Multilingualism In Spain

This text contributes to the description of languages and communities - in particular those which have never been described - and up-dating the available data on the officially recognised languages of Spain.

This handbook is unique in its focus on bilingual theories, issues on the teaching of bilinguals, bilingual policies abroad, and current research on bilinguals as all of this related in some way to the Spanish-speaking world. There is currently no other book like it available, despite the growing number of courses teaching Spanish Bilingualism. It is anticipated that this new handbook will be of great interest to linguists, sociolinguists, language acquisitionists, as well as teachers who deal with topics relating to bilingualism as it relates to Spanish speakers around the world. Though work has been done looking at bilingualism and multilingualism, this book provides a valuable addition that deals with an area where a comprehensive work such as this is indeed lacking.

This book examines the main issues in bilingual and multilingual language acquisition through children and youngsters growing up in todays multicultural Spain, where four official languages and other new languages are used. The studies cover phonetics, g

Sociolinguists have been pursuing connections between language and identity for several decades. But how are language and identity related in bilingualism and multilingualism? Mobilizing the most current methodology, this collection presents new research on language identity and bilingualism in three regions where Spanish coexists with other languages. The cases are Spanish-English contact in the United States, Spanish-indigenous language contact in Latin America, and Spanish-regional language contact in Spain. This is the first comparativist book to examine language and identity construction among bi- or multilingual speakers while keeping one of the languages constant. The sociolinguistic standing of Spanish varies among the three regions depending whether or not it is a language of prestige. Comparisons therefore afford a strong constructivist perspective on how linguistic ideologies affect bi/multilingual identity formation.

Medium-sized language communities face competition between local and global languages such as Spanish, Russian, French and, above all, English. The various regions of Spain where Catalan is spoken, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Lithuania show how their medium-sized languages (a term used to distinguish them as much from minority codes as from more widely-spoken codes) coexist alongside or struggle with their big brothers in multilingual families. This comparative analysis offers unique insight into language contact in present-day Europe.

This book brings together current research by leading international scholars on the often contentious nature of language policies and their practical outcomes in North America, Australia and Europe. It presents a range of perspectives from which to engage with a variety of pressing issues raised by multilingualism, multiculturalism, immigration, exclusion, and identity. A recurrent theme is that of tension and conflict: between uniformity and diversity, between official policies and real day-to-day life experiences, but also between policies in schools and the corporate world and their implementation. Several chapters present research about language policy issues that has previously not been fully or easily available to an English-language audience. Many of the chapters also provide up-to-date analyses of language policy issues in particular regions or countries, focusing on recent developments.

This book is about linguistic diversity and language revitalisation in Galicia, one of the autochthonous regions of Spain. By means of historical, linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, it examines societal language use and institutional support in order to determine the role of the Galician language and loyalty and prestige factors, in expressions of Galician ethnic identity.