Appunti Lingua Inglese III terza annualità

Lingua inglese III - Prof. Mazzaferro

Exam information

Appunti di Alessandra Passarino. Exam remotely on Webex and Moodle platform at the same time; written exam in English (2∣hours); a short essay on a particular topic/subject (about 500-600 words) (e.g. «English as Multilingua Franca and the construction of Networked Multilingualism. Critically Discuss»). NO dictionary during the exam.

Non serve tanto sapere i concetti, più la capacità di sviluppare un pensiero critico, dire la propria opinione/esperienza sui concetti spiegati. Consigli utili per la laurea (PDF) 01/02/21.

Sociolinguistic: language and society

Sociolinguistic focuses on language in society. A short introduction: The course is about how we communicate at times of, from the one hand, unprecedented mobility (physical/geographical mobility, people can move physically and virtually) and immobility (because of Corona Virus emergency, sanitary emergency, where people are immobilised) at the same time. How do we communicate at times of both mobility and immobility?

The focus is not on the English language itself, but, by contrast, it is on language, communication and practices at times of mobility and immobility. We have to take notes and be prepared to discuss in some detail new terminology as we encounter them. «Language» is translated into Italian as «linguaggio»; «a language» is translated as «lingua» (e.g. English language, German language, Italian language, etc.).

This course is about language as «linguaggio» or languages as «linguaggi», communication, and, at the same time, it is about languages as cultural, historical, and social entities, constructs. What kind of society do we live and experience in our everyday life? We live at times of unprecedented mobility, but also unprecedented diversity in times of linguistic, cultural, ethnic, social diversity.

This diversity is given by the possibility of movement, to move physically but also virtually. That is where new social media, new means of communication come in the course. We experience new communicative means and also new communicative contexts. People today are growing up in a very different communicative, linguistic, societal context than they were one or two generations ago.

The fact that they live this new communicative needs and experience new communicative means and context is related to the fact that they have radically changed the way they communicate. We have been in a way obliged to change not only the way we communicate, but also the means through which we communicate and the resources we draw on in order to communicate.

All this is related to the idea that each of us is or has been obliged to expand our individual linguistic repertoire (it deals with all the resources, linguistic or verbal, the individual has in order to communicate and to construct meaning). These resources are mostly, but not necessarily limited to, linguistic resources. A linguistic or communicative repertoire is commonly used to refer to the collection of ways individuals use language and other means of communication (e.g. gesture, dress, posture, and other accessories) which allow the construction of meaning, to make yourself understood.

Nowadays, we have new communicative needs, and these needs are associated with new communicative means and new communicative ways. These new means and ways are part of our individual repertoire. This repertoire is made of linguistic resources (e.g. English, Chinese, Spanish) but also other resources, semiotic resources (which refers to any kind of sign, in terms of clothes, gestures, postures, the use of emoticons or pictures to communicate and to construct meaning). Communication is strictly linked to the construction of meaning (in Italian costruzione di significati).

English in a multilingual context

Where is English in all of this? We need to think of English in a social context which is becoming more and more multilingual. Do we consider ourselves multilingual speakers? This doesn’t mean how many languages we can speak or use in our daily interactions with others, it is about being aware of the importance of being a multilingual speaker in present-day society.

It is important in terms of work: most if not the totality of the jobs deal with multilingual context, a multilingual environment where, not only the ability to use different languages, but the awareness of how the multilingual communication is at the basis of present-day society. Multilingualism will be analysed from two main perspectives: as a theory and as a practice. This distinction applies also to English (theory: why English is important?; practice: what’s the meaning of English in multilingual practices in different contexts of our present-day society?).

This course is about language, communication, language practices, language resources with a specific attention to English as a multilingual language or English among other languages. English as a multilingual franca refers to the idea of English in use among other languages. We have to focus on English starting from present-day sociolinguistic situations at a global and local level and talk about English in terms of mobility, diversity, and super diversity.

By doing this we have to re-conceptualise our view of English as the main instrument of international, global communication.

Critical thinking

How do we construct our everyday language practices? (especially at times of Covid-19 and forced immobility, how do we communicate, and through which means?)

What linguistic and semiotic resources do we draw on and deploy in everyday interactions?

What specific resources we associate with English, if any, are effectively being used?

What are their functions in the multilingual contexts in which they enter, and in the multilingual repertoires of users?

Sociolinguistics of multilingualism

The main issue of the course is English as a multi-lingua franca analysed, debated, investigated from a sociolinguistic perspective, in particular from a sociolinguistics of globalisation perspective. What do we mean by «multilingualism» and «sociolinguistics»?

