Re-thinking bilingualism - challenges of multilingualism and communication in classroom settings

• Published in: Language, culture, and curriculum culture, and curriculum, 2010-11, Vol.23 (3), p.171-171
• Main Authors: Herrera, Lázaro Moreno, Wedin, Åsa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: bilingual education; Bilingualism; Education; Pedagogik; SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP; SOCIAL SCIENCES; Socialvetenskap
• ISSN: 0790-8318; 1747-7573; 1747-7573
• DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2010.516109

Traditional discourse in research on bilingualism has been strongly challenged in recent years. In the past, the study of bilingualism often adopted a monolingual perspective and ideology. This bias implicitly regarded monolingualism as the ‘normal’ state, while bi- or multilingualism was treated as the exception to the rule. It failed to recognise and take account of the kind of dynamic negotiation of meaning which social interaction, in multilingual settings actually, entails. In addition, the monolingual perspective favoured a rigid view of languages as a collection of discrete and unchanging entities, a view which is increasingly contested by research revealing the multilingual and multimodal complexity of interaction and language use in multilingual settings. Research has started to attend much more closely to the communicative and socio-cultural dimensions of multilingual language use, particularly in school and classroom contexts. The term ‘bilingualism’ is used in this special issue, therefore, with a critical recognition of the history of the concept and of the new view of language use which it now represents. The papers collected in this special issue evolved from an international workshop conducted as part of the work of the research group KKOM-DS (Communication, Culture, and Multiplicity –Deaf Studies) at O¨ rebro University, Sweden. The workshop became a valuable forum for the analysis and discussion of the challenges currently presented by traditional approaches to bilingualism. It highlighted the need to develop better-informed methodologies with which to approach the complex issue of ultilingualism. The implications for school practices also became a focus for debate. We hope that the articles in this special issue will stimulate greater interest in these issues and will encourage the kind of research work which seems to us to be now urgently needed.