Shortlisted for the 2020 BAAL Book Prize
This book brings together empirical studies from around the world to help readers gain a better understanding of multilinguals, ranging from small children to elderly people, and their lives. The chapters focus on the multilingual subjects’ identities and the ways in which they are discursively and/or visually constructed, and are split into sections looking specifically at the multilingual self, the multilingual learner and multilingual teacher education. The studies draw on rich visual data, which is analysed for content and/or form and often complemented with other types of data, to investigate how multilinguals make sense of their use and knowledge of more than one language in their specific context. The topic of multilingualism is addressed as subjectively experienced and the book unites the current multilingual, narrative and visual turns in Applied Language Studies. It will be of interest to students and researchers working in the areas of language learning and teaching, teacher education and bi/multilingualism, as well as to those interested in using visual methods and narratives as a means of academic research.
Shortlisted for the 2020 BAAL Book Prize
This book brings together empirical studies from around the world to help readers gain a better understanding of multilinguals, ranging from small children to elderly people, and their lives. The chapters focus on the multilingual subjects’ identities and the ways in which they are discursively and/or visually constructed, and are split into sections looking specifically at the multilingual self, the multilingual learner and multilingual teacher education. The studies draw on rich visual data, which is analysed for content and/or form and often complemented with other types of data, to investigate how multilinguals make sense of their use and knowledge of more than one language in their specific context. The topic of multilingualism is addressed as subjectively experienced and the book unites the current multilingual, narrative and visual turns in Applied Language Studies. It will be of interest to students and researchers working in the areas of language learning and teaching, teacher education and bi/multilingualism, as well as to those interested in using visual methods and narratives as a means of academic research.
Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words
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Overview
Shortlisted for the 2020 BAAL Book Prize
This book brings together empirical studies from around the world to help readers gain a better understanding of multilinguals, ranging from small children to elderly people, and their lives. The chapters focus on the multilingual subjects’ identities and the ways in which they are discursively and/or visually constructed, and are split into sections looking specifically at the multilingual self, the multilingual learner and multilingual teacher education. The studies draw on rich visual data, which is analysed for content and/or form and often complemented with other types of data, to investigate how multilinguals make sense of their use and knowledge of more than one language in their specific context. The topic of multilingualism is addressed as subjectively experienced and the book unites the current multilingual, narrative and visual turns in Applied Language Studies. It will be of interest to students and researchers working in the areas of language learning and teaching, teacher education and bi/multilingualism, as well as to those interested in using visual methods and narratives as a means of academic research.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781788922623 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Multilingual Matters Ltd. |
| Publication date: | 03/08/2019 |
| Series: | Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching , #2 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 312 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
About the Author
Paula Kalaja is Professor Emerita in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests lie in visual methodologies and foreign language learning and teaching, with a particular interest in beliefs, motivation and identities. She has published widely in the field and is co-author (with Ana Maria F. Barcelos, Mari Aro and Maria Ruohotie-Lyhty) of Beliefs, Agency and Identity in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (Palgrave, 2016).
Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer is Professor in the Department of Education at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She is also a member of CIDTFF (Research Centre ‘Didactics and Technology in Education of Trainers’) at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Her research interests include plurilingual and intercultural (online) interaction, pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures, and heritage language education.
Paula Kalaja is Professor Emerita at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests include individual learner differences, visual methods in research and language teacher education. With Sílvia, she co-edited Visualising Multilingual Lives: More than Words (Multilingual Matters, 2019).
Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer is Full Professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her research focuses on visual methods, multilingual pedagogies and language teacher education. She co-edited the volume above and Assessment of Plurilingual Competence and Plurilingual Learners in Educational Settings (with Christian Ollivier, Routledge, 2023).
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Paula Kalaja and Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer
In this chapter, the reader will be introduced to the rationale of the volume, becoming familiar with the turns currently characterising Applied Language Studies. Special attention will be given to the multilingual turn, to the visual turn and to the way subjectivity becomes a necessary approach in the study of multilingualism as lived and as experienced by individuals. The reader will then be acquainted with the tripartite structure of the volume (The Multilingual Self, The Multilingual Learner and Multilingual Teacher Education) and with a detailed description of each chapter.
What is this Volume About – in a Nutshell?