The term multilingualism is linked in terms of social change. Multilingualism is the consequence of social, cultural, and ideological present-day conditions which are interlinked to changes in the global economy, the expansion of the market, the advent of the Internet, and new means and technologies of communications, but also the rapid increase in transnational population (=migration), population flows across the world, and also the increased circulation of material and immaterial/symbolic resources all over the world.

The issue of multilingualism is linked to the main social, political, cultural changes characterising present-day society, the world we experience and live. All these changes have been linked to what we know now as globalisation. Globalisation is a sort of passe-partout formula or word in order to refer to specific phenomena, particularly cultural phenomena which characterise the present-day world, also defined as «late modernity».

Globalisation, as we know it and experience it today, is an unprecedented phenomenon, characterised by the circulation of both material and immaterial resources. Among the immaterial resources, we have to include languages and varieties. Globalisation is not only the circulation of goods, the market etc. but it is also about the circulation of languages and other cultural constructs (e.g. cinema, theatre, music etc.). Globalisation has changed and is still changing the way present-day society is organised and structured.

What is the relationship between social changes and multilingualism? Multilingualism is one of the main issues, phenomena linked to globalisation and the idea of circulation, mobility, movement (people move, but also goods, ideas, information etc.). Movement is part of what we define as globalisation.

Multilingualism, within this context, is a fact of globalisation, but it is also a fact of life. It is something which is related to the life of millions and millions of individuals worldwide. If we look at statistics, we can state that most of the people, but also most of the countries in the present-day world are multilingual. There are more than 200 countries and over 5,000 different languages spoken in the world today. Within the 200 countries, most of the people can speak more than 2 languages.

For example, a research carried between Nigerian migrants and Filipino migrants in Turin shows that most of the people from the two communities can speak more than 5 different languages, not to mention the different varieties of those languages.

Do you consider yourself, as a student of foreign languages, as a multilingual speaker or not? At the same time, multilingualism has become, in some ways, the most important and solid property of post-modern human society as a whole.

This reality, multilingualism, belongs to both small localities, small groups, small communities, and, at the same time, macro localities, macro communities, and macro geographical areas (nations states, continents). Africa is the most «multilingual» continent in the world at the moment; the majority of the languages spoken in the world nowadays are spoken in Africa.

We can say that multilingualism nowadays is almost everywhere, it also lays in virtually every facet of human life, whether directly or indirectly. So, multilingualism is not only something which belongs to social reality we live and experience every day, but at the same time, it is also the reality of the so-called «virtual world» (which is not virtual any longer, particularly after Covid-19).

Definitions and perspectives on multilingualism

Multilingualism is a consequence of social change, is a fact of life for the majority of the people around the world, and now it’s time to give a definition. The first aspect we have to point out is that, from a traditional, mainstream perspective on multilingualism, we commonly distinguish between individual vs. social multilingualism.

Who is a multilingual individual/speaker? Li Wei is a Chino-English scholar who defines a multilingual speaker: "Anyone who can communicate in more than one language, be it active (through speaking and writing) or passive (through listening and reading)"

According to Li Wei, we can consider ourselves as multilingual speakers, no matter the level of the second language we are learning. We can speak more than one language in two main and different modes: we can be active speakers of a certain language (we speak and write actively that language) or passive speakers of any language (when we are only able to listen, read and understand what we listen and read, but not able to speak it).

But, multilingualism is not only a fact of the single individual, it is also a fact of societies, nation states, social communities, and social groups. We refer to social multilingualism, at this macro-level or level of community, in terms of: "The ability of societies, institutions, groups, and individuals to engage on a regular basis (on a daily basis) with more than one language in their day-to-day lives" (European Commission).

Do you consider yourself as a multilingual speaker, according to the definition given by Li Wei? Do you consider Turin, Italy as a whole as a multilingual country?

We don’t usually reflect on the fact that the sociolinguistic situation of Italy is rapidly changing. This means that also Italian citizens are different linguistically, culturally, but also different from the ones of 2/3 generations before.

Multilingualism is, at the same time, both an individual and social phenomenon. It can be considered as an ability of an individual or can refer to the use of different languages in society. Individual and societal multilingualism are not completely separated. In the Italian sociolinguistic literature, the term «multilingualism» is substituted by «plurilingual» even if they are not the same. «Multilingualism» is the term we have to use. Plurilingualism refers to the repertoire of varieties of language which many individuals use, and some individuals, according to this definition, are monolingual and some are plurilingual (monolingual ≠ multilingual).

