Reconceptualizing Multicompetence as a Theory of Language Knowledge

Hall, Joan Kelly; Cheng, An; Carlson, Matthew T.

doi:10.1093/applin/aml013

Cited by 160 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…That is, they acquired how to communicate in a specific context in a specific language "well". In the sense of Hall et al (2006), this serves as evidence for the participants' having further developed their multicompetence as members of the emerging Szeged Erasmus community.…”

Section: Excerpt 516mentioning

confidence: 84%

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Communities of practice and English as a lingua franca: A study of Erasmus students in Szeged

Kalocsai

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The aim of my dissertation is to describe the complexities of English as a lingua franca (ELF) as it is used by a group of Erasmus exchange students engaged in social practice. My research was begun while I was working with the LINEE project, which made me realize that for a better understanding of the Erasmus exchange students' linguistic situation, the analytic focus had to be on language use in its social context. To that end, I adopted the community of practice model, which relies quite specifically on ethnographic techniques for collecting data, qualitative methods for analyzing social practices, and discourse analytic methods for analyzing linguistic practices. The participants were 142 Erasmus exchange students who studied temporarily at the University of Szeged, Hungary. The data collection spanned a whole academic year. The data sources included audio-taped and transcribed interviews, audio-taped and transcribed naturally occurring interactions, field notes, prompted e-mails, online posts by the students and circular e-mails by the students.By focusing on shared practices and resources that the participants imbued with meaning, the analysis indicates that the Szeged Erasmus students indeed built a community of practice during their relatively short stay in Hungary. The shared practices emerged to achieve the goal of building a friendship and "family" based local social network with a focus on fun and self-confidence. The shared practices involved "spontaneous" as well as "ritualized" code-switching, yet, most of the practices were in English. In the Szeged Erasmus community English was a key shared practice: it helped the participants to build shared negotiable resources (1) for accomplishing everyday ritual tasks; (2) for making humor in the language and also about the language; and (3) for repairing the problematic moments of word search and non-understanding. Given that for the vast majority of the participants English was an additionally learnt language, the analyzed linguistic practices are necessarily interpreted as ELF practices.The analysis indicates that for the Szeged Erasmus students English was a facilitator. In case of lacking other shared languages, it was the most important means of connecting both with the other Erasmus students and with the local peers. Further results of this study show that through developing their shared resources, the participants created through practice their own "version" of ELF. That is, they made the fleeting, changeable nature of ELF "fixed" to the extent that it helped them define themselves as a group. Furthermore, the participants of the present study were users of English, in the first place, and learners of English in the second place. That is, they exploited their non-nativeness and demonstrated their "language learner" roles by choice, as and when appropriate, as a way of exploiting their shared resources. Finally, the Szeged Erasmus students creatively exploited their plurilingual repertoires. However, their code-switching was more for the crea...

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Section: Excerpt 516mentioning

confidence: 84%

“…In this sense, they improved not so much their multilingualism as their multicompetence (Hall et al 2006) while in Szeged.…”

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confidence: 94%

Communities of practice and English as a lingua franca: A study of Erasmus students in Szeged

Kalocsai

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“…Our analysis shows a qualitative difference in the language used during sanctioned and unsanctioned play, as well as in non-playful discourse, which comprised the bulk of interaction in this classroom. Following Hall et al (2006), we have advocated a view of learners as multicompetent language users (Cook 1991(Cook , 1992(Cook , 1999, whose language knowledge is grounded in the actual linguistic practices in which they engage. In examining the use of language play across activities we have indeed seen multicompetent learners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The enthusiasm with which the construct has been greeted has contributed to changing views on the language learner and renewed interest in examining additional language learning from a multilingual perspective. Hall et al (2006) note, however, that research on multicompetence has yet to provide us with significant insights into the nature of language knowledge because the work often relies on flawed assumptions regarding language knowledge and use, and the nature of multi-and mono-competence. In particular, they critique the assumption that language knowledge remains stable across contexts.…”

Section: Language Play and Language Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning to Play, Playing to Learn: FL Learners as Multicompetent Language Users

Pomerantz

Bell

2007

Applied Linguistics

100

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“…In this study, we are concerned with plurilingualism, an umbrella term we use to refer to the mobilisation of resources from different languages -and through different practices -by individuals within the same interactional event, in accomplishing everyday practical social actions iii . In this sense, our understanding of plurilingualism is closely linked to psycholinguistic notions such as multicompetence (Cook 1991(Cook , 2007Hall, Cheng & Carlson 2006) as well as to specific interactional practices such as translanguaging, codeswitching, or polylanguaging, discussed below.…”

Section: Plurilingualism As Practical Social Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plurilingual resources for ‘welcoming’ at a university service for international students

Moore

Patiño-Santos

2014

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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This paper studies the situated meaning given to a so-called 'welcome' service for international students at a Catalan university. The official business of the service is to offer support with bureaucratic procedures and information about available services, including those for learning Catalan. However, the complex range of overlapping activities emerging in interactions at the service leads us to question how participants themselves (i.e. service providers and student users) understand the business of 'welcoming'. Furthermore, the use of different languages in the interactions brings us to ask what role participants assign to their plurilingual resources in accomplishing this business. The results allow us to describe the 'welcome' service as a complex and significant place for the language socialisation of newcomers to the university, as well as the central role of plurilingual resources in achieving this aim, in constucting the multilingual order and in accomplishing internationalisation. These results provide insights for policies aiming at the management of linguistic diversity in scenarios of internationalisation.

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Reconceptualizing Multicompetence as a Theory of Language Knowledge

Cited by 160 publications

References 75 publications

Communities of practice and English as a lingua franca: A study of Erasmus students in Szeged

Communities of practice and English as a lingua franca: A study of Erasmus students in Szeged

Learning to Play, Playing to Learn: FL Learners as Multicompetent Language Users

Plurilingual resources for ‘welcoming’ at a university service for international students

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