28.3387, Review: Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Grucza, Olpińska-Szkiełko, Romanowski (2016)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3387. Thu Aug 10 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3387, Review: Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Grucza, Olpińska-Szkiełko, Romanowski (2016)

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté,
                                   Michael Czerniakowski)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Clare Harshey <clare at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2017 13:59:16
From: Maria Claudia Petrescu [maria.petrescu at utoronto.ca]
Subject: Advances in Understanding Multilingualism: A Global Perspective

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36218857


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-1690.html

EDITOR: Sambor  Grucza
EDITOR: Magdalena  Olpińska-Szkiełko
EDITOR: Piotr  Romanowski
TITLE: Advances in Understanding Multilingualism: A Global Perspective
SERIES TITLE: Warschauer Studien zur Germanistik und zur Angewandten Linguistik - Band 24
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Maria Claudia Petrescu, University of Toronto at Scarborough

REVIEWS EDITOR: Robert A. Coté

SUMMARY

“Advances in Understanding Multilingualism: A Global Perspective” edited by
Sambor Gruzca, Magdalena Olpinska-Szkielko and Piotr Romanowski, is a
collection of 10 chapters containing studies that explores questions related
to multilingualism in an interdisciplinary fashion providing perspectives and
evidence from various strands of study.

Chapter 1, “Multilingualism and Multimodality in Luxembourgish Early Childhood
Education” by Katja Andersen, presents a pilot study conducted in Luxembourg,
a country with three official languages. The study’s focus is on capturing the
language use among children and practitioners in both formal and informal
early childhood education. The qualitative methods used were rooted in the
grounded theory, a research methodology that operates inductively, potentially
leading to the formation of a new theory (K. Charmaz, 2006, as mentioned in
Grucza, Olpinska-Szkiełko & Romanowski), and draws on self video-recordings of
multilingual pedagogical practices on which practitioners reflected and
discussed during mentoring sessions. The findings of the study underline the
importance of developing appropriate visual materials in order to create and
enhance the multilingual opportunities in classrooms. The findings also show
empirically how the use of other languages in a classroom by practitioners
activate and support a dynamic multilingualism of the children in the
classroom.  The author concludes the chapter by offering suggestions for
implementing multilingual policies that help children develop and maintain
their multilingualism. Specifically, Andersen mentions the development of
appropriate visual materials, the use of multimodal communication in classes,
as well as ongoing reflection on their own practices by practitioners.   

In Chapter 2, “From Multilingualism to Bilingualism – and Back? Charting the
Impact of Language Planning in Singapore”, Wai Meng Chan analyzes the major
transformations that Singapore’s linguistic landscape has undergone since the
country’s language policy was implemented 50 years ago by the government. The
author first reviews the bilingual educational policy implemented in 1966,
intended to be additive in nature. The findings reveal that despite the
adoption of four official languages (Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and English) and
a policy of societal multilingualism, Singapore became an “English-knowing
bilingual society” by 1990 (p.29).  This was due to the fact that English was
chosen as the language of commerce and business aimed at building better
inter-ethnic communication, thus, leading to an unintended subtractive
outcome. This outcome manifested in the replacement of home languages by
English and a loss of Chinese vernaculars and Indian mother tongue languages
with the younger generations of Singaporeans.  To address this issue,
Singapore expended its language policy to the teaching of a third language in
a hope to better equip Singaporeans to be successful in a globalized world and
to help them develop linguistic competency necessary to communicate within the
ethnic groups present in Singapore. While the new language policy has the
potential of restoring multilingualism, the author points out that for the
time being “it seems to be leading to a form of prestigious multilingualism”. 

Chapter 3, “The Role of Formal Instruction in the Maintenance of Heritage
Language: The Case of Croatian Language” by Lidija Cvikić, Jasna Novak Milić,
Katarina Aladrović Slovaček, investigates the role of formal language
instruction for the learning and maintenance of Croatian as a heritage
language. In order to achieve their aim, the authors collected a large set of
data from participants living in various countries in North and South America,
Europe, Asia, and New Zealand. Data included demographic information,
self-assessment of the knowledge of Croatian and the host country’s language,
the participants’ attitude towards the Croatian culture and the importance of
maintaining the Croatian language as well as the use patterns of Croatian in
the participants’ daily lives. The findings reveal that despite numerous
factors that lead to the maintenance of Croatian as a heritage language,
formal instruction is of utmost importance and contributes to both the general
language proficiency and the speakers’ attitudes towards the language and
culture. The authors point out that the findings have an important implication
for language policies and planning in that the learning of the heritage
languages should not be left solely to the families or communities but should
be an integral part of the educational programs of host countries.

