This paper is based on two complementary research projects focusing non-dominant variety of languages and policies concerning their education in two different contexts. It provides important insight into the complex issues of linguistic variation and immigrants’ integration into the educational system and in daily life. In Portugal, the Cape Verdean creole spoken in the Lisbon area, and in Canada, the Portuguese spoken by Portuguese immigrants in Montreal. Both studies focus on the dynamic evolution of languages through how they are practised within the two contexts of Language Contact, and the role of the state or power entity, namely Portugal and the province of Quebec in the integration of the two groups. The multidimensional methodological approaches adopted, allowed the observation of speakers’ discourses and representations as they relate to the current status of “their” language as a vehicle for community life. Discourse analysis would consider sociolinguistic aspects such as affective elements, identity processes of construction and integration in the host society alongside culture and social recognition.

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Language contact,Community Language,Minority Languages,Language Policies

This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• Konta bu storia: Patterns of linguistic acculturation among descendants of African immigrants in the Vale da Amoreira