Dialect performances in Superdiverse communities

Abstract

This chapter examines the use of Sicilian dialect in identity performances by children of a superdiverse fifth-grade classroom. It analyses how identities are indexed through the deployment of linguistic resources and investigates the significance attributed to language varieties in different contexts of interaction. Italian "dialects" are vernacular languages that mostly developed from Latin in interaction with local varieties. The status of dialect among language varieties spoken in Italy has been a focus of discussion and conjecture among linguists. The chapter focuses on the use of dialect in an elementary school by the children of a fifth-grade superdiverse classroom and their teachers. One taught science and math, while the other one taught Italian, history, and foreign language. There was also one teacher devoted to the special-needs student. All the girls in the classroom came from impoverished homes and environments in which dialect was very likely the most common language variety.

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