Self-assessment and standard language ideologies: bilingual adolescents in Sweden reflect on their language proficiencies.

Standard language cultures are characterised by beliefs in idealised standard forms of the language in question. In this paper, these beliefs are connected to the concepts of referee design and speech community, through analysis of how Swedish adolescents reflect upon and self-assess their language...

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Published in:Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 137 - 152
Main Authors: Forsberg, Julia, Ribbås, Maria Therese, Gross, Johan
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Mar2021
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Mar2021
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/01434632.2020.1715988
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        atl: Self-assessment and standard language ideologies: bilingual adolescents in Sweden reflect on their language proficiencies.
      aug:
        au:
          Forsberg, Julia
          Ribbås, Maria Therese
          Gross, Johan
        affil:
          Department of Languages and Communication, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden
          Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
          Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
      su:
        Language ability testing
        Standard language
        Self-evaluation
        Bilingualism ability testing
        Teenagers' language
        Multilingualism
        Teenagers
        Sweden
      sug:
        subj:
          Sweden
          Language ability testing
          Standard language
          Self-evaluation
          Bilingualism ability testing
          Teenagers' language
          Multilingualism
          Teenagers
      keyword:
        Adolescent speech
        audience design
        language proficiency
        multilingual adolescents
        referee design
        self-assessment
      ab: Standard language cultures are characterised by beliefs in idealised standard forms of the language in question. In this paper, these beliefs are connected to the concepts of referee design and speech community, through analysis of how Swedish adolescents reflect upon and self-assess their language proficiencies. The data consist of interviews where 111 participants self-assess their Swedish, English and additional home languages. During the self-assessment, participants use different points of reference when reflecting on the different languages in their repertoires. Four main categories of answers are found, all relating to an absent referee in some manner: the participants' evaluations of other people's language proficiency compared to their own; their proficiency in other languages; their evaluation of their proficiency in relation to formal grading and feedback given in school; and their own experiences of their limitations and abilities in different situations. When assessing Swedish, participants display attitudes towards 'good' and 'bad' language and contextualise their proficiency in a way that focuses on standard language ideologies and their speech community. The same pattern does not occur when participants reflect on their other languages, indicating the important role that the peer group and speech community have in creating and facilitating these ideologies.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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          year: 2021
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