Children’s identities constructions and the “Mehrraum”

Lanz, Helza Ricarte; Noack Napoles, Juliane

doi:10.1075/ld.5.2.03lan

Article published In: Language and Dialogue
Vol. 5:2 (2015) ► pp.247–263

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Children’s identities constructions and the “Mehrraum”

Helza Ricarte Lanz | University of Cologne

Juliane Noack Napoles

Published online: 3 September 2015

https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.5.2.03lan

The aim of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of the impact of bilingualism on children, considering the dimensions of languages, language use and identity. Since 2009, we have been observing German-Brazilian children in an institutional out-of-home-setting in Bonn, Germany, as a case study. Our main question is: “which role does bilingualism play in constructing children’s identities?” The research techniques are participant observation and informal interviews with families. The results show the need of an updated concept that enables us to understand interactions between languages, cultures and societies. This paper represents a work in progress and is submitted as a contribution to the wider ongoing project of developing the concept of “Mehrraum” as an added value space.

Keywords: Language use, Children’s identities, “Mehrraum”, Dialogue

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