The role of English in Amsterdam : an analysis of the relation between language use and place identification

(1)

The Role of English in Amsterdam

An Analysis of the Relation between Language Use

and Place Identification

Masterthesis

L.A. Ankum

(2)

This page intentionally

left blank

(3)

The Role of English in Amsterdam

An Analysis of the Relation between Language Use

and Place Identification

Author: L.A. Ankum Student number: 10364234 E-mailadres: Lars.Ankum@student.uva.nl Masterthesis MSc. Human Geography Political Geography University of Amsterdam Supervisor: Dr. V.D. Mamadouh Amsterdam, 4 July 2016

(4)

1 Preface

A warm welcome to the first thesis ever that analyses the role of English in Amsterdam. A subject which was analysed by distributing an online questionnaire under the inhabitants of Amsterdam and conducting six semi-structured interviews following up the results of the questionnaire. The thesis was written to fulfill the graduation requirements of the Master’s program Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Within the program I was enrolled in the track political geography which main themes are also associated with the project. I was engaged in researching and writing this thesis between February and July 2016.

The main motive to conduct this project on the role of English is associated with the several times people mentioned to me that they are not anymore able to always use Dutch in Amsterdam. While this was not seen as a problem for those also able to use English other friends, often those who are not fluent in English, mentioned that they became irritated because they were not able to use Dutch but had to use English instead. These personal experiences encouraged me to look at the role of English in Amsterdam. As a Dutch native but studying in English I considered myself as the ideal person to look at the ‘clash’ between English and Dutch in Amsterdam by looking at arguments of people who are able to use English and of those who are not. To consider the influence of the role of English on place identification relates with the lack of academic research on this subject. Most research concerning language use completely neglects the influence of place which is finally introduced as an important subject throughout this project.

The thesis is written for a general audience but mainly for people living in Amsterdam who are worried about the role of English in the city. The aim is to explicate the role of the language in the city to them and to illustrate if it should be considered as a problem or not. Besides the people living in Amsterdam policy makers, mainly on the municipal level, can benefit from the thesis because of its possible contribution to policies regarding multilingualism in the city. Lastly, the thesis

contributes to the general debate about the role of English and is interesting for academia interested in the subject. I do however want to accentuate that the project is not only for academic purposes but is aimed to contribute the general debate outside of academia as well.

I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. V.D. Mamadouh, for her excellent guidance and support throughout the project. Besides, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the respondents of the questionnaire and interviews, without them it would have been impossible to conduct the research project. I also benefited from discussing issues around multilingualism with my fellow students in the multilingualism group, T. Etienne and Y. Ralko, who both contributed significantly to the project by providing valuable feedback on several occasions. I would like to thank a group of five (former) study colleagues for filling in the pilot study of the questionnaire and a current study colleague, T. Koch, for his help with the quantitative part of the project. I am sure I had missed out on some important statistical stuff without his help. Lastly I like to thank my family and friends for their ongoing support and motivation!

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading! Lars Ankum

(5)

2 Abstract

This thesis describes and investigates the relation between the role of English and place identification for Amsterdam by considering the results of an online questionnaire and six semi-structured interviews distributed among the inhabitants of Amsterdam and its surroundings. The goal of the project is to identify whether the role of English in Amsterdam should be regarded negatively or positively when considering place identification. A comparison is made between three groups of inhabitants, those being able to use both English and Dutch, those using English only and those using Dutch only. The expectation is that that the first two groups identify more because of the role of English and the last group identifies less because of the position of the language. English has an important and widespread role in Amsterdam which especially took flight after the Second World War. By now the language is regarded as the second important language in the city, after the native language Dutch, and is the main working language for a lot of companies as well as university departments. Besides, the language is, because of its status as ‘lingua franca’, the main language for the tourist industry in the city. An illustration of the important role of English is the 2009-declaration of the municipality of Amsterdam in which English was declared as the second official language of Amsterdam. The role of English plays out in the linguistic field of Amsterdam in which Dutch still is regarded as the most important language alongside traditional immigrant languages as Turkish and Arabic and other ‘Western’ languages as German and French.

Place identification, the continuous process of local and non-local social interaction which allows people to identify themselves with several places on several scale levels, is influenced in multiple ways by the role of English. The role of English for example leads to more identification with the city by inhabitants able to use English. Its important role also has an influence on the perception of language use in the city as inhabitants regarding English negatively often identify less with

Amsterdam and inhabitants regarding English positively identify more with the city. An association with individual characteristics exists as well, younger and higher educated inhabitants attach more value to the role of English and identify more because of this. Older and lower educated people however identify less with Amsterdam because of the threat to their identification caused by the role of English. The relation is however also largely dependent on contextual characteristics such as the location in the city where a person lives and the value a person attaches to the language. It nonetheless seems that most of the hypotheses can be confirmed, inhabitants able to use English indeed identify more because of the role of the language with the influence being the biggest for inhabitants able to use both Dutch and English. Inhabitants not able to use the language identify, in contrast to the hypothesis, not yet less with Amsterdam but this might be the case in the (near) future. Further research on the subject should thus focus on this last group of inhabitants, who are not able to use English, to determine how they can deal with the role of English without feeling excluded in their own city.

(6)

3

4 Introduction

Back in 2001, The Economist noted that the triumph of English as of becoming the ‘global language’ was at the brink of happening (The Economist, 2001). As the language of globalization – of

international business, politics and diplomacy - and of modern technologies as internet and

computers, English was regarded as the world’s number one language. Now, fifteen years later, this prophecy seems to be fulfilled. Proficiency in English is increasingly seen as a powerful tool for development and advancement throughout the world which is for example illustrated by the increasing number of people who consider themselves a native speaker of English (Ammon, 2010). As a consequence of globalization and neoliberalism English, the language of two important countries (the United Kingdom and the United States) associated with neoliberalism, spread to all regions of the world. The major global impact of the language however lays in the fact that it is (becoming) the regular language of communication at the higher levels of society.

