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In:Interdisciplinary Approaches to Romance Linguistics: In honor of Barbara E. Bullock and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
Edited by Mark Amengual and Amanda Dalola
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 45] 2025
► pp. 293–323

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Chapter 12
Navigating identity and discrimination in France through codeswitching

 | University of Vienna
Published online: 2 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.45.12ril
Abstract
Using a case study approach based on ethnographic work conducted in a French high school, this chapter explores the social motivations for the use of codeswitching (henceforth CS) by one multilingual speaker of French, Spanish, Moroccan Arabic, and English. The analysis reveals that discursive functions and audience can only partly explain Meryem’s CS behavior. Indeed, her relationship with the local Arab community, as well as local language ideologies and perceptions of ethnicity, motivate CS into Spanish (and sometimes English) over Arabic and usage of (super)standard French. Meryem capitalizes on her Spanish identity to dissociate from the North African community in France, who is discriminated against and has reproduced patterns of internalized racism and discriminated against her.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Study site and student characteristics
    • 2.2Data collection
    • 2.3Participant observation
    • 2.4Video task
    • 2.5Self-reflective essay
    • 2.6Follow-up interview
    • 2.7Protocol
    • 2.7Analytical approach
  • 3.Portrait
  • 4.Discursive motivations of CS
    • 4.1Conversational functions
    • 4.2Quotation
    • 4.3Interjections
    • 4.4Proper nouns
  • 5.“Je suis espagnole”: Self-determination and affiliations
  • 6.Other-determination: The weight of dominant discourses of power on identity claims
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Transcription conventions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (59)
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