Language Crossing, New Ethnicities and School

This article is based on sociolinguistic research on multilingual adolescent friendship groups in England. It first describes some of the ways in which youngsters made use of one another's languages. It then discusses the relationship between this ‘language crossing’ and racism, suggesting that these processes of linguistic exchange point to the emergence of what Hall calls ‘new ethnicities’, grounded in an acceptance of multiracial difference. The last part of the article briefly points to some of the connections between this new interethnic sensibility and school.