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Plurilingual identities

On the way to an integrative view on language education?
  • Adelheid Hu
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to get a clearer understanding about the developments in the research domain of plurilingual education, and especially to gain insights about which steps towards an integrative and identity-oriented language education have been achieved. In a first part, the focus lies on the concept of identity itself, and the way it relates to language and language/intercultural learning. I will then discuss other influential concepts, such as the concept of plurilingualism itself (in contrast to multilingualism), the idea of language repertoires and of translanguaging. In a second part I will concentrate on some equally influential pedagogical and curricular developments such as the “language portraits” or the project “Wege zur Mehrsprachigkeit” (Ways to Multilingualism) that had been developed already in the 1990s in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. I will finally take a closer look at existing empirical research that focuses on the learners’ whole language repertoires. This research sheds light on the learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of plurilingualism, and investigates in how far the language repertoires are taken into account within the classroom. While this research focus has been rare until the turn of the millennium, there are now clear signs that the awareness for integrative research perspectives on language learning and teaching has been growing.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to get a clearer understanding about the developments in the research domain of plurilingual education, and especially to gain insights about which steps towards an integrative and identity-oriented language education have been achieved. In a first part, the focus lies on the concept of identity itself, and the way it relates to language and language/intercultural learning. I will then discuss other influential concepts, such as the concept of plurilingualism itself (in contrast to multilingualism), the idea of language repertoires and of translanguaging. In a second part I will concentrate on some equally influential pedagogical and curricular developments such as the “language portraits” or the project “Wege zur Mehrsprachigkeit” (Ways to Multilingualism) that had been developed already in the 1990s in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. I will finally take a closer look at existing empirical research that focuses on the learners’ whole language repertoires. This research sheds light on the learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of plurilingualism, and investigates in how far the language repertoires are taken into account within the classroom. While this research focus has been rare until the turn of the millennium, there are now clear signs that the awareness for integrative research perspectives on language learning and teaching has been growing.

Heruntergeladen am 26.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/hsld.7.07hu/html
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