Multilingual Perspective Research Articles

Dual language programs: an exploration of bilingual students’ academic achievement, language proficiencies and engagement using a mixed methods approach

ABSTRACT Employing a mixed-methods research design, this study examines how a newly designed dual language program in an urban school advances language proficiencies among Spanish-English bilingual 6th graders in relation to content area achievement as measured on NYS standardized tests in English Language Arts and Math. It further investigates how students’ emotional (school identification) and behavioral engagement (language learning commitment) relate to bilingual language proficiencies. The results drawn from both quantitative and qualitative data indicate that bilingual students benefitted from attending a dual language program. It contributes positively to students’ academic achievement, bilingual school identification and commitment to language learning. With respect to language development, the study found that English proficiency in productive skills was positively correlated with standardized test scores. Spanish proficiency was positively correlated with students’ commitment to language learning. Spanish and English languages play different but equally important functions in the dual language program. However, students, face challenges in sustaining learning the two languages in school; we show that students experience a gradual language shift from Spanish to English. The study underscores the potential benefits of a multilingual proficiency perspective theory among the students and in preparing bilingual teachers.

English language in education and globalization: a comparative analysis of the role of English in Pakistan and China

ABSTRACTThis paper explores language ideology, policies and the role of English in Pakistan and China, two countries in which English plays different roles in education. Owing to globalization and communication development, the role of the English language is changing; thus, there is need to change the policies and ideologies surrounding English instruction, particularly when English functions as a lingua franca. In Pakistan, the role of the English language is linked with language ideology due to the country’s British colonial background. The society is still divided on the role of English and the colonial mindset persists in language ideology and instructional practices. By contrast, English is taught as a foreign language in China because it is not a postcolonial language. While the English language fulfils people’s different communication needs, there is a concern that people might lose their own identity if English is viewed as more important than their own mother tongue. Therefore, this paper summarizes how the debate related to English language teaching is linked to various language ideologies. Finally, this paper argues for the importance of viewing English language teaching through a multilingual perspective, and contextualizing language policies to readdress learners’ different needs and goals of English learning.

Functions and translations of discourse markers in TED Talks: A parallel corpus study of underspecification in five languages

Discourse markers are highly polyfunctional, particularly in spoken settings. Because of their syntactic optionality, they are often omitted in translations, especially in the restricted space of subtitles such as the parallel transcripts of TED Talks. In this study, we combine discourse annotation and translation spotting to investigate English discourse markers, focusing on their functions, omission and translation equivalents in Czech, French, Hungarian and Lithuanian. In particular, we study them through the lens of underspecification, of which we distinguish one monolingual and two multilingual types. After making an inventory of all discourse markers in the dataset, we zoom in on the three most frequent and, but and so. Our small-scale yet fine-grained corpus study suggests that the processes of underspecification are based on the semantics of discourse markers and are therefore shared cross-linguistically. However, not all discourse marker types nor their functions are equally affected by underspecification. Moreover, monolingual and multilingual underspecification do not always map for a particular marker. Beyond the empirical analysis of three highly frequent discourse markers in a sample of TED Talks, this study illustrates how translation and annotation can be combined to explore the multiple facets of underspecification in a monolingual and multilingual perspective.

¿Por qué estamos code-switching? Understanding language use in a second-grade classroom

ABSTRACT In this qualitative linguistic ethnography, we combine a multilingual perspective on translanguaging with humanizing pedagogies to examine how and for what purposes a second-grade teacher and her students used Spanish and English in support of language development during a literacy-based English Language Development block within a paired literacy bilingual education model. Data analyses included deductive and inductive coding of multilingual exchanges, specifically drawing upon Baker’s 13 overlapping purposes for codeswitching. Findings reveal that the teacher and students employed seven of Baker’s purposes, while also exhibiting three additional purposes: (1) Respect and Terms of Endearment, (2) Excitement, and (3) Intentional Pedagogical Use to Expand Metalinguistic Awareness. Our discussion includes pedagogical implications for biliteracy instruction.