In Chapter 4, “Globalization and Linguistic Diversity in Switzerland: Insights
from the Roles of National Languages and English as a Foreign Language”, Kyria
Finardi and Virág Csillagh  discuss the linguistic diversity and language
policies in Switzerland with a detailed focus on analyzing the linguistic
diversity and practices at University of Geneva (UNIGE), one of Europe’s
leading universities and second biggest university in Switzerland. The
university is host to a pool of students and teaching staff with diverse
linguistic backgrounds and offers courses about or in 17 languages. Using a
mixed method design, the authors collected information from 375 university
students from four different universities at UNIGE using an online
questionnaire that focused on the students’ attitudes towards English.  The
results revealed that social and economic considerations both locally and
globally play an integral role in the attitudes and language practices among
the UNIGE students. The study proposes a change in language policies that
reflect the realities of both the local and global contexts and which support
educational institutions in their mission to prepare the citizens for the
multilingual world we live in today. 

Chapter 5, “Intergenerational transmission of Minority Languages in New
Zealand: Methodological Issues”, by Jeanette King and Una Cunningham  analyzes
the extent to which minority language speakers in New Zealand transmit their
language to their children. They report on the “bilingual teens” project,
which focuses on the successful stories of intergenerational transmission of
minority languages to teenage children. The information was gathered from
official census data on language ability as well as interviews with parents
and their teenage children. However, at the time of the publication, only the
data provided by the census was available and analyzed. This data revealed
that for the intergenerational transmission of languages to be successful, the
children would have to be born and live outside of New Zealand before
immigrating to New Zealand and have two speakers of the minority language in
the household (preferably parents). The data also revealed the possibility
that, due to a noticed halt in the children’s development of the home language
beyond their childhood, parents find it possibly more difficult to promote and
support transmission of the language for older children.  This can be
confirmed by the interviews that have the potential to reveal nuanced
information at the micro level of the family, information that will complete
the macro picture offered by the census data.

Chapter 6, “(Re) Reading Otherness: Translanguaging Processes in the
Linguistic Landscape of Macau” by Ana Cristina Neves explores the presence of
the translanguaging phenomena in Macau, a multilingual community that employs
more than one writing system. In order to analyze the types of interactions
between the three main languages (Chinese, English, and Portuguese) and
different writing systems (e.g. the Arabic and Chinese numeric system, the
Romanized Cantonese, etc.), the author analyzes 495 pictures, signs, and
announcements by paying particular attention to the following phenomena:
code-mixing, intralingual translation, intersemiotic translation, interlingual
translation, as well as slogans, romanization and syllabification. The
analysis reveals a process of appropriation to the context as well as a
process of Romanization for proper names, especially when Portugueses is the
target language. Similarly, English is the associated language for co-texts,
slogans, and brand names. The findings underline the complexity of the
linguistic landscape in Macau.

In Chapter 7, “Multilingual Upbringing by Parents of Different Nationalities:
Which Strategies Work Best?” authors Michał B. Paradowski, Aleksandra Bator,
and Monika Michałowska focus on the methods and strategies used by parents who
aim to raise their children multilingually. The authors provide an overview of
the theoretical issues in the field of bi/multilingualism research as well as
issues surrounding multilingual upbringing before presenting and discussing
the findings of their study, which surveyed 37 families with parents of
different nationalities but who decided to raise their children bi- or
multi-lingually. The purpose of the study was threefold. First, the authors
aimed to collect information on the linguistic strategies that families used.
Second, the study analyzed the parents’ opinions on the efficacy of the
methods used. Finally, the study tried to establish what, if anything, would
parents change in their strategies. The study revealed that parents used a
variety of methods in the process of upbringing, with some families applying
“one parent-one language” method while others choosing to use more than one
language when communicating to their children.  Regardless of the method
chosen, the parents expressed satisfaction with their choices with a majority
showing confidence in their approaches and that they would not change anything
in the process. Overall, the analysis showed that bi/multilingualism does not
lead to confusion or communication problems among families and their children.
 

Chapter 8, “Bridging the Gap between Policies and Practices Related to
Multilingualism in Schools in Southern European States” by Stefania Scaglione
and Sandro Caruana,  surveys and discusses the language policies present in
five Southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Malta) by
analyzing the degree to which such policies promote plurilingualism and
linguistic diversity. The aforementioned countries have been attractive
destinations for immigrants in recent years, opening the door to linguistic
diversity and multilingualism. The analysis is done at both the macro-level,
by looking into the local educational policies and to what extent they promote
interlinguistic and intercultural awareness, as well as the micro-level by
analyzing if such plurilingual practices are present in the every-day
classroom. The study reveals an indifference and a neglect on the educators’
part to the children’s home languages and points to a need for bridging the
gap between educational policies and practices in order to create a learning
environment that fosters awareness towards multilingualism and related issues.

