Bilingualism and Multilingualism

“語言與現代化”學術研討會
  2017年10月18-20日，澳門

主旨演講：
論語言與認知的跨學科研究成果與趨勢
—— 以工作記憶為視角

溫植勝博士、副教授
澳門理工學院語言暨翻譯學校

【摘要】：本文的目的旨在展示國內外認知科學界和語言學界圍繞工作記憶與語言學習所展開的跨學科研究所取得的最新成果，並藉此對今後的相關研究做出展望。文章首先扼要回顧總結認知（神經）科學界對工作記憶進行的多層面本體研究，然後將這些研究成果與語言學界研究界近年探討工作記憶對語言學習不同方面影響作用的實證研究結果想結合，繼而提出一個工作記憶與語言習得的創新性理論假設與研究框架。文章將結合現有的研究成果著重對今後的相關研究提出多方面的具體建議。



【演講者簡介】：溫植勝博士，現為澳門理工學院語言暨翻譯高等學校副教授，中國英漢語比較研究會心理語言學專業委員會理事。香港中文大學應用語言學博士，美國密歇根大學訪問研究學者。任教於粵港澳多所重點高校本科和研究生課程多年，在國內外重要學術期刊發表論文30多篇；近年致力於語言習得與認知科學等交叉學科的理論與實踐研究，其英文學術專著（2016）和編著（2015）由英國著名的Multilingual Matters出版。曾獲語言學界國際頂尖期刊《語言學習》2012年度頒發的“《語言學習》期刊圓桌會議專項研究基金”獎項資助。
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Slowenisch ist in Kärnten autochthone Minderheitensprache, Herkunftssprache, Zweitsprache, Fremdsprache. Das Schulwesen sieht zweisprachigen Grundschulunterricht in einem geografisch klar definierten Gebiet vor, dem sogenannten zweisprachigen Gebiet. Dieser zweisprachige Unterricht ist von Gesetz wegen zu gleichen Teilen in deutscher und slowenischer Sprache zu halten, in der Realität überwiegt jedoch die deutsche Sprache. Das liegt unter anderem daran, dass in den meisten Schulen kein Modell zur Anwendung kommt, das die Verwendung der beiden Sprachen regelt. Demgegenüber verfolgt die private Hermagoras-Volksschule in Klagenfurt bereits seit vielen Jahren das Modell „ein Tag – eine Sprache“, das heißt, an einem Tag wird Deutsch, am nächsten Slowenisch in allen Unterrichtsstunden verwendet.
Die Schüler und Schülerinnen haben dabei durchaus verschiedene sprachliche Hintergründe: Die einen stammen aus Kärntner slowenischen Familien und haben Slowenisch von klein an erworben. Dieser Erwerb kann jedoch auch ganz unterschiedlich erfolgen – als Familiensprache, mit einem Elternteil, mit den Großeltern oder anderen Verwandten oder Nachbar_innen. Eine andere Möglichkeit ist, dass ein Elternteil (oder beide) aus Slowenien stammt. Andere Kinder haben eine andere slawische Sprache von klein auf erworben oder aber Englisch oder eine weitere nichtautochthone Sprache. In allen Fällen kann auch Deutsch als zweite L1 hinzukommen. Schließlich gibt es auch Schüler_innen, die einsprachig deutsch aufgewachsen sind. In allen diesen Fällen kann es bereits Kontakt mit Slowenisch im Kindergarten gegeben haben – oder auch nicht.
Was aber bringt ein zweisprachiges Unterrichtsmodell bei dieser Heterogenität? Können Kinder mit slowenischer Erstsprache diese weiterentwickeln und Kinder ohne erstsprachliche Kenntnisse zu einer angemessenen Kompetenz gelangen? Wird das Modell auch eingehalten? In welcher Form wird es überhaupt umgesetzt? Wie beeinflusst es die Einstellungen der Kinder zum Slowenischen und zum Sprachenlernen?
Diesen Fragen wurde in einem Forschungsprojekt im Jahr 2010 nachgegangen. Dabei wurde unter anderem der Unterricht in vier verschiedenen Klassen je einen Tag lang auf Video aufgezeichnet und transkribiert. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werde ich diese Unterrichtsbeobachtungen beschreiben und das Sprachverhalten der Lehrenden und der Schüler und Schülerinnen analysieren. Ergänzend sollen die Ergebnisse schriftlicher Schularbeiten herangezogen werden, die in den Jahren 2011 und 2013 gesammelt und quantitativ ausgewertet wurden.
Aus diesem Material können vorsichtige Schlüsse über den Erfolg des Schulmodells gezogen werden. Es zeigt sich, dass die Schule viel für den Spracherhalt des Slowenischen in Kärnten leistet, dass aber die zusätzliche Verwendung der Sprache in anderen Domänen sehr wichtig ist und sich bemerkbar auf die Sprachkompetenz auswirkt. Besonders bemerkenswert ist aber die Rolle der Schule und ihrer konsequenten Zweisprachigkeit für die positive Einstellung der Kinder zu Sprachen.

