MOOC: Multilingual Education

Week 1 Introduction to multilingualism and plurilingualism

The readings, videos and activities below are designed to provide opportunities for deepening your knowledge about the topics covered in Week 1 of the MOOC (e-Course) on the topic of “Introduction to multilingualism and plurilngualism”. It is aimed to be used in academic seminars, providing extra materials, some suggestions for activities, etc.

In order to become familiar with the basics of the topic, it is recommended that you go through the self-study e-Course as follows:

To get generally acquainted with the topic and terms of multilingualism and plurilingualism, study the MOOC materials of Week 1 part 1 here: https://sisu.ut.ee/multilingual/book/1-linguistic-diversity
Week 1 part 2 here: https://sisu.ut.ee/multilingual/book/2-languages-bridges-between-cultures
Week 1 part 3 here: https://sisu.ut.ee/multilingual/book/3-multilingualism-historical-perspective
Complete the Week 1 quiz here: https://sisu.ut.ee/multilingual/node/18994

Extra materials for academic seminars or individual learners for learning more profoundly about the topic:

Languages in contact: borrowings/ Jeziki v stiku: sposojenke

In the article below the author draws our attention to the fact that Slovene native speakers use several words adopted into Slovenian from Turkish, mostly with adapted spelling, in some cases by being aware of their origin, while with others they ignoring their Turkish provenience, although they might use them on a daily basis. He mentions three categories of Turcisms: the first includes words denoting specifically Turkish phenomena and objects, the second refers to words which have been adopted into Slovenian but have a foreign and often »exotic« connotation; and the third contains expressions commonly used in the everyday speech, which the speakers themselves do not consider being adopted from another language and culture.

Reading: article by M. Pintarič: On Turcisms in Slovenian

https://www.dlib.si/stream/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-LO1N6YXX/bd6ebfec-492a-494f-b0f1-a2ef348dff2b/PDF

1. Classify the words according to the categories (1,2,3) and provide an explanation or intralingual translation:

Minaret, baklava, lakaj, šakal, kizmet, jok (used as an interjection), džezva, kiosk, harem, janičar , musaka, jogurt, nargila

Words denoting concepts and objects belonging to Turkish reality, past or present:

(minaret, harem, janičar, nargila)

Words adopted into Slovenian but having a foreign/exotic connotation:

(baklava, džezva, musaka)

Words, for which most Slovene speakers are unaware of their Turkish origin, some are used internationally:

(jok, jogurt, lakaj, šakal, kiosk)

2. The author mentions that Slovene adopted most of its Turcisms indirectly, via an intermediate language. Which of the languages mentioned below served as intermediaries? If in doubt, consult the etymological dictionary available online (https://fran.si/iskanje?FilteredDictionaryIds=193&View=1&Query=%2A)

Italian

Croatian /Serbian

German (derviš, janičar, divan)

French

3. Even English, the global lingua franca, uses words of Turkish origin – name 3 examples:

(e.g. gypsy, jackal, horde)

Jezične dohtarke

As discussed by the author in the Slovenian article below, every language reflects the history, as well as the rise and decline of powers that have governed the nation using this language and the cultures that have affected it in a very eloquent way. Long after the events that have had an impact on the language by adding new words and concepts to it have ceased and sometimes been almost forgotten, their traces can be found in the language.

1. Having read the article, decide whether these statements are true or false:

The author is profoundly religious and therefore defends the use of word of religious origin. T/F
People often use words of foreign/religious origin without being fully aware of their original meaning. T/F
Purging /purifying a language by eliminating any words of foreign origin will ensure its preservation. T/F.
Language is immune to the influence of other languages or “pure”, but this contributes to its vividness and beauty. T/F

Reading: article by G. Vojnović: Jezične dohtarke https://www.dnevnik.si/1042826696

Which language is it?

How many languages are you able to recognize? Listen to different recordings and try to guess which language is used by different people:

https://edl.ecml.at/Games/Whichlanguageisit/tabid/3202/Default.aspx

On this webpage you will find other interesting facts about different languages and language games. Discuss with your school mates which facts or findings you find surprising.

Food-related loanwords as indicators of language contacts

Reading: article by K. Matsumoto and D. Britain: Pancakes Stuffed with Sweet Bean Paste: Food-Related Lexical Borrowings as Indicators of the Intensity of Language Contact in the Pacific https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-11153-3_6

1. In this article, the authors examine food-related borrowings from four colonial languages (i.e. Spanish, German, Japanese and English) that have come into contact with the Palauan language of Western Micronesia over the past 130 years and show how the distribution and integration of food-related loanwords provides an insight into the cultural intensity of the contact between indigenous and colonial languages.

