Crossing Boundaries: How Maranao Children in Sorsogon City Negotiate Their Cultural Identity through Situated Language Use and Discourse Practices

Abstract

Adopting an ethnographic approach, this study describes how Maranao children in Sorsogon City negotiate their cultural identity through multilingual discourse in academic and communal contexts, and identifies factors affecting the cultural identity negotiation process. These children of migrant Muslim Maranao parents have been exposed to the diverse linguistic varieties and cultural norms of their ethnic community and the dominant mainstream society, which are thus reflected in their language use and customary practices. Collected through participant observation and unstructured interviews from November 2018 to April 2019, the gathered data are analyzed utilizing James Paul Gee’s Discourse model and identity negotiation.

KEYWORDS: MIGRATION • SITUATED LANGUAGE USE • CULTURAL IDENTITY NEGOTIATION • DISCOURSE • ETHNOGRAPHY