Creativity & Innovation in Multilingualism

Michael Carrier

Iasi, Romania June 24-26, 2009

Multilingualism issues

•What is Multilingualism?

•Why should we care?If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Nelson Mandela

•What should we do?

•How should we do it?

•What does success look like?

Multilingualism Quiz

How many languages are spoken in the UK?

a) Languages indigenous to the UK

b) Languages spoken in UK schools

c) Languages spoken in the UK (estimated)

Quiz answers

How many languages are spoken in the UK?

a) Languages indigenous to the UK – 5 or 6

English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Cornish, (Manx)

b) Languages spoken in UK schools – 270

c) Languages spoken in the UK (estimated) - 350

IdentityLanguage

Multilingualism is more than language

Culture

Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von der eigenen.[Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own!]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My dentist …. Experiential multilingualism

It’s only natural…

“ …..a principle of fundamental significance: Multilingualism is the normal human condition” David Crystal

“speaking 2 or more languages is the natural way of life for three-quarters of the human race” David Crystal

Over 6000 languages in 200 countries = multilingual contacts

Ancient Multilingualism

TLFL

Teaching Latin as a Foreign Language

(The Romans didn’t need interactive whiteboards.......)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9p1hYnFYME  

Languages can be useful

Different forms of bilingualism and multilingualism

•Long-standing coexistence

•Recent & shifting coexistence

•Majority bilingual

•Minority bilingual

•Language maintenance = minority language strong and ‘healthy’

•Language shift = speakers are assimilating to the dominant language

•Language death = minority language withers away

•Multilingualism = Linguistic currency

Multilingual Proficiency

“…people who have ‘perfect’ fluency in 2 languages do exist, but they are the exception, not the rule

Many bilinguals achieve native-like fluency in their dominant language, but not in the other

Scholars think of bilingual ability as a continuum”

David Crystal

It’s a multilingual world

•“It’s a multilingual world – 94% of the world does not speak English as a first language, and 75% speak no English at all” CILT

• Wikipedia has articles in 200 languages

• 36% of the 7 million blogs on WordPress are not in English

• Google Translate does translations in 41 languages

A 2006 Eurobarometer survey shows that 83% of citizens of the EU member states believe that knowing foreign languages is or could be useful for them.

BUT -

44% of EU citizens and in the UK a majority of 62% consider themselves incapable of holding a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue.

Monolinguals

The proportion of pupils in England taking foreign languages at GCSE has been decreasing dramatically in recent years:

2001 - 78% of all pupils were taking a language

2004 - 68%

2006 - 51%

2007 - 46%

“The proportion of UK executives who can negotiate in another language is 50% of the EU average” CILT

“80% of UK export managers cannot do business in a FL”

“75% of UK companies recognise a need to improve their capacity in languages to support future business development”

The Barcelona objectives: 1+2

Mother tongue

+

International language

or

Neighbour language

+

Personal adoptive language

Kolik jazyků znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem

[As many languages you speak, as many people you are]

Czech proverb

Generation M

Generations defined by age: Boomers, X, Y, Z….

Generation M is defined by:

• Mindset, Mentality

• Multinationalism

• Mobility - for work and study

• Multimedia & Mobile technology

• Use of social Media

• Belief in Multiculturalism

• Shift towards Multilingualism

Why learn languages?

Learning a language is not just about learning a language:

it's about changing your world; changing how you perceive the world, how you act in the world, what worlds are open to you

•Open doors to new worlds

•Access to opportunities

•Study mobility

•Work mobility

•Romance....

BUT

• there must be a real need & a real motivation

Why learn more languages?

“If I’m selling to you, I speak your language.

If I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen!”

Willy Brandt

•Practical benefit – travel, tourism, business

•To understand other people and their culture Sapir-Whorf

•Respect – builds rapport and trust with speakers of other languages

•The best way to learn about one’s own language & culture

•Makes the learning of further languages much easier

•Avoids miscommunication, added costs, conflict etc

Multilingual identities

"I think I do present a bit of a different personality when I'm speaking in English and when I'm speaking in Japanese…when I'm speaking in Japanese, I really have to think about all the things, what's the proper style…and try to adjust myself to the identities, what the other person is projecting on me…whereas in English, I mean, I don't really feel that much…it's a lot easier that way" (Akira)

'I think I'm considered to be rather, erm, assertive in Japanese terms, but I don't really care' (Motoko)

"And sometimes I say to myself, Oh my God, she's so rude…and in fact it's because I'm used to the English way of talking and sometimes when I go back to France, in the supermarkets, for example, I say to myself 'they are so rude' because they never say 'sorry' etc" (Laure)

Multilingual identities in a global city, David Block

Language diversity

Top ten

•Mandarin, English, Hindi etc...

