Rita Franceschini
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Italy
Friday, August 29
Multilingualism: Research Opportunities
Abstract:
Studies on bilingual and multi lingual skills and situations have
brought about a great change of perspective in various areas of
linguistics, in general fostering the development of a more global and
less dichotomous view of an individual’s language competence and
ability to manage this competence at a social level (for instance in
institutions like schools, but also in companies and public
administration offices in areas where there is a high degree of
multilingualism).
“Multilingualism”, which is becoming more and more
fashionable a term, tends to be used as an umbrella term covering
studies on situated topics at a social and institutional level, at an
interaction-discourse level and at a personal level as well as being
used to refer to innate abilities that are biologically rooted. The
paper will take this situation, which requires clarification, focus on
the change of perspective that many of these studies have provided for
linguistics over the last decades, and then propose research areas
based on these points.
Certain key concepts which can be referred to in order to explain such a change of perspective are:
• cultural and linguistic diversity: the awareness that linguistic
diversity is an intrinsic characteristic of Europe is gaining strength;
evidence is provided by Europe itself, as opposed to other regions of
the world, which demonstrates an unusual ability to manage a situation
that is so complex and yet is concentrated in such a small space;
• the historical foundations of multilingualism: over the
centuries Europe has been characterized by various types of
multilingualism, not just since the migrations within and beyond
European borders; consequently from this research has tried to develop
a wider view concerning language skills;
• cultural awareness is a key term that refers to how much is
culturally founded in the topics linked to multilingualism: if it is
natural to have innate abilities to learn several languages, it is also
natural to develop these abilities in language contact, in other words
in real contact through interaction.
The second part of the paper aims to offer an overview of several
subjects that seem to be incomplete or that should be developed in the
future with the aim of establishing research that is, to a great
extent, based on multilingualism. With this in mind, I will refer to
some suggestions that I was able to make while working as a member of
the European Commission’s High Level Group on Multilingualism.
See recording of the keynote (italian)
See recording of the keynote (english translation)