The main study concerning multilingualism is the Atomistic research. The Atomistic view on multilingualism particularly refers to the analysis of specific features, elements of the languages spoken by multilingual individuals, and particularly the relationship between these elements. Atomistic research usually looks at one specific feature of syntax, phonetics, or lexis during the acquisition of one language.

But this position is, in a way, limited for one main reason: from this position, languages and varieties are conceived as discrete, fixed, independent, autonomous entities, which are located in the mind of speakers. There is another aspect of this atomistic position: the second aspect implies the idea that a multilingual speaker is the one who can speak two or more languages like monolinguals do (I know a language only when my linguistic competence equals that of a monolingual speaker).

Linguistic competence and multilingualism

What is a language? What is the difference between a language and a variety? Who is a multilingual speaker? What kind of linguistic competence are you expected to show in interaction with others in order to be defined as a multi-lingual speaker?

This atomistic view is related to another aspect of multilingualism studies: the idea and perspective that multilingual speakers are simply the sum of different languages. Multilingualism can be considered as both additive or subtractive: addictive multilingualism in the case when I learn a language which is not my first language; subtractive multilingualism is the opposite (I am a Nigerian migrant, I decide to move to Italy, I have been living in Italy for 20 years now, I stop using Italian for everyday interactions with the people of my community, the fact that I use Italian during my daily life means that I started not using the language which I define as my mother tongue. I am losing my original language). So, we can consider multilingual speakers as both additive and subtractive.

These views on multilingualism have been recently challenged and new paradigms of multilingualism entered multilingualism studies. One of the main challenges to this idea of multilingualism as addictive and the idea of linguistic competence is that of Holistic research on multilingualism. At the core of this idea of multilingualism, as a holistic process or the trend towards a holistic view of multilingualism, which has spread in many and different directions in recent years, this trend highlights the characteristics of multilingual speakers as different from those of monolingual speakers.

The main distinction between the two is that while monolinguals use one single language in all situations and within the same social domain (e.g. family, peers etc.) or with the same people, multilingual speakers are able to navigate among languages and do not use each of their languages for the same purposes in all communicative situations, nor in the same domains or with the same people.

Multilingual speakers use languages at their disposal as resources in communication. Multilingual speakers use all the language resources of their repertoire in all communicative situations, for different purposes and with different people. Multilingual speakers expand their repertoire and they usually have more resources available than monolingual speakers.

They use these resources both in isolation or they mix them according to the interlocutors, but also according to the communicative means. Multilingual speakers draw on different resources and these are linked to the people who participate in the interaction and the context where the interaction takes place. Communication is always linked to the context in which interactions take place.

Multilingual speakers use the languages / varieties at their disposal as (verbal, linguistic) resources in communication, according to their communicative needs and their interlocutors and communicative situations and contexts. This is how people in specific contexts, and in specific communities, countries use all their resources of their repertoire to communicate. They do it fluently, spontaneously. Languages are used, by multilingual speakers, in a fluid, spontaneous way. The use of the different languages is not the result of a rational choice, it is not the result of a decision.

Do you commonly switch from one language to another or to a variety when you are interacting with others? If yes, how do you do this, spontaneously or do you choose to do it (maybe to signal that you are a student of English language, or that you are a cool person who associates the English language with the idea of coolness)?

Sociolinguistics perspective on multilingualism

How does sociolinguistics, the main theoretical perspective of the course, view multilingualism? What do we mean by the sociolinguistics of multilingualism? The first point to recall is that sociolinguistics sees multilingualism as socially constructed, a socially constructed phenomenon. It means that it is something which is not given a priori (= deduttivo), but is strictly related to social relations and how people are positioned within society or community.

The multilingual speaker is considered as a social actor, which means that I can do things with the language resources belonging to my repertoire. Multilingualism is socially constructed by speakers who are considered as social actors. This is important because it states that language is not given, but it is constructed and speaking, writing, or language use in general is a social or dialogical activity, always done in relation with others. For the multilingual speaker, the choice is not only a means of communication, but it is also an act of identity.

For example, in the USA, Latinos or Spanish speakers of English are the majority of the population. What does switching from English to Spanish mean to these people? It is an act of identity: if during a conversation I switch from one language to another it means that I want to signal to the people I am interacting with that I have a Spanish cultural and linguistic background. But, identity is not a given, it is negotiated. A negotiation of identities for sociolinguistics happens in and through language use and choice.