Sacred language acquisition in superdiverse contexts

This article presents and discusses data which reveal the multilingual contexts of contemporary UK mosque schools offering Muslim children liturgical (Qur’anic) literacy acquisition. It contrasts significantly with data collected twenty years earlier from broadly similar contexts. That data, gathered in the years 1998-2001, suggested relatively stable but complex patterns of language use including codeswitching, reading as decoding, memorisation and localised di/triglossia involving both prestigious and vernacular community languages, a sacred language (Classical Arabic) and a majority language, English. Nearly two decades later, findings from similar UK contexts present quite different linguistic profiles with less stable and much greater linguistic diversity, the more widespread – in some cases, the dominant – use of English, and the ever-increasing publication and use of English language and bilingual teaching resources and practices. This article attempts to bring research into liturgical literacy practices in such settings up to date by sharing data drawn from a range of sources gathered recently across a range of mosque schools in a northern city in England.