Luci Nussbaum

The emergence of new linguistic repertoires among Barcelona's youth of Latin American origin

Abstract Since the end of the last century, more than 10% of students in Catalonias schools are immigrants, mostly concentrated in areas of Catalonia where the population speaks Castilian in everyday life. Although these newcomers are educated in Catalan, the majority use diverse varieties of Spanish as their language of everyday communication. In the case of students from Latin America, it is possible to observe the emergence of a new repertoire that shares traits of different varieties of Spanish spoken in South America. This article focuses on the hybrid features of this repertoire, its transmission among peers, and also on the way teachers categorize and value it. The research results reveal that students develop multilingual abilities to fulfill practical goals. The data also show that varieties of vernacular Catalan and Spanish are articulated with a new Latino language repertoire in a complex set of resources in which linguistic forms of various origins are mixed. The uses of this hybrid repertoire can be related to key issues such as the speakers stance regarding school, but also to symbolic aspects of broader processes, such as the re-territorialization of languages and people and the emergence of new processes of identity construction in a multilingual and cosmopolitan city.

Communicative Competence and Institutional Affiliation: Interactional Processes of Identity Construction by Immigrant Students in Catalonia

Abstract The growing presence of children of immigrant families in the public school system in the bilingual region of Catalonia provides us with an opportunity to study how young multilingual and multicultural speakers construct their social competencies and their identity within the specific context of a gate-keeping social institution such as the school. The study reported in this paper approaches language learning as a process of socialisation that involves not only learning how to make sense of linguistic signs but also learning how to enact different social roles in particular institutions. The analysis focuses on the interactional profiles of two immigrant students in two types of communicative activities that are representative of the school context: responding to questions from an adult and cooperating with a peer in the resolution of a learning task. By shifting the focus of analysis from a decontextualised notion of communicative competence to the notion of ‘institutionally affiliated communicative competence’ and concentrating on issues such as the (1) the relationship between knowledge and participation, (2) language choice inside and outside school and (3) definitions of correctness in language use, the study reveals how the two students construct a highly ‘affiliated’ identity.

Plurilingual teaching and learning practices in ‘internationalised’ university lectures

Abstract This article explores how participants in ‘internationalised’ university lectures draw on the different plurilingual (and multimodal) resources available to them in accomplishing teaching and learning activities. The data are from lectures that took place in four different technology subjects at two Catalan universities. Two aspects of the corpus are focused on in the analysis. On the one hand, what is referred to as a plurilingual multimodal design of the lectures studied is presented. On the other, some ways in which the recurrent emergence of code-switching in the corpus may be considered a resource for the construction of disciplinary knowledge are sketched out. In this regard, the analysis focuses on three features: the management of participation, the management of comprehension and attention and the management of complexity. The practices studied in the article offer empirical insights into how internationalisation of universities in Catalonia and elsewhere – and in particular the teaching of subjects in a second language – can be achieved in harmony with existing plurilingualism and ensuring complexity of disciplinary content teaching and learning.

Plurilingual Resources in Lingua Franca Talk: An Interactionist Perspective

This chapter deals with data from classroom and service interactions involving local and international actors at two Catalan universities. An interactionist perspective is adopted, drawing above all on work in plurilingual talk-in-interaction. The analysis explores how speakers agree to use a lingua franca and how other plurilingual resources, such as code-switching, emerge in such interaction. The results suggest: (1) That the lingua franca is not an a priori choice, but one that emerges locally and fluidly in talk, related to the communicative possibilities of speakers’ shared plurilingual repertoires and to the local organisation of the interaction; (2) That other forms of plurilingual talk (e.g. code-switching) support communication, the accomplishment of socio-institutional goals and the situated construction of knowledge in lingua franca interactions.

Participation and language learning in bilingual classrooms in Chaco (Argentina) / Participación y aprendizaje de lenguas en las aulas bilingües del Chaco (Argentina)

Abstract This paper analyses the possibilities for participation and bilingual learning of Wichi children in Chaco (Argentina) in the contexts in which they are currently educated. From a theoretical and methodological approach that links language learning and participation in social and historically located events, two learning environments are discussed: (i) with two teachers (a teacher fluent only in Spanish and a bilingual assistant); and (ii) a bilingual teacher. The data analysis reveals that in type (i) environments the common participation formats, as well as the method in which the semiotic resources at stake are managed, limit the possibilities of bilingual learning in Wichi pupils. However, the more open and flexible interaction formats in type (ii) environments, as well as the activation of bilingual speaking modes, promote spontaneous and guided participation by pupils, therefore offering a greater potential for bilingual learning. Both cases reflect the place that languages and speakers hold in classrooms.

11. Comment les étudiants montrent leurs connaissances dans des interactions internationales

Ce chapitre porte sur les moyens mis en œuvre par les etudiants, dans un contexte d’internationalisation de l’enseignement superieur, pour discuter des connaissances et les reconstruire lors de la resolution d’une tâche academique en anglais lingua franca (English as a Lingua Franca, ELF), dans une situation interculturelle. Une attention particuliere est accordee a la facon dont les participants utilisent leurs ressources plurilingues et multimodales pour interroger les connaissances des partenaires ainsi que pour etablir et modifier leur position face aux savoirs en question. L’analyse interactionnelle d’enregistrements video revele que, malgre des competences linguistiques et disciplinaires asymetriques, les etudiants travaillant en groupe forgent des moyens creatifs pour atteindre le consensus.

Politiques, pratiques et perspectives de l’éducation linguistique en Espagne

La société attribue en Espagne, à travers les médias, à la maîtrise de langues étrangères un grand potentiel de promotion sociale des individus et dénonce souvent le décalage existant entre les (in)compétences que l’enseignement obligatoire procure aux élèves et les besoins réels de la citoyenneté. Les deux forces politiques qui alternent au gouvernement de l’État ont de forts désaccords idéologiques en ce qui concerne l’éducation (enseignement des langues minoritaires, laïcité, rôle des établissements privés, décentralisation, etc.), ce qui a est à l’origine de trois grandes lois éducatives en l’espace de 15 ans. Cependant ce désaccord devient consensus presque absolu lorsqu’il s’agit de l’enseignement des langues. Les politiques en matière de langues étrangères des vingt dernières années ont apporté des changements considérables, qui feront l’objet d’une analyse dans notre texte; nous examinerons en particulier tout ce qui intéresse l’enseignement secondaire. Ces changements, cependant, concernent surtout des aspects structuraux (âge d’initiation à l’apprentissage, nombre de langues, modalités d’enseignement, par exemple) et beaucoup moins des aspects touchant les principes qui sont à la base d’un enseignement efficace des langues et la formation des enseignants, quoique ces aspects figurent dans les dispositions officielles. Dans la première partie du texte, nous présenterons, en guise de toile de fond, les coordonnées sociolinguistiques sur lesquelles s’inscrit actuellement l’enseignement des langues étrangères, pour passer, deuxièmement, à une description du panorama de dispositions officielles; et dans un troisième volet, nous porterons un regard critique sur les pratiques d’enseignement les plus répandues, pour ensuite ébaucher les nouvelles formules qui pourraient apporter des résultats plus efficaces. Nous terminerons le texte par des remarques d’ordre général.