We are pleased to welcome Dr. Haroun Melgani, Associate Professor and Lecturer at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Foreign Languages, University of Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria.

This Centre for Research in Education in Asia (CREA) talk is titled 'Flexibility vs. Separation: Investigating Early Bilingual Upbringing and Dynamics of Family Language Management among Migrant Berber Families in Algeria'.

This study addresses the language planning strategies employed by migrant Algerian families of Chaouia-speaking backgrounds and Kabyle-speaking backgrounds to develop their children’s bilingualism in Chaouia/Kabyle and colloquial Arabic. It also examines the extent to which Berber families prefer language separation strategies over language mixing strategies, explores how and why they change their strategies over time, and investigates their ratings of the success and difficulty level of their bilingual upbringing.

Attend this event

The event will take place in 1 West 2.102 on the University of Bath campus.

It will also be available as a live stream, which you can watch via Zoom.

Meeting ID: 983 7119 8481, passcode: 923795

Speaker: Dr Haroun Melgani

Dr. Haroun Melgani is Associate Professor and Lecturer at the Department of English, the Faculty of Arts and Foreign Languages, University of Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria. He has published research papers on lexical variation and change across Chaouia speaking regions, multiple languages teaching, and Family Language Policy (FLP). He is interested in Variationist Sociolinguistics, Historical sociolinguistics, Berber (Tamazight) linguistics, Educational Sociolinguistics, ethnic networks and language change in Chaouia, and Family Language Policy. He is especially interested in how Algerian families, which vary on several regional and socio-ethnic grounds, use linguistic practices at home to rear bi/trilingual children, and how various, interrelated, sociopolitical forces shape their linguistic practices and beliefs.