Conference Book - Fryske Akademy

Title
The multilingual cityscape of Donostia/San Sebastián
Durk Gorter and Jasone Ceñoz DATE: THU 21.06
University of the Basque Country in Donostia - San Sebastián TIME: 9.30-11.10
ROOM: NEW YORK 3
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT
Durk Gorter is Ikerbasque research professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of the
Basque Country UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain. Nowadays he does research on
multilingual education, European minority languages and linguistic landscapes.
From 1979 to 2007 he was a researcher in the sociology of language and head of the department
of social sciences at the Fryske Akademy in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. From 1994
until 2008 he was also part-time full professor at the University of Amsterdam in the sociolinguistics
of Frisian. He has been involved in sociolinguistic survey studies of the Frisian language situation
and the analysis of language policy. He also did comparative work on European minority
languages, in particular in education in the context of the Mercator-Education project. Among his
recent publications are Focus on Multilingualism in School Contexts (2011, co-edited with Jasone
Cenoz as a special issue of the Modern Language Journal) and Minority Languages in the
Linguistic Landscape (2012, co-edited with Heiko Marten and Luk Van Mensel). He is the leader
of DREAM, the Donostia Research Group on Education and Multilingualism.
Further information on: www.ikerbasque.net/durk.gorter and http://multilingualeducation.eu/en/
Jasone Cenoz is Professor of Research Methods in Education at the University of the Basque
Country. Her research focuses on multilingual education, bilingualism and multilingualism
combining psycholinguistic, social psychological, sociolinguistic and educational perspectives. Her
most recent book is Towards Multilingual Education (Multilingual Matters, 2009) got the Spanish
Association of Applied Linguistics 2010 award. She has published extensively on multilingualism
and multilingual education including the special issue of the Modern Language Journal Focus on
Multilingualism in School Contexts (2011, co-edited with Durk Gorter). She is the coordinator of the
European Master in Multilingualism and Education (EMME) at the University of the Basque
Country. She is the vice-president of the International Association of Multilingualism (IAM) and has
served on the boards of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) and the
International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL). She is currently working on
―Focus on Multilingualism‖ a research approach that looks at multilingual speakers and the
interaction of the languages they learn and use rather than each language in isolation.
ABSTRACT
In our research we investigate the interaction between the different languages on display in the
public space. On the one hand the two official languages in the Basque Autonomous Community:
Basque as the minority language and Spanish as the majority language. On the other hand,
English as the global language along with other languages. These languages are allocated in
various ways on and across the signs which can provide insights about the strategies and
practices of various actors who shape the multilingual cityscape.
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