One of the countries where this trend is most profound is the Netherlands, which scored in 2015 second out of seventy non-English countries at the English Proficiency Index1_{of Education First} (2015). While the Dutch have always needed other languages, because of their tradeorientated economy, the growing role of English in the country is a relatively recent phenomenon, which only took a real flight after WWII. According to the Eurobarometer, a report commissioned by the European Commission (2012), 90 percent of the country’s population is able to have a conversation in English nowadays. The growing role of English in the Netherlands does nonetheless not go uncontested, as there has recently been a lot of discussion about the (dis)advantages of English in the national media (e.g. Dronkers, 2013; Müller, 2013; Huygen, 2016). A prominent example is the recent ‘language manifest’ against the exaggerated and ever-growing usage of English at the higher education levels in the Netherlands (Mantel, 2015). This debate also returns on a global scale level where academia such as Johnson (2009) and Kushner (2003) reflect on the dangers and

opportunities of the growing role of English. The debate, both on the national and global scale level, is however characterized by discussions between academia. In this thesis the aim is therefore to make a valuable contribution to the debate about the role of English by consulting the public’s opinion about the issue.

In the Netherlands some research has been conducted on the role of English but only three research projects are worth noting. The first is the dissertation of Edelman (2015) who studied the linguistic landscapes of the Netherlands by looking at street signs in Friesland and Amsterdam. Her conclusion that English street signs are overrepresented in the Netherlands, and especially in Amsterdam, is one example of the growing role of English in the Netherlands. The second study is Edwards (2016) who looked at the functions, forms and attitudes regarding English in the Netherlands. Edwards

concluded that the Dutch attitude regarding English is rather positive, with most respondents in her survey seeing English as an addition to Dutch rather than a threat to the language. The same tolerant attitude regarding English was also the general conclusion of the interviews conducted during a research project in the Dutch city of Maastricht (Johnson, 2009).

In this thesis the focus is on a specific city in the Netherlands, Amsterdam. Amsterdam is the most popular destination within the country for both foreign and domestic visitors. Because of the status

1_{The English Proficiency Index is constructed each year from the results on a set of English tests completed by}

(8)

5

of English as the lingua franca (Kushner, 2003) most conversations between foreign visitors and the local population are conducted in English. Besides, the two biggest groups of foreign visitors come from English speaking countries, the United Kingdom and the United States (O+S Amsterdam, 2015). The same two countries contribute largely to the amount of Western immigrants in Amsterdam, making up the biggest groups of immigrants after neighbouring country Germany (O+S Amsterdam, 2016). The group of Western immigrants is in this regard defined by the statistical office of the municipality of Amsterdam as ‘all people from Europe, North-America, Australia, Japan and

Indonesia of which at least one parent is born abroad’ (O+S Amsterdam, 2006). The presence of

these English-using groups, alongside the growing total population of expats who are primarily using English, makes Amsterdam an interesting case to analyse. This study can thus contribute to the previously mentioned discussion about the role of English in the Netherlands by considering the dynamic case of language use in Amsterdam. An analysis at this specific place, where a lot of English is used, can show if the growing role of English should be considered as a problem at all in the Netherlands or that it is not a relevant subject for further research at other locations.

Language use in Amsterdam is in this regard analysed in relation to identification with Amsterdam or its surroundings. It is expected that the role of English influences the identification of inhabitants of the city or its direct surroundings with their home place. Language diversity can as Mamadouh (2014) already rightfully noted subvert social cohesion if people feel excluded from certain relations because they are not able to use a language. Alongside the influence on social cohesion people often have another association with other languages than with their native language. For these reasons languages are in this project, as conceptualized by Johnson (2009), seen as ‘repositories of culture

and identity’ and regarded as more than merely tools of communication. Languages, such as English

and Dutch, can truly influence both place and identity. In the thesis identity is however substituted for identification. Following Kaiser & Nikiforova (2006) it can be argued that using identification rather than identity highlights the process of identity construction, instead of seeing identity as something which is pre-given.

The goal of this study is to analyse the influence of the role of English at the individual level on the identification with Amsterdam as a home place. The expectation is that the role of English has a negative impact on the identification of inhabitants who are predominantly using Dutch and a positive impact for inhabitants who are using both Dutch and English or predominantly using English. The study focuses on language use in the city of Amsterdam or its direct surroundings (e.g.

Amstelveen, Zaanstad) and took place between February and July 2016. To be able to analyse the relation inhabitants of Amsterdam or its direct surroundings who are older than 18 will be asked about the language(s) they use and what this means for their identification with the city. This was analysed by sending out an online questionnaire during the first month of the study. Alongside, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants of the questionnaire to be able to grasp the personal experiences and feelings of the respondents about the role of English.

The remaining sections of this thesis are structured as follows. In the first chapter the theoretical framework is explicated and in the second chapter the research design and research methods relevant for this study are discussed. The third chapter describes the languages used in Amsterdam as well as the role of English in the city. Chapter four considers the relation between language use and place identification as well as the differences between the three language groups. The thesis ends with a concluding section which also has discussing and reflecting elements.

(9)

6 1. Understanding language use and place identification

The theoretical framework is shaped around the relation between language use and identification with place which should be regarded as mutually constituted and constructed (Valentine et al., 2008: 377). Two contextual factors influencing place identification are also considered: the perception of language use in Amsterdam and individual characteristics of respondents. In the First Section the place identification concept is introduced, the Second Section considers the influence of language use on the construction of places and the Third Section the influence of language use on the identification with place. The Fourth Section threats the perception of language use and the last Section the individual characteristics.

1.1 Identification with place

Identification, in contrast to identity, is a concept which should be considered as an unbounded construct and constantly subject to various influences. Focusing on the process of identifying avoids the pitfalls associated with treating identity as a ratified ‘category of analysis’ and allows the

researcher to rightfully grasp the historical contingent processes of social interaction (Kaiser & Nikiforova, 2006). To define identification Kaiser & Nikiforova (2006) followed well-known sociologists Brubaker & Cooper (2000) whose conceptualization will also be used in this project. Brubaker & Cooper (2000) introduced two important distinctions, one between relational and categorical modes of identification and a second between self-identification and external

identification. The distinction between relational and categorical modes of identification depends on someone identifying oneself by positioning in a relation web (e.g. web of kinship, friendship) or by membership in a class of persons sharing the same categorical attribute (e.g. race, ethnicity). The discrepancy between self-identification and external identification is rather related with the process of identifying. Self-identification is the process of identifying oneself vis-à-vis others by defining the own specific characteristics. External identification on the other hand is the process of identifying other people based on their specific characteristics. It is important to note however that external identification also takes place outside oneself, as authoritative institutions, such as the modern state, categorize people based on characteristics as race, gender and nationality. This sociological / psychological definition of identification of Brubaker & Cooper (2000) grounds itself in

understanding identification as a process of assimilating characteristics of the other and

transforming them after the model the other provides (Laplanche & Pontalis, 1973). In other words, people always identify themselves in relation to others and define their own specific characteristics after the identifications of others. An identity is thus eventually constructed out of this process of self- and external identifications based on relational and categorical modes. This understanding is essential for grasping the main concept of this thesis, identification with place, and is therefore discussed at length.

