Towards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research from an International Perspective (Bilingual Education & Biligualism) - Softcover

Cenoz, Jasone

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847691927 ISBN 13: 9781847691927

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

This volume focuses on issues such as the learning, use and assessment of languages in education, the age factor, the teaching of English as an international language and multilingualism at the university, in educational contexts in which several languages are taught either as subjects or languages of instruction. Jasone Cenoz proposes the 'Continua of Multilingual Education' as a tool to identify different types of multilingual schools and focuses on Basque educational research to discuss issues that are relevant for other contexts. 'Towards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research in International Perspective' is an up to date and comprehensive review of research involving Basque, Spanish and English in Basque schools. The book will be of great value to researchers, professionals and students interested in multilingualism and multilingual education all over the world.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Jasone Cenoz is professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country. Her research focuses on bilingualism and multilingualism in educational settings. She is the editor (in collaboration with Ulrike Jessner) of âThe International Journal of Multilingualismâ and âAila Reviewâ. She is publications coordinator of AILA (International Association of Applied Linguistics) and she is the vice-president of IAM (International Association of Multilingualism). She has published widely on bilingualism and multilingualism and her most recent volume is âTowards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research in International Perspectiveâ which will be published by Multilingual Matters.

Jasone Cenoz is professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country. Her research focuses on bilingualism and multilingualism in educational settings. She is the editor (in collaboration with Ulrike Jessner) of â??The International Journal of Multilingualismâ?? and â??Aila Reviewâ??. She is publications coordinator of AILA (International Association of Applied Linguistics) and she is the vice-president of IAM (International Association of Multilingualism). She has published widely on bilingualism and multilingualism and her most recent volume is â??Towards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research in International Perspectiveâ?? which will be published by Multilingual Matters.

Jasone Cenoz is professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country. Her research focuses on bilingualism and multilingualism in educational settings. She is the editor (in collaboration with Ulrike Jessner) of âThe International Journal of Multilingualismâ and âAila Reviewâ. She is publications coordinator of AILA (International Association of Applied Linguistics) and she is the vice-president of IAM (International Association of Multilingualism). She has published widely on bilingualism and multilingualism and her most recent volume is âTowards Multilingual Education: Basque Educational Research in International Perspectiveâ which will be published by Multilingual Matters.

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Towards Multilingual Education

Basque Educational Research from an International Perspective

By Jasone Cenoz

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2009 Jasone Cenoz
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-192-7

Contents

Preface, ix, 
Introduction, xiii, 
1 Why Multilingualism?, 1, 
2 Towards a Typology of Multilingual Education, 22, 
3 Using the Minority Language as the Language of Instruction, 57, 
4 Learning through the Minority Language: Linguistic and Academic Outcomes, 84, 
5 Third Language Learning and Instruction through the Third Language, 110, 
6 Learning English and Learning through English: Research Outcomes, 128, 
7 The Influence of Bilingualism on L3, 146, 
8 Identities and Attitudes, 170, 
9 The Age Factor in Bilingual and Multilingual Education, 189, 
10 Bilingual and Multilingual Education at the University, 213, 
11 Conclusions and Future Perspectives, 233, 
References, 240, 
Index, 00, 

CHAPTER 1

Why Multilingualism?

Introduction

This volume discusses different aspects of bilingual and multilingual education in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC, henceforth), a specific context with a combination of a minority language (Basque), a majority language (Spanish) and an increasing presence of English as an international language. In this chapter we are going to introduce some of the terminology that will be used in the book and we will discuss the concept of multilingualism and relate it to two different phenomena that are taking place in the world: the spread of English as a language of international communication and the revival of minority languages. The last section of the chapter focuses on languages in the Basque Country and provides the necessary background information about the linguistic, sociolinguistic and socio-political context so as to discuss different aspects of multilingual education in the following chapters.