The current volume entitled Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words is indeed a timely response to the recent call in applied language studies to approach multilingualism as lived or as subjectively experienced (e.g. Kramsch, 2009; May, 2014). The volume will focus on multilingual individuals, including learners, teachers and users of more than one language, and/or on their lives or the worlds that they currently find themselves in. These will be addressed by making use of visual methodologies of various kinds. In these two respects, the volume will provide a fresh take on the issues addressed so far in Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching (PLLT). It is one thing for an individual to learn a second language (L2) as a system (e.g. its grammar and vocabulary) or to be able to communicate in it. It is, however, quite another thing for him or her to make sense of becoming or being multilingual as subjectively experienced, involving positive and negative emotions, attitudes, beliefs, visions and identities. It is issues like this that the volume will address.
Multilingualism as Lived? From Monolingualism to Translanguaging
The multilingual turn is one of the most recent turns that applied language studies (earlier Applied Linguistics) has been undergoing during the past few decades. Traditionally, monolinguals were thought to be speakers of a first language (L1) or native speakers, and they were assumed, first, to have acquired the L1 from birth and, secondly, to have full competence in the L1 (Ortega, 2014). In contrast, bi- or multilinguals were not only speakers of an L1 but also users of one or more additional languages (L2, L3, etc.), having learnt these at a later stage in their lives, and they were not expected to attain full competence in any of these. In addition, as nonnative speakers they were considered to be 'less than' native or L1 speakers, and as learners regarded as deficit, their competence in any additional language would always be lacking in one or more respects. It was typical of them to resort to code-switching and code-mixing, neither viewed in very positive terms and so as something to be avoided.
However, in recent years, some of the traditional assumptions have been challenged (Ortega, 2014), including what has been called the monolingual bias with its two assumptions mentioned above. Besides, bi- or multilinguals are now viewed as 'rather more than less' compared with monolinguals or native speakers. In fact, it is argued that they should not be compared with these at all but with other multilinguals in order to ensure fairer comparisons. Multilinguals (including bilinguals and emergent bilinguals) are now viewed as individuals who do translanguaging (Otheguy et al., 2015). They have a repertoire (or idiolect) of linguistic (and other semiotic) resources, and so they can draw on their knowledge in any language they happen to know, depending on the situation. Their aim is in fact to attain multicompetence (originally used by Cook, 1992), or knowledge in more than one language but to different degrees, and to learn to appreciate this constantly evolving and unique competence. In other words, multilinguals are quite different from monolinguals as users of languages. And it is gradually being acknowledged that multilinguals form the majority of people in the world, rather than monolinguals, who have been used as the norm not only by lay people but by scholars in their studies.
Over the years, our views on multilingualism1 (including bilingualism) have evolved, too. It is claimed that there are two perspectives on the matter (Otheguy et al., 2015). From the perspective of outsiders, the languages of a multilingual are viewed as separate and fixed entities and associated with nation states (e.g. Swedish is thought to be spoken only in Sweden – and not, say, by a minority of L1 speakers of the language in Finland). From the perspective of insiders, in contrast, the languages of a multilingual are assumed to form one single entity in his or her mind, aspects of which he or she can draw on selectively from one situation to another. Research in applied language studies has for the most part been conducted from the perspective of outsiders and only recently has it started to be done from the perspective of insiders.
Furthermore, as pointed out by Kramsch (2009: 1–25), there are two approaches to multilingualism or individuals' use of more than one language. The objective approach focuses on tracing the development of their knowledge of any language (and possible stages in the process) in terms of a linguistic system, including mastery of grammar and lexicon, or in terms of an ability to communicate or interact with others in the language. In contrast, the subjective approach attempts to figure out how multilinguals themselves feel about becoming or being multilinguals, or what the different languages and their use might mean to them personally. Kramsch (2009: 1–25) talks of languages as symbolic systems, and the subjective approach can be illustrated by a pioneering study of hers (Kramsch, 2003). In it she asked a group of university students of various L2s to complete a sentence 'Learning Language X is (like) ...' with a metaphor to describe how they had subjectively experienced the learning of the L2s. The metaphors fell into a total of 13 classes, including: engaging in an artistic process; learning as a cognitive or physical skill; being at home; returning to a childhood state; travelling to new places; becoming another person; incurring physical danger; and ingesting food (listed in order of frequency). In other words, the learning of L2s has quite different additional meanings from one student to another. Other pioneering studies include those by Busch (2013), Krumm and Jenkins (2001) and Moore (2006). Instead of metaphors, these studies made use of linguistic biographies or linguistic portraits.
Since then, with the globalization of the world for a number of reasons, including political, religious, social, economic and technological ones, there have been further calls to pursue more research on multilingualism using the subjective approach as outlined above (see also, for example, May, 2014). It remains to be seen how these recent developments in applied language studies will be refl ected in the years to come – e.g. in practices in classrooms, teaching materials, assessing students' skills in additional languages, or in language teacher education.
Why this Volume and Who is it for?
Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words is our contribution to the field of multilingualism as lived, and more specifically to PLLT (for recent state-of-the-art reviews on L2 learner and teacher psychology, see Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015 and Mercer & Kostoulas, 2018, respectively). The volume reports research on the multilingual subject him- or herself with an attempt at innovation in the research methodologies used. It contains a total of 13 empirical studies. Importantly, the participants in the studies could share their experiences of becoming or being multilingual by trans-languaging not only verbally in a variety of languages but also visually, by producing drawings by a number of means or taking photographs. The volume provides not only an innovative methodological approach to researching the self but also a fresh perspective on the psychology of the individual.
Visual methodologies have already been used in applied language studies (or in sociolinguistics) to address multilingualism as encountered by people in their immediate surroundings, such as in studies on linguistic landscapes conducted in major cities in different parts of the world (e.g. Backhaus, 2006; Laitinen & Zabrodskaja, 2015; Schmitt, 2018; Shohamy & Gorter, 2009). However, the focus of this volume is different: it focuses on the multilingual subject him- or herself. Very recently, a new methodological turn has been suggested (by Kalaja & PitkänenHuhta, 2018) in doing research on multilingualism as lived – a visual turn (for some earlier experimentation, see, for example, Kalaja et al., 2013; Krumm & Jenkins, 2001; Melo-Pfeifer & Simões, 2017; Molinié, 2009). It is now acknowledged that each mode of expression has its possibilities but also its limitations: what it might be possible to express verbally may not be possible visually, and the reverse can be the case, too. Furthermore, the modes might at times complement each other. When addressing aspects of multilingualism as subjectively experienced, which as a rule involves emotionally charged events, visual methodologies can be beneficial, especially in cases where the participants have limited literacy skills (e.g. small children or illiterate adults), linguistic problems (i.e. participants not sharing any language with the researcher) and/or psychological problems (participants suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, e.g. a migrant with a difficult journey behind him). On occasions like these, it might be easier for the participants to use visual methodologies than to share experiences verbally or in writing and/or speaking. It is also true that some individuals simply prefer sharing ideas, opinions, experiences, etc. verbally, whereas others would rather do so visually.
Even though there are already some books, special issues of journals, book chapters and articles which make use of drawings and other visual material (e.g. Kalaja & Pitkänen-Huhta, 2018; Melo-Pfeifer & Simões, 2017; Molinié, 2009) in addressing aspects of multilingualism as lived, this edited collection of articles could serve as a reference in the fields of language education and teacher education. It stands out from the previous literature in its scope, contexts, languages covered and visual methodologies used.
Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words is aimed primarily at advanced university students (e.g. MA students), pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators and senior or junior researchers who wish to deepen their knowledge of the multilingual subject and to improve their use of visual methodologies in language education, teacher education or research. Depending on the target group, the volume can be used either for raising awareness of those involved in the complex processes under scrutiny and/or for pursuing further research to gain deeper insights into the issues addressed by trying out novel ways of collecting and analysing data.
What is this Volume About and How is it Organized?
The current multilingual turn in applied language studies or, more narrowly, in language learning and teaching and in language teacher education, has been acknowledged as the 'topic du jour' (May, 2014: 1), and the turn recognizes the 'dynamic, hybrid, and transnational linguistic repertoires of multilingual (often migrant) speakers in rapidly diversifying urban conurbations worldwide'. This is precisely the focus of this edited volume: to recognize the diversity of paths and resources of the 'multilingual subject' (Kramsch, 2009) and the ways of tapping into the linguistic diversity in order to improve language education and teacher education (Yiakoumetti, 2012). The different contributions acknowledge the social and individual values attached to linguistic diversity in very different formal and informal contexts to enhance linguistic identity and self-esteem, linguistic rights, linguistic wellbeing and social justice (as advocated, for example, by Mercer et al., 2012; Piller, 2016).
As an innovative venture, Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words aims to:
• acknowledge the added value of using visual narratives and other visual materials to grasp the identity of multilingual subjects in different sociolinguistic and/or learning and teaching contexts;
• share recent trends in the use of visual methodologies in the analysis of multilingual and intercultural repertoires and lives;
• discuss how visual narratives can be combined with other visual methods and with more traditional methodologies in the study of the multilingual subject.
Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion (Chapters 1 and 15), Visualising Multilingual Lives: More Than Words focuses on multilingual subjects in specific contexts and includes a total of 13 chapters on aspects of being multilingual, accessed by visual means, which include:
• drawings (often referred to as visual narratives),
• photographs, and
• computer-generated artefacts.
