Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom
This study is located in a lesser-known educational context and investigates aspects of migration, religion and multilingualism. Focusing on the discourse of second-generation adolescent migrants in a Tamil Hindu temple school in urban Australia, I discuss how flexible language practices manifest in...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis
2020
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79455 |
| _version_ | 1848764054279028736 |
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| author | Perera, Niru |
| author_facet | Perera, Niru |
| author_sort | Perera, Niru |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This study is located in a lesser-known educational context and investigates aspects of migration, religion and multilingualism. Focusing on the discourse of second-generation adolescent migrants in a Tamil Hindu temple school in urban Australia, I discuss how flexible language practices manifest in this migrant faith setting. I argue that the use of the heritage language is not always at the forefront, despite a monolingual Tamil language policy, because religious transmission is given priority over language transmission. At the same time, there are certain motivations that influence the use of Tamil: to index the close relationship between language and religious culture and to index one’s membership of the ethnoreligious community. This paper draws on ethnographic data to provide both a macro and micro view of these motivations–what drives adolescents to use their heritage language, how it is deployed from their linguistic repertoires, and how it contrasts with the use of the students’ dominant language, English. The analysis takes a whole of conversation approach to understanding the relationship between religion and heritage language use for second-generation migrant students. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:13:15Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-79455 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:13:15Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-794552021-08-06T05:53:22Z Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom Perera, Niru Social Sciences Education & Educational Research Linguistics Language & Linguistics religion Tamil Hindu temple translanguaging second-generation migrant Sri Lanka LANGUAGE IDENTITY IDEOLOGIES CHILDREN LONDON This study is located in a lesser-known educational context and investigates aspects of migration, religion and multilingualism. Focusing on the discourse of second-generation adolescent migrants in a Tamil Hindu temple school in urban Australia, I discuss how flexible language practices manifest in this migrant faith setting. I argue that the use of the heritage language is not always at the forefront, despite a monolingual Tamil language policy, because religious transmission is given priority over language transmission. At the same time, there are certain motivations that influence the use of Tamil: to index the close relationship between language and religious culture and to index one’s membership of the ethnoreligious community. This paper draws on ethnographic data to provide both a macro and micro view of these motivations–what drives adolescents to use their heritage language, how it is deployed from their linguistic repertoires, and how it contrasts with the use of the students’ dominant language, English. The analysis takes a whole of conversation approach to understanding the relationship between religion and heritage language use for second-generation migrant students. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79455 10.1080/14790718.2020.1712406 English Taylor & Francis fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Social Sciences Education & Educational Research Linguistics Language & Linguistics religion Tamil Hindu temple translanguaging second-generation migrant Sri Lanka LANGUAGE IDENTITY IDEOLOGIES CHILDREN LONDON Perera, Niru Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom |
| title | Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom |
| title_full | Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom |
| title_fullStr | Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom |
| title_full_unstemmed | Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom |
| title_short | Talking Saivism in a Tamil migrant faith classroom |
| title_sort | talking saivism in a tamil migrant faith classroom |
| topic | Social Sciences Education & Educational Research Linguistics Language & Linguistics religion Tamil Hindu temple translanguaging second-generation migrant Sri Lanka LANGUAGE IDENTITY IDEOLOGIES CHILDREN LONDON |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79455 |