Societal Multilingualism and World Englishes

2002

World Englishes, 2014

Mahboob and Knight open this edited volume with Halliday's pithy assertion that 'the value of a theory lies in the use that can be made of it,' (Halliday 1985: 7) which rings true for any linguist whose work examines the mechanisms that underlie language in social context and who analyzes discourse to answer questions of a practical nature. In the first chapter, Mahboob and Knight provide a concise history of how theoretical and applied linguistics parted company, and how applied linguistics became the domain of second language studies, thereby pushing other applied disciplines such as forensics, translation, and language planning to the periphery, which remains the landscape of the field today. Mahboob and Knight highlight the applied-theoretical chasm by criticizing theoretical linguists 'for not developing theories that serve the needs of applied linguists,' while at the same time applied linguists 'have not contributed or worked toward a comprehensive theory of language.' Appliable linguistics thus aims to dissolve the distinction, referring again to Halliday (2006: 19) to orient the reader to this approach to language analysis within a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) framework: I have always tried to work with a functional orientation to language; not eschewing theory, because without theory there can be no consistent and effective practice, but treating theory as a problem-solving enterprise . . . which can be brought to bear on everyday activities and tasks. I call this an 'appliable' linguistics rather than applicable because the word applicable refers to one particular purpose, whereas 'appliable' means having the general property that it can be put to use in different operational contexts.

International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, 2017

FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education

, is a collection of 21 chapters (as well as a Preface and Appendix) that center on theories, policies, and pedagogies of multilingualism around the world. Specifically, chapters explore the roles of multilingualism in social practices as well as dominant languages such as English in connection to multilingualism, to highlight how in a multilingual world, "every language community in order to survive must create quality content through its own language, share that content internationally, regionally and locally, and receive feedback" (Pattanayak, pp. 12-13). This collection of papers, derived from conference proceedings of the 2015 Language and Development conference held in New Delhi, are categorized into four thematic groups. Chapters two through five center on "Multilingualism, marginalization and empowerment" while chapters six through 12 focus on "Mother-tongue-based multilingual education." Chapters 13 through 15 examine the role of multilingualism in the "metropolis," or largely populated urban areas, while the remainder of chapters (16 through 21), under a theme entitled "English in a multilingual world," highlight the expanding nature of English and its relationship to multilingual educational contexts. Overall, the diversity of geographical, linguistic, and educational contexts discussed in these chapters reveal the necessity of teachers, researchers, and policy makers to further explore the ever-changing nature of multilingualism in education and development worldwide. The preface of this book, written by Debi Pattanayak, senior scholar in multilingual education, is a curious way to commence as he contends, "There is no excellence in research, scholarship and education in language and linguistics in any university or institution in India" (p. 11). This statement is surely made as a means to spark debate on the further need for research on languages in India and globally, though it seems disconnected to the plethora of "excellent research" that ensues in the proceeding 21 chapters. Pattanayak also asserts that the world is linguistically divided into dominant monolingual and multilingual populations, leading to "many social problems" (p. 11). He exemplifies these divisions by noting that being in support of multilingualism is not synonymous to being anti-English. Pattanayak concludes by discussing the role of technology in the marginalization of many less-dominant languages as well as noting the multiple meanings of the term "development" in connection to language. To a degree, the somewhat disjointed nature of this preface exemplifies the larger point of

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2014

is a professor from The University of Auckland, New Zealand, who publishes in the areas of language diversity, language rights, bilingualism, and multiculturalism. His recent edited book The Multilingual Turn, collecting recent works by many important scholars in applied linguistics and multilingualism, attempts to justify and promote "a turn from monolingualism to multilingualism" that emphasizes social-cultural aspects in the studies of SLA, TESOL and bilingual education (p. 2). In order to advocate this "multilingual turn", the book explains how multilingual speakers differ from monolingual speakers and why it is significant and necessary to examine bilingualism and multilingualism from a social-cultural point of view. In recent years, as ongoing research shows that bi/multilingual learning is not purely cognitive language acquisition (Firth & Wagner, 1997; Garcia, 2009; May, 2014), more and more scholars have been paying attention to the correlation between bi/multilingual speakers and the bi/multilingual communities. The Multilingual Turn is one of the representative works speaking for many scholars in this field, such as Canagarajah, García, Kramsch, Pennycook. This edited book is composed of three sections, namely SLA, TESOL, and bilingual education. Each part has a combination of theory and practice in its specific field, which makes the author's argument particularly strong. From the beginning to the end, May and other authors try to offer a critical view of the ongoing dominant monolingualism, as well as apply "a more additive bilingual approach" to each of the three fields (p. 23).

Capacity of switching codes provides an individual with a remarkable capacity and skill to adjust to different conditions she is exposed to. It makes her attitudes flexible, which leads to an awareness of the presence of diversity in and around her environment, and not only that, she has skills to deal with such situations.

2018

2012

The volume's number is 13 in John Benjamin's reputable series Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism. Defying superstition, the book with its Editors' Foreword, 25 chapters, name and subject indexes is a commendable enterprise. This excellent publication presents a stimulating panorama of research carried out by the Collaborative Research Center on "Multilingualism." The three main areas of investigation: (1) the acquisition of multilingualism, (2) historical aspects of multilinguals and variance, and (3) multilingual communications, are among the main foci of contemporary research on multilingualism. At present, the term multilingualism is a buzzword. A deluge of books, articles, and projects have appeared, and along with positive aspects of this long awaited change, sometimes the word multilingualism is used as an attraction in a book or article title, unsupported by the contents. Unlike those, this volume is really about multilingualism and its treatment of various linguistic phenomena goes beyond the monolingual paradigm.

Socjolingwistyka, 2021

Presented text is a review of the book The Many Faces of Multilingualism. Language Status, Learning and Use Across Contexts, edited by Piotr Romanowski and Martin Guardado. Discussed book undertakes the issues of multilingualism, one of the most vivid phenomenon in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics recently. The volume consisting of 11 chapters, is divided in two parts: ‘(Socio) Linguistic Aspects of Multilingualism’ and ‘Pedagogical Aspects of Multilingualism’. The contributors (all multilingual), coming from different countries (e.g. Poland, Latvia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, South Africa), focuse on specific questions related to multilingual education and analyze challenges of the multilingual society.