ABSTRACT
Multilingual Sydney differs from many urban sites in the extent of its diversity: the range of language backgrounds and affiliations, the different migration trajectories, the diversity of daily practices and family histories. This chapter explores multilingual Sydney through the lens of community language schools, voluntary schools established by parents and community members to pass on languages and cultures. These schools are characterized as ‘third spaces’, sites where notions of ‘community’ and local/mainstream and national/global tensions are enacted and negotiated. The methodology for the study underpinning this chapter draws on the Multilingual Cities project of Extra and Yagmur (2004). Their ‘tranche’ methodology works from large-scale demographic, program and survey data to site-based local case study. It provides a two-way process whereby local perspectives highlight the impact of broader issues and aggregated data enhance the analysis of the community school and family data. The chapter looks in particular at how global changes in technology and travel have impacted on the language practices of 2nd and 3rd generation young people with community language backgrounds.
