Pussy power

Some previous research has suggested that words in multlinguals’ first language, particularly taboo words, evoke a greater emotional response than words in any subsequent language. In the present study, we elicited French-English bilinguals’ emotional responses to words in both languages. We expected taboo words to evoke higher emotional response than positive or negative words in both languages. We tested the hypothesis that the earlier that bilinguals had acquired the language, the higher the emotional responses. French-English bilinguals with long exposure to both French and English participated. Their galvanic skin response (GSR) was measured as they processed positive (e.g., mother), negative (e.g., war) and taboo (e.g., pussy) words in both French and English. As predicted, GSR responses to taboo words were high in both languages. Surprisingly, English taboo words elicited higher GSR responses than French ones and age of acquisition was not related to GSR. We argue that these results are related to the context in which this study took place (i.e., an English majority context). If this interpretation is correct, then bilinguals’ emotional response to words could be more strongly linked to recent emotional interactions than to childhood experiences.

‘transformative’ potential of translanguaging and other heteroglossic educational practices

Over the last few decades, there has been an increased awareness about imprecise, inaccurate and, thus, unfair conceptualisations of language based on monoglossic views of language that delegitimise the linguistic repertoire of multilingual minorities as is the case of heritage speakers of Spanish in the US or speakers of Lingua Franca English worldwide. At the same time, there are theoretical and educational proposals that offer new conceptualisations of multilingualism focused on the concept of heteroglossia, which, in contrast with monoglossic views, focuses our attention on the fluid and full use of all linguistic resources available to language learners/users as they engage in the process of interacting with their interlocutors. In the present paper, I describe an important challenge that compromises the valuable agenda of heteroglossic approaches to develop multilingualism: the effect of listeners’ biases and reverse linguistic stereotyping. That is, educational programmes designed to counteract the negative effect of monoglossic approaches to second language learning in general cannot adopt a segregationist approach (neither in their theoretical design nor in their practical implementation). To place this challenge in context, I describe in detail the specific example of Spanish heritage second language learners at the tertiary level of education in the US setting and I also provide a broad outline of potential improvements in the curricular design of such programmes.

Stereotyping language choice in times of conflict

The article studies the impact language attitudes have on the stereotyping of speakers in a context of ethnic conflict. We investigate the collision between the public and private language identities of Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking citizens in Ukraine. Empirically based on a public discussion on the relationship between language and patriotism in online newspapers and on Facebook, the article explores the perceived links between linguistic choices and individual, regional and national identities. The study analyses the core identity components attributed to and claimed by Ukrainian-and Russian-speaking participants inthe debate, along two axes: political vs personal language choice and national vs regional identity. Focusing on discourse about language choice, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how in conflict situations language can be conceptualised as reflecting a fundamental component of sociopolitical identity claims, which in the case of Ukraine has repercussions about who is seen as belonging to the nation.

Leisure reading in multilingual Singapore

What are bilingual children reading? Do children who enjoy reading books in one language also enjoy reading books in the other language? Drawing on survey data from 1,312 children (aged 9–11) in two government primary schools in Singapore, this study examined reading enjoyment, habits and preferences of two groups of bilingual children – English-Chinese and English-Malay bilingual children. Results showed that children generally enjoyed reading in English more than reading in Chinese/Malay, and that they read English books more often and for longer duration. Within each language, reading enjoyment was significantly associated with reading frequency and reading duration. Crosslinguistically, children’s reading duration and frequency in their two languages were closely related, despite their different reasons for reading English and Chinese/Malay books. Even though levels of reading enjoyment in the two languages were not significantly correlated, results suggested that English reading enjoyment may facilitate Chinese/Malay reading. Results highlight the important role of language policy, the focus of language curriculum and language-specific features in shaping bi-/multilingual children’s reading habits and preferences. Implications for classroom applications and the need to promote Chinese/Malay reading are discussed.

acquisition of verbal tense and aspect in Maltese by adult migrants

This article considers the relevance of second language acquisition research for the development of pedagogical grammar. As an example it looks at the acquisition of verbal tense and aspect by intermediate-to-advanced level learners of Maltese, and more specifically the extent to which the perfett and imperfett verb forms are used by the learners when compared with L1 users of Maltese. Sixteen adult migrant learners, and 15 L1 Maltese users, took part in the study. All but one of the 16 migrant learners knew at least two other languages. Two of the participants had Arabic as their L1, and three others had learned Arabic as an L2, while the remaining learners spoke a variety of first languages. On a picture interpretation task, L1 speakers of Arabic performed very much like Maltese L1 speakers, predominantly using the perfett, perfective aspect in the past. All the other migrant learners, including those who had learned Arabic well as an L2, used the imperfett, imperfective/unrestricted habitual aspect. This evidence has important implications for the formulation of pedagogical grammar for foreign learners of Maltese. It also sheds light on the relevance of language typology in foreign language acquisition.

