Redoing Linguistic Worlds

Redoing Linguistic Worlds
Author: Kris Aric Knisely
Publisher: Channel View Publications
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2024-01-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1800415117

Language and gender are interconnected, social and relational acts through which we constantly remake our worlds. But what happens when our ways of doing gender cannot be neatly categorized into traditional binary systems, including not only the social groupings of roles, practices and identities, but also the forms and structures through which we do language? This book brings together a broad range of scholars to explore the undoing and redoing of gender binaries in non-Anglophone communities and contexts, in and through their linguistic and social reimaginings. Each of the contributions to this book reflects on this ongoing change and its place in our everyday lives, including the ways that its outcomes are both contested and fluid. This volume represents an important step in scholarship in language and gender, one that stands to inform a public increasingly aware of these remakings and one that calls on all of us to stand in the tensions of our own humanity and look through it for how our languaging might ‘do’ imaginary worlds that are more equitable, more connected, and more just for us all.

Language, Society and the State in a Changing World

Language, Society and the State in a Changing World
Author: Stanley D. Brunn
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2023-04-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3031181468

This book addresses the changing contemporary language worlds in three major contexts. It first discusses how the language landscape maps of cities are changing as a result of increased migration, globalization and global media. These features are evident in place names and place name changes as well as the densities and frequencies of language spoken and used in texts. The second section discusses how the state itself is responding to both indigenous and heritage groups desiring to be included and represented in the state’s political landscapes and also expressions of art and culture. In the third section, the authors address a number of cutting-edge theses that are emerging in the linguistic geography and political words. These include the importance of gender, anthropogenetic discourse, the preservation of endangered languages and challenges to a state’s official language policy. Through including authors from nine different countries, who are writing about issues in twelve countries and their overlapping interests in language mapping, language usage and policy and visual representations, this book provides inspiring research into future topics at local, national, regional and international scales.

Language in the Twenty-First Century

Language in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Humphrey Tonkin
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2003-08-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027296421

What is the future of languages in an increasingly globalized world? Are we moving toward the use of a single language for global communication, or are there ways of managing language diversity at the international level? Can we, or should we, maintain a balance between the global need to communicate and the maintenance of local and regional identities and cultures? What is the role of education, of language rights, of language equality in this volatile global linguistic mix? A group of leading scholars in sociolinguistics and language policy examines trends in language use across the world to find answers to these questions and to make predictions about likely outcomes. Highlighted in the discussion are, among other issues, the rapidly changing role of English, the equally rapid decline and death of small languages, the future of the major European languages, the international use of constructed languages like Esperanto, and, not least, the question of what role applied scholarship can and should play in mapping and influencing the future.

Language Education in a Changing World

Language Education in a Changing World
Author: Rod Bolitho
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-03-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1788927877

This book considers the importance of language education in a rapidly changing world. The authors look at language education from different perspectives: the teaching and learning of foreign or second languages; the role of literacy, oracy and language across the curriculum; the part played by different stakeholders in educational policy; and the current state of language teacher education and the ways in which language is addressed in the education of teachers of all subjects. Drawing on their extensive experience of language education, and on case studies and data from around the world, the authors consider how a different approach to language in education might help students to develop the language awareness and linguistic and communicative competences they need in order to participate fully and confidently in our increasingly diverse societies.

The Handbook of World Englishes

The Handbook of World Englishes
Author: Cecil L. Nelson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 919
Release: 2019-11-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1119147263

The definitive reference work on World Englishes—fully revised, expanded, and updated The Handbook of World Englishes is a collection of articles on the cross-cultural and transnational linguistic convergence and change of the English language. Now in its second edition, this Handbook brings together multiple theoretical, contextual, and ideological perspectives, and offers new interpretations of the changing identities of world Englishes (WE) speakers and examines the current state of the English language across the world. Thematically integrated contributions from leading scholars and researchers explore the expansion, modification, and adaptation of English in various settings and discuss the role of English in local, regional, and global contexts. This highly regarded text has been fully updated throughout the new edition to reflect the current conditions, contexts, and functions of major varieties of English across the world. Significant revisions to topics—such as an overview of the varieties of modern world Englishes and the First Diaspora in Wales and Ireland—reflect expanded scholarship in the field and new directions of research. Each chapter from the first edition has been updated in content and citations, while 11 new chapters cover subjects including world Englishes testing and Postcolonial theory, as well as world Englishes in South America, Russia, Africa, China, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada. Examines both traditional and contemporary perspectives on World Englishes Written by international authors, experts in their respective fields Emphasizes the historical development of the English language through a series of diasporas Highlights research into a wide range of sociolinguistic contexts and processes including code switching, newly established WE varieties, and new data on Chinese and Russian Englishes Explores future directions in WE research, development, and application The Handbook of World Englishes is an essential resource for academics, researchers, practitioners, and advanced students in fields including applied linguistics, language teaching, the history of the English language, world literatures, and related social and language sciences.

