ABSTRACT

The current study aims to provide an understanding of how the relationships between standard and non-standard varieties of the Turkish language are perceived by young people of Turkish Cypriot descent within the context of Turkish complementary schools in London. These schools are set up by diasporic communities to fight/reverse language shift and loss. They are also political spaces where cultural and linguistic practices are legitimised and delegitimized to help create an imagined community. Hence they provide rich contexts to investigate young people’s perceptions of standard and non-standard varieties of languages. This study specifically draws on interview data of eight UK-born Turkish Cypriot young people, collected through a 13-month ethnographic study in a London-based Turkish complementary school. The results of the thematic analysis of the participants’ discourses showed that the participants thought that the role of the Turkish school was to teach the ‘proper’ variety, i.e. standard Turkish. Through the lens of Bourdieu’s capitals, the results indicated that the participants believed that acquiring this variety would make them become more ‘educated.’ However, some participants problematised the seemingly straightforward association between standard varieties and positive perceptions of their speakers, which raises important questions about rethinking the position of non-standard varieties in education.

摘要

目前的研究旨在了解在伦敦土耳其语补充学校的背景下，土族塞人后裔的年轻人如何看待土耳其语标准变体和非标准变体之间的关系。这些学校由海外社区建立，以对抗/扭转语言转变和丧失。它们也是政治空间，在那里文化和语言实践被合法化和非法化，以帮助创建一个想象的社区。因此，它们提供了丰富的上下文来调查年轻人对标准和非标准语言的看法。这项研究特别利用了八名英国出生的土族塞人年轻人的访谈数据，这些数据是通过在伦敦的土耳其补充学校进行的为期 13 个月的民族志研究收集的。对参与者话语的主题分析结果表明，参与者认为土耳其学校的作用是教授“适当”的品种，即标准的土耳其语。通过布迪厄首都的镜头，结果表明参与者相信获得这种品种会使他们变得更加“受过教育”。然而，一些参与者质疑标准变体与其说话者的积极看法之间看似直接的关联，这引发了重新思考非标准变体在教育中的地位的重要问题。结果表明，参与者相信获得这种品种会使他们变得更加“受过教育”。然而，一些参与者质疑标准变体与其说话者的积极看法之间看似直接的关联，这引发了重新思考非标准变体在教育中的地位的重要问题。结果表明，参与者相信获得这种品种会使他们变得更加“受过教育”。然而，一些参与者质疑标准变体与其说话者的积极看法之间看似直接的关联，这引发了重新思考非标准变体在教育中的地位的重要问题。