The applications of linguistic typology have contributed to the creation of an unique linguistic structure of language as a cognitive paradigm of the mind, which conveys to the use of various typological patterns in order to build a methodology to tackle multilingual language teaching in primary schools through the use of typological analysis items, such as word order pattern, verb inflection, comparative morphology, or syntax, among others; enabling young learners to acquire second language(s) parallel to their own mother tongue in a direct manner in multilingual contexts through an unique methodology common to the multiple languages used as target languages. Such methodology breaks down language into a skeleton young learners approach to regardless of previous knowledge, cultural background, or age. Constantly, all second languages are addressed through their crosslinguistic features linked to the native tongue of the learner, ultimately leading to their comprehension and quick, effortless, natural assimilation and acquisition through the use of inclusive multiple intelligences, visual and short and long term memory methods, and a plethora of exercises. The methodology may be used traditionally, or with ICTs, in a fluid manner to help migrants banish linguistic barriers when integrating within foreign communities and their educational institutions, while helping preserve and ensure the growth of minority languages through the quick increase of speakers, which may lead to the creation of cultural production of whatever type, eventually reassuring the preservation of the language. This methodology approaches the teaching of Basque (minority language being one of the oldest in the world) and other European or Asian languages, although expandable to whatever language.

Although the first world, as seen through the lens of academia, seems to be prospering, and the third world has found its own place in the postcolonial intellectual order, the post-cold war world of semi-peripheries in East and Central Europe (ECE) has largely disappeared from the discourse of Comparative Literature. It sometimes appears as a convenient intellectual counterpoint or is included in postmodernist or postcolonial narratives; in both cases, however, it doesn’t convey regional specificity or allow local voices to speak. Both strategies – core and postcolonial – expropriate the semi-peripheral realm of second-world non-places.

Vivemos, hoje, uma época individualista, em que as pessoas se trancam em suas salas de bate papo, vivendo virtualmente, distanciando-se do contato direto com seus semelhantes. Nesse ambiente pós-moderno de microeletrônica, engenharia genética, biotecnologia, robótica, nanotecnologia, software e hardware, a ciência avança rapidamente apresentando-nos uma nova tecnologia a cada semana. Nesse contexto surge a internet reduzindo espaços, unindo pessoas, diminuindo distâncias, (re)criando "lugares virtuais", aproximandonos de espaços distantes, através do Google Earth e agora do Google Street. Atualmente, com esses programas de computador é possível caminhar por Paris não apenas pelos pés, mas pelos olhos através do monitor. As fronteiras estão desaparecendo e a vida cotidiana não é mais a mesma.

English language well known as the colonizer's language, had exercised its supremacy over Indian languages over more than two decades until it was observed as subject of study. In post-independence India the various educational institutions saw that English was included as a language since it had attained the status of the associate official language by 1965. But in a multilingual country like India, English attained the status of being a second or foreign language besides other regional languages in the formal environment. English language education thus began to be observed in the bilingual and multilingual contexts. Media of instruction of the subject was altered between bilingual and multilingual as need arose at any stage of education. At present-day the method used by the educational institutions for imparting English language education includes the deductive method or the Grammar Translation Method. But the most suitable method in the multilingual context happened to be the Bilingual Method as it allowed the learner to take the help of a mother tongue or the available regional language for acquisition of the English Language. This intrusion of the bilingual or multilingual context however, was on some extent hindering the growth of English as a subject because the aid of a regional language was sought for the lack of instructors with adequate knowledge on the language and the dearth of appropriate learning materials. Hence, on one hand when the English is giving wings to a more globalised approach to the country, it somewhere still remains the subject of the elite and sophisticated. In the race of being literate among the ground level masses, the value of English as a progressive global language is lost.

