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Related papers
Pluricentric languages: retrospect and prospect
Elsevier Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 3rd ed., 2024
The concept of pluricentricity is a facet of the language-dialect dichotomy and is inherently intertwined with the perspectives of "language making" (Krämer et al. 2022), i.e. the social construction of linguistic varieties. Definitions of pluricentricity tend to focus on the official status and codification of national varieties, while Clyne (1992) and Muhr (2012) provide an extensive list of criteria to assess the pluricentric status of a given variety. Inherent to the distinction between dominant vs. non-dominant varieties are considerations involving "pluricentric linguistic justice" (Oakes 2021) and a realization of power dynamics in linguistic schools as such.
OLBI Working Papers, 2019
In spite of the spark that plurilingualism has provided throughout Europe and beyond to the idea that linguistic and cultural diversity is an asset rather than an obstacle, the term plurilingualism itself has not frequently been used in the English-speaking world. Moving from an analysis of this issue, this paper aims to help readers better understand the nature of the concept of plurilingualism and reflect on its social and educational value. To do so, it firstly presents the term from a historical and comparative perspective in relation to other terms used in the English-speaking literature, it then moves to explaining the crucial difference between plurilingualism and multilingualism, thus introducing the notion of dynamic repertoire and the underlying theoretical perspective. Finally, the article introduces the descriptors for plurilingual and pluricultural competence from the newly released CEFR Companion Volume (Council of Europe, 2018) together with the potential of these descriptors to facilitate mediation and plurilanguaging among learners and to foster a new, open and positive attitude towards linguistic and cultural diversity in language classes. Malgré le rôle déclencheur que le plurilinguisme a joué en Europe et au-delà de l'idée que la diversité linguistique et culturelle est un atout plutôt qu'un obstacle, le terme correspondant en anglais plurilinguisme-'plurilingualism'-n'est pas utilisé fréquemment dans le monde anglophone. Partant d'une analyse de ce constat, cet article vise à aider le lecteur à mieux comprendre la nature du concept de plurilinguisme et à réfléchir sur ses atouts. Pour cela, il présente d'abord le terme en partant d'une perspective historique et comparative par rapport à d'autres termes qui sont utilisés dans la littérature scientifique de langue anglaise, ensuite il se tourne vers l'explication de la différence profonde entre plurilinguisme and multilinguisme, ce qui permet d'introduire la notion de répertoire dynamique et la
International Journal of Multilingualism, 6 (2) , 2009
While theoretical constructs and frames of reference advanced in French and English research share many points of communalities, Francophone research has contributed in original ways to issues of language learning and bilingual development in multilingual contexts. The Francophone contribution to contemporary thinking has, however, often been obscured by the fact that it has been published in French, or lost in translation when concepts are not interpreted the same way in English and French. At the intersection of educational sociolinguistics and sociodidactics , this body of work is more narrowly defined in European Francophone research as 'didactique du plurilinguisme et du pluriculturalisme' (didactics of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism), a term difficult to translate adequately in English. The purpose of this special issue is to present readers with a range of papers that we believe to be significant and representative of French studies, and to provide a comprehensive examination of the historical and social construction of bi/plurilingualism and its impact on the development of theory, on language policies, and on professional practice in the field of language education. Collectively, the articles capture a variety of theoretical and methodological constructs to analyse multiple repertoires in relation to speakers' agency in a variety of situations and social contexts.
Plurilingualism and Universalism
EOP Newsletter - Editorial 91, 2022
When we created the European Observatory for Plurilingualism in 2005, we had no idea that the issue of languages and plurilingualism could be at the heart of a political and philosophical debate absolutely fundamental for the present and future. Our initial questioning was provoked by a very rapid phenomenon which marked our European linguistic space. On the one hand, it was the fact that within a few years English had established itself as the almost sole language of use within the European institutions and, on the other hand, the spectacular acceleration of the penetration of the French language by Anglicisms. And these two questions were all the more intense as none of the founders of the OEP, who were fine linguists or had a good linguistic culture, were hostile to the English language or had any kind of defensive or purist position with regard to the French language.
Nothwithstanding various controversies which accompany the global presence of English, its emergence into a planetary language is a ociolinguistic reality. Another reality is that its local manifestations are not necessarily of identical ´breed´: the many Englishes engendered by the ever-growing number of their users who are enclosed within their sociopolitical and geographical environment, albeit connected to the globalized world, call for an examination of the applicability of the proposed global models vis-à-vis localized English sociolinguistic profiles. The paper discusses the pluriparadigmatic character of the global presence of English and analyzes data acquired mostly in a local Slovakia´s linguistic landscape. The paper also calls for a more critical approach to English(es) as they are used locally, and invites to adopt a more inclusive attitude which enables their users to see English not only as a crucial resource in their linguistic repertoires but also as an important marker of their ´glocal´ identities.
This dissertation essentially entails eight scholarly articles dealing with English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Europe as a linguistically diversified setting. In these articles, ELF is portrayed as a decentred, globalised mode of communication which takes place between speakers from different primary lingua-cultures and which is affected by complexification as well as individualisation processes. Covering different aspects of diversified interaction via ELF, the articles all revolve around three main themes that determine lingua franca practices: 'the real', 'the virtual' and 'the plurilingual'. Since ELF users typically engage in communication between linguacultures and negotiate meaning with a wide range of language elements, the question arises as to what constitutes their linguistic realities. 'Realness' in this dissertation thus implies linguistic operationalisability and authenticity in the face of intercultural communicative practices. It is highlighted that linguistic normality in ELF does not necessarily have to do with norm-adherence, but that it can be quite the opposite. Detached from their first language environments, lingua franca users are then shown to exhibit a tendency towards linguistic flexibility. Next to encoded items, they draw on more general linguistic possibilities beneath the surface of English – i.e., what is referred to in this dissertation as 'virtuality'. It is argued therefore that ELF is in a continuous state of emergence rather than bound to a set of features. While the use of virtual resources can be considered a transgression of intra-linguistic boundaries, ELF communication also goes beyond the assumed borderlines between languages. Subsumed under the theme of 'plurilinguality', the dissertation pays tribute to the communicative potential of non-English elements in ELF and the integrative practices exhibited by lingua franca users. These practices are argued to reveal the artificiality of linguistic boundaries in globalised communication. Eventually, ELF calls into question the notion of the language object as tied to nation state, lingua-culture and speaker community. In a last step thus, this dissertation proposes an alternative conceptualisation of language in the light of current lingua franca communication. It argues for a holistic view of plurilingual practices as integrative 'languaging' without reference to strictly demarcated linguistic units and subsequently for a dynamic approach towards communicative competence as something that is situationally performed.