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This paper is based on an ethnographic research project in an urban neighbourhood of Liverpool. The aim of the study is to build an understanding of the communicative and symbolic roles of languages and literacies in the Liverpool Somali community, which forms part of a Somali diaspora within Britain and beyond. The role of literacy in the Somali community is of particular interest in the context of a vigorous oral tradition and of the relatively recent introduction of a writing system for Somali in 1972. Somali literacy lessons for young girls were observed as part of the research. Focusing particularly on bilingual classroom talk during one of these lessons, the paper discusses the shaping of participants' language practices, in relation on the one hand to their experience of the communicative use of Somali in different social domains, and on the other hand, to different values associated with languages in their repertoire. Data concerning language values have been gathered in the community using interviews and a questionnaire. The paper considers the potential role of Somali literacy – and literacy teaching – in developing the sense of their cultural and linguistic identity which young people have in this community.
