Sabine Little

My research centres around the complexities of notions such as "identity" and "belonging" in the context of multilingualism, and multilingual families. Migration, educational experiences, societal pressures and intergenerational differences all feed into how different family members construct their identity (and how it is constructed for them by society). My research focuses on the languages spoken within the family as a conduit to these constructs. As well as working holistically with families, I am working within formal education contexts to help educators and policy-makers understand underlying complexities of identity and belonging in today's "super-diverse" society.

I convene the UK Literacy Association's Special Interest Group on Multilingualism, and my work led to the creation of a multilingual children's library in Sheffield, in collaboration with Sheffield Libraries. I regularly (and enthusiastically) run public engagement and training events for and with a variety of audiences.

Latest publications:
Little, S. (2020) Whose heritage? What inheritance?: conceptualisingfamily language identities, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23:2,198-212, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2017.1348463 

Little, S. (2019) 'Great Aunt Edna's Vase - Metaphor Use in Working with Heritage Language Families'. The Family Journal, 'DOI: 10.1177/1066480719833417 

Little, S. (2019) '"Is there an app for that?" Exploring games and apps among heritage language families'. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40:3, 218-229. DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2018.1502776