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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 179

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages in a multilingual Europe – Empirical and didactic approaches

Authors: Kürschner, Sebastian; Gooskens, Charlotte; Schüppert, Anja
Submitted by: Kürschner, Sebastian (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany)

Many different languages are spoken in Europe and respect for linguistic diversity is a core EU value. In 2007 the High Level Group on Multilingualism (HLGM) published a report which noted a lack of knowledge about the possibilities for communicating in Europe through receptive multilingualism. Receptive multilingualism utilizes the fact that many people can understand closely related languages while speaking their own language. For example, in the Mainland Scandinavian or Czech/Slovak language areas, people traditionally communicate across language borders each using their mother tongue, while still (to a certain degree) understanding the other, closely related language. These speakers are considered receptively multilingual. However, at least some training is usually necessary for communication to succeed in such situations, which means that communication can be enhanced by didactic tools building on the close linguistic relations.

The EuroCom projects were designed to offer such a tool for a fast acquisition of reading abilities in closely related languages (EuroComRom for Romance languages, EuroComGerm for Germanic languages, and EuroComSlav for Slavonic languages). At the same time, in several European research institutions, research is carried out to investigate mutual intelligibility of closely related languages, and identify factors facilitating or hampering it. While the didactic branch of studies focuses on developing methods and tools for the passive acquisition of closely related languages, the empirical branch elicits mutual intelligibility of these languages, mostly ignoring these didactic tools and their possible impact on intelligibility.

 

We feel the urgent need to bring together researchers working on didactic tools and researchers investigating mutual intelligibility of closely related languages empirically, as both branches can greatly benefit from each other’s methods and results. This workshop aims at providing a forum for both groups of researchers. We therefore invite papers on any of the two branches of receptive bilingualism research dealing with intelligibility of closely related languages, with respect to oral communication as well as to written texts. The aim of the workshop is to discuss which of the concepts in empirical studies are valuable for the development of didactic tools and vice versa, and in which ways both approaches might be fruitfully incorporated into each other. Possible discussion questions are:

 

·         Which languages in Europe are mutual intelligible and to which degree?

·         For which language constellations is research on mutual intelligibility (and its application) relevant in EU language politics?

·         Which methods are useful to elicit intelligibility and receptive linguistic knowledge?

·         Which linguistic and non-linguistic factors are relevant to intelligibility, and what are their relative contribution to intelligibility?

·         Can such linguistic and extra-linguistic factors be applied in didactic programs to enhance the use of receptive knowledge of closely related languages?

·         How do theoretical models of intelligibility processes relate to didactics?

 

Although we will mainly be concerned with Europe, we also invite papers from other geographic areas relevant to the topic, cf. e.g. Spanish and Portuguese in Latin America.

References

Gooskens, Charlotte (2006): Linguistic and extra-linguistic predictors of inter-Scandinavian intelligibility. In Jeroen van de Weijer & Bettelou Los (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2006, 101–113. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Hufeisen, Britta & Nicole Marx (eds., 2007): EuroComGerm – Die sieben Siebe: Germanische Sprachen lesen lernen. Aachen: Shaker.

Klein, Horst G. & Stegmann, Tilbert D. (2000): EuroCom Rom – Die siebenSiebe. Romanische Sprachen sofort lesen können, Aachen: Shaker.

Kürschner, Sebastian, Charlotte Gooskens & Renée van Bezooijen (2008): Linguistic determinants of the intelligibility of Swedish words among Danes. In: International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 2/1-2, 83-100.

Van Heuven, Vincent (2008): Making sense of strange sounds: (Mutual) intelligibility of related language varieties. A review. In: International Journal Of Humanities and Arts Computing 2 (1-2), 39-62.

Zeevaert, Ludger (2004): Interskandinavische Kommunikation. Strategien zur Etablierung von Verständigung zwischen Skandinaviern im Diskurs. Hamburg: Dr. Kovač.