Massimiliano Spotti

Bio: Massimiliano Spotti is an academic researcher from Tilburg University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Superdiversity & Sociolinguistics. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 44 publications receiving 638 citations.

Beyond languages, beyond modalities: transforming the study of semiotic repertoires

Abstract: This paper presents a critical examination of key concepts in the study of (signed and spoken) language and multimodality. It shows how shifts in conceptual understandings of language use, moving from bilingualism to multilingualism and (trans)languaging, have resulted in the revitalisation of the concept of language repertoires. We discuss key assumptions and analytical developments that have shaped the sociolinguistic study of signed and spoken language multilingualism as separate from different strands of multimodality studies. In most multimodality studies, researchers focus on participants using one named spoken language within broader embodied human action. Thus while attending to multimodal communication, they do not attend to multilingual communication. In translanguaging studies the opposite has happened: scholars have attended to multilingual communication without really paying attention to multimodality and simultaneity, and hierarchies within the simultaneous combination of resources. The (socio)linguistics of sign language has paid attention to multimodality but only very recently have started to focus on multilingual contexts where multiple sign and/or multiple spoken languages are used. There is currently little transaction between these areas of research. We argue that the lens of semiotic repertoires enables synergies to be identified and provides a holistic focus on action that is both multilingual and multimodal.

Language testing, migration and citizenship: Cross-national perspectives

Abstract: 1. Introduction, Guus Extra, Max Spotti and Piet Van Avermaet (Tilburg University, Netherlands and Centre for Equity in Education, Flanders, Belgium) Part I: European countries 2. The politics of language and citizenship in the Baltic context, Gabrielle Hogan-Brun (University of Bristol, United Kingdom) 3. Language, migration and citizenship in Sweden, Lilian Nygren-Junkin (Goteborg University, Sweden) 4. Inventing English as convenient fiction: language testing regimes in the United Kingdom, Adrian Blackledge (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom) 5. Language, migration and citizenship in Germany Patrick Stevenson & Livia Schanze (University of Southampton, United Kingdom) 6. Language policies for citizenship and integration in Belgium, Piet Van Avermaet & Sara Gijsen (Centre for Equity in Education, Flanders, Belgium) 7. Testing regimes for newcomers to the Netherlands, Guus Extra & Max Spotti (Tilburg University, Netherlands) 8. Regimenting language, mobility and citizenship in Luxembourg, Kristine Horner (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) 9. Language, migration and citizenship in Spain, Dick Vigers & Clare Mar-Molinero (Southampton University, United Kingdom) Part II: Non-European countries 10. Language, migration and citizenship in the United States, Tammy Gales (University of California Davis) 11. Language, migration and citizenship in Canada, Lilian Nygren-Junkin (Goteborg University, Sweden) 12. The spectre of the Dictation Test: Language testing for immigration and citizenship in Australia, Tim McNamara (University of Melbourne, Australia) 13. Citizenship, language, and nationality in Israel, Elana Shohamy & Tzahi Kanza (Tel Aviv University, Israel Bibliography Index.

Globalization in the margins : Toward a re-evalution of language and mobility

Abstract: Work on globalization has been concentrated on typical sites where features and phenomena are abundantly available: the huge contemporary metropolis with its explosive and conspicuous diversity in people and languages, its hyper-mobility and constant flux. Less typical places – peri-urban and rural areas, peripheral areas of countries, peripheral zones of the world, peripheral institutional zones where minorities are relegated – have been less quickly absorbed into current scholarship. Yet, upon closer inspection, there is no reason to exclude these `margins' from analyses of globalization processes and of their sociolinguistic implications. Globalization is a transformation of the entire world system, and it does not only affect the metropolitan centers of the world but also its most remote margins. Thus, we are bound to encounter globalization effects, also in highly unexpected places. A survey of these reifications of globalization at the margins will be the topic of this paper. We shall suggest a specific angle from which such forms of globalization in the margin can be most usefully addressed and we do so by drawing from examples taken from new media and communication technologies, from new forms of economic activity and, last but not least, from the perspective of legitimacy in the contentious struggle between commodification of language and the semiotic construction of authenticity.

Language testing, migration and citizenship : cross-national perspectives on integration regimes

