Search results for "Multilingual"
showing 10 items of 229 documents
Putting resources into practice: a nexus analysis of knowledge mobilisation activities in language research and multilingual communities
2014
Recent demand within the academy for language research that bridges different stakeholders renders the social relevance of research a factor in the academic competition for research funds [Curry, M. J., & Lillis, T. (2013). Introduction to the thematic issue: Participating in academic publishing – consequences of linguistic policies and practices. Language Policy, 12, 209–213]. This calls for new means and innovations for designing and carrying out knowledge mobilisation activities, with consequences concerning where, how and with whom this type of undertaking can or should be done. In this paper we, a team of (multilingual) researchers working within the fields of multilingualism, minority…
SOCIAL INTERACTION IN CONTEXT OF MULTILINGUALISM: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
2015
During the last decade, research interest in multilingualism has increased immensely. As a result, the present paper explores certain aspects of growing understanding and commitment to the linguistic diversity, which are considered to be some of the factors that underlie a successful interaction in a multilingual society nowadays. The theoretical framework of the study is designed considering the latest contributions of sociolinguistic ethnography in the area of multilingualism, relating the notion of multilingualism to the notion of multicompetence. The current situation demonstrates that multilingualism having developed from sociolinguistically-bound research distinguishes its own social,…
A language socialisation perspective on Swedish immersion in Finland : Students, teachers, and parents as key actors
2022
Abstract This retrospective review applies a language socialisation perspective in examining the findings of a four-year research project on Swedish immersion in Finland. Findings from nine sub-studies within the project are reported with a point-of-view from three key actors’ (teachers, students, and parents) language socialisation processes. Results show that a special feature of immersion teacher socialisation is its continuous attention toward the additive multilingual nature of immersion education, which requires sustained attention to multilingual language use and development. Students in Swedish immersion are socialised into the use of multiple languages in school and act as socialis…
¿Qué perspectivas para las lenguas regionales de Francia?
2014
Nous étudions, dans ce travail, la situation de langues en contact en France et les politiques linguistiques qui ont été menées depuis que le français a été institué langue officielle du pays, afin de déterminer les perspectives de reconnaissance nationale qui existent pour les autres langues, encore sans statut officiel. Le traitement exclusivement national qu’elles ont reçu jusqu’à la fin du XXe siècle se heurte aujourd’hui à la position de défense et de protection des langues régionales de l’Union Européenne. Nous analyserons les deux approches, nationale et européenne, avant de conclure en termes d’attentes pour ces langues minoritaires. We study in this work the situation of the langua…
Multimodal literacy practices in the indigenous Sámi classroom: Children navigating in a complex multilingual setting.
2013
This article explores multimodal literacy practices in a transforming multilingual context of an indigenous and endangered Sami language classroom. Looking at literacy practices as embedded in a complex and shifting terrain of language ideologies, language norms, and individual experiences and attitudes, we examined how multilingual Sami children navigate and appropriate meaning-making resources available for them while designing their own picture books. We adopted a discourse ethnographic approach to analyse these multimodal picture books and found three different but interrelated orientations to the making of the books, each organising and valuing multimodal resources in his or her own wa…
Constructions of bilingualism in Finnish Government programmes and a newspaper discussion site debate
2014
The concept of bilingualism in Finnish political discourse is predominantly used in the meaning of official or state bilingualism, focussing on the two constitutionally defined ‘national languages’; i.e. Finnish and Swedish. Legally, both Finnish and Swedish speakers have a right for public services, such as schooling or health care, in their first language. On the other hand, several language ideological debates have taken place in recent years, challenging especially the status of Swedish in administration and education. These debates have reshaped the discourses on what counts as bilingualism. This paper analyses on one hand the historical discursive development of the “official will” pr…
Frozen actions in the Arctic linguistic landscape: a nexus analysis of language processes in visual space
2011
Abstract This article examines the linguistic landscape (LL) of seven villages above the Arctic Circle, in the region called North Calotte. The area forms a complex nexus of contested and changing multilingualism, particularly as regards to endangered indigenous Sami languages and Kven and Meankieli minority languages. Viewing LL as a discursively constructed space and consequently signs as ‘frozed actions’ by various actors, and by adopting a Nexus analytical approach we examine three interrelated aspects of Arctic LLs: (1) the synchronic aspect by addressing the question of how languages are used in the landscapes of northern villages in the year 2008; (2) the historical aspect through id…
Sixty years of bilingualism affects the pronunciation of Latvian vowels
2006
For fifty years after World War II, Latvia was incorporated into the former Soviet Union. Although in theory the use of regional languages was not discouraged, in practice knowledge of Russian was obligatory. Since 1991, Latvian has again become the official language, and knowledge of Russian is widespread but optional. These political events have created a natural experiment in the effects of almost universal bilingualism on a language. To assess the impact on pronunciation, native speakers of Latvian, ranging from retirement age to teens, were recorded reading a word list and a short narrative. Vowel pronunciation differed across the generations both in quantity relationships and in forma…
Hybrid practices meet nation-state language policies: Transcarpathia in the twentieth century and today
2016
AbstractFrom the early twentieth century to the present day, Transcarpathia has belonged to several states: the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, Czechoslovakia, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and finally to Ukraine. The status of what counts as a minority and a majority language has changed each time the state affiliation has been changed. Based on the long term research by Csernicskó, and on the one-month fieldwork carried out by Laihonen in 2012, our goal is to provide an autonomous critical account and discourse analysis of the linguistic situation in Transcarpathia. We draw examples especially from the linguistic landscape, which documents the hybrid practices difficult to catch w…
"I feel that I am a world citizen and don’t really belong anywhere" : investigating linguistic identities of three Finnish missionary kids
2017
Nykyajan globalisoituneessa ja digitalisoituneessa maailmassa monikielisissä ympäristöissä elävien ihmisten lukumäärä kasvaa jatkuvasti. Lähetyslapset ovat erinomainen esimerkki tällaisista ihmisistä, joiden elämässä monikielisyydellä on merkittävä rooli, sillä heidän arkipäivässään on läsnä useampi kieli kuin heidän äidinkielensä. Tällä on luonnollisesti suuri vaikutus myös heidän kielellisiin identiteetteihinsä, sillä nykypäivän kielentutkimuksen näkökulmasta kielen ja identiteetin nähdään olevan lähes erottamattomia toisistaan. Aikaisemmin suomalaisia lähetyslapsia on tutkittu lähinnä kotimaahan paluun jälkeisen suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan ja koulujärjestelmään jälleensopeutumisen näkökul…