Towards an Ecology of World Languages

Towards an Ecology of World Languages
Author: Louis-Jean Calvet
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2006-06-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0745629563

There are around 5,000 languages spoken across the world today, but the languages that coexist in our multilingual world have varied functions and fulfil various roles. Some are spoken by small groups, a village or a tribe; others, much less numerous, are spoken by hundreds of millions of speakers. Certain languages, like English, French and Chinese, are highly valued, while others are largely ignored. Even if all languages are equal in the eyes of the linguist, the world’s languages are in fact fundamentally unequal. All languages do not have the same value, and their inequality is at the heart of the way they are organized across the world. In this major book Louis-Jean Calvet, one of the foremost sociolinguists working today, develops an ecological approach to language in order to analyse the changing structure of the world language system. The ecological approach to language begins from actual linguistic practices and studies the relations between these practices and their social, political and economic environment. The practices which constitute languages, on the one hand, and their environment, on the other, form a linguistic ecosystem in which languages coexist, multiply and influence one another. Using a rich panoply of examples from across the world, Calvet elaborates the ecological approach and shows how it can shed light on the changing forms of language use in the world today. This path-breaking book will be of great value to students and scholars in linguistics and sociolinguistics and to anyone concerned with the fate of languages in our increasingly globalized world.

An Introduction to Multilingualism

An Introduction to Multilingualism
Author: Florian Coulmas
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018
Genre: Education, Bilingual
ISBN: 9780198791119

This book offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing world. It begins with an overview of the multiplicity of human languages and their geographic distribution, before moving on to the key question of what multilingualism actually is and what is understood by terms such as 'mother tongue', 'native speaker', and 'speech community'. In the chapters that follow, Florian Coulmas systematically explores multilingualism with respect to the individual, institutions, cities, nations, and cyberspace. In each of these domains, the dynamics of language choice are undergoing changes as a result of economic, political, and cultural forces. Against this background, two chapters discuss the effects of linguistic diversity on the integration and separation of language and society, before a final chapter describes and assesses research methods for investigating multilingualism. Each chapter concludes with problems and questions for discussion, which place the topic in a real-world context. The book explores where, when, and why multilingualism came to be regarded as a problem, and why it presents a serious challenge for linguistic theory today. It provides the basic tools to analyse different kinds of multilingualism at both the individual and society level, and will be of interest to students of linguistics, sociology, education, and communication studies.

Language Sustainability in a Changing World

Language Sustainability in a Changing World
Author: Marinela Burada
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1527559920

This volume includes thirteen papers presented at the 16th Conference on British and American Studies held at Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania. It consists of three main parts, the first of which includes contributions falling within the scope of communication and meaning-making. The articles gathered here consider issues such as social identity and the construction of gender both in and through language, and the rendition of cultural content across languages. The second section takes a closer look at language in context: the contributions included here approach language as a means to encode and decode the reality around us, whether in media discourse, academic contexts, fictional literature or bilingual dictionaries. The research strand in the third part of the volume relates to the lexico-grammatical specificities of natural languages. The focus of attention here is Romanian, with some of its structural particularities set against those present in other languages.

Language, Education, and Society in a Changing World

Language, Education, and Society in a Changing World
Author: Tina Hickey
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1996
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781853593154

This book addresses many of the issues facing language teachers, researchers and policy makers in a world where languages are becoming extinct at an alarming rate and are frequently the focus for dispute and conflict.

The Changing Scene in World Languages

The Changing Scene in World Languages
Author: Marian B. Labrum
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1997-11-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027283524

The 1997 ATA volume brings together articles on translation practice into the 21st century. Contributions deal with the Information Age, multilingualism in Europe, English as a Lingua Franca, Terminology standardization, translating for the media, and new directions in translator training. A comprehensive bibliography of dissertations makes this a useful reference tool.