Joking and the Mother‐Tongue Issue: a study of language development in children of Gujarati parentage in Leeds

Abstract

The issue of bilingualism and mother‐tongue teaching for children of immigrant origin is new in Britain, and much research is needed to secure a full and clear picture of what is happening in the minority language communities. In this study 100 children of Gujarati parentage in Leeds, aged 5‐16;1 were tested on joke production and comprehension. The complex and hybrid design employed marks an innovation in the area of language measurement. The results showed a massive shift to English as the main language. The under‐11s as a group had very little Gujarati, whilst the over‐11s as a group were able to joke in Gujarati, yet they used English. The implications of these results are discussed with reference to language growth and bilingualism in education, particularly the mother‐tongue issue. An original conception of language adequacy patterning (LAP) is introduced.

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