At the end of this course a student can…:
- … explain and contextualize the fundamental theories and concepts related to language use within multilingual settings.
- … apply and critically evaluate these theories and concepts in various multilingual contexts.
- … critically review research articles related to the course’s field.
- … discuss and apply an adequate methodology for research on multilingual practices and settings.
- … conduct research in the course’s field and present it orally and in a written report.
|
|
In today’s diverse and interconnected societies languages meet in various ways. Think for instance of situations where language users come in contact with another language outside their own language community or country of origin or the neighboring language from across the border. Another language can also play a role in one's life as a second or foreign language, or as a lingua franca for work, study or in the media. All this contact between languages, and speakers of those languages, means that language users find themselves in various multilingual contexts in their daily lives. And these multilingual practices and settings are linguistically extremely interesting as they inform us on the following questions: How do languages compare and contrast with respect to the expression of universal linguistic functions? How do languages influence each other on an individual and on societal level? How can new socially-conditioned varieties emerge out of contact between speakers from different language communities? How do language attitudes shape multilingual practices and contexts and vice versa? And how can/do language politics and language planning influence this? These and other questions related to multilingual practices and settings will be considered in this course that also introduces participants to the relevant and appropriate methods used to answer them. Besides English, this course will focus on multilingualism in the French-, German- and Spanish-speaking world. You will be given the opportunity to further explore a situation or phenomenon of your choice in your own research.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Together with one or more fellow students, you will give a presentation about an experimental paper (20%) and write a critical reflection (20%). At the end of the course, you will write a 3000-word research proposal that addresses a specific research question/ thesis statement related to one of the discussed course topics, which may either be of a theoretical or practical nature. This final assignment is an individual one, and counts for 60% of your final grade. A research proposal must be submitted at the first attempt in order to take the re-sit. Capping applies to grades for submitted re-sits that have been improved based on instructor feedback (maximum score 7). More details on all assignments will be given in the course syllabus.
|
|
|