Multilingualism: A Critical Perspective

Description

What does it mean to young people to be multilingual? What do multilingual speakers' linguistic resources mean to them? Are they happy to discard their languages, and assimilate to English, or are there other issues at stake? Do communities set out to ensure that their languages are maintained and passed on to the next generation, and if so, how, and why? What if speakers appropriate and make use of linguistic resources not typically associated with their 'ethnic' or 'heritage' group? Is there consensus about the role and value of particular sets of linguistic resources, or is this contested, and negotiated? How do negotiations about linguistic resources and identities play out in institutional contexts, and what language practices are used in these negotiations? Adrian Blackledge and Angela Creese address these questions, taking a critical perspective to examine issues such as nationalism, heritage, culture, identity negotiation, ideology and power. They offer responses from their detailed investigations of the language practices of multilingual young people and their teaching experiences in complementary schools in four cities in England. As a comprehensive examination of the issues surrounding multilingualism, it will be essential reading for advanced students and researchers of sociolinguistics and multilingualism.

Adrian Blackledge is Professor of Bilingualism at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. Angela Creese is Professor of Educational Linguistics at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK.

"In this groundbreaking study of multilingual youth in the United Kingdom, Blackledge and Creese disrupt common-sense notions of language, literacy, heritage, and identity. Drawing on innovative research in eight complementary schools in four cities, the authors bring insightful analysis to a complex set of data, arguing persuasively that time and space remain central motifs in the investigation of multilingualism in contemporary society. Researchers, students, and teachers will find the integration of theory and practice both compelling and engaging. Multilingualism represents linguistic ethnography at its very best." - Professor Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada "An insightful account of a landmark study in multilingual education. This theoretically and methodologically innovative multi-site, team ethnography illuminates classroom linguistic practices in Gujarati, Bengali, Chinese, and Turkish complementary schools in Britain, opening readers' eyes and understanding to the rich diversity of cultural, identity, and learning resources multilingualism represents. This book offers a major, critical alternative." - Professor Nancy H. Hornberger. University of Pennsylvania, USA "British education scholars at the University of Birmingham, Blackledge and Creese investigate the role, values, status, and practice of minority languages in Britain and entertain the possibility that complementary schools might be an avenue for teaching and valuing minority languages that mandatory schooling tends to homogenize out of society. Their perspectives include the ethnography of multilingualism, separate and flexible bilingualism in complementary schools, multilingual literacies across space and time, inventing and dis-inventing the national, and trans-languaging as pedagogy in the bilingual classroom." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc. 'The book has a very clear structure that would make the reading accessible even to a reader who does not have a detailed knowledge of this field... I think this book should be of interest to a large group of people interested in the intersection of language, sociology, and culture. It should work for both researchers and advanced students as a way to acquaint oneself with the more recent work in the field. I also think it would probably work in an introductory course to multilingualism for students.' -- The Linguist List 'Explaining complex bilingual phenomena in a pluralistic, multilingual, and fluid modern society is not a simple task. The authors are to be commended for their critical perspective, their ability to crystallize complex processes into coherent and clear prose, and their unending commitment to constantly re-examining the language practices they see unfolding before them.' -- Language Policy ... remarkable both in breadth and depth... Blackledge and Creese's work is both impressive and inspiring in the scope and depth of the study presented and the clarity of the theoretical frame. -- Language Teaching