Un Deux Trois - Speak English! Young Taekwondo-Fighters' Identity Construction Through Linguistic Competition

摘要

From an ethnographic and interaction analytical approach this paper examines how polylingual languaging is used by a group of young male Taekwondo fighters to construct an integrated streetwise and 'schoolwise' persona as well as negotiate regional identities. The data discussed were collected in a Taekwondo club in a multicultural area of Copenhagen stereotypically associated with socially underprivileged youth. The analysis focuses on parts of a particular conversation where the boys are engaged in a linguistic competition. They claim linguistic competence by explicitly referring to school success and demonstrate linguistic competence through a creative mixture of playful linguistic activities (among them a spelling competition) in which several different languages and styles are involved. The analysis is discussed in relation to broader discourses about leisure sport as socially integrating, and it is concluded that in the boys' interaction the stereotypes invoked by these discourses are indeed creatively brought about and renegotiated.