Plurilingual education and pedagogical plurilanguaging in an elementary school in Japan

In this article, we examine a plurilingual practice in Japan – a country traditionally described as being extremely monolingual. The contribution explores innovative teaching that disrupts monolingual ideologies and how we view TESOL practice. The context of the study is a public elementary school situated in western Japan. We follow the classes of one teacher to discuss her use of pedagogical plurilanguaging as intentional instructional strategies that integrate several languages and cultural viewpoints to support the development of language and content learning, plurilingual awareness and multiperspectivity. We explain how we think it echoes with, and differs from, the concept of translanguaging. Data sources include audio and video recordings of classroom interactions, visual documentation, researchers’ field-notes, teachers’ and learners’ reflective journaling, as well as learners’ productions. The study has implications for teacher training and curriculum design and resituates the teaching of English as a world language in a more complex and multifaceted way.

Preparing to teach emergent bilinguals

Our ethnographic action research case study addresses the unique concerns that arise when expanding bilingual education methods within teacher education for non-ESL preservice teachers concerning ideological and practice-based shifts in pedagogy. The conceptual framework connects language ideologies and pedagogical practices. The qualitative analyses of three key assignments document preservice teachers’ ideological leanings as tending toward heteroglossia, tending toward monoglossia, or ideologies in flux. Our findings illustrate the attempts by preservice teachers to engage in practices along continua of heteroglossic and monoglossic language ideologies and the importance of defining concrete practices that value bilingual community knowledge.

Does bilingualism correlate with or predict higher proficiency in L3 English? A contrastive study of monolingual and bilingual learners

This study investigates whether English in instructed settings is more successfully acquired by learners who are already bilingual in comparison to those with a monolingual background. There remains substantial controversy regarding potential advantages of bilingual speakers in their acquisition of additional languages, especially in heritage speaker contexts. We here contribute to this discussion by analysing the English C-test results of 1,718 bilingual and monolingual students of grades 7 and 9, sampled in schools across Germany. The bilingual students speak either Russian or Turkish (heritage language) and German (majority language). The monolingual control group was raised in German only. The main predictor variables are reading fluency and comprehension in German and the heritage languages. Additional predictor variables include school type, school year, socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, amongst others. Using correlation and regression analyses we test if reading fluency and comprehension impact proficiency in English and if bilingual students enjoy advantages over their monolingual German peers. The results reveal no systematic advantage of bilingual students, although we find significant correlations between reading fluency and comprehension and C-test results. School type, cognitive skills, among others, are predictors for English performance, whereas socioeconomic status returns no significant effect.

Constructing multilingua franca scales

Using notions of scale and space, this study explores how Black African immigrants (BAIs) experience communication and negotiate, shape and reshape their social identities through language use in Johannesburg (South Africa) – a city characterised not only by complex multilingualism but also by quotidian violence. Drawing from qualitative interviews and group discussions, an analysis of BAIs’ metalinguistic discourses on their communicative practices as they move across spaces suggests that they view Johannesburg as a layered space characterised by dissimilar scales of interaction. Utilising negotiation strategies predicated on variegated scales, BAIs make space for home and host nation language varieties using forms that function as ‘multilingua francas,’ thereby resisting and unsettling the dominant local scales based on regimented ethnolinguistic boundaries.

Making music, making language

This article reframes how the making of music by minoritized bilingual Latinxchildren is interrelated to their languaging and their literacies’ performances.Taking a translanguaging approach, musicking/languaging/performing literacies are described here as holistic critical meaning-making processes. Focusing on the process by which students make meaning of texts, and not simply on the output or product of such meaning-making, this article shows how a music education programme based on El Sistema and designed for social change transforms minoritized children’s critical sense of their positions and subjectivities as producers of language and literacies. Through music education, long considered only an enrichment activity from which language minoritized students are often excluded, bilingual Latinx children are able to crack open a vision for themselves and others as competent, dignified, and valid meaning-makers—as performers of complex acts of language and literacies.