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Paper short abstract:

This study employs mixed methods to investigate the language habits formed by 1-5 year old children born to young female migrants in urban markets in Accra in order to explore the role the migrants play in the production and reproduction of sociolinguistic structures in urban Ghana

Paper long abstract:

This study employs mixed methods to investigate the language habits that are formed by 1-5 years old children who are born to/are being raised by young female migrants from northern Ghana, Kayayei, in urban markets in Accra in order to explore the role these migrants play in the production and reproduction of sociolinguistic structures in urban Ghana. Ansah et al (2017) report that even though Akan is the dominant language of the major markets in Accra where the Kayayei work, many of them get by with minimal bilingualism in the markets mainly for economic reasons. However, Grim et al (2010) have suggested that Bordieu's (1982) argument that language is an instrument of power, 'used by social actors in the production and reproduction of social structures' is applicable to multilingual contexts where language use may become an index of social, political and economic inequality because languages do not enjoy the same degree of prestige or vitality at a given time and place. When the Kayayei send their 1-5 year old to pre-school facilities in and around the Agbogbloshoie market so that the parents can work, a) what languages are these children exposed to in these pre-school facilities? b) what new linguistic habits emerge among these children? c) how do the migrant parents react to the emergent linguistic habits their children acquire? and d) can these habits potentially lead to the development of multilingualism or language shift among second generation migrants from northern Ghana in Accra?