European Language Matters

Bringing together Trudgill's columns for the New European, this collection explores the influence of European language on English.

This book offers an account of what, how and why language matters in academia by providing examples from a wide range of areas in European institutions.

Contributed research papers.

This book provides a non-technical introduction to the study of language by focusing on questions such as: - Where does language come from? - Why don't we all talk the same? - Who needs grammar? Suitable for students with no experience of linguistics, this lively introduction to language approaches will encourage students to think.

Despite the spread of multilingualism, the number of research studies in multilingual contexts is scarce. This book deals with this question by examining would-be teachers' language use and attitudes, as their influence on future generations can be enormous. The use of the same questionnaire and the same methodology allows the reader to compare the results obtained in different European bilingual contexts, where the presence of diverse foreign languages leads to a situation in which several languages are in contact.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and its Companion Volume have established themselves as an indispensable reference point for all aspects of second and foreign language education. This book discusses the impact of the CEFR on curricula, teaching/learning and assessment in a wide range of educational contexts, identifies challenges posed by the Companion Volume and sheds light on areas that require further research and development. Particular attention is paid to three features of the two documents: their action-oriented approach, their focus on plurilingualism, and the potential of their scales and descriptors to support the alignment of curricula, teaching/learning and assessment. The book suggests a way forward for future engagement with the CEFR, taking account of new developments in applied linguistics and related disciplines.

"This book addresses a timely and very important topic: language in education. Language, apparently, is a very tricky business. On the one hand, everyone uses language, and virtually everyone has strong views about language. In the educational domain this seems to be especially true. Language is not merely an intrinsic component of the educational process as the medium of instruction in the classroom, but also serves as the mediator of social reality for students and teachers alike. It plays a central role in articulating and conveying not only social, cultural and empirical ideas, but ideological concepts as well. It is also used to make judgments about the speaker, not to mention its role in maintaining differential power relations. And yet, in spite of this, the role of language is not sufficiently recognized in classroom practice much of the time. Nor is language, except in fairly narrow ways, really an especially central part of the curriculum, in spite of its incredible importance. To be sure, we do spend a great deal of time and money attempting to teach students to read and write (that is, to provide them with basic literacy skills), and we provide nominal support for foreign language education programs. We also provide limited support for children coming to school who do not speak English. What we do not do, though, is to recognize the absolute centrality of language knowledge and language use for the educated person. This book seeks to address these issues from the broad perspective of critical pedagogy.

Language constitutes a very sensitive nexus between the concepts of territory and community. Though a fundamental issue in contemporary societies, it remains relatively unaddressed by political scientists. This book promotes a better understanding of the connection between the concepts of identity, territory and language in the context of an enlarged Europe. We propose a portrait of the actual place of regional languages in European politics. Ethno-linguistic mobilisations have occurred in very different contexts, and their interpretation needs to take into account varying configurations and conditions of success that we label as situational, institutional, and socio-political. The book combines empirical case studies drawn from Spain, the UK, Poland, France, Ireland and Canada with comparative, conceptual and theoretical insights into linguistic uniformity and diversity. The various chapters in the book go beyond description. The originality of the work is to bridge the institutionalisation of language regimes, the sociological analysis of languages rights’ movements, and the normative underpinnings that ought to underpin language claims. This book was published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.