This conceptualization of identification allows moving on towards place identification. To reinforce the framework presented above and present the relation between place and identification as an important concept of it we turn to the study of Easthope (2009). In his study about the relation between mobility, place and identity, Easthope (2009) recognizes the importance of three major schools of thought addressing the issue:

‘The socio-historical approach of Giddens and Bauman that describes a shift over the last century from place-based (prescribed) identities to mobile (achieved) identities; recent

(10)

7

theories in sociology that see identity as mobile, dynamic, hybrid, and relational; and recent theories in geography that consider the relationship between place and identity’(Easthope, 2009: 61).

The thesis adopts the approach described by Easthope (2009), fully recognizing the importance of the socio-historical and sociological approaches, which were conceptualized using the work of Brubaker & Cooper (2000) and Kaiser & Nikiforova (2006), and expanding on the human

geographical approach. Within the discipline of human geography several ways of approaching the relation between place and identity are however present. Some authors, such as Cuba & Hummon (1993), use the concept ‘place identity’ and define it as follows ‘place identity can be defined as an

interpretation of self that uses environmental meaning to symbolize or situate identity’ (p. 112). This

conceptualization is also adopted by the main school of thought addressing the relation between place and identity, the environmental psychology school. Environmental psychologists for example Uzzel et al. (2002) see ‘place identification’ as something rather static and as a substructure of social identity ‘place identification would reflect membership of a group who are defined by location’ (p. 29). From a different, critical geopolitical perspective, it can however be argued that these definitions of ‘place identity’ and ‘place identification’ go by the mutual constitution of place and identity (e.g. Valentine et al., 2008) and regard the concept as too static and too much based on a geographic location.

The thesis adopts instead the approach of Qian et al. (2012). In this regard ‘place identification’ is seen as linked with many trajectories and geographies both local and non-local in ‘a dichotomous

discursive production’ (Qian et al., p. 906). This conceptualization can be further illustrated using

Doreen Massey’s notion of a ‘progressive sense of place’. By seeing places as processes, Massey (1994) conceptualizes places by considering the system of connections and relations which tie them together. Furthermore, regarding identification with places Massey argues against the persistent identification of ‘community’ with place ‘communities can exist without being at the same place

while single 'communities' in the sense of coherent social groups are probably also quite rare’ (1994:

153). As a result the thesis adopts the suggestion of Kaiser & Nikiforova (2009) to use ‘identification’ instead of ‘identity’ to be able to capture the complex process of identifying with a place. In this light the concept of ‘place identification’ is conceptualized using the points raised by Massey (1994), Valentine et al. (2008) and Qian et al. (2012). An own conceptualization, grounded in the work of the authors mentioned above, of the concept can be as follows: the continuous process of local and non-local social interaction which allows people to identify themselves with several places on several scale levels. To operationalize this concept, the focus will be on the local and non-local

identifications with places. Expected is after all, to speak with Paasi (1996) that ‘bounded places are

turning into spaces of interaction where local identities are constructed of material and symbolic resources that may well not be local in their origin’ (p. 5).

1.2 Language use and place construction

The new understanding of place, being regarded as spaces of interaction instead of bounded places, allows previously neglected symbolic and socio-cultural factors such as language (Tuan, 1991) to be finally recognized as significant influences for place construction. As Paasi (1996) noted, it is the role of language and discourse, the social construction, which is important to analyse to be able to grasp the changing geographies of spatial demarcations and boundaries. As rightfully displayed by for instance Knox (2001) in the case of the Scottish North-East, language is more than only a

(11)

8

representation of a linguistic practice. Instead language has a performative function and constructs both spatial entities and cultures. This is also highlighted in the recent work of Kraus (2011) who adequately described the role of language in the breakdown of the old multinational empires and the making of new nation-states. Language thus, seen in the geographical sense, is an important institutional component of place construction and is both consciously and unconsciously used to recreate places.

While language use is interesting in all instances, it is especially in urban settings as Kraus (2011) notes that the use of languages can be taken as a telling indicator of sweeping processes of social and political change. This especially because the number of used languages, the linguistic diversity, is in urban environments in most occasions higher than in rural areas. The linguistic differentiation in a specific spatial entity, such as a city, does however not develop naturally. Each language is namely severely intertwined with political and moral issues which are pervading the sociolinguistic field and subject to the interests of their bearers’ social position (Irvine & Gall, 2000). We can even speak of a linguistic hegemony as some languages are more important than others within the linguistic field of a spatial entity. One of the trends currently perpetrating the linguistic hegemony of many spatial entities is the growing role of the English language. English is, as for instance Kraus (2011) notes, slowly developing as the regular means of communication at the higher levels of society. This means that, in many cities, such as Helsinki, one of the cities Kraus analysed, English is displacing the local vernacular in elite-dominated contexts. This trend, the growing role of English, is however quite recent and within academic circles no conclusion has yet been settled about the desirability of this trend (Johnson, 2009; Kushner, 2003). The analysis of English within an urban setting, in which the processes of social and political change are amplified, is then also the focal point of this thesis. The influence of language on the construction of places as well as the importance of analysing the recent trend of English’ growing role have been explained above but it has not yet been mentioned

how the use of language will actually be measured. ‘Language use’ is a commonly used notion and

yet it is a concept which is difficult to define precisely. Using a language is a more extensive concept then simply speaking a language as it also involves the use of a language in other manners, such as writing and reading. Within human geography, a large part of the research on language is dedicated to the analysis of discourses in which oral and written speeches are examined to get to their political meaning. Besides, a lot of other research projects concerning language use are dedicated to

linguistics – the research on the changes in words, dialects and the structure of language itself when people with a different linguistic background come together (Valentine et al., 2008). During this research project, the interest does however not lay with either the analysis of discourses or linguistic analysis. Instead, the focus is on the role language plays in the ways inhabitants of Amsterdam construct their identification with their home environment.