TWITTIRÒ: an Italian Twitter Corpus with a Multi-layered Annotation for Irony

Provided the difficulties that still affect a correct identification of irony within the context of Sentiment Analysis tasks, in this paper we describe the main issues emerged during the development of a novel resource for Italian annotated for irony. The project mainly consists in the application on the Twitter corpus TWITTIRÒ of a multi-layered scheme for the fine-grained annotation of irony, as proposed in a multilingual setting and previously applied also on French and English datasets (Karoui et al. 2017). In applying the annotation on this corpus, we outline and discuss the issues and peculiarities emerged about the exploitation of the semantic scheme for Twitter textual messages in Italian, thus shedding some lights on the future directions that can be followed in the multilingual and cross-language perspective too. We present, in particular, an analysis of the annotation process and distribution of the labels of each layer involved in the scheme. This is supported by a discussion of the outcome of the annotation carried on by native Italian speakers in the development of the corpus. In particular, an in-depth discussion of the inter-annotator agreement and of the sources of disagreement is included. The result is a novel gold standard corpus for irony detection in Italian, which enriches the scenario of multilingual datasets available for this challenging task and is ready to be used as a benchmark in automatic irony detection experiments and evaluation campaigns.

Vías de transformación en la enseñanza de lenguas con mediación tecnológica

Los avances en la integración de las competencias digitales en la enseñanza de segundas lenguas en las últimas décadas han formado parte de ámbitos aislados, centrados en una lengua específica o en contextos educativos concretos. Este recorrido, asimismo, ha puesto de manifiesto diferentes barreras o dificultades en el proceso de integración de las tecnologías en el desarrollo de la enseñanza-aprendizaje que, para ser resueltas, deben afrontarse desde un paradigma ideológico y educativo renovado. El objetivo de este volumen es precisamente caminar hacia la construcción de una dimensión de trabajo global con la apertura de nuevas vías de transformación en la concepción de la enseñanza de lenguas con mediación tecnológica en un sentido amplio, desde una necesaria perspectiva multilingüe y multimodal, donde todos los participantes en el proceso puedan favorecerse de los avances realizados de una forma dinámica, constructiva y sinérgica. Todo ello responde sin duda a la necesidad de responder con soluciones adaptativas al contexto en el que se desarrolla la construcción de las sociedades actuales, incluyendo en ellas la dimensión digital multilingüe.

Translanguaging in multilingual third grade ESL classrooms in Mindanao, Philippines

ABSTRACTWith the present implementation of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines, this study investigated the language practices of teachers and learners (collectively ‘participants’) in the teaching and learning of English as a second language (ESL) in two Third Grade classrooms in a multilingual city in the Philippines. Using qualitative measures (classroom observations, semi-structured interviews), this study primarily found that the participants used language practices, which this study argues should be subsumed under translanguaging, either explicitly or implicitly, to mediate their communicative functions that are crucial in ESL classrooms. Through translanguaging, the teachers were able to present their lessons, conduct classroom discussions, enhance students’ understanding, and manage student behaviour more effectively and efficiently; and the students, in turn, were able to participate in classroom discussions and substantively demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. This study posits that multilingual teachers and learners utilise their language practices in the classroom to enhance meaning amongst themselves and between them and their tasks. This study further argues that since translanguaging is demonstrated by the participants as their inherent practice as multilinguals, it can be better understood when viewed from the perspective of multilingualism.

Development of discourse-pragmatic markers in a multilingual classroom: A mixed method research approach

Research has shown that being multilingual is a valuable asset for learning pragmatics. By adopting a multilingual turn perspective, this study investigates patterns of pragmatic development in the multilingual classroom setting of the Valencian Community in Spain, where English, Catalan and Spanish coexist. Participants were 313 learners of English and 15 teachers. Each learner wrote three argumentative essays over one academic year in three languages: English, Catalan and Spanish. A mixed method approach was followed to examine learning trajectories of two types of discourse-pragmatic markers: textual and interpersonal markers. Quantitative results revealed significant gains in the production of textual discourse-pragmatic markers in English, while interpersonal discourse-pragmatic markers followed an irregular pattern. Findings also revealed variations in discourse-pragmatic marker learning trajectories in English, Catalan and Spanish: learning trajectories in the minority language (Catalan) and the L3 (English) were more fluctuating and the patterns interacted with each other, which contrasted with the linear development found in the majority language (Spanish). Qualitative findings are discussed to illustrate how factors such as learners' pragmatic awareness, teachers’ practices and the sociolinguistic context of the study may interact in the process of pragmatic learning in the multilingual classroom.

