Multilingualism and language diversity in urban areas: acquisition, identities, space, education

This state-of-the-art volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of current topics and research foci in the areas of linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism and aims to lay the foundations for interdisciplinary work and the development of a common methodological framework for the field. Linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism are complex, mufti-faceted phenomena that need to be studied from different, complementary perspectives. The volume comprises a total of fourteen contributions from linguistic, educationist, and urban sociological perspectives and highlights the areas of language acquisition, contact and change, multilingual identities, urban spaces, and education. Linguistic diversity can be framed as a result of current processes of migration and globalization. As such the topic of the present volume addresses both a general audience interested in migration and globalization on a more general level, and a more specialized audience interested in the linguistic repercussions of these large-scale societal developments.

Because of the power and international status of English, and because of real or perceived pressures to 'assimilate' persons from non-English speaking cultural backgrounds, educators in English-dominant countries are likely to have a primary focus on the academic achievement of learners based on monolingual (English) standards and benchmarks. 'Success' in educational contexts is likely to reflect the common sense view "the more English, as early as possible, the better the outcome", which, while intuitively logical, is not supported by the best available research on the acquisition of English by K-12 English language learners. In fact, the research of language acquisition scholars strongly suggests that monolingually-normed approaches to pedagogy and assessment with linguistically diverse student populations in North America are detrimental to their academic achievement.

Verlagsinfo: This state-of-the-art volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of current topics and research foci in the areas of linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism and aims to lay the foundations for interdisciplinary work and the development of a common methodological framework for the field. Linguistic diversity and migration-induced multilingualism are complex, mufti-faceted phenomena that need to be studied from different, complementary perspectives. The volume comprises a total of fourteen contributions from linguistic, educationist, and urban sociological perspectives and highlights the areas of language acquisition, contact and change, multilingual identities, urban spaces, and education. Linguistic diversity can be framed as a result of current processes of migration and globalization. As such the topic of the present volume addresses both a general audience interested in migration and globalization on a more general level, and a more specialized audience interested in the linguistic repercussions of these large-scale societal developments.