Abstracts – NORDAND 11 - Centrum för tvåspråkighetsforskning ...

Abstracts – NORDAND 11
Plenarföredrag
presenterade i den ordning de kommer på konferensen.
Prof. Anne Pitkänen‐Huhta Torsdag, plenar 1, hörsal E10
University of Jyväskylä
First, second, foreign languages – or linguistic resources for multilingual
practices?
Modern societies are increasingly characterized by concepts such as mobility, diversity, instability
and individuality. Formerly fairly stable communities of practice take on new forms and
shapes both locally and translocally through new means of communication and participation.
Consequently, due to hybrid and mixed uses and truncated repertoires (Blommaert, 2010),
languages are more aptly characterized as fluid (Pennycook, 2007) rather than fixed. In this talk,
I will draw on two ethnographic data sets to illustrate the complexity of language use and
learning today.
I will firstly show how skillfully and creatively multilingual Sámi children navigate the
complex language situation in the endangered indigenous language context of the North while
engaging in creating new literacy practices by drawing on different linguistic and multimodal
resources of their immediate environment.
With the second set of data, I will discuss the problematic notions of first and foreign
languages by showing how young Finns construct their identities and futures as language learners
and users through their relationship to Finnish and English and through their participation in
real and imagines communities.
This empirical evidence raises a number of questions. Is there a new great divide between
current day language practices and current day language education? Are we still relying on fixed
languages with clear boundaries and identifiable roots in practices of language education and
assessment and in official language policies? Should we teach first, second and foreign
languages or should we provide learners with linguistic resources for multilingual practices?
Prof. Tim McNamara Torsdag, plenar 2, hörsal E10
The University of Melbourne
Language in professional contexts: Who defines the construct?
This paper reports on three recent studies focusing on the construct of communication in workplace
contexts, in two cases in the context of the development of assessments. The studies
involve professional communication in clinical contexts, and in aviation. In each case, the views
of professionals involved in the clinical setting have been the focus of the research.
In the case of medical communication, studies have focused on the evaluation by clinical
supervisors of the success of instances of communication with patients on the one hand, and on
telephone communication with senior doctors in emergency settings on the other.
In the case of aviation communication, the views of pilots and air traffic controllers on
episodes of miscommunication between air traffic controllers and pilots were the focus of the
research.
In each case, challenges to conventional views of second language communication arose.
These challenges involve the way in which non-linguistic professional judgement informs and is
inseparable from the success of the communication; and the shared responsibility for communicative
success between native and non-native speakers. The findings suggest that we need to
radically revise the construct of professional communication in teaching and in assessment.
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