Examining authentic and elicited data from a multilingual perspective. The real picture of child requestive behaviour in the L3 classroom

While child requestive behavior has received some attention in SLA research, very few studies have considered requests production and comprehension in young learners from a multilingual perspective (Safont & Portolés, 2015, 2016; Portolés, 2015; Safont, 2017). However, data in previous studies were obtained either from completion tests or from natural classroom discourse. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have explored young learners’ requests in three languages by combining both authentic and elicited data.For that reason, the aim of the present study is to provide a comprehensive picture of child requestive behavior in the multilingual classroom setting. We examine 127 young learners' requests comprehension and production in three languages by combining elicited and authentic data. Additionally, we investigate the effect of the language program adopted by the schools. Our results show that the combination of methods offers new evidence on the dynamism and complexity of L3 pragmatics. Findings further confirm the idea that we may best describe multilingual speakers' requestive behaviour by including all learners' languages and by resorting to authentic and elicited data. As a conclusion, we suggest that a monolingual approach in the study of pragmatics may provide us with a partial portrait of L3 learners’ pragmatic development.

Mother Tongue Education: A Quest of Quality and Access in Education

As it is claimed and is the ground reality that language is not everything but everything is nothing in education without language. Moreover, language shapes the learning and learning begins with language. In this regards, this article attempts to review the multilingual perspectives in terms of access and quality in education through mother tongue based education advocacy. It is theoretical in nature which is based on the secondary sources of theoretical review and tries to justify with policy and practice based rational for mother tongue education in Nepalese context.Journal of NELTA Surkhet, Vol. 5 January, 2018, Page: 65-74

Deaf lecturers’ translanguaging in a higher education setting. A multimodal multilingual perspective

AbstractIn a few universities around the world courses are offered where the primary language of instruction is a national sign language. Many of these courses are given by bilingual/multilingual deaf lecturers, skilled in both national sign language(s) and spoken/written language(s). Research on such deaf-led practices in higher education are lacking, and this study will contribute to a greater understanding of these practices. Drawing on ethnographically created data from a higher education setting in Sweden, this case study examines the use of different languages and modalities by three deaf lecturers when teaching deaf and hearing (signing) students in theoretic subjects. The analysis is based on video-recordings of the deaf lecturers during classroom activities at a basic university level in which Swedish Sign Language (SSL) is used as the primary language. The results illustrate how these deaf lecturers creatively use diverse semiotic resources in several modes when teaching deaf and hearing (signing) students, which creates practices of translanguaging. This is illustrated by classroom activities in which the deaf lecturers use different language and modal varieties, including sign languages SSL and ASL as well as Swedish, and English, along with PowerPoint and whiteboard notes. The characteristics of these multimodal-multilingual resources and the usage of them will be closely presented in this article.

Coda 2 A bridge half‐built: Toward a holistic theory of Second Language Acquisition and world Englishes

AbstractIn the concluding contribution to this special issue, we return to the key issue that motivated our 1986 article on world Englishes (WE) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This coda begins by considering the impact of WE on SLA at a number of levels, with reference to the pluricentricity of English, conceptions of the ‘native speaker’, formalist ontology, functional perspectives, multilingualism, and other dynamic approaches to SLA. We then proceed to consider recent critiques of the WE paradigm, before moving to a discussion of the current synergy between world Englishes and Second Language Acquisition studies, noting that in many contemporary approaches to SLA, ‘the monolingual bias has given way to a multilingual turn.’ Nevertheless, even if there is a far greater appreciation of world Englishes than three decades ago, it is still evidently the case that textbooks in Second Language Acquisition continue to be focused on cognitive and structural dimensions of language acquisition, and often fail to incorporate social, functional and multilingual perspectives.

