International Research On Multilingualism Breaking With The Monolingual Perspective

This volume contributes to a better understanding of both psycho- and sociolinguistic levels of multilingualism and their interplay in development and use. The chapters stem from an international group of specialists in multilingualism with chapters from Austria, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and the United States. The chapters provide an update on research on third language acquisition and multilingualism, and pay particular attention to new research concepts and the exploration of contact phenomena such as transfer and language learning strategies in diverse language contact scenarios. Concepts covered include dominant language constellations, mother tongue, germination factors and communicative competence in national contexts. Multilingual use as described and applied in the volume aims at demonstrating and identifying current and future challenges for research on third language acquisition and multilingualism. The third languages in focus include widely and less widely used official, minority and migrant languages in instructed and/or natural contexts, including Albanian, Arabic, Basque, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Vietnamese, thereby mapping a high variety of language constellations.

This book promotes linguistically responsive foreign language teaching practices in multilingual contexts by facilitating a dialogue between teachers and researchers. It advances a discussion of how to connect the acquisition of subsequent foreign languages with previous language knowledge to create culturally and linguistically inclusive foreign language classrooms, and how to strengthen the connection between research on multilingualism and foreign language teaching practice. The chapters present new approaches to foreign language instruction in multilingual settings, many of them forged in collaboration between foreign language teachers and researchers of multilingualism. The authors report findings of classroom-based research, including case studies and action research on topics such as the functions and applications of translanguaging in the foreign language classroom, the role of learners’ own languages in teaching additional languages, linguistically and culturally inclusive foreign language pedagogies, and teacher and learner attitudes to multilingual teaching approaches.

Multilingualism, multiculturalism, and internationalization in higher education is a contemporary reality worldwide. Because of the importance of multilingualism in learning policy, special professional and education training should be provided both to teachers and students. Multilingual education can promote linguistic and cultural diversity, inclusion, and social development. The Handbook of Research on Multilingual and Multicultural Perspectives on Higher Education and Implications for Teaching focuses on both top-down and bottom-up perspectives on multilingual and multicultural education based on conceptual and empirical studies. This book provides evidence in support of sustainable multilingualism and multiculturalism in higher education. Covering topics such as dialectic teaching, multilingual classrooms, and teacher education, this major reference work is an essential resource for pre-service teachers, educators of higher education, language policy experts, university administration, scholars, linguists, researchers, and academicians.

This book promotes the development of nontraditional literacies in adult education, especially as these critical literacies relate to global citizenship, equity, and social justice. As this edited collection argues, a rapidly changing global environment and proliferation of new media technologies have greatly expanded the kinds of literacies that one requires in order to be an engaged global citizen. It is imperative for adult educators and learners to understand systems, organizations, and relationships that influence our lives as citizens of the world. By compiling a comprehensive list of foundational, sociocultural, technological and informational, psychosocial and environmental, and social justice literacies, this volume offers readers theoretical foundations, practical strategies, and additional resources.

Childhood multilingualism has become a norm rather than an exception. This is the first handbook to survey state-of-the-art research on the uniqueness of early multilingual development in children growing up with more than two languages in contact. It provides in-depth accounts of the complexity and dynamics of early multilingualism by internationally renowned scholars who have researched typologically different languages in different continents. Chapters are divided into six thematic areas, following the trajectory, environment and conditions underlying the incipient and early stages of multilingual children's language development. The many facets of childhood multilingualism are approached from a range of perspectives, showcasing not only the challenges of multilingual education and child-rearing but also the richness in linguistic and cognitive development of these children from infancy to early schooling. It is essential reading for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of the multiple aspects of multilingualism, seen through the unique prism of children.

This book presents a new extended framework for the study of early multicompetence. It proposes a concept of multilingual competences as a valuable educational target, and a view of the multilingual learner as a competent language user. The thematic focus is on multilingual skill development in primary schoolers in the trilingual province of South Tyrol, northern Italy. A wide range of topics pertaining to multicompetence building and the special affordances of multilingual pedagogy are explored. Key concepts like language proficiency, native-speakerism, or monolingual classroom bias are subjected to critical analysis.

The book is of interest to scholars of multilingualism, language teachers, researchers, and administrators who are developing policies on teaching English and promoting multilingualism. Given its scope, this edited collection provides an overview of how multilingualism is transforming the practice of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in diverse contexts around the world. It serves as a platform for discussions related to policy enactment where TESOL and multilingualism are viewed as collaborative endeavours and approaches the topic from three different angles. The first section of the book provides critical examinations of previous initiatives and accomplishments in the area of language policy development and implementation. The second section describes current projects and initiatives intended to expand and strengthen the field of TESOL while providing space for local and indigenous languages to develop. The third and last part of the book highlights policy development areas that need special consideration in order to develop a form of TESOL that builds on and contributes to multilingualism.

The notion of the native speaker and its undertones of ultimate language competence, language ownership and social status has been problematized by various researchers, arguing that the ensuing monolingual norms and assumptions are flawed or inequitable in a global super-diverse world. However, such norms are still ubiquitous in educational, institutional and social settings, in political structures and in research paradigms. This collection offers voices from various contexts and corners of the world and further challenges the native speaker construct adopting poststructuralist and postcolonial perspectives. It includes conceptual, methodological, educational and practice-oriented contributions. Topics span language minorities, intercomprehension, plurilingualism and pluriculturalism, translanguaging, teacher education, new speakers, language background profiling, heritage languages, and learner identity, among others. Collectively, the authors paint the portrait of the "changing face of the native speaker" while also strengthening a new global agenda in multilingualism and social justice. These diverse and interconnected contributions are meant to inspire researchers, university students, educators, policy makers and beyond.