Ideologies, Policies, and Practices of Multilingualism: Perspectives from Germany - Carol Pfaff

My contributions to the discussion will address three areas of research relevant for reevaluating and refining work in multilingualism: •Empirical studies of the language development of multilinguals in Berlin, particularly on the development of Turkish, German and English of children and adolescents of the 2nd and 3rd generations of migrants from Turkey. These include empirical studies of the speakers' and writers' "monolingual modes" in quasi-academic settings, which reflect the changing varieties in their "bilingual / multilingual modes". •Policy issues in Germany, in which language policy itself appears to be the carrier of social and political policies, in particular as one of the most important criteria for assessment of eligibility for immigration and citizenship, and as measure of the degree of integration of non-Germans or Germans with "migration backgrounds." • Educational policies at primary, secondary (and tertiary) levels, as concerns the amount and type of instruction offered in languages other than German, both for members of immigrant or indigenous communities, as well as for the general population of pupils or students. Among the issues I address are the following: •The necessity to reassess and allow for more nuanced definitions of the categories L1, L2, L3 ... and foreign language in light of multilingual and polylingual practices and language change now in progress in ethnic --and academic—communities. •The analysis of national and supra-national language ideologies (EU, global) and their intended and unintended effects on language and subject matter teaching at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. •Attempting to broaden empirical research to encompass a wider range of disciplinary perspectives and methods in the design and analysis of studies of particular communities. Questions / prompts addressed •Categories of analysis:Multilingualism at the level of individual, utterance, text, Discourses of Multilingualism at national, state, community level Challenges of multilingual phenomena for definitions of multilingualism: And of assumed categories first, second, third ...and foreign language •Practice: New categories of language instruction in primary, secondary and tertiary education Implications of classroom and community practices for contemporary scholarship •Disciplines, Methods, Epistemologies Multilingualism as a contact zone among disciplinary and methodological models Disciplinary gaps, overlaps and possible re-orientations