LANGUAGE CHANGE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS AMONG REFUGEE TEENAGERS

This book explores linguistic social integration of Somali refugee teenagers in Eastleigh, a suburb within Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. It gives a descriptive account of social networks and domain analysis in order to discuss language change by the teenagers having moved from a monolingual Somalia to a multilingual Kenya. It is noteworthy that while most studies in Kenya on refugees focus on the welfare and livelihoods of refugees excluding language, this book delineates the social networks of the Somali teenage refugees in Kenya to establish how they are coping linguistically. Findings indicate that teenagers have dense and multiplex social networks. Such networks have enabled them to retain the Somali language to a large extent and have also acquired other languages which are used in Kenya: English, Kiswahili and in few cases, Sheng. The book contributes to in-depth understanding of the refugee linguistic orientations in Kenya. It is recommended to language policy makers, and social scientists in Kenya and elsewhere.

Autorentext

Dr. Phylis Bartoo is a career social scientist and lectures in Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her research interests are: Language Change, Sociolinguistics, Communication and Media, Second Language Acquisition; and Language and Gender.