LIVING IN TWO LANGUAGES: REGIMES OF LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONS OF MALTESE-ENGLISH BILINGUALS: A CASE STUDY

The study explores how the multi-layered language attitudes and ideologies of bilinguals born and raised in Malta are linked to space and individual identity construction. Through narrative interviews, it investigates the subjective experiences of bilingualism in Malta, addressing the following questions: How do bilingual Maltese-English speakers author their identities in terms of their language use? How do they construct categories of belonging and position themselves within the linguistic space? To what extent can linguistic spaces act as triggers for the creation of power structures, identity concepts and multilingual patterns?Through the analysis of participants' identity negotiations, this study demonstrates that space assumes a dual role, 'constitutive' and 'constituting', in shaping identity and language use. Employing strategies for self-positioning and external positioning, identity construction and membership categorisation participants show how language can act as 'entrance fee' to space, how different languages can constitute 'bilingual selves' of a 'glocal' identity and how transgression in space can act as renegotiating process of identity.