The article discusses errors and inaccuracies in the speech of an educated Russian-speaking tourist guide (Russian L-2) to increase the communicative competence of guides, as well as improving the training programs of Russian as L-2. The error's typology (the table in the text of the article) is based on a speech errors and irregularities file, consisting of 1,200 words and on the error's scientific classification literature at all levels of the language (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, stylistics).
      In general, a guide speaks as an educated person with an extensive vocabulary and rich literary Russian, however, error analysis indicates difficulties in word formation, in the prepositional and verb systems of the Russian language, as well as in discourse. The guide’s speech is characterized by a small percentage of morphological errors, but a large number of lexical and semantic inaccuracies in the use of nouns, especially adjectives, adverbs and verbs, as well as a frequent mixing of speech styles. Most speech errors were communicatively insignificant, but reduced the information's quality and affect the overall level of satisfaction from the tour. In turn, the Russian learning system should be paid special attention to these topics, since they present a particular difficulty for foreign students and students.     
      Key words: Russian, speech errors, touristic guide, classification.

В статье рассматриваются ошибки и неточности в речи образованного русскоговорящего туристического гида-инофона с целью повышения коммуникативной компетенции гидов, а также совершенствования программ обучения РКИ. На основе картотеки речевых ошибок и неправильностей, состоящей из 1,200 слов, произведена типология ошибок (таблица помещена в тексте статьи) с опорой на имеющейся на сегодняшний день в научной литературе классификации ошибок на всех уровнях языка (фонетика, лексика, грамматика, стилистика).
      В целом речь гида  это речь образованного человека, обладающего обширным запасом слов и выражений и говорящего на богатом литературном русском языке, тем не менее, анализ ошибок свидетельствует о трудностях в словообразовании, в предложно - падежной и глагольной системах русского языка, а также в дискурсе. Речь гида характеризуется небольшим процентом морфологических ошибок, большим количеством лексико-семантических неточностей в употреблении существительных, особенно, прилагательных, наречий и глаголов, а также частым смешением стилей речи.  Большинство речевых ошибок относятся к коммуникативно незначимым, но снижающим качество объяснений и влияющим на общий уровень удовлетворенности от экскурсии. В свою очередь, в системе обучения РКИ следует уделить особое внимание работе над указанными темами, поскольку они представляют особую трудность для иноязычных учащихся и студентов.
      Ключевые слова: РКИ, речевые ошибки, инофон, туристический гид, классификация.

The claim that 'The earlier, the better', for purposes of language learning, currently stands as an unquestionable nugget of wisdom. Sound wisdom, however, arises from questions confronting what we think we know with factual knowledge. This is precisely what this book does, by providing readers with timely evidence to enable critical assessment of this claim. The cogent insights that this book affords about the what, the how and the why of early language learning (ELL) show that the evidence is both sobering and heartening.

Le milieu des sections lycéennes tchèques en France, a Dijon et a Nimes donne naissance a une langue originale franco-tchèque. Les élèves scolarisés en France parlent entre eux le tchèque auquel de nombreuses innovations lexicales se mélangent sous l influence de la langue française.

The paper presents patterns of language use of the schoolchildren who attend one of the two japanese educational establishments in Barcelona: the Japanese School of Barcelona and the Supplementary Japanese School of Barcelona. Based on the data from a small-scale pilot study, patterns of language use of the children in the communication with their parents, their siblings, and their friends are analyzed.