Check these food-related words that are now used throughout Europe and also other parts of the world and try to identify the language they come from:

kebab

moussaka

paella

fondue

strudel

schnitzel

carpaccio

vodka

goulash

baklava

sauerkraut

2. The contact of languages in multilingual European entities, in the border areas between monolingual states and elsewhere in Europe and the world resulted in changes and borrowings in the languages involved, and can still be observed in these languages.

The Slovene language, for example, includes many German borrowings which stem from the period of Austrian-Hungarian rule, Italian borrowings incorporated after WW1 when a big part of the present Slovene territory was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, and Croatian and Serbian borrowings from the period of the coexistence in multi-ethnic and multilingual Yugoslavia. It sometimes happened that different generations of speakers used different words for the same thing – a mother, born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, would call a plate ‘taler’ (Ger. Teller), while her daughter, living in the same household but born after WW1, used the word ‘piat’ (Ita. piatto), and her children, born after WW2 in Yugoslavia, referred to it as ‘krožnik’.

Can you think of any changes and borrowings from other languages into your mother tongue and reasons for them? Write down a few examples and share them with your classmates.

Bilingual Situation in a canton in Switzerland and its advantages, Rumansch minority and French language

The article speaks about the speakers of Rumansch, the fourth Swiss national language, spoken only in the trilingual Grisons Canton (German, Rumansch, Italian), and the schools which maintain Rumansch present the pattern of a transitional bilingual programme. As Rumansch has become a minority language and parents no longer agree to send their children to an all-Rumansch school, especially because they want their children to have good competencies in German, which is the language of higher education and the economy.
This study argues that the Samedan pupils, with their bi- or even plurilingual family, school and social background, with a Romance language as main school language and the geographical proximity of Italian have more positive attitudes toward French and better competencies than monolingual German-speaking peers from a German-speaking village located in the same canton.

Claudine Brohy (2001) Generic and/or Specific Advantages of Bilingualism in a Dynamic Plurilingual Situation: The Case of French as Official L3 in the School of Samedan (Switzerland), International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 4:1, 38-49, DOI: 10.1080/13670050108667717
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13670050108667717
The article may have access restrictions, but should be available for academic purposes for the universities via their database access!

Suggestions for discussion in contact seminars:

Which language is considered an endangered language and why?
What may be the influencing factors that force one language into the position of being endangered?
What do the authors mean by the advantages of being bi- or even plurilingual and coming from the background and context of multiple languages? How was it measured?
How does the issues of this study relate to the situation in your area/country or your experience with languages?

Delaying Senility Through Reading, Bilingualism…and Coffee

Video – Krashen, Stephen “Delaying Senility Through Reading, Bilingualism…and Coffee” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVC4LMUqmk8

Aging in Two Languages: The Implications for Public Health

Reading – Bialystok, Ellen, et al. “Aging in Two Languages: The Implications for Public Health”
(how bilingualism helps delay cognitive aging)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163716300277?via%3Dihub

How Bilingualism Helps Your Brain

Video – Bialystok, Ellen. “How Bilingualism Helps Your Brain” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sDYx77hCmI (lecture)

How to involve children in studying their plurilingual literacy practices

The article presents a very enchanting case study of grade 5 students as ethnographers of their own language and literacies practices over the course of a six-month transformative multiliteracies classroom intervention in a French school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The article has several pictures included to give examples of several activities done with children.

Prasad, G. (2013). Children as Co-ethnographers of their Plurilingual Literacy Practices: An Exploratory Case Study. Language and Literacy, 15(3), 4-30. https://doi.org/10.20360/G2901N , https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/langandlit/index.php/langandlit/article/view/20485/15708

The article may have access restrictions, but should be available for academic purposes for the universities via their database access!

Variety of discussion questions for the contact seminar:

In your childhood, was the situation with children’s home languages different than the instructional language of your school? Did you feel those different languages were publicly accepted and valued or, rather, suppressed and hidden? Why do you think this was so?
What effect does it have on a person from different linguistic background, when activies described in the article are conducted in a school? What effect does it have on the atmosphere at school?
What needs to be done to implement such activities and such attitude in a school? Are there any regulations, restrictions, persmissions that may constrain it?
Who should/could do what in order to have such diversity accepting atmosphere?
Any other ideas for promoting the acceptance and valuation of linguistic diversity in a school or a community?

Slovenian grammar school students on multiculturalism

Read the following article (in Slovenian) about a Slovenian grammar school student and her experience of living and studying in a multicultural environment in Italy. How did her school friends welcome her when she came to Slovenia? How did her experience influence the classroom dynamics?

Reading: newspaper article »Slovenka, ki se počuti Italijanko in bi bila učiteljica angleščine” https://casoris.si/slovenka-ki-se-pocuti-italijanko-in-bi-bila-uciteljica-anglescine/