This approach follows earlier work within human geography by Valentine et al. (2008). The authors noted about their research project ‘we explore the role of language in connecting or disconnecting

young people from others and/or places, the role of language as a situated practice in (re)making identities in local contexts and the possibility that language can change the way that spaces are ordered’ (p.376). In the light of the approach of Valentine et al. (2008) this research project will

extend the investigation of the role of language to the identification of inhabitants of Amsterdam to their home environment, in which the relation between language use and the organization of spaces is based on the earlier introduced ‘new’ understanding of spaces (Massey, 1994). To do so language

(12)

9

use is divided in four types of use which are derived from previous work on language use in the Netherlands (Edwards, 2016). The four types used in Edwards (2016) recent book to operationalize language use, writing, reading, listening and speaking, are also adopted to operationalize the concept throughout this thesis. This conceptualization of the influence of language on the construction of places allows moving on towards the actual focal point of this thesis, the relation between language use and place identification.

1.3 Language use and identification with place

The influence of using a specific language, made up out of the four categories of Edwards (2016), on the identification with place lays at the heart of this thesis. A relation with is interesting because, as Kramsch (1998) adequately noted, ‘language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social

lives, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways’ (p.3). The influence of language on

several aspects of live has however been severely underestimated in the past. Only recently language was introduced on the agenda as an interesting subject for analysis. As such the influence of language on the identification with place has not yet been critically analysed within human geography. Previous research, for instance the aforementioned research project of Valentine et al. (2008), rather focused on the influence of language use on identity formation. The same relation was the focus of another research project (Malia Kana’iapuni & Liebler, 2005) in which language use was a variable of racial identification. This while in most research projects on the identification with place within the school of environmental psychology such as Uzzell et al. (2002) language is not even mentioned once. This research project thus introduces language use to the agenda as an influential factor for the identification with place, breaking down the boundaries set by environmental

psychologists around their operationalization of place identification.

To analyse the relation it is assumed that places are the ‘spaces of interaction’ introduced by Paasi (1996) and thus constructed out of a different networks of social interaction in all instances. While language use is recognized as an important element of this social interaction this does not mean that it is the only important element. Nonetheless, the recognition leads to the assumption that using a language does influence the identification of a person with the local scale level, in this regard Amsterdam.

In the light of the framework introduced by Pennycook (2010) in her book Language as a Local

Practice, taking locality seriously allows engaging with the ideas of space and place but also ensures

that some common assumptions about language no longer hold. As Pennycook (2010) notes

‘Considering language as a local practice is to view language as an activity rather than a structure, as something we do rather than a system we draw on, as a material part of social and cultural life rather than an abstract entity’ (p. 1). This framework fits within the dynamic understanding of

identification (Kaiser & Nikiforova, 2000) and allows to critically engage with the influence of language on identification with the local scale level. The local however cannot be understood separately from the non-local in this age of globalization and the analysis will then also be twofold, local and non-local. Thus allowing to rightfully grasp the influence of language on identification with the local scale level without passing by the non-local influence. Having conceptualized the relation between the main concepts of this thesis, place identification and language use the next step is to contextualize this relation by considering the perception of language use and individual

(13)

10 1.4 Perception of language use in Amsterdam

The first contextual category influencing place identification is the perception of language use in Amsterdam. As Irvine & Gall (2000) note ‘identifying a language at a specific place does presuppose

a boundary to other languages and places with which it contrasts in some larger sociolinguistic field’

(p. 35). A language never stands on itself in a linguistic field and a linguistic hegemony is present in each spatial entity. The perception formed of the other languages in the linguistic field of that entity depends on the ‘language ideology’ of a person. Irvine & Gall (2000) define ‘language ideology’ as ‘the ideas with which participants and observers frame their understanding of linguistic varieties and

map those understandings onto people, events and activities significant to them’ (p. 35). These

ideologies are grounded into political and moral issues pervading the particular sociolinguistic field and subject to the interests of their bearers’ social position (Irvine & Gall, 2000). In other words, a language ideology is the way a person creates a perception of different languages and language speakers in the linguistic field based on his or her social position and the political and moral context. It is this social position as well as the political and moral context which are intrinsically intertwined with place (e.g. Massey, 1994; Paasi, 1996). A persons’ social position is formed by the place where he or she is living and the political and moral context differs from place to place because of its social construction. For this thesis the perception of language use, the different languages and their speakers, is thus analysed in the spatial context of the place Amsterdam. The perception is

influenced by its spatial context but influences it as well in a mutual relation. Only by understanding the context, the perception of the city’s inhabitants regarding language use in the city, an adequate analysis of the influence of language use on place identification can take place.

To operationalize the concept two dimensions are introduced, ‘actual language use’ and ‘attitude towards language use’, together these dimensions capture the entire spectrum of linguistic diversity at the specific place since they measure which languages there are actually used and what the perception of these languages is. The former dimension is concerned with the number of languages used in the spatial entity, the geographic distribution of the languages and the importance of each of the languages. The latter, grounded in the framework of Edwards (2016) and related with the

language ideology concept (Irvine & Gall, 2000), is more related with the attitude towards different languages and concerned with issues as the tolerance towards different languages, the treatment of speakers of several languages and the freedom to use any language you like.

1.5 Individual characteristics

The second contextual category is the individual characteristics of a person, or its identity. Identity is in this regard seen as something different than the main concept identification, which is related to the connection of an individual to a specific place. Identity on the other hand is related with the specific characteristics of an individual, how a person identifies based on his / her individual

characteristics and group memberships (Nario-Redmond et al., 2002). Again the conceptualization of identity adopted in this research project is one which beliefs that the world is socially constructed, following Hall (2002) it can be noted that ‘the concept is not inherent to individuals but rather

socially constructed and dependent on the conditions of the moment’ (Hall, 2002: 37). While different

as identification the concept is also closely interrelated as they are both considered as socially constructed.

