Switching between Codes, Social Personas and Seminar Activities. A Case Study of Localized Hypersubjectivities Constructing a Laboratory-Based Superdiverse Micro-Community

Abstract

One perspective bound to rouse interesting ideas in relation to efforts of mapping out World Theory, especially in the interplay between ‘local cultures’ pinned against the backdrop of globalization, might just come in the form of sociolinguistics. The author argues that the code-switching practices (polylingual practices, cf. Jørgensen) observed taking place between two groups of highly creative tri-/tetra-and pentalingual Erasmus students solving Physiology-related tasks during laboratory hours, are the perfect site for studying a superdiverse micro-community. The clash and intertwinement of not only every student’s linguistic baggage, but of their various background cultures and performed social personas, in the midst of switching back-and-forth between their locally co-constructed English(es) as Lingua Franca(s), are reflective of the challenges posed by accelerated patterns of migration. This linguistic behavior is also emotionally-driven and socially fluid. Therefore, micro- and even niche-subcultures exhibit a tendency to be reduced to hypersubjectivities co-existing in ad-hoc micro-communities (Hall).