RISLUS Reports 2009: Guus Extra

Monday, 27 April, 2009
Room C198, The CUNY Graduate Center

Dealing with increasing linguistic diversity in multicultural Europe

Linguistic diversity is generally conceived of as a constituent characteristic of European identity. However, some languages play a more important role in the European public and political discourse on “celebrating linguistic diversity”. The constellation of languages in Europe actually functions as a descending hierarchy of English as a lingua franca for transnational communication, the national or “official state” languages of European countries, regional minority languages and immigrant minority languages across Europe. Whereas the national languages of Europe are celebrated most at the EU level, with English increasingly on top, regional minority languages are celebrated less and immigrant minority languages least.

Against the background of ongoing processes of globalisation and international migration, an inclusive perspective will be offered on the constellation of all of these languages as part of Europe’s identity. The focus of the talk will be on mapping diversity in multicultural societies and on dealing with plurilingualism in education. The following topics will be addressed from these two perspectives.

Mapping linguistic diversity in multicultural societies

  • methodological issues, concepts and paradigms
  • criteria for the definition and identification of population groups in multicultural societies
  • types of data bases: census data, register data and survey data
  • mapping diversity in non-European English-dominant immigration countries
  • mapping diversity in European Union countries
Dealing with plurilingualism in education

  • moving away from a monolingual mindset
  • European institutions as agents of plurilingualism
  • attitudes of European citizens towards plurilingualism
  • experiences with plurilingual education for immigrant minority children
  • beyond integration: the enhancement of plurilingual education for all children