LINGUIST List 25.2954

Thu Jul 17 2014

Calls: Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics/Belgium

Editor for this issue: Anna White <awhitelinguistlist.org>

Date: 16-Jul-2014
From: Ute Smit <ute.smitunivie.ac.at>
Subject: Multilingualism in Tertiary Education
E-mail this message to a friend

Full Title: Multilingualism in Tertiary Education

Date: 26-Jul-2015 - 31-Jul-2015
Location: Antwerp, Belgium
Contact Person: Ute Smit
Meeting Email: < click here to access email >

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics

Call Deadline: 05-Sep-2014

Meeting Description:

Panel: Multilingualism in tertiary education: institutional communication and the (in)visible roles of standard and non-standard varieties

(Organizers: Ute Smit, University of Vienna & Monika Dannerer, University of Innsbruck)

Given the intrinsically super-regional, yet standard-providing nature of universities, institutional communication in higher educational institutions (HEIs) has always functioned as a show-case of linguistic adaptability. Guided by the sociolinguistically twinned functions of gate-keeping to the outside, while enabling insider exchange across places, languages used for academic purposes have adapted flexibly to the respective communicative needs as regards linguistic expression as well as the preferred use of specific (standard) varieties or of transnational academic languages. At the same time, HEIs are multilingual spaces with lecturers and students (learning to) engage in institutional and scientific communication by drawing on their complex repertoires, combining standard and non-standard varieties and increasingly English as prevalent academic lingua franca. Especially in view of the presently wide-spread active promotion of internationalisation of universities, it is arguably timely to focus on how the resulting multilingualism is constructed by, and constructive of HEIs, and to approach this topic from the macro (or societal) as well as the micro (or interactional) perspective.

Call for Papers:

Reflecting such considerations, we invite contributions that deal with (one of) the following, or related, research concerns:

1. What language planning and policy can be identified at specific HEIs, in terms of overt vs. covert policies, language management, practices or ideologies, prestige and attitudes?
- How do HEIs deal with the kinds of multilingualism relevant at their sites?
- What multilingual practices can be observed (independently from official documents)?
- What is the role of local, non-standard varieties in this context?

2. If any, what support measures are on offer, such as CLIL, finances for translation or interpretation, language courses?
- In which ways do multilingual students and lecturers profit (or not) from such measures?
- What impact do they have on the institutional discourse externally, including the marketisation of multilingualism?
- What impact do they have on the institutional discourse internally as regards language choice, contextualised language use and linguistic adaptability more generally?

It is the aim of this panel to compare and contrast different practices of constructing multilingualism at HEIs, thus providing insights into diverse macro and micro level adaptations of language(s) in this institutional context. At the same time, we aim for contributions that will offer insights into different methodologies of investigation and, thereby, throw light on how to conceptualize multilingualism in tertiary education in its different manifestations, such as the languages used for teaching and learning, the multilingual repertoires of home and international students and teachers, and the respective societal forms of multilingualism.

If you would be interested to participate in the panel please send an abstract (approx. 350 words) to ute.smitunivie.ac.at and monika.dannereruibk.ac.at by 5 September 2014. Please note that presenters at International Pragmatics Conference have to be (or become) IPRA members for two successive years (2014/2015).


Page Updated: 17-Jul-2014