Language Awareness and Multilingualism: A Historical Overview

Abstract

In this encyclopedia entry, language awareness and multilingualism will be reviewed from a historical perspective, and current research trends will be highlighted. There is not a direct relationship between both movements from the beginning; rather there have been parallel (independent) developments. With the world becoming increasingly interconnected, multilingualism and diversity have turned into an everyday experience in various domains of life. While the field of language awareness initially concentrated on English L1 teaching, its scope and principles nowadays are much broader, including a wide variety of languages and contexts, such as L2 and L3 learning; bi-, tri-, and multilingual education; content-and language-integrated learning; and computer-/mobile-assisted learning. An examination of the articles published in the Language Awareness journal and the International Journal of Multilingualism between 2010 and the beginning of 2015 revealed that both language awareness and multilingualism encompass a wide range of topics and languages. On the whole, however, the primary focus still seems to be on English and language education, with communication in other languages and in the workplace remaining relatively unexplored. Although there are a number of well-designed small-scale studies, larger comparative studies that include and compare different settings and languages are needed. Altogether, it appears that the fields of language awareness and multilingualism can be fruitfully combined, with language awareness playing an important role in the development of multilingualism. In that regard, critical awareness of the role of politics is crucial since political decisions influence language use and the official status of languages as well as a person's (multilingual) identity.

The Effects of Multilinguality on the Development of Causal Speech Acts in the Geography Classroom

“…The linguistic and cognitive metasystem [42] (pp. [35][36][37] and the enhanced language awareness of multilinguals [104] presumably lead to greater linguistic and contentual coherence and thereby a more distinct correctness and a higher number of causal links (Table 3). With regard to the results of the monolingual group in particular, it can be concluded that using multilingual resources in the geography classroom has a positive effect on content-related communicative actions (Table 3, Figure 8 T 1-7 and TM 1-2) and thus supports functional learning (cf.…”

“…[95][96][97][98][99]. Language awareness is defined "as explicit knowledge about language and as a conscious perception and sensitivity during language acquisition, lessons and use" (ALA, 2012, quoted after [37] (p. 7)). For the formation of language awareness, an awareness has to be raised for declarative (i.e., contentual) and procedural (i.e., strategic) knowledge [38] (p. 255).…”

Early Language Environments Predict Aspects of Explicit Language Awareness Development

“…Akhtar, Menjivar, Hoicka, & Sabbagh, ; Slobin, ). However, formalized definitions of language awareness typically emphasize the explicit and conscious knowledge of the functions and conventions of language, including how people use and learn language (e.g., for reviews, see Cots & Garrett, ; Finkbeiner & White, ; Garrett & James, ). Additionally, despite a rapidly globalizing world population in which contact between speakers of different languages is increasing, the role of early language environments in language awareness development has been examined mainly in functionally bilingual or emergent bilingual children (e.g., Akhtar et al., ; Bailey & Osipova, ; Byers‐Heinlein, Chen, & Xu, ; Comeau, Genesee, & Mendelson, ; Diesendruck, ; Genesee, Boivin, & Nicoladis, ; Montanari, ; Nicoladis, ; Petitto et al., ) and less commonly in functionally monolingual children (e.g., Afshordi, Sullivan, & Markson, ; Rojo & Echols, ; Slobin, ).…”

Språkmedvetenhet i småbarnspedagogiskt arbete – Finländska daghemspedagogers reflektioner

“…Indeed, the main goal of LA is to support multilingualism both at the institutional and at the individual levels, through educating all pupils together (monolinguals and bi-/multilinguals) to understand linguistic and cultural diversity and through acknowledging all the learners' languages in classroom activities. (Hélot 2017, s. 249) När språkmedvetenhet diskuteras ur ett flerspråkighetsperspektiv används ibland de engelska termerna 'multilingual language awareness' eller 'language and culture awareness' (Finkbeiner & White, 2017). En annan vinkel, som företräds av t.ex.…”