Volume 6, Issue 2

This article draws upon data from 1880 students across Europe, gathered through an online survey. It aims at identifying general trends regarding their beliefs about multilingualism: Are these still shaped by the dominant standard language ideology (SLI)? In the article, results from factor analysis that examined underlying dimensions of beliefs about multilingualism and language learning are presented. These dimensions are evaluated differently by subsamples of students. On the one hand, students are divided by national backgrounds; for instance, Central European students differ from Belgian students. On the other hand, variables such as geographical mobility play an equal role: Students who consider moving to another country differ in their beliefs from their peers who prefer to stay in their home countries.

The highest percentage of population aged 60 or over is currently to be found in Europe. Over the coming decades, Europe is estimated to remain the continent with the oldest people. By 2050, the European population aged 60 or over will exceed 30 %, and those aged 80 or above will be approximately 12 % of the total EU population. Due to this demographic change, the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases associated with ageing is also expected to increase. Ensuring a smoother transition to an older population by preserving the cognitive health of European seniors may therefore be one of the most important challenges of the following decades. This paper critically examines the latest studies investigating the putative role of multilingualism in delaying cognitive decline by contributing to the cognitive health preservation. “Cognitive reserve” AND “multilingualism”, “cognitive reserve” AND “bilingualism”, “cognitive decline” AND “bilingualism” were used as keywords for study retrieval in searching the Web of Science, Pubmed, and PsychInfo databases for English-language research articles. Despite some controversies, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting multilingualism may play a significant role in preserving cognitive health in the elderly by enhancing cognitive reserve. The roles of language proficiency and the age of acquisition, as well as the number of languages spoken, are also considered in maximizing the positive effects in the elderly. The significance of these results, in the European context of population ageing, in bringing together cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, linguists and educationists in a constructive dialogue, with the aim of promoting lifespan multilingual education with a role in preserving cognitive health in the elderly, are also discussed.

Recent studies have concluded that type of language teaching programs such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) may have an effect on the use of previously known languages. Most of the studies that have tackled the use of previously known languages in the CLIL literature have compared CLIL to non-CLIL learners. However, few (pseudo)longitudinal studies have been conducted in this respect. This paper will try to fill this gap by examining the use of previously known languages (L1 Spanish/L2 Basque) in an oral narration task in two different age/proficiency CLIL groups. Participants are Basque/Spanish bilinguals learning English as a third language (L3) in a CLIL setting. Both groups started learning English at the age of 3 but differ in length and amount of exposure. Results show that both groups behave in the same way in terms of the use of previously known languages except for the production of foreignizings, which were more frequent in the younger group. The examination of the results also revealed that discourse markers was the most common manifestation of use of previous linguistic experience when compared to the rest of the categories.

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) professionals need specific knowledge and abilities to support children’s language development: language support competence (LSC). Research has shown varying levels of LSC of the personnel in early childhood education centers. However, only early childhood educators in monolingual institutions promoting the majority language were included in these studies. The growing interest in bilingual education in early childhood in many European countries raises the question whether ECEC professionals in bilingual institutions are better qualified for language-related tasks due to the evident focus on language and multilingualism. In a cross-sectional study, LSC and language proficiency of 115 ECEC professionals in monolingual and 24 ECEC professionals in bilingual early childhood education centers in Germany were assessed with standardized tests. Participants in bilingual institutions reached higher knowledge scores but did not differ from their colleagues in monolingual institutions in their abilities or language proficiency. Correlational and regression analyses revealed that LSC is related to several personal and professional background factors such as level of education or participation in professional development courses. The results are discussed with respect to language support practices in early childhood education and possible selection processes in personnel recruitment.

The current article presents a case for a constructionist turn in pedagogical grammar. To that end, the framework termed Applied Cognitive Construction Grammars (ACCxG) is introduced as a means to arrive at a systematic characterization of linguistic constructions in general and of phrasal verbs (PVs) in particular. Hence, PVs are defined as motivated pairings of form and meaning (constructions) embedded in semantic networks in which metaphorical meanings are motivated by more basic ones. In order to illustrate this proposal, a classification of PVs (which is deemed to align with L2 learners’ robust category formation abilities) is introduced. Furthermore, the tenets of a constructionist task-based type of pedagogy are outlined as a proposal for further research in the field of pedagogical construction grammar.

This contribution to the European Journal of Applied Linguistics addresses the contextualized challenges that the Association Française de Linguistique Appliquée is still facing despite the fact that it was created as far back as 1964, at the same time as AILA. The landscape of French research may explain why the tag “ Linguistique Appliquée ” is not as widespread as its equivalents in some other scientific cultures.

This paper offers a succinct presentation of the MIME project on “Mobility and Inclusion in Multilingual Europe”, supported by the European Commission through FP7. This short paper concentrates on essential aspects of the project but also provides pointers to sources with more extensive information, accessible through the project website at www.mime-project.org.

AThEME is a collaborative research project studying multilingualism in Europe. This 5-year research project was set up with funding from the European Commission, and it runs from March 2014 until March 2019. The main objectives of the project are: (1) to investigate cognitive, linguistic and sociological issues in multilingual Europe, (2) to assess existing public policies and practices within the areas of education and health as well as their impact on multilingualism and (3) to contribute to evidence-based policy making. AThEME uses a range of research methodology and aims to raise awareness of multilingualism among policy makers, health professionals, academics and educators.