Abstract: 1 Introduction, Guus Extra, Max Spotti and Piet Van Avermaet (Tilburg University, Netherlands and Centre for Equity in Education, Flanders, Belgium) Part I: European countries 2 The politics of language and citizenship in the Baltic context, Gabrielle Hogan-Brun (University of Bristol, United Kingdom) 3 Language, migration and citizenship in Sweden, Lilian Nygren-Junkin (Goteborg University, Sweden) 4 Inventing English as convenient fiction: language testing regimes in the United Kingdom, Adrian Blackledge (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom) 5 Language, migration and citizenship in Germany Patrick Stevenson & Livia Schanze (University of Southampton, United Kingdom) 6 Language policies for citizenship and integration in Belgium, Piet Van Avermaet & Sara Gijsen (Centre for Equity in Education, Flanders, Belgium) 7 Testing regimes for newcomers to the Netherlands, Guus Extra & Max Spotti (Tilburg University, Netherlands) 8 Regimenting language, mobility and citizenship in Luxembourg, Kristine Horner (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) 9 Language, migration and citizenship in Spain, Dick Vigers & Clare Mar-Molinero (Southampton University, United Kingdom) Part II: Non-European countries 10 Language, migration and citizenship in the United States, Tammy Gales (University of California Davis) 11 Language, migration and citizenship in Canada, Lilian Nygren-Junkin (Goteborg University, Sweden) 12 The spectre of the Dictation Test: Language testing for immigration and citizenship in Australia, Tim McNamara (University of Melbourne, Australia) 13 Citizenship, language, and nationality in Israel, Elana Shohamy & Tzahi Kanza (Tel Aviv University, Israel Bibliography Index

Ideologies of success for superdiverse citizens : The Dutch testing regime for integration and the online private sector

Abstract: This article deals with the testing regime of integration in the Netherlands. More specifically, it shows how a monoglottal and monocultural ideology inhabits the political discourses issued and authored by agencies within the Dutch government when dealing with testing for both admission (toelating) and civic integration (inburgering) of (newly arrived) migrants. Further, it shows how a vigorous private online sector in Dutch language courses has grown up, and has utilized semiotic resources that present Dutch language as the vehicle through which migrants can deliver a positive contribution to social cohesion in mainstream society. The article concludes by advancing some reflections on two issues. First, on what it means to know a language. Second, on the construction of the migrant as an economic actor whose chances for social upscaling are based on the amount and level of certifications one can afford to purchase. 1. A ne w form of diversity: superdiversity 1 Prior to the fall of the Berlin wall and the break

On Imagined Communities

Abstract: Benedict Anderson’s deservedly famous thesis about the origins and nature of modern nationalism turns around the central notion of an “imagined community.” This category provides him with a matrix out of which one can apprehend-theoretically and historically-the different variants of nationalist discourse formulated over the last two hundred years. We will refer, in the brief comments that follow, to three basic dimensions structuring the fabric of Anderson’s argument: 1) the presuppositions implicit in the notion of an “imagined” community; 2) the kind of substitutability or solidarity which is required to be a member of such a community; 3) the kind of relationship that is established between such a community-which is by definition finite or limited-and its outside. Before that, however, let us describe the main features of Anderson’s thesis.

文化と言語の多様性の中のCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR)--それは基準か? (第10回明海大学大学院応用言語学研究科セミナー 講演)

Abstract: 中國科技大學通識教育中心英語文證照奬勵金實施要點 中華民國 105 年 1 月 8 日通識教育委員會議通過 一、 中國科技大學(以下簡稱本校)為鼓勵本校學生通過具公信力機構之英語文能力測驗或 取得證照,特訂定「中國科技大學通識教育中心英語文證照獎勵金實施要點」(以下簡 稱本要點)。 二、 學生於就讀本校期間,通過歐盟共同架構(CEFR)語言能力參考指標 B1(中級)同等級英 語文能力測驗以上(含)者,得依據本要點酌予獎勵。檢測項目請參閱本中心「歐洲語言 學習、教學、評量共同參考架構與各英語檢測分級對照表」(參見附表);未列於標準 對照表之測驗項目不給予獎助。 三、 凡本校學生,除應英系外,均得申請。大學部學生通過同等級以申請一次為限,在學期 間得重複申請,但該次申請之級別不得低於前次。 本獎勵金每學期核發乙次,每次核發全校前 10 名,各名次核發金額如附表。 四、 申請人應提供在學期間,申請當(學)期參加考試之證明文件及成績證明或證照,以憑辦 理。 五、 獎勵金申請作業:請至通識教育中心網頁下載「英語文證照獎勵金申請表」(附件 1), 填妥後檢附成績單正本及影本(背面簽名並註明與正本無異)各一份、本人金融帳戶存 簿(郵局或土地銀行)封面影本送至通識教育中心。 通識教育中心得每學期遴選受獎代表,擇期公開頒奬,並辦理後續請款作業。 六、 奬勵金申請期限:通過相關證照考試半年內應提出申請,逾期視同放棄。 七、 本要點之獎勵金由學校開設通識教育中心專戶,一切收支專款專用;每年度如有剩餘 款,則移至翌年度繼續使用。 八、 本要點經通識教育中心會議審查通過,陳請校長核定後公告實施,修訂時亦同。

Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication:

Abstract: but the threat they bring to artistic culture. From his opening mockery of the literary establishment’s tendency to theorize the world in terms of desire or gender to his disapproval of those who venerate art while denying its validity in the same breath, Jonathan Dollimore has created an easily understood, albeit at times too theoretical, synthesis of the literary and the experiential in Sex, Literature and Censorship. His arguments on critical theory do not necessarily reject the concept of theory; rather, he argues that critical theorists should strive to understand the contradictions within our lives and our literature and explore the daemonic power of the subjects that offend our sense of tradition.