James, all,
I think those are key quotes you've given in your 6th January reply to the London Languages map thread, which summarise nicely for me the way I tend to view how language works in a "multilingual" context. I think John Sutter offered some similar insight on this list a while back now - basically problematising the "countability" of languages, if I can put it like that. But it raises problems for language teachers, eg ESOL teachers, doesn't it? Given that teachers, learners, other stakeholders (funders) tend to "buy in" to a product/process with a single language label "on the tin" - be it English learning, Gaelic learning, or whatever...
Here in the Hebrides, we have both ESOL learners and Gaelic learners, coming from a range of "L1" backgrounds, including Polish, Russian, English and others. We try, through "Island Voices", to respond to learners' particular needs in a unifying community project encompassing as wide a range as possible of linguistic resources that might be brought to bear, and which includes other community members (not just "language learners") and local multimodal community media (print, online, perhaps FM radio too in the not too distant future). Nice in theory, but not always easy in practice!
I'd be interested to hear of any other projects around the UK adopting a similar approach. Perhaps we could swap notes?
Here's a link to Island Voices: http://guthan.wordpress.com/about/
James Simpson wrote>
"... “Researchers such as Garcia, Blackledge & Creese, and Conteh have adopted the term translanguaging as an alternative to codeswitching, to describe the usual and normal practice in multilingual environments (including some classrooms) of ‘bilingualism without diglossic functional separation’ (Garcia 2007: xii) or ‘flexible bilingualism’ (Conteh forthcoming). This points to an understanding of languages not as hermetically sealed and bounded entities. Rather, in this use-informed view, the focus is on an individual’s communicative repertoire made up of a set of linguistic and semiotic resources (see also Blommaert and Backus 2011).”
Later in that paper I quote Suzanne Romaine, whose work can be marshalled in support of a criticue of a ‘census’ view of languages. ‘The very concept of discrete languages is probably a European cultural artefact fostered by procedures such as literacy and standardization. Any attempt to count languages will be an artefact of classificatory procedures rather than a reflection of communicative practices’ (1994: 12). ..."
Best regards,
Gordon
***********************************
ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds.
To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html
A quick guide to using Jiscmail lists can be found at:
http://jiscmail.ac.uk/help/using/quickuser.htm
To contact the list owner, send an email to
[log in to unmask]
|