Search results

"This innovative collection examines key questions on language diversity and multilingualism running through contemporary debates in psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Reinforcing interdisciplinary conversations on these themes, each chapter is co-authored by two different researchers, often those who have not written together before. The combined effect is a volume showcasing unique and dynamic perspectives on such topics as multilingualism across the lifespan, bilingual acquisition, family language policy, language and aging, language shift, language and identity, and multilingualism and language impairment. The book builds on Elizabeth Lanza's pioneering work on multilingualism across the lifespan, bringing together cutting-edge research exploring multilingualism as an evolving phenomenon at landmarks in individuals', families' and communities' lives. Taken together, the book offers a rich portrait of the different facets of multilingualism as lived reality for individuals, families, and communities. This groundbreaking volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars in multilingualism, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics"--

"This innovative collection explores critical issues in understanding multilingualism as a defining dimension of identity creation and negotiation in contemporary social life. Reinforcing interdisciplinary conversations on these themes, each chapter is co-authored by two different researchers, often those who have not written together before. The combined effect is a volume showcasing unique and dynamic perspectives on such topics as rethinking of language policy, testing of language rights, language pedagogy, meaning-making, and activism in the linguistic landscape. The book explores multilingualism through the lenses of spaces and policies as embodied in Elizabeth Lanza's body of work in the field, with a focus on the latest research on linguistic landscapes in diverse settings. Taken together, the book offers a window into better understanding issues around processes of change in and of languages and societies. This groundbreaking volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars in multilingualism, applied linguistics, and sociolinguistics"--

"What can people do with multiple languages that they cannot do with one? What kinds of practices does multilingualism enable and how does it shape communication in the digital sphere among young people? These questions have motivated the volume Multilingual Youth Practices in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). This volume was inspired by some of the work now emerging in sociolinguistics on the multilingual digital practices of people in a globalizing world (e.g. Androutsopoulos 2015; Barton & Lee 2013; Danet & Herring 2007a; Deumert 2014a; Spilioti & Georgakopoulou 2015; Jones et al. 2015; Lee 2017; Thurlow & Mroczek 2011a). In contrast with these volumes however, the present work aims a spotlight on the multilingual practices of young people who have taken up the affordances of digital communication more fervently than any other age group (Beheshti & Large 2013; Buckingham & Willett 2013). More specifically, we examine how the "digital generation" in different parts of the world makes use of multilingual repertoires and the social meanings they attach to various linguistic features in their digital communications with others"--

With an eye to the playful, reflexive, self-conscious ways in which global youth engage with each other online, this volume analyzes user-generated data from these interactions to show how communication technologies and multilingual resources are deployed to project local as well as trans-local orientations. With examples from a range of multilingual settings, each author explores how youth exploit the creative, heteroglossic potential of their linguistic repertoires, from rudimentary attempts to engage with others in a second language to hybrid multilingual practices. Often, their linguistic, orthographic, and stylistic choices challenge linguistic purity and prescriptive correctness, yet, in other cases, their utterances constitute language policing, linking 'standardness' or 'correctness' to piety, trans-local affiliation, or national belonging. Written for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in linguistics, applied linguistics, education and media and communication studies, this volume is a timely and readymade resource for researching online multilingualism with a range of methodologies and perspectives

Abstract
The world is connecting in many complex ways, driven by the globally integrated nature of technological innovation and human mobility across continents. Never before have so many different speakers and languages existed side by side in the OECD countries as they do today. This reality has placed multilingualism in the spotlight. Increased migration and transcultural flows across borders in Europe have highlighted the urgency for research on multilingualism in the individual and society. Academic institutions have recognized the necessity for such knowledge and research centers have evolved to meet this challenge (cf. Obermayer et al. 2014). MultiLing - the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan is a research center aimed at academic excellence and financed by the Research Council of Norway through its Center of Excellence scheme. MultiLing is hosted by the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Oslo in Norway. It opened in June of 2013 and is currently in its first five-year period of operation.
The main goal of the Center is to generate state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on individual and societal multilingualism across the lifespan that will address the challenges and potentials multilingualism poses for the individual in the family, school, other institutions, and society in general. Moreover, the Center aims at providing research-based knowledge on multilingualism to central policymakers and stakeholders. Language planning and the standardization of languages are some of the Center's key research foci and are indeed vital issues today at the top of the agenda for policymakers.
The Center's vision is to contribute to how society can deal with the challenges of multilingualism through increased knowledge, promoting agency for individuals in society, and a better quality of life, no matter what linguistic and social background.

Language policy has been a hot topic at the Nordic universities. This is due primarily to the use of English has spread to virtually all areas, and that in itself calls for conscious and informed decision. In this book you can find materials to plan, implement, evaluate and modify a university's language policy, particularly when to use the language and the impact it can have. The book is written in three Nordic languages ​​Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. It can thus be read by anyone in the North. The main core of the book is the so-called country reports where conditions in the five Nordic states highlighted as thoroughly as the available data permit. All country reports relate to the four focal points: formulated language policies, language in publications, language choice in education and internationalization of these in the form of students (and employees) from countries other than the Nordic. But in addition there is a general language policy initiated and a review of what conditions you have to take into account when choosing the language of instruction.