International Journal of Multilingualism 

About: International Journal of Multilingualism is an academic journal published by Routledge. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Multilingualism & First language. It has an ISSN identifier of 1479-0718. Over the lifetime, 683 publications have been published receiving 15365 citations. The journal is also known as: IJM.

Metrolingualism: fixity, fluidity and language in flux

Abstract: By extending the notion of metroethnicity, this paper proposes the notion of metrolingualism, creative linguistic practices across borders of culture, history and politics. Metrolingualism gives us a way to move beyond current terms such as ‘multilingualism’ and ‘multiculturalism’. It is a product of modern and often urban interaction, describing the ways in which people of different and mixed backgrounds use, play with and negotiate identities through language. The focus is not so much on language systems as on languages as emergent from contexts of interaction. Looking at data from workplaces where metrolingual language use is common, we show how the use of both fixed and fluid linguistic and cultural identities is part of the process of language use. The notion of metrolingualism gives us ways of moving beyond common frameworks of language, providing insights into contemporary, urban language practices, and accommodating both fixity and fluidity in its approach to language use.

Linguistic Landscape as Symbolic Construction of the Public Space: The Case of Israel.

Abstract: Linguistic landscape (LL) refers to linguistic objects that mark the public space. This paper compares patterns of LL in a variety of homogeneous and mixed Israeli cities, and in East Jerusalem. The groups studied were Israeli Jews, Palestinian Israelis and non-Israeli Palestinians from East Jerusalem, of whom most are not Israeli citizens. The study focused on the degree of visibility on private and public signs of the three major languages of Israel-Hebrew, Arabic and English. This study reveals essentially different LL patterns in Israel's various communities: Hebrew–English signs prevail in Jewish communities; Arabic Hebrew in Israeli–Palestinian communities; Arabic–English in East Jerusalem. Further analyses also evince significant – and different – discrepancies between public and private signs in the localities investigated. All in all, LL items are not faithfully representative of the linguistic repertoire typical of Israel's ethnolinguistic diversity, but rather of those linguistic resources that...

Polylingual Languaging Around and Among Children and Adolescents

Abstract: The uniquely human capacity of using arbitrary signs to transfer concept and experience over great distances in time and place is what we call language. We use language with a purpose, and we use whatever features are at our disposal to achieve our ends, regardless of the fact that some speakers think that certain features should be held together and not used in combination with certain other features. The phenomenon of language is not necessarily a construction, and while all individual languages are constructed, it is not possible to clearly delimit them from each other. The crucial phenomenon is language, not any specific language. While some Some speakers think languages should be kept apart, others combine three, four, or more different sets of features (i.e. so-called ‘languages’) in their linguistic production. This is characteristic of polylingualism (where multilingualism is characterised by the knowledge of several separate languages). These speakers do not choose their features randoml...

Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages

Abstract: This paper focuses on the linguistic landscape of two streets in two multilingual cities in Friesland (Netherlands) and the Basque Country (Spain) where a minority language is spoken, Basque or Frisian. The paper analyses the use of the minority language (Basque or Frisian), the state language (Spanish or Dutch) and English as an international language on language signs. It compares the use of these languages as related to the differences in language policy regarding the minority language in these two settings and to the spread of English in Europe. The data include over 975 pictures of language signs that were analysed so as to determine the number of languages used, the languages on the signs and the characteristics of bilingual and multilingual signs. The findings indicate that the linguistic landscape is related to the official language policy regarding minority languages and that there are important differences between the two settings.

The Cumulative-Enhancement Model for Language Acquisition: Comparing Adults' and Children's Patterns of Development in First, Second and Third Language Acquisition of Relative Clauses

Abstract: In this paper we argue that investigation of third language (L3) acquisition by adults and children provides essential new insights about the language learning process that neither the study of first language (L1) nor second language (L2) acquisition alone can provide. The focus of this paper concerns the role the learner's L1 plays in succeeding language acquisition. Specifically, does the L1 maintain a privileged role in all subsequent language acquisition or is it possible that all languages known can play a role in subsequent language acquisition? Results from several ongoing L3 acquisition studies investigating adults and children learning English as an L3, whose L1 is Kazakh and whose L2 is Russian, are reported in this paper. We compare the learners' patterns of acquisition in production of three types of restrictive relative clauses. Adults are compared to children; speakers are compared at comparable levels of linguistic competence in the languages. Results indicate that the L1 does not play a pr...