 the non-Hong Kong born population of Hong Kong was

around 2.9 million (39%) (Gvt of HK SAR 2016)
Year 2006 2011 2016
Population Population Population
Number of Number of Number of
Percentage Percentage Percentage
Persons Persons Persons
Place of
Birth
Hong Kong 4 138 844 60.3 4 278 126 60.5 4 451 493 60.7
The
mainland of
China/ 2 298 956 33.5 2 267 917 32.1 2 272 293 31.0
Macao/
Taiwan
Elsewhere 426 546 6.2 525 533 7.4 612 799 8.4
Total 6 864 346 100.0 7 071 576 100.0 7 336 585 100.0
Population By-Census 2016, table A106

https://www.bycensus2016.gov.hk/en/bc-mt.html
Motives for migration
• Because of a shortage of labour
• To be with their families
• As refugees to escape war, disease, famine, civil
and political unrest, poverty or fear of persecution
• As victims of trafficking and other kinds of forced
migration
• For academic study (academic sojourners)
• A lack of opportunities at home
***
Migration can involve risky journeys to ‘centres of
successful modernity’
Discussion of reading
You have read Horner, K., and Weber, J.-J.
(2018) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social
Approach (2nd ed.). Routledge. (Ch.3 What
is a Language?)
Now discuss your answers to the questions,
in small groups.
Reading
1. How do the authors make a distinction between language and a
language (p.37)?
2. How did Luxembourgish become a “named language” (p.38)?
3. Explain these terms:
Lingua franca
Pidgin
Creole
4. Romaine (p.41) suggests that ‘the very concept of discrete
languages is probably a European cultural artefact fostered by
procedures such as literacy and standardization.’ How do you think
literacy and standardization can support the development of the
concept of a ‘discrete language’?
5. What, for the authors, is the appeal of the term metrolingualism
(p.44)?
Homework for Week 2
(Wednesday 14 September)
• Recall a memorable incident associated
with your migration or that of a family
member or friend.
• The incident can involve language or
language learning, but it does not have to.
• Write brief notes on the incident.
• In the next session you will tell your story
to one of your classmates.
Reading for next week
Read Blommaert, J. and Backus, A. (2011).
Repertoires revisited: ‘Knowing language’ in
superdiversity. Working Papers in Urban
Language & Literacies Paper 67
• Pay particular attention to Section 4.
Next week we look more closely at the
sociolinguistics of migration, and the topics
of repertoire and translanguaging.
Review
Key concepts
Language
Migration
Reading activity: Horner and Weber Ch 3
A migration narrative
Reading for next Wednesday
Any questions?
[email protected]

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Welcome to

Professor James Simpson

You can leave me

A disease that has spread

In 2016 the non-Hong Kong born population of Hong Kong was

In 2016 the non-Hong Kong born population of Hong Kong was

Population By-Census 2016, table A106

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