(14)

11

Identity is operationalized following the framework of Nario-Redmond et al. (2004) who came up with a divide between social/collective 2_{and personal identity. Collective identity is defined by} Nario-Redmond et al. (2004) as ‘who we are based on our group membership’ while personal identity can be defined as ‘who we are based on our individual characteristics’ (Nario-Redmond et al., 2004: 143). For collective identity the distinction can be made between ascribed group

memberships such as gender, ethnicity and place of origin and social affiliations such as teams, clubs and organizations which a person joined (Nario-Redmond et al., 2004). To operationalize personal identity the framework of Nario-Redmond et al. (2004) is however not used since the characteristics are too sociological (e.g. personality traits and personal attributes) for this research project. Instead the study of Rollero & DePiccoli (2010) is used who introduced age, residence length in the spatial entity and time spent living in other places to measure personal identity.

2_{In the original study of Nario-Redmond et al. (2004) collective and social identity are interchangeable, in the}

(15)

12 2. Research Design and Methods

The following chapter considers the research design and methods employed in this thesis. The chapter starts off by defining the problem at hand after which the research question and

sub-questions are introduced. After this the hypotheses for the thesis are formulated and the conceptual framework and operationalization introduced. Eventually the research design and methods are brought forward.

2.1 Problem Definition and Research Question

The role of English in Amsterdam is growing and it seems that this can severely hamper the linguistic hegemony in Amsterdam. English is an influential language and has the possibility to impact the identification of people with their home environment. Evidence derived from academic literature, popular opinion pieces and informal conversations ensures that discussion exists about the desirability of this trend. Nonetheless no academic research has yet been conducted on the role of the English language in Amsterdam.

The goal of this research project is to fill this vacuum and provide insight into the growing role of English in Amsterdam and its impact on the identification of different groups of inhabitants with their home environment. To accomplish this both quantitative and qualitative research will be employed throughout the project. The research project is relevant in the light of the lack of academic research on this subject (see e.g. Johnson, 2009) as well as the ongoing public debate in the Netherlands about the Anglicisation of the country as a consequence of globalization.

Following the definition of the problem it is possible to define the research question and

sub-questions which will be the main guidelines of this thesis. In this section these will be introduced and briefly explained. The research question is firstly introduced:

“How does the role of English at the individual level in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam influence the identification of inhabitants of Amsterdam with their ‘home’ place?”

The research question is structured around the main relation of this thesis, the relation between language use, represented by the role of English, and place identification, represented by the identification of inhabitants of Amsterdam with their home place. Alongside these elements some other concepts which need brief explanation are individual level, daily life and outside the home in Amsterdam. Individual level directs to language used by individuals, so people themselves, instead of examining a higher scale level such as an organization or a spatial entity. Daily life relates to

language use at a regular day in the life of a person in Amsterdam, which means that questions will be asked about daily situations instead of extraordinaire instances. Thirdly, outside the home in Amsterdam, means that language use outside the home is considered and that language use in the private sphere of the home is thus excluded from the research project. Lastly, it is important to realize that each time that Amsterdam is mentioned this refers to language use and place identification on a wider scale level as the thesis considers not only Amsterdam but also its surroundings municipalities. This conceptualization leads to the following sub-questions:

(16)

13

 What languages are used in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam?

 What is the role of English in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam?

 What is the influence of the role of English in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam on the identification of inhabitants of Amsterdam with the city according to the

questionnaire and semi-structured interviews?

 What are the differences between the three languages groups, inhabitants using Dutch only, inhabitants using English only and inhabitants using both languages, regarding identification with the home place Amsterdam?

The first two sub-questions will be treated in the first chapter of the analysis (Chapter 3) while the third and fourth question will guide the second chapter (Chapter 4) of the analysis.

2.2 Hypothesis

Formulating a hypothesis is difficult since no research has yet been conducted on the relation between language use, in the form of the role of English, and identification with Amsterdam. Nonetheless a hypothesis can be formulated following research at the higher national scale level of the Netherlands by Edwards (2016). In her book Edwards (2016) is quite optimistic about the Dutch identity arguing that ‘The establishment of the EU has eroded national borders, and the Netherlands

has embraced and projects the idea of a cosmopolitan, mobile, outward-looking society’ (p. 171).

While this is partly true it can also be suggested that the cosmopolitan idea mentioned by Edwards is currently being challenged by more protective and nationalistic elements. This especially after the start of the European ‘refugee crisis’. The growing nationalistic elements are accompanied by the resistance in the city against the ever increasing amount of tourists visiting the city who are indeed predominantly using English (see for example Middendorp, 2015).

The research project thus takes places in a dynamic time period and it can indeed be expected that the role of English is regarded negatively by inhabitants who are only able to use Dutch. This group might identify weaker with the city as a consequence of the growing role. On the other hand will the role of English for inhabitants which are already able to use English, the English only and bilingual groups, have a positive influence. For these groups it is convenient that English is getting more important in the city and they do not feel threatened by the growth as it could be the case for the Dutch group. The expectation is that the influence is the strongest for the bilingual group. The group that is only able to use English will probably still feel out of place because of the remaining

importance of the native language of the country.

2.3 Conceptual Framework

The earlier introduced relation between language use and place identification can be used to formulate the conceptual framework on which the thesis is based. Place identification is regarded as the dependent variable and language use, represented by the role of English, as the independent variable. Considering language use, ‘using’ consists of various components namely reading, speaking, listening and writing which are the most common language skills and also used in the book of

Edwards (2016). These components are deployed to examine the influence of English and Dutch in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam. The usage of other languages than English and Dutch is examined differently because analysing other languages is not the main aim of this thesis. The usage of these other languages is therefore instead analysed by looking at the meaning inhabitants using other languages than English and Dutch attach to their additional languages. The relation

(17)

14

between the independent and dependent variables evolves in the context of the place Amsterdam and the perception of language use in Amsterdam which is conceptualized using the ‘attitude towards language use’ and the ‘actual language use’ dimensions. The individual characteristics are the other contextual category and conceptualized using Nario-Redmond et al. (2004) framework consisting of the collective and personal identity dimensions. The personal identity dimension is in this regard reworked according to more human geographical personal characteristics. The

framework is displayed in Figure 1. The figure shows the dependent variable on the right,

independent variables on the left and contextual variables on the top and bottom. The arrows depict the direction of the relation between the variables.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework Thesis

2.4 Operationalization

The core concepts which need to be operationalized are as follows: place identification, using Dutch, using English, using other languages, perception of language use in Amsterdam and individual characteristics. Two different operationalisations are made relating to the different types of research methods, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, which are deployed in the thesis. The indicators for the operationalization of the questionnaire serve as examples of questions and it is evident that the questionnaire was not limited to only these questions. The operationalization of the interviews has a different structure than the one of the questionnaire since the interviews were much less guided by pre-set questions but evolved rather around some interesting themes of the questionnaire as well as an in-depth investigation of the influence of the personal background of the respondent. The two different operationalisations are explained separately at the following pages.

