This paper concerns identity, multilingualism, gender and silence. It draws upon poststructuralist discussions on the role of language in the construction of identity, particularly in relation to gender and bilingualism. As gender is socially constructed, negotiated and performed through language, it differs between cultures and involves different relations of power. A bilingual person, specifically, a bilingual woman, can, therefore, construct and perform identity in different ways depending on context and may employ strategies in different ways between contexts, such as in the interplay between speech and silence. Silence as a phenomenon has been viewed in the context of the exercise of power between dominant and subordinate groups, especially in male-female relationships, and the ways in which the oral contributions of the “muted group” are excluded, constrained or devalued. Furthermore, it has been noted that there are different social sanctions between cultures that may silence women in different ways. This discussion explores some of the roles that speech and silence have played in the life of one multilingual person of Asian heritage. In doing so, different scenarios of empowerment through the role of translator and apparent disempowerment documented within a group of female friends are addressed. The paper examines the ways in which individuals may both work within and against cultural expectations in relation to the discursive practice of silence.
Ardener, E. (1972). Belief and the problem of women. In J. LaFontaine (Ed.), The interpretation of ritual. London: Tavistock.
2.
Ardener, E. (1986). The problem of dominance. In L. Dube, E. Leacock & S. Ardener (Eds.), Visibility and power. Essays on women in society and development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Auer, P. (Ed.). (1998). Codeswitching in conversation. Language, interaction and identity. London : Routledge.
5.
Baldwin, E., Longhurst, B., McCracken, S., Smith, G., & Ogborn, M. (1999). Introducing cultural studies. London: Prentice Hall.
6.
Burton, P. (1994). Women and second language use: An introduction . In P. Burton, K. Dyson & S. Ardener, (Eds.), Bilingual women. Anthropological approaches to second language use . Oxford: Berg.
7.
Burton, P., Dyson, K., & Ardener, S. (1994). Bilingual women. Anthropological approaches to second language use. Oxford: Berg .
8.
Cameron, D. (1992). Feminism and linguistic theory. London: Macmillan.
9.
Cameron, D. (1998). Performing gender identity: Young men's talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In J. Coates, (Ed.), Language and gender: A reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
10.
Coates, J. (1993). Women men and language. London : Longman.
11.
Coates, J. (1996). Women talk. Oxford: Blackwell.
12.
Coates, J., & Cameron, D. (1988). Women in their speech communities. Harlow: Longman.
13.
Dube, L. (1986). Introduction. In L. Dube, E. Leacock & S. Ardener (Eds.), Visibility and power. Essays on women in society and development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14.
Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Think practically and look locally. Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology, 21, 461-490.
15.
Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1998). Communities of practice: Where language, gender, and power all live. In J. Coates, (Ed.), Language and gender: A reader. Oxford, Blackwell.
16.
Ehrlich, S. (1997). Gender as social practice: Implications for second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition , 19, 421-446.
17.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
18.
Gal, S. ( 1979). Language shift. Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic Press.
19.
Gal, S. ( 1991). Between speech and silence. The problematics of research on language and gender. In M. di Leonardo (Ed.), Gender at the crossroads of knowledge: Feminist anthropology in the postmodern era. London: University of California Press.
20.
Graddol, D., & Swann, J. (1989). Gender voices. Oxford: Blackwell.
21.
Hamadeh, N. (1996). Islamic family legislation: The authoritarian discourse of silence. In M. Yamani (Ed.), Feminism and Islam. London: Ithaca.
22.
Harding, S. (1975). Women and words in a Spanish village. In R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an anthropology of women. New York: Monthly Review .
23.
Harvey, P. (1994). The presence and absence of speech in the communication of gender. In P. Burton, K. Dyson & S. Ardener (Eds.), Bilingual women. Anthropological approaches to second-language use. Oxford: Providence, Berg.
24.
Holy Quran (2000). Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Trans.). Ware: Wordsworth.
25.
Josselson, R. (1995). Imagining the real: Empathy, narrative, and the dialogic self. In R. Josselson & A. Lieblich (Eds.), Interpreting experience. The narrative study of lives, 3. London: Sage.
26.
Kaur, S., & Mills, R.W. (1993). Children as interpreters. In R. W. Mills & J. Mills (Eds.), Bilingualism in the primary school. London: Routledge.
27.
Koven, M. (1998). Two languages in the self/the self in two languages: French-Portuguese bilinguals verbal enactments and experiences of self in narrative discourse. Ethnos, 26(4), 410 - 455.
28.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews. An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. London: Sage.
29.
Lakoff, R. (1992). The silencing of women. In K. Hall, M. Bucholtz & B. Moonwomon (Eds.), Locating power. Proceedings of the second Berkeley women and language conference. Berkeley, University of California, U.S.A.
30.
Matsumoto, K., & Britain, D. (2003). Investigating the sociolinguistic gender paradox in a multilingual community: A case study from the Republic of Palau. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 7, 127-151.
31.
McDonald, M. (1994). Women and linguistic innovation in Brittany. In P. Burton, K. Dyson & S. Ardener (Eds.), Bilingual women. Anthropological approaches to second-language use . Oxford, Providence, Berg.
32.
Mills, J. (1995). A classroom assistant. In J. Mills & R. W. Mills (Eds.), Primary school people. London: Routledge.
33.
Mills, J. (2001). Self-construction through conversation and narrative in interviews. Educational Review, 53(3), 285-302.
34.
Mills, J. (2004). Mothers and mother tongue: Perspectives on self-construction by mothers of Pakistani heretage. In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (Eds.), Negotiating identities in multilingual contexts. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.
35.
Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. London, Longman.
36.
Parker-Jenkins, M. (1995). Children of Islam. Stoke, Trentham.
37.
Pavlenko, A. (1998). Transformation of gender in second language learning . In S. Wertheim, A. Bailey & M. Corson-Oliver (Eds.), Engendering communication. Proceedings of the Fifth Berkley Women and Language Conference, University of California, U.S.A.
38.
Pavlenko, A. (2001). Bilingualism, gender and ideology. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 5(2), 117-151.
39.
Pavlenko, A., & Piller, I. (2001). New directions in the study of multilingualism, second language learning and gender. In A. Pavlenko, A. Blackledge, I. Piller, & M. Teutsch-Dwyer (Eds.), Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender (pp. 17-53). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
40.
Race Relations Unit (1997). The Pakistanis in Birmingham: A community profile. Birmingham City Council.
41.
Stopes-Roe, M., & Cochrane, R. (1990). Citizens of this country. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
42.
Tabouret-Keller, A. (1998). Language and identity. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics. Oxford, Blackwell.
43.
Tual, A. (1986). Speech and silence: Women in Iran. In L. Dube, E. Leacock & S. Ardener (Eds.), Visibility and power. Essays on women in society and development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
44.
Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist practice and poststructural theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
45.
Westwood, S. (1995). Gendering diaspora: Space, politics, and South Asian masculinities in Britain. In P. van der Veer (Ed.), Nation and migration. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
