'I Am Not a Francophone': Identity Choices and Discourses of Youth Associating With a Powerful Minority

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
'I Am Not a Francophone': Identity Choices and Discourses of Youth Associating With a Powerful Minority
Abstract
Taking a broad interest in the linguistic, educational, and identity issues relevant to young people, the authors examine the experiences and discourses of linguistic minority youth in the French-dominant context of Quebec City. Their analysis is based on qualitative interviews conducted with ten young people who speak a language other than French at home and who chose to study in English at the postsecondary level. Beyond exploring the local impact of language policies, the authors focus on the identity choices these youth make in positioning themselves and the discourses that they appropriate in describing their sociolinguistic context. The authors argue that their findings suggest that tensions between linguistic groups in Quebec are perpetuated through discourses that distance one group from another, including discourses of closed-mindedness and superiority. They conclude that what the students in their study appear to be doing is rejecting a minority identity by invoking national and international scales through their discourses, scales in which English is dominant.
Publication
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education
Volume
Vol. 15
Issue
no. 2
Pages
83-99
Date
2016
Language
en
URL
Citation
Groff, Cynthia, Annie Pilote, and Karine Vieux-Fort. “‘I Am Not a Francophone’: Identity Choices and Discourses of Youth Associating With a Powerful Minority.” Journal of Language, Identity, and Education Vol. 15, no. 2 (2016): 83–99. http://www.etrc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/JETS_46-9_Groff-Pilote-Vieux-Fort.pdf.
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