(18)

15

Operationalization Questionnaire

For the operationalization of the questionnaire the main concept place identification is split up in the dimensions identification with the local and identification with the non-local. The indicators are derived from the article of Nanzer (2004), who came up with four statements to measure place identification, but are partly adjusted to give the statements a more geographic orientation. The divide between the local and non-local is made following the new conceptualization of places grounded in the work of, among others, Massey (1994) and Paasi (1996). For two of the three language use concepts, using Dutch and using English, the components of Edwards (2016) are deployed. Using in this regard means the number of times someone uses one of the languages by speaking, writing, listening or reading the language and not the attitude towards one of the

languages. The third language use category, using other languages than Dutch and English, is instead measured by looking at the attitude towards and meaning of the other languages for a respondent. The decision to use a different conceptualization for the other languages group is made because the other languages are not the focal point of this thesis and the interest rather lays at the importance respondents attach to their additional languages. The perception of language use in Amsterdam concept is split up in two different dimensions, one on the actual language use in the city and one on the attitude regarding language use. These dimensions are based on earlier read literature (Edwards, 2016) but the indicators are created by the author. Lastly, the individual characteristics, from which the collective dimension and its indicators are derived from the work of Nario-Redmond et al. (2004) and the personal dimension from the work of Rollero & De Piccoli (2010). The entire

operationalization of the questionnaire, including concepts, dimensions, variables and indicators, is displayed on the following two pages.

(19)

16

Table 1: Operationalization questionnaire

Concept Dimensions Variables Indicators

Place identification

Identification with the local

Connection to Amsterdam

‘I feel connected to Amsterdam’

Made me who I am ‘Living in Amsterdam made me who I am’ Means little/much to

me

‘Amsterdam means very little/very much to me’ Importance ‘Amsterdam is important

to me’

Identification with the non-local

Connection to other places

‘I feel connected to other places’

Made we who I am ‘My experience with other places made me who I am’ Means little/much to

me

‘Other places which I have experienced mean a lot to me’

Importance

‘Having (not) been able to experience other places is important’

Using English in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam

Speaking Number of times speaking English

‘I speak English daily / several times a week etc.’

Reading Reading texts in English ‘I read English texts daily / several times a week etc.’

Listening Listening to conversation

‘I listen to a conversation in English daily / several times a week etc.’

Writing Writing texts ‘I write in English daily, several times a week etc.’

Using Dutch in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam

Speaking Number of times speaking Dutch

‘I speak Dutch daily/ several times a week etc.’

Reading Reading texts in Dutch ‘I read Dutch texts daily/ several times a week etc.’

Listening Listening to conversation

‘I listen to a conversation in Dutch daily / several times a week etc.’

Writing Writing texts ‘I write in Dutch daily / several times a week etc.’

(20)

17

Using other

language(s) in the daily life outside the home in Amsterdam

Importance Importance other language(s)

‘My other language(s) are very important to me’ Chance Chance to speak

‘If I had the chance I would always using my other language(s)’

Meaning Special meaning

‘My other language(s) mean nothing special to me’

Perception of language use in Amsterdam

Actual language use

Which languages are used

‘Which languages are used in Amsterdam in the daily life outside the home?’

Where are language used

‘What is the most and second important

language per city district?’

Attitude towards language use

Tolerance

‘Amsterdam is a tolerant place for using several languages outside the home’

Treatment

‘In Amsterdam any language can be used without being treated differently’

Freedom

‘In Amsterdam you can use any language you like outside the home’

Individual Characteristics

Collective Identity

Ascribed group memberships

Place of origin, gender, ethnicity, family

Social affiliations Teams, clubs, organizations

Personal identity

Age Age of individual

Places lived before

Amount of time an individual lived at other places before coming to Amsterdam

Residence length

Amount of time individual is already living in

(21)

18

Operationalization semi-structured interviews

The operationalization of the semi-structured interviews is not as structured as the

operationalization of the questionnaire and will rather go in depth on the influence of the personal background and experiences of a respondent. Also a comparison will be made between language use in Amsterdam and language use in other places, both within and outside of the Netherlands. Making a comparison is useful to get a better understanding of the specific place under analysis. Besides the comparison with other places an examination of the differences between the city districts in

Amsterdam will also be part of the interviews. Alongside these additional analysis points the interviews will also consider some of the most surprising findings of the questionnaire since the interviews follow up the questionnaire in a sequential design. The item lists, one in Dutch and one in English, used for the interviews are attached to the thesis in Appendix 1. The item lists should however not be considered as strict topic lists but rather as lists with themes around which the conversation should evolve, leaving a lot of room to adjust according to the flow of the conversation.

2.5 Research Strategy and Units of Analysis

To a large extent, deductive and inductive strategies are possibly better thought of as tendencies rather than as a hard-and-fast distinction (Bryman, 2008). Nonetheless the deductive strategy is dominant in the project as theory was used to come up with hypotheses. Regarding epistemological and ontological considerations it is evident that the study is grounded in an interpretive

epistemological doctrine and occupies a constructionist ontological position. Bryman (2008) noted that interpretivism respects the differences between people and the objects of the natural sciences and therefore requires the social scientist to grasp the subjective meaning of social action. This doctrine is closely associated with the socio-cultural understanding of the core concepts of the project. This socio-cultural understanding can also be related with a constructionist ontological position, social phenomena and their meanings are continually being accomplished by social actors (Bryman, 2008). These positions also align with the direction in political geography called critical political geography with which the author associates himself.