The patient-centred model of health care, which recognises patients' autonomy, promotes their active participation in decisions concerning their own health, and strives to treat patients holistically, improves health outcomes but relies on effective communication between healthcare providers and patients. In a multilingual society, a major barrier to effective communication arises when healthcare providers and their patients do not share the same first language. This review aims to explore the impact of the language barrier on the effective rendering of healthcare services in South Africa, and to raise awareness that studies regarding language barriers within the South African healthcare sector are currently limited to isiXhosa in the context of English and Afrikaans, and has been conducted almost exclusively in the Western Cape. Research, therefore, needs to be extended to healthcare settings in the rest of the country, and needs to include all the languages and cultures protected under the South African Constitution. Moreover, there is an opportunity, and a need, for interdisciplinary collaboration between language practitioners and healthcare professionals to find viable solutions to communication challenges posed by linguo-cultural barriers within the multilinguistic South African population, in order to honour the right of every citizen to equitable health care.

Last in the three-part series Understanding Bilingual Education. With the information and charts from the first two papers, the role of languages in any school system can be analyzed in terms of types of bilingual education. This paper takes a pedagogical approach in providing lesson plans that have been used in Content-Based English as a Foreign Language university classes on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Ten realistic cases of school systems in Japan and the world are presented for analysis, and a checklist of ten items provides further criteria. Referring to the chart of ten aims in the first paper, and the ten types of bilingual education detailed in the second article, various school situations around the world can be analyzed in terms of established criteria in the field of bilingualism.

Summary:
This book introduces a principled approach to conceptualizing and measuring working memory in first and second language research. It presents comprehensive, thorough and updated reviews of relevant literatures of WM and SLA research in cognitive sciences, cognitive psychology and applied linguistics. Drawing on multidisciplinary research insights, it advocates an integrated framework for implementing working memory and second language acquisition research. In light of the basic tenets and general principles of this integrated perspective, the book then proposes an overarching theoretical model that clearly specifies the distinctive roles of phonological and executive working memory as they relate to specific second language acquisition domains and processing activities. The implications of this innovative Phonological/Executive Model are further discussed and elaborated, first for the specific realm of L2 task-based speech planning and performance, and then within the broader context of foreign language aptitude.

Reviews:
"One of the most encouraging features of the development of the multicomponent model of working memory has been its application beyond the laboratory to a range of  issues of which language learning is among the most important. Work was initially focused on native language acquisition but subsequently exciting developments are increasingly occurring in the hugely significant field of second language learning. This book surveys the field in detail , producing a synthesis of evidence and theory that will make a substantial contribution to this important field." Alan Baddeley, University of York, U.K.

"There are perhaps few predicaments as frustrating as being unable to communicate with another person because he or she does not speak the same language as you. In this volume, Dr. Wen comprehensively considers the importance for second-language learning of the individual’s working memory, the small amount of information that can be readily held in mind to carry out cognitive tasks. Different theoretical views are considered in detail and they are judiciously applied in an up-to-date treatment of various facets of language learning. The volume will be of great interest to students of both memory and language, ranging from novices to experts." Nelson Cowan, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA

"A well-informed, up-to-date, and comprehensive review of phonological and executive aspects of working memory, their  components and measurement, their roles in second language acquisition and processing, and their status as language aptitudes. An excellent overview for scholars in these areas." Nick Ellis, University of Michigan, U.S.A.

"A thorough analysis of how the various components of the working memory system relate to different aspects of second language processing and learning. This is a very timely and useful contribution to a centrally important topic in the field of individual differences."  John Williams, University of Cambridge, UK

Author Biography:
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen is Associate Professor at School of Languages and Translation at Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI). Dr. Wen has been lecturing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in applied linguistics and psycholinguistics for over 15 years. He has published extensively in these areas. His paper publications have appeared in key academic journals (e.g., Language Teaching, ELT Journal, InJAL). He is recipient of the ‘Language Learning Roundtable Conference Grant’ and lead-editor of “Working memory in second language acquisition and processing” (2015, Multilingual Matters).  His another forthcoming monograph “Cognitive individual differences in second language acquisition” will be published by Mouton de Gruyter in 2017.

