Multilingualism

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The relationship between languages at different levels - e.g. global, national, local - in response to globalisation
• the role of family, education and work place in maintaining and fostering multilingualism
• how language policy influences multilingual contexts
• The notion of language and the concept of multilingualism
• how multilinguals interact in global contexts – eg virtual communication
• how multilinguals interact and use multilingual practices to construct/articulate their cultural identities
• the relationship between multilingualism and migration in the context of globalisation

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• appreciate and engage with key theoretical concepts in multilingualism;
• critically assess key issues and approaches to the study of multilingualism
• organise and present information in an academically appropriate way.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Develop an understanding of issues in the research field of multilingualism and apply the knowledge about multilingualism theories to address real life issues involving language choices and language attitudes
• Learn terms and specific language in the literature of multilingualism and apply them to academic debating

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• demonstrate understanding of elements of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic theory which can be applied to the study of other languages;
• apply critical thinking and problem-solving techniques in order to address new issues and new data;
• present findings and ideas in a structured, coherent manner.

This module will introduce you to the notion of ‘Multilingualism’, how this is understood and represented in different ways, and why it matters to you. You will explore this subject within a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic framework. From a psycholinguistic perspective you will investigate how people become multilingual and how they develop cognitively, and whether it makes a difference if multilinguals are exposed to two languages at the same time or one after the other.

From a sociolinguistic perspective, you will explore how multilinguals behave socially, how they interact (both face-to-face and virtually), how they construct/articulate their cultural identities, how they maintain their multilingualism and the crucial role of education and language policy in obstructing or facilitating multilingualism.

Teaching methods include

• a weekly lecture outlining a body of knowledge and concepts
• a weekly seminar in which the issues presented in the lecture will be applied to the critical analysis of empirical evidence

Ideas, concepts and theories will be introduced in the lectures. Seminars will provide the opportunity to explore particular topics in greater depth. Seminars will also encourage you to explore multilingualism on the basis of different kinds of data—linguistic, audio and visual—and will provide an occasion for you to engage with specific areas in more detail, through investigation and collaboration.

Individual reading, collaborative research, practical exercises and reflection

• Developing presentation skills through seminar preparation

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.