Local minority languages

•Gaelic, Breton, Sorb, Quechua...

LWUT L

•Dutch, Maltese....

Migrant community languages

•Bengali, Turkish, Somali, Vietnamese....

Each requires different strategies for protection & support

UK minority languages

Welsh learner FAQs

•Will experience of majority language mass media affect the development of bilingualism in my child?

•Is the one parent more important than another in the child's language development?

•My children can speak two languages. How can I help them belong to two cultures?

•How important is it that the child's two languages are practiced and supported outside the home?

•Should my child use two languages with the same person?

•Do some children find it easier than others to become bilingual?

•Will learning a second language interfere with development in the first language?

•I want my child to be successful. Should I concentrate on developing first-majority language skills?

•What effect will bilingualism have on my child's intelligence?

http://www.byig-wlb.org.uks

Should minority languages be protected? BBC Forum

In Wales, children from Welsh speaking families are fluent in two languages by the time they start school. Surely this makes their brains develop in a more flexible way than the mono-linguists? Many European children are also bilingual from year zero.

It is widely accepted that most European countries have a higher level of academic achievement than the UK - could this be part of the reason? I think the actual languages are unimportant - it is bilingualism and the added mental agility that is the key.Emyr James, Wales

Wales and Scotland should concentrate more on using taxpayers money to rebuild their struggling economies, rather then trying to retain their languages with bilingual road signs, and having it compulsory in schools and to get jobs. Lloyd, Wales

As a patriotic Scot having to work in Switzerland for a few years, I believe it is a shame that Gaelic has been 'lost' - but it's too late. In my hometown the supermarkets have signs in Gaelic for the tourists, but no locals know what they mean.

My parents thought they were doing the right thing my sending me to Gaelic lessons when I was a child, but now I am struggling to compete with bi- and tri-lingual people in the workplace who were taught 'living' languages.

The children of today would benefit far more from learning Spanish or even Chinese for their future, not being sent backwards in time to learn a language which only aids in putting up more barriers between nations, rather than removing them. Caroline, a Scot living in Switzerland

Multilingualism & Culture

“between the grammar of my language and its expression in audible speech lies the filter of the social system in which I live”

Peter Farb

“successful communication depends on sensitivity to the nonverbal context”

Gary Ferraro

“knowledge of a language has a distinct sales value”

Huebener

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

“the only way to understand the worldview of another culture is through its language”

“language is not merely a mechanism for communicating ideas but is the shaper of ideas”

“tests have suggested that language can influence perceptions or worldview”

“the structure of a language can significantly influence perception and categorisation”

Hofstede

Hofstede’s Cultural Value categories

Individual

• Personal goals over group goals

• Values autonomy

• Few obligations to others

• Confrontation acceptable

Group-oriented

• Group goals over personal goals

• Values inter-dependence

• Many obligations to others

• Harmony expected

Egalitarian

• Few status differences

• Informal social relations

• Superior can be questioned

• Little respect for old age

Hierarchical

• Many status differences

• Formal social relations

• Deference for superiors

• Great respect for old age

Power Distance Index:

Individuality Index:

World Business Culture, Barry Tomalin

Cultural Turn-taking

Trompenaars, F. Riding the waves of Culture

Englishes

New Englishes Older Englishes (English-based) Pidgins, Creoles and Decreolized varieties

Africa

Kenyan English

Nigerian English

South Asia

Indian English

Lankan English

Pakistani English

Southeast Asia

Filipino English

Malaysian English

Singapore English

Etc.

North America

American English

Canadian English

Great Britain

English English

Scots

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

Irish English

Southern Indian and Pacific Oceans

Australian English

New Zealand English

Etc.

Africa

West African Pidgin

Papua New Guinea

Tok Pisin

Sierra Leone

Krio

USA

Black English Vernacular

Hawaii English Creole

Vanuatu

Bislama

Etc.

Source: p. 9, Kandiah, T. (1998) Why New Englishes?

Englishes

Global English?

“Amitabh Bachchan drove down from Nashik on June 3 specially to be with biwi Jaya on their 30th wedding anniversary. Touching, na?” Filmfare in English Today

“The emphasis is on self-reliance – the women are not encouraged to regard the government as a mai-baap.” Outlook in English Today.

