Young people's languaging and social positioning. Chaining in “bilingual” educational settings in Sweden

Abstract

The study presented in this paper examines languaging in a “bilingual” school setting. The overall aim here is to explore young people's doing of multilingualism as well as social positioning in and through the everyday social practices where literacy is salient. Anchored in perspectives that highlight the social construction of reality, and located in the geopolitical space of Sweden, this study investigates an educational setting where Swedish and Finnish are used as the primary languages of instruction but where other linguistic varieties are present. In the paper, the analytically relevant concept of chaining is empirically illustrated through the analysis of ethnographically created data. These data include video recordings of classroom interaction and materials framed within the school diary literacy practice. The chained flow of various oral, written and multimodal varieties in human meaning-making is presented as an analytical finding.