Forschung/ Research
General Research Interests
Language, Migration and Globalization
- Language Diversity, Language Contact
- Language Ideology Research and the Social Indexicality of Language
- The Epistemology of Languages and of Linguistics
- The Materiality of Language
- Language in Transnational Settings
- Language and the Creation of Public Space
- Language and Migration
- Language Policy
- Language Ideologies in Transnational Music Context and in Multilingual Literary Text
- Language and Gender
Schneider, Britta. 2020. “Was ist richtige Sprache in digitaler Gesellschaft? Von der Gutenberg zur Alexa Galaxie.“ Beitrag auf dem Blog des Humboldt Instituts für Internet und Gesellschaft (HIIG) https://www.hiig.de/was-ist-richtige-sprache-in-digitaler-gesellschaft-von-der-gutenberg-zur-alexa-galaxie/
Post-national Acts of Identity – Language Ideologies in Multilingual Belize
What is a language if we are not sure of how to define the community who speaks it? And what contributes to the emergence of languages and language boundaries in the first place? These questions form this project’s underlying interest in language ideologies in linguistically complex Belize. The study is based on an ethnographic field study conducted in a village characterized by linguistic diversity and inter-ethnic complexity. It gives voice to multilingual speakers whose concepts of language use often do not fit into Western paradigms of the relationship of language and social order. It thus contributes to overcoming a view on language as ‘naturally’ appearing in homogenous, coherent systems, tied to distinct cultural groups. The study of language and of language ideologies in Belize, a context in which languages and social units do not straightforwardly link to each other, exhibits discursive processes that co-construct languages as systemic entity. At the same time, the data demonstrates that a priori epistemological assumptions of languages as given entities as common in the discipline of linguistics are problematic. Thus, the analysis of observational, conversational and interview data from this highly complex linguistic setting proves to be relevant for reframing contemporary linguistic theory where ideologies of ‘one language-one nation language’ have become dismantled.
Related publications (selection):
Schneider, Britta (submitted habilitation thesis). Liquid Languages. Polymorphous Acts of Identity and the Fluidity of Language Categories in Linguistically Complex Belize
Schneider, Britta. 2017. "Lobster, tourism and other kinds of business. Economic opportunity and language choice in a multilingual village in Belize" Special Issue 'Language, Mobility and Work' in Journal of Language and Intercultural Communication https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14708477.14702018.11474887
Schneider, Britta. 2017. “‘It’s Kriol they’re speaking!’ – Constructing language boundaries in multilingual and ethnically complex communities.” In: Elmiger, Daniel et al. (eds.) Bulletin VALS-ASLA: Bulletin suisse de linguistique appliquée. Neuchâtel: Institut de Linguistique de l’Université de Neuchâtel. http://doc.rero.ch/record/11876/files/bulletin_vals_asla_2017_special_1.pdf
Anglophone Third Wave Coffee Culture – English in Transnational CommunitiesRelated publications:
Schneider, Britta (in press). "Language in transnational communities of consumption – indexical functions of English in Third-Wave Coffee Culture." In: Rüdiger, Sofia & Susanne Mühleisen (eds.). Talking about Food – The Social and the Global in Eating Communities. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Heyd, Theresa & Britta Schneider. 2019. Anglophone communities in Germany: the case of Berlin. In: Hickey, Raymond (ed.) English in the German-Speaking World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schneider, Britta & Theresa Heyd, eds. (in preparation) Bloomsbury World Englishes. Paradigms. London: Bloomsbury.
- Wild Publics – Language in public space under the conditions of late modernity (2019, cooperation with Theresa Heyd, FU Berlin)
- The Sociolinguistic Economy of Berlin (2019, cooperation with Theresa Heyd and Ferdinand von Mengden, FU Berlin)
Media
- Language norms in social media, Deutschlandfunk Kultur 14.07.2018 https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/rechtschreibung-in-den-sozialen-medien-ich-bin-doch-kein.2147.de.html?dram:article_id=422973
- Language, discourse and reality in contemporary discourses on migration Märkische Allgemeine 11.07.2018 http://www.maz-online.de/Nachrichten/Kultur/Transitzentren-Ankerzentren-Asyltourismus-Wie-Seehofer-Soeder-Co.-mit-ihrer-Wortwahl-Politik-machen
- English in Berlin, taz 24.09.2016, http://www.taz.de/Archiv-Suche/!5339976&s=heyd&SuchRahmen=Print/
- Linguistic Diversity in Berlin, Tagesspiegel 06.12.2016, http://www.tagesspiegel.de/themen/freie-universitaet-berlin/linguistik-man-spricht-deutsch/14934686.html
- Interview: Linguistic Diversity in Berlin, rbb kulturradio, September 29, 2016
- Interview: English in Third Wave Coffee Culture, Bayern 2 Radio, September 19, 2017
- Interview: Language Policy and Linguistic Diversity in Berlin, Strassenfeger No.11 Juli/August 2017