Diglossia

Accent

Register

Code switching:

• Speakers switch languages to express themselves better

• Speakers show solidarity to a minority language

• Speakers show a different level of relationship – like register

Language switching

Code mixing - eg Surjik

NB Concepts unknown to non-specialists

ELF

“ English is a ‘contact language’ between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication”

Firth

Don’t teach “-th- & 3rd person –s”

“…features that tend not to cause misunderstandings and thus do not need to constitute a focus for production teaching, for those learners who intend to use English mainly in international settings”

Seidlhofer

We need multilingual teachers...

• New teachers who can teach more than 1 language – at least offer a taster language

• New methods that recognise the cultural context of language

• New media and channels to make language content more immediate and exciting – eg Second Life scenarios

• New languages in our perception of the world

• New activities , creating new needs for language

When do children start languages?

The age of beginning compulsory first foreign language varies across Europe

- Spain - 3

- Austria - 6

- Italy - 6

- Norway - 6

- Portugal - 6

- Germany - 6-8

- France - 7

- Finland - 7

- Poland - 7

- Sweden - 7

- Czech R. - 8

- Belgium - 8

- Denmark - 9

- Hungary - 9

- Netherlands - 10

Source: Eurydice

When SHOULD children start languages?

Germany considers scrapping English lessons

Germany is considering scrapping English classes for primary school children after a study showed no advantage in starting lessons at an early age. ……

Two thirds of the teachers consider English instruction before the age of 11 "completely redundant." "The effect of primary school English is completely nil," said Wolfgang Klein, director of the Max Planck Institute for Linguistics in the neighbouring Netherlands.

Teachers reported in the study that very young children learned many words, but not the grammar to string them together properly.

Researchers said political pressure from Berlin and the EU drove schools to adopt English for children who hadn't properly learned their own mother tongue.

A new approach to language teaching - Drop the drip feed

Year Language Tasters Neighbours & World in depth

Personal Adoptive Language (PAL)

1 Language concepts EU1+world1+migrant1

2 Language awareness EU2+world2+migrant2

3 History of languages Taster 7+8 EU language and/or world language

4 Multilingualism Taster 9+10 EU language and/or world language

1 chosen language in depth

5 Language & culture Taster 11+12 EU language and/or world language

1 chosen language in depth

Fostering Multilingualism

We need to:

•Disseminate the idea more widely: make LL higher profile

•Promote the benefits & values of a multilingual world

•Build it into people’s life experience

•Advocate for multilingual education

•Sponsor research on how bilingualism works in children & adults

•Experiment with new classroom and life experiences

•Make LL more accessible, less intimidating

•Make LL easier, & cheaper

•Link LL to real people

•Encourage English teachers to teach FL tasters

British Council’s Language-Rich Europe project

Aim - to evaluate and address Europe’s language needs for 2020 “We will conduct a benchmarking exercise in participating European countries on current language policy, language use and attitudes to language learning in European countries. This will focus on five main areas in which languages and their interactions play a role:

• Economic trade, commerce

• Integration, citizenship, identity and intercultural dialogue

• Foreign relations, aid and development, the voluntary sector

• Justice, security and health

• The media and ‘edutainment’

The results will be published in the form of a European Index on Language Learning, widely publicised and discussed with decision makers.”

Risks – danger of elitism

Digital divide

Multilingual divide

Employers prefer multicultural staff

Role of English teachers

We are making people multilingual by teaching English

We are making learners aware of language difference

We should make learners more multilingual, by

• Teaching language with links to its cultural context

• Teaching language with explicit cultural reference work in texts

• Teaching communication strategies at the same time as language content

• Avoiding non-standard language forms for L2-L2 communication

We should teach more about language itself

We should teach more languages

Conclusion

Promote Multilingual learning

Encourage monolinguals to change

Learn about language itself

Get exposure to a wide variety of languages

Develop a sense of need in own life

Teach English for access & opportunity – but while:

•respecting linguistic diversity

•transferring FLT skills to other languages

•raising profile & accessibility of FLT

•supporting multilingualism in Anglophone countries

Bibliography

Block, David Multilingual identities in a global city

Crystal, David How language works

Ferraro, Gary Cultural dimension of International business

Graddol, David English Next (British Council)

Graddol, David English Next India (British Council)

Gubbins, P. & Holt, M. Language and Identity in Contemporary Europe

Hofstede, Geert Cultures and Organisations

Mole, John Mind your manners

Trompenaars, Fons Riding the waves of Culture

www.britishcouncil.org

Michael.carrier@britishcouncil.org