Training Course: Researching multilingualism: concepts, methods and issues

This 5-day residential course is designed for post-Foundation doctoral researchers and for (early careers) post-doctoral researchers who are engaged in research on multilingualism. The aim is to build a network of researchers who are concerned with the refinement, consolidation and development of approaches to the study of multilingualism in different contexts.

Researching multilingualism

The last two decades have seen a rapidly growing interest, internationally, in research on bilingualism and multilingualism. This is largely due to the significant linguistic, cultural and demographic changes that have been ushered in by globalisation, by transnational population flows, by the advent of new technology, by the changing political and economic landscape of Europe and the accession of new nation-states to the European Union and, in the UK, by language policy changes introduced in the wake of political devolution.

The last two decades have also seen the emergence of new strands of research on multilingualism and new lines of enquiry which have incorporated critical and post-structuralist perspectives from social theory and which have embraced new epistemologies and research methods. Different research strategies have been employed in different kinds of sociolinguistic spaces: in local neighbourhoods, across transnational diaspora, in multilingual workplaces, complementary schools/community classes, mainstream educational settings, health care centres, religious gatherings, legal settings, bureaucratic encounters and in the mass media, on the internet. Researchers have provided detailed accounts of face to face encounters in multilingual settings and in mediated, virtual interactions. They have also explored the interface between spoken and written language use and multimodality, seeking connections between local situated practices and wider social processes.

These new strands of research on multilingualism have not only deepened our understanding of the particularities of the multilingual practices emerging in specific research sites. They have also begun to provide new insights into the nature of the changes taking place within the wider communicative order. Research in multilingual settings is thus making a significant contribution to the forging of a new sociolinguistics which is better attuned to the description and analysis of the profound linguistic, cultural and societal changes taking place in the late modern era.

The 5-day residential course at Birmingham

The 5-day course will be organised into sessions, with different themes and orienting theories. The sessions will be led by different members of the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism and by guest lecturers.

Applications:

The number of participants on the July 2010 course is limited to 30, so early application is recommended. Application forms and further details are available on

www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/MOSAIC/News_and_Events.shtml. They can also be requested from Jacqui Wootton ( j.wootton@bham.ac.uk).  The deadline for submission of applications is April 30, 2010.