Multilingualism is often framed as human capital that increases individuals’ labor market value. Such assertions overlook the role of ideology in assigning value to languages and their speakers based on factors other than communicative utility. This article explores the value assigned to Spanish-English bilingualism on the United States labor market through a mixed methods analysis of online job advertisements. Findings suggest that Spanish-English bilingualism is frequently preferred or required for employment in the US, but that such employment opportunities are less lucrative. The results suggest a penalty associated with Spanish-English bilingualism in which positions listing such language requirements advertise lower wages than observationally similar positions. Quantitative disparities and qualitative differences in the specification of language requirements across income levels suggest that bilingual labor is assigned value through a racial lens that leads to linguistic work undertaken by and for US Latinxs being assigned less value

In the Republic of Macedonia lives a multicultural population, which speaks different languages. The Macedonian language is the official language in the Republic of Macedonia that is why every citizen learns that language and knows to speak even though his native language is another one. Bilingualism to the citizens of Gostivar has been developed since ancient times, because there have lived and still do many different nations of different cultures. The development of education significantly influenced in the advancement of bilingualism for citizens of Gostivar. One of the most important socio-cultural factors about learning the foreign languages is considered the family, her cultural and social status. The ratio between the level of the education of the parents and the children's achievements can be explained in different ways. Each educated bilingual parent or multilingual demonstrates an example of a speaker with expressive communication skills in two or more languages. Most of the children are bilingual, because they are exposed in a bilingual or multilingual environment, where are spoken two or more languages simultaneously.

This is a review of a great volume edited by Peeter Mehisto and Fred Genesee in which they  provide a clear picture of the fundamentals of bilingual and multilingual education in the 21st century through examples from a variety of contexts around the world. Most interestingly, the book examines the characteristics of the complex set of factors that interweave in the creation of bilingual and trilingual programmes, and in doing so, it helps to debunk a series of myths and misconceptions about the nature of these programmes and about some wrongly assumed dangers.

The study of grammatical variation in language mixing has been at the core of research into bilingual language practices. Although various motivations have been proposed in the literature to account for possible mixing patterns, some of them are either controversial, or remain untested. Little is still known about whether and how frequency of use of linguistic elements can contribute to the patterning of bilingual talk. This book is the first to systematically explore the factor usage frequency in a corpus of bilingual speech. The two aims are (i) to describe and analyze the variation in mixing patterns in the speech of Russia German adolescents and young adults in Germany, and (ii) to propose and test usage-based explanations of variation in mixing patterns in three morphosyntactic contexts: the adjective-modified noun phrase, the prepositional phrase, and the plural marking of German noun insertions in bilingual sentences. In these contexts, German noun insertions combine with either Russian or German words and grammatical markers, thus yielding mixed bilingual and German monolingual constituents in otherwise Russian sentences, the latter also labelled as embedded-language islands. The results suggest that the frequency with which words are used together mediates the distribution of mixing patterns in each of the examined contexts. The differing impacts of co-occurrence frequency are attributed to the distributional and semantic specifics of the analyzed morphosyntactic configurations. Lexical frequency has been found to be another important determinant in this variation. Other factors include recency, or lexical priming, in discourse in the case of prepositional phrases, and phonological and structural similarities and differences in the inflectional systems of the contact languages in the case of plural marking.

One of the dangers that we should be aware of when we study issues of language policy and planning is the fragmentary perspective by which they can be approached. Reality, by contrast, is interrelated and overlapping. This is why a complexity perspective stresses the importance of studying the contexts of phenomena, that is to say, their external relations. The direction to be followed here leads towards a better understanding of reality as a set of open systems that are in continuous exchange with the surrounding ecosystem, bearing in mind always that any apparent stability is the result of a dynamic equilibrium. Making headway towards an interdisciplinary approach is therefore necessary and imperative.
Headings such as status/normative/institution vis-à-vis others such as solidarity/normal/individual seem to imply a basic distinction in the definition of sociocultural reality. To discover and understand the dynamics of the interaction between these two major categories is, in fact, one of the most important subjects waiting to be addressed by language planning and policy strategies and more broadly by sociolinguistics. An interrelated set of guiding questions for the field could thus be stated as follows: What group or organisation, in pursuit of what overall objective or intention, wants to achieve what, where, how and when; and what do they actually achieve, and why? With this approach, even if how a group or organisation obtains its desired goal – that is, its actual intervention – is included as one of the main elements in a piece of research, the research will not focus exclusively on this topic, but will frame the intervention and identify how it is interrelated with all the other elements involved globally in this phenomenon, trying to establish a clear theoretical understanding of the entire interwoven set of events and processes.

