Public Lecture by Josep Soler-Carbonell
10/15/2012 - 15:00 - 15:00
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Josep Soler-Carbonell, a lecturer in the Tallinn University Institute of
Communication, will deliver a public lecture entitled "Language Ideologies,
Globalization and the Value of Multilingualism among Spanish-speaking
College Students in Southern California" on Monday, 15 October at 15:00.
The lecture, which will be delivered in English, will be held at the
Institute of Communication (Tartu mnt 13, 1st floor) and is open to the
public.The lecture deals with the results of a fieldwork project conducted
at a university campus in southern California in 2011. In it, the opinions
of Spanish-speaking students (N=18) will be presented, analyzing their
linguistic trajectories and how they valorize their bilingual skills.
Presently, in the "new economy", languages can be valued more from a
pragmatic and instrumental point of view, as a resource to be more
competitive in the job market (Duchêne & Heller, 2011). However, the
more political and ideologized views of language can persist to an
important extent. The presentation will show how the interviewed
participants in this study relate to these questions. It will be shown that
even though most of the students perceive the abovementioned renewed
perspective of languages as a resource, it is not just any kind of
bilingualism that has value, but a specific one: the sum of two ‘ideal’
monolinguals, i.e. a non-truncated repertoire. At the same time, some of
the participants expressed their concern with the contradiction between the
discursively valued multilingualism and the fact that being "American" and
being bilingual do not form part of a single equation yet. In conclusion,
the presentation touches upon current debates on multilingualism, language
ideologies, language contact and Spanish in the US.For further information
please contactAnnela LaaneotsE-mail: annela.laaneots@tlu.ee
Communication, will deliver a public lecture entitled "Language Ideologies,
Globalization and the Value of Multilingualism among Spanish-speaking
College Students in Southern California" on Monday, 15 October at 15:00.
The lecture, which will be delivered in English, will be held at the
Institute of Communication (Tartu mnt 13, 1st floor) and is open to the
public.The lecture deals with the results of a fieldwork project conducted
at a university campus in southern California in 2011. In it, the opinions
of Spanish-speaking students (N=18) will be presented, analyzing their
linguistic trajectories and how they valorize their bilingual skills.
Presently, in the "new economy", languages can be valued more from a
pragmatic and instrumental point of view, as a resource to be more
competitive in the job market (Duchêne & Heller, 2011). However, the
more political and ideologized views of language can persist to an
important extent. The presentation will show how the interviewed
participants in this study relate to these questions. It will be shown that
even though most of the students perceive the abovementioned renewed
perspective of languages as a resource, it is not just any kind of
bilingualism that has value, but a specific one: the sum of two ‘ideal’
monolinguals, i.e. a non-truncated repertoire. At the same time, some of
the participants expressed their concern with the contradiction between the
discursively valued multilingualism and the fact that being "American" and
being bilingual do not form part of a single equation yet. In conclusion,
the presentation touches upon current debates on multilingualism, language
ideologies, language contact and Spanish in the US.For further information
please contactAnnela LaaneotsE-mail: annela.laaneots@tlu.ee