Shared Objects, Belonging, and Adolescent Newcomer Identity: The Case of "Chick, Chichi-Chicki, and Shaky Shaky"

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Civic Dialogue and the Politics of Belonging: Perspectives on Controversy in the Classroom

Abstract

This paper briefly describes the broader context of the rise in diversity throughout the world, U.S., and specifically the Midwest. In this frame, adolescent newcomer programs are introduced as a specific structure to support refugee and other migrant students who arrive in the U.S. with a vast array of prior experiences, skills, and needs. The paper itself is an ethnographic and sociolinguistic exploration of how the English word “chick” travels and is used by the diverse students in a first-year cohort. The analysis uses cultural-historical and translanguaging theory to argue that “chick” becomes a partially shared object among the students that destabilizes named languages while being used as markers of identity and tools of belonging.

Author

• Brian D Seilstad, The Ohio State University