Multilingualism

Multilingualism and multilingual education are becoming more and more important not only in the Basque context but all over the world. As Edwards (2007:447) points out 'Multilingualism is a powerful fact of life around the world, a circumstance arising, at the simplest level, from the need to communicate across speech communities'. Indeed, multilingualism is very common taking into account that there are almost 7000 languages in the world and about 200 independent countries. According to the Ethnologue, the number of speakers of the different languages is unevenly distributed and 40% of the world's population have one of the most common eight languages as a first languages: Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, English, Bengali, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian (Gordon, 2005). More than 4000 of the world languages are spoken by less than 2% of the world's population and 516 of these languages are nearly extinct. The most multilingual continents are Asia and Africa.

Some researchers have drawn a comparison between linguistic diversity and biodiversity because in both cases some of the species are at risk and need specific protection (Krauss, 1992; Crystal, 2000; Maffi, 2000). Krauss highlights the great loss that the death of a language implies and argues that linguistic diversity is not less important than ecological diversity:

Surely just as the extinction of any animal species diminishes our world, so does the extinction of any language. Surely we linguists know, and the general public can sense, that any language is a supreme achievement of a uniquely human collective genius, as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism. Should we mourn the loss of Eyak or Ubykh any less than the loss of the panda or California condor? (Krauss, 1992: 8)

The idea of sustainable development as maintaining a balance between economic growth and the maintenance of natural resources and ecosystems has been extended to cultural diversity. For example the European network of excellence 'Sustainable development in a diverse world' (www. susdiv.org) aims at providing instruments to manage cultural diversity (including linguistic diversity) as a strategy to achieve sustainable development. The idea of linguistic diversity and multilingualism acquires a different dimension in this context. They have an added value and as Cenoz and Gorter (2009) show when discussing the linguistic landscape, an economic valuation model used in the study of biodiversity can be applied to the use of different languages.

Multilingualism is at the same time an individual and a social phenomenon. It can refer to the acquisition, knowledge or use of several languages by individuals or by language communities in a specific geographical area. Multilingualism has been defined as 'the ability of societies, institutions, groups and individuals to engage, on a regular basis, with more than one language in their day-to-day lives' (European Commission 2007: 6). Multilingualism usually implies more than two languages but individual and social bilingualism can also be considered as part of multilingualism as it is the case in this definition. A broad definition such as this also includes different levels of proficiency in the different languages. Proficiency can range from basic communicative abilities to a very high level in different skills and languages.

Multilingualism is a very complex phenomenon and it can be studied from different perspectives in linguistics, psycholinguistics, anthropology or sociolinguistics. Different aspects of multilingualism receive more or less attention depending on the discipline. For example, a psycholinguist can be interested in the way a multilingual person processes different languages and a sociolinguist in the relative vitality of languages which are in contact. The study of multilingualism in education can bring different perspectives together. It is possible to study language processing, language acquisition and language use by individual learners at school but schools are necessarily linked to the society in which they are located. Schools are not only influenced by society but can also have an important effect on society. Specific studies on multilingualism in education often focus on only one aspect of multilingualism but need to take into account the complexity of the whole phenomenon.

Multilingualism in a specific area can be the result of different factors. One of them is the mobility of the population. Mobility includes immigrants but also refugees, business workers, international agency workers, international students, international aid work (such as NGOs) and soldiers. Languages are also affected by specific historical and political factors such as colonial expansion or the union or separation of different countries.

Definitions and Terminology

In this section a number of terms about multilingualism, multilingual education and the Basque educational system will be defined as used in this volume.

Additive bi/multilingualism: A language is added to the linguistic repertoire of the speaker while the first language continues to be developed.

Basque: Language spoken by 30.1% of the population in the Basque Country. It is a non-Indo-European language of unknown origin.

Basque Autonomous Community (BAC): One of the autonomous regions of Spain. It has three provinces: Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.

Basque Country/Euskal Herria: The Basque historical and cultural territory including two autonomous communities in Spain (the BAC and Navarre) and the Northern...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847691927
• ISBN 13: 9781847691927
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 271
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland