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Lectures in Linguistic Diversity

By July 26, 2018October 30th, 2018No Comments7 min read3,800 views

Lectures in Linguistic Diversity will be hosted at Macquarie University

The Linguistics Department at Macquarie University is hosting a lecture series showcasing current international research in linguistic diversity.

Program

Tuesday, July 31, 12-1, AHH 1.1640
Maite Puigdevall Serralvo, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, “Taking the leap”: becoming a new speaker of Catalan

Tuesday, August 14, 12-1, AHH 1.1640
Sabine Little, Sheffield University, UK, What do you inherit when you inherit a language? Identity constructs in multilingual families

Tuesday, August 28, 12-1, AHH 1.1640
Fadila Boutouchent, University of Regina, Canada, Canadian Perspectives on Immigration in Small Cities: Case Study from Moncton City

Tuesday, October 02, 12-1, AHH 1.1640
Peter Siemund, Hamburg University, Germany, On the advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism: Towards a more realistic assessment

Tuesday, October 16, 12-1, AHH 1.1640
Tobias Schrödler, Hamburg University, Germany, The Sociolinguist’s versus the Language Economist’s Perspective on the Value of Languages: A Win, a Draw or two Different Games?

Abstracts

Maite Puigdevall Serralvo, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, “Taking the leap”: becoming a new speaker of Catalan

During the last decades Catalonia has established itself as a global node for the reception of migrations, tourism and a pole of attraction for multilingual trained labor. In 2014, 35.7% of the Catalan population had not been born in Catalonia: 18.5% were born in Spain, outside of Catalonia, and 17.2% were born abroad (data idescat.cat). In 2010, the 65.5 million overnight stays of tourists accounted for approximately 180.000 permanent inhabitants, an additional 2.3% of the population. Also important are population movements outside of Catalonia, by migrants who use it as a point of passage, expatriate passers-by, people wo are going to study or work abroad, etc. Under these conditions, Catalonia, with its three official languages (Spanish, Catalan and Aranese –a variety of Occitan) constitutes an ideal laboratory to study linguistic diversity. How do the increases in population mobility, characteristic of globalization, transform the way people manage their linguistic capacities, and how do languages and identities of a territorialized scope come into contact within the framework of activities of a transnational nature?

Learn more about Professor Maite Puigdevall Serralvo

Further reading

Puigdevall, M., Walsh, J., Amorrortu, E., & Ortega, A. (2018). ‘I’ll be one of them’: linguistic mudes and new speakers in three minority language contexts. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(5), 445-457. doi:10.1080/01434632.2018.1429453

Pujolar, J., & Puigdevall, M. (2015). Linguistic mudes: How to become a new speaker in Catalonia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language(231), 167-187. [open access]

Sabine Little, Sheffield University, UK, What do you inherit when you inherit a language? Identity constructs in multilingual families

This talk draws on the summary of my work with multilingual families (including my own), seeking to understand how various family members construct their identity in relation to language, and in relation to each other. Working holistically with families, I explore what happens when speaking *about* the heritage language becomes as important as speaking *in* the heritage language, facilitating family members to share views, opinions, and stories with each other. Drawing on data from a variety of studies, I will be sharing my framework on heritage language identities, which encourages family members to understand each other’s emotional and/or pragmatic attachments to the various family languages. Explicitly involving children in these discussions, my research explores how families may take a communicative approach to family language policy, co-negotiating identities, and understanding constructs of belonging.

Learn more about Dr Sabine Little

Fadila Boutouchent, University of Regina, Canada, Canadian Perspectives on Immigration in Small Cities: Case Study from Moncton City

Canada is a welcoming land for immigrants and refugees. Also, immigration is an opportunity for the French Canadian minority to raise its demographic, linguistic and cultural weight. However, immigrants’ integration within small cities and communities raises issues and challenges such as isolation, discrimination, linguistic difficulties and socioeconomic insecurities (Benimmas, Boutouchent & Kamano, 2017). According to Ramirez and Cox (1990), immigrant parents’ perceptions of their children’s social and school integration defines the relationship they are likely to have with the school. In 1991, Sabatier’s study reported that immigrant parents thought that parents in the host society had individualistic values that strongly influenced the way their children were educated while their own social relationships focused on the group they belong to and in which the children will grow. The author asserted that immigrant parents considered schools for academic learning and not for socializing. Benoit et al., (2008) results’ reflected these visions and showed how low proficiency in the host language limited immigrant parents’ involvement in their children education leaving more space for institutional monitoring, intrusion and prejudice to their confidence and self-esteem. According to Farmer (2008), Benimmas, Bourque and Boutouchent (2013), the difference in the education vision might be bigger within the French minority context inclining to assimilate immigrants to French language and culture.

Given that school spaces are nourishing contacts between newcomers, for both, parents and kids and the Canadian society, our study objectives’ explored immigrant parents’ perceptions of their own integration journey in the small city of Moncton in New-Brunswick province. The study looked more specifically, to immigrants parents’ perceptions regarding before and after arrival to Moncton City; their involvement in the children’s instruction, social and school integration. This qualitative study gathered data with semi structured interview grid from 14 participants. Parents’ perceptions of the children’s integration process into the French minority settings in Moncton proved to reflect children’s school experiences and social development where students are largely affected by ethnic differences. Also, English- French bilingualism poses dilemmas regarding the language for schooling and small numbers in enrollment precluded school stakeholders from building a suitable infrastructure to include cultural diversity. Overall parents’ perceptions of school remained positive but divided between hope and concern.

Learn more about Dr Fadila Boutouchent

Peter Siemund, Hamburg University, Germany, On the advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism: Towards a more realistic assessment

Recent work on multilingualism and third language acquisition has led to an interesting paradox. On the one hand, there is a growing body of research documenting the influence of all previously acquired languages on third (or additional) language acquisition, modulated by parameters such as typological and psychotypological proximity, genetic distance, age of onset, recency of use, as well as several others. Arguably, third or additional language acquisition is subject to more cross-linguistic influence than second language acquisition, though most certainly not less and clearly not exclusively facilitative. On the other hand, research on multilingual development has accumulated suggestive evidence on the advantages of bilingual and multilingual upbringing and education, especially concerning cognitive development, cognitive reserve, and metalinguistic awareness, but also the acquisition of additional languages. Disadvantages, if identifiable at all, chiefly pertain to lexical development. The advantages of multilingual development seem to play out most prominently in regards to more general skills (e.g. reading and listening comprehension), and less so in more specific knowledge domains like grammatical rules (subject-verb agreement, article usage, etc.). Moreover, they seem to be more clearly identifiable in multilinguals who boast high and comparable proficiency levels in their languages, i.e. balanced bilinguals versus subtractively bilingual heritage speakers.

In my contribution, I will first provide a critical reassessment of a field that is strongly characterized by incompatible methodologies, fashions, ideologies, and political convictions. Such a reassessment is necessary to understand the vast body of partly contradictory research results. Competing research camps seem to measure different things using incompatible instruments. In addition, I will offer some speculation regarding how more opportunity for cross-linguistic influence can perhaps translate into heightened language proficiency. On the whole, my presentation will be a warning against foregone conclusions and an invitation to a more thoughtful approach to a highly fascinating field.

Learn more about Professor Peter Siemund

Tobias Schrödler, Hamburg University, Germany, The Sociolinguist’s versus the Language Economist’s Perspective on the Value of Languages: A Win, a Draw or two Different Games?

In a growing field of literature, sociolinguists, sociologists, business studies scholars, economists and scholars in other disciplines are researching and discussing the question of the value of languages. From an economic perspective, various authors have employed the Human Capital Theory framework to demonstrate what certain languages are worth in specific scenarios or environments. Many studies in this field demonstrate that it is economically beneficial or that there is monetary profit in speaking a particular language in a predefined environment. (Chiswick & Miller 1995, 2007; Eide & Showalter 2010, Grin 1994, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2006, Dustmann, 1994; Grin, 1994; Vaillancourt, 1980)

This debate about the ‘economic value of languages’ or ‘economically informed language policy making’ has been critically analysed from different perspectives. A number of sociolinguists, educationalists and others take the stance that the economists’ views on languages is neoliberal, utilitarian and that, through reinforcement of linguistic hegemony with regard to languages of higher status, it leads to linguistic inequalities (Climent-Ferrando 2016, del Percio 2018, del Percio & van Hoof 2017, Dûchene & Heller 2012, Flubacher et al. 2018, Piller 2016).

This talk will begin by providing an overview of relevant research and theory in the area of language economics, and will then go on to conceptualize the value of languages from an alternative perspective to the aforementioned sociolinguistic approaches. Based on this alternative valuation, a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses, elements of dispute and possible reciprocal affirmation will follow. In the final part, I will discuss some possible implications which pertain when applying these theories to the workplace/the economy, language education and societal multilingualism.

Learn more about Dr Tobias Schroedler

Language on the Move

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