Mitt språk, min värld : En socialpsykologisk uppsats om språk och identitetsutveckling på ett språkcafé

Sammanfattning: We want in this paper, by using participant observation and qualitative interviews, come closer to an understanding of what meaning a language café might have for the people who go there. Many of the visitors are people who recently moved to Sweden and are in the middle of a process of learning Swedish. We want to get a further insight into how they feel about their situation and what the social encounters on the language café might mean to them. The purpose is to examine how this can have significance for the identity development of the visitors. The result shows that the language café is an important place for the visitors because it is the only place they can go to in order to practice speaking Swedish, which is important for them to find their place in Sweden. The language café also fulfils an important function of a place where the visitors can receive an understanding of the Swedish society and reflect about it, but also a place for self-reflection to see the opportunities in the situations they find themselves in. Consistently for the language café is the importance of the social function it fulfils, as many of the visitors has experienced loneliness and isolation of society here in Sweden. At the language café they can connect with new people and spend time with others who are in the same situation as they are in. These social meetings with other people, we believe is the basis for the identity to be created and developed, and this is done through language.