Muslims in Sri Lankan language politics
A study of Tamil- and English-medium education
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4179366 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christina P Davis (0000-0002-9739-6798, Western Illinois University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 2018 |
| Issue | 253 |
| Pages | 125-147 |
| Publication date | 2018-08-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of the Sociology of Language (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0165-2516 • E-ISSN: 1613-3668 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/ijsl-2018-0026 |
| OpenAlex | W2888141825 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 10 |
Sri Lanka is a conflict-ridden postcolonial nation-state that was ravaged by a civil war. Largely excluded from mainstream representations of the ethnic conflict, Muslims constitute the country's second largest minority group. In contrast to Sinhalas and Tamils, they define their ethnic identities on the basis of religion rather than language. In this article, I draw on research at a multilingual government school to explore how Muslim teachers and students made sense of Tamil- and English-medium education in relation to ethnic, religious, and class differences. I investigate how Tamil-medium Muslim teachers responded to critiques of their speech by asserting that their heterogeneous linguistic practices were inextricably connected to their distinct ethno-religious identities. Muslim students' lack of fit with the ethnolinguistic affiliations presupposed by the school enabled them to embrace English-medium education. However, the English bilingual program complicated Muslims' narratives of identity by underscoring the relevance of English to class dispositions. I argue that English impacts the fraught relations of Tamil and Sinhala to ethnopolitical identities and mediates everyday social relations
Aesthetics · Ethnic group · Linguistics · Mainstream · Medium of instruction · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Tamil · Anthropology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Asian Studies and History · Gender Studies · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy
Introduction Language Ideology as a field of inquiry
Language Ideology
Some Critical Notes on the Non-Tamil Identity of the Muslims of Sri Lanka, and on Tamil–Muslim Relations
On mother and other tongues
Post-Orientalism and the Interpretation of Premodern and Modern Political Identities
Dilemmas in planning English/vernacular relations in post-colonial communities
The Politics of Citizenship and Difference in Sri Lankan Schools
Is Jaffna Tamil the Best?" Producing "Legitimate" Language in a Multilingual Sri Lankan School
Licked by the Mother Tongue
Speaking Conflict
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,43 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |