Abstract
The successful understanding of language at both a macro and a micro level – both climate and weather, to paraphrase Michael Halliday – remains a challenge for linguists, applied linguists and indeed anyone working in contexts where language is a salient issue. It is therefore extremely valuable to have an overview of an issue as complex as multilingualism which addresses not only the phenomenon itself, but also the foundational concepts, that is, what language is, what counts as language and why it matters. As academics who work in Luxembourg and the UK, the authors of Introducing Multilingualism are interested in contexts where multilingualism intersects with issues of citizenship, education, migration, employment and identity, and where questions of what language is, who has it and who does not are central to social inclusion and justice.
The book is divided into six parts. Part 1 is an introduction, and proposes a theoretical and methodological framework for the study of language. The authors take a social approach to multilingualism with the aim of reversing the usual assumptions about multilingualism in the Western academic cannon as the marked case. Through their deconstruction of the notion of language as a bounded system, they argue instead for the recognition of language repertoires which make every language user a multilingual to some extent. The authors do not deal with cognitive approaches to language use, but rather they aim to move beyond structural definitions of linguistic behaviour. In using the common linguistic terminology around languages and language users, they stress that they are using them to reflect socially constructed rather than linguistically defined terms, such as ‘language’ or ‘migrant’. In their methodological framework, the authors engage with the idea of discourse models or language ideologies in order to comprehend how multilingualism can be understood in a variety of ways. Following Agar and others, they argue for an ethnographically-based discourse analysis approach to the study of multilingualism, as the best means to examine how larger discourse models are taken up, resisted or reworked by individuals or institutions. They focus on a number of common language ideologies which are powerful discourse models for the understanding of language: the hierarchy of language, standard language ideology, the mother tongue ideology and the ideology of purism. The value in naming and explaining these ideologies early on in the book is that in later sections they can be usefully linked to other issues, such as language in education or the media.
Part 2 looks more deeply at multilingualism within and across languages. It begins by deconstructing the idea of language as a bounded system, using English as an example. Given the hegemonic nature of English global dominance, beginning the book in this way highlights the critical approach of the authors to language study, and goes some way to weakening the discourse of English dominance that academic writing in English so often engenders. From this perspective, the authors engage critically with the classification of languages into varieties, creoles and first/second languages, and demonstrate how these classifications are often of critical importance to people’s lives, particularly in the educational field. Other areas of focus are language variation and endangerment, both of which are dealt with thoughtfully in brief sections. Of particular use to students is the frequent use of case studies and examples, which illustrate both the desired content and the focus on context-based analysis.
Part 3 deals with societal and individual multilingualism, a helpful distinction which allows the authors to focus on the minutiae of individual language repertoires, as well as to discuss larger social processes such as language policy and change, including the interplay of the two. This framework provides a useful scaffold for those undertaking discourse analysis in the area of multilingualism, through clearly separating individual and societal while drawing the connections between them. The section on officially defined multilingual states provides a clear overview and introduction to a range of countries, their language policies and how they are resisted or taken up by their populations. Although brief, this section is extremely useful to illustrate the diversity and complexity of state language policies, their interaction with the global spread of English and the response they have received.
Part 4 deals with multilingual education and is perhaps the section in which the authors most attempt to establish new theoretical positions, in that they argue for a particular ideology of multilingualism, that of flexible multilingualism over fixed. The authors maintain that linguistic repression has not necessarily stopped under multilingual policies, only that the imposition of language onto others has now become the imposition of languages. Following on from this argument, they contend that mother tongue education can lock children out of highly prized linguistic resources and argue instead for literacy bridges. This perspective is extremely relevant in a global educational context where bi/multilingual education is often one of subtractive rather than additive bilingualism.
Part 5 looks at discourses of multilingualism from a critical perspective, including linguistic landscapes, and Part 6 offers conclusions and new directions for study. Throughout the book, there are interesting and engaging quizzes and activities for students which are based on teaching experiences of the two authors. My particular favourite is the introductory quiz on page 9 which would be an excellent way to begin a course on the topic of multilingualism or linguistic diversity. The reference and further reading lists are similarly useful and engaging as they are helpfully divided into topic areas at the end of each chapter. Perhaps the book would have benefitted from the inclusion of more Asian and African perspectives and case studies, as it covers an impressive range of global contexts but the focus is often on either Europe or English-speaking countries, and it would be interesting to learn about multilingualism elsewhere which does not include English. However, overall I found this a thorough, engaging and appropriately critical introduction to multilingualism which reaffirms its place as a central topic in the study of linguistics.