Rethinking methodology: what language diaries can offer to the study of code choice

Abstract

The self-report questionnaire has served as the primary tool for investigating language maintenance in hundreds of communities over the past 40 years. More recently, it has been employed to investigate language shift amongst first-generation communities where one of the most useful indicators of generational change is the reported pattern of language use. We argue that an alternative effective means to obtain this type of data is through the ‘language diary’. Language diaries, ethnographic self-reports of daily speech encounters, have been used as a tool in language acquisition and code choice in multilingual communities, but their value for the study of language use has been largely unnoticed. The current project considers the advantages of this methodology for the investigation of the use of English, Korean, and two mixed codes: Korean with some English (KE) and English with some Korean (EK). The findings show how language diaries provide a range of new insights about language use in the New Zealand Korean community. The paper ends with a discussion of the value of language diaries in pilot studies for ethnographic research.

Keywords:

• sociolinguistic awareness
• research methodology
• multilingualism
• diasporic communities
• language diaries
• switching

Notes

1. There is a diverse literature and numerous views on switching and mixing. See Myers-Scotton (1997) for a succinct overview.