Editorial

Anita Lämmerer,Sarah Mercer

doi:10.14746/ssllt.2019.9.3.1

Abstract

This collection of papers has emerged from the Language Education across Borders conference held at the University of Graz, Austria in 2017 (see also Kostoulas, 2019). In the age of translanguaging, multilingualism, multiculturalism, globalization, international migration, transnationalism, and the blending of content and language education, there is an ever greater need in language education to reflect on the interconnections and overlap between languages, disciplines, constructs, and contexts that have traditionally been conceptualized in bounded ways. Instead, professional and personal domains have got increasingly permeable boundaries leading to emergent qualities that require new ways of theorizing, researching and teaching. The idea behind the conference was to promote interdisciplinary exchange and encourage people to challenge the notions of borders of all kinds. The aim was to promote discourse and exchange and re-think the fragmentation and separation imposed by borders – real or imagined. It was hoped that by prompting people to reflect on the kinds of borders that bound their research and practice, we would be challenged to think outside of these borders and find the rich, creative space that can lead to innovation and fresh perspectives on the familiar.

Highlights

We believe that the articles in this special issue illustrate just how widely the authors have engaged with this notion of “border crossing.” Borders mentioned in the articles include geographical borders, cultural borders, linguistic borders, socio-cultural borders, psychological borders, disciplinary borders, as well as the border between digital and non-digital domains
This is a rich, varied collection of papers that highlight some of the ways in which learners can cross borders and how these border crossings can be harnessed to generate rich affordances for learning
The work we do will need to challenge and extend traditional linguistic, cultural, social, physical and disciplinary boundaries in order to meet the demands that this ever-changing new reality implies as well as reap the benefits for learners and teachers of those rich, fertile trans-border spaces

Summary

Introduction

We believe that the articles in this special issue illustrate just how widely the authors have engaged with this notion of “border crossing.” Borders mentioned in the articles include geographical borders, cultural borders, linguistic borders, socio-cultural borders, psychological borders, disciplinary borders, as well as the border between digital and non-digital domains. There remains much work that can be done in interdisciplinary and cross-border spaces. The research agenda for work in hybrid, blended, interconnected and transdisciplinary spaces remains excitingly open for exploration in theoretical, empirical and practical terms.

Results

Conclusion