In Chapter 9, “Policies of Multilingualism in the European Union: How
Compatible is the Policy with Actual Practice?” Kutlay Yagmur  reports the
findings of the Language Rich Europe project conducted in 24 European
countries and regions. The aim of the project was to investigate the
multilingual practices in these areas by comparing them against European
documents and recommendations provided by the European Commission and the
Council of Europe. The larger scope of the project was to share successful
policies and practices in language learning and teaching across Europe as well
as to improve cooperation within the European space on improving such
practices. The comparative findings highlight some interesting trends in
bi/multilingual policies and practices in the European context. While some
countries/regions have highly developed policies and practices in specific
domains, others need to further develop in order to align more closely with
the European recommendations and create linguistically diverse societies.
Also, importantly, most of the efforts made to promote linguistic diversity
have been in the primary and secondary education, which draws attention to the
need to put such policies into practice in the higher education as well. Also,
the study revealed that the immigrant languages receive less attention and
support than the national languages, suggesting a need for more inclusive
language policies given the realities of a mobile and migrating population in
Europe. 

Chapter 10, “The Geography of Language Skills and Language(-Related)
Disorders: A Case of Frankfurt/Main” Eugen Zaretsky and Benjamin P. Lange aims
to identify the relationship between the geographic distribution of the
sociolinguistic characteristics of German preschoolers in Frankfurt/Main. The
authors conducted statistical analysis to identify the linguistically weakest
and strongest districts of both monolingual German and bi/multilingual
preschoolers in the city as well as the contributing factors. The authors
found that better German skills have been found in the districts with two
characteristics: (i) higher income, less unemployment, larger living area and
fewer single parents; and (ii) less immigrants (with a few exceptions, such as
Italians, generally Europeans, Americans), low percentage of foreigners, of
Germans and children with an immigration background, as well as less families
with children. The authors found strong correlations between some of these
factors (such as, income, immigration background), but they found no
correlation between the demographic characteristics of districts and the
children’s language skills. This suggests that the children’s linguistic
advancement is not predetermined by the districts in which they live. The
relationship between the language skills and the district’s characteristic may
be mediated by other social and sociolinguistic factors suggesting that
children from poor districts also have a chance to speak the target language
age-appropriately.

EVALUATION

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the importance of multilingualism
by analysing it from different points of view and taking us on a journey of
multilingualism from Europe, to Macau, to New Zealand and Singapore,
highlighting the global reach of this phenomenon.  The fact that the authors
of the studies included in the volume come from different universities from
all over the world is also a reflection of the importance of the topic and its
global reach, and it helped achieve the editors’ promise made in the editorial
note, for a “highly informative and satisfying lecture”.  

The book is written in a user-friendly manner, and it is aimed at
professionals, graduate students, and researchers interested in a
multi-disciplinary approach to the study of multilingualism. The languages and
communities under investigation are also very diverse and less-researched. For
example, we have Croatian as a heritage language under investigation in the
study by Cvikić et al.,  whose participants hail from five continents.  Also,
in Chapter 8, Scaglione and Caruana focus their attention on analyzing the
educational policies and practices in five Southern European countries
(Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Malta) in order to determine the
effectiveness of these practices on promoting and maintaining multilingualism.

One strength of the book lies in its interdisciplinary approach to answering
questions around multilingualism and providing insights into a variety of
issues and research questions and approaches. For examples, some of the
studies investigate the issue of multilingualism in childhood (Chapters 1 and 
7), while others examine the language policies and linguistic landscapes
present in certain communities and how they relate to multilingualism (Chapter
6 and 9), and another assesses and discusses various methodological issues
involved in studying the extent to which minority languages are passed to the
next generation using census data and interview data (Chapter 5).  Another
major plus of this book is that it offers original studies discussing rich
qualitative and/or quantitative data.  If I were to point out a minor
drawback, it would be the lack of inclusion of studies that provide insight on
the issue of multilingualism from a psycholinguistic or neurolinguistics
perspective. In my opinion, this would have added to the collection and would
have made for a more comprehensive perspective. Nevertheless, this observation
does not detract from the overall quality of the book. In fact, the
comprehensiveness of the studies included and the unique contexts in which
they were conducted make for a valuable collection that will appeal to many. 
The book remains of great interest to students and researchers who have an
interest in the issue of multilingualism and who are “engaged in the
developing and shaping of language policies as well as educational policies on
the local and even international level (EU)” (p.10).

References:

Grucza, S., Olpińska-Szkiełko, M., & Romanowski, P. (2016). Advances in
Understanding Multilingualism: A Global Perspective. Frankfurt am Main: Peter
Lang International Academic Publishing


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

I earned a Ph.D. in Second Language Education from the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education, University of Toronto. My research interests include
child language acquisition, bilingualism/multilingualism, minority language
learning and maintenance, and heritage languages.





------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
            http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3387	
----------------------------------------------------------
Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated
from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
          http://multitree.org/