The volume is divided into three main parts. The studies in each part share both their focus and the ways the identities of the multilingual subjects are discursively and/or visually constructed across different lifespans and contexts in which they might find themselves – informal or formal contexts of learning and/or using their language repertoires, or in professional training:
• Part 1 (four chapters): The Multilingual Self
• Part 2 (five chapters): The Multilingual Learner
• Part 3 (four chapters): Multilingual Teacher Education.
Overall, what the studies in this volume have in common is, first, that they focus on multilingual subjects, most of whom have at least English as a linguistic resource (in addition to their L1); secondly, they make use of visual data, possibly complemented with other types of data; and, therefore, thirdly, most of the studies are attempts at multimodal analysis.
However, the pools of data have been analysed within a variety of methodological frameworks and/or from different theoretical starting points.
There is further variation, first, in the contexts where the studies have been conducted, ranging from European countries (including Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Sweden) to Australia, Brazil, Japan and South Korea; secondly, in the aspects of being multilingual that are addressed, such as identities, literacies, social integration, social mobility, beliefs about the languages in the repertoire of a multilingual subject, experiences of using and learning and/or teaching the languages; and, thirdly, in the type of participants involved in the projects reported – children, young people, adults (some with refugee backgrounds) and student teachers of foreign languages.
What are the chapters about?
Each of Chapters 2 to 14 will report an empirical study that is original work, and each chapter is divided into the following sections:
• Introduction
• Background to the Study (or Theoretical Starting Points)
• Aims of the Study
• Data Collection and Analysis Procedures
• Findings
• Discussion and Concluding Remarks.
Part 1: The Multilingual Self
Part 1 focuses on multilingual subjects who use their repertoires of different languages in both informal and formal contexts and across different timespans, looking either backward or forward in time. So, even if the subjects may be learning a language, the studies do not focus on the learning process or how it is subjectively perceived by the learners, but instead focus on the multilingual users and their languages.
Chapter 2, by Alice Chik, traces the becoming and being multilingual in Sydney, Australia, of a group of migrants (N = 12, aged 12–72 years) from different backgrounds. For this study, the participants produced self-portraits and timelines of their experiences of learning different languages over the course of their lives. These pools of visual data were complemented with excerpts from written life stories and interviews.
Chapter 3, by Nayr Ibrahim, focuses on the identity construction and exercise of agency of trilingual children (N = 13, aged 5–17 years) living in the capital of France. They were learning to read and write (or becoming literate) in three languages (French, English and a Heritage Language) in different educational contexts, both formal and informal. In addition to providing verbal data of various kinds, the children were asked to produce drawings and bring with them to interviews objects that represented the languages they spoke.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
Introduction. Paula Kalaja and Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer
Part I - The Multilingual Self
Chapter 1. Alice Chik: Becoming and Being Multilingual in Australia
Chapter 2. Nayr Ibrahim: Children’s Multimodal Visual Narratives as Possible Sites of Identity Performance
Chapter 3. Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer and Alexandra Schmidt: Integration as Portrayed in Visual Narratives by Young Refugees in Germany
Chapter 4. Muriel Molinié: From the Migration Experience to its Visual Narration in International Mobility
Part II - The Multilingual Learner
Chapter 5. Kristiina Skinnari: Looking but not Seeing: The Hazards of a Teacher-Researcher Interpreting Self-portraits of Adolescent English Learners
Chapter 6. Liss Kerstin Sylvén: Looking at Language through a Camera Lens
Chapter 7. So-Yeon Ahn: Using Multimodal Analysis to Explore Language Learner Identity Construction
Chapter 8. Vera Lúcia Menezes de Oliveira e Paiva and Ronaldo Correa Gomes Junior: Multimodal Language Learning Histories: Images Telling Stories
Chapter 9. Tae Umino and Phil Benson: Study-abroad in Pictures: Photographs as Data in Life-story Research
Part III - Multilingual Teacher Education
Chapter 10. Ana Carolina de Laurentiis Brandão: Imagining L2 Teaching in Brazil: What Stories do Student Teachers Draw?
Chapter 11. Ana Sofia Pinho: Plurilingual Education and the Identity Development of Pre-service English Language Teachers: An Illustrative Example
Chapter 12. Mireia Pérez-Peitx, Isabel Civera and Juli Palou: Awareness of Plurilingual Competence in Teacher Education
Chapter 13. Katja Mäntylä and Paula Kalaja: “The Class of my Dreams” as Envisioned by Student Teachers of English: What is there to Teach about the Language?
Conclusion. Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer and Paula Kalaja: Lessons Learnt With and Through Visual Narratives of Multilingualism as Lived, and a Research Agenda