For the thesis a mixed-methods approach is adopted in which both qualitative and quantitative methods are deployed. The units of analysis for the thesis are the inhabitants of Amsterdam or its surroundings who are over 18 years old. Inhabitants above 18, the age at which you become adult according to Dutch law, were targeted because people below 18 years old might not know enough to formulate an opinion or do not have enough experience with the situation. With surroundings of Amsterdam all neighbouring municipalities of Amsterdam are considered. Inhabitants living in these municipalities can also participate in the research project. The neighbouring municipalities are currently (2016) the following: Zaanstad, Oostzaan, Landsmeer, Waterland, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel, Amstelveen, Haarlemmermeer and Haarlemmerliede. The surroundings of Amsterdam are included in the analysis because there is a big group of people who live just across the municipal borders but work or frequently visit Amsterdam and by doing so use or experience using English on a regular basis. Also the expectation is that there are differences between the, urban, suburban and rural municipalities. The expectation is for instance that people living in other municipalities might have a different opinion than those living in Amsterdam, especially when they never visit the city. Also differences are expected between rural municipalities such as Landsmeer and suburban

municipalities as Zaanstad and Amstelveen. In the first chapter of the analysis these expectations will be further investigated.

(22)

19

The focus on inhabitants as units of analysis was made since inhabitants know more about the situation in the city because they experience it on a daily basis. The experience of people who spend less time in the city or are merely visiting might be based on only a few experiences and therefore not give an adequate overview of the situation. This is as well the reason for choosing only people who are living in Amsterdam for the semi-structured interviews. These people have much more daily experience with English than inhabitants living in other municipalities and are thus better able to sketch the feelings they have when hearing that English is being used or when using English themselves.

The entire group of units of analysis, all inhabitants of Amsterdam and its surrounding municipalities, is beforehand already divided into three groups, inhabitants who are using Dutch only, using both English and Dutch or using English only. This thus means that only inhabitants that use either Dutch or English, during their daily life outside the home in Amsterdam or its surroundings, are able to participate in the research project. This excludes a small group of people, for instance refugees who just immigrated to the Netherlands and are not able to use a bit of Dutch or English. Nonetheless the large majority is able to take part in the project since at least one of the two languages is assumed to be used by nearly everyone. As mentioned in the hypothesis section the expectations regarding the relation between language use and place identification are different for each of the groups and by splitting them up beforehand it is easier to analyse the differences. Thus, the three prerequisites to take part in the research project are the following: (1) a person is living in Amsterdam or one of the nine surrounding municipalities, (2) a person is older than 18 and (3) a person is using Dutch, English or both languages during his or her daily life outside the home. The units of analysis of this project

are thus all inhabitants of Amsterdam and the nine surrounding municipalities older than 18 and using one or both of the languages.

2.6 Data Collection and Methods of Analysis

As briefly mentioned before both quantitative and qualitative research methods are deployed in the thesis. The mixed-methods approach is as Creswell & Plano Clark (2011) theorize embedded in an explanatory sequential design in which the collection and analysis of quantitative data is prioritized and followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data. The quantitative part consists of an online self-completion questionnaire which was available in the online survey program Qualtrics between the 15th of April and the 10th of May of 2016. To avoid that people could fill in the questionnaire several times an Internet Protocol (IP) checker was used. This prevented that people could fill in the questionnaire from the same device several times. The qualitative part of the research project consists of six semi-structured interviews all conducted between the 23th of May and the 3rd of June. The interviews were conducted with respondents who also took part in the online questionnaire. The following paragraphs will discuss the preparation and distribution of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as well as a brief description of the eventual

quantitative and qualitative data sets.

2.6.1 The Questionnaire: distribution

The questionnaire for the quantitative part of the analysis is a self-completion questionnaire (Bryman, 2008) consisting of predominantly closed questions. Since the questionnaire was posted online and available to all possible respondents the approach could originally be seen as random sampling. However, seen the distribution techniques deployed the sampling method was eventually not totally random but rather a kind of convenient sampling. The sample technique can be regarded

(23)

20

as convenient because all people who were approached to fill in the questionnaire were selected because of the convenient (digital) access and proximity to these people. While some efforts were made to come to a reliable sample, for example by specific targeting of groups that were

underrepresented in the sample, the eventual group of respondents in not representative for the population. Nonetheless convenient sampling was the preferable option for this research project because of the limited time span available for the distribution of the questionnaire. It is however important to be constantly aware of the bias caused by the convenient sampling technique and realize that the results cannot easily be generalized to the entire population.

To post the questionnaire online the distribution program Qualtrics was employed for which a license was provided by the University of Amsterdam. Two versions of the questionnaire, one in Dutch and one in English, were constructed in Qualtrics. Before making the questionnaire available to the wider public a pilot study was conducted under a group of six friends with a background in human geography. Three of them filled in the questionnaire in English and three of them in Dutch. Their feedback was processed before the eventual questionnaire was published online. In both versions the order of the questions as well as the way the questions were asked was similar. To make sure that the Dutch and English versions actually asked the same thing at each question the two separate versions were thoroughly compared before publishing the final version online. By doing so a possible bias in the answers was prevented. The eventual questionnaire consisted of 36 questions in various formats such as multiple choice questions and matrix tables. Additional explanation and introduction pieces of texts were also present in both versions. To ensure that everybody who participated belonged to the targeted group of respondents a ‘control question’ was asked at the beginning of the questionnaire. The control question was as follows ‘I read the

guidelines of this research project and am older than 18 and live in Amsterdam or its direct surroundings’. This question was added to make sure that only respondents suitable for the

research project participated in the questionnaire. Before going in depth about the data set which was the result of the online questionnaire it is however important to reflect further on the

distribution of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire was only available online and predominantly distributed on social media channels and forums. When using the social media channels, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, no specific group of people was targeted, unless a post was made in a specific Facebook group such as a group for expats living in Amsterdam. The four forums were however used to target a specific group, expats, which was done because of the limited number of internationals between my personal contacts. Alongside the social media and forums some other, more direct, distribution methods were used. These direct methods are for instance directly asking people to fill in the questionnaire, sending personal messages and e-mails and distributing flyers in the mailboxes of my student accommodation. For some of the methods the distribution was also done by other people, for example when they shared my message on Facebook or Twitter. Also my parents send e-mails to their personal contacts to distribute the questionnaire. In Table 2 the targeted group of people for a specific channel and the person(s) who distributed the questionnaire for that specific channel are mentioned. All messages on the channels were either in Dutch, English or both languages depending on the situation. The language of distribution is also mentioned in Table 2. If available a link of the distribution post is added in the table as well. The distribution of the questionnaire took place between the 15th of April and the 8th of May 2016 which means that the last responses were

(24)

21

received two days after the active distribution ended. The English version of the questionnaire is attached to the thesis in Appendix 2.

