A reflexive approach to researching bilingualism in Wales: language, legitimacy and positionality

Selleck, Charlotte; Barakos, Elisabeth

Abstract

This paper engages with the negotiation of insider and outsider researcher identities in the context of Welsh-English bilingualism in Wales. It aims to develop a reflexive approach to researching bilingualism, foregrounding the actions and experiences of doing bilingual research in a minority language context. Taking data from education and business as our starting point, we present two self-reflexive accounts of how our research identities, specifically our language profiles, (as an L1 British English speaker and an LX English user, both of whom have only limited understanding of Welsh), and positionalities are questioned, (de)legitimised and assessed in our research projects. In light of this, we reflect also on the methodological consequences and decisions that were taken during the research process. Taken together, these two reflective perspectives allow us to generate new theoretical, methodical and analytic understandings of language within the bilingual Welsh-English context specifically and researcher reflexivity more broadly.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 21, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 21, 2023
• Publication Date: Aug 21, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 22, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
• Print ISSN: 0143-4632
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 672-688
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2195382
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11129191