Linguistic Capital and its Use at Multilingual University: Narratives of Russian-English Bilingual Students

Student: Ali-zade Pavel

Educational Programme: Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2020

The research deals with the field of multilingualism at superdiverse university. Taking the concept by P. Bourdieu as a theoretical framework, we consider how the use of linguistic capital influences student’s success. By means of the method of narrative analysis, we examine the stories of Russian-English-speaking bilinguals about how they practice their bilingual abilities in university life. The results show that having rich linguistic capital bilinguals are successful in academic performance, socialization and achieving financial goals that proves P. Bourdieu’s idea about the transfers of capitals. The analysis of narrative components also demonstrates the positive attitude of Russian-English-speaking students towards their own bilingualism that is noticed in satisfaction with personal development, self-confidence and psychological comfort.

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