Page 212 - Ana Kozina and Nora Wiium, eds. ▪︎ Positive Youth Development in Contexts. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2021. Digital Library, Dissertationes (Scientific Monographs), 42.
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positive youth development in contexts
academic and professional benefits (Herzog-Punzenberger et al., 2017, p.
8).2 Compared to the role of multilingual practices in history, contem-
porary multilingualism is more visible and valued since it has become a
much more global and diverse phenomenon. It is spread across different
parts of the world, social classes, professions, and socio-cultural activities
(Comanaru & Dewaele, 2015). Further, due to technological development,
multilingualism is no longer limited to oral or written forms of communi-
cation and language use but has evolved to become an instantaneous and
multimodal practice that routinely takes place over vast distances and, in
large part, also in virtual space (Aronin & Singelton, 2008; Cenoz, 2013b).
Definitions: from multilingualism and plurilingualism
to translanguaging
Contemporary multilingualism is thus necessarily viewed as an interdis-
ciplinary and multidimensional research topic that may be approached
from different perspectives and disciplines, such as linguistics, psycholin-
guistics, sociolinguistics, and education complete with its contexts and re-
search fields like pedagogy, didactics, education policies etc. Consequently,
the term has attracted many definitions that have changed through time
according to the shift in the trajectory of research of bi- and multilingual-
ism, particularly marked by the normative perspective, and transformed
from a monolingual to a bi-/multilingual norm. Moreover, the standard
views of multilingualism as a psychologically and socially harmful phe-
nomenon very commonly found in the early days gradually evolved into
the contemporary general acknowledgement that multilingualism is a con-
tinual, dynamic ability to command two or more languages, which com-
prises demonstration of certain minimal level of competence in speaking,
listening, reading and writing, with a positive social connotation. Namely,
the ability to master two or more languages has been recognised as bring-
ing “opportunities not only to the individual but also to the society as a
whole” (Wei et al., 2002, p. 3). Correspondingly, several dimensions are
stressed in definitions of multilingualism, such as the individual and so-
cial dimension of multilanguage use, the question of language proficiency
2 Here, we have in mind Gumperz’s concept of repertoire (1964), which also gave rise to
the notion of a plurilingual repertoire within ECML research, which is summarised
as the »totality of linguistic, sociolinguistic, metalinguistic and (socio)cultural
knowledge related to several languages (and their varieties and registers), mastered
at different degrees and for different use, that is available to an individual in an (ex-
olinguistic) communicative and interactive situation« (Chen & Helot, 2018, p. 170).
212
academic and professional benefits (Herzog-Punzenberger et al., 2017, p.
8).2 Compared to the role of multilingual practices in history, contem-
porary multilingualism is more visible and valued since it has become a
much more global and diverse phenomenon. It is spread across different
parts of the world, social classes, professions, and socio-cultural activities
(Comanaru & Dewaele, 2015). Further, due to technological development,
multilingualism is no longer limited to oral or written forms of communi-
cation and language use but has evolved to become an instantaneous and
multimodal practice that routinely takes place over vast distances and, in
large part, also in virtual space (Aronin & Singelton, 2008; Cenoz, 2013b).
Definitions: from multilingualism and plurilingualism
to translanguaging
Contemporary multilingualism is thus necessarily viewed as an interdis-
ciplinary and multidimensional research topic that may be approached
from different perspectives and disciplines, such as linguistics, psycholin-
guistics, sociolinguistics, and education complete with its contexts and re-
search fields like pedagogy, didactics, education policies etc. Consequently,
the term has attracted many definitions that have changed through time
according to the shift in the trajectory of research of bi- and multilingual-
ism, particularly marked by the normative perspective, and transformed
from a monolingual to a bi-/multilingual norm. Moreover, the standard
views of multilingualism as a psychologically and socially harmful phe-
nomenon very commonly found in the early days gradually evolved into
the contemporary general acknowledgement that multilingualism is a con-
tinual, dynamic ability to command two or more languages, which com-
prises demonstration of certain minimal level of competence in speaking,
listening, reading and writing, with a positive social connotation. Namely,
the ability to master two or more languages has been recognised as bring-
ing “opportunities not only to the individual but also to the society as a
whole” (Wei et al., 2002, p. 3). Correspondingly, several dimensions are
stressed in definitions of multilingualism, such as the individual and so-
cial dimension of multilanguage use, the question of language proficiency
2 Here, we have in mind Gumperz’s concept of repertoire (1964), which also gave rise to
the notion of a plurilingual repertoire within ECML research, which is summarised
as the »totality of linguistic, sociolinguistic, metalinguistic and (socio)cultural
knowledge related to several languages (and their varieties and registers), mastered
at different degrees and for different use, that is available to an individual in an (ex-
olinguistic) communicative and interactive situation« (Chen & Helot, 2018, p. 170).
212
