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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 197

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

Urban multilingualism in a context of international mobility

Authors: Lüdi, Georges
Submitted by: Lüdi, Georges (Universität Basel, Switzerland)

The increased mobility of the world’s population has led to a lasting change in communication, shifting from monolingual (or local bilingual) to multilingual practices, be this in work or educational contexts, and has created a growing need for the appropriate means to cope with situations of increasing language diversity. Multilingualism is a controversial issue in many urban settings: on the one hand, it puts the status of the involved languages at issue; on the other hand, the choice of a single language — mostly English — is claimed to be an all-encompassing solution, empowering people to overcome diversity and promoting global economic development. This choice is linked to an "additive" or "monolingual" view of multilingualism and language choice: interlocutors speak one or the other language. An alternative view defines multilingual repertoires as sets of “resources” — both verbal and non-verbal — jointly mobilized by speakers in order to find local solutions to practical linguistic problems.

The focus of this session is on people’s understandings of different forms of monolingual and multilingual practices in urban contexts characterised by linguistic diversity. It will bring together colleagues working in different terrains (educational systems, workplaces and institutions) and on different aspects of this topic, e.g. communication strategies based on “multilanguaging” practices including lingue franche, perceived language needs, corresponding language management measures, advantages and drawbacks of different solutions, etc. We particularly encourage contributions insisting, on the one hand, on the relationships between contexts, practices, language policies / management and representations as they appear in discourses, and, on the other, on methodological aspects. Contributions on historical examples are also welcome.