Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 424

Part of Session 197: Urban multilingualism in a context of international mobility (Other abstracts in this session)

Tensions between the local language and English in urban settings in Switzerland

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

Multilingualism is a controversial issue in many urban settings in Switzerland: on the one hand, the constitution and the language law aim at "preserving harmony between linguistic communities, they respect the traditional territorial distribution of languages, and consider the indigenous linguistic minorities"; on the other hand, the choice of English as lingua franca is claimed to be an all-encompassing solution, empowering people to overcome diversity and promoting economic development.

These two views are not necessarily incompatible if one adopts an "additive" or "monolingual" view of multilingualism and language choice: interlocutors would speak the local national language in the community and English for external use. However, empirical research at management, images and practices of linguistic diversity in businesses throughout Switzerland in the framework of the DYLAN project disproves this oversimplified vision for the future of crosslinguistic communication in a quadrilingual country.

We will show that in many situations, an alternative view emerges. It defines multilingual repertoires as sets of “resources” — both verbal and non-verbal — jointly mobilized by speakers forms of "plurilanguaging" in order to find local solutions to practical linguistic problems. In fact, many uses of English fall into this category.

Some consequences for policies for foreign language learning and teaching will also be discussed.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Tensions between the local language and English in urban settings in Switzerland