The Struggle for a Multilingual Future

The Struggle for a Multilingual Future Youth and Education in Sri Lanka - Oxford Studies in Anthropology of Language

Hardback (27 Feb 2020)

Not available for sale

Includes delivery to the United States

Out of stock

This service is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Other formats/editions

Publisher's Synopsis

In The Struggle for a Multilingual Future, Christina Davis examines the tension between ethnic conflict and multilingual education policy in the linguistic and social practices of Sri Lankan minority youth. Facing a legacy of post-independence language and education policies that were among the complex causes of the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009), the government has recently sought to promote interethnic integration through trilingual language policies in Sinhala, Tamil, and English in state schools. Integrating ethnographic and linguistic research in and around two schools during the last phase of the war, Davis's research shows how, despite the intention of the reforms, practices on the ground reinforce language-based models of ethnicity and sustain ethnic divisions and power inequalities. By engaging with the actual experiences of Tamil and Muslim youth, Davis demonstrates the difficulties of using language policy to ameliorate ethnic conflict if it does not also address how that conflict is produced and reproduced in everyday talk.

Book information

ISBN: 9780190947484
Publisher: OUP USA
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 370.117095493
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 212
Weight: 454g
Height: 159mm
Width: 241mm
Spine width: 19mm