Colloquia - British Association for Applied Linguistics

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BAAL Conference 2004 37 th Annual BAAL Meeting This paper seeks to explore how discourse-analytic and applied-linguistic approaches may contribute to a better understanding and in-depth analysis of socio-political change and to an explanation of transition processes, which influence collective identification patterns and collective identities in Europe. By drawing on a broad theoretical background associated with general issues of modernization (Sztompka), globalization (Bauman, Beck), Europeanization (Bach, Risse) and post communist transformation, the paper seeks to explore how social and political change takes place subsequently to the transformation of national, discursive representations and constructions of the national, „collective self‟ (national identities) as well as of the supranational European space (European identities). By taking a CDA perspective (and thus treating discourse as reproducing society, politics and culture, as well as being reproduced by them (Fairclough, Wodak)), it is suggested that the dynamics of discursive, social and political change all merge into „Identity Spaces In-Between‟ which display important changes of collective (national and European) identification patterns of national groups. Analytically, the paper draws on elements of the Discourse-Historical Approach of CDA (Wodak, Reisigl), on the analysis of thematic structures (Van Dijk), and on the concept of “historical semantics” (Koselleck). The analysis focuses on discourses of national „political elites‟ (i.e. Polish politicians expressing „strong pro-European orientation‟) within the national public sphere (media at the national level) as well as on the supranational level of EU politics. Paper two: Transformation of ideologies of multilingualism in a changing Europe Normand Labrie, Professeur Centre de recherches en éducation franco-ontarienne, OISE/UT, Université de Toronto http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CREFO Besides being part of the daily sociolinguistic realities of many constituencies, institutions and citizens, multilingualism in Europe is an ideological construct which has been undergoing thorough transformations in the past decades in pace with social, economic and political change. Long considered a unique and fundamental characteristic of the European identity, multilingualism has now become a major defining marker of the globalized economy around the world. In this paper, based on an-ongoing study of bilingualism and the new economy, we will examine how people working for a former public French-speaking Belgian corporation, recently acquired by a predominantly Englishspeaking Canadian private company, commercially present all over the world, deal with the ideology of multilingualism, the construction of a global corporate identity, the negotiation of power relationship between languages, and multilingual communication. Based on this case study, we will outline some possible theoretical and methodological contributions that applied linguistics can make to the study of current changes in multilingual practices and the ideologies of multilingualism in a global economy which also affects the “new” Europe. Paper three: EU Language Policies Dr. Brigitta Busch Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna Brigitta.busch@univie.ac.at Cultural policies and therefore also language policies within the European Union are still regulated according to the principle of subsidarity, i. e. the individual member states are still considered to be the main actors in this domain. Nevertheless, political declarations, policy guidelines as well as instruments of indirect intervention (e. g. subsidies, different joint programs in the fields of education, culture and media) on the Union level express a certain commitment to endow linguistic diversity as a common principle in language policies within the EU. For the moment, it remains unclear whether this notion of linguistic diversity will correspond to the lowest common denominator between diverging and sometimes conflicting nation state interests or whether it will be based on the linguistic resources and needs of Europe' s citizens. Empirical studies in applied linguistics are increasingly focusing on language in multilingual urban environments, in border regions and more generally on language under the condition of globalization. Such recent works point out that in language policies (nation) states are loosing their central role as other players (e. g. cultural industries, regional and urban administrations, grass-root initiatives) gain importance. At the same time basic assumptions which have unquestioned dominated language policies in the nation state framework are being challenged. Notions of linguistic homogeneity, linguistic purity and monolingualism as the 'norm' are deconstructed as categories linked to the nation state paradigm. King‟s College, London 9 – 11 th - 50 - September, 2004
BAAL Conference 2004 37 th Annual BAAL Meeting The aim of the paper is to situate actual language policy orientations in Europe in the context of the works in applied linguistics which emphasize the role of the supra-state and sub-state levels and challenge the biases inherent to the nation state paradigm. Paper four: European Identity and the minority issue (Irene Bellier, Paris) Prof. Irene Bellier CNRS, LAIOS Paris ibellier@club-internet.france With the next (and future) enlargement to Central and Eastern European countries, the European Union is to face new challenges regarding its institutional capacity to speak “with one voice”. New actors bring new practices, topics, languages and ways of doing, and that constitutes one of many problems to be solved with the adoption of a European constitution defining common principles and values. New comers also bring new actors in the political field such as representatives of different minorities who fight for improving their political, cultural, linguistic and social conditions of existence. I propose to explore the introduction of the minority issue on the EU agenda, the question of including collective rights in European governance, and the changes that the organization of a Roma information office in Brussels have achieved. Paper five: What is a language? The difficulties inherent in language rights Prof. Sue Wright Department of Linguistics, Aston University suewright30@yahoo.co.uk When language rights first became a matter of interest in international law, the rights envisaged were only negative rights. The scope of the early declarations and agreements was to protect those who wanted to use a minority language in the private sphere from persecution or simply disadvantage. In more recent legislation the compass of the concept has broadened. Language rights are now more likely to mean the right of speakers to use their language in the public domain. Those concerned to defend and promote a „minority‟ language are usually in accord on the rights that they are asking for when they demand language rights. They want the language to be used in governance, in education and in bureaucracy. However, there may be less agreement on the object of those rights. For a language to be the medium in the political, educational and administrative spheres, it needs to have standard form. Agreeing on this standard form may be difficult. This paper examines the language rights issue in its linguistic dimension. Paper six: Coming to terms with 'Euro-English': but in and on our own terms Prof. Barbara Seidlhofer English department, University of Vienna Barbara.seidlhofer@univie.ac.at Throughout Europe, there is a general awareness and expectation that the demand for English as a patently useful means of communication will be self-sustaining, at least in the short and medium term. In relation to the declared aims of European language policy of linguistic diversification and plurilingualism, therefore, the question to address is not "English or other/our languages?" but "How to reduce English to equality?" This contribution will seek to demonstrate that it is both desirable and feasible for Europeans to appropriate the English they so widely use as a lingua franca. It will be argued that we need to reconceptualize 'English' as the property of all who use it as a handy instrument, alongside the traditional concept of English as the property of its native speakers. The latter can stay intact for those who want to take it up, but they are likely to be a diminishing minority. This reconceptualization of English as global rather than local also means, of course, that 'English' has to be uncoupled from the culture(s) of its origins and appropriated for the expression of the cultures and identities of its international users. It also follows that the native speakers no longer regulate the norms governing the use of English as an international language. Such a conclusion is legitimate and indeed logically necessary as soon as 'English' is proclaimed to be a global means of communication of unprecedented proportions. All this also means that we urgently require a description of how users of English as an international language actually talk and write in order to be able to derive an endonormative concept and, ultimately, pedagogical models of this lingua franca. Based on data from VOICE, the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English, this contribution will focus on discussing evidence of how users of English as a lingua franca from various European backgrounds manage to co-construct the 'English' that serves their purposes best, while at the same time clearly retaining their identities and voices as members of quite diverse linguacultures. King‟s College, London 9 – 11 th - 51 - September, 2004
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