Official Bilingualism and Immigrants: Perceptions, Experiences and Practices

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atmire.migration.oldid905
dc.contributor.advisorRoy, Sylvie
dc.contributor.authorGaliev, Albert
dc.date.accessioned2013-05-02T18:14:51Z
dc.date.available2015-05-03T07:00:29Z
dc.date.issued2013-05-02
dc.date.submitted2013en
dc.description.abstractCanada has been known as a country that is bilingual when it comes to language policy and multicultural when it comes to cultural diversity. However, while the immigration numbers have been increasing in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2012), newcomers are often seen to be left out of the scope of discussion on languages (Dasko, 2003; Parkin & Turcotte, 2004). In fact, the discourse and research on official bilingualism have largely been shaped by promoting bilingualism only among Anglophone and Francophone communities (Mady, 2008). In this study, I investigated the perceptions, experiences, and practices of 64 adult immigrant students learning one of Canada’s official languages (English or French) with regard to bilingualism in Alberta and Canada. By analyzing survey findings on participants’ perceptions of bilingualism and in-depth open-ended individual and focus-group interviews, I attempted to answer how the promoted official bilingualism and the dominant English reality are reconciled and explained and how immigrants’ voices are placed in the discourses on bilingualism in the monolingual and multicultural environment. Following a critical sociolinguistic framework (Heller, 2006), I argue it is the interplay between official bilingualism and bilingualism as a social practice that characterizes and guides immigrants’ narrations of how they place themselves in discourses of bilingualism. I demonstrate that often a macro-level discourse on official bilingualism maintained and promoted by the government does not correlate with a micro-level discourse produced by new Canadians, and I recommend further consideration of accommodating immigrants’ voices in the official bilingualism discourse.en_US
dc.description.embargoterms2 yearsen_US
dc.identifier.citationGaliev, A. (2013). Official Bilingualism and Immigrants: Perceptions, Experiences and Practices (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27164en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/27164
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11023/697
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.facultyGraduate Studies
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subjectEducation--Bilingual and Multicultural
dc.subjectLinguistics
dc.subject.classificationofficial bilingualismen_US
dc.subject.classificationMulticulturalismen_US
dc.subject.classificationImmigrantsen_US
dc.subject.classificationlanguage policy and planningen_US
dc.subject.classificationCanadaen_US
dc.titleOfficial Bilingualism and Immigrants: Perceptions, Experiences and Practices
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineEducational Research
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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