Table 2: Distribution channels and details of distribution questionnaire

Channel Way(s) of

Distribution Link(s) (if available)

Targeted Group Distributed by? Facebook (NL & EN) Own Facebookpage Facebookpages of Friends and organizations Facebookgroups Facebook Messenger https://www.facebook.com/lars.ankum https://www.facebook.com/groups/wenckehof https://www.facebook.com/groups/expatrepu blic/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/158549344 481737/ https://www.facebook.com/StudentHubGSSS/ https://www.facebook.com/almanaksarphati Entire population / expats Author and people who shared links. Twitter (NL & EN)

Own tweets and

retweets https://twitter.com/LarsAnkum Entire population Author and people who retweeted Instagram (NL & EN) Own messages and likes of others https://www.instagram.com/llars94/ Entire population Author and people who liked Whatsapp (NL

& EN) Messages Personal messages

Personal contacts Author Mail (NL & EN) Mails to Gmail contacts by me and my parents ankumlars@gmail.com / a.ankum@upcmail.nl / margotschilp@upcmail.nl Non-students Author and parents Oral Distribution (NL &EN) Talking with

people Personal contact

Personal contacts Author and friends Meetup (EN) Forums http://www.meetup.com/Amsterdam- Language-Cafe/messages/boards/thread/49792862 http://www.meetup.com/dutch-160/messages/boards/thread/49792824 Expats Author Internations (EN) Forum https://www.internations.org/forum/show_po st/1954279#1954279 Expats Author

Expatica (EN) Forum

http://community.expatica.com/forums/topic/

214174/english-and-dutch-in-amsterdam-help-wanted-for-master-thesis Expats Author

IAmExpat

(EN) Forum

http://www.iamexpat.nl/forum?r=viewtopic.ph

p?id=2685 Expats Author

Flyers with QR-Code (NL & EN)

In mailboxes Personal distribution at my student

(25)

22

2.6.2 The Questionnaire: description of the data set

Eventually 298 people started with the questionnaire from which 208 completed it, this resulted in a ‘completion rate’ of 70 percent. When analysing the drop-out, the moment at which a respondent dropped out of the questionnaire, no specific moment in the questionnaire at which a lot of respondents dropped out could be found. This could indicate that respondents just dropped out because they thought the questions were boring or that they decided to do other things instead. The 36 original questions of the questionnaire were eventually exported from Qualtrics to an Excel file which could be used in the statistical analysis program Stata. The choice for Stata instead of other popular statistical programs such as SPSS was made for practical reasons. A license for Stata was still available on the laptop of the author following a previous course.

The Excel file imported in Stata however needed some transformations before it was suitable for further analysis. For each of the 36 questions separate variables were present for the Dutch and English versions which needed to be combined into one ‘final’ variable per question or question statement. These variables are called ‘final’ because they represent the combined results of the two versions. After combining the Dutch and English versions the missing values had to be excluded from the ‘final’ variables. The missing values represent the number of respondents who did not formulate an answer to a question or question statement. Excluding the missing values is necessary because the number of missing values was quite high for some of the questions. When keeping the missing values the correlations and tabulations would thus be severely affected by the high number of missing values. The number of missings however differed per question. For some questions the number might be higher than 90, which represents the total number of respondents who did not completely finish the questionnaire (298 -208 = 90). For instance, respondents who were only speaking Dutch did not have to formulate answers to the questions about the usage of English. On the other hand, some ‘final’ variables know a number lower than 90 because some respondents dropped out at a later stage of the questionnaire and still formulated answers to earlier questions. After combining the Dutch and English versions and excluding the missing values the data set of the questionnaire consisted of 87 ‘final variables’. The entire data set, also including the ‘transformed variables’ used for the analysis and described in that part of the thesis, is added in Appendix 3. The label ‘final’ will also be used later in the thesis when talking about the combined results of the two versions with excluded missing values. The label ‘transformed’ represents the variables on which already transformations have been conducted. Now that the distribution and data set of the quantitative part of the research project have been explained the next step is to describe the qualitative part of the research project.

2.6.3 The Semi-structured Interviews: distribution and data set description

The semi-structured interviews follow up the questionnaire in the research design and were mainly used to take the personal background of the respondents into account. However, the aim was as well to explain some interesting findings of the questionnaire. To reach out to possible interviewees for the interviews a question was added to the questionnaire which asked if respondents were willing to participate in further research on the subject. If so, the possible interviewees could leave their e-mail address or telephone number so that it was possible to reach out to them. In total 45 of the 208 respondents that completed the questionnaire left either their telephone number or e-mail address which seemed quite a reasonable number to find interviewees for the second cycle of research.

The role of English in Amsterdam : an analysis of the relation between language use and place identification

The Role of English in Amsterdam

An Analysis of the Relation between Language Use

and Place Identification

Masterthesis

L.A. Ankum

This page intentionally

left blank

The Role of English in Amsterdam

An Analysis of the Relation between Language Use

and Place Identification

1

Preface

2

Abstract

3

Table of Contents

4

Introduction

5

6

1. Understanding language use and place identification

1.1 Identification with place

7

1.2 Language use and place construction

8

9

1.3 Language use and identification with place

10

1.4 Perception of language use in Amsterdam

1.5 Individual characteristics

11

12

2. Research Design and Methods

2.1 Problem Definition and Research Question

13

2.2 Hypothesis

2.3 Conceptual Framework

14

2.4 Operationalization

15

16

17

18

2.5 Research Strategy and Units of Analysis

19

2.6 Data Collection and Methods of Analysis

20

21

22