Author Archives: Christof Demont-Heinrich

kids-swing-playground English only on this American playground please

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Christof Demont-Heinrich

I’ve written before that I’ve never had an experience in which someone responded negatively to me when I speak German to my daughters in public here in the United States. Yesterday, on an elementary school yard, that changed. My daughters, … Continue reading →

Posted in Multilingual families | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Swimming against the global linguistic tide Swimming against the global linguistic tide

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Christof Demont-Heinrich

I’m one of the comparatively unlucky few swimming against the global linguistic tide. I’m a mother tongue speaker of English, “the” global language. That means if I want to become a highly fluent speaker, and writer of another language, I, … Continue reading →

Posted in Language & globalization, Multilingual academics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

English belongs to everyone English belongs to everyone?

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Christof Demont-Heinrich

The claim that “English belongs to everyone who uses it” has continued to gain more and more cultural cache, at least in global (English) academic circles. On the surface, the claim that “English belongs to everyone who uses it” makes … Continue reading →

Posted in Language & globalization | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Wolpertinger Is there such a thing as postmodern bilingual education?

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Christof Demont-Heinrich

I’m not a big fan of what I call “breathless academic postmodernism,” or what I view as the often naïve valorization of, among other things, hybridization, creolization, liminality, polysemy, multiplicity, plurality, discontinuities, third spaces – the list goes on. I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Language learning, gender & identity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Welcome-to-the-US Linguistic extremism

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Christof Demont-Heinrich

I know some people think what I am doing with my daughters – speaking German to them one-hundred percent of  the time even though German is a second language for me – is “extreme”. Since the very beginning, I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Language learning, gender & identity, Multilingual families | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments