Multidisciplinary Approaches to Multilingual Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Multilingualism, either at the individual or at community level, has a profound impact on our society. However, many countries still find it difficult to manage linguistic diversity as a positive element from cultural, social, educational, and economic points of view. Additionally, when considering indicators of sustainable development, those related to language rights in a linguistically diverse context hardly play a role (the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations provide a striking example in this respect).

In the light of the above considerations, the challenges posed by a multilingual society involve the need for enacting scientifically motivated support actions within different contexts, such as education and healthcare, in order to make multilingualism central in the sustainability debate.

To this purpose, the Special Issue aims to collect empirical and theoretical contributions related to the study of multilingualism from a multidisciplinary perspective. Studies might address the implications of multilingualism at the individual (e.g., cognitive, and psychological effects across the lifespan), clinical (e.g., implications for clinical interventions), educational (e.g., impact on educational practices) and social levels (e.g., language policies).

Research topics include but are not exclusive to cognitive effects of bi-multilingualism, biliteracy, bilingual education, social aspects of multilingualism, heritage language, and minority languages, language policy.

References:

Berthoud, A.C., Grin, F., and Lüdi, G. (2013). Exploring the dynamics of multilingualism: The DYLAN project. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Bialystok, E., Luk, G., & Kwan, E. (2009). Bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read: Interactions among languages and writing systems. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(1), 43-61.

Kohnert, K. (2010). Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence and Implications for Clinical Actions. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 456-473.

Bialystok E., Abutalebi J., Bak T. H., Burke D. M., Kroll J. F. (2016). Aging in two languages: implications for public health. Ageing Research Review, 27, 56–60.

Gazzola, M, and Bengt-Arne W. (2016). The Economics of Language Policy. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.

Gorter, D., & Cenoz, J. (2011). Multilingual education for European minority languages: The Basque country and Friesland. International Review of Education, 57, 651-666.

MacSwan, J., (2017). A multilingual perspective on translanguaging. American Educational Research Journal, 54 (1),167–201.

May, S. and Hornberger, N. H. (2008). Language Policy and Political Issues in Education. New York: Springer.

Romaine, S. (2000). Language in society. An introduction to sociolinguistics (2nd [1994]). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Prof. Dr. Mirta Vernice
Guest Editor

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