Adopting a Multilingual Habitus: What North and South Can Learn from Each Other About the Essential Role of Non-dominant Languages in Education

Abstract

This chapter compares and contrasts research, policy and practice from low-income multilingual countries of the South with findings from bi-and multilingual regions of the North. The focus is on the essential role of non-dominant languages in teaching and learning, and opening our eyes to the monolingual habitus in our perspectives. Terms and concepts are discussed in detail and a multilingual habitus is invoked. After relevant differences between Northern and Southern contexts are distinguished and similarities noted, the discussion moves on to highlight lessons learned in each context and the role of the researcher in promoting dialogue between the two.

The ambivalent role of Urdu and English in multilingual Pakistan: a Bourdieusian study

“…She draws attention to the unrealistic and imperfect ideologies of (a) single or dominant language(s) as the solution, for being “contrary to the nature of multilingual societies” (Milligan et al, 2020 , p. 119). She urges stakeholders at the policy stage to engage in careful and systemic planning at curriculum levels, so as to avoid creating a system that represents a tunnel vision of the education system or neglecting other curricular content in favor of just one language (Benson, 2014 ). In South Asian countries, as Khubchandani’s ( 2008 ) encyclopedic essay informs us, the gap between ideal language and language in function is often quite wide because the educational institutions usually adopt a minimalist approach “with vague commitments and qualifying clauses which are, in turn, a result of negotiating with contradictory agendas of market forces, serving the interests of the elite, and succumbing to the demands of ethnic pressures” (p. 377).…”

“…Other scholars working in the Global South have debated the applicability of Bourdieu’s theory in these other contexts, which are characterized, as Pakistan is, by much higher linguistic diversity than Bourdieu could have envisioned (see Moraru, 2016 ; Stroud, 2002 ; and Swigart, 2001 ). Among several theoretical extensions of habitus proposed in this discussion, scholars like Benson ( 2013 , 2014 ) have felt the need to use the term multilingual habitus to capture the reality that agents’ linguistic utterances are regularly borrowed from more than one language. Other scholars like Lamb ( 2015 ) prefer the near-synonymous term plurilingual habitus so as to emphasize even more fluid shifts whereby agents borrow from different languages in their repertoire without seemingly drawing clear-cut boundaries between languages (see also Canagarajah, 2009 ).…”

Ideologies and practices in a kindergarten offering early education in Northern Sámi outside the Sámi homeland

“…On the other hand, the educational programs have diverse names, too (bilingual/multilingual education, heritage language education, minority education, etc.). Following the suggestion of Benson (2014), in the present paper we prefer using the more neutral terms non-dominant and dominant language and education in non-dominant language. With the former pair of terms we refer here to the Northern Sámi and the Finnish language, respectively.…”

“…Carol Benson (2014) offers a possible categorization of the diverse contexts of multilingual education throughout the world. As a highly imprecise but still useful metaphor, she distinguishes between Northern and Southern contexts to refer to high-and low-income countries.…”

“…Whatever the main reason of the involvement of the non-dominant language is, sooner or later the aim is to achieve proficiency in the dominant language as well (Benson , 2014, p. 17). One possible way to maximize the linguistic and cognitive potential is to adopt a multilingual habitus in education and to promote multilingual competencies (Benson, 2014, García & Flores, 2012 or -to use here a recent European conceptto promote plurilingual and intercultural competencies. García and Flores (2012) also argue for the effectiveness of plurilingual/heteroglossic instruction.…”