Language matters in education. More precisely, languages matter – not just officially recognised ones, but, crucially, the multilingual repertoires and home language practices of students.
One dimension garnering attention for some decades now is codeswitching or code mixing. This comprises the routine switching between or mixing of different language varieties in everyday social interactions – a pattern of flexible multilingualism that the majority of the world’s communities engage in. You might well do this with family members or friends from different backgrounds, at wet markets, kopitiams and cha chaan tengs, or on social media and hiphop.
Closely related to and a development of this is translanguaging, a concept emerging in early 2000s in the field of bilingual education.
[...]
Prevailing dominant language policies and ideologies nonetheless present real challenges for practice. Scholars’ suggestions include more explicit recognition of diversity (e.g. the value of different varieties of English, including e.g. African American Vernacular English, Singlish), and the inclusion of material that explores and builds on existing cultural and linguistic knowledge of students, to reinforce how content learning in school is not incompatible with home competencies.
The recognition of multilingualism (and multiculturalism) as a resource, not a problem, is truly a cornerstone for inclusive, sustainable education for all.

This monograph examines some of the aspects of language differentiation, code-switching and vocabulary acquisition in children exposed to multiple languages and briefly presents empirical observations of how the meaning of words is construed in multilingual environments.  The study observes two sibling toddlers (ages 5½ and 3½) growing up exposed to Slovak, German, English, Spanish and Italian.  Short dialogs between the children and the caregivers illustrate features of code-switching, code-mixing and borrowing as well as bilingual vocabulary acquisition, specifically identification of meaning, interference, transfer and borrowing, translation equivalents and errors bilingual children make in vocabulary usage.

An experiment investigated whether Japanese speakers' categorisation of objects and substances as shape or material is influenced by acquiring English, based on Imai and Gentner (1997). Subjects were presented with an item such as a cork pyramid and asked to choose between two other items that matched it for shape (plastic pyramid) or for material (piece of cork). The hypotheses were that for simple objects the number of shape-based categorisations would increase according to experience of English and that the preference for shape and material-based categorisations of Japanese speakers of English would differ from monolingual speakers of both languages. Subjects were 18 adult Japanese users of English who had lived in English-speaking countries between 6 months and 3 years (short-stay group), and 18 who had lived in English-speaking countries for 3 years or more (long-stay group). Both groups achieved above criterion on an English vocabulary test. Results were: both groups preferred material responses for simple objects and substances but not for complex objects, in line with Japanese monolinguals, but the long-stay group showed more shape preference than the short-stay group and also were less different from Americans. These effects of acquiring a second language on categorisation have implications for conceptual representation and methodology.

A study of the limits of multilingual literary expression in print culture. Beginning with the insight that multilingual literature defies simple translation, Brian Lennon examines the resistance multilingual literature offers to book publication. Looking closely at the limit of multilingual literary expression and the literary journalism, criticism, and scholarship that comments on multilingual work, In Babel’s Shadow presents a critical reflection on the fate of literature in a world gripped by the crisis of globalization.

An important yet still relatively under researched area of research in immersion studies includes post-secondary immersion research and is increasingly warranted in order to better understand the student experiences of these student. The participants of this case study find themselves in a pivotal life moment as they are transitioning from the K-12 immersion education system to a bilingual post-secondary institution. During this transition, the study examines how Régime d'immersion en français students at the University of Ottawa position themselves and are positioned (Davies & Harré, 1990) towards Francophone language and culture. This study reports on the experiences of three first-year undergraduate students of the Régime d'immersion en français in regards to their linguistic identities. Do they consider themselves as Bilingual, Multilingual, Francophone, Francophile, Anglophone, or Other? Moreover, do their Francophone peers legitimize or challenge these self-ascribed positionings? The study exposes the factors which influenced the linguistic positioning of the participants and comments on patterns in the factors which affected their linguistic identity in particular.

A previous quantitative and qualitative study carried out by the author demonstrated that many of the personality traits that facilitate cultural adaptation or adjustment (the ability to function at a high level in cross-cultural environments) also facilitate gaining fluency in foreign languages (Keeley, 2014; Keeley, 2013; Keeley, 2012). The study employed Kozai Group’s Global Competencies Inventory (GCI), a validated instrument for expatriate selection focusing on the psychological factors demonstrated to facilitate functioning in cross-cultural environments. Optimism is one of the GCI competencies that demonstrated a strong relationship with the development of oral fluency in foreign languages. The objective of this paper is to explore optimism in detail and how it facilitates cross-cultural adjustment and foreign language fluency.

Unless you’ve been living in a galaxy far, far away, you’ll know that 4th May is celebrated by fans as Star Wars Day – playing on the catchphrase “may the force be with you”, where the change of a single sound segment – at the end of the word “force” – gives a different word (known in linguistics as a minimal pair).
Language matters in the Star Wars universe. Interspecies communication is addressed by droids like C-3PO fluent in over 6 million forms of communication, and by an intergalactic lingua franca, Galactic Basic (English to film-goers). Most characters display multilingualism in the form of mutual passive bilingualism – understanding the languages of their interlocutor, but continuing to speak their own. Notably, though, the code mixing and translanguaging practices which are widespread in our real world are not reflected – not even in that marvellous multilingual marketplace of Mos Eisley Cantina.
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At Warruwi, a remote Australian Indigenous community, people use a range of Indigenous languages on a daily basis. Adults speak 3-8 Indigenous languages and these high levels of multilingualism are out of step with current trends which see most Australian Indigenous communities shifting to a single variety be it a variety of English, a contact variety or a traditional Indigenous language. The three Indigenous languages most widely spoken at Warruwi are quite dissimilar as they belong to separate language families. This article discusses three characteristics of language use at Warruwi that are likely to play a role in supporting the levels of multilingualism found there: the diversity of individual linguistic repertoires, receptive multilingual practices whereby interlocutors address one another in different languages and language ideologies that are quite different to those found elsewhere. Characteristics of multilingualism at Warruwi are compared with those reported for other communities with small-scale multilingualism. Francois' (2012) concept of egalitarian multilingualism is used as a starting point for the exploration of models of small-scale multilingualism.

By using data from an online language learning beliefs survey (n=841), defining language learning experience (LLE) in terms of participants’ multilingualism, and using a domain-specific language learning locus of control (LLLOC) instrument, this paper examines whether more experienced language learners can also be seen as more autonomous language learners. Statistical analyses revealed small but significant positive correlations between the three multilingualism measures used and LLLOC scores, with higher scores indicating a more internal LLLOC. Participants with a higher linguistic repertoire size and overall language proficiency, who used their languages more frequently, had higher LLLOC scores than those with less languages at lower levels of proficiency and frequency of use. These findings suggest that more experienced language learners might also be more autonomous learners, as they subscribe to language learning beliefs that are indicative of a more internal LLLOC.

The optimal language for literature and educational materials is not the same for all Zay areas. The data gathered during the current study points to Zay as optimal for the islands on Lake Ziway and Oromo as optimal for the lakeshores. However, the Zay people living on the islands would probably be well served by Amharic literature and educational materials until most of them immigrate to the shore or the Oromo educational system causes a shift in preference to Oromo. Zay’s case is one of an endangered language that could prove to be a development success story, but only if the level of motivation for a language development project is high enough to initiate and sustain the effort.

I explore the ways in which language ideologies are transformed when they are transplanted to diasporic settings as a result of migration. I examine the labelling of Cypriot Greek features as slang by young British-born speakers of Greek Cypriot heritage. Drawing on the analysis of data collected in a Greek complementary school in London, I suggest that slang is applied to Cypriot Greek through a process of re-enregisterment that redefines the contrast it forms with Standard Greek in the model of the slang vs posh English binary, which is local to the London context and is constructed along the lines of the ideological schemata of properness and correctness that also define the opposition between Cypriot Greek and Standard Greek in Cyprus. I propose that the policy and practice of teaching Greek in the school is a key enabler in this process as it constructs Standard Greek as a language that can and must be written and Cypriot Greek as a language that can only be spoken but never written. This allows complementary school pupils to draw links with institutional discourses they are exposed to in mainstream education about the inappropriateness of including elements labelled as slang in their writing.