Language, Identity & Belonging

Language and identity

Language can communicate information about social and cultural identity, but the relationship is never exact.

A person may identify with several communities at once, use several languages and change style across different situations.

Register

Register is the level and style of language used in a particular situation.

The language used in a job interview, a classroom discussion, a group chat and a conversation with a close friend will often differ even when the same person is speaking.

Code-switching

Multilingual speakers may move between languages or varieties within a conversation or across situations. This is often called code-switching.

Code-switching can serve many purposes: expressing identity, adapting to an audience, creating closeness, signalling expertise or making a meaning more precise.

Belonging and exclusion

Language can create a sense of community, but it can also be used to include or exclude.

Judgements about accent, vocabulary or grammar may sometimes reflect attitudes towards the people or groups associated with those forms.

A student may use informal English with friends, more formal English in an essay and a mixture of languages at home.

These forms do not necessarily show different levels of ability. They can show adaptation to different audiences and relationships.

1. Identify the speakers, audience and situation.
2. Notice changes in register, language or variety.
3. Ask what the language choice may achieve in that context.
4. Separate what the evidence shows from assumptions about the speaker's identity.
5. Consider whether language attitudes create inclusion, prestige or exclusion.

Accent tells you exactly who someone is

Accent can provide clues about language experience, but identity is more complex than pronunciation.

Switching language means weak language skills

Moving between languages can be a deliberate communicative strategy and a normal feature of multilingual communication.

• Language can be part of personal and group identity.
• Register changes with audience, purpose and situation.
• Code-switching can be a flexible communicative resource.
• Language attitudes can affect belonging, prestige and exclusion.
• Avoid making fixed assumptions about a person from one feature of their language.