World Englishes and Second Language Acquisition

AbstractThis article starts with an overview of the broad field of studies concerned with world Englishes (WE), before moving on to a discussion of current debates on world Englishes, and the central issue of world Englishes and Second Language Acquisition. The later sections of this article then consider various ways of bridging the gap between the fields of world Englishes and Second Language Acquisition, highlighting the importance of a multilingual perspective in this context.

Re-examining English and/in the Geography of (World) Literature

Re-examining English and/in the Geography of (World) Literature

Ideology and identity debate of English in China: past, present and future

The sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects of English language teaching (ELT) have become fundamental because language does not exist in a vacuum, especially when English is used today as a global language. This needs an understanding of English in relation to ideology and identity debate in different contexts. From the paradigm of global Englishes, this paper first presents the history of English in China and addresses the China English debate. The paper then moves to the ideology and identity debate of the English language on the Chinese language and culture and English as a medium of instruction as an example of language policy. From students’ interview data, this paper argues for the importance of viewing ELT from the multilingual perspective. It concludes that ELT should be equipped with a critical understanding of English as a global language and reconsidering the negotiation of local languages and English from a sociocultural and sociopolitical perspective.

The acquisition of heritage languages by Silvina Montrul

Reviewed by: The acquisition of heritage languages by Silvina Montrul Julio Torres The acquisition of heritage languages. By Silvina Montrul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. 364. ISBN 9781107007246. $125 (Hb). Silvina Montrul, a prominent scholar and voice in the field of heritage language acquisition, has published a new book that successfully positions the study of heritage languages in the mainstream as well as in the crossroads between subdisciplines in language science and applied studies. M accomplishes this task by providing the reader with a synthesis and analysis of cross-disciplinary research that has paved the way to a deeper understanding of the theoretical and empirical issues pertinent to the bilingual experience of heritage speakers. Her central claim in this book is that heritage languages are indeed native languages, but in a bilingual environment, which leads to divergent developmental patterns and outcomes in comparison to the experience of monolingual native speakers. Further, this experience is complicated by the nonuniformity of developmental profiles among individuals, which in conjunction with distinct grammatical properties lead to various degrees of linguistic knowledge and performance in the heritage language. As such, The acquisition of heritage languages seeks to provide evidence for these claims through an overview of twenty years of scholarly work summarized in nine chapters. The introductory chapter (Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’) lays out the foundation for the premise of the book and a particular argument against perceiving the field of heritage languages as atheoretical. Rather, the field has benefited from theoretical claims from other linguistic subfields, and relevant comparisons can be made between heritage languages and first and second languages. In Ch. 2 (‘Heritage languages and heritage speakers’), M argues that defining who qualifies as a heritage speaker is rather complex, and she elaborates on all of the factors that characterize a variety of heritage speaker profiles. Ch. 3 (‘The language of heritage speakers’) summarizes common patterns observed across heritage languages and contexts in different linguistic domains such as lexis, syntax, phonology, and phonetics. Proficiency levels among heritage bilingual speakers are quite variable, and Ch. 4 (‘The bilingual development of heritage speakers’) examines the individual learner factors and experiences (e.g. quantity and quality of input) that lead to the vast differences often observed in heritage speakers’ linguistic knowledge. In Ch. 5 (‘Theoretical approaches’), M discusses the contention that the field of heritage language acquisition ought to be grounded within contemporary theories of language, with particular attention to a multilingual perspective. The subsequent chapter (Ch. 6, ‘Methodological considerations’) focuses on current practices and issues regarding research methods employed across heritage language empirical studies, including a critical section on determining a baseline for comparison purposes. Ch. 7 (‘How native are heritage speakers?’) addresses differences and similarities between heritage speakers and monolingual native speakers across linguistic domains, and, most importantly, M provides reasons that may account for these differences. Ch. 8 (‘Are heritage speakers like second language learners?’) makes comparisons between heritage and second language learners by taking into account theoretical issues that have been pertinent to adult second language acquisition. M ends the book with a chapter on how heritage language research can inform theoretical claims in language science, teaching and curriculum design in language education, and language policies (Ch. 9, ‘Some implications’). This book is a mandatory read for new and seasoned scholars in the field of heritage language acquisition, as it provides the reader with a synthesis of theoretical and empirical knowledge relevant to researchers and practitioners who work with heritage language bilinguals. While the book makes several contributions, I highlight here two specific issues that are critical as the field [End Page 223] moves forward. One is validating the key contributions heritage language research has made to an array of theoretical positions regarding language science. While scholars have argued for a theory of heritage language acquisition (e.g. Lynch 2003), M provides a compelling argument for adapting existing theories of language (e.g. universal grammar, emergentism, variationist sociolinguistics); these theories can contribute to as well as benefit from data from heritage language studies. This symbiotic relationship would further elucidate inquiries into the nature of language acquisition. However, whether the field needs to develop its own theory of heritage...

Going covert: Inner and private speech in language learning

Roughly 30 years ago researchers in the second language acquisition (SLA) field started to take a focused interest in the study of inner speech (IS) and private speech (PS) processes in second language (L2) learning and use. The purpose of this review is to assess the status of current research and the progress made during the last ten years on the development and experience of covertly using a language other than the first. The review begins with a critical discussion of the challenges involved in defining and conceptualizing IS and PS. To conduct the search of relevant sources, a broad understanding of IS as ‘silent speech for oneself’ and PS as ‘externalized speech for oneself’ was adopted. After a brief synopsis of past research on L2 IS and PS, recent (2005–2015) work is discussed both from a generic-language stance and an L2, bilingual, and multilingual perspective. The review then takes a critical look at the difficult methodological issue of data collection on IS and PS, highlighting strengths and limitations in recent research. Pedagogical implications derived from the research reviewed and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

Artificial Intelligence, Smart Assistants and the Role of Language Professionals

Abstract The article looks at the mechanisms of Artificial Intelligence related to the processing of human knowledge and natural language from a multilingual perspective. Undoubtedly, AI has made very impressing progresses in these areas, but they are unsatisfactory when it comes to what is called “the long tail”, i. e. the interpretation of less frequent words or concepts. In addition, AI has deficiencies when the context plays an important role, which is often the case. Most of the knowledge resources and methods actually used by AI have not been modelled to take multilingual and multicultural aspects into consideration. The article describes these issues and suggests some remedies, opening new opportunities for translators and interpreters.

Language Learning Motivation in the United States: An Examination of Language Choice and Multilingualism

With the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) as a framework, this study is an investigation of the relationships among motivation, language choice, and multilingualism using data from 195 undergraduate learners of languages other than English (LOTEs) in the context of the United States. Motivation is operationalized by the three aspects of self (ideal, ought‐to, and anti‐ought‐to). Multilingualism is operationalized in two ways: previous language experience and Perceived Positive Language Interaction (PPLI), the latter being an emic perspective of multilingualism for which learners can only be considered to be multilingual if they can articulate positive interactions between foreign languages studied. A variety of analyses were used to answer questions relating to motivational group differences and language choice, the potential predictive nature of motivation in terms of language choice, group differences of motivational profiles between bi‐ and multilingual students for both operationalizations of multilingualism, and the person‐specific versus language‐specific nature of the three aspects of self. As most of the work on language learning motivation has been done with English language learners (ELLs), the results of this study with these LOTE learners are contextualized in terms of previous results with ELLs.

A Knowledge Management Architecture for Digital Cultural Heritage

The increasing demand of technological facilities for galleries, museums, and archives has led to the need for designing practical and effective solutions for managing the digital life cycle of cultural heritage collections. These facilities have to support users in addressing several challenges directly related to the creation, management, preservation, and visualization of digital collections. Such challenges include, for example, the support for a collaborative management of the produced information, their curation from a multilingual perspective to break the language barriers and make collections available to different stakeholders, and the development of services for exposing structured version of data both to users and machines. Platforms satisfying all of these requirements have to support curators activities and, at the same time, provide facilities for engaging the virtual consumers of the produced data. In this article, we propose a description of an abstract architecture for managing digital collections built on a set of components, services, and APIs able to address the challenges mentioned previously. An instantiation of this architecture is discussed, and we present a use case concerning the management of a digital archive of verbo-visual